[5] Astronomy.
And when he had said his word, a voice near by sounded, “Perchance thou wilt be first constrained to sit.” At the sound of it each of us turned, and we saw at the left a great stone which neither he nor I before had noticed. Thither we drew; and there were persons who were staying in the shadow behind the rock, as one through indolence sets himself to stay. And one of them, who seemed to me weary, was seated, and was clasping his knees, holding his face down low between them. “O sweet my Lord,” said I, “look at him who shows himself more indolent than if sloth were his sister.” Then that one turned to us and gave heed, moving his look only up along his thigh, and said, “Now go up thou, for thou art valiant.” I recognized then who he was, and that effort which was still quickening my breath a little hindered not my going to him, and after I had reached him, he scarce raised his head, saying, “Hast thou clearly seen how the sun over thy left shoulder drives his chariot?”
His slothful acts and his short words moved my lips a little to a smile, then I began, “Belacqua,[1] I do not grieve for thee now,[2] but tell me why just here thou art seated? awaitest thou a guide, or has only thy wonted mood recaptured thee?” And he, “Brother, what imports the going up? For the bird of God that sitteth at the gate would not let me go to the torments. It first behoves that heaven circle around me outside the gate, as long as it did in life, because I delayed good sighs until the end; unless the prayer first aid me which rises up from a heart that lives in grace: what avails the other which is not heard in heaven?”
[1] Belacqua, according to Benvenuto da Imola, was a Florentine, a maker of citherns and other musical instruments; he carved with great care the necks and heads of his citherns, and sometimes he played on them. Dante, because of his love of music, had been well acquainted with him.
[2] He had feared lest Belacqua might be in Hell.
And now the Poet in front of me was ascending, and he said, “Come on now: thou seest that the meridian is touched by the sun, and on the shore the night now covers with her foot Morocco.”
CANTO V.
Ante-Purgatory.—Spirits who had delayed repentance, and met with death by violence, but died repentant.—Jacopo del Cassero.—Buonconte da Montefeltro—Via de’ Tolomei.
I had now parted from those shades, and was following the footsteps of my Leader, when behind me, pointing his finger, one cried out, “Look, the ray seems not to shine on the left hand of that lower one, and as if alive he seems to hear himself.” I turned my eyes at the sound of these words, and I saw them watching, for marvel, only me, only me, and the light which was broken.
“Why is thy mind so hampered,” said the Master, “that thou slackenest thy going? What matters to thee that which here is whispered? Come after me, and let the people talk. Stand as a tower firm, that never wags its top for blowing of the winds; for always the man in whom thought on thought wells up removes from himself his aim, for the force of one weakens the other.” What could I answer, save “I come”? I said it, overspread somewhat with the color, which, at times, makes a man worthy of pardon.