Canto IX

change the water that Vicenza bathes, Because the folk are stubborn against duty; And where the Sile and Cagnano join One lordeth it, and goes with lofty head, For catching whom e’en now the net is making. Feltro moreover of her impious pastor Shall weep the crime, which shall so monstrous be That for the like none ever entered Malta. Ample exceedingly would be the vat That of the Ferrarese could hold the blood, And weary who should weigh it ounce by ounce, Of which this courteous priest shall make a gift To show himself a partisan; and such gifts Will to the living of the land conform. Above us there are mirrors, Thrones you call them, From which shines out on us God Judicant, So that this utterance seems good to us.” Here it was silent, and it had the semblance Of being turned elsewhither, by the wheel On which it entered as it was before. The other joy, already known to me, Became a thing transplendent in my sight, As a fine ruby smitten by the sun. Through joy effulgence is acquired above, As here a smile; but down below, the shade Outwardly darkens, as the mind is sad. “God seeth all things, and in Him, blest spirit, Thy sight is,” said I, “so that never will Of his can possibly from thee be hidden; Thy voice, then, that forever makes the heavens Glad, with the singing of those holy fires Which of their six wings make themselves a cowl, Wherefore does it not satisfy my longings? Indeed, I would not wait thy questioning If I in thee were as thou art in me.” “The greatest of the valleys where the water Expands itself,” forthwith its words began, “That sea excepted which the earth engarlands, Between discordant shores against the sun Extends so far, that it meridian makes Where it was wont before to make the horizon. I was a dweller on that valley’s shore ’Twixt Ebro and Magra that with journey short Doth from the Tuscan part the Genoese. With the same sunset and same sunrise nearly Sit Buggia and the city whence I was, That with its blood once made the harbour hot. Folco that people called me unto whom My name was known; and now with me this heaven Imprints itself, as I did once with it; For more the daughter of Belus never burned, Offending both Sichaeus and Creusa, Than I, so long as it