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1Inferno: Canto I
2
3
4Midway upon the journey of our life
5  I found myself within a forest dark,
6  For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
7
8Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
9  What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
10  Which in the very thought renews the fear.
11
12So bitter is it, death is little more;
13  But of the good to treat, which there I found,
14  Speak will I of the other things I saw there.
15
16I cannot well repeat how there I entered,
17  So full was I of slumber at the moment
18  In which I had abandoned the true way.
19
20But after I had reached a mountain's foot,
21  At that point where the valley terminated,
22  Which had with consternation pierced my heart,
23
24Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders,
25  Vested already with that planet's rays
26  Which leadeth others right by every road.
27
28Then was the fear a little quieted
29  That in my heart's lake had endured throughout
30  The night, which I had passed so piteously.
31
32And even as he, who, with distressful breath,
33  Forth issued from the sea upon the shore,
34  Turns to the water perilous and gazes;
35
36So did my soul, that still was fleeing onward,
37  Turn itself back to re-behold the pass
38  Which never yet a living person left.
39
40After my weary body I had rested,
41  The way resumed I on the desert slope,
42  So that the firm foot ever was the lower.
43
44And lo! almost where the ascent began,
45  A panther light and swift exceedingly,
46  Which with a spotted skin was covered o'er!
47
48And never moved she from before my face,
49  Nay, rather did impede so much my way,
50  That many times I to return had turned.
51
52The time was the beginning of the morning,
53  And up the sun was mounting with those stars
54  That with him were, what time the Love Divine
55
56At first in motion set those beauteous things;
57  So were to me occasion of good hope,
58  The variegated skin of that wild beast,
59
60The hour of time, and the delicious season;
61  But not so much, that did not give me fear
62  A lion's aspect which appeared to me.
63
64He seemed as if against me he were coming
65  With head uplifted, and with ravenous hunger,
66  So that it seemed the air was afraid of him;
67
68And a she-wolf, that with all hungerings
69  Seemed to be laden in her meagreness,
70  And many folk has caused to live forlorn!
71
72She brought upon me so much heaviness,
73  With the affright that from her aspect came,
74  That I the hope relinquished of the height.
75
76And as he is who willingly acquires,
77  And the time comes that causes him to lose,
78  Who weeps in all his thoughts and is despondent,
79
80E'en such made me that beast withouten peace,
81  Which, coming on against me by degrees
82  Thrust me back thither where the sun is silent.
83
84While I was rushing downward to the lowland,
85  Before mine eyes did one present himself,
86  Who seemed from long-continued silence hoarse.
87
88When I beheld him in the desert vast,
89  "Have pity on me," unto him I cried,
90  "Whiche'er thou art, or shade or real man!"
91
92He answered me: "Not man; man once I was,
93  And both my parents were of Lombardy,
94  And Mantuans by country both of them.
95
96'Sub Julio' was I born, though it was late,
97  And lived at Rome under the good Augustus,
98  During the time of false and lying gods.
99
100A poet was I, and I sang that just
101  Son of Anchises, who came forth from Troy,
102  After that Ilion the superb was burned.
103
104But thou, why goest thou back to such annoyance?
105  Why climb'st thou not the Mount Delectable,
106  Which is the source and cause of every joy?"
107
108"Now, art thou that Virgilius and that fountain
109  Which spreads abroad so wide a river of speech?"
110  I made response to him with bashful forehead.
111
112"O, of the other poets honour and light,
113  Avail me the long study and great love
114  That have impelled me to explore thy volume!
115
116Thou art my master, and my author thou,
117  Thou art alone the one from whom I took
118  The beautiful style that has done honour to me.
119
120Behold the beast, for which I have turned back;
121  Do thou protect me from her, famous Sage,
122  For she doth make my veins and pulses tremble."
123
124"Thee it behoves to take another road,"
125  Responded he, when he beheld me weeping,
126  "If from this savage place thou wouldst escape;
127
128Because this beast, at which thou criest out,
129  Suffers not any one to pass her way,
130  But so doth harass him, that she destroys him;
131
132And has a nature so malign and ruthless,
133  That never doth she glut her greedy will,
134  And after food is hungrier than before.
135
136Many the animals with whom she weds,
137  And more they shall be still, until the Greyhound
138  Comes, who shall make her perish in her pain.
139
140He shall not feed on either earth or pelf,
141  But upon wisdom, and on love and virtue;
142  'Twixt Feltro and Feltro shall his nation be;
143
144Of that low Italy shall he be the saviour,
145  On whose account the maid Camilla died,
146  Euryalus, Turnus, Nisus, of their wounds;
147
148Through every city shall he hunt her down,
149  Until he shall have driven her back to Hell,
150  There from whence envy first did let her loose.
151
152Therefore I think and judge it for thy best
153  Thou follow me, and I will be thy guide,
154  And lead thee hence through the eternal place,
155
156Where thou shalt hear the desperate lamentations,
157  Shalt see the ancient spirits disconsolate,
158  Who cry out each one for the second death;
159
160And thou shalt see those who contented are
161  Within the fire, because they hope to come,
162  Whene'er it may be, to the blessed people;
163
164To whom, then, if thou wishest to ascend,
165  A soul shall be for that than I more worthy;
166  With her at my departure I will leave thee;
167
168Because that Emperor, who reigns above,
169  In that I was rebellious to his law,
170  Wills that through me none come into his city.
171
172He governs everywhere, and there he reigns;
173  There is his city and his lofty throne;
174  O happy he whom thereto he elects!"
175
176And I to him: "Poet, I thee entreat,
177  By that same God whom thou didst never know,
178  So that I may escape this woe and worse,
179
180Thou wouldst conduct me there where thou hast said,
181  That I may see the portal of Saint Peter,
182  And those thou makest so disconsolate."
183
184Then he moved on, and I behind him followed.
185
186
187
188Inferno: Canto II
189
190
191Day was departing, and the embrowned air
192  Released the animals that are on earth
193  From their fatigues; and I the only one
194
195Made myself ready to sustain the war,
196  Both of the way and likewise of the woe,
197  Which memory that errs not shall retrace.
198
199O Muses, O high genius, now assist me!
200  O memory, that didst write down what I saw,
201  Here thy nobility shall be manifest!
202
203And I began: "Poet, who guidest me,
204  Regard my manhood, if it be sufficient,
205  Ere to the arduous pass thou dost confide me.
206
207Thou sayest, that of Silvius the parent,
208  While yet corruptible, unto the world
209  Immortal went, and was there bodily.
210
211But if the adversary of all evil
212  Was courteous, thinking of the high effect
213  That issue would from him, and who, and what,
214
215To men of intellect unmeet it seems not;
216  For he was of great Rome, and of her empire
217  In the empyreal heaven as father chosen;
218
219The which and what, wishing to speak the truth,
220  Were stablished as the holy place, wherein
221  Sits the successor of the greatest Peter.
222
223Upon this journey, whence thou givest him vaunt,
224  Things did he hear, which the occasion were
225  Both of his victory and the papal mantle.
226
227Thither went afterwards the Chosen Vessel,
228  To bring back comfort thence unto that Faith,
229  Which of salvation's way is the beginning.
230
231But I, why thither come, or who concedes it?
232  I not Aeneas am, I am not Paul,
233  Nor I, nor others, think me worthy of it.
234
235Therefore, if I resign myself to come,
236  I fear the coming may be ill-advised;
237  Thou'rt wise, and knowest better than I speak."
238
239And as he is, who unwills what he willed,
240  And by new thoughts doth his intention change,
241  So that from his design he quite withdraws,
242
243Such I became, upon that dark hillside,
244  Because, in thinking, I consumed the emprise,
245  Which was so very prompt in the beginning.
246
247"If I have well thy language understood,"
248  Replied that shade of the Magnanimous,
249  "Thy soul attainted is with cowardice,
250
251Which many times a man encumbers so,
252  It turns him back from honoured enterprise,
253  As false sight doth a beast, when he is shy.
254
255That thou mayst free thee from this apprehension,
256  I'll tell thee why I came, and what I heard
257  At the first moment when I grieved for thee.
258
259Among those was I who are in suspense,
260  And a fair, saintly Lady called to me
261  In such wise, I besought her to command me.
262
263Her eyes where shining brighter than the Star;
264  And she began to say, gentle and low,
265  With voice angelical, in her own language:
266
267'O spirit courteous of Mantua,
268  Of whom the fame still in the world endures,
269  And shall endure, long-lasting as the world;
270
271A friend of mine, and not the friend of fortune,
272  Upon the desert slope is so impeded
273  Upon his way, that he has turned through terror,
274
275And may, I fear, already be so lost,
276  That I too late have risen to his succour,
277  From that which I have heard of him in Heaven.
278
279Bestir thee now, and with thy speech ornate,
280  And with what needful is for his release,
281  Assist him so, that I may be consoled.
282
283Beatrice am I, who do bid thee go;
284  I come from there, where I would fain return;
285  Love moved me, which compelleth me to speak.
286
287When I shall be in presence of my Lord,
288  Full often will I praise thee unto him.'
289  Then paused she, and thereafter I began:
290
291'O Lady of virtue, thou alone through whom
292  The human race exceedeth all contained
293  Within the heaven that has the lesser circles,
294
295So grateful unto me is thy commandment,
296  To obey, if 'twere already done, were late;
297  No farther need'st thou ope to me thy wish.
298
299But the cause tell me why thou dost not shun
300  The here descending down into this centre,
301  From the vast place thou burnest to return to.'
302
303'Since thou wouldst fain so inwardly discern,
304  Briefly will I relate,' she answered me,
305  'Why I am not afraid to enter here.
306
307Of those things only should one be afraid
308  Which have the power of doing others harm;
309  Of the rest, no; because they are not fearful.
310
311God in his mercy such created me
312  That misery of yours attains me not,
313  Nor any flame assails me of this burning.
314
315A gentle Lady is in Heaven, who grieves
316  At this impediment, to which I send thee,
317  So that stern judgment there above is broken.
318
319In her entreaty she besought Lucia,
320  And said, "Thy faithful one now stands in need
321  Of thee, and unto thee I recommend him."
322
323Lucia, foe of all that cruel is,
324  Hastened away, and came unto the place
325  Where I was sitting with the ancient Rachel.
326
327"Beatrice" said she, "the true praise of God,
328  Why succourest thou not him, who loved thee so,
329  For thee he issued from the vulgar herd?
330
331Dost thou not hear the pity of his plaint?
332  Dost thou not see the death that combats him
333  Beside that flood, where ocean has no vaunt?"
334
335Never were persons in the world so swift
336  To work their weal and to escape their woe,
337  As I, after such words as these were uttered,
338
339Came hither downward from my blessed seat,
340  Confiding in thy dignified discourse,
341  Which honours thee, and those who've listened to it.'
342
343After she thus had spoken unto me,
344  Weeping, her shining eyes she turned away;
345  Whereby she made me swifter in my coming;
346
347And unto thee I came, as she desired;
348  I have delivered thee from that wild beast,
349  Which barred the beautiful mountain's short ascent.
350
351What is it, then?  Why, why dost thou delay?
352  Why is such baseness bedded in thy heart?
353  Daring and hardihood why hast thou not,
354
355Seeing that three such Ladies benedight
356  Are caring for thee in the court of Heaven,
357  And so much good my speech doth promise thee?"
358
359Even as the flowerets, by nocturnal chill,
360  Bowed down and closed, when the sun whitens them,
361  Uplift themselves all open on their stems;
362
363Such I became with my exhausted strength,
364  And such good courage to my heart there coursed,
365  That I began, like an intrepid person:
366
367"O she compassionate, who succoured me,
368  And courteous thou, who hast obeyed so soon
369  The words of truth which she addressed to thee!
370
371Thou hast my heart so with desire disposed
372  To the adventure, with these words of thine,
373  That to my first intent I have returned.
374
375Now go, for one sole will is in us both,
376  Thou Leader, and thou Lord, and Master thou."
377  Thus said I to him; and when he had moved,
378
379I entered on the deep and savage way.
380
381
382
383Inferno: Canto III
384
385
386"Through me the way is to the city dolent;
387  Through me the way is to eternal dole;
388  Through me the way among the people lost.
389
390Justice incited my sublime Creator;
391  Created me divine Omnipotence,
392  The highest Wisdom and the primal Love.
393
394Before me there were no created things,
395  Only eterne, and I eternal last.
396  All hope abandon, ye who enter in!"
397
398These words in sombre colour I beheld
399  Written upon the summit of a gate;
400  Whence I: "Their sense is, Master, hard to me!"
401
402And he to me, as one experienced:
403  "Here all suspicion needs must be abandoned,
404  All cowardice must needs be here extinct.
405
406We to the place have come, where I have told thee
407  Thou shalt behold the people dolorous
408  Who have foregone the good of intellect."
409
410And after he had laid his hand on mine
411  With joyful mien, whence I was comforted,
412  He led me in among the secret things.
413
414There sighs, complaints, and ululations loud
415  Resounded through the air without a star,
416  Whence I, at the beginning, wept thereat.
417
418Languages diverse, horrible dialects,
419  Accents of anger, words of agony,
420  And voices high and hoarse, with sound of hands,
421
422Made up a tumult that goes whirling on
423  For ever in that air for ever black,
424  Even as the sand doth, when the whirlwind breathes.
425
426And I, who had my head with horror bound,
427  Said: "Master, what is this which now I hear?
428  What folk is this, which seems by pain so vanquished?"
429
430And he to me: "This miserable mode
431  Maintain the melancholy souls of those
432  Who lived withouten infamy or praise.
433
434Commingled are they with that caitiff choir
435  Of Angels, who have not rebellious been,
436  Nor faithful were to God, but were for self.
437
438The heavens expelled them, not to be less fair;
439  Nor them the nethermore abyss receives,
440  For glory none the damned would have from them."
441
442And I: "O Master, what so grievous is
443  To these, that maketh them lament so sore?"
444  He answered: "I will tell thee very briefly.
445
446These have no longer any hope of death;
447  And this blind life of theirs is so debased,
448  They envious are of every other fate.
449
450No fame of them the world permits to be;
451  Misericord and Justice both disdain them.
452  Let us not speak of them, but look, and pass."
453
454And I, who looked again, beheld a banner,
455  Which, whirling round, ran on so rapidly,
456  That of all pause it seemed to me indignant;
457
458And after it there came so long a train
459  Of people, that I ne'er would have believed
460  That ever Death so many had undone.
461
462When some among them I had recognised,
463  I looked, and I beheld the shade of him
464  Who made through cowardice the great refusal.
465
466Forthwith I comprehended, and was certain,
467  That this the sect was of the caitiff wretches
468  Hateful to God and to his enemies.
469
470These miscreants, who never were alive,
471  Were naked, and were stung exceedingly
472  By gadflies and by hornets that were there.
473
474These did their faces irrigate with blood,
475  Which, with their tears commingled, at their feet
476  By the disgusting worms was gathered up.
477
478And when to gazing farther I betook me.
