And at the name of the great Maccabee
I saw another move itself revolving,And gladness was the whip unto that top.
Likewise for Charlemagne and for Orlando,Two of them my regard attentive followedAs followeth the eye its falcon flying.
William thereafterward, and Renouard,And the Duke Godfrey, did attract my sightAlong upon that Cross, and Robert Guiscard.
Then, moved and mingled with the other lights,The soul that had addressed me showed how greatAn artist ’twas among the heavenly singers.
To my right side I turned myself around,My duty to behold in BeatriceEither by words or gesture signified;
And so translucent I beheld her eyes,So full of pleasure, that her countenanceSurpassed its other and its latest wont.
And as, by feeling greater delectation,A man in doing good from day to dayBecomes aware his virtue is increasing,
So I became aware that my gyrationWith heaven together had increased its arc,That miracle beholding more adorned.
And such as is the change, in little lapseOf time, in a pale woman, when her faceIs from the load of bashfulness unladen,
Such was it in mine eyes, when I had turned,Caused by the whiteness of the temperate star,The sixth, which to itself had gathered me.
Within that Jovial torch did I beholdThe sparkling of the love which was thereinDelineate our language to mine eyes.
And even as birds uprisen from the shore,As in congratulation o’er their food,Make squadrons of themselves, now round, now long,
So from within those lights the holy creaturesSang flying to and fro, and in their figuresMade of themselves now D, now I, now L.
First singing they to their own music moved;Then one becoming of these characters,A little while they rested and were silent.
O divine Pegasea, thou who geniusDost glorious make, and render it long-lived,And this through thee the cities and the kingdoms,
Illume me with thyself, that I may bringTheir figures out as I have them conceived!Apparent be thy power in these brief verses!
Themselves then they displayed in five times sevenVowels and consonants; and I observedThe parts as they seemed spoken unto me.
‘Diligite justitiam,’ these wereFirst verb and noun of all that was depicted;‘Qui judicatis terram’ were the last.