And the new pilgrim penetrates with love,
  If he doth hear from far away a bell
  That seemeth to deplore the dying day,

When I began to make of no avail
  My hearing, and to watch one of the souls
  Uprisen, that begged attention with its hand.

"Te lucis ante" so devoutly issued
  Forth from its mouth, and with such dulcet notes,
  It made me issue forth from my own mind.

And then the others, sweetly and devoutly,
  Accompanied it through all the hymn entire,
  Having their eyes on the supernal wheels. 

I saw that army of the gentle-born
  Thereafterward in silence upward gaze,
  As if in expectation, pale and humble;

And from on high come forth and down descend,
  I saw two Angels with two flaming swords,
  Truncated and deprived of their points.

One just above us came to take his station,
  And one descended to the opposite bank,
  So that the people were contained between them.

Clearly in them discerned I the blond head;
  But in their faces was the eye bewildered,
  As faculty confounded by excess.

Whereupon I, who knew not by what road,
  Turned round about, and closely drew myself,
  Utterly frozen, to the faithful shoulders.

And once again Sordello: "Now descend we
  'Mid the grand shades, and we will speak to them;
  Right pleasant will it be for them to see you."

Already now the air was growing dark,
  But not so that between his eyes and mine
  It did not show what it before locked up.

Tow'rds me he moved, and I tow'rds him did move;
  Noble Judge Nino! how it me delighted,
  When I beheld thee not among the damned! 

"Oh!" said I to him, "through the dismal places
  I came this morn; and am in the first life,
  Albeit the other, going thus, I gain."

And on the instant my reply was heard,
  He and Sordello both shrank back from me,
  Like people who are suddenly bewildered.

Then, turned to me: "By that especial grace
  Thou owest unto Him, who so conceals
  His own first wherefore, that it has no ford,

When thou shalt be beyond the waters wide,
  Tell my Giovanna that she pray for me,
  Where answer to the innocent is made. 

Through her full easily is comprehended
  How long in woman lasts the fire of love,
  If eye or touch do not relight it often.

So fair a hatchment will not make for her
  The Viper marshalling the Milanese
  A-field, as would have made Gallura's Cock." 

My greedy eyes still wandered up to heaven,
  Still to that point where slowest are the stars,
  Even as a wheel the nearest to its axle.

And my Conductor: "Son, what dost thou gaze at
  Up there?"  And I to him: "At those three torches
  With which this hither pole is all on fire." 

As he was speaking, to himself Sordello
  Drew him, and said, "Lo there our Adversary!"
  And pointed with his finger to look thither.

Upon the side on which the little valley
  No barrier hath, a serpent was; perchance
  The same which gave to Eve the bitter food. 

I did not see, and therefore cannot say
  How the celestial falcons 'gan to move,
  But well I saw that they were both in motion.

Hearing the air cleft by their verdant wings,
  The serpent fled, and round the Angels wheeled,
  Up to their stations flying back alike. 

"So may the light that leadeth thee on high
  Find in thine own free-will as much of wax
  As needful is up to the highest azure,"

Began it, "if some true intelligence
  Of Valdimagra or its neighbourhood
  Thou knowest, tell it me, who once was great there.

"O," said I unto him, "through your domains
  I never passed, but where is there a dwelling
  Throughout all Europe, where they are not known?

That fame, which doeth honour to your house,
  Proclaims its Signors and proclaims its land,
  So that he knows of them who ne'er was there.

It is so privileged by use and nature,
  That though a guilty head misguide the world,
  Sole it goes right, and scorns the evil way."

And he: "Now go; for the sun shall not lie
  Seven times upon the pillow which the Ram
  With all his four feet covers and bestrides,

Unless the course of justice standeth still."