Muse Florence ....May Your Power Appear In These Few Lines......DILIGITE IUSTITIAM QUI IUDICATIS TERRAM...... M......

DILIGITE IUSTITIAM QUI IUDICATIS TERRAM........M......

May your power appear in these few lines......

And just as birds that rise from riverbanks,
as if rejoicing after feeding there,
will form a round flock or another shape,

so, in their lights, the saintly beings sang
and, in their flight, the figures that they spelled
were now a D, now I, and now an L.

First, they moved to the rhythm of their song;
then, after they had finished forming one
letter, they halted for a while, in silence.

O godly Pegasea, you who give
to genius glory and long life, as it,
through you, gives these to kingdoms and to cities,

give me your light that I may emphasize
these signs as I inscribed them in my mind:
your power-may it appear in these brief lines!

Those blessed spirits took the shape of five
times seven vowels and consonants, and I
noted the parts as they were spelled for me.

DILIGITE IUSTITIAM were the verb
and noun that first appeared in that depiction;
QUI IUDICATIS TERRAM followed after.

Then, having formed the M of the fifth word,
those spirits kept their order; Jupiter's
silver, at that point, seemed embossed with gold.

And I saw other lights descending on
the apex of the M and, settling, singing-
I think-the Good that draws them to Itself.


Then, as innumerable sparks rise up
when one strikes burning logs (and in those sparks
fools have a way of reading auguries),

from that M seemed to surge more than a thousand
lights; and they climbed, some high, some low, just as
the Sun that kindles them assigned positions.

With each light settled quietly in place,
I saw that the array of fire had shaped
the image of an eagle's head and neck.

He who paints there has no one as His guide:
He guides Himself; in Him we recognize
the shaping force that flows from nest to nest.

The other lights, who were, it seemed, content
at first to form a lily on the M,
moving a little, formed the eagle's frame.


O gentle star, what-and how many-gems
made plain to me that justice here on earth
depends upon the heaven you engem!

Therefore I pray the Mind in which begin
your motion and your force, to watch that place
which has produced the smoke that dims your rays,

that once again His anger fall upon
those who would buy and sell within that temple
whose walls were built by miracles and martyrs.

O hosts of Heaven whom I contemplate,
for all who, led by bad example, stray
within the life they live on earth, do pray!

Men once were used to waging war with swords;
now war means seizing here and there the bread
the tender Father would deny to none.

But you who only write to then erase,
remember this: Peter and Paul, who died
to save the vines you spoil, are still alive
.
Well may you say:"My longing is so bent
on him who chose the solitary life
and for a dance was dragged to martyrdom-

I do not know the Fisherman or Paul."
paradiso canto xviii

DILIGITE IUSTITIAM QUI IUDICATIS TERRAM...... M......


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