give the letters D X V; which by transposition form the word Dux,
a leader.

[7] The harlot, who had no right in the car, but had stolen her
place there, or, in plain words, the Popes who by corruption had
secured this papal throne.

[8] Obscure as the oracles of Thiemis or the enigmas of the
Sphinx.

[9] According to a misreading of a verse in Ovid's Metam., vii.
759, the Naiades solved the riddles of the oracles, at which
Themis, offended, sent forth a wild beast to ravage the flocks
and fields.

[10] Robs it as Adam did, splinters it as the Emperors did.

[11] A river of Tuscany, whose waters have a petrifying quality.

[12] Darkening thy mind as the blood of Pyramus dyed the
mulberry.

[13] If not clearly inscribed, at least so imprinted on the mind,
that, like the palm on the pilgrim's staff, it may be a sign of
where thou hast been and of what thou hast seen.

[14] How far its doctrine is from my teaching.

[15] The having been obliged to drink of Lethe is the proof that
thou hadst sin to he forgotten, and that thy will had turned thee
to other things than me.


And more coruscant, and with slower steps, the sun was holding
the circle of the meridian, which is set here or there according
to the aspect,[1] when even as he, who goes before a troop as
guide, stops if he find some strange thing on his track, the
seven ladies stopped at the edge of a pale shade, such as beneath
green leaves and black boughs the Alp casts over its cold
streams. In front of them, it seemed to me I saw Euphrates and
Tigris issue from one fountain, and, like friends, part slow from
one another.

[1] Which shifts as seen from one place or another.


"O light, O glory of the human race, what water is this which
here spreads from one source, and from itself withdraws itself?"
To this prayer it was said to me, "Pray Matilda[1] that she tell
it to thee;" and here the beautiful Lady answered, as one does
who frees himself from blame, "This and other things have been
told him by me; and I am sure that the water of Lethe has not
hidden them from him." And Beatrice, "Perhaps a greater care
which oftentimes deprives the memory has darkened the eyes of his
mind. But see Eunoe,[2] which flows forth yonder, lead him to it,
and, as thou art accustomed, revive his extinct power." As a
gentle soul which makes not excuse, but makes its own will of
another's will, soon as by a sign it is outwardly disclosed, even
so, when I was taken by her, the beautiful Lady moved on, and to
Statius said, with manner of a lady, "Come with him."

[1] Here for the first and only time is the beautiful Lady called
by name.

[2] Eunoe, "the memory of good," which its waters restore to the
purified soul. The poetic conception of this fair stream is
exclusively Dante's own.


If I had, Reader, longer space for writing I would yet partly
sing the sweet draught which never would have sated me. But,
because all the leaves destined for this second canticle are
full, the curb of my art lets me go no further. I returned from
the most holy wave, renovated as new plants renewed with new
foliage, pure and disposed to mount unto the stars.




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