479  People I saw on a great river's bank;
480  Whence said I: "Master, now vouchsafe to me,
481
482That I may know who these are, and what law
483  Makes them appear so ready to pass over,
484  As I discern athwart the dusky light."
485
486And he to me: "These things shall all be known
487  To thee, as soon as we our footsteps stay
488  Upon the dismal shore of Acheron."
489
490Then with mine eyes ashamed and downward cast,
491  Fearing my words might irksome be to him,
492  From speech refrained I till we reached the river.
493
494And lo! towards us coming in a boat
495  An old man, hoary with the hair of eld,
496  Crying: "Woe unto you, ye souls depraved!
497
498Hope nevermore to look upon the heavens;
499  I come to lead you to the other shore,
500  To the eternal shades in heat and frost.
501
502And thou, that yonder standest, living soul,
503  Withdraw thee from these people, who are dead!"
504  But when he saw that I did not withdraw,
505
506He said: "By other ways, by other ports
507  Thou to the shore shalt come, not here, for passage;
508  A lighter vessel needs must carry thee."
509
510And unto him the Guide: "Vex thee not, Charon;
511  It is so willed there where is power to do
512  That which is willed; and farther question not."
513
514Thereat were quieted the fleecy cheeks
515  Of him the ferryman of the livid fen,
516  Who round about his eyes had wheels of flame.
517
518But all those souls who weary were and naked
519  Their colour changed and gnashed their teeth together,
520  As soon as they had heard those cruel words.
521
522God they blasphemed and their progenitors,
523  The human race, the place, the time, the seed
524  Of their engendering and of their birth!
525
526Thereafter all together they drew back,
527  Bitterly weeping, to the accursed shore,
528  Which waiteth every man who fears not God.
529
530Charon the demon, with the eyes of glede,
531  Beckoning to them, collects them all together,
532  Beats with his oar whoever lags behind.
533
534As in the autumn-time the leaves fall off,
535  First one and then another, till the branch
536  Unto the earth surrenders all its spoils;
537
538In similar wise the evil seed of Adam
539  Throw themselves from that margin one by one,
540  At signals, as a bird unto its lure.
541
542So they depart across the dusky wave,
543  And ere upon the other side they land,
544  Again on this side a new troop assembles.
545
546"My son," the courteous Master said to me,
547  "All those who perish in the wrath of God
548  Here meet together out of every land;
549
550And ready are they to pass o'er the river,
551  Because celestial Justice spurs them on,
552  So that their fear is turned into desire.
553
554This way there never passes a good soul;
555  And hence if Charon doth complain of thee,
556  Well mayst thou know now what his speech imports."
557
558This being finished, all the dusk champaign
559  Trembled so violently, that of that terror
560  The recollection bathes me still with sweat.
561
562The land of tears gave forth a blast of wind,
563  And fulminated a vermilion light,
564  Which overmastered in me every sense,
565
566And as a man whom sleep hath seized I fell.
567
568
569
570Inferno: Canto IV
571
572
573Broke the deep lethargy within my head
574  A heavy thunder, so that I upstarted,
575  Like to a person who by force is wakened;
576
577And round about I moved my rested eyes,
578  Uprisen erect, and steadfastly I gazed,
579  To recognise the place wherein I was.
580
581True is it, that upon the verge I found me
582  Of the abysmal valley dolorous,
583  That gathers thunder of infinite ululations.
584
585Obscure, profound it was, and nebulous,
586  So that by fixing on its depths my sight
587  Nothing whatever I discerned therein.
588
589"Let us descend now into the blind world,"
590  Began the Poet, pallid utterly;
591  "I will be first, and thou shalt second be."
592
593And I, who of his colour was aware,
594  Said: "How shall I come, if thou art afraid,
595  Who'rt wont to be a comfort to my fears?"
596
597And he to me: "The anguish of the people
598  Who are below here in my face depicts
599  That pity which for terror thou hast taken.
600
601Let us go on, for the long way impels us."
602  Thus he went in, and thus he made me enter
603  The foremost circle that surrounds the abyss.
604
605There, as it seemed to me from listening,
606  Were lamentations none, but only sighs,
607  That tremble made the everlasting air.
608
609And this arose from sorrow without torment,
610  Which the crowds had, that many were and great,
611  Of infants and of women and of men.
612
613To me the Master good: "Thou dost not ask
614  What spirits these, which thou beholdest, are?
615  Now will I have thee know, ere thou go farther,
616
617That they sinned not; and if they merit had,
618  'Tis not enough, because they had not baptism
619  Which is the portal of the Faith thou holdest;
620
621And if they were before Christianity,
622  In the right manner they adored not God;
623  And among such as these am I myself.
624
625For such defects, and not for other guilt,
626  Lost are we and are only so far punished,
627  That without hope we live on in desire."
628
629Great grief seized on my heart when this I heard,
630  Because some people of much worthiness
631  I knew, who in that Limbo were suspended.
632
633"Tell me, my Master, tell me, thou my Lord,"
634  Began I, with desire of being certain
635  Of that Faith which o'ercometh every error,
636
637"Came any one by his own merit hence,
638  Or by another's, who was blessed thereafter?"
639  And he, who understood my covert speech,
640
641Replied: "I was a novice in this state,
642  When I saw hither come a Mighty One,
643  With sign of victory incoronate.
644
645Hence he drew forth the shade of the First Parent,
646  And that of his son Abel, and of Noah,
647  Of Moses the lawgiver, and the obedient
648
649Abraham, patriarch, and David, king,
650  Israel with his father and his children,
651  And Rachel, for whose sake he did so much,
652
653And others many, and he made them blessed;
654  And thou must know, that earlier than these
655  Never were any human spirits saved."
656
657We ceased not to advance because he spake,
658  But still were passing onward through the forest,
659  The forest, say I, of thick-crowded ghosts.
660
661Not very far as yet our way had gone
662  This side the summit, when I saw a fire
663  That overcame a hemisphere of darkness.
664
665We were a little distant from it still,
666  But not so far that I in part discerned not
667  That honourable people held that place.
668
669"O thou who honourest every art and science,
670  Who may these be, which such great honour have,
671  That from the fashion of the rest it parts them?"
672
673And he to me: "The honourable name,
674  That sounds of them above there in thy life,
675  Wins grace in Heaven, that so advances them."
676
677In the mean time a voice was heard by me:
678  "All honour be to the pre-eminent Poet;
679  His shade returns again, that was departed."
680
681After the voice had ceased and quiet was,
682  Four mighty shades I saw approaching us;
683  Semblance had they nor sorrowful nor glad.
684
685To say to me began my gracious Master:
686  "Him with that falchion in his hand behold,
687  Who comes before the three, even as their lord.
688
689That one is Homer, Poet sovereign;
690  He who comes next is Horace, the satirist;
691  The third is Ovid, and the last is Lucan.
692
693Because to each of these with me applies
694  The name that solitary voice proclaimed,
695  They do me honour, and in that do well."
696
697Thus I beheld assemble the fair school
698  Of that lord of the song pre-eminent,
699  Who o'er the others like an eagle soars.
700
701When they together had discoursed somewhat,
702  They turned to me with signs of salutation,
703  And on beholding this, my Master smiled;
704
705And more of honour still, much more, they did me,
706  In that they made me one of their own band;
707  So that the sixth was I, 'mid so much wit.
708
709Thus we went on as far as to the light,
710  Things saying 'tis becoming to keep silent,
711  As was the saying of them where I was.
712
713We came unto a noble castle's foot,
714  Seven times encompassed with lofty walls,
715  Defended round by a fair rivulet;
716
717This we passed over even as firm ground;
718  Through portals seven I entered with these Sages;
719  We came into a meadow of fresh verdure.
720
721People were there with solemn eyes and slow,
722  Of great authority in their countenance;
723  They spake but seldom, and with gentle voices.
724
725Thus we withdrew ourselves upon one side
726  Into an opening luminous and lofty,
727  So that they all of them were visible.
728
729There opposite, upon the green enamel,
730  Were pointed out to me the mighty spirits,
731  Whom to have seen I feel myself exalted.
732
733I saw Electra with companions many,
734  'Mongst whom I knew both Hector and Aeneas,
735  Caesar in armour with gerfalcon eyes;
736
737I saw Camilla and Penthesilea
738  On the other side, and saw the King Latinus,
739  Who with Lavinia his daughter sat;
740
741I saw that Brutus who drove Tarquin forth,
742  Lucretia, Julia, Marcia, and Cornelia,
743  And saw alone, apart, the Saladin.
744
745When I had lifted up my brows a little,
746  The Master I beheld of those who know,
747  Sit with his philosophic family.
748
749All gaze upon him, and all do him honour.
750  There I beheld both Socrates and Plato,
751  Who nearer him before the others stand;
752
753Democritus, who puts the world on chance,
754  Diogenes, Anaxagoras, and Thales,
755  Zeno, Empedocles, and Heraclitus;
756
757Of qualities I saw the good collector,
758  Hight Dioscorides; and Orpheus saw I,
759  Tully and Livy, and moral Seneca,
760
761Euclid, geometrician, and Ptolemy,
762  Galen, Hippocrates, and Avicenna,
763  Averroes, who the great Comment made.
764
765I cannot all of them pourtray in full,
766  Because so drives me onward the long theme,
767  That many times the word comes short of fact.
768
769The sixfold company in two divides;
770  Another way my sapient Guide conducts me
771  Forth from the quiet to the air that trembles;
772
773And to a place I come where nothing shines.
774
775
776
777Inferno: Canto V
778
779
780Thus I descended out of the first circle
781  Down to the second, that less space begirds,
782  And so much greater dole, that goads to wailing.
783
784There standeth Minos horribly, and snarls;
785  Examines the transgressions at the entrance;
786  Judges, and sends according as he girds him.
787
788I say, that when the spirit evil-born
789  Cometh before him, wholly it confesses;
790  And this discriminator of transgressions
791
792Seeth what place in Hell is meet for it;
793  Girds himself with his tail as many times
794  As grades he wishes it should be thrust down.
795
796Always before him many of them stand;
797  They go by turns each one unto the judgment;
798  They speak, and hear, and then are downward hurled.
799
800"O thou, that to this dolorous hostelry
801  Comest," said Minos to me, when he saw me,
802  Leaving the practice of so great an office,
803
804"Look how thou enterest, and in whom thou trustest;
805  Let not the portal's amplitude deceive thee."
806  And unto him my Guide: "Why criest thou too?
807
808Do not impede his journey fate-ordained;
809  It is so willed there where is power to do
810  That which is willed; and ask no further question."
811
812And now begin the dolesome notes to grow
813  Audible unto me; now am I come
814  There where much lamentation strikes upon me.
815
816I came into a place mute of all light,
817  Which bellows as the sea does in a tempest,
818  If by opposing winds 't is combated.
819
820The infernal hurricane that never rests
821  Hurtles the spirits onward in its rapine;
822  Whirling them round, and smiting, it molests them.
823
824When they arrive before the precipice,
825  There are the shrieks, the plaints, and the laments,
826  There they blaspheme the puissance divine.
827
828I understood that unto such a torment
829  The carnal malefactors were condemned,
830  Who reason subjugate to appetite.
831
832And as the wings of starlings bear them on
833  In the cold season in large band and full,
834  So doth that blast the spirits maledict;
835
836It hither, thither, downward, upward, drives them;
837  No hope doth comfort them for evermore,
838  Not of repose, but even of lesser pain.
839
840And as the cranes go chanting forth their lays,
841  Making in air a long line of themselves,
842  So saw I coming, uttering lamentations,
843
844Shadows borne onward by the aforesaid stress.
845  Whereupon said I: "Master, who are those
846  People, whom the black air so castigates?"
847
848"The first of those, of whom intelligence
849  Thou fain wouldst have," then said he unto me,
850  "The empress was of many languages.
851
852To sensual vices she was so abandoned,
853  That lustful she made licit in her law,
854  To remove the blame to which she had been led.
855
856She is Semiramis, of whom we read
857  That she succeeded Ninus, and was his spouse;
858  She held the land which now the Sultan rules.
859
860The next is she who killed herself for love,
861  And broke faith with the ashes of Sichaeus;
862  Then Cleopatra the voluptuous."
863
864Helen I saw, for whom so many ruthless
865  Seasons revolved; and saw the great Achilles,
866  Who at the last hour combated with Love.
867
868Paris I saw, Tristan; and more than a thousand
869  Shades did he name and point out with his finger,
870  Whom Love had separated from our life.
871
872After that I had listened to my Teacher,
873  Naming the dames of eld and cavaliers,
874  Pity prevailed, and I was nigh bewildered.
875
876And I began: "O Poet, willingly
877  Speak would I to those two, who go together,
878  And seem upon the wind to be so light."
879
880And, he to me: "Thou'lt mark, when they shall be
881  Nearer to us; and then do thou implore them
882  By love which leadeth them, and they will come."
883
884Soon as the wind in our direction sways them,
885  My voice uplift I: "O ye weary souls!
886  Come speak to us, if no one interdicts it."
887
888As turtle-doves, called onward by desire,
889  With open and steady wings to the sweet nest
890  Fly through the air by their volition borne,
891
892So came they from the band where Dido is,
893  Approaching us athwart the air malign,
894  So strong was the affectionate appeal.
895
896"O living creature gracious and benignant,
897  Who visiting goest through the purple air
898  Us, who have stained the world incarnadine,
899
900If were the King of the Universe our friend,
901  We would pray unto him to give thee peace,
902  Since thou hast pity on our woe perverse.
903
904Of what it pleases thee to hear and speak,
905  That will we hear, and we will speak to you,
906  While silent is the wind, as it is now.
907
908Sitteth the city, wherein I was born,
909  Upon the sea-shore where the Po descends
910  To rest in peace with all his retinue.
911
912Love, that on gentle heart doth swiftly seize,
913  Seized this man for the person beautiful
914  That was ta'en from me, and still the mode offends me.
915
916Love, that exempts no one beloved from loving,
917  Seized me with pleasure of this man so strongly,
918  That, as thou seest, it doth not yet desert me;
919
920Love has conducted us unto one death;
921  Caina waiteth him who quenched our life!"
922  These words were borne along from them to us.
923
924As soon as I had heard those souls tormented,
925  I bowed my face, and so long held it down
926  Until the Poet said to me: "What thinkest?"
927
928When I made answer, I began: "Alas!
929  How many pleasant thoughts, how much desire,
930  Conducted these unto the dolorous pass!"
931
932Then unto them I turned me, and I spake,
933  And I began: "Thine agonies, Francesca,
934  Sad and compassionate to weeping make me.
935
936But tell me, at the time of those sweet sighs,
937  By what and in what manner Love conceded,
938  That you should know your dubious desires?"
939
940And she to me: "There is no greater sorrow
941  Than to be mindful of the happy time
942  In misery, and that thy Teacher knows.
943
944But, if to recognise the earliest root
945  Of love in us thou hast so great desire,
946  I will do even as he who weeps and speaks.
947
948One day we reading were for our delight
949  Of Launcelot, how Love did him enthral.
950  Alone we were and without any fear.
951
952Full many a time our eyes together drew
953  That reading, and drove the colour from our faces;
954  But one point only was it that o'ercame us.
955
956When as we read of the much-longed-for smile
957  Being by such a noble lover kissed,
958  This one, who ne'er from me shall be divided,
959
960Kissed me upon the mouth all palpitating.
961  Galeotto was the book and he who wrote it.
962  That day no farther did we read therein."
963
964And all the while one spirit uttered this,
965  The other one did weep so, that, for pity,
966  I swooned away as if I had been dying,
967
968And fell, even as a dead body falls.
969
970
971
972Inferno: Canto VI
973
974
975At the return of consciousness, that closed
976  Before the pity of those two relations,
977  Which utterly with sadness had confused me,
978
979New torments I behold, and new tormented
980  Around me, whichsoever way I move,
981  And whichsoever way I turn, and gaze.
982
983In the third circle am I of the rain
984  Eternal, maledict, and cold, and heavy;
985  Its law and quality are never new.
986
987Huge hail, and water sombre-hued, and snow,
988  Athwart the tenebrous air pour down amain;
989  Noisome the earth is, that receiveth this.
990
991Cerberus, monster cruel and uncouth,
992  With his three gullets like a dog is barking
993  Over the people that are there submerged.
994
995Red eyes he has, and unctuous beard and black,
996  And belly large, and armed with claws his hands;
997  He rends the spirits, flays, and quarters them.
998
999Howl the rain maketh them like unto dogs;
1000  One side they make a shelter for the other;
1001  Oft turn themselves the wretched reprobates.
1002
1003When Cerberus perceived us, the great worm!
