Canto XVII of Paradise
Is an informed man, worth not more than two of them?
Those who adulterate with the Truth.
Qual venne a Climené, per accertarsi di ciò ch'avea incontro a sé udito, quei ch'ancor fa li padri ai figli scarsi; tal era io, e tal era sentito e da Beatrice e da la santa lampa che pria per me avea mutato sito. Per che mia donna «Manda fuor la vampa del tuo disio», mi disse, «sì ch'ella esca segnata bene de la interna stampa; non perché nostra conoscenza cresca per tuo parlare, ma perché t'ausi a dir la sete, sì che l'uom ti mesca».
As a son who asks his father if he is well his son, such I appeared to Jeanne, and to this holy flame who accompanied his steps. Also my lady says me it: "Show out of yourself, all the ardour of your desire, so that it spouts out accurately carrying the inprint of your soul; not so that your words make better know what we know already, but so that you are accustomed to say what is your thirst, so that one pours you something to drink." "Oh cherished light, you which rises so high above the spirit of the men of science, that you see the contingent things before they actually are realised, by looking at God who puts everything at the present, while I accompanied Baudelaire to the Purgatory and ito Hell, it was said to me, on my future fate, words that I fear, although I feel to be solid like rock against the blows of the fate; also, my desire would be satisfies to learn what is the destiny which awaits me: is an informed man, worth not more than two of them?" Thus I spoke to this same light, whohad initially addressed herself to me, and, like Jeanne wanted it, I acknowledged my desire to her. And it was in clear terms, and in a precise language, that answered to me this loving father, locked up in its own smile where it appeared to me: "The contingency things which goes beyond the comprehension of your material world, are all fixed in the eternal glance; but they are not of a character of peremptory necessity. From there, comes at my sight the time which, for you, prepares, and which vibrates to my ear like a soft music. Your spirit will leave the earth of your ancestors. That will be wanted and takes shape already, by those who adulterate with the Truth. The public rumour, as it is usual, will take party against your poetry, not for what it believes as being the truth, but, to adjust itself to that says about it those who manufacture it. It will be necessary for you to give up what possess as the most expensive in the world, your country and what you conceive of it, and to find exile there without having to leave it. You will suffer how, the exile is harder to whom who does not have to be exiled in his body, but only in his soul. You will suffer which salt taste has your bread, which has the flavour of the stranger, and as it is a hard journey to travel through a badly shaped way to your step. And what will weigh the most on your shoulders, it will be the malicious and stupid company of those who will dig the abyss around yourself, and which will harrass you and will turn themselves against you. But it is from it and not from yourself that the forefront will redden, so that you will be proud to have made a party only for yourself. Your first refuge and your only reward, you will owe them only to your solitude and to the art which it gives birth to. Put all your waitings in him and its benefits; by him, you will learn what the world does not know and pretends not to know." Then she still says this light: "I do not want you to carry desire to your fellow-citizens, because your life will last in the future, much more than the punishment of their perfidies." "My very Dear Father, I see very well how time overtake me, to give me a blow as strong as one gives himself up more; aso it is good that I arm myself with precaution, so that, if the good of my conscience is removed from me, I do not lose freedom due to my verses. In the world below, plunged into the eternal bitterness, and by the mountain from where the eyes of my Lady where removed from me, then by the heaven, from light to light, I learned so much things which, if I repeat them, will make of many people my enemies. And if I hide, by timidity, the truth, I fear not to live anymore among those who already claim to live in the future, and do not know anything about the past, and who cannot adapt to the present." And my Father answered: "A consciousness darkened by the shame or that of others will certainly find your word bitter; but tell your vision accurately, draw aside any lie, and let people scrape themselves where it stitches, because at the first taste your word seems to importunate them, it will know how to nourish the future generations. Your cry will make like the wind which strikes only the highest summits, of those who can open their arms to the truth, and it is not a poor subject of honor. It is for this reason that were shown to you, in the lower spheres, the souls of those who lived in the fame; because whom who does not listen and wants to hear only what his spirit is conditioned to, never lets itself allure by whom who is not known or is celebrated or is not glorified, nor by arguments which do not have any glares."
Marco Polo ou le voyage imaginaire (La tragédie humaine, janvier 2000) © 1999 Jean-Pierre Lapointe
Theme musical: nuage de Claude Debussy, emprunté aux Classical Midi Archives.
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