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  And from all other purpose was withdrawn;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.

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."

She thereupon, who saw my silentness
  In the sight of Him who seeth everything,
  Said unto me, "Let loose thy warm desire."

And I began: "No merit of my own
  Renders me worthy of response from thee;
  But for her sake who granteth me the asking,

Thou blessed life that dost remain concealed
  In thy beatitude, make known to me
  The cause which draweth thee so near my side;

And tell me why is silent in this wheel
  The dulcet symphony of Paradise,
  That through the rest below sounds so devoutly."

"Thou hast thy hearing mortal as thy sight,"
  It answer made to me; "they sing not here,
  For the same cause that Beatrice has not smiled.

Thus far adown the holy stairway's steps
  Have I descended but to give thee welcome
  With words, and with the light that mantles me;

Nor did more love cause me to be more ready,
  For love as much and more up there is burning,
  As doth the flaming manifest to thee.

But the high charity, that makes us servants
  Prompt to the counsel which controls the world,
  Allotteth here, even as thou dost observe."