Canto VII of Paradise
image Delville

Hosanna Sanctus Deus Sabaoth.
Your beauty, Marco my beautiful lover, does not equalize that of the supreme Lover.

«Osanna, sanctus Deus sabaňth, superillustrans claritate tua felices ignes horum malacňth». Cosě, volgendosi a la nota sua, fu viso a me cantare essa sustanza, sopra la qual doppio lume s'addua: ed essa e l'altre mossero a sua danza, e quasi velocissime faville, mi si velar di sůbita distanza. Io dubitava e dicea 'Dille, dille!' fra me, 'dille', dicea, 'a la mia donna che mi diseta con le dolci stille'.


RETURN TO THE PORTAL OF PARADISE


"Hosanna, sanctus Deus sabaoth, superillustrans claritate tua felices ignes horum malacoth!" Thus, I saw singing, revolving on herselves, these two lights which were coupled between themselves; them and the others took again their dance; like very fast sparks, they disappeared from my eyes and moved away suddenly. I was plunged in the doubt and I said to myself: "Speaks, then speaks to your lady so that she alleviates your thirst of understanding, by the beneficial movement of her lips." Jeanne understood my disorder and, dazzling, with a smile to make happy any unhappy man, she spoke to me as follows: "What seems to worry you, it is, how was justly avenged a right revenge? But I will clear your spirit from this doubt; listen well, because my words are of a great truth." And she started as follows: "You have sinned my tender Marco, and you were damned as those who preceded you which, by the fault of Adam, where also damned; by your sin you damn also your descendants, and you persisted thus in the error until it pleases to God to send me in order to save you, by an act of Love. Pay well attention to my reasoning: Your nature was created, linked with that of your Creator, it was then pure and good, but, by your fault, you were banished from paradise, to have diverted yourself from Truth and of your destiny. The punishment which saw me dying on the rough-hew was right, because you sinned and you are of human nature. But it was unjust, since I am from celestial nature and that I had not sinned in you. From the same act came different effects, and my death pleases to God, as well as to the Church of France which saw in me, a witch. Thus do not find so strange that one says to you, that a right revenge was then avenged by a right court. But I see now that, from thought to thought, your spirit wanders and is fuggy and that it has great desire to be released." Then, I said to Jeanne: "I understand well what I hear, but why has God wanted that you, Jeanne, you die for my redemption, that remains hidden to me." And she answered: "This decree, my dear Marco, remains impenetrable to the eyes of all those, whose intelligence did not mature with the flames of Love. But however, because on this subject, one thought much without seeing there very clearly, I will tell you why this means was worthiest. The Divine Goodness, who does not know the envy, burns in oneself to the only desire to multiply hes eternal beauties. Such you were, Marco, who appears here, so vulgar to me, and who, while sinning, was deprived of these gifts with which He provided the human creature; be happy to be always eternal, but see as I am unhappy that you sacrificed your freedom while sinning, and that your beauty, then, Marco, my beautiful lover, does not equalize that of the supreme Lover. You cannot hope to find your dignity but by one right punishment, which is at the measure of your guilty pleasure. By your sin, you refused these gifts from the Divine as you cut yourself from paradise; and if you want to hear me well, know that you can enter there only by one or the other of these two ways: Or that God forgives you of your sins, or that by yourself you would be satisfied for your fault. Try to seize the eternal intentions if you want it, while following my reasoning as close as you can do it. While wanting to measure yourself to God, you made an infinite sin of pride, and it is no more possible for you to go as far, in some act of humility or obedience, which can repurchase your fault. This is why God alone can bring back to you, to the whole dignity of your life, while using of ways which are only up to him, by his mercy, his justice or both at the same time. Tell me, my tender Marco, which act of love would have been greater, for me to forgive you of your fault, or to sacrifice myself on the wood-pile fire in order to render you able to make you raise yourself?" And Jeanne did not say anything more, but me, I had other desires to fill and I asked her: "Tell me Jeanne, you who can understand, would you like you to fill these other desires in me so that I see there, as clearly as you. I see water, I see fire, air and ground as of the substances which one cannot see, and I see also their mixtures, corrupted and last so little time, and to change, and become other substances as well as new creatures. If thus what one says is true, should they be immutable, and safe from corruption?" And Jeanne answered: "The angels and the areas where they live were created by God, such as they are, in the perfection of their being. But the elements about which you speak, like their compounds, were not created directly by God, but result from the combination of things created, so that they are corruptible." "But, tell me Jeanne, is man not a combination of all these corruptible substances, and, in that, would he be himself corruptible?" "Your soul, my dear Marco, think of your soul which, itself, is not corruptible and which is the Product of the divine Kindness and which ignites Him with love for her, in order to be, then, always desired for her." And he continued as follows: "But why God would have created the woman, fragile and beautiful, and man, rude and ugly such as one sees them; and if woman transformed herself into a man and man into a woman, how to explain that this metamorphosis can be the product of Creation? Would this be then, the normal advance of the evolution, the random combination of all these corruptible substances, or the product of a social manipulation, so that man and women would be themselves, corruptible? Would one like to see there, an attack to the trade of God or a simple miscalculation of the Creator, or nothing of all that but, something else, who would be what, of which I do have no idea? Would procreation be an invention of God, or a product of the spontaneous generation; thus, in the event of the end of procreation, would it be the disappearance of man or a new link in the evolution of human beings; would then man become God himself, or do Satan would think of himself as being God? Would we assist, then, in the disappearance of man at the same time as that of God? Here are all the questions that I questionned myself of, they do not seem to confuse the spirit of men, but should however worry God in his Greatness." "Narrow minded Spirit, forget about this mean body that you carry like a clothing, and that you respect or that you spoil, and who is only a mortal envelope which has no another goal than to contain your soul." "But does my she-cat which waits for me at home, to which I gave the soft name of Jeanne,anxious of my absence, has she also, a soul, and is this soul more meritorious then that of many men that I know, and which sensitivity seems to be located beyond the level of a corruptible substance?" "But it is well there, the characteristic of the human nature, to be able to choose between the evil or the good, and it is what differentiates man from the animal, in what he possesses the free will; you are well right to think that man can go down lower than the animal, and than at the same time, he believes of being able to become God himself." "See Jeanne, how I explain these things to myself and you know it well, you who see in me, but I would like you still, to explain to me, and that I try to understand how, my body, after my death, could ressurect, and reform itself in its corrupted matters and find back, the integrality of its soul in the formless magma of the universal Soul in which it will have been diluted by the death of my body?" "God created these things without the intervention of secondary causes and which, therefore, are eternal. The human nature was created by God like his differentiated soul, as you can see it in me which is your Jeanne, and that, you know it very well. Man then, is immortal and he must rise from the death. Be satisfied to believe, since your spirit is too vulgar to understand."



Marco Polo ou le voyage imaginaire (La tragédie humaine, janvier 2000) © 1999 Jean-Pierre Lapointe
Theme musical: glorificamus de John Redford, emprunté aux Classical Midi Archives.
Important Notice: any photos or fragments of photos subject to copyright will be removed on notice.


CANTO VIII OF PARADISE


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