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2: Newcomers

1 By now the sun had left the northern sky

where at high noon it lights Jerusalem,

leaving the Ganges in the deepest night.

4 Seen from our shore the sky above the sea

took on a rosy glow, into which slid

that golden sphere of light. We stood and gazed

7 like wanderers who tarry on a road

before their journey starts. Then I beheld

beneath the sun, across the ocean floor

10 a sight I hope to see again – brightness

speeding so swiftly to us that no flight

of bird could equal it. When I gazed back

13 from questioning my master with a look,

it had grown brighter. On each side I saw

a whiteness I could not make out, above

16 something becoming clearer as it neared.

My master did not say a word until

the whitenesses appeared as wings, and then

19 seeing who moved that ship he cried, “Bend knees,

clasp hands, bow down before a cherubim

of God, for you will soon meet more of these.

See how without a sail or oar the ship 22

is driven by his Heaven-pointing wings –

by pure eternal plumes that never moult.”

The brightness of this dazzling bird of God 25

made me half close my eyes. He stood astern

of ship so light that the prow cleft no wave.

More than a hundred souls within it sat 28

singing King David’s psalm, When Israel

escaped from Egypt’s land, chanting Amen

on feeling that their vessel touched the strand. 31

The angel signed the cross over these souls

who sprang ashore. His ferry sped away

fast as it came. Passengers on the beach 34

stood looking round like strangers anywhere.

The sun had chased stars from the sky when one

approached and said, “Sirs, there is a mountain 37

we must climb. We do not know where to start,

can you show the way?” My guide said, “We two

are pilgrims just as ignorant as you, 40

come by a road so rough that further climb

to us will be child’s play.” A whisper grew

among these spirits that I lived and breathed. 43

They stared as if I were good news. One face

I knew, so ran to embrace that man. Alas,

my hands passed through his shade and hit my chest. 46

He smiled, withdrew. I cried, “Stay Casella –

I love you – tunes you gave my poems

49 make them popular! Why die before me?

And months ago! Why so long getting here?”

The sweet voice I knew said, “And I love you,

52 though gladly Heavenward bound. Remember

exactly thirteen centuries ago

Christ died for us. Our Pope proclaims this year

55 a Jubilee. All who hear mass in Rome

will have their sins forgiven. Hope of that

draws hoards of ancient dying pilgrims there.

58 The port for all not damned to Hell is where

Tiber joins the sea. Queues for that ferry

are very long these days, hence some delay

61 not troublesome to me. Heaven’s decree

is best, but say why you stand breathing here!”

I said, “I live, so must return this way

64 when dead, like you, by the same ferry. Please,

if death has not deprived you of your art

sing verses I once wrote to cheer my heart.”

67 He sang, Love that converses with my mind,

so sweetly that it sounds within me still.

My master and the others listened too,

70 as if it wholly occupied their will

till, like a thunderclap, Cato appeared

shouting, “You lazy louts, why linger here?

73 Run to the mountain! There strip off the sins

hiding your souls from God!” As pigeon flock

pecking the ground for seed, at sudden shock,

explodes into the air, these travellers 76

in panic fled that terrible old man

and spread across the plain, at the same time

racing blindly uphill, wholly unsure 79

what he or she was bound to find ahead.

Having no clue what better we could do

I and my leader were not far behind. 82