(15) "At the beginning of the month, when thou shinest upon the land

(5) Behold, I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.

(5) When I was near unto the blessed shore, "Asperges me," I heard so sweetly sung, Remember it I cannot, much less write it. The beautiful lady opened wide her arms, Embraced my head, and plunged me underneath, Where I was forced to swallow of the water. Then forth she drew me, and all dripping brought Into the dance of the four beautiful, And each one with her arm did cover me. 'We here are Nymphs, and in the Heaven are stars; Ere Beatrice descended to the world, We as her handmaids were appointed her. We'll lead thee to her eyes; but for the pleasant Light that within them is, shall sharpen thine The three beyond, who more profoundly look.' Thus singing they began; and afterwards Unto the Griffin's breast they led me with them, Where Beatrice was standing, turned towards us. "See that thou dost not spare thine eyes," they said; "Before the emeralds have we stationed thee, Whence Love aforetime drew for thee his weapons."

(1) Already on my Lady's face mine eyes Again were fastened, and with these my mind, And from all other purpose was withdrawn; And she smiled not; but "If I were to smile," She unto me began, "thou wouldst become Like Semele, when she was turned to ashes. Because my beauty, that along the stairs Of the eternal palace more enkindles, As thou hast seen, the farther we ascend, If it were tempered not, is so resplendent That all thy mortal power in its effulgence Would seem a leaflet that the thunder crushes. We are uplifted to the seventh splendour, That underneath the burning Lion's breast Now radiates downward mingled with his power. Fix in direction of thine eyes the mind, And make of them a mirror for the figure That in this mirror shall appear to thee." He who could know what was the pasturage My sight had in that blessed countenance, When I transferred me to another care, Would recognize how grateful was to me Obedience unto my celestial escort, By counterpoising one side with the other.

(152) O love, love, and heart's desire of love! Let thy first boon to me be this, Though thou knowest my condition clearly, O protector of slaves, listen to my speech. A thousand times, O prince incomparable, Has my reason taken flight in desire to see thee, And to hear thee and to listen to thy words, Thy inclining thine ear to my supplications The baseness of my heart's coin is known to thee, Thou art proud towards the arrogant and proud;

(5) And first, and near the ending of these words, "Sperent in te" from over us was heard, To which responsive answered all the carols. Thereafterward a light among them brightened, So that, if Cancer one such crystal had, Winter would have a month of one sole day. And as uprises, goes, and enters the dance A winsome maiden, only to do honour To the new bride, and not from any failing, Even thus did I behold the brightened splendour Approach the two, who in a wheel revolved As was beseeming to their ardent love. Into the song and music there it entered; And fixed on them my Lady kept her look, Even as a bride silent and motionless. "This is the one who lay upon the breast Of him our Pelican; and this is he To the great office from the cross elected." My Lady thus; but therefore none the more Did move her sight from its attentive gaze Before or afterward these words of hers. Even as a man who gazes, and endeavours To see the eclipsing of the sun a little, And who, by seeing, sightless doth become,

(30) He places a golden crown on the brow of the narcissus; and drops pearls of dew into her shrine.

(122) No crocodile of sorrow will attack thy bark, Thou wilt be at once queen, army, and throne, Thou sayest thou art a great queen of good fortune; But thy fortune is apart from thee and will soon fade, Thou wilt be left like a, beggar without sustenance; Therefore, O chosen one, become thy own fortune. When, O spiritual one, thou hast become thy own fortune, Then, being thyself thy fortune, thou wilt never lose it. How. O fortunate one, canst thou ever lose thyself, When thy real self is thy treasure and thy kingdom?

