Without delay she turns the point of her words on him, to whom the lateral edge had already seemed harsh. Say thou, who standest beyond the holy stream, if this be true. A charge so grievous needs thine own avowal. Strange amazement hangs on his faculty; the voice expires imperfect, ere its organs give it birth. A little space she refrains, then: what dost thou muse on? Answer me. The wave on thy remembrances of evil hath done no injury yet. Fear and confusion produce from his lips such a Yea as needed help of vision to interpret. As a cross-bow bent beyond its pitch sends a flagging weapon that feebly hits the mark, so tears and sighs burst from him, and the voice is slackened on its way.
When my desire invited thee to love the good which sets a bound to our aspirings, what bar of thwarting foss or linked chain made thee quit the hope of further progress? What bait of ease or promise of allurement led thee elsewhere? A bitter sigh, then scarce a voice: thy fair looks withdrawn, things present, with deceitful pleasures, turned my steps aside. Hadst thou been silent or denied, she says, thou hadst not hid the sin the more: such eye observes it. But when the sinner's cheek breaks into the precious-streaming tears of self-accusing, in our court the wheel of justice runs counter to the edge. That he may profit by shame, and have more strength when he hears the Siren-voice, she unfolds how opposite a way her buried flesh should have impelled him. Never in art or nature was aught so passing sweet as the limbs that enclosed her, now scattered in dust. If the sweetest thing failed thee with my death, what afterward of mortal should thy wish have tempted? When thou first felt the dart of perishable things, in my departing for better realms, thy wing thou shouldst have pruned to follow me, and never stooped again to bide a second blow for a slight girl, or other gaud as transient and as vain. The new and inexperienced bird awaits, twice or thrice, the fowler's aim; but in the sight of one whose plumes are full, in vain the net is spread.
He stands as children silent and ashamed, eyes upon the earth, acknowledging the fault. If but to hear thus pains thee, raise thou thy beard, and lo what sight shall do. With less reluctance a sturdy holm yields to a polar blast than he raises his visage. No sooner is the aspect up than the vision of goodly creatures sinks, and wavering eyes bend on Beatrice. Toward the animal who joins two natures she turns, and even under veil, parted by the verdant rill, she appears as much her former self surpassing as on earth she surpassed all others. Remorseful goads shoot through him. Each thing else, the more its love had late beguiled him, now the more is loathsome. The bitter consciousness smites so keenly that he falls overpowered. She who was the cause knows that state. When strength flows back, the lady he first saw is above him: loose me not, loose not thy hold. She has dragged him high as the neck into the stream, swift as a shuttle over the wave. The blessed shore approaching, Tu asperges me is heard so sweetly he may not remember, much less tell, the sound. She clasps his temples, immerses him, raises him, and the fourfold dance of nymphs present him so laved, each covering him with their arm. Here are we nymphs, and in the heaven are stars; we tended her before earth was visited of Beatrice; we will lead thee to her eyes, but the three yonder of deeper ken must quicken thy sight for the gladness in them. They lead him to the Gryphon's breast. Spare not thy vision: we have stationed thee before the emeralds whence love erewhile drew his weapons. A thousand fervent wishes rivet his eyes on hers, still fixed toward the Gryphon. As the sun strikes a mirror, the twofold being shines in those orbs, forever varying, now one figure, now the other, steadfast in itself, mutable in imaged semblance. His soul feeds on the viand whereof desire grows with satiety. The other three advance, dancing, and sing: turn, Beatrice, thy saintly sight on this thy faithful one, who to behold thee many a wearisome pace hath measured. Unveil to him thy cheeks, that he may mark thy second beauty, now concealed.