1004   His mouths he opened, and displayed his tusks;
1005   Not a limb had he that was motionless.
1006
1007And my Conductor, with his spans extended,
1008  Took of the earth, and with his fists well filled,
1009  He threw it into those rapacious gullets.
1010
1011Such as that dog is, who by barking craves,
1012  And quiet grows soon as his food he gnaws,
1013  For to devour it he but thinks and struggles,
1014
1015The like became those muzzles filth-begrimed
1016  Of Cerberus the demon, who so thunders
1017  Over the souls that they would fain be deaf.
1018
1019We passed across the shadows, which subdues
1020  The heavy rain-storm, and we placed our feet
1021  Upon their vanity that person seems.
1022
1023They all were lying prone upon the earth,
1024  Excepting one, who sat upright as soon
1025  As he beheld us passing on before him.
1026
1027"O thou that art conducted through this Hell,"
1028  He said to me, "recall me, if thou canst;
1029  Thyself wast made before I was unmade."
1030
1031And I to him: "The anguish which thou hast
1032  Perhaps doth draw thee out of my remembrance,
1033  So that it seems not I have ever seen thee.
1034
1035But tell me who thou art, that in so doleful
1036  A place art put, and in such punishment,
1037  If some are greater, none is so displeasing."
1038
1039And he to me: "Thy city, which is full
1040  Of envy so that now the sack runs over,
1041  Held me within it in the life serene.
1042
1043You citizens were wont to call me Ciacco;
1044  For the pernicious sin of gluttony
1045  I, as thou seest, am battered by this rain.
1046
1047And I, sad soul, am not the only one,
1048  For all these suffer the like penalty
1049  For the like sin;" and word no more spake he.
1050
1051I answered him: "Ciacco, thy wretchedness
1052  Weighs on me so that it to weep invites me;
1053  But tell me, if thou knowest, to what shall come
1054
1055The citizens of the divided city;
1056  If any there be just; and the occasion
1057  Tell me why so much discord has assailed it."
1058
1059And he to me: "They, after long contention,
1060  Will come to bloodshed; and the rustic party
1061  Will drive the other out with much offence.
1062
1063Then afterwards behoves it this one fall
1064  Within three suns, and rise again the other
1065  By force of him who now is on the coast.
1066
1067High will it hold its forehead a long while,
1068  Keeping the other under heavy burdens,
1069  Howe'er it weeps thereat and is indignant.
1070
1071The just are two, and are not understood there;
1072  Envy and Arrogance and Avarice
1073  Are the three sparks that have all hearts enkindled."
1074
1075Here ended he his tearful utterance;
1076  And I to him: "I wish thee still to teach me,
1077  And make a gift to me of further speech.
1078
1079Farinata and Tegghiaio, once so worthy,
1080  Jacopo Rusticucci, Arrigo, and Mosca,
1081  And others who on good deeds set their thoughts,
1082
1083Say where they are, and cause that I may know them;
1084  For great desire constraineth me to learn
1085  If Heaven doth sweeten them, or Hell envenom."
1086
1087And he: "They are among the blacker souls;
1088  A different sin downweighs them to the bottom;
1089  If thou so far descendest, thou canst see them.
1090
1091But when thou art again in the sweet world,
1092  I pray thee to the mind of others bring me;
1093  No more I tell thee and no more I answer."
1094
1095Then his straightforward eyes he turned askance,
1096  Eyed me a little, and then bowed his head;
1097  He fell therewith prone like the other blind.
1098
1099And the Guide said to me: "He wakes no more
1100  This side the sound of the angelic trumpet;
1101  When shall approach the hostile Potentate,
1102
1103Each one shall find again his dismal tomb,
1104  Shall reassume his flesh and his own figure,
1105  Shall hear what through eternity re-echoes."
1106
1107So we passed onward o'er the filthy mixture
1108  Of shadows and of rain with footsteps slow,
1109  Touching a little on the future life.
1110
1111Wherefore I said: "Master, these torments here,
1112  Will they increase after the mighty sentence,
1113  Or lesser be, or will they be as burning?"
1114
1115And he to me: "Return unto thy science,
1116  Which wills, that as the thing more perfect is,
1117  The more it feels of pleasure and of pain.
1118
1119Albeit that this people maledict
1120  To true perfection never can attain,
1121  Hereafter more than now they look to be."
1122
1123Round in a circle by that road we went,
1124  Speaking much more, which I do not repeat;
1125  We came unto the point where the descent is;
1126
1127There we found Plutus the great enemy.
1128
1129
1130
1131Inferno: Canto VII
1132
1133
1134"Pape Satan, Pape Satan, Aleppe!"
1135  Thus Plutus with his clucking voice began;
1136  And that benignant Sage, who all things knew,
1137
1138Said, to encourage me: "Let not thy fear
1139  Harm thee; for any power that he may have
1140  Shall not prevent thy going down this crag."
1141
1142Then he turned round unto that bloated lip,
1143  And said: "Be silent, thou accursed wolf;
1144  Consume within thyself with thine own rage.
1145
1146Not causeless is this journey to the abyss;
1147  Thus is it willed on high, where Michael wrought
1148  Vengeance upon the proud adultery."
1149
1150Even as the sails inflated by the wind
1151  Involved together fall when snaps the mast,
1152  So fell the cruel monster to the earth.
1153
1154Thus we descended into the fourth chasm,
1155  Gaining still farther on the dolesome shore
1156  Which all the woe of the universe insacks.
1157
1158Justice of God, ah! who heaps up so many
1159  New toils and sufferings as I beheld?
1160  And why doth our transgression waste us so?
1161
1162As doth the billow there upon Charybdis,
1163  That breaks itself on that which it encounters,
1164  So here the folk must dance their roundelay.
1165
1166Here saw I people, more than elsewhere, many,
1167  On one side and the other, with great howls,
1168  Rolling weights forward by main force of chest.
1169
1170They clashed together, and then at that point
1171  Each one turned backward, rolling retrograde,
1172  Crying, "Why keepest?" and, "Why squanderest thou?"
1173
1174Thus they returned along the lurid circle
1175  On either hand unto the opposite point,
1176  Shouting their shameful metre evermore.
1177
1178Then each, when he arrived there, wheeled about
1179  Through his half-circle to another joust;
1180  And I, who had my heart pierced as it were,
1181
1182Exclaimed: "My Master, now declare to me
1183  What people these are, and if all were clerks,
1184  These shaven crowns upon the left of us."
1185
1186And he to me: "All of them were asquint
1187  In intellect in the first life, so much
1188  That there with measure they no spending made.
1189
1190Clearly enough their voices bark it forth,
1191  Whene'er they reach the two points of the circle,
1192  Where sunders them the opposite defect.
1193
1194Clerks those were who no hairy covering
1195  Have on the head, and Popes and Cardinals,
1196  In whom doth Avarice practise its excess."
1197
1198And I: "My Master, among such as these
1199  I ought forsooth to recognise some few,
1200  Who were infected with these maladies."
1201
1202And he to me: "Vain thought thou entertainest;
1203  The undiscerning life which made them sordid
1204  Now makes them unto all discernment dim.
1205
1206Forever shall they come to these two buttings;
1207  These from the sepulchre shall rise again
1208  With the fist closed, and these with tresses shorn.
1209
1210Ill giving and ill keeping the fair world
1211  Have ta'en from them, and placed them in this scuffle;
1212  Whate'er it be, no words adorn I for it.
1213
1214Now canst thou, Son, behold the transient farce
1215  Of goods that are committed unto Fortune,
1216  For which the human race each other buffet;
1217
1218For all the gold that is beneath the moon,
1219  Or ever has been, of these weary souls
1220  Could never make a single one repose."
1221
1222"Master," I said to him, "now tell me also
1223  What is this Fortune which thou speakest of,
1224  That has the world's goods so within its clutches?"
1225
1226And he to me: "O creatures imbecile,
1227  What ignorance is this which doth beset you?
1228  Now will I have thee learn my judgment of her.
1229
1230He whose omniscience everything transcends
1231  The heavens created, and gave who should guide them,
1232  That every part to every part may shine,
1233
1234Distributing the light in equal measure;
1235  He in like manner to the mundane splendours
1236  Ordained a general ministress and guide,
1237
1238That she might change at times the empty treasures
1239  From race to race, from one blood to another,
1240  Beyond resistance of all human wisdom.
1241
1242Therefore one people triumphs, and another
1243  Languishes, in pursuance of her judgment,
1244  Which hidden is, as in the grass a serpent.
1245
1246Your knowledge has no counterstand against her;
1247  She makes provision, judges, and pursues
1248  Her governance, as theirs the other gods.
1249
1250Her permutations have not any truce;
1251  Necessity makes her precipitate,
1252  So often cometh who his turn obtains.
1253
1254And this is she who is so crucified
1255  Even by those who ought to give her praise,
1256  Giving her blame amiss, and bad repute.
1257
1258But she is blissful, and she hears it not;
1259  Among the other primal creatures gladsome
1260  She turns her sphere, and blissful she rejoices.
1261
1262Let us descend now unto greater woe;
1263  Already sinks each star that was ascending
1264  When I set out, and loitering is forbidden."
1265
1266We crossed the circle to the other bank,
1267  Near to a fount that boils, and pours itself
1268  Along a gully that runs out of it.
1269
1270The water was more sombre far than perse;
1271  And we, in company with the dusky waves,
1272  Made entrance downward by a path uncouth.
1273
1274A marsh it makes, which has the name of Styx,
1275  This tristful brooklet, when it has descended
1276  Down to the foot of the malign gray shores.
1277
1278And I, who stood intent upon beholding,
1279  Saw people mud-besprent in that lagoon,
1280  All of them naked and with angry look.
1281
1282They smote each other not alone with hands,
1283  But with the head and with the breast and feet,
1284  Tearing each other piecemeal with their teeth.
1285
1286Said the good Master: "Son, thou now beholdest
1287  The souls of those whom anger overcame;
1288  And likewise I would have thee know for certain
1289
1290Beneath the water people are who sigh
1291  And make this water bubble at the surface,
1292  As the eye tells thee wheresoe'er it turns.
1293
1294Fixed in the mire they say, 'We sullen were
1295  In the sweet air, which by the sun is gladdened,
1296  Bearing within ourselves the sluggish reek;
1297
1298Now we are sullen in this sable mire.'
1299  This hymn do they keep gurgling in their throats,
1300  For with unbroken words they cannot say it."
1301
1302Thus we went circling round the filthy fen
1303  A great arc 'twixt the dry bank and the swamp,
1304  With eyes turned unto those who gorge the mire;
1305
1306Unto the foot of a tower we came at last.
1307
1308
1309
1310Inferno: Canto VIII
1311
1312
1313I say, continuing, that long before
1314  We to the foot of that high tower had come,
1315  Our eyes went upward to the summit of it,
1316
1317By reason of two flamelets we saw placed there,
1318  And from afar another answer them,
1319  So far, that hardly could the eye attain it.
1320
1321And, to the sea of all discernment turned,
1322  I said: "What sayeth this, and what respondeth
1323  That other fire? and who are they that made it?"
1324
1325And he to me: "Across the turbid waves
1326  What is expected thou canst now discern,
1327  If reek of the morass conceal it not."
1328
1329Cord never shot an arrow from itself
1330  That sped away athwart the air so swift,
1331  As I beheld a very little boat
1332
1333Come o'er the water tow'rds us at that moment,
1334  Under the guidance of a single pilot,
1335  Who shouted, "Now art thou arrived, fell soul?"
1336
1337"Phlegyas, Phlegyas, thou criest out in vain
1338  For this once," said my Lord; "thou shalt not have us
1339  Longer than in the passing of the slough."
1340
1341As he who listens to some great deceit
1342  That has been done to him, and then resents it,
1343  Such became Phlegyas, in his gathered wrath.
1344
1345My Guide descended down into the boat,
1346  And then he made me enter after him,
1347  And only when I entered seemed it laden.
1348
1349Soon as the Guide and I were in the boat,
1350  The antique prow goes on its way, dividing
1351  More of the water than 'tis wont with others.
1352
1353While we were running through the dead canal,
1354  Uprose in front of me one full of mire,
1355  And said, "Who 'rt thou that comest ere the hour?"
1356
1357And I to him: "Although I come, I stay not;
1358  But who art thou that hast become so squalid?"
1359  "Thou seest that I am one who weeps," he answered.
1360
1361And I to him: "With weeping and with wailing,
1362  Thou spirit maledict, do thou remain;
1363  For thee I know, though thou art all defiled."
1364
1365Then stretched he both his hands unto the boat;
1366  Whereat my wary Master thrust him back,
1367  Saying, "Away there with the other dogs!"
1368
1369Thereafter with his arms he clasped my neck;
1370  He kissed my face, and said: "Disdainful soul,
1371  Blessed be she who bore thee in her bosom.
1372
1373That was an arrogant person in the world;
1374  Goodness is none, that decks his memory;
1375  So likewise here his shade is furious.
1376
1377How many are esteemed great kings up there,
1378  Who here shall be like unto swine in mire,
1379  Leaving behind them horrible dispraises!"
1380
1381And I: "My Master, much should I be pleased,
1382  If I could see him soused into this broth,
1383  Before we issue forth out of the lake."
1384
1385And he to me: "Ere unto thee the shore
1386  Reveal itself, thou shalt be satisfied;
1387  Such a desire 'tis meet thou shouldst enjoy."
1388
1389A little after that, I saw such havoc
1390  Made of him by the people of the mire,
1391  That still I praise and thank my God for it.
1392
1393They all were shouting, "At Philippo Argenti!"
1394  And that exasperate spirit Florentine
1395  Turned round upon himself with his own teeth.
1396
1397We left him there, and more of him I tell not;
1398  But on mine ears there smote a lamentation,
1399  Whence forward I intent unbar mine eyes.
1400
1401And the good Master said: "Even now, my Son,
1402  The city draweth near whose name is Dis,
1403  With the grave citizens, with the great throng."
1404
1405And I: "Its mosques already, Master, clearly
1406  Within there in the valley I discern
1407  Vermilion, as if issuing from the fire
1408
1409They were."  And he to me: "The fire eternal
1410  That kindles them within makes them look red,
1411  As thou beholdest in this nether Hell."
1412
1413Then we arrived within the moats profound,
1414  That circumvallate that disconsolate city;
1415  The walls appeared to me to be of iron.
1416
1417Not without making first a circuit wide,
1418  We came unto a place where loud the pilot
1419  Cried out to us, "Debark, here is the entrance."
1420
1421More than a thousand at the gates I saw
1422  Out of the Heavens rained down, who angrily
1423  Were saying, "Who is this that without death
1424
1425Goes through the kingdom of the people dead?"
1426  And my sagacious Master made a sign
1427  Of wishing secretly to speak with them.
1428
1429A little then they quelled their great disdain,
1430  And said: "Come thou alone, and he begone
1431  Who has so boldly entered these dominions.
1432
1433Let him return alone by his mad road;
1434  Try, if he can; for thou shalt here remain,
1435  Who hast escorted him through such dark regions."
1436
1437Think, Reader, if I was discomforted
1438  At utterance of the accursed words;
1439  For never to return here I believed.
1440
1441"O my dear Guide, who more than seven times
1442  Hast rendered me security, and drawn me
1443  From imminent peril that before me stood,
1444
1445Do not desert me," said I, "thus undone;
1446  And if the going farther be denied us,
1447  Let us retrace our steps together swiftly."
1448
1449And that Lord, who had led me thitherward,
1450  Said unto me: "Fear not; because our passage
1451  None can take from us, it by Such is given.
1452
1453But here await me, and thy weary spirit
1454  Comfort and nourish with a better hope;
1455  For in this nether world I will not leave thee."
1456
1457So onward goes and there abandons me
1458  My Father sweet, and I remain in doubt,
1459  For No and Yes within my head contend.
1460
1461I could not hear what he proposed to them;
1462  But with them there he did not linger long,
1463  Ere each within in rivalry ran back.
1464
1465They closed the portals, those our adversaries,
1466  On my Lord's breast, who had remained without
1467  And turned to me with footsteps far between.
1468
1469His eyes cast down, his forehead shorn had he
1470  Of all its boldness, and he said, with sighs,
1471  "Who has denied to me the dolesome houses?"
1472
1473And unto me: "Thou, because I am angry,
1474  Fear not, for I will conquer in the trial,
1475  Whatever for defence within be planned.
1476
1477This arrogance of theirs is nothing new;
1478  For once they used it at less secret gate,
1479  Which finds itself without a fastening still.
1480
1481O'er it didst thou behold the dead inscription;
1482  And now this side of it descends the steep,
1483  Passing across the circles without escort,
1484
1485One by whose means the city shall be opened."
