Canto XII

safe passage promised unto me. As on the right hand, to ascend the mount Where seated is the church that lordeth it O’er the well-guided, above Rubaconte, The bold abruptness of the ascent is broken By stairways that were made there in the age When still were safe the ledger and the stave, E’en thus attempered is the bank which falls Sheer downward from the second circle there; But on this side and that the high rock grazes. As we were turning thitherward our persons, “ Beati pauperes spiritu ,” voices Sang in such wise that speech could tell it not. Ah me! how different are these entrances From the Infernal! for with anthems here One enters, and below with wild laments. We now were mounting up the sacred stairs, And it appeared to me by far more easy Than on the plain it had appeared before. Whence I: “My Master, say, what heavy thing Has been uplifted from me, so that hardly Aught of fatigue is felt by me in walking?” He answered: “When the P’s which have remained Still on thy face almost obliterate Shall wholly, as the first is, be erased, Thy feet will be so vanquished by good will, That not alone they shall not feel fatigue, But urging up will be to them delight.” Then did I even as they do who are going With something on the head to them unknown, Unless the signs of others make them doubt, Wherefore the hand to ascertain is helpful, And seeks and finds, and doth fulfill the office Which cannot be accomplished by the sight; And with the fingers of the right hand spread I found but six the letters, that had carved Upon my temples he who bore the keys; Upon beholding which my Leader smiled.