"Deus venerunt gentes," alternating
  Now three, now four, melodious psalmody
  The maidens in the midst of tears began;

And Beatrice, compassionate and sighing,
  Listened to them with such a countenance,
  That scarce more changed was Mary at the cross.

But when the other virgins place had given
  For her to speak, uprisen to her feet
  With colour as of fire, she made response:

"'Modicum, et non videbitis me;
  Et iterum,' my sisters predilect,
  'Modicum, et vos videbitis me.'"

Then all the seven in front of her she placed;
  And after her, by beckoning only, moved
  Me and the lady and the sage who stayed.

So she moved onward; and I do not think
  That her tenth step was placed upon the ground,
  When with her eyes upon mine eyes she smote,

And with a tranquil aspect, "Come more quickly,"
  To me she said, "that, if I speak with thee,
  To listen to me thou mayst be well placed."

As soon as I was with her as I should be,
  She said to me: "Why, brother, dost thou not
  Venture to question now, in coming with me?"

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;

But soon the facts shall be the Naiades
  Who shall this difficult enigma solve,
  Without destruction of the flocks and harvests.

Note thou; and even as by me are uttered
  These words, so teach them unto those who live
  That life which is a running unto death;

And bear in mind, whene'er thou writest them,
  Not to conceal what thou hast seen the plant,
  That twice already has been pillaged here.

Whoever pillages or shatters it,
  With blasphemy of deed offendeth God,
  Who made it holy for his use alone.

For biting that, in pain and in desire
  Five thousand years and more the first-born soul
  Craved Him, who punished in himself the bite.

Thy genius slumbers, if it deem it not
  For special reason so pre-eminent
  In height, and so inverted in its summit.

And if thy vain imaginings had not been
  Water of Elsa round about thy mind,
  And Pyramus to the mulberry, their pleasure,

Thou by so many circumstances only
  The justice of the interdict of God
  Morally in the tree wouldst recognize.

But since I see thee in thine intellect
  Converted into stone and stained with sin,
  So that the light of my discourse doth daze thee,