Of this I had experience positive
In hearing and in gazing at that spirit;
For fifty full degrees uprisen was

The sun, and I had not perceived it, when
We came to where those souls with one accord
Cried out unto us: "Here is what you ask."

A greater opening ofttimes hedges up
With but a little forkful of his thorns
The villager, what time the grape imbrowns,

Than was the passage-way through which ascended
Only my Leader and myself behind him,
After that company departed from us.

One climbs Sanleo and descends in Noli,
And mounts the summit of Bismantova,
With feet alone; but here one needs must fly;

With the swift pinions and the plumes I say
Of great desire, conducted after him
Who gave me hope, and made a light for me.

We mounted upward through the rifted rock,
And on each side the border pressed upon us,
And feet and hands the ground beneath required.

When we were come upon the upper rim