PARADISE. Alasdair Gray

loved reflections of himself

      so gazed in front. To see these folk more clear

      I looked behind myself, and none were there. 10

      Turning again to my sweet smiling guide

      I heard her say, “Funny, the childish way

      you do not trust your eyes in Paradise! 13

      These beings by my side are real although

      lowest in Heaven for breaking holy vows.

      Question them. Hear. Believe. They shine in truth 16

      and never more will truth depart from them.”

      I faced the shade that seemed most keen to speak

      and almost stammering with eagerness 19

      declared, “O spirit made for blessedness,

      who dwells in sweetness of this radiance,

      22 will you be kind enough to let me know

      your name and circumstance?” She eagerly

      and cheerfully told me, “We can’t refuse

      25 kindness to those who only want what’s right

      because at our great height above the earth

      all are like God in this. On earth I was

      28 your friend Forese’s sister, Piccarda,

      forced to wed someone who I did not love.

      Soon after I was dead. My fairer face

      31 is why you do not recognise me now.”

      “Piccarda! Yes, I know you,” I declared,

      “although at first the glory in your face

      34 half-blinded, dazed, distracted me. But say,

      is not a higher sphere what you desire?

      In higher places you’d be held more dear.”

      37 She smiled a bit (as did the other shades)

      then answered me so gladly that she seemed

      in the first fires of love. “Brother, our wills

      40 are tuned by charity – by love itself.

      We thirst for what we have, and nothing more.

      Our wills are now identical with His

      43 who keeps all things in perfect harmony –

      earth, planets, stars, up to the outermost

      circumference of all, which is Himself.

      46 Any in Paradise who craved for more

      (and once before this craving did occur)

      would strike a discord through our bliss and sever

      charity from necessity, and thus 49

      destroy the harmony of Heaven too.

      God’s will is the creative sea in which

      we live and move. Sharing it is our peace.” 52

      I now knew why the bliss of Paradise

      is everywhere in Heaven – each soul

      is needed by the whole domain, although 55

      God is not always equally in all.

      Yet in my body my imperfect will

      still craved more water from her well of truth. 58

      The pure cloth of the life she’d tried to weave

      was slashed before the fabric was complete.

      I begged Piccarda to explain. Said she, 61

      “A perfect love of Christ allowed Saint Clare

      to teach the vows by which a lady may

      put on the bridal veil and marry Him. 64

      Just such a nun was I who left the world

      to join the Poor Clare sisterhood. Alas,

      greedy relations came, dragged me away. 67

      God knew my sufferings. Upon my right,

      shining with all the splendour of the moon

      is one whose plight was mine. Raped from cloister, 70

      keeping bridal veil over her heart, she

      is Constance, heiress to the Swabian throne,

      mother of Europe’s holy potentate 73

      who should have been the Roman Emperor.”

      Piccarda, singing Ave Maria,

      76 sank from my eyes into deeper light like

      stone in pond. I looked to Beatrice who

      increased so vividly upon my sight,

      79 questioning her was more than I could do.

      4: More Moonlight

      Between two equally enticing meals 1

      an idiot might starve before he chose.

      A lamb between two wolves would also doubt

      which way to turn, or hound between two does. 4

      I hungered after what my guide might say

      if asked why Heaven’s justice seemed unkind,

      but can a man God made doubt God is good? 7

      I feared to ask that question choking me,

      but Beatrice, who understood my mind

      replied at once, “What ties your tongue is this: 10

      how can good vows and wills deserve the less

      if broken by another’s wickedness?

      Your other doubt is astrological. 13

      Plato wrote after death all souls return

      to planets ruling them. Did moons decree

      these nuns’ inconstancy? Both these doubts need 16

      an answer. I will take the second first.

      It is most poisonous, so listen hard.

      No seraphim that is most one with God – 19

      not Abraham, Moses or Samuel –

      neither John Baptist or Evangelist –

      22 not even Mary in the highest Heaven

      is separated from the two you’ve met

      although they chose to greet you in this sphere.

      25 All share alike in the eternal bliss

      according to their soul’s capacity.

      To indicate the nature of life here

      28 I am compelled to talk to you as if

      Heavenly Paradise has social ranks

      like those on earth. This is not so, but I

      31 can only make the highest things more clear

      by speaking of them in the words you know,

      although they may mislead. God’s Scriptures say

      34 He sees, acts, speaks with eyes, hands, mouth because

      only thus men and women can conceive

      One seeing with all light, whose deeds are days,

      37 whose voices teach in all that can be heard:

      thunder and waves,