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One moment.
1Ainsi, depuis le plus grand jusqu’au plus petit des mondes, et depuis le plus petit des mondes jusqu’à la plus petite portion des êtres qui le composaient, tout était individuel, et néanmoins tout était un. Quel était le dessein de cet être fixe dans son essence et dans ses facultés, qui les transmettait sans les perdre, qui les manifestait hors de Lui sans les séparer de Lui, qui rendait hors de Lui toutes ses créations fixes dans leur essence, et muables dans leurs formes ? Les deux convives appelés à cette fête ne pouvaient que voir l’ordre et la disposition des êtres, en admirer la fin immédiate. Les Anges seuls allaient au delà, connaissaient les moyens et comprenaient la fin. Mais ce que les deux élus purent contempler, ce dont ils rapportèrent un témoignage qui éclaira leurs âmes pour toujours, fut la preuve de l’action des Mondes et des Êtres, la conscience de l’effort avec lequel ils tendent au résultat.
2Ils entendirent les diverses parties de l’Infini formant une mélodie vivante ; et, à chaque temps où l’accord se faisait sentir comme une immense respiration, les Mondes entraînés par ce mouvement unanime s’inclinaient vers l’Être immense qui, de son centre impénétrable, faisait tout sortir et ramenait tout à lui. Cette incessante alternative de voix et de silence semblait être la mesure de l’hymne saint qui retentissait et se prolongeait dans les siècles des siècles. Wilfrid et Minna comprirent alors quelques-unes des mystérieuses paroles de Celui qui sur la terre leur était apparu à chacun d’eux sous la forme qui le leur rendait compréhensible, à l’un Séraphîtüs, à l’autre Séraphîta, quand ils virent que là tout était homogène.
3La lumière enfantait la mélodie, la mélodie enfantait la lumière, les couleurs étaient lumière et mélodie, le mouvement était un Nombre doué de la Parole ; enfin, tout y était à la fois sonore, diaphane, mobile, en sorte que chaque chose se pénétrant l’une par l’autre, l’étendue était sans obstacle et pouvait être parcourue par les Anges dans la profondeur de l’infini. Ils reconnurent la puérilité des sciences humaines desquelles il leur avait été parlé. Ce fut pour eux une vue sans ligne d’horizon, un abîme dans lequel un dévorant désir les forçait à se plonger ; mais, attachés à leur misérable corps, ils avaient le désir sans avoir la puissance. Le Séraphin replia légèrement ses ailes pour prendre son vol, et ne se tourna plus vers eux : il n’avait plus rien de commun avec la Terre.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1expressed by gestures, nor by any of the signs which serve men as a means of communicating their thoughts, but as the soul speaks to itself; for at the moment when Seravhita was revealed in her true nature her ideas were no longer enslaved to human language. ‘The vehemence of her last prayer had broken the bonds. Like a white dove the soul hovered for a moment above this body of which the exhausted materials were about to dissever. The aspiration of this soul to heaven was so infectious that Wilfrid and Minna failed to discern death as they saw the radiant spark of life. They had fallen on their knees when Seraphitus had turned to the dawn and they were inspired by his ecsiasy. The fear of the Lord who creates man anew and purges him of his dross consumed their hearts. Their eyes were closed to the things of the earth and opened to the glories of heaven. Though surprised by the trembling before God which overcame some of those seers known to men as prophets they still trembled like them when they found themselves within the circle where the glory of the Spirit was shining. Then the veil of the flesh which had hitherto hidden him from them insensibly faded away revealing the divine substance. They were left in the twilight of the dawn whose pale light prepared them to see the true light and to hear the living word without dying of it. j i Var en)!. fee =e |. SERAPHITA 169
2In this condition they both began to understand the immeasurable distances that divide the things of earth from the things of heaven. The life on whose brink they stood, trembling and dazzled in a close embrace, as two children take refuge side by side to gaze at a conflagration—that Life gave no hold to the senses. The Spirit was above them; it shed fragrance without odor, and melody without the help of sound; here, where they knelt, there were neither surfaces, nor angles, nor atmosphere. They dared no longer question him nor gaze on him, but remained under his shadow, as under the burning rays of the tropical sun we dare not raise our eyes for fear of being blinded. They felt themselves near to him, though they could not tell by what means they thus found themselves, as in a dream, on the border line of the visible and the invisible, nor how they had ceased to see the visible and perceived the invisible. They said to themselves, ‘‘If he should touch us, we shall die!’’ But the Spirit was in the infinite, and they did not know that in the infinite time and space are not, that they were divided from him by gulfs, though apparently so near. Their souls not being prepared to receive a complete knowledge of the faculties of that life, they only perceived it darkly, apprehending it according to their weakness.
3Otherwise, when the Living Word rang forth, of which the distant sound fell on their ear, its meaning entering into their soul as life enters into a body, a single tone of that Word would have swept them away, as a whirl of fire seizes a straw. Thus they beheld only what their nature, upheld by the (8)—V ol.-25 170 BALZAO’S WORKS power of the Spirit, allowed them to see; they heard only so much as they were able to hear. Still, in spite of these mitigations, they shuddered as they heard the voice of the suffering soul, the hymn of the spirit awaiting life, and crying out for it. That cry froze the very marrow in their bones. The Spirit knocked at the sacred gate. ‘‘What wilt thou?” asked a choir, whose voice rang through all the worlds. ‘“To go to God.” ‘Hast thou conquered ?”’ ‘‘T have conquered the flesh by abstinence; [ have vanquished false speech by silence; I have vanquished false knowledge by humility; I have vanquished pride by charity; I have vanquished the earth by love; I have paid my tribute of suffering; I am purified by burning for the faith; I have striven for life by prayer; I wait adoring, and f am resigned.”’ But no reply came. ‘‘The Lord be praised!’’ said the Spirit, believing himself rejected. His tears flowed, and fell in dew on the kneeling witnesses, who shuddered at the judgments of God.
Our translation, period-faithful. Citable as our translation, never as the source.
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