Transfigured thus the holy edifice
Thrust forward heads upon the parts of it,Three on the pole and one at either corner.
The first were horned like oxen; but the fourHad but a single horn upon the forehead;A monster such had never yet been seen!
Firm as a rock upon a mountain high,Seated upon it, there appeared to meA shameless whore, with eyes swift glancing round,
And, as if not to have her taken from him,Upright beside her I beheld a giant;And ever and anon they kissed each other.
But because she her wanton, roving eyeTurned upon me, her angry paramourDid scourge her from her head unto her feet.
Then full of jealousy, and fierce with wrath,He loosed the monster, and across the forestDragged it so far, he made of that alone
A shield unto the whore and the strange beast.
Purgatorio: Canto XXXIII
“Deus venerunt gentes,” alternatingNow three, now four, melodious psalmodyThe maidens in the midst of tears began;
And Beatrice, compassionate and sighing,Listened to them with such a countenance,That scarce more changed was Mary at the cross.
But when the other virgins place had givenFor her to speak, uprisen to her feetWith colour as of fire, she made response:
“‘Modicum, et non videbitis me;Et iterum,’ my sisters predilect,‘Modicum, et vos videbitis me.’”
Then all the seven in front of her she placed;And after her, by beckoning only, movedMe and the lady and the sage who stayed.
So she moved onward; and I do not thinkThat her tenth step was placed upon the ground,When with her eyes upon mine eyes she smote,
And with a tranquil aspect, “Come more quickly,”To me she said, “that, if I speak with thee,To listen to me thou mayst be well placed.”
As soon as I was with her as I should be,She said to me: “Why, brother, dost thou notVenture to question now, in coming with me?”
As unto those who are too reverential,Speaking in presence of superiors,Who drag no living utterance to their teeth,
It me befell, that without perfect soundBegan I: “My necessity, Madonna,You know, and that which thereunto is good.”
And she to me: “Of fear and bashfulnessHenceforward I will have thee strip thyself,So that thou speak no more as one who dreams.
Know that the vessel which the serpent brokeWas, and is not; but let him who is guiltyThink that God’s vengeance does not fear a sop.
Without an heir shall not for ever beThe Eagle that left his plumes upon the car,Whence it became a monster, then a prey;
For verily I see, and hence narrate it,The stars already near to bring the time,From every hindrance safe, and every bar,
Within which a Five-hundred, Ten, and Five,One sent from God, shall slay the thievish womanAnd that same giant who is sinning with her.
And peradventure my dark utterance,Like Themis and the Sphinx, may less persuade thee,Since, in their mode, it clouds the intellect;
But soon the facts shall be the NaiadesWho shall this difficult enigma solve,Without destruction of the flocks and harvests.
Note thou; and even as by me are utteredThese words, so teach them unto those who liveThat life which is a running unto death;
And bear in mind, whene’er thou writest them,Not to conceal what thou hast seen the plant,That twice already has been pillaged here.
Whoever pillages or shatters it,With blasphemy of deed offendeth God,Who made it holy for his use alone.
For biting that, in pain and in desireFive thousand years and more the first-born soulCraved Him, who punished in himself the bite.
Thy genius slumbers, if it deem it notFor special reason so pre-eminentIn height, and so inverted in its summit.
And if thy vain imaginings had not beenWater of Elsa round about thy mind,And Pyramus to the mulberry, their pleasure,
Thou by so many circumstances onlyThe justice of the interdict of GodMorally in the tree wouldst recognize.
But since I see thee in thine intellectConverted into stone and stained with sin,So that the light of my discourse doth daze thee,
I will too, if not written, at least painted,Thou bear it back within thee, for the reasonThat cinct with palm the pilgrim’s staff is borne.”