knowing what he would do. He stooped, wet hands,
washed my face clean of crusts left by fearful,
pitiful tears, restoring how I looked 76
before invading Hell. We reached the shore
no living foot had ever touched before.
Here, as instructed, Virgil plucked a reed, 79
and as he bound it round my waist I saw
a miracle, for where that rush once stood
sprang up another, just as tall and good. 82
2: Newcomers
1 By now the sun had left the northern sky
where at high noon it lights Jerusalem,
leaving the Ganges in the deepest night.
4 Seen from our shore the sky above the sea
took on a rosy glow, into which slid
that golden sphere of light. We stood and gazed
7 like wanderers who tarry on a road
before their journey starts. Then I beheld
beneath the sun, across the ocean floor
10 a sight I hope to see again – brightness
speeding so swiftly to us that no flight
of bird could equal it. When I gazed back
13 from questioning my master with a look,
it had grown brighter. On each side I saw
a whiteness I could not make out, above
16 something becoming clearer as it neared.
My master did not say a word until
the whitenesses appeared as wings, and then
19 seeing who moved that ship he cried, “Bend knees,
clasp hands, bow down before a cherubim
of God, for you will soon meet more of these.
See how without a sail or oar the ship 22
is driven by his Heaven-pointing wings –
by pure eternal plumes that never moult.”
The brightness of this dazzling bird of God 25
made me half close my eyes. He stood astern
of ship so light that the prow cleft no wave.
More than a hundred souls within it sat 28
singing King David’s psalm, When Israel
escaped from Egypt’s land, chanting Amen
on feeling that their vessel touched the strand. 31
The angel signed the cross over these souls
who sprang ashore. His ferry sped away
fast as it came. Passengers on the beach 34
stood looking round like strangers anywhere.
The sun had chased stars from the sky when one
approached and said, “Sirs, there is a mountain 37
we must climb. We do not know where to start,
can you show the way?” My guide said, “We two
are pilgrims just as ignorant as you, 40
come by a road so rough that further climb
to us will be child’s play.” A whisper grew
among these spirits that I lived and breathed. 43
They stared as if I were good news. One face
I knew, so ran to embrace that man. Alas,
my hands passed through his shade and hit my chest. 46
He smiled, withdrew. I cried, “Stay Casella –
I love you – tunes you gave my poems
49 make them popular! Why die before me?
And months ago! Why so long getting here?”
The sweet voice I knew said, “And I love you,
52 though gladly Heavenward bound. Remember
exactly thirteen centuries ago
Christ died for us. Our Pope proclaims this year
55 a Jubilee. All who hear mass in Rome
will have their sins forgiven. Hope of that
draws hoards of ancient dying pilgrims there.
58 The port for all not damned to Hell is where
Tiber joins the sea. Queues for that ferry
are very long these days, hence some delay
61 not troublesome to me. Heaven’s decree
is best, but say why you stand breathing here!”
I said, “I live, so must return this way
64 when dead, like you, by the same ferry. Please,
if death has not deprived you of your art
sing verses I once wrote to cheer my heart.”
67 He sang, Love that converses with my mind,
so sweetly that it sounds within me still.
My master and the others listened too,
70 as if it wholly occupied their will
till, like a thunderclap, Cato appeared
shouting, “You lazy louts, why linger here?
73 Run to the mountain! There strip off the sins
hiding your souls from God!” As pigeon flock
pecking the ground for seed, at sudden shock,
explodes into the air, these travellers