1486
1487
1488
1489Inferno: Canto IX
1490
1491
1492That hue which cowardice brought out on me,
1493  Beholding my Conductor backward turn,
1494  Sooner repressed within him his new colour.
1495
1496He stopped attentive, like a man who listens,
1497  Because the eye could not conduct him far
1498  Through the black air, and through the heavy fog.
1499
1500"Still it behoveth us to win the fight,"
1501  Began he; "Else. . .Such offered us herself. . .
1502  O how I long that some one here arrive!"
1503
1504Well I perceived, as soon as the beginning
1505  He covered up with what came afterward,
1506  That they were words quite different from the first;
1507
1508But none the less his saying gave me fear,
1509  Because I carried out the broken phrase,
1510  Perhaps to a worse meaning than he had.
1511
1512"Into this bottom of the doleful conch
1513  Doth any e'er descend from the first grade,
1514  Which for its pain has only hope cut off?"
1515
1516This question put I; and he answered me:
1517  "Seldom it comes to pass that one of us
1518  Maketh the journey upon which I go.
1519
1520True is it, once before I here below
1521  Was conjured by that pitiless Erictho,
1522  Who summoned back the shades unto their bodies.
1523
1524Naked of me short while the flesh had been,
1525  Before within that wall she made me enter,
1526  To bring a spirit from the circle of Judas;
1527
1528That is the lowest region and the darkest,
1529  And farthest from the heaven which circles all.
1530  Well know I the way; therefore be reassured.
1531
1532This fen, which a prodigious stench exhales,
1533  Encompasses about the city dolent,
1534  Where now we cannot enter without anger."
1535
1536And more he said, but not in mind I have it;
1537  Because mine eye had altogether drawn me
1538  Tow'rds the high tower with the red-flaming summit,
1539
1540Where in a moment saw I swift uprisen
1541  The three infernal Furies stained with blood,
1542  Who had the limbs of women and their mien,
1543
1544And with the greenest hydras were begirt;
1545  Small serpents and cerastes were their tresses,
1546  Wherewith their horrid temples were entwined.
1547
1548And he who well the handmaids of the Queen
1549  Of everlasting lamentation knew,
1550  Said unto me: "Behold the fierce Erinnys.
1551
1552This is Megaera, on the left-hand side;
1553  She who is weeping on the right, Alecto;
1554  Tisiphone is between;" and then was silent.
1555
1556Each one her breast was rending with her nails;
1557  They beat them with their palms, and cried so loud,
1558  That I for dread pressed close unto the Poet.
1559
1560"Medusa come, so we to stone will change him!"
1561  All shouted looking down; "in evil hour
1562  Avenged we not on Theseus his assault!"
1563
1564"Turn thyself round, and keep thine eyes close shut,
1565  For if the Gorgon appear, and thou shouldst see it,
1566  No more returning upward would there be."
1567
1568Thus said the Master; and he turned me round
1569  Himself, and trusted not unto my hands
1570  So far as not to blind me with his own.
1571
1572O ye who have undistempered intellects,
1573  Observe the doctrine that conceals itself
1574  Beneath the veil of the mysterious verses!
1575
1576And now there came across the turbid waves
1577  The clangour of a sound with terror fraught,
1578  Because of which both of the margins trembled;
1579
1580Not otherwise it was than of a wind
1581  Impetuous on account of adverse heats,
1582  That smites the forest, and, without restraint,
1583
1584The branches rends, beats down, and bears away;
1585  Right onward, laden with dust, it goes superb,
1586  And puts to flight the wild beasts and the shepherds.
1587
1588Mine eyes he loosed, and said: "Direct the nerve
1589  Of vision now along that ancient foam,
1590  There yonder where that smoke is most intense."
1591
1592Even as the frogs before the hostile serpent
1593  Across the water scatter all abroad,
1594  Until each one is huddled in the earth.
1595
1596More than a thousand ruined souls I saw,
1597  Thus fleeing from before one who on foot
1598  Was passing o'er the Styx with soles unwet.
1599
1600From off his face he fanned that unctuous air,
1601  Waving his left hand oft in front of him,
1602  And only with that anguish seemed he weary.
1603
1604Well I perceived one sent from Heaven was he,
1605  And to the Master turned; and he made sign
1606  That I should quiet stand, and bow before him.
1607
1608Ah! how disdainful he appeared to me!
1609  He reached the gate, and with a little rod
1610  He opened it, for there was no resistance.
1611
1612"O banished out of Heaven, people despised!"
1613  Thus he began upon the horrid threshold;
1614  "Whence is this arrogance within you couched?
1615
1616Wherefore recalcitrate against that will,
1617  From which the end can never be cut off,
1618  And which has many times increased your pain?
1619
1620What helpeth it to butt against the fates?
1621  Your Cerberus, if you remember well,
1622  For that still bears his chin and gullet peeled."
1623
1624Then he returned along the miry road,
1625  And spake no word to us, but had the look
1626  Of one whom other care constrains and goads
1627
1628Than that of him who in his presence is;
1629  And we our feet directed tow'rds the city,
1630  After those holy words all confident.
1631
1632Within we entered without any contest;
1633  And I, who inclination had to see
1634  What the condition such a fortress holds,
1635
1636Soon as I was within, cast round mine eye,
1637  And see on every hand an ample plain,
1638  Full of distress and torment terrible.
1639
1640Even as at Arles, where stagnant grows the Rhone,
1641  Even as at Pola near to the Quarnaro,
1642  That shuts in Italy and bathes its borders,
1643
1644The sepulchres make all the place uneven;
1645  So likewise did they there on every side,
1646  Saving that there the manner was more bitter;
1647
1648For flames between the sepulchres were scattered,
1649  By which they so intensely heated were,
1650  That iron more so asks not any art.
1651
1652All of their coverings uplifted were,
1653  And from them issued forth such dire laments,
1654  Sooth seemed they of the wretched and tormented.
1655
1656And I: "My Master, what are all those people
1657  Who, having sepulture within those tombs,
1658  Make themselves audible by doleful sighs?"
1659
1660And he to me: "Here are the Heresiarchs,
1661  With their disciples of all sects, and much
1662  More than thou thinkest laden are the tombs.
1663
1664Here like together with its like is buried;
1665  And more and less the monuments are heated."
1666  And when he to the right had turned, we passed
1667
1668Between the torments and high parapets.
1669
1670
1671
1672Inferno: Canto X
1673
1674
1675Now onward goes, along a narrow path
1676  Between the torments and the city wall,
1677  My Master, and I follow at his back.
1678
1679"O power supreme, that through these impious circles
1680  Turnest me," I began, "as pleases thee,
1681  Speak to me, and my longings satisfy;
1682
1683The people who are lying in these tombs,
1684  Might they be seen? already are uplifted
1685  The covers all, and no one keepeth guard."
1686
1687And he to me: "They all will be closed up
1688  When from Jehoshaphat they shall return
1689  Here with the bodies they have left above.
1690
1691Their cemetery have upon this side
1692  With Epicurus all his followers,
1693  Who with the body mortal make the soul;
1694
1695But in the question thou dost put to me,
1696  Within here shalt thou soon be satisfied,
1697  And likewise in the wish thou keepest silent."
1698
1699And I: "Good Leader, I but keep concealed
1700  From thee my heart, that I may speak the less,
1701  Nor only now hast thou thereto disposed me."
1702
1703"O Tuscan, thou who through the city of fire
1704  Goest alive, thus speaking modestly,
1705  Be pleased to stay thy footsteps in this place.
1706
1707Thy mode of speaking makes thee manifest
1708  A native of that noble fatherland,
1709  To which perhaps I too molestful was."
1710
1711Upon a sudden issued forth this sound
1712  From out one of the tombs; wherefore I pressed,
1713  Fearing, a little nearer to my Leader.
1714
1715And unto me he said: "Turn thee; what dost thou?
1716  Behold there Farinata who has risen;
1717  From the waist upwards wholly shalt thou see him."
1718
1719I had already fixed mine eyes on his,
1720  And he uprose erect with breast and front
1721  E'en as if Hell he had in great despite.
1722
1723And with courageous hands and prompt my Leader
1724  Thrust me between the sepulchres towards him,
1725  Exclaiming, "Let thy words explicit be."
1726
1727As soon as I was at the foot of his tomb
1728  Somewhat he eyed me, and, as if disdainful,
1729  Then asked of me, "Who were thine ancestors?"
1730
1731I, who desirous of obeying was,
1732  Concealed it not, but all revealed to him;
1733  Whereat he raised his brows a little upward.
1734
1735Then said he: "Fiercely adverse have they been
1736  To me, and to my fathers, and my party;
1737  So that two several times I scattered them."
1738
1739"If they were banished, they returned on all sides,"
1740  I answered him, "the first time and the second;
1741  But yours have not acquired that art aright."
1742
1743Then there uprose upon the sight, uncovered
1744  Down to the chin, a shadow at his side;
1745  I think that he had risen on his knees.
1746
1747Round me he gazed, as if solicitude
1748  He had to see if some one else were with me,
1749  But after his suspicion was all spent,
1750
1751Weeping, he said to me: "If through this blind
1752  Prison thou goest by loftiness of genius,
1753  Where is my son? and why is he not with thee?"
1754
1755And I to him: "I come not of myself;
1756  He who is waiting yonder leads me here,
1757  Whom in disdain perhaps your Guido had."
1758
1759His language and the mode of punishment
1760  Already unto me had read his name;
1761  On that account my answer was so full.
1762
1763Up starting suddenly, he cried out: "How
1764  Saidst thou,--he had?  Is he not still alive?
1765  Does not the sweet light strike upon his eyes?"
1766
1767When he became aware of some delay,
1768  Which I before my answer made, supine
1769  He fell again, and forth appeared no more.
1770
1771But the other, magnanimous, at whose desire
1772  I had remained, did not his aspect change,
1773  Neither his neck he moved, nor bent his side.
1774
1775"And if," continuing his first discourse,
1776  "They have that art," he said, "not learned aright,
1777  That more tormenteth me, than doth this bed.
1778
1779But fifty times shall not rekindled be
1780  The countenance of the Lady who reigns here,
1781  Ere thou shalt know how heavy is that art;
1782
1783And as thou wouldst to the sweet world return,
1784  Say why that people is so pitiless
1785  Against my race in each one of its laws?"
1786
1787Whence I to him: "The slaughter and great carnage
1788  Which have with crimson stained the Arbia, cause
1789  Such orisons in our temple to be made."
1790
1791After his head he with a sigh had shaken,
1792  "There I was not alone," he said, "nor surely
1793  Without a cause had with the others moved.
1794
1795But there I was alone, where every one
1796  Consented to the laying waste of Florence,
1797  He who defended her with open face."
1798
1799"Ah! so hereafter may your seed repose,"
1800  I him entreated, "solve for me that knot,
1801  Which has entangled my conceptions here.
1802
1803It seems that you can see, if I hear rightly,
1804  Beforehand whatsoe'er time brings with it,
1805  And in the present have another mode."
1806
1807"We see, like those who have imperfect sight,
1808  The things," he said, "that distant are from us;
1809  So much still shines on us the Sovereign Ruler.
1810
1811When they draw near, or are, is wholly vain
1812  Our intellect, and if none brings it to us,
1813  Not anything know we of your human state.
1814
1815Hence thou canst understand, that wholly dead
1816  Will be our knowledge from the moment when
1817  The portal of the future shall be closed."
1818
1819Then I, as if compunctious for my fault,
1820  Said: "Now, then, you will tell that fallen one,
1821  That still his son is with the living joined.
1822
1823And if just now, in answering, I was dumb,
1824  Tell him I did it because I was thinking
1825  Already of the error you have solved me."
1826
1827And now my Master was recalling me,
1828  Wherefore more eagerly I prayed the spirit
1829  That he would tell me who was with him there.
1830
1831He said: "With more than a thousand here I lie;
1832  Within here is the second Frederick,
1833  And the Cardinal, and of the rest I speak not."
1834
1835Thereon he hid himself; and I towards
1836  The ancient poet turned my steps, reflecting
1837  Upon that saying, which seemed hostile to me.
1838
1839He moved along; and afterward thus going,
1840  He said to me, "Why art thou so bewildered?"
1841  And I in his inquiry satisfied him.
1842
1843"Let memory preserve what thou hast heard
1844  Against thyself," that Sage commanded me,
1845  "And now attend here;" and he raised his finger.
1846
1847"When thou shalt be before the radiance sweet
1848  Of her whose beauteous eyes all things behold,
1849  From her thou'lt know the journey of thy life."
1850
1851Unto the left hand then he turned his feet;
1852  We left the wall, and went towards the middle,
1853  Along a path that strikes into a valley,
1854
1855Which even up there unpleasant made its stench.
1856
1857
1858
1859Inferno: Canto XI
1860
1861
1862Upon the margin of a lofty bank
1863  Which great rocks broken in a circle made,
1864  We came upon a still more cruel throng;
1865
1866And there, by reason of the horrible
1867  Excess of stench the deep abyss throws out,
1868  We drew ourselves aside behind the cover
1869
1870Of a great tomb, whereon I saw a writing,
1871  Which said: "Pope Anastasius I hold,
1872  Whom out of the right way Photinus drew."
1873
1874"Slow it behoveth our descent to be,
1875  So that the sense be first a little used
1876  To the sad blast, and then we shall not heed it."
1877
1878The Master thus; and unto him I said,
1879  "Some compensation find, that the time pass not
1880  Idly;" and he: "Thou seest I think of that.
1881
1882My son, upon the inside of these rocks,"
1883  Began he then to say, "are three small circles,
1884  From grade to grade, like those which thou art leaving.
1885
1886They all are full of spirits maledict;
1887  But that hereafter sight alone suffice thee,
1888  Hear how and wherefore they are in constraint.
1889
1890Of every malice that wins hate in Heaven,
1891  Injury is the end; and all such end
1892  Either by force or fraud afflicteth others.
1893
1894But because fraud is man's peculiar vice,
1895  More it displeases God; and so stand lowest
1896  The fraudulent, and greater dole assails them.
1897
1898All the first circle of the Violent is;
1899  But since force may be used against three persons,
1900  In three rounds 'tis divided and constructed.
1901
1902To God, to ourselves, and to our neighbour can we
1903  Use force; I say on them and on their things,
1904  As thou shalt hear with reason manifest.
1905
1906A death by violence, and painful wounds,
1907  Are to our neighbour given; and in his substance
1908  Ruin, and arson, and injurious levies;
1909
1910Whence homicides, and he who smites unjustly,
1911  Marauders, and freebooters, the first round
1912  Tormenteth all in companies diverse.
1913
1914Man may lay violent hands upon himself
1915  And his own goods; and therefore in the second
1916  Round must perforce without avail repent
1917
1918Whoever of your world deprives himself,
1919  Who games, and dissipates his property,
1920  And weepeth there, where he should jocund be.
1921
1922Violence can be done the Deity,
1923  In heart denying and blaspheming Him,
1924  And by disdaining Nature and her bounty.
1925
1926And for this reason doth the smallest round
1927  Seal with its signet Sodom and Cahors,
1928  And who, disdaining God, speaks from the heart.
1929
1930Fraud, wherewithal is every conscience stung,
1931  A man may practise upon him who trusts,
1932  And him who doth no confidence imburse.
1933
1934This latter mode, it would appear, dissevers
1935  Only the bond of love which Nature makes;
1936  Wherefore within the second circle nestle
1937
1938Hypocrisy, flattery, and who deals in magic,
1939  Falsification, theft, and simony,
1940  Panders, and barrators, and the like filth.
1941
1942By the other mode, forgotten is that love
1943  Which Nature makes, and what is after added,
1944  From which there is a special faith engendered.
1945
1946Hence in the smallest circle, where the point is
1947  Of the Universe, upon which Dis is seated,
1948  Whoe'er betrays for ever is consumed."
1949
1950And I: "My Master, clear enough proceeds
1951  Thy reasoning, and full well distinguishes
1952  This cavern and the people who possess it.
1953
1954But tell me, those within the fat lagoon,
1955  Whom the wind drives, and whom the rain doth beat,
1956  And who encounter with such bitter tongues,
1957
1958Wherefore are they inside of the red city
1959  Not punished, if God has them in his wrath,
1960  And if he has not, wherefore in such fashion?"
1961
1962And unto me he said: "Why wanders so
1963  Thine intellect from that which it is wont?
1964  Or, sooth, thy mind where is it elsewhere looking?
1965
1966Hast thou no recollection of those words
1967  With which thine Ethics thoroughly discusses
1968  The dispositions three, that Heaven abides not,--
1969
1970Incontinence, and Malice, and insane
1971  Bestiality? and how Incontinence
1972  Less God offendeth, and less blame attracts?
1973
1974If thou regardest this conclusion well,
1975  And to thy mind recallest who they are
1976  That up outside are undergoing penance,
1977
1978Clearly wilt thou perceive why from these felons
1979  They separated are, and why less wroth
1980  Justice divine doth smite them with its hammer."
1981
1982"O Sun, that healest all distempered vision,
1983  Thou dost content me so, when thou resolvest,
1984  That doubting pleases me no less than knowing!
1985
1986Once more a little backward turn thee," said I,
1987  "There where thou sayest that usury offends
1988  Goodness divine, and disengage the knot."
1989
1990"Philosophy," he said, "to him who heeds it,
1991  Noteth, not only in one place alone,
1992  After what manner Nature takes her course
1993
1994From Intellect Divine, and from its art;
1995  And if thy Physics carefully thou notest,
1996  After not many pages shalt thou find,
1997
1998That this your art as far as possible
1999  Follows, as the disciple doth the master;
2000  So that your art is, as it were, God's grandchild.
2001
2002From these two, if thou bringest to thy mind
2003  Genesis at the beginning, it behoves
2004  Mankind to gain their life and to advance;
2005
2006And since the usurer takes another way,
2007  Nature herself and in her follower
2008  Disdains he, for elsewhere he puts his hope.
2009
2010But follow, now, as I would fain go on,
2011  For quivering are the Fishes on the horizon,
2012  And the Wain wholly over Caurus lies,
2013
2014And far beyond there we descend the crag."
