A DIALOGUE IN PURGATORY

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William Vaughn Moody
Poi disse un altro.... "Io son Buonconte:
 Giovanna o altri non ha di me cura;
 Per ch'io vo tra costor con bassa fronte."
Seguito il terzo spirito al secondo,
 "Ricorditi di me, che son la Pia;
 Siena mi fe, disfecemi Maremma.
 Salsi colui che inannellata pria
 Disposata m'avea colla sua gemma."
Purgatorio, CantoV.

I
BUONCONTE

Sister, the sun has ceased to shine;
 By companies of twain and trine
 Stars gather; from the sea
 The moon comes momently.
On all the roads that ring our hill
 The sighing and the hymns are still:
 It is our time to gain
 Strength for to-morrow's pain.
Yet still your eyes are wholly bent
 Upon the way that Virgil went,
 Following Sordello's sign,
 With the dark Florentine.
Night now has barred their upward track:
 There where the mountain-side folds back
 And in the Vale of Flowers
 The Princes count their hours
Those three friends sit in the clear starlight
 With the green-clad angels left and right,—
 Soul made by wakeful soul
 More earnest for the goal.
So let us, sister, though our place
 Is barren of that Valley's grace,
 Sit hand in hand, till we
 Seem rich as those friends be.

II
LA PIA

Brother, 'twere sweet your hand to feel
 In mine; it would a little heal
 The shame that makes me poor,
 And dumb at the heart's core.
But where our spirits felt Love's dearth,
 Down on the green and pleasant earth,
 Remains the fleshly shell,
 Love's garment tangible.
So now our hands have naught to say:
 Heart unto heart some other way
 Must utter forth its pain,
 Must glee or comfort gain.
Ah, no! For souls like you and me
 Some comfort waits, but never glee:
 Not yours the young men's singing
 In Heaven, at the bride-bringing;
Not mine, beside God's living waters,
 Dance of the marriageable daughters,
 The laughter and the ease
 Beneath His summer trees.

III
BUONCONTE

In fair Arezzo's halls and bowers
 My Giovanna speeds her hours
 Delicately, nor cares
 To shorten by her prayers
My days upon this mount of ruth:
 If those who come from earth speak sooth,
 Though still I call and call,
 She does not heed at all.
And if aright your words I read
 At Dante's passing, he you wed
 Dipped from the drains of Hell
 The marriage hydromel.
O therefore, while the moon intense
 Holds yonder dreaming sea suspense,
 And round the shadowy coasts
 Gather the wistful ghosts,
Let us sit quiet all the night,
 And wonder, wonder on the light
 Worn by those spirits fair
 Whom Love has not left bare.

IV
LA PIA

Even as theirs, the chance was mine
 To meet and mate beneath Love's sign,
 To feel in soul and sense
 The solemn influence
Which, breathed upon a man or maid,
 Maketh forever unafraid,
 Though life with death unite
 That spirit to affright,—
Which lifts the changÈd heart high up,
 As the priest lifts the changÈd cup,
 Boldens the feet to pace
 Before God's proving face.
O just a thought beyond the blue
 The wings of the dove yearned down and through!
 Even now I hear and hear
 How near they were, how near!
I murmur not. Rightly disgraced,
 The weak hand stretched abroad in haste
 For gifts barely allowed
 The tacit, strong, and proud.
But therefore was I so intent
 To watch where Dante onward went
 With the Roman spirit pure
 And the grave troubadour,
Because my mind was busy then
 With the loves that wait those gentle men:
 Cunizza one; and one
 Bice, above the sun;
And for the other, more and less
 Than woman's near-felt tenderness,
 A million voices dim
 Praising him, praising him.

V
BUONCONTE

The waves that wash this mountain's base
 Were crimson in the sun's low rays,
 When, singing high and fast,
 An angel downward passed,
To bid some patient soul arise
 And make it fair for Paradise;
 And upward, so attended,
 That soul its journey wended;
Yet you, who in these lower rings
 Wait for the coming of such wings,
 Turned not your eyes to view
 Whether they came for you,
But watched, but watched great Virgil stayed
 Greeting Sordello's couchant shade,
 Which to salute him rose
 Like lion from its pose;
While humbly by tho
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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