And even as Nymphs, that wandered all alone
  Among the sylvan shadows, sedulous
  One to avoid and one to see the sun,

She then against the stream moved onward, going
  Along the bank, and I abreast of her,
  Her little steps with little steps attending.

Nor even thus our way continued far
  Before the lady wholly turned herself
  Unto me, saying, "Brother, look and listen!"

And lo! a sudden lustre ran across
  On every side athwart the spacious forest,
  Such that it made me doubt if it were lightning.

And a delicious melody there ran
  Along the luminous air, whence holy zeal
  Made me rebuke the hardihood of Eve;

For there where earth and heaven obedient were,
  The woman only, and but just created,
  Could not endure to stay 'neath any veil;

While 'mid such manifold first-fruits I walked
  Of the eternal pleasure all enrapt,
  And still solicitous of more delights,

In front of us like an enkindled fire
  Became the air beneath the verdant boughs,
  And the sweet sound as singing now was heard. 

Now Helicon must needs pour forth for me,
  And with her choir Urania must assist me,
  To put in verse things difficult to think.

A little farther on, seven trees of gold
  In semblance the long space still intervening
  Between ourselves and them did counterfeit;

The faculty that lends discourse to reason
  Did apprehend that they were candlesticks,
  And in the voices of the song "Hosanna!"

Above them flamed the harness beautiful,
  Far brighter than the moon in the serene
  Of midnight, at the middle of her month.

Then back I turned my face to those high things,
  Which moved themselves towards us so sedately,
  They had been distanced by new-wedded brides.

The lady chid me: "Why dost thou burn only
  So with affection for the living lights,
  And dost not look at what comes after them?"

The water on my left flank was resplendent,
  And back to me reflected my left side,
  E'en as a mirror, if I looked therein.

When I upon my margin had such post
  That nothing but the stream divided us,
  Better to see I gave my steps repose;

So that it overhead remained distinct
  With sevenfold lists, all of them of the colours
  Whence the sun's bow is made, and Delia's girdle.

These standards to the rearward longer were
  Than was my sight; and, as it seemed to me,
  Ten paces were the outermost apar 

They all of them were singing: "Blessed thou
  Among the daughters of Adam art, and blessed
  For evermore shall be thy loveliness."

After the flowers and other tender grasses
  In front of me upon the other margin
  Were disencumbered of that race elect, 

Plumed with six wings was every one of them,
  The plumage full of eyes; the eyes of Argus
  If they were living would be such as these.

Reader! to trace their forms no more I waste
  My rhymes; for other spendings press me so,
  That I in this cannot be prodigal.ÜÖ 

And such as thou shalt find them in his pages,
  Such were they here; saving that in their plumage
  John is with me, and differeth from him.

The interval between these four contained
  A chariot triumphal on two wheels,
  Which by a Griffin's neck came drawn along;

So high they rose that they were lost to sight;
  His limbs were gold, so far as he was bird,
  And white the others with vermilion mingled.

Not only Rome with no such splendid car
  E'er gladdened Africanus, or Augustus,
  But poor to it that of the Sun would be,

Three maidens at the right wheel in a circle
  Came onward dancing; one so very red
  That in the fire she hardly had been noted.

The second was as if her flesh and bones
  Had all been fashioned out of emerald;
  The third appeared as snow but newly fallen. 

Upon the left hand four made holiday
  Vested in purple, following the measure
  Of one of them with three eyes m her head.

In rear of all the group here treated of
  Two old men I beheld, unlike in habit,
  But like in gait, each dignified and grave.

Contrary care the other manifested,
  With sword so shining and so sharp, it caused
  Terror to me on this side of the river.

Thereafter four I saw of humble aspect,
  And behind all an aged man alone
  Walking in sleep with countenance acute.