(1) It was the hour when the diurnal heat No more can warm the coldness of the moon, Vanquished by earth, or peradventure Saturn, When geomancers their Fortuna Major See in the orient before the dawn Rise by a path that long remains not dim, There came to me in dreams a stammering woman, Squint in her eyes, and in her feet distorted, With hands dissevered and of sallow hue. I looked at her; and as the sun restores The frigid members which the night benumbs, Even thus my gaze did render voluble Her tongue, and made her all erect thereafter In little while, and the lost countenance As love desires it so in her did colour. When in this wise she had her speech unloosed, She 'gan to sing so, that with difficulty Could I have turned my thoughts away from her. "I am," she sang, "I am the Siren sweet Who mariners amid the main unman, So full am I of pleasantness to hear. I drew Ulysses from his wandering way Unto my song, and he who dwells with me Seldom departs so wholly I content him."

(1) Singing like unto an enamoured lady She, with the ending of her words, continued: "Beati quorum tecta sunt peccata." And even as Nymphs, that wandered all alone Among the sylvan shadows, sedulous One to avoid and one to see the sun, She then against the stream moved onward, going Along the bank, and I abreast of her, Her little steps with little steps attending. Between her steps and mine were not a hundred, When equally the margins gave a turn, In such a way, that to the East I faced. Nor even thus our way continued far Before the lady wholly turned herself Unto me, saying, "Brother, look and listen!" And lo! a sudden lustre ran across On every side athwart the spacious forest, Such that it made me doubt if it were lightning. But since the lightning ceases as it comes, And that continuing brightened more and more, Within my thought I said, "What thing is this?" And a delicious melody there ran Along the luminous air, whence holy zeal Made me rebuke the hardihood of Eve;

(8) Hear, my daughter, and see me and bend your ear, and forget your people and your father's house, for the king has desired your beauty, and he is your lord.

(1) The Partridge next approached, graceful yet self-satisfied. Shyly she rises from her treasure of pearls in her garment of the dawn. With blood-rimmed eyes and red beak she flies with lightly-turning head, carrying her belt and sword.

She said: 'I like to wander among ruins for I love precious stones. They have lighted a fire in my heart and this satisfies me. When I burn with desire for them the pebbles I have swallowed become as if tinged with blood. But often I find myself between stones and fire, inactive and perplexed. O my friends, see how I live! Is it possible to awaken one who sleeps on stones and swallows gravel?

'My heart is wounded by a hundred sorrows because my love for precious stones has bound me to the mountain. Love for other things is transitory; the kingdom of the jewels is eternal, they are the essence of the everlasdng mountain. I know the mountains and the precious stones. With my belt and my sword I am always seeking the diamond, and I have yet to discover a substance of a loftier

nature than precious stones - even the pearl is not as beautiful. Also, the way to the Simurgh is difficult, and my feet are attached to the stones as if they were stuck in clay. How can I expect to go bravely into the presence of the mighty Simurgh, my hand on my head, my feet in the mud? Either I will die or I will discover precious stones. My nobility is evident, and he who does not share in my aim is not worth considering.'

The Hoopoe said: 'O you who have colours of all the stones, you limp a little and give lame excuses. Your heart's blood stains your claws and beak, and your search demeans you. What are jewels but coloured stones, yet the love of them hardens your heart. Without their colours they would be just ordinary little pebbles. He who possesses the perfume does not seek the colour; he who has the essence will not forsake it for the glitter of outward form. Seek the true jewel of sound quality and no longer be content with a stone.'

(4) I do not think her mother loves me more, Since she has laid aside her wimple white, Which she, unhappy, needs must wish again. Through her full easily is comprehended How long in woman lasts the fire of love, If eye or touch do not relight it often. So fair a hatchment will not make for her The Viper marshalling the Milanese A-field, as would have made Gallura's Cock." In this wise spake he, with the stamp impressed Upon his aspect of that righteous zeal Which measurably burneth in the heart. My greedy eyes still wandered up to heaven, Still to that point where slowest are the stars, Even as a wheel the nearest to its axle. And my Conductor: "Son, what dost thou gaze at Up there?" And I to him: "At those three torches With which this hither pole is all on fire." And he to me: "The four resplendent stars Thou sawest this morning are down yonder low, And these have mounted up to where those were." As he was speaking, to himself Sordello Drew him, and said, "Lo there our Adversary!" And pointed with his finger to look thither.

