other in a ring enclosed it,
And motion joined to motion, song to song;

Song that as greatly doth transcend our muses,
Our Sirens, in those dulcet clarions,
As primal splendor that which is reflected.

_canto XII, Longfellow's translation._

As by a greater gladness urged and drawn
They who are dancing in a ring sometimes
Uplift their voices and their motions quicken;

So, at that orison devout and prompt,
The holy circles a new joy displayed
In their revolving and their wondrous Song.

_Idem, canto XIV._]

IX

Mas alla hirieron sus oidos con un estrepito discordante mil y mil
acentos asperos y roncos, blasfemias, gritos de venganzas, cantares de
orgias, palabras lubricas, maldiciones de la desesperacion, amenazas
de impotencia y juramentos sacrileges de la impiedad.[1]

[Footnote 1: This conception of two distinct places in the other
world to which all good words and all evil words go and echo
eternally seems to be original with Becquer.]

Teobaldo atraveso el segundo circulo con la rapidez que el meteoro
cruza el cielo en una tarde de verano, por no oir su voz que vibraba
alli sonante y atronadora, sobreponiendose a las otras voces en media
de aquel concierto infernal.

--_i No creo en Dios! i No creo en Dios!_ decia aun su acento
agitandose en aquel oceano de blasfemias; y Teobaldo comenzaba a
creer.

X

Dejo atras aquellas regiones y atraveso otras inmensidades llenas de
visiones terribles, que ni el pudo comprender ni yo acierto a
concebir, y llego al cabo al ultimo circulo[1] de la espiral de los
cielos, donde los serafines[2] adoran al Senor, cubierto el rostro con
las triples alas[3] y postrados a sus pies.

[Footnote 1: ultimo circulo. Becquer follows no particular
metaphysical system in his description of the various heavenly
spheres.]

[Footnote 2: serafines. The seraphim ('burning' _or_ 'flaming ones')
are the highest order in the hierarchy of angels. They are mentioned
by Isaiah (vi. 2).

Dante speaks of the seraph as "that soul in Heaven which is most
enlightened." _Paradiso_, canto XXI, Charles Eliot Norton's
translation. See p. 47, note 1, and also p. 152, note 1.]

[Footnote 3: cubierto el rostro con las triples alas. Becquer does
not follow exactly the Biblical description. "Above it stood the
seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered h