Then saw I a bright band, in liveliness
Surpassing, who themselves did make the crown,
And us their centre:  yet more sweet in voice,
Than in their visage beaming.  Cinctur’d thus,
Sometime Latona’s daughter we behold,
When the impregnate air retains the thread,
That weaves her zone.  In the celestial court,
Whence I return, are many jewels found,
So dear and beautiful, they cannot brook
Transporting from that realm:  and of these lights
Such was the song.  Who doth not prune his wing
To soar up thither, let him look from thence
For tidings from the dumb.  When, singing thus,
Those burning suns that circled round us thrice,
As nearest stars around the fixed pole,
Then seem’d they like to ladies, from the dance
Not ceasing, but suspense, in silent pause,
List’ning, till they have caught the strain anew: 
Suspended so they stood:  and, from within,
Thus heard I one, who spake:  “Since with its beam
The grace, whence true love lighteth first his flame,
That after doth increase by loving, shines
So multiplied in thee, it leads thee up
Along this ladder, down whose hallow’d steps
None e’er descend, and mount them not again,
Who from his phial should refuse thee wine
To slake thy thirst, no less constrained were,
Than water flowing not unto the sea. 
Thou fain wouldst hear, what plants are these, that bloom
In the bright garland, which, admiring, girds
This fair dame round, who strengthens thee for heav’n. 
I then was of the lambs, that Dominic
Leads, for his saintly flock, along the way,
Where well they thrive, not sworn with vanity. 
He, nearest on my right hand, brother was,
And master to me:  Albert of Cologne
Is this:  and of Aquinum, Thomas I.
If thou of all the rest wouldst be assur’d,
Let thine eye, waiting on the words I speak,
In circuit journey round the blessed wreath. 
That next resplendence issues from the smile
Of Gratian, who to either forum lent
Such help, as favour wins in Paradise. 
The other, nearest, who adorns our quire,
Was Peter, he that with the widow gave
To holy church his treasure.  The fifth light,
Goodliest of all, is by such love inspired,
That all your world craves tidings of its doom: 
Within, there is the lofty light, endow’d
With sapience so profound, if truth be truth,
That with a ken of such wide amplitude
No second hath arisen.  Next behold
That taper’s radiance, to whose view was shown,
Clearliest, the nature and the ministry
Angelical, while yet in flesh it dwelt. 
In the other little light serenely smiles
That pleader for the Christian temples, he
Who did provide Augustin of his lore. 
Now, if thy mind’s eye pass from light to light,
Upon my praises following, of the eighth
Thy thirst is next.  The saintly soul, that shows
The world’s deceitfulness, to all who hear him,