The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri & Clive James

Author:Dante Alighieri & Clive James [Alighieri, Dante & James, Clive]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: classics, poetry
ISBN: 9780871404480
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CANTO 18

When my exalted Teacher reached the end

Of his discourse, he looked me in the face

Intently, with a gaze that did not bend,

To see if I was satisfied. The place

Of my last thirst, in fact, was full again

With yet another, but I held my peace,

Saying within myself “It could be, when

I ask him all these questions without cease,

It troubles him.” And then I said aloud:

“Master, my vision, quickened by your light, 10

Sees all your words with clarity endowed.

I pray therefore, dear father, that you might

Explain love to me: love to which, you say,

Good actions are reduced, and equally

Their opposites.” And he: “Direct the way

To me, the eyesight, keen as it may be,

Of all your understanding. Plain as day

The error will strike you about the blind

Who would be guides. Created to be quick

In love, it’s quickly moved, the mind, 20

Towards all pleasures. By the merest flick

Of pleasure it is whipped to action. Your

Perception takes in from the world outside,

A sense impression, which it holds before

Your mind, and spreads about both long and wide

So that the mind turns to it. If, so turned,

The mind inclines that way, then we must call

That inclination love. It is not learned,

It’s instinct, to be reinforced by all

The pleasures you might have. For just as fire 30

Moves upward, as a form that’s born to climb

To where it most thrives, so, into desire,

The mind thus seized must enter at the time

Of being taken—for desire moves as

The spirit moves it—and may never rest

Until the thing it loves it truly has

In its possession, and so finds the crest

Of joy. Now you may see how truth’s concealed

For those who say that all love merits praise

Just for itself. Its matter stands revealed 40

As good, they think: but here their judgement plays

A trick, because the wax might well be good—

That is, the instinct—and the stamp be bad,

Which is the thing loved.” “My wits have understood

Your words. Some of the questions that I had

About love’s nature are now answered, yet

Perplexity increases, for if love

Is offered us as something we might get

From outside, and the soul’s not thinking of

Which foot should fall, but sets foot as it must, 50

There is no merit in which way it goes,

Crooked or straight.” Thus I to him. He: “Just

As far as reason sees can I disclose

The truth to you. Beyond, there you must wait

For Beatrice, who deals in faith. In men,

As in all things, there lies within, innate,

An essence, the substantial form. Again

This form—for man, it bears the name of soul—

Is both united with and yet distinct

From matter, which it keeps within, a whole 60

Specific virtue which is tightly linked

To its own action and is not perceived

Or demonstrated save by its effect,

As is the first life in a plant green-leaved.

It follows that the human intellect

Can’t have the first idea of how we know

About our first ideas and how they came

To us, or how desire finds objects so

Alluring. They’re inside you, just the same

As the honey-making urge is in the bees: 70

Nor does the primal, central will admit

Earning of praise or moral penalties.

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