2015
2016
2017
2018Inferno: Canto XII
2019
2020
2021The place where to descend the bank we came
2022  Was alpine, and from what was there, moreover,
2023  Of such a kind that every eye would shun it.
2024
2025Such as that ruin is which in the flank
2026  Smote, on this side of Trent, the Adige,
2027  Either by earthquake or by failing stay,
2028
2029For from the mountain's top, from which it moved,
2030  Unto the plain the cliff is shattered so,
2031  Some path 'twould give to him who was above;
2032
2033Even such was the descent of that ravine,
2034  And on the border of the broken chasm
2035  The infamy of Crete was stretched along,
2036
2037Who was conceived in the fictitious cow;
2038  And when he us beheld, he bit himself,
2039  Even as one whom anger racks within.
2040
2041My Sage towards him shouted: "Peradventure
2042  Thou think'st that here may be the Duke of Athens,
2043  Who in the world above brought death to thee?
2044
2045Get thee gone, beast, for this one cometh not
2046  Instructed by thy sister, but he comes
2047  In order to behold your punishments."
2048
2049As is that bull who breaks loose at the moment
2050  In which he has received the mortal blow,
2051  Who cannot walk, but staggers here and there,
2052
2053The Minotaur beheld I do the like;
2054  And he, the wary, cried: "Run to the passage;
2055  While he wroth, 'tis well thou shouldst descend."
2056
2057Thus down we took our way o'er that discharge
2058  Of stones, which oftentimes did move themselves
2059  Beneath my feet, from the unwonted burden.
2060
2061Thoughtful I went; and he said: "Thou art thinking
2062  Perhaps upon this ruin, which is guarded
2063  By that brute anger which just now I quenched.
2064
2065Now will I have thee know, the other time
2066  I here descended to the nether Hell,
2067  This precipice had not yet fallen down.
2068
2069But truly, if I well discern, a little
2070  Before His coming who the mighty spoil
2071  Bore off from Dis, in the supernal circle,
2072
2073Upon all sides the deep and loathsome valley
2074  Trembled so, that I thought the Universe
2075  Was thrilled with love, by which there are who think
2076
2077The world ofttimes converted into chaos;
2078  And at that moment this primeval crag
2079  Both here and elsewhere made such overthrow.
2080
2081But fix thine eyes below; for draweth near
2082  The river of blood, within which boiling is
2083  Whoe'er by violence doth injure others."
2084
2085O blind cupidity, O wrath insane,
2086  That spurs us onward so in our short life,
2087  And in the eternal then so badly steeps us!
2088
2089I saw an ample moat bent like a bow,
2090  As one which all the plain encompasses,
2091  Conformable to what my Guide had said.
2092
2093And between this and the embankment's foot
2094  Centaurs in file were running, armed with arrows,
2095  As in the world they used the chase to follow.
2096
2097Beholding us descend, each one stood still,
2098  And from the squadron three detached themselves,
2099  With bows and arrows in advance selected;
2100
2101And from afar one cried: "Unto what torment
2102  Come ye, who down the hillside are descending?
2103  Tell us from there; if not, I draw the bow."
2104
2105My Master said: "Our answer will we make
2106  To Chiron, near you there; in evil hour,
2107  That will of thine was evermore so hasty."
2108
2109Then touched he me, and said: "This one is Nessus,
2110  Who perished for the lovely Dejanira,
2111  And for himself, himself did vengeance take.
2112
2113And he in the midst, who at his breast is gazing,
2114  Is the great Chiron, who brought up Achilles;
2115  That other Pholus is, who was so wrathful.
2116
2117Thousands and thousands go about the moat
2118  Shooting with shafts whatever soul emerges
2119  Out of the blood, more than his crime allots."
2120
2121Near we approached unto those monsters fleet;
2122  Chiron an arrow took, and with the notch
2123  Backward upon his jaws he put his beard.
2124
2125After he had uncovered his great mouth,
2126  He said to his companions: "Are you ware
2127  That he behind moveth whate'er he touches?
2128
2129Thus are not wont to do the feet of dead men."
2130  And my good Guide, who now was at his breast,
2131  Where the two natures are together joined,
2132
2133Replied: "Indeed he lives, and thus alone
2134  Me it behoves to show him the dark valley;
2135  Necessity, and not delight, impels us.
2136
2137Some one withdrew from singing Halleluja,
2138  Who unto me committed this new office;
2139  No thief is he, nor I a thievish spirit.
2140
2141But by that virtue through which I am moving
2142  My steps along this savage thoroughfare,
2143  Give us some one of thine, to be with us,
2144
2145And who may show us where to pass the ford,
2146  And who may carry this one on his back;
2147  For 'tis no spirit that can walk the air."
2148
2149Upon his right breast Chiron wheeled about,
2150  And said to Nessus: "Turn and do thou guide them,
2151  And warn aside, if other band may meet you."
2152
2153We with our faithful escort onward moved
2154  Along the brink of the vermilion boiling,
2155  Wherein the boiled were uttering loud laments.
2156
2157People I saw within up to the eyebrows,
2158  And the great Centaur said: "Tyrants are these,
2159  Who dealt in bloodshed and in pillaging.
2160
2161Here they lament their pitiless mischiefs; here
2162  Is Alexander, and fierce Dionysius
2163  Who upon Sicily brought dolorous years.
2164
2165That forehead there which has the hair so black
2166  Is Azzolin; and the other who is blond,
2167  Obizzo is of Esti, who, in truth,
2168
2169Up in the world was by his stepson slain."
2170  Then turned I to the Poet; and he said,
2171  "Now he be first to thee, and second I."
2172
2173A little farther on the Centaur stopped
2174  Above a folk, who far down as the throat
2175  Seemed from that boiling stream to issue forth.
2176
2177A shade he showed us on one side alone,
2178  Saying: "He cleft asunder in God's bosom
2179  The heart that still upon the Thames is honoured."
2180
2181Then people saw I, who from out the river
2182  Lifted their heads and also all the chest;
2183  And many among these I recognised.
2184
2185Thus ever more and more grew shallower
2186  That blood, so that the feet alone it covered;
2187  And there across the moat our passage was.
2188
2189"Even as thou here upon this side beholdest
2190  The boiling stream, that aye diminishes,"
2191  The Centaur said, "I wish thee to believe
2192
2193That on this other more and more declines
2194  Its bed, until it reunites itself
2195  Where it behoveth tyranny to groan.
2196
2197Justice divine, upon this side, is goading
2198  That Attila, who was a scourge on earth,
2199  And Pyrrhus, and Sextus; and for ever milks
2200
2201The tears which with the boiling it unseals
2202  In Rinier da Corneto and Rinier Pazzo,
2203  Who made upon the highways so much war."
2204
2205Then back he turned, and passed again the ford.
2206
2207
2208
2209Inferno: Canto XIII
2210
2211
2212Not yet had Nessus reached the other side,
2213  When we had put ourselves within a wood,
2214  That was not marked by any path whatever.
2215
2216Not foliage green, but of a dusky colour,
2217  Not branches smooth, but gnarled and intertangled,
2218  Not apple-trees were there, but thorns with poison.
2219
2220Such tangled thickets have not, nor so dense,
2221  Those savage wild beasts, that in hatred hold
2222  'Twixt Cecina and Corneto the tilled places.
2223
2224There do the hideous Harpies make their nests,
2225  Who chased the Trojans from the Strophades,
2226  With sad announcement of impending doom;
2227
2228Broad wings have they, and necks and faces human,
2229  And feet with claws, and their great bellies fledged;
2230  They make laments upon the wondrous trees.
2231
2232And the good Master: "Ere thou enter farther,
2233  Know that thou art within the second round,"
2234  Thus he began to say, "and shalt be, till
2235
2236Thou comest out upon the horrible sand;
2237  Therefore look well around, and thou shalt see
2238  Things that will credence give unto my speech."
2239
2240I heard on all sides lamentations uttered,
2241  And person none beheld I who might make them,
2242  Whence, utterly bewildered, I stood still.
2243
2244I think he thought that I perhaps might think
2245  So many voices issued through those trunks
2246  From people who concealed themselves from us;
2247
2248Therefore the Master said: "If thou break off
2249  Some little spray from any of these trees,
2250  The thoughts thou hast will wholly be made vain."
2251
2252Then stretched I forth my hand a little forward,
2253  And plucked a branchlet off from a great thorn;
2254  And the trunk cried, "Why dost thou mangle me?"
2255
2256After it had become embrowned with blood,
2257  It recommenced its cry: "Why dost thou rend me?
2258  Hast thou no spirit of pity whatsoever?
2259
2260Men once we were, and now are changed to trees;
2261  Indeed, thy hand should be more pitiful,
2262  Even if the souls of serpents we had been."
2263
2264As out of a green brand, that is on fire
2265  At one of the ends, and from the other drips
2266  And hisses with the wind that is escaping;
2267
2268So from that splinter issued forth together
2269  Both words and blood; whereat I let the tip
2270  Fall, and stood like a man who is afraid.
2271
2272"Had he been able sooner to believe,"
2273  My Sage made answer, "O thou wounded soul,
2274  What only in my verses he has seen,
2275
2276Not upon thee had he stretched forth his hand;
2277  Whereas the thing incredible has caused me
2278  To put him to an act which grieveth me.
2279
2280But tell him who thou wast, so that by way
2281  Of some amends thy fame he may refresh
2282  Up in the world, to which he can return."
2283
2284And the trunk said: "So thy sweet words allure me,
2285  I cannot silent be; and you be vexed not,
2286  That I a little to discourse am tempted.
2287
2288I am the one who both keys had in keeping
2289  Of Frederick's heart, and turned them to and fro
2290  So softly in unlocking and in locking,
2291
2292That from his secrets most men I withheld;
2293  Fidelity I bore the glorious office
2294  So great, I lost thereby my sleep and pulses.
2295
2296The courtesan who never from the dwelling
2297  Of Caesar turned aside her strumpet eyes,
2298  Death universal and the vice of courts,
2299
2300Inflamed against me all the other minds,
2301  And they, inflamed, did so inflame Augustus,
2302  That my glad honours turned to dismal mournings.
2303
2304My spirit, in disdainful exultation,
2305  Thinking by dying to escape disdain,
2306  Made me unjust against myself, the just.
2307
2308I, by the roots unwonted of this wood,
2309  Do swear to you that never broke I faith
2310  Unto my lord, who was so worthy of honour;
2311
2312And to the world if one of you return,
2313  Let him my memory comfort, which is lying
2314  Still prostrate from the blow that envy dealt it."
2315
2316Waited awhile, and then: "Since he is silent,"
2317  The Poet said to me, "lose not the time,
2318  But speak, and question him, if more may please thee."
2319
2320Whence I to him: "Do thou again inquire
2321  Concerning what thou thinks't will satisfy me;
2322  For I cannot, such pity is in my heart."
2323
2324Therefore he recommenced: "So may the man
2325  Do for thee freely what thy speech implores,
2326  Spirit incarcerate, again be pleased
2327
2328To tell us in what way the soul is bound
2329  Within these knots; and tell us, if thou canst,
2330  If any from such members e'er is freed."
2331
2332Then blew the trunk amain, and afterward
2333  The wind was into such a voice converted:
2334  "With brevity shall be replied to you.
2335
2336When the exasperated soul abandons
2337  The body whence it rent itself away,
2338  Minos consigns it to the seventh abyss.
2339
2340It falls into the forest, and no part
2341  Is chosen for it; but where Fortune hurls it,
2342  There like a grain of spelt it germinates.
2343
2344It springs a sapling, and a forest tree;
2345  The Harpies, feeding then upon its leaves,
2346  Do pain create, and for the pain an outlet.
2347
2348Like others for our spoils shall we return;
2349  But not that any one may them revest,
2350  For 'tis not just to have what one casts off.
2351
2352Here we shall drag them, and along the dismal
2353  Forest our bodies shall suspended be,
2354  Each to the thorn of his molested shade."
2355
2356We were attentive still unto the trunk,
2357  Thinking that more it yet might wish to tell us,
2358  When by a tumult we were overtaken,
2359
2360In the same way as he is who perceives
2361  The boar and chase approaching to his stand,
2362  Who hears the crashing of the beasts and branches;
2363
2364And two behold! upon our left-hand side,
2365  Naked and scratched, fleeing so furiously,
2366  That of the forest, every fan they broke.
2367
2368He who was in advance: "Now help, Death, help!"
2369  And the other one, who seemed to lag too much,
2370  Was shouting: "Lano, were not so alert
2371
2372Those legs of thine at joustings of the Toppo!"
2373  And then, perchance because his breath was failing,
2374  He grouped himself together with a bush.
2375
2376Behind them was the forest full of black
2377  She-mastiffs, ravenous, and swift of foot
2378  As greyhounds, who are issuing from the chain.
2379
2380On him who had crouched down they set their teeth,
2381  And him they lacerated piece by piece,
2382  Thereafter bore away those aching members.
2383
2384Thereat my Escort took me by the hand,
2385  And led me to the bush, that all in vain
2386  Was weeping from its bloody lacerations.
2387
2388"O Jacopo," it said, "of Sant' Andrea,
2389  What helped it thee of me to make a screen?
2390  What blame have I in thy nefarious life?"
2391
2392When near him had the Master stayed his steps,
2393  He said: "Who wast thou, that through wounds so many
2394  Art blowing out with blood thy dolorous speech?"
2395
2396And he to us: "O souls, that hither come
2397  To look upon the shameful massacre
2398  That has so rent away from me my leaves,
2399
2400Gather them up beneath the dismal bush;
2401  I of that city was which to the Baptist
2402  Changed its first patron, wherefore he for this
2403
2404Forever with his art will make it sad.
2405  And were it not that on the pass of Arno
2406  Some glimpses of him are remaining still,
2407
2408Those citizens, who afterwards rebuilt it
2409  Upon the ashes left by Attila,
2410  In vain had caused their labour to be done.
2411
2412Of my own house I made myself a gibbet."