(39) Of which my Soul knows full well, and has also received its Knowledge thus, which the learned Master in the Hood of his Degree cannot believe, because he cannot comprehend it; therefore he holds it to be impossible, and ascribes it to the Devil (as the Jews did by the Sun of the Virgin, when he in [the Virtue of] the Virgin showed Signs and wrought Miracles) which my Soul regards not, neither esteems their Pride, it has enough in the Pearl; and it has a Longing to show the Thirsty [where] the Pearl [lies:] The crowned Hood [or cornered Cap] may play merrily behind the Curtain of Antichrist, till the Lily grows, and then the Smell of the Lily will [cause some to] throw away the Hood, [or Cap,] says the Virgin; and the Thirsty shall drink of the Water of Life; and [at that Time] the Son of the Virgin will rule in the Valley of Jehosaphat.

(2) As unto those who are too reverential, Speaking in presence of superiors, Who drag no living utterance to their teeth, It me befell, that without perfect sound Began I: "My necessity, Madonna, You know, and that which thereunto is good." And she to me: "Of fear and bashfulness Henceforward I will have thee strip thyself, So that thou speak no more as one who dreams. Know that the vessel which the serpent broke Was, and is not; but let him who is guilty Think that God's vengeance does not fear a sop. Without an heir shall not for ever be The Eagle that left his plumes upon the car, Whence it became a monster, then a prey; For verily I see, and hence narrate it, The stars already near to bring the time, From every hindrance safe, and every bar, Within which a Five-hundred, Ten, and Five, One sent from God, shall slay the thievish woman And that same giant who is sinning with her. And peradventure my dark utterance, Like Themis and the Sphinx, may less persuade thee, Since, in their mode, it clouds the intellect;

(9) Salutations, O Excellent Pheasant! You see that which is far off, and you perceive the heart's source immersed in the ocean of ligh'- while you remain in the pit of darkness and the prison of uncertainty. Lift yourself from the pit and raise your head to the divine throne.

(1) And by means of the Luminaries of the male virginal Barbelo I saw [multiple] powers telling [me]:

(78) Behold, I tell thee a mystery: The time is already that the Bridegroom crowneth his bride!

(2) Within the crystal which, around the world Revolving, bears the name of its dear leader, Under whom every wickedness lay dead, Coloured like gold, on which the sunshine gleams, A stairway I beheld to such a height Uplifted, that mine eye pursued it not. Likewise beheld I down the steps descending So many splendours, that I thought each light That in the heaven appears was there diffused. And as accordant with their natural custom The rooks together at the break of day Bestir themselves to warm their feathers cold; Then some of them fly off without return, Others come back to where they started from, And others, wheeling round, still keep at home; Such fashion it appeared to me was there Within the sparkling that together came, As soon as on a certain step it struck, And that which nearest unto us remained Became so clear, that in my thought I said, "Well I perceive the love thou showest me; But she, from whom I wait the how and when Of speech and silence, standeth still; whence I Against desire do well if I ask not."

(2) Then reigned within my lofty fantasy One crucified, disdainful and ferocious In countenance, and even thus was dying. Around him were the great Ahasuerus, Esther his wife, and the just Mordecai, Who was in word and action so entire. And even as this image burst asunder Of its own self, in fashion of a bubble In which the water it was made of fails, There rose up in my vision a young maiden Bitterly weeping, and she said: "O queen, Why hast thou wished in anger to be naught? Thou'st slain thyself, Lavinia not to lose; Now hast thou lost me; I am she who mourns, Mother, at thine ere at another's ruin." As sleep is broken, when upon a sudden New light strikes in upon the eyelids closed, And broken quivers ere it dieth wholly, So this imagining of mine fell down As soon as the effulgence smote my face, Greater by far than what is in our wont. I turned me round to see where I might be, When said a voice, "Here is the passage up;" Which from all other purposes removed me,