Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/81

But there I was alone, where every one
Consented to the laying waste of Florence,
He who defended her with open face."
"Ah! so hereafter may your seed repose,"
I him entreated, "solve for me that knot, 95
Which has entangled my conceptions here.
It seems that you can see, if I hear rightly,
Beforehand whatsoe'er time brings with it,
And in the present have another mode."
"We see, like those who have imperfect sight, 100
The things," he said, "that distant are from us;
So much still shines on us the Sovereign Ruler.
When they draw near, or are, is wholly vain
Our intellect, and if none brings it to us,
Not anything know we of your human state. 105
Hence thou canst understand, that wholly dead
Will be our knowledge from the moment when
The portal of the future shall be closed."
Then I, as if compunctious for my fault,
Said: "Now, then, you will tell that fallen one, 110
That still his son is with the living joined.
And if just now, in answering, I was dumb,
Tell him I did it because I was thinking
Already of the error you have solved me."