Michael Villiers, Idealist :: :: University of Virginia Library

L' acqua che vedi non surge di vena Che ristori vapor che giel converta,
Come fiume ch' acquista o perde lena;
Ma esce di fontana salda e certa,
Che tanto dal voler di Dio riprende,
Quant' ella versa da duo parti aperta.
Da questa parte con virtù discende,
Che toglie altrui memoria del peccato;
Dall' altra, d' ogni ben fatto la rende.
Quinci Letè, così dall' altro lato
Eunoè si chiama, e non adopra
Se quinci e quindi pria non è gustato.
Purgatorio, XXVIII

Lethe

Two, bound by joy and woe,
Went hand in hand;
Where mystic waters flow
I saw them stand.

107

Fires they had gladly known
That cleanse and heal;
And past beyond the moan,
To quiet weal.

But higher yet and higher
They still should go,
Where love fulfils desire,
Where faith shall know.

And first above their head,
As well they wist,
Must pass the stream unfed
Of rain or mist.

The stream which rolls along
In twofold flood;
Where souls forget their wrong,
Recall their good.

Sin's memory in the tide
Of Lethe drowned;
Lost good on yonder side,
In Eunoe found.

108

By Lethe stood the two
I tell you of;
(Not yet awhile they knew
How great is love.)

I heard them, her and him,
Speak, each and each;
As tones of seraphim
Sweet was their speech.

‘Shall we dip beneath the wave,
And so arise;
The peace God's pardoned have
Within our eyes?

‘Our old sin's ghost hath walked
For all these years,
Where'er we two have talked
With smiles or tears.

‘It looked upon us twain,
With eyes that said,
‘Never on earth again
Shall I be laid.

109

‘“I am the sin which drove
From Eden dear;
Though ye should hate or love,
Still I am here.

‘“Though to forget ye seek,
It is but vain;
Ye may grow old and weak,
But I remain.

‘“I live for ever on,
Ghost of your sin;
My body is dead and gone,
But ye cannot win

‘“From the ghost at all release;
And, day by day,
It is vain to whisper peace,
For I must stay.”

‘So did it stay, my dear,
Until we died
And past the waters clear
Of Tiber's tide;

110

‘Glad in the purging fire
To slay the wrong;
Waiting with great desire
The triumph-song.

‘Before our lips respond
To its great tone,
Before we go beyond
This quiet zone,

‘God's angel saith “See where
This river rolls;
Thereinto, without fear,
Plunge you, dear souls;

‘“Plunge you, and cease to rue
Sin's weary debt;
Its memory past from you,
Ye shall forget.”

‘Beloved, must we go
Under the stream?
Shall memory pass, as though
After a dream?

111

‘Must we forget it all,
Let it all pass
Under oblivion's pall?
Alas, alas,

‘Would we not rather keep
The bitterness
Where sweet was drunken deep?
How else but yes?

‘Would we forgo the joy
To lose the pain?
Must we indeed destroy
Both boot and bane?

‘Up through that sin we rose,
I dare to say,
To heights more fair than those
Of olden day.

‘It held us bound, and yet
Freedom it gave—
Oh, shall we then forget?
Let us be brave,

112

‘Turn from the stream, and gain
Through what we miss;
Keeping our bitterest bane,
Our sweetest bliss.

‘Nay, for God's angel saith
We must, we must.—
Well, love is strong as death,
And God is just.’

Softly the waters clave,
And took them in,
To leave beneath the wave
Memory of sin.

Eunoe

‘The waters lap us round,
You, dear, and me:
Great bliss we two have found
In Eunoe.

113

‘Never a doubt again!
We leave the stream.
Where is the old, old pain?
It did but seem.

‘Bathed in this healing wave,
Now we arise,
The joy God's pardoned have
Within our eyes.

‘O light! O radiancy!
O good, whereof
None knoweth till he see
How great is love.

‘Here, as we stand to-day,
We are quite sure
All wrong must pass away,
All right endure.

‘Evil shall truly die;
Good only sleeps;
For all eternity
To life it leaps.

114

‘We kiss each other here,
On breast and brow;
Our love that casts out fear
Made perfect now.

‘O Lethe! O Eunoe!
With happy eyes
The light beyond we see,
Of Paradise.’