Canto XVIII of Paradise
image Luis Rojo

The desire and the voluptuousness to see Salome dancing.
The blessed Muses who populated the Olympia.

Già si godeva solo del suo verbo quello specchio beato, e io gustava lo mio, temprando col dolce l'acerbo; e quella donna ch'a Dio mi menava disse: «Muta pensier; pensa ch'i' sono presso a colui ch'ogne torto disgrava». Io mi rivolsi a l'amoroso suono del mio conforto; e qual io allor vidi ne li occhi santi amor, qui l'abbandono: non perch'io pur del mio parlar diffidi, ma per la mente che non può redire sovra sé tanto, s'altri non la guidi.


RETURN TO THE PORTAL OF HELL


Calliope resplendent of a dazzling light, she was such as a sun, and she comforted me more than a mother; but I did not hear any more the eloquent accents which came from Her; I did not taste any more but from my own thoughts where, the soft pleasure mixed with the bitter taste of the kiss, and Jeanne who led me towards God, said to me: "Think at another thing my soft Marco, and understand that I am standing close to Whom who lessens all your sins!" I turned my glance towards my Lover whose voice comforted me, and I give up describing to you, dear reader, all the love that I saw there, not that I am afraid of it, but, because my memory could not express it without the help of the divine grace. All that I can say now, is that I was, by contemplating Jeanne, thus liberated from any other desire in me, while the eternal happiness eradiated in her eyes whose reflections gave me such happiness. And, with the glare of a smile, she says to me: "Turn around and listen to what it is necessary to hear, because it is not in the glare of my eyes that you will find your paradise." Then, I turned toward this blazing light which scintillated in my eyes, and I felt that she had the desire to speak to me, as it is on earth, when one discovers the desire in the look of a woman. She started as follows: "See this tree which is at the image of PARADISE and which never does fade and which always lavishes its fruits to you; at the fifth degree of the tree, you will see the blessed Muses who populated the Olympia, this Paradise of your terrestrial dreams, and whose reputation was so large, that they enriched the epic songs of the poets, your brothers. Look at each arm of the cross of which they compose the members, and each one, to their name, will resplendent as a flash that bursts behind a cloud." To the call of the name of Thalie, I saw a flame crossing right through the cross; I did not hear her words, I was occupied untying the idylle behind the garlands which hid her breasts, then I understood that behind this mask, she played the comedy to me. To the name of Euterpe, I very well saw that she turned on herself, and as this music which she gave birth to, was only grace and artifices to make her belly drive, to bewitch me and make squirt the venom of the snake in me. To the call of the name of Melpomene and Terpsichore, my glance could not be detached from Them, and like the hunter on the look-out I followed the grace of their steps, so much and so well that I would have liked to dance with Them. Then on the councils of Calliope, my sight was attracted on the cross by Erato, Clio, Uranie and the other Carmenes who all lay there, naked and who moved, sensual like silk worms, on the porous wood of the cross, and I felt the spleen in me, as the poet who too much is moved. Then while Calliope spoke to me that way, she start moving and in her denuded grace, she went loitering among the graces who where grasping the arms of the cross, like if they where being brightened on a hot sand beach; she knows how to show me thus, all the poetry which transcended her divine body of nymph. I turned my glance to my right to probe the words as well as the attitudes of Jeanne, what I had to think and do, and I saw her shine of her pure and merry eyes, so that her beauty overrode all her other aspects, and that she made me sorried myself, to have had lubricuss thoughts towards these beautiful things whom never cease being brightened, all naked, on the wood of the cross. I realized that I was progressing in virtue, as one who experience more joy to make the good, thus, by seeing Jeanne becoming more brilliant, I realized that I belonged to Heaven and that finally I was turning with it around a fixed point. And as quickly as the redness of shame disappears from the face of a lady, thus Jupiter, the star which had welcomed me, radiated in my eyes in all its whiteness. In this merry kermess, I saw that the loving spirits that were there, scintillated in my eyes by forming the letters drawn from the written language of our ancestors; and they fluttered and sang thus like lights, resembling birds which emerge from a river, and which, in feast, make circles of themselves or some file in the direction of the wind. Their movement followed the rhythm of their song, then they formed a sign and they stopped so that I could read well what was written. Oh Divine Calliope, you who give glory to the poets and who enlightens them of your light, so that I translate these figures, make that your power writes them in these few verses! Thus they appeared to me: DILIGITE IUSTITIAM QUI IUDICATIS TERRAM Then at the top of the M which finishes the word TERRAM, I saw descending, several negligible lights, reposed there while singing, I believe, the glory of GOD who transcends justice. Then, as the water which scintillates against the light and which make innumerable sparks, more than a thousand lights appeared from there and go more or less higher, as if lit by the Sun, and each one laying down in its place so that this fire represented the head and the collar of an eagle. Oh soft star, how many brilliant gems showed me that our justice is an effect of heaven that you decorate like a jewel! Also I pray God, who generates the movement and the virtue, so that he irritates himself still once again, to see the smoke soiling his rays, and that his temple is thus violated again. Oh militia of heaven that I contemplate thus, pray for those, the depraved, whom on earth, give the bad example! Formerly, one had the habit to overcome by the sword, but today, one makes war by the laws and the interdictions. But you who only think of being cleared of your wrongs, know that Pierre and Paul still live, although they died for the faith that you sacks. It is true that you can always say, to clear yourself: "I prefer to Pierre and Paul, the sacrifice of whom who fast to the desert, but whose martyrdom brightened itself of the desire and pleasure to see Salome dancing."



Marco Polo ou le voyage imaginaire (La tragédie humaine, janvier 2000) © 1999 Jean-Pierre Lapointe
Theme musical: musique New Age (melmirel), emprunté aux Archives du Web.
Important Notice: any photos or fragments of photos subject to copyright will be removed on notice.


CANTO XIX OF PARADISE