Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/29

Rh "If I have well thy language understood,"

Replied that shade of the Magnanimous,

"Thy soul attainted is with cowardice,

Which many times a man encumbers so,

It turns him back from honored enterprise,

As false sight doth a beast, when he is shy.

That thou mayst free thee from this apprehension,

I'll tell thee why I came, and what I heard

At the first moment when I grieved for thee.

Among those was I who are in suspense,

And a fair, saintly Lady called to me

In such wise, I besought her to command me.

Her eyes were shining brighter than the Star;

And she began to say, gentle and low,

With voice angelical, in her own language:

'O spirit courteous of Mantua,

Of whom the fame still in the world endures,

And shall endure, long-lasting as the world;

A friend of mine, and not the friend of fortune,

Upon the desert slope is so impeded

Upon his way, that he has turned through terror,

And may, I fear, already be so lost,

That I too late have risen to his succor,

From that which I have heard of him in Heaven.