The Celestial Pilot

Purgatorio II. 13-51.

And now, behold! as at the approach of morning, / Through the gross vapors, Mars grows fiery red / Down in the west upon the ocean floor / Appeared to me, -- may I again behold it! / A light along the sea, so swiftly coming, / Its motion by no flight of wing is equalled. / And when therefrom I had withdrawn a little / Mine eyes, that I might question my conductor, / Again I saw it brighter grown and larger. / Thereafter, on all sides of it, appeared / I knew not what of white, and underneath, / Little by little, there came forth another. / My master yet had uttered not a word, / While the first whiteness into wings unfolded; / But, when he clearly recognized the pilot, / He cried aloud: "Quick, quick, and bow the knee! / Behold the Angel of God! fold up thy hands! / Henceforward shalt thou see such officers! / See, how he scorns all human arguments, / So that no oar he wants, nor other sail / Than his own wings, between so distant shores! / See, how he holds them, pointed straight to heaven, / Fanning the air with the eternal pinions, / That do not moult themselves like mortal hair! " / And then, as nearer and more near us came / The Bird of Heaven, more glorious he appeared, / So that the eye could not sustain his presence, / But down I cast it; and he came to shore / With a small vessel, gliding swift and light, / So that the water swallowed naught thereof. / Upon the stern stood the Celestial Pilot! / Beatitude seemed written in his face! / And more than a hundred spirits sat within. / "In exitu Israel de Aegypto! " / Thus sang they all together in one voice, / With whatso in that Psalm is after written. / Then made he sign of holy rood upon them, / Whereat all cast themselves upon the shore, / And he departed swiftly as he came.