Said she [Rachel]: “Oh Beatrice, true praise of God,
Why not assist this man whose love for you
Is such that he has left the vulgar throng?
Can you not hear the anguish in his cry?
Can you not see the death that threatens him
Above that stream that flows not to the sea?
“Never on earth was anyone so swift
To seek his good or shun his ill, as I-
The moment that these words had been pronounced-
Came hither, downward from my blessed seat,
Relying on the power of your word,
Which honours you, as well as those that hear it”
And after she [Lucia] had spoken to me thus,
She wept, and turned on me her radiant eyes,
Whereby she made me still more quick to go:
And so I came to you, as she had wished,
And took you before the savage beast
That blocked your passage up the mountainside,
Therefore, what troubles you? Why hesitate?
Why is your heart oppresed by cowardice,
Why do you lack in courage and in zeal
When three such blessed women there on high
Now plead your cause before the court of heaven,
And I myself prophesy such good?”
As flowers bent down and closed by frost off night,
When brightened later by the morning sun
Stand upright on their stems, with pedals wide:
Just so I stiffened my exhausted spirit.
An ardor so benign suffused my heart
That I began to speak like one set free:
“How full of pity, she who succored me!
How kind are you, so swiftly to obey
The words of truth that she addressed to you!
For by your arguments you have disposed
My heart to such eagerness to go
That to my first intent I have returned.
Lead on! May one sole will inspire us both:
Be you my leader, you my lord and master!”
Thus I did speak; and after he had moved,
I entered on the roadway deep and wild.
The Divine Comedy: Inferno: Canto 2
Virgil recounting to Dante his commision to bring him to Beatrice
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