Purgatorio: Canto XXVII
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Dante Alighieri and Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
Such longing upon longing came upon me To be above, that at each step thereafter For flight I felt in me the pinions growing.
When underneath us was the stairway all Run o’er, and we were on the highest step, Virgilius fastened upon me his eyes,
And said: “The temporal fire and the eternal, Son, thou hast seen, and to a place art come Where of myself no farther I discern.
By intellect and art I here have brought thee; Take thine own pleasure for thy guide henceforth; Beyond the steep ways and the narrow art thou.
Behold the sun, that shines upon thy forehead; Behold the grass, the flowerets, and the shrubs Which of itself alone this land produces.
Until rejoicing come the beauteous eyes Which weeping caused me to come unto thee, Thou canst sit down, and thou canst walk among them.
Expect no more or word or sign from me; Free and upright and sound is thy free-will, And error were it not to do its bidding;
Thee o’er thyself I therefore crown and mitre!”