2413
2414
2415
2416Inferno: Canto XIV
2417
2418
2419Because the charity of my native place
2420  Constrained me, gathered I the scattered leaves,
2421  And gave them back to him, who now was hoarse.
2422
2423Then came we to the confine, where disparted
2424  The second round is from the third, and where
2425  A horrible form of Justice is beheld.
2426
2427Clearly to manifest these novel things,
2428  I say that we arrived upon a plain,
2429  Which from its bed rejecteth every plant;
2430
2431The dolorous forest is a garland to it
2432  All round about, as the sad moat to that;
2433  There close upon the edge we stayed our feet.
2434
2435The soil was of an arid and thick sand,
2436  Not of another fashion made than that
2437  Which by the feet of Cato once was pressed.
2438
2439Vengeance of God, O how much oughtest thou
2440  By each one to be dreaded, who doth read
2441  That which was manifest unto mine eyes!
2442
2443Of naked souls beheld I many herds,
2444  Who all were weeping very miserably,
2445  And over them seemed set a law diverse.
2446
2447Supine upon the ground some folk were lying;
2448  And some were sitting all drawn up together,
2449  And others went about continually.
2450
2451Those who were going round were far the more,
2452  And those were less who lay down to their torment,
2453  But had their tongues more loosed to lamentation.
2454
2455O'er all the sand-waste, with a gradual fall,
2456  Were raining down dilated flakes of fire,
2457  As of the snow on Alp without a wind.
2458
2459As Alexander, in those torrid parts
2460  Of India, beheld upon his host
2461  Flames fall unbroken till they reached the ground.
2462
2463Whence he provided with his phalanxes
2464  To trample down the soil, because the vapour
2465  Better extinguished was while it was single;
2466
2467Thus was descending the eternal heat,
2468  Whereby the sand was set on fire, like tinder
2469  Beneath the steel, for doubling of the dole.
2470
2471Without repose forever was the dance
2472  Of miserable hands, now there, now here,
2473  Shaking away from off them the fresh gleeds.
2474
2475"Master," began I, "thou who overcomest
2476  All things except the demons dire, that issued
2477  Against us at the entrance of the gate,
2478
2479Who is that mighty one who seems to heed not
2480  The fire, and lieth lowering and disdainful,
2481  So that the rain seems not to ripen him?"
2482
2483And he himself, who had become aware
2484  That I was questioning my Guide about him,
2485  Cried: "Such as I was living, am I, dead.
2486
2487If Jove should weary out his smith, from whom
2488  He seized in anger the sharp thunderbolt,
2489  Wherewith upon the last day I was smitten,
2490
2491And if he wearied out by turns the others
2492  In Mongibello at the swarthy forge,
2493  Vociferating, 'Help, good Vulcan, help!'
2494
2495Even as he did there at the fight of Phlegra,
2496  And shot his bolts at me with all his might,
2497  He would not have thereby a joyous vengeance."
2498
2499Then did my Leader speak with such great force,
2500  That I had never heard him speak so loud:
2501  "O Capaneus, in that is not extinguished
2502
2503Thine arrogance, thou punished art the more;
2504  Not any torment, saving thine own rage,
2505  Would be unto thy fury pain complete."
2506
2507Then he turned round to me with better lip,
2508  Saying: "One of the Seven Kings was he
2509  Who Thebes besieged, and held, and seems to hold
2510
2511God in disdain, and little seems to prize him;
2512  But, as I said to him, his own despites
2513  Are for his breast the fittest ornaments.
2514
2515Now follow me, and mind thou do not place
2516  As yet thy feet upon the burning sand,
2517  But always keep them close unto the wood."
2518
2519Speaking no word, we came to where there gushes
2520  Forth from the wood a little rivulet,
2521  Whose redness makes my hair still stand on end.
2522
2523As from the Bulicame springs the brooklet,
2524  The sinful women later share among them,
2525  So downward through the sand it went its way.
2526
2527The bottom of it, and both sloping banks,
2528  Were made of stone, and the margins at the side;
2529  Whence I perceived that there the passage was.
2530
2531"In all the rest which I have shown to thee
2532  Since we have entered in within the gate
2533  Whose threshold unto no one is denied,
2534
2535Nothing has been discovered by thine eyes
2536  So notable as is the present river,
2537  Which all the little flames above it quenches."
2538
2539These words were of my Leader; whence I prayed him
2540  That he would give me largess of the food,
2541  For which he had given me largess of desire.
2542
2543"In the mid-sea there sits a wasted land,"
2544  Said he thereafterward, "whose name is Crete,
2545  Under whose king the world of old was chaste.
2546
2547There is a mountain there, that once was glad
2548  With waters and with leaves, which was called Ida;
2549  Now 'tis deserted, as a thing worn out.
2550
2551Rhea once chose it for the faithful cradle
2552  Of her own son; and to conceal him better,
2553  Whene'er he cried, she there had clamours made.
2554
2555A grand old man stands in the mount erect,
2556  Who holds his shoulders turned tow'rds Damietta,
2557  And looks at Rome as if it were his mirror.
2558
2559His head is fashioned of refined gold,
2560  And of pure silver are the arms and breast;
2561  Then he is brass as far down as the fork.
2562
2563From that point downward all is chosen iron,
2564  Save that the right foot is of kiln-baked clay,
2565  And more he stands on that than on the other.
2566
2567Each part, except the gold, is by a fissure
2568  Asunder cleft, that dripping is with tears,
2569  Which gathered together perforate that cavern.
2570
2571From rock to rock they fall into this valley;
2572  Acheron, Styx, and Phlegethon they form;
2573  Then downward go along this narrow sluice
2574
2575Unto that point where is no more descending.
2576  They form Cocytus; what that pool may be
2577  Thou shalt behold, so here 'tis not narrated."
2578
2579And I to him: "If so the present runnel
2580  Doth take its rise in this way from our world,
2581  Why only on this verge appears it to us?"
2582
2583And he to me: "Thou knowest the place is round,
2584  And notwithstanding thou hast journeyed far,
2585  Still to the left descending to the bottom,
2586
2587Thou hast not yet through all the circle turned.
2588  Therefore if something new appear to us,
2589  It should not bring amazement to thy face."
2590
2591And I again: "Master, where shall be found
2592  Lethe and Phlegethon, for of one thou'rt silent,
2593  And sayest the other of this rain is made?"
2594
2595"In all thy questions truly thou dost please me,"
2596  Replied he; "but the boiling of the red
2597  Water might well solve one of them thou makest.
2598
2599Thou shalt see Lethe, but outside this moat,
2600  There where the souls repair to lave themselves,
2601  When sin repented of has been removed."
2602
2603Then said he: "It is time now to abandon
2604  The wood; take heed that thou come after me;
2605  A way the margins make that are not burning,
2606
2607And over them all vapours are extinguished."
2608
2609
2610
2611Inferno: Canto XV
2612
2613
2614Now bears us onward one of the hard margins,
2615  And so the brooklet's mist o'ershadows it,
2616  From fire it saves the water and the dikes.
2617
2618Even as the Flemings, 'twixt Cadsand and Bruges,
2619  Fearing the flood that tow'rds them hurls itself,
2620  Their bulwarks build to put the sea to flight;
2621
2622And as the Paduans along the Brenta,
2623  To guard their villas and their villages,
2624  Or ever Chiarentana feel the heat;
2625
2626In such similitude had those been made,
2627  Albeit not so lofty nor so thick,
2628  Whoever he might be, the master made them.
2629
2630Now were we from the forest so remote,
2631  I could not have discovered where it was,
2632  Even if backward I had turned myself,
2633
2634When we a company of souls encountered,
2635  Who came beside the dike, and every one
2636  Gazed at us, as at evening we are wont
2637
2638To eye each other under a new moon,
2639  And so towards us sharpened they their brows
2640  As an old tailor at the needle's eye.
2641
2642Thus scrutinised by such a family,
2643  By some one I was recognised, who seized
2644  My garment's hem, and cried out, "What a marvel!"
2645
2646And I, when he stretched forth his arm to me,
2647  On his baked aspect fastened so mine eyes,
2648  That the scorched countenance prevented not
2649
2650His recognition by my intellect;
2651  And bowing down my face unto his own,
2652  I made reply, "Are you here, Ser Brunetto?"
2653
2654And he: "May't not displease thee, O my son,
2655  If a brief space with thee Brunetto Latini
2656  Backward return and let the trail go on."
2657
2658I said to him: "With all my power I ask it;
2659  And if you wish me to sit down with you,
2660  I will, if he please, for I go with him."
2661
2662"O son," he said, "whoever of this herd
2663  A moment stops, lies then a hundred years,
2664  Nor fans himself when smiteth him the fire.
2665
2666Therefore go on; I at thy skirts will come,
2667  And afterward will I rejoin my band,
2668  Which goes lamenting its eternal doom."
2669
2670I did not dare to go down from the road
2671  Level to walk with him; but my head bowed
2672  I held as one who goeth reverently.
2673
2674And he began: "What fortune or what fate
2675  Before the last day leadeth thee down here?
2676  And who is this that showeth thee the way?"
2677
2678"Up there above us in the life serene,"
2679  I answered him, "I lost me in a valley,
2680  Or ever yet my age had been completed.
2681
2682But yestermorn I turned my back upon it;
2683  This one appeared to me, returning thither,
2684  And homeward leadeth me along this road."
2685
2686And he to me: "If thou thy star do follow,
2687  Thou canst not fail thee of a glorious port,
2688  If well I judged in the life beautiful.
2689
2690And if I had not died so prematurely,
2691  Seeing Heaven thus benignant unto thee,
2692  I would have given thee comfort in the work.
2693
2694But that ungrateful and malignant people,
2695  Which of old time from Fesole descended,
2696  And smacks still of the mountain and the granite,
2697
2698Will make itself, for thy good deeds, thy foe;
2699  And it is right; for among crabbed sorbs
2700  It ill befits the sweet fig to bear fruit.
2701
2702Old rumour in the world proclaims them blind;
2703  A people avaricious, envious, proud;
2704  Take heed that of their customs thou do cleanse thee.
2705
2706Thy fortune so much honour doth reserve thee,
2707  One party and the other shall be hungry
2708  For thee; but far from goat shall be the grass.
2709
2710Their litter let the beasts of Fesole
2711  Make of themselves, nor let them touch the plant,
2712  If any still upon their dunghill rise,
2713
2714In which may yet revive the consecrated
2715  Seed of those Romans, who remained there when
2716  The nest of such great malice it became."
2717
2718"If my entreaty wholly were fulfilled,"
2719  Replied I to him, "not yet would you be
2720  In banishment from human nature placed;
2721
2722For in my mind is fixed, and touches now
2723  My heart the dear and good paternal image
2724  Of you, when in the world from hour to hour
2725
2726You taught me how a man becomes eternal;
2727  And how much I am grateful, while I live
2728  Behoves that in my language be discerned.
2729
2730What you narrate of my career I write,
2731  And keep it to be glossed with other text
2732  By a Lady who can do it, if I reach her.
2733
2734This much will I have manifest to you;
2735  Provided that my conscience do not chide me,
2736  For whatsoever Fortune I am ready.
2737
2738Such handsel is not new unto mine ears;
2739  Therefore let Fortune turn her wheel around
2740  As it may please her, and the churl his mattock."
2741
2742My Master thereupon on his right cheek
2743  Did backward turn himself, and looked at me;
2744  Then said: "He listeneth well who noteth it."
2745
2746Nor speaking less on that account, I go
2747  With Ser Brunetto, and I ask who are
2748  His most known and most eminent companions.
2749
2750And he to me: "To know of some is well;
2751  Of others it were laudable to be silent,
2752  For short would be the time for so much speech.
2753
2754Know them in sum, that all of them were clerks,
2755  And men of letters great and of great fame,
2756  In the world tainted with the selfsame sin.
2757
2758Priscian goes yonder with that wretched crowd,
2759  And Francis of Accorso; and thou hadst seen there
2760  If thou hadst had a hankering for such scurf,
2761
2762That one, who by the Servant of the Servants
2763  From Arno was transferred to Bacchiglione,
2764  Where he has left his sin-excited nerves.
2765
2766More would I say, but coming and discoursing
2767  Can be no longer; for that I behold
2768  New smoke uprising yonder from the sand.
2769
2770A people comes with whom I may not be;
2771  Commended unto thee be my Tesoro,
2772  In which I still live, and no more I ask."
2773
2774Then he turned round, and seemed to be of those
2775  Who at Verona run for the Green Mantle
2776  Across the plain; and seemed to be among them
2777
2778The one who wins, and not the one who loses.
2779
2780
2781
2782Inferno: Canto XVI
2783
2784
2785Now was I where was heard the reverberation
2786  Of water falling into the next round,
2787  Like to that humming which the beehives make,
2788
2789When shadows three together started forth,
2790  Running, from out a company that passed
2791  Beneath the rain of the sharp martyrdom.
2792
2793Towards us came they, and each one cried out:
2794  "Stop, thou; for by thy garb to us thou seemest
2795  To be some one of our depraved city."
2796
2797Ah me! what wounds I saw upon their limbs,
2798  Recent and ancient by the flames burnt in!
2799  It pains me still but to remember it.
2800
2801Unto their cries my Teacher paused attentive;
2802  He turned his face towards me, and "Now wait,"
2803  He said; "to these we should be courteous.
2804
2805And if it were not for the fire that darts
2806  The nature of this region, I should say
2807  That haste were more becoming thee than them."
2808
2809As soon as we stood still, they recommenced
2810  The old refrain, and when they overtook us,
2811  Formed of themselves a wheel, all three of them.
2812
2813As champions stripped and oiled are wont to do,
2814  Watching for their advantage and their hold,
2815  Before they come to blows and thrusts between them,
2816
2817Thus, wheeling round, did every one his visage
2818  Direct to me, so that in opposite wise
2819  His neck and feet continual journey made.
2820
2821And, "If the misery of this soft place
2822  Bring in disdain ourselves and our entreaties,"
2823  Began one, "and our aspect black and blistered,
2824
2825Let the renown of us thy mind incline
2826  To tell us who thou art, who thus securely
2827  Thy living feet dost move along through Hell.
2828
2829He in whose footprints thou dost see me treading,
2830  Naked and skinless though he now may go,
2831  Was of a greater rank than thou dost think;
2832
2833He was the grandson of the good Gualdrada;
2834  His name was Guidoguerra, and in life
2835  Much did he with his wisdom and his sword.
2836
2837The other, who close by me treads the sand,
2838  Tegghiaio Aldobrandi is, whose fame
2839  Above there in the world should welcome be.
2840
2841And I, who with them on the cross am placed,
2842  Jacopo Rusticucci was; and truly
2843  My savage wife, more than aught else, doth harm me."
2844
2845Could I have been protected from the fire,
2846  Below I should have thrown myself among them,
2847  And think the Teacher would have suffered it;
2848
2849But as I should have burned and baked myself,
2850  My terror overmastered my good will,
2851  Which made me greedy of embracing them.
2852
2853Then I began: "Sorrow and not disdain
2854  Did your condition fix within me so,
2855  That tardily it wholly is stripped off,
2856
2857As soon as this my Lord said unto me
2858  Words, on account of which I thought within me
2859  That people such as you are were approaching.
2860
2861I of your city am; and evermore
2862  Your labours and your honourable names
2863  I with affection have retraced and heard.
2864
2865I leave the gall, and go for the sweet fruits
2866  Promised to me by the veracious Leader;
2867  But to the centre first I needs must plunge."
2868
2869"So may the soul for a long while conduct
2870  Those limbs of thine," did he make answer then,
2871  "And so may thy renown shine after thee,
2872
2873Valour and courtesy, say if they dwell
2874  Within our city, as they used to do,
2875  Or if they wholly have gone out of it;
2876
2877For Guglielmo Borsier, who is in torment
2878  With us of late, and goes there with his comrades,
2879  Doth greatly mortify us with his words."
2880
2881"The new inhabitants and the sudden gains,
2882  Pride and extravagance have in thee engendered,
2883  Florence, so that thou weep'st thereat already!"
2884
2885In this wise I exclaimed with face uplifted;
2886  And the three, taking that for my reply,
2887  Looked at each other, as one looks at truth.
2888
2889"If other times so little it doth cost thee,"
2890  Replied they all, "to satisfy another,
2891  Happy art thou, thus speaking at thy will!
2892
2893Therefore, if thou escape from these dark places,
2894  And come to rebehold the beauteous stars,
2895  When it shall pleasure thee to say, 'I was,'
2896
2897See that thou speak of us unto the people."
