Canto XV of the purgatory
Beati Misericordes.
Forgive them my divine Lover, because they do not know what they do.
Quanto tra l'ultimar de l'ora terza e 'l principio del dì par de la spera che sempre a guisa di fanciullo scherza, tanto pareva già inver' la sera essere al sol del suo corso rimaso; vespero là, e qui mezza notte era. E i raggi ne ferien per mezzo 'l naso, perché per noi girato era sì 'l monte, che già dritti andavamo inver' l'occaso, quand'io senti' a me gravar la fronte a lo splendore assai più che di prima, e stupor m'eran le cose non conte;
RETURN TO THE PORTAL OF PURGATORY
It seemed to to me that I was struck by a light reflected in front of me; also my eyes deviated promptly from it. "What is that against what I cannot protect my sight, and who appears coming towards us?" And he answered to me: "Do not fill yourself with wonder if the sight of an angel still dazzles you, it is a messenger who comes to invite us to go up. Soon, you will not have any more sorrow but as much pleasure to contemplate these things that love allows you to experience." When we had joined the blessed angel, he says to us with a voice filled with joy: "Enter here, because the degrees are there, less painful to cross." We already climb up moving away from this place, when someone sang behind us: "Beati misericordes! Delighted yourself, you who will vanquish!" My Master and I, alone both of us, we went to the top level, and, while walking on, I had the idea to benefit from his words; I turned to him and I asked him: "What is the meaning of this sentence that I heard in in another place: "O mankind! why do you put your heart in wealths from which it you must exclude any sharing?"" On what he answered: "Because your desires move you towards a beloved whom the sharing reduces, desire excites your sighs; but you would not have this wound in your heart if you turn all your desires towards Heaven. Because more are numerous those who, up there, say: "Our beloved rather than my beloved", greater is the good whom every one possess and more charity burns in this cloister." Intrigued by this idea, I said: "How may it be that my beloved, gracefully distributed to more owners, makes those, happier and richer that me if I was the only one to love her?" He answered to me: "Because your spirit only sticks to the terrestrial goods, from the truth of my words you only retain darkness. God, Who is up there, offered Himself to Love such as a luminous ray which comes to a brilliant body. The more ardour he finds in you, the more he gives himself, so much that as much the charity sets it ablaze, as much grows in it, the eternal Virtue; and more there are souls to love each others, more there is good to loved and more one loves: one answers to the other, like a mirror. And if my matter does not satisfy your desires, you will see Jeanne, she will fully fill this desire and all the others also. Try only, that are soon unobtrusive by repentance, the P's which still garnishes your face." And I told my Master: "Master, it is a long time that you have left this earth where, if you do not know it yet, the sin of exchanging between friends, the wives whom one loves, is more cruelly punished than that, to flee with the woman of his very dear friend, or to sodomize freely between men." There, I was suddenly filled with wondered by an extatic vision. I saw in a temple, many people and a lady, at the entrance, who said with a tender accent of mother: "My son, why did you mislead me for another one? Here I am, all offered and who still loves you." And as soon as she had stop talking, what had initially appeared to me, disappears. Then, another woman presented herself, with her cheeks wet by the tears that pain distils, when it is born from a profound spite, she said: "My desire would be to be avenged from whom who has, on my bed, fornicate with my own daughter; but what to do to whom who has done evil to me if I thus condemn, whom I love?" Then, I saw people ablazed by the fire of anger, lapidate a young woman with stone blows, while shouting of a unic and strong voice: "Kill, kill, kill!" And her, I saw her leaning towards the ground, under the weight of dead which already overpowered her, but her eyes seemed to open to love and she praid as follows: "Forgive them my divine Lover, because they do not know what they do." When my soul returned from this extasy, I recognized that I had dreamed and my Master, judging my pace, realized it: "What happens to you, that you do not hold upright? Because you walked more than half a league, your eyes veiled, your legs wavering, like a man overpowered by wine or sleep? But your thoughts, so small they are, do not hide from me. What you saw appeared to you so that you do not refuse to open your heart to these eternal virtues of softness and leniency." We went by the evening, paying our attention as far as our eyes could see, against the late and brilliant rays; and little by little, there came a smoke towards us, obscure like the night, and there was no place where to shelter us; it abducted from us, the fresh air and the usefulness of our eyes.
Marco Polo ou le voyage imaginaire (La tragédie humaine, janvier 2000) © 1999 Jean-Pierre Lapointe
Theme musical: musique d'atmosphère (rama), empruntée aux Archives du Web.
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