I saw
Such floods of gladness on her visage shower’d,
From holy spirits, winging that profound;
That, whatsoever I had yet beheld,
Had not so much suspended me with wonder,
Or shown me such similitude of God. 
And he, who had to her descended, once,
On earth, now hail’d in heav’n; and on pois’d wing. 
“Ave, Maria, Gratia Plena,” sang: 
To whose sweet anthem all the blissful court,
From all parts answ’ring, rang:  that holier joy
Brooded the deep serene.  “Father rever’d: 
Who deign’st, for me, to quit the pleasant place,
Wherein thou sittest, by eternal lot! 
Say, who that angel is, that with such glee
Beholds our queen, and so enamour’d glows
Of her high beauty, that all fire he seems.” 
So I again resorted to the lore
Of my wise teacher, he, whom Mary’s charms
Embellish’d, as the sun the morning star;
Who thus in answer spake:  “In him are summ’d,
Whatever of buxomness and free delight
May be in Spirit, or in angel, met: 
And so beseems:  for that he bare the palm
Down unto Mary, when the Son of God
Vouchsaf’d to clothe him in terrestrial weeds. 
Now let thine eyes wait heedful on my words,
And note thou of this just and pious realm
The chiefest nobles.  Those, highest in bliss,
The twain, on each hand next our empress thron’d,
Are as it were two roots unto this rose. 
He to the left, the parent, whose rash taste
Proves bitter to his seed; and, on the right,
That ancient father of the holy church,
Into whose keeping Christ did give the keys
Of this sweet flow’r:  near whom behold the seer,
That, ere he died, saw all the grievous times
Of the fair bride, who with the lance and nails
Was won.  And, near unto the other, rests
The leader, under whom on manna fed
Th’ ungrateful nation, fickle and perverse. 
On th’ other part, facing to Peter, lo! 
Where Anna sits, so well content to look
On her lov’d daughter, that with moveless eye
She chants the loud hosanna:  while, oppos’d
To the first father of your mortal kind,
Is Lucia, at whose hest thy lady sped,
When on the edge of ruin clos’d thine eye.

“But (for the vision hasteneth so an end)
Here break we off, as the good workman doth,
That shapes the cloak according to the cloth: 
And to the primal love our ken shall rise;
That thou mayst penetrate the brightness, far
As sight can bear thee.  Yet, alas! in sooth
Beating thy pennons, thinking to advance,
Thou backward fall’st.  Grace then must first be gain’d;
Her grace, whose might can help thee.  Thou in prayer
Seek her:  and, with affection, whilst I sue,
Attend, and yield me all thy heart.”  He said,
And thus the saintly orison began.

CANTO XXXIII