2898  Then they broke up the wheel, and in their flight
2899  It seemed as if their agile legs were wings.
2900
2901Not an Amen could possibly be said
2902  So rapidly as they had disappeared;
2903  Wherefore the Master deemed best to depart.
2904
2905I followed him, and little had we gone,
2906  Before the sound of water was so near us,
2907  That speaking we should hardly have been heard.
2908
2909Even as that stream which holdeth its own course
2910  The first from Monte Veso tow'rds the East,
2911  Upon the left-hand slope of Apennine,
2912
2913Which is above called Acquacheta, ere
2914  It down descendeth into its low bed,
2915  And at Forli is vacant of that name,
2916
2917Reverberates there above San Benedetto
2918  From Alps, by falling at a single leap,
2919  Where for a thousand there were room enough;
2920
2921Thus downward from a bank precipitate,
2922  We found resounding that dark-tinted water,
2923  So that it soon the ear would have offended.
2924
2925I had a cord around about me girt,
2926  And therewithal I whilom had designed
2927  To take the panther with the painted skin.
2928
2929After I this had all from me unloosed,
2930  As my Conductor had commanded me,
2931  I reached it to him, gathered up and coiled,
2932
2933Whereat he turned himself to the right side,
2934  And at a little distance from the verge,
2935  He cast it down into that deep abyss.
2936
2937"It must needs be some novelty respond,"
2938  I said within myself, "to the new signal
2939  The Master with his eye is following so."
2940
2941Ah me! how very cautious men should be
2942  With those who not alone behold the act,
2943  But with their wisdom look into the thoughts!
2944
2945He said to me: "Soon there will upward come
2946  What I await; and what thy thought is dreaming
2947  Must soon reveal itself unto thy sight."
2948
2949Aye to that truth which has the face of falsehood,
2950  A man should close his lips as far as may be,
2951  Because without his fault it causes shame;
2952
2953But here I cannot; and, Reader, by the notes
2954  Of this my Comedy to thee I swear,
2955  So may they not be void of lasting favour,
2956
2957Athwart that dense and darksome atmosphere
2958  I saw a figure swimming upward come,
2959  Marvellous unto every steadfast heart,
2960
2961Even as he returns who goeth down
2962  Sometimes to clear an anchor, which has grappled
2963  Reef, or aught else that in the sea is hidden,
2964
2965Who upward stretches, and draws in his feet.
2966
2967
2968
2969Inferno: Canto XVII
2970
2971
2972"Behold the monster with the pointed tail,
2973  Who cleaves the hills, and breaketh walls and weapons,
2974  Behold him who infecteth all the world."
2975
2976Thus unto me my Guide began to say,
2977  And beckoned him that he should come to shore,
2978  Near to the confine of the trodden marble;
2979
2980And that uncleanly image of deceit
2981  Came up and thrust ashore its head and bust,
2982  But on the border did not drag its tail.
2983
2984The face was as the face of a just man,
2985  Its semblance outwardly was so benign,
2986  And of a serpent all the trunk beside.
2987
2988Two paws it had, hairy unto the armpits;
2989  The back, and breast, and both the sides it had
2990  Depicted o'er with nooses and with shields.
2991
2992With colours more, groundwork or broidery
2993  Never in cloth did Tartars make nor Turks,
2994  Nor were such tissues by Arachne laid.
2995
2996As sometimes wherries lie upon the shore,
2997  That part are in the water, part on land;
2998  And as among the guzzling Germans there,
2999
3000The beaver plants himself to wage his war;
3001  So that vile monster lay upon the border,
3002  Which is of stone, and shutteth in the sand.
3003
3004His tail was wholly quivering in the void,
3005  Contorting upwards the envenomed fork,
3006  That in the guise of scorpion armed its point.
3007
3008The Guide said: "Now perforce must turn aside
3009  Our way a little, even to that beast
3010  Malevolent, that yonder coucheth him."
3011
3012We therefore on the right side descended,
3013  And made ten steps upon the outer verge,
3014  Completely to avoid the sand and flame;
3015
3016And after we are come to him, I see
3017  A little farther off upon the sand
3018  A people sitting near the hollow place.
3019
3020Then said to me the Master: "So that full
3021  Experience of this round thou bear away,
3022  Now go and see what their condition is.
3023
3024There let thy conversation be concise;
3025  Till thou returnest I will speak with him,
3026  That he concede to us his stalwart shoulders."
3027
3028Thus farther still upon the outermost
3029  Head of that seventh circle all alone
3030  I went, where sat the melancholy folk.
3031
3032Out of their eyes was gushing forth their woe;
3033  This way, that way, they helped them with their hands
3034  Now from the flames and now from the hot soil.
3035
3036Not otherwise in summer do the dogs,
3037  Now with the foot, now with the muzzle, when
3038  By fleas, or flies, or gadflies, they are bitten.
3039
3040When I had turned mine eyes upon the faces
3041  Of some, on whom the dolorous fire is falling,
3042  Not one of them I knew; but I perceived
3043
3044That from the neck of each there hung a pouch,
3045  Which certain colour had, and certain blazon;
3046  And thereupon it seems their eyes are feeding.
3047
3048And as I gazing round me come among them,
3049  Upon a yellow pouch I azure saw
3050  That had the face and posture of a lion.
3051
3052Proceeding then the current of my sight,
3053  Another of them saw I, red as blood,
3054  Display a goose more white than butter is.
3055
3056And one, who with an azure sow and gravid
3057  Emblazoned had his little pouch of white,
3058  Said unto me: "What dost thou in this moat?
3059
3060Now get thee gone; and since thou'rt still alive,
3061  Know that a neighbour of mine, Vitaliano,
3062  Will have his seat here on my left-hand side.
3063
3064A Paduan am I with these Florentines;
3065  Full many a time they thunder in mine ears,
3066  Exclaiming, 'Come the sovereign cavalier,
3067
3068He who shall bring the satchel with three goats;'"
3069  Then twisted he his mouth, and forth he thrust
3070  His tongue, like to an ox that licks its nose.
3071
3072And fearing lest my longer stay might vex
3073  Him who had warned me not to tarry long,
3074  Backward I turned me from those weary souls.
3075
3076I found my Guide, who had already mounted
3077  Upon the back of that wild animal,
3078  And said to me: "Now be both strong and bold.
3079
3080Now we descend by stairways such as these;
3081  Mount thou in front, for I will be midway,
3082  So that the tail may have no power to harm thee."
3083
3084Such as he is who has so near the ague
3085  Of quartan that his nails are blue already,
3086  And trembles all, but looking at the shade;
3087
3088Even such became I at those proffered words;
3089  But shame in me his menaces produced,
3090  Which maketh servant strong before good master.
3091
3092I seated me upon those monstrous shoulders;
3093  I wished to say, and yet the voice came not
3094  As I believed, "Take heed that thou embrace me."
3095
3096But he, who other times had rescued me
3097  In other peril, soon as I had mounted,
3098  Within his arms encircled and sustained me,
3099
3100And said: "Now, Geryon, bestir thyself;
3101  The circles large, and the descent be little;
3102  Think of the novel burden which thou hast."
3103
3104Even as the little vessel shoves from shore,
3105  Backward, still backward, so he thence withdrew;
3106  And when he wholly felt himself afloat,
3107
3108There where his breast had been he turned his tail,
3109  And that extended like an eel he moved,
3110  And with his paws drew to himself the air.
3111
3112A greater fear I do not think there was
3113  What time abandoned Phaeton the reins,
3114  Whereby the heavens, as still appears, were scorched;
3115
3116Nor when the wretched Icarus his flanks
3117  Felt stripped of feathers by the melting wax,
3118  His father crying, "An ill way thou takest!"
3119
3120Than was my own, when I perceived myself
3121  On all sides in the air, and saw extinguished
3122  The sight of everything but of the monster.
3123
3124Onward he goeth, swimming slowly, slowly;
3125  Wheels and descends, but I perceive it only
3126  By wind upon my face and from below.
3127
3128I heard already on the right the whirlpool
3129  Making a horrible crashing under us;
3130  Whence I thrust out my head with eyes cast downward.
3131
3132Then was I still more fearful of the abyss;
3133  Because I fires beheld, and heard laments,
3134  Whereat I, trembling, all the closer cling.
3135
3136I saw then, for before I had not seen it,
3137  The turning and descending, by great horrors
3138  That were approaching upon divers sides.
3139
3140As falcon who has long been on the wing,
3141  Who, without seeing either lure or bird,
3142  Maketh the falconer say, "Ah me, thou stoopest,"
3143
3144Descendeth weary, whence he started swiftly,
3145  Thorough a hundred circles, and alights
3146  Far from his master, sullen and disdainful;
3147
3148Even thus did Geryon place us on the bottom,
3149  Close to the bases of the rough-hewn rock,
3150  And being disencumbered of our persons,
3151
3152He sped away as arrow from the string.
3153
3154
3155
3156Inferno: Canto XVIII
3157
3158
3159There is a place in Hell called Malebolge,
3160  Wholly of stone and of an iron colour,
3161  As is the circle that around it turns.
3162
3163Right in the middle of the field malign
3164  There yawns a well exceeding wide and deep,
3165  Of which its place the structure will recount.
3166
3167Round, then, is that enclosure which remains
3168  Between the well and foot of the high, hard bank,
3169  And has distinct in valleys ten its bottom.
3170
3171As where for the protection of the walls
3172  Many and many moats surround the castles,
3173  The part in which they are a figure forms,
3174
3175Just such an image those presented there;
3176  And as about such strongholds from their gates
3177  Unto the outer bank are little bridges,
3178
3179So from the precipice's base did crags
3180  Project, which intersected dikes and moats,
3181  Unto the well that truncates and collects them.
3182
3183Within this place, down shaken from the back
3184  Of Geryon, we found us; and the Poet
3185  Held to the left, and I moved on behind.
3186
3187Upon my right hand I beheld new anguish,
3188  New torments, and new wielders of the lash,
3189  Wherewith the foremost Bolgia was replete.
3190
3191Down at the bottom were the sinners naked;
3192  This side the middle came they facing us,
3193  Beyond it, with us, but with greater steps;
3194
3195Even as the Romans, for the mighty host,
3196  The year of Jubilee, upon the bridge,
3197  Have chosen a mode to pass the people over;
3198
3199For all upon one side towards the Castle
3200  Their faces have, and go unto St. Peter's;
3201  On the other side they go towards the Mountain.
3202
3203This side and that, along the livid stone
3204  Beheld I horned demons with great scourges,
3205  Who cruelly were beating them behind.
3206
3207Ah me! how they did make them lift their legs
3208  At the first blows! and sooth not any one
3209  The second waited for, nor for the third.
3210
3211While I was going on, mine eyes by one
3212  Encountered were; and straight I said: "Already
3213  With sight of this one I am not unfed."
3214
3215Therefore I stayed my feet to make him out,
3216  And with me the sweet Guide came to a stand,
3217  And to my going somewhat back assented;
3218
3219And he, the scourged one, thought to hide himself,
3220  Lowering his face, but little it availed him;
3221  For said I: "Thou that castest down thine eyes,
3222
3223If false are not the features which thou bearest,
3224  Thou art Venedico Caccianimico;
3225  But what doth bring thee to such pungent sauces?"
3226
3227And he to me: "Unwillingly I tell it;
3228  But forces me thine utterance distinct,
3229  Which makes me recollect the ancient world.
3230
3231I was the one who the fair Ghisola
3232  Induced to grant the wishes of the Marquis,
3233  Howe'er the shameless story may be told.
3234
3235Not the sole Bolognese am I who weeps here;
3236  Nay, rather is this place so full of them,
3237  That not so many tongues to-day are taught
3238
3239'Twixt Reno and Savena to say 'sipa;'
3240  And if thereof thou wishest pledge or proof,
3241  Bring to thy mind our avaricious heart."
3242
3243While speaking in this manner, with his scourge
3244  A demon smote him, and said: "Get thee gone
3245  Pander, there are no women here for coin."
3246
3247I joined myself again unto mine Escort;
3248  Thereafterward with footsteps few we came
3249  To where a crag projected from the bank.
3250
3251This very easily did we ascend,
3252  And turning to the right along its ridge,
3253  From those eternal circles we departed.
3254
3255When we were there, where it is hollowed out
3256  Beneath, to give a passage to the scourged,
3257  The Guide said: "Wait, and see that on thee strike
3258
3259The vision of those others evil-born,
3260  Of whom thou hast not yet beheld the faces,
3261  Because together with us they have gone."
3262
3263From the old bridge we looked upon the train
3264  Which tow'rds us came upon the other border,
3265  And which the scourges in like manner smite.
3266
3267And the good Master, without my inquiring,
3268  Said to me: "See that tall one who is coming,
3269  And for his pain seems not to shed a tear;
3270
3271Still what a royal aspect he retains!
3272  That Jason is, who by his heart and cunning
3273  The Colchians of the Ram made destitute.
3274
3275He by the isle of Lemnos passed along
3276  After the daring women pitiless
3277  Had unto death devoted all their males.
3278
3279There with his tokens and with ornate words
3280  Did he deceive Hypsipyle, the maiden
3281  Who first, herself, had all the rest deceived.
3282
3283There did he leave her pregnant and forlorn;
3284  Such sin unto such punishment condemns him,
3285  And also for Medea is vengeance done.
3286
3287With him go those who in such wise deceive;
3288  And this sufficient be of the first valley
3289  To know, and those that in its jaws it holds."
3290
3291We were already where the narrow path
3292  Crosses athwart the second dike, and forms
3293  Of that a buttress for another arch.
3294
3295Thence we heard people, who are making moan
3296  In the next Bolgia, snorting with their muzzles,
3297  And with their palms beating upon themselves
3298
3299The margins were incrusted with a mould
3300  By exhalation from below, that sticks there,
3301  And with the eyes and nostrils wages war.
3302
3303The bottom is so deep, no place suffices
3304  To give us sight of it, without ascending
3305  The arch's back, where most the crag impends.
3306
3307Thither we came, and thence down in the moat
3308  I saw a people smothered in a filth
3309  That out of human privies seemed to flow;
3310
3311And whilst below there with mine eye I search,
3312  I saw one with his head so foul with ordure,
3313  It was not clear if he were clerk or layman.
3314
3315He screamed to me: "Wherefore art thou so eager
3316  To look at me more than the other foul ones?"
3317  And I to him: "Because, if I remember,
3318
3319I have already seen thee with dry hair,
3320  And thou'rt Alessio Interminei of Lucca;
3321  Therefore I eye thee more than all the others."
3322
3323And he thereon, belabouring his pumpkin:
3324  "The flatteries have submerged me here below,
3325  Wherewith my tongue was never surfeited."
3326
3327Then said to me the Guide: "See that thou thrust
3328  Thy visage somewhat farther in advance,
3329  That with thine eyes thou well the face attain
3330
3331Of that uncleanly and dishevelled drab,
3332  Who there doth scratch herself with filthy nails,
3333  And crouches now, and now on foot is standing.
3334
3335Thais the harlot is it, who replied
3336  Unto her paramour, when he said, 'Have I
3337  Great gratitude from thee?'--'Nay, marvellous;'
3338
3339And herewith let our sight be satisfied."
3340
3341
3342
3343Inferno: Canto XIX
3344
3345
3346O Simon Magus, O forlorn disciples,
3347  Ye who the things of God, which ought to be
3348  The brides of holiness, rapaciously
3349
3350For silver and for gold do prostitute,
3351  Now it behoves for you the trumpet sound,
3352  Because in this third Bolgia ye abide.
3353
3354We had already on the following tomb
3355  Ascended to that portion of the crag
3356  Which o'er the middle of the moat hangs plumb.
3357
3358Wisdom supreme, O how great art thou showest
3359  In heaven, in earth, and in the evil world,
3360  And with what justice doth thy power distribute!
3361
3362I saw upon the sides and on the bottom
3363  The livid stone with perforations filled,
3364  All of one size, and every one was round.
3365
3366To me less ample seemed they not, nor greater
3367  Than those that in my beautiful Saint John
3368  Are fashioned for the place of the baptisers,
3369
3370And one of which, not many years ago,
3371  I broke for some one, who was drowning in it;
3372  Be this a seal all men to undeceive.
3373
3374Out of the mouth of each one there protruded
3375  The feet of a transgressor, and the legs
3376  Up to the calf, the rest within remained.
3377
3378In all of them the soles were both on fire;
3379  Wherefore the joints so violently quivered,
3380  They would have snapped asunder withes and bands.
3381
3382Even as the flame of unctuous things is wont
3383  To move upon the outer surface only,
3384  So likewise was it there from heel to point.
3385
3386"Master, who is that one who writhes himself,
3387  More than his other comrades quivering,"
3388  I said, "and whom a redder flame is sucking?"
3389
3390And he to me: "If thou wilt have me bear thee
3391  Down there along that bank which lowest lies,
3392  From him thou'lt know his errors and himself."
3393
3394And I: "What pleases thee, to me is pleasing;
3395  Thou art my Lord, and knowest that I depart not
3396  From thy desire, and knowest what is not spoken."
3397
3398Straightway upon the fourth dike we arrived;
3399  We turned, and on the left-hand side descended
3400  Down to the bottom full of holes and narrow.
3401
3402And the good Master yet from off his haunch
3403  Deposed me not, till to the hole he brought me
3404  Of him who so lamented with his shanks.
3405
3406"Whoe'er thou art, that standest upside down,
3407  O doleful soul, implanted like a stake,"
3408  To say began I, "if thou canst, speak out."
3409
3410I stood even as the friar who is confessing
3411  The false assassin, who, when he is fixed,
3412  Recalls him, so that death may be delayed.
3413
3414And he cried out: "Dost thou stand there already,
3415  Dost thou stand there already, Boniface?
3416  By many years the record lied to me.
3417
3418Art thou so early satiate with that wealth,
3419  For which thou didst not fear to take by fraud
3420  The beautiful Lady, and then work her woe?"
3421
3422Such I became, as people are who stand,
3423  Not comprehending what is answered them,
3424  As if bemocked, and know not how to answer.
3425
3426Then said Virgilius: "Say to him straightway,
3427  'I am not he, I am not he thou thinkest.'"
