Thus Beatrice to me even as I write it; Then all desireful turned herself again To that part where the world is most alive. 1275 Her silence and her change of countenance Silence imposed upon my eager mind, That had already in advance new questions; And as an arrow that upon the mark Strikes ere the bowstring quiet hath become, So did we speed into the second realm. My Lady there so joyful I beheld, As into the brightness of that heaven she entered, 1276 More luminous thereat the planet grew; And if the star itself was changed and smiled, 1277 What became I, who by my nature am Exceeding mutable in every guise! As, in a fishpond which is pure and tranquil, The fishes draw to that which from without Comes in such fashion that their food they deem it; So I beheld more than a thousand splendors Drawing towards us, and in each was heard: “Lo, this is she who shall increase our love.”