Divine Comedy - Dante
Alighieri Paradiso: Canto XXI
In this part of the poem, Dante
ascends with Beatrice to the seventh Heaven, which is the plat Saturn. Here a golden
ladder is place and the height of the ladder is infinite and the top of the
ladder is not visible to Dante who is mortal.
The narrator of the epic poem is Dante himself. Beatrice, the ideal
beautiful woman guides the narrator through Heaven.
Dante turns to the face of Beatrice, but she
is not smiling. She tells Dante that if she smiles, Dante will be reduced to
mere ashes. She tells Dante of the tragedy of a woman named Semele who is the
mother of Dionycious, the Greek God of fertility and wine by Jove had been
turned to ashes when smiled. This is why the spirit of Beatrice did not smile
at Dante. Her smile has the intensity of God’s love which will destroy mortal
beings. The reason was that they have climbed so high on the heavenly ladder
and they have reached the point where Dante’s senses cannot bear the great
power of God’s love reflected through spirit of Beatrice.
The beauty of Beatrice is more
glorified and powerful when they reached the top step of the divine ladder and
God’s power and glory is reflected on the face of Beatrice, will burn the
mortal senses of Dante when he looks at her. She says that Dante will be become
like a leaf of tree which is burned to ashes when lightning and thunder strike
it. Beatrice now announces that they have reached the Seventh Heaven. It is
just below the Constellation of Leo which is always burning and light flashes
everywhere downwards with the power and glory of God. Beatrice again warns Dante to listen and
concentrate his mind and eyes and look where he usually look and he sees the
reflected image of what comes next. So Dante looks at the bright eyes of
Beatrice. There the narrator sees the wonderful landscape of Saturn reflected.
Dante says that he is really grateful to his beautiful guide Beatrice and he blindly
obeys every word of his ideal companion.
When he looks at her, his joy is unlimited and she is also very happy on
seeing the pleasure of the narrator. The narrator then saw a golden ladder
slowly coming up and the sunlight is reflected on it. The ladder is going up so
high that the narrator cannot see its top because he is mortal. When he looks
down the steps, it is so bright that all the lights in the heaven seem to be
appeared there. It is an amazing sight for Dante.
Thousands of souls are climbing
up and down the steps of the golden
ladder every minute just like the flocks of rooks (jackdaws) fly away in
the bright morning to various parts of the sky in order to warm their cold
feathers in the bright sunlight. Some of them fly off without return, some
others come back to where they started from and some others are flying round
here and there. A multitude of shining
spirits are moving on the steps of the
golden ladder and one spirit comes so near Dante and Dante wants to talk to the
spirit and must get permission from Beatrice. At this unspoken thought, Beatrice
promptly gives the signal and Dante speaks to the soul why he comes so near and
why there is perfect silence in this place, whereas, every other sphere is full
of God’s glorious music. The soul answers Dante for the 2nd question
first and says that it is quite silent here because if they were to sing, the
power of the song would break the ear-drums of Dante who is a mortal. In other
words, Dante’s mortal hearing could not bear the glory and power of the divine
song at this level of heaven. Now the soul answers the first question of Dante.
The soul says that he has
descended the golden ladder with the emergency purpose of meeting Dante. He
adds that the soul is fully governed by God’s love and will, and therefore the
soul is asked to move down the ladder to meet Dante. Before the soul can even
say the last words, the spirit begins spinning at a lightning speed and its
spinning only makes the soul grow brighter and more beautiful and it says that
its sight is very good and this is why God blesses him with so much grace. No
one can know the mine of God, the soul warns Dante and advises Dante to report
this important matter to the people when he returns home to the earth.
The warning of the spirit
trembles Dante with fear and he is silent. The spirit is willing to reveal his
identity. The brightly burning soul tells Dante once long ago he was a monk in
a monastery at Catria in Italy. It was called Santa Croce di Forte Avellan. He
came to the monastery as a sinner and became a saint soon. He worshipped God in
meditation and prayer and lived on a simple vegetable diet cooked in olive
juice. At that time the monastery supplied truly virtuous souls, but now the
monastery is corrupted and barren. When he entered the monastery, he was called
‘Peter the Sinner’. But now he is known as St. Peter Damian. Dante nods in
agreement. St. Peter Damian continues his story. From the monastery he was
dragged out to become a Cardinal. He preferred his monastery life to the Papal
dignity of glory and power. St. Peter Damian recalls that one upon a time Popes
were good and they led very simple and holy life, strictly following the
teachings of the Bible and St. Paul wore the hat of the Cardinal and he walked
“barefoot” and was lean, simple and holy.
But now, shaking his head, Peter
Damian says that the Pops are plump and corrupted and that they need a lot of
servants and helpers to do everything because they love luxurious life. Peter’s
words have attracted other souls who are now gathered round a spectacle of
light. When Peter Damian stops talking, the spirits cry out in agreement and
Dante drops like an anchor because their combined voices have the power of
thunderbolt in the blue sky and he was trembled with fear, as his senses are
paralyzed with shock. Kjt/22-02-2016
helped us a lot for our examination.
ReplyDeleteVery helpful.Thankyou
ReplyDeletethank you
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