PARADISE. Alasdair Gray

to source like pilgrims going home,

      twin beams of light now linked her sight and sun. 31

      I copied her. Eden was made for ease

      of humankind. There it was possible

      for me to see what here would make me blind. 34

      Gazing into the solar blaze I saw,

      like molten silver splashed from crucible,

      such fountains of tremendous light I thought 37

      that He Who Can had made an extra sun.

      I saw too Beatrice now looked upon

      the high, eternal, starry, singing wheels 40

      so lowering my eyes to rest on hers

      I heard them too. Eating a magic herb

      changed Glaucus to an ancient Greek sea-god. 43

      The love-light in the face of Beatrice

      transhumaned me in ways I cannot say.

      Of new sensations knowledge cannot speak 46

      unless it learns new words. Did God lift up

      my eager mind to his eternal sphere?

      49 No rain or river filled so vast a lake

      as this whole sky now kindled into flame.

      The brilliance of its harmony and light

      52 provoked an appetite to know the cause,

      so she who understood me perfectly

      smiling replied before I questioned her,

      55 “Dullard, do you not see you’ve left the earth?

      Lightning never flashed faster from a cloud

      than we ascend to your right place and mine.”

      58 Her smile and words erased perplexities

      before I found one more. “But why,” said I,

      “does solid me rise above lighter things?”

      61 Like mother soothing sickly child she said,

      “Order is God’s first law. All that He made

      have places in eternal excellence, for which

      64 in minerals, plants, animals they strive

      instinctively, in people willingly.

      When ill will leads astray our souls can’t rest

      67 until we reach our given place and are

      at last in harmony with all that’s best.

      We are now soaring to our origin

      70 as naturally as a waterfall

      pours down a cliff. Those who forget their place

      by choosing base delight, are very like

      73 materials no artist can use well,

      discarded in the midden heaps of Hell.

      Climbing them there has purified you, so

      guilt cannot weight you. That is why you rise. 76

      Innocent souls who stay below defy

      nature and reason, like a static flame.”

      Pausing, she turned her eyes toward the sky. 79

      2: Moon Sphere

      1 Some folk in little boats follow my ship

      because they like the story in my song.

      Let them turn back toward the shore they know

      4 unless their craft is strong. I now go far

      over a sea no poet crossed before.

      Minerva fills my sails. Apollo steers.

      7 The Muses indicate each guiding star.

      If you are of the few like me who seek

      the bread that feeds but never satisfies,

      10 you too may launch your vessel on this sea

      using my wake as guide. The Argonauts,

      those heroes voyaging for the Golden Fleece,

      13 when they saw armed men springing from the soil

      after their captain ploughed down dragon teeth

      were not as much amazed as you will be.

      16 Our inborn thirst for God’s sufficiency

      kept Beatrice intent on upper skies,

      me intent on her eyes, so up we went

      19 as swiftly as we looked, until halted

      by a wondrous sight. It stopped us short

      as a struck target ends an arrow flight.

      “Now praise God for His generosity! 22

      This star is nearest earth,” said happily

      that fairest one who understood my mind.

      I saw what lower down could not exist. 25

      Luminous mist enclosed us now inside

      a diamond-hard and perfect shining pearl,

      yet we could move in it as easily 28

      as light rays pass through water in a glass

      without a change of character in each.

      For one or more bodies to occupy 31

      an equally dense body easily

      defies earth’s common sense. In Paradise

      it was quite clear to my intelligence. 34

      “Lady,” said I, “my gratitude to He

      who saves us from death’s grip will never cease,

      but why, when viewed from where most people live, 37

      has this pure moon a spotted face? Some say

      they can make out Cain and his thornbush there.”

      Amused she said, “Wits stray when seeking laws 40

      for what they cannot touch, so tell me now

      what you think the cause.” “Varied density?”

      I suggested. “Looking through dirty air?” 43

      “No,” said she. “God has made all the Heavens

      equally good. Air here is free from dirt,

      and though bodies of light within these skies 46

      differ in sizes, colours, faculties,

      their densities do not. On summer days

      49 most things appear equally clear at noon.

      At night when you see bodies in one sphere

      what you mistake for spots are smaller lights

      52 contrasted with more bright, as in the moon.”

      3: In the Moon

      She who, sunlike, first warmed my breast with love 1

      deserved both gratitude for that reply

      and for correcting me. Raising my eyes,

      surprise expelled my thanks. I thought she stood 4

      beside a dusty glass that mirrored folk

      so faintly that a pearl on a pale brow

      was not more dim.