To represent transhumanise in words
Impossible were; the example, then, sufficeHim for whom Grace the experience reserves.
If I was merely what of me thou newlyCreatedst, Love who governest the heaven,Thou knowest, who didst lift me with thy light!
When now the wheel, which thou dost make eternalDesiring thee, made me attentive to itBy harmony thou dost modulate and measure,
Then seemed to me so much of heaven enkindledBy the sun’s flame, that neither rain nor riverE’er made a lake so widely spread abroad.
The newness of the sound and the great lightKindled in me a longing for their cause,Never before with such acuteness felt;
Whence she, who saw me as I saw myself,To quiet in me my perturbed mind,Opened her mouth, ere I did mine to ask,
And she began: “Thou makest thyself so dullWith false imagining, that thou seest notWhat thou wouldst see if thou hadst shaken it off.
Thou art not upon earth, as thou believest;But lightning, fleeing its appropriate site,Ne’er ran as thou, who thitherward returnest.”
If of my former doubt I was divestedBy these brief little words more smiled than spoken,I in a new one was the more ensnared;
And said: “Already did I rest contentFrom great amazement; but am now amazedIn what way I transcend these bodies light.”
Whereupon she, after a pitying sigh,Her eyes directed tow’rds me with that lookA mother casts on a delirious child;
And she began: “All things whate’er they beHave order among themselves, and this is form,That makes the universe resemble God.
Here do the higher creatures see the footprintsOf the Eternal Power, which is the endWhereto is made the law already mentioned.
In the order that I speak of are inclinedAll natures, by their destinies diverse,More or less near unto their origin;
Hence they move onward unto ports diverseO’er the great sea of being; and each oneWith instinct given it which bears it on.
This bears away the fire towards the moon;This is in mortal hearts the motive powerThis binds together and unites the earth.
Nor only the created things that areWithout intelligence this bow shoots forth,But those that have both intellect and love.
The Providence that regulates all thisMakes with its light the heaven forever quiet,Wherein that turns which has the greatest haste.
And thither now, as to a site decreed,Bears us away the virtue of that cordWhich aims its arrows at a joyous mark.
True is it, that as oftentimes the formAccords not with the intention of the art,Because in answering is matter deaf,
So likewise from this course doth deviateSometimes the creature, who the power possesses,Though thus impelled, to swerve some other way,
(In the same wise as one may see the fireFall from a cloud,) if the first impetusEarthward is wrested by some false delight.
Thou shouldst not wonder more, if well I judge,At thine ascent, than at a rivuletFrom some high mount descending to the lowland.
Marvel it would be in thee, if deprivedOf hindrance, thou wert seated down below,As if on earth the living fire were quiet.”
Thereat she heavenward turned again her face.
Paradiso: Canto II
O Ye, who in some pretty little boat,Eager to listen, have been followingBehind my ship, that singing sails along,
Turn back to look again upon your shores;Do not put out to sea, lest peradventure,In losing me, you might yourselves be lost.
The sea I sail has never yet been passed;Minerva breathes, and pilots me Apollo,And Muses nine point out to me the Bears.
Ye other few who have the neck upliftedBetimes to th’ bread of Angels upon whichOne liveth here and grows not sated by it,
Well may you launch upon the deep salt-seaYour vessel, keeping still my wake before youUpon the water that grows smooth again.
Those glorious ones who unto Colchos passedWere not so wonder-struck as you shall be,When Jason they beheld a ploughman made!