Canto XXIII of Paradise
The carnal desire I had for the Virgin Mary.
What matters the beauty of the parade if not, that of your beautiful body.
Come l'augello, intra l'amate fronde, posato al nido de' suoi dolci nati la notte che le cose ci nasconde, che, per veder li aspetti disiati e per trovar lo cibo onde li pasca, in che gravi labor li sono aggrati, previene il tempo in su aperta frasca, e con ardente affetto il sole aspetta, fiso guardando pur che l'alba nasca; cosě la donna mia stava eretta e attenta, rivolta inver' la plaga sotto la quale il sol mostra men fretta:
My lady was standing up attentive, turned towards this area of the sky where the sun only rises very late, so that, seeing her anxious and avid to see, I became similar to whom who, in his desire, would like another thing and that love apease him finally. Jeanne, then, says to me: "Here is coming the army of Heaven, the blessed ones who have deserved the glory of heaven and who presented herselves to share the triumph of the Son of Our God." It seems to me that the face of Jeanne was on fire, her eyes full of joyfulness, and that I had to abstain myself from describing it, not to profane this moment of extasy in Her and of desires in my Being. "Oh Jeanne! soft and dear guide! What matters the beauty of the parade if not, that of your beautiful body." And she answered: "Do not let yourself overpower by a Desire to which one could not resist. Over there are the Reward and the Extasy expected by You for so long a time. Open your eyes, and look at whom I became, because you have seen so many things which have made you able to support my smile and my charm, without wanting you to melt yourself so soon in Me." When I heard these words of hope, which will be registered well in sight in the book where I consign my past, I was as whom who still suffer the impression of a forgotten vision, and who endeavours in vain, to recall it to his memory. Oh Muses! come to my help to say what cannot be said; how to describe the Paradise without letting show there, all the banality of my prose! "Why my face intoxicate you thus with Love, so much that you do not turn your eyes towards this beautiful garden, which is flowered under the radiant charms of the virgin Queen, as if it could be that I would be more desirable than the Virgin Queen herself? See the virginal Vagina in which the Verb of God was made flesh. There, are the soft lilies which made the delights of men, and made them move towards the right way." This is how Jeanne spoke to me. Me, in a hurry to take her advice, I looked at, with my avid eyes, and I saw all these splendours, illuminated by burning rays, as flashes come from one does not know where. The name of the Virgin, that I have not cease to call upon all my nights, inspired me to contemplate the fire which shone of a greater glare, and when had reflected themselves, in my eyes, the Beauty and the Ardour of the living Star, which triumphs up there like here-below, a flame of a circular shape came down from the sky, like a celestial glory which girded her and turned all around Her. I heard then, the most beautiful song, accompanied by the quite as beautiful sound of a lyre which appeared to be addressed to me, which upset my soul and chill with shivers all my body: "I am the purified love, who turns around the supreme joyfulness, exhaled from the breast which received the object of his desires; and it will turn around You, Lovely Lady from Heaven, until you follow your Son, and that you make more divine still, the celestial Vulva, in letting him penetrate It." And like the so little child extends his hands towards the breast, after having sucked all the milk, by the effect of love which spouts out like a flame, each one of these splendours made my flame rise so high, that I understood finally the deep carnal desire that I had for the Virgin Mary. Then they remained there below my eyes, singing "Regina coeli" with such a softness, that never I will forget the carnal pleasure that I then experimented.
Marco Polo ou le voyage imaginaire (La tragédie humaine, janvier 2000) © 1999 Jean-Pierre Lapointe
Theme musical: collection Nguyen (travel), emprunté aux Archives du Web.
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