3428  And I replied as was imposed on me.
3429
3430Whereat the spirit writhed with both his feet,
3431  Then, sighing, with a voice of lamentation
3432  Said to me: "Then what wantest thou of me?
3433
3434If who I am thou carest so much to know,
3435  That thou on that account hast crossed the bank,
3436  Know that I vested was with the great mantle;
3437
3438And truly was I son of the She-bear,
3439  So eager to advance the cubs, that wealth
3440  Above, and here myself, I pocketed.
3441
3442Beneath my head the others are dragged down
3443  Who have preceded me in simony,
3444  Flattened along the fissure of the rock.
3445
3446Below there I shall likewise fall, whenever
3447  That one shall come who I believed thou wast,
3448  What time the sudden question I proposed.
3449
3450But longer I my feet already toast,
3451  And here have been in this way upside down,
3452  Than he will planted stay with reddened feet;
3453
3454For after him shall come of fouler deed
3455  From tow'rds the west a Pastor without law,
3456  Such as befits to cover him and me.
3457
3458New Jason will he be, of whom we read
3459  In Maccabees; and as his king was pliant,
3460  So he who governs France shall be to this one."
3461
3462I do not know if I were here too bold,
3463  That him I answered only in this metre:
3464  "I pray thee tell me now how great a treasure
3465
3466Our Lord demanded of Saint Peter first,
3467  Before he put the keys into his keeping?
3468  Truly he nothing asked but 'Follow me.'
3469
3470Nor Peter nor the rest asked of Matthias
3471  Silver or gold, when he by lot was chosen
3472  Unto the place the guilty soul had lost.
3473
3474Therefore stay here, for thou art justly punished,
3475  And keep safe guard o'er the ill-gotten money,
3476  Which caused thee to be valiant against Charles.
3477
3478And were it not that still forbids it me
3479  The reverence for the keys superlative
3480  Thou hadst in keeping in the gladsome life,
3481
3482I would make use of words more grievous still;
3483  Because your avarice afflicts the world,
3484  Trampling the good and lifting the depraved.
3485
3486The Evangelist you Pastors had in mind,
3487  When she who sitteth upon many waters
3488  To fornicate with kings by him was seen;
3489
3490The same who with the seven heads was born,
3491  And power and strength from the ten horns received,
3492  So long as virtue to her spouse was pleasing.
3493
3494Ye have made yourselves a god of gold and silver;
3495  And from the idolater how differ ye,
3496  Save that he one, and ye a hundred worship?
3497
3498Ah, Constantine! of how much ill was mother,
3499  Not thy conversion, but that marriage dower
3500  Which the first wealthy Father took from thee!"
3501
3502And while I sang to him such notes as these,
3503  Either that anger or that conscience stung him,
3504  He struggled violently with both his feet.
3505
3506I think in sooth that it my Leader pleased,
3507  With such contented lip he listened ever
3508  Unto the sound of the true words expressed.
3509
3510Therefore with both his arms he took me up,
3511  And when he had me all upon his breast,
3512  Remounted by the way where he descended.
3513
3514Nor did he tire to have me clasped to him;
3515  But bore me to the summit of the arch
3516  Which from the fourth dike to the fifth is passage.
3517
3518There tenderly he laid his burden down,
3519  Tenderly on the crag uneven and steep,
3520  That would have been hard passage for the goats:
3521
3522Thence was unveiled to me another valley.
3523
3524
3525
3526Inferno: Canto XX
3527
3528
3529Of a new pain behoves me to make verses
3530  And give material to the twentieth canto
3531  Of the first song, which is of the submerged.
3532
3533I was already thoroughly disposed
3534  To peer down into the uncovered depth,
3535  Which bathed itself with tears of agony;
3536
3537And people saw I through the circular valley,
3538  Silent and weeping, coming at the pace
3539  Which in this world the Litanies assume.
3540
3541As lower down my sight descended on them,
3542  Wondrously each one seemed to be distorted
3543  From chin to the beginning of the chest;
3544
3545For tow'rds the reins the countenance was turned,
3546  And backward it behoved them to advance,
3547  As to look forward had been taken from them.
3548
3549Perchance indeed by violence of palsy
3550  Some one has been thus wholly turned awry;
3551  But I ne'er saw it, nor believe it can be.
3552
3553As God may let thee, Reader, gather fruit
3554  From this thy reading, think now for thyself
3555  How I could ever keep my face unmoistened,
3556
3557When our own image near me I beheld
3558  Distorted so, the weeping of the eyes
3559  Along the fissure bathed the hinder parts.
3560
3561Truly I wept, leaning upon a peak
3562  Of the hard crag, so that my Escort said
3563  To me: "Art thou, too, of the other fools?
3564
3565Here pity lives when it is wholly dead;
3566  Who is a greater reprobate than he
3567  Who feels compassion at the doom divine?
3568
3569Lift up, lift up thy head, and see for whom
3570  Opened the earth before the Thebans' eyes;
3571  Wherefore they all cried: 'Whither rushest thou,
3572
3573Amphiaraus?  Why dost leave the war?'
3574  And downward ceased he not to fall amain
3575  As far as Minos, who lays hold on all.
3576
3577See, he has made a bosom of his shoulders!
3578  Because he wished to see too far before him
3579  Behind he looks, and backward goes his way:
3580
3581Behold Tiresias, who his semblance changed,
3582  When from a male a female he became,
3583  His members being all of them transformed;
3584
3585And afterwards was forced to strike once more
3586  The two entangled serpents with his rod,
3587  Ere he could have again his manly plumes.
3588
3589That Aruns is, who backs the other's belly,
3590  Who in the hills of Luni, there where grubs
3591  The Carrarese who houses underneath,
3592
3593Among the marbles white a cavern had
3594  For his abode; whence to behold the stars
3595  And sea, the view was not cut off from him.
3596
3597And she there, who is covering up her breasts,
3598  Which thou beholdest not, with loosened tresses,
3599  And on that side has all the hairy skin,
3600
3601Was Manto, who made quest through many lands,
3602  Afterwards tarried there where I was born;
3603  Whereof I would thou list to me a little.
3604
3605After her father had from life departed,
3606  And the city of Bacchus had become enslaved,
3607  She a long season wandered through the world.
3608
3609Above in beauteous Italy lies a lake
3610  At the Alp's foot that shuts in Germany
3611  Over Tyrol, and has the name Benaco.
3612
3613By a thousand springs, I think, and more, is bathed,
3614  'Twixt Garda and Val Camonica, Pennino,
3615  With water that grows stagnant in that lake.
3616
3617Midway a place is where the Trentine Pastor,
3618  And he of Brescia, and the Veronese
3619  Might give his blessing, if he passed that way.
3620
3621Sitteth Peschiera, fortress fair and strong,
3622  To front the Brescians and the Bergamasks,
3623  Where round about the bank descendeth lowest.
3624
3625There of necessity must fall whatever
3626  In bosom of Benaco cannot stay,
3627  And grows a river down through verdant pastures.
3628
3629Soon as the water doth begin to run,
3630  No more Benaco is it called, but Mincio,
3631  Far as Governo, where it falls in Po.
3632
3633Not far it runs before it finds a plain
3634  In which it spreads itself, and makes it marshy,
3635  And oft 'tis wont in summer to be sickly.
3636
3637Passing that way the virgin pitiless
3638  Land in the middle of the fen descried,
3639  Untilled and naked of inhabitants;
3640
3641There to escape all human intercourse,
3642  She with her servants stayed, her arts to practise
3643  And lived, and left her empty body there.
3644
3645The men, thereafter, who were scattered round,
3646  Collected in that place, which was made strong
3647  By the lagoon it had on every side;
3648
3649They built their city over those dead bones,
3650  And, after her who first the place selected,
3651  Mantua named it, without other omen.
3652
3653Its people once within more crowded were,
3654  Ere the stupidity of Casalodi
3655  From Pinamonte had received deceit.
3656
3657Therefore I caution thee, if e'er thou hearest
3658  Originate my city otherwise,
3659  No falsehood may the verity defraud."
3660
3661And I: "My Master, thy discourses are
3662  To me so certain, and so take my faith,
3663  That unto me the rest would be spent coals.
3664
3665But tell me of the people who are passing,
3666  If any one note-worthy thou beholdest,
3667  For only unto that my mind reverts."
3668
3669Then said he to me: "He who from the cheek
3670  Thrusts out his beard upon his swarthy shoulders
3671  Was, at the time when Greece was void of males,
3672
3673So that there scarce remained one in the cradle,
3674  An augur, and with Calchas gave the moment,
3675  In Aulis, when to sever the first cable.
3676
3677Eryphylus his name was, and so sings
3678  My lofty Tragedy in some part or other;
3679  That knowest thou well, who knowest the whole of it.
3680
3681The next, who is so slender in the flanks,
3682  Was Michael Scott, who of a verity
3683  Of magical illusions knew the game.
3684
3685Behold Guido Bonatti, behold Asdente,
3686  Who now unto his leather and his thread
3687  Would fain have stuck, but he too late repents.
3688
3689Behold the wretched ones, who left the needle,
3690  The spool and rock, and made them fortune-tellers;
3691  They wrought their magic spells with herb and image.
3692
3693But come now, for already holds the confines
3694  Of both the hemispheres, and under Seville
3695  Touches the ocean-wave, Cain and the thorns,
3696
3697And yesternight the moon was round already;
3698  Thou shouldst remember well it did not harm thee
3699  From time to time within the forest deep."
3700
3701Thus spake he to me, and we walked the while.
3702
3703
3704
3705Inferno: Canto XXI
3706
3707
3708From bridge to bridge thus, speaking other things
3709  Of which my Comedy cares not to sing,
3710  We came along, and held the summit, when
3711
3712We halted to behold another fissure
3713  Of Malebolge and other vain laments;
3714  And I beheld it marvellously dark.
3715
3716As in the Arsenal of the Venetians
3717  Boils in the winter the tenacious pitch
3718  To smear their unsound vessels o'er again,
3719
3720For sail they cannot; and instead thereof
3721  One makes his vessel new, and one recaulks
3722  The ribs of that which many a voyage has made;
3723
3724One hammers at the prow, one at the stern,
3725  This one makes oars, and that one cordage twists,
3726  Another mends the mainsail and the mizzen;
3727
3728Thus, not by fire, but by the art divine,
3729  Was boiling down below there a dense pitch
3730  Which upon every side the bank belimed.
3731
3732I saw it, but I did not see within it
3733  Aught but the bubbles that the boiling raised,
3734  And all swell up and resubside compressed.
3735
3736The while below there fixedly I gazed,
3737  My Leader, crying out: "Beware, beware!"
3738  Drew me unto himself from where I stood.
3739
3740Then I turned round, as one who is impatient
3741  To see what it behoves him to escape,
3742  And whom a sudden terror doth unman,
3743
3744Who, while he looks, delays not his departure;
3745  And I beheld behind us a black devil,
3746  Running along upon the crag, approach.
3747
3748Ah, how ferocious was he in his aspect!
3749  And how he seemed to me in action ruthless,
3750  With open wings and light upon his feet!
3751
3752His shoulders, which sharp-pointed were and high,
3753  A sinner did encumber with both haunches,
3754  And he held clutched the sinews of the feet.
3755
3756From off our bridge, he said: "O Malebranche,
3757  Behold one of the elders of Saint Zita;
3758  Plunge him beneath, for I return for others
3759
3760Unto that town, which is well furnished with them.
3761  All there are barrators, except Bonturo;
3762  No into Yes for money there is changed."
3763
3764He hurled him down, and over the hard crag
3765  Turned round, and never was a mastiff loosened
3766  In so much hurry to pursue a thief.
3767
3768The other sank, and rose again face downward;
3769  But the demons, under cover of the bridge,
3770  Cried: "Here the Santo Volto has no place!
3771
3772Here swims one otherwise than in the Serchio;
3773  Therefore, if for our gaffs thou wishest not,
3774  Do not uplift thyself above the pitch."
3775
3776They seized him then with more than a hundred rakes;
3777  They said: "It here behoves thee to dance covered,
3778  That, if thou canst, thou secretly mayest pilfer."
3779
3780Not otherwise the cooks their scullions make
3781  Immerse into the middle of the caldron
3782  The meat with hooks, so that it may not float.
3783
3784Said the good Master to me: "That it be not
3785  Apparent thou art here, crouch thyself down
3786  Behind a jag, that thou mayest have some screen;
3787
3788And for no outrage that is done to me
3789  Be thou afraid, because these things I know,
3790  For once before was I in such a scuffle."
3791
3792Then he passed on beyond the bridge's head,
3793  And as upon the sixth bank he arrived,
3794  Need was for him to have a steadfast front.
3795
3796With the same fury, and the same uproar,
3797  As dogs leap out upon a mendicant,
3798  Who on a sudden begs, where'er he stops,
3799
3800They issued from beneath the little bridge,
3801  And turned against him all their grappling-irons;
3802  But he cried out: "Be none of you malignant!
3803
3804Before those hooks of yours lay hold of me,
3805  Let one of you step forward, who may hear me,
3806  And then take counsel as to grappling me."
3807
3808They all cried out: "Let Malacoda go;"
3809  Whereat one started, and the rest stood still,
3810  And he came to him, saying: "What avails it?"
3811
3812"Thinkest thou, Malacoda, to behold me
3813  Advanced into this place," my Master said,
3814  "Safe hitherto from all your skill of fence,
3815
3816Without the will divine, and fate auspicious?
3817  Let me go on, for it in Heaven is willed
3818  That I another show this savage road."
3819
3820Then was his arrogance so humbled in him,
3821  That he let fall his grapnel at his feet,
3822  And to the others said: "Now strike him not."
3823
3824And unto me my Guide: "O thou, who sittest
3825  Among the splinters of the bridge crouched down,
3826  Securely now return to me again."
3827
3828Wherefore I started and came swiftly to him;
3829  And all the devils forward thrust themselves,
3830  So that I feared they would not keep their compact.
3831
3832And thus beheld I once afraid the soldiers
3833  Who issued under safeguard from Caprona,
3834  Seeing themselves among so many foes.
3835
3836Close did I press myself with all my person
3837  Beside my Leader, and turned not mine eyes
3838  From off their countenance, which was not good.
3839
3840They lowered their rakes, and "Wilt thou have me hit him,"
3841  They said to one another, "on the rump?"
3842  And answered: "Yes; see that thou nick him with it."
3843
3844But the same demon who was holding parley
3845  With my Conductor turned him very quickly,
3846  And said: "Be quiet, be quiet, Scarmiglione;"
3847
3848Then said to us: "You can no farther go
3849  Forward upon this crag, because is lying
3850  All shattered, at the bottom, the sixth arch.
3851
3852And if it still doth please you to go onward,
3853  Pursue your way along upon this rock;
3854  Near is another crag that yields a path.
3855
3856Yesterday, five hours later than this hour,
3857  One thousand and two hundred sixty-six
3858  Years were complete, that here the way was broken.
3859
3860I send in that direction some of mine
3861  To see if any one doth air himself;
3862  Go ye with them; for they will not be vicious.
3863
3864Step forward, Alichino and Calcabrina,"
3865  Began he to cry out, "and thou, Cagnazzo;
3866  And Barbariccia, do thou guide the ten.
3867
3868Come forward, Libicocco and Draghignazzo,
3869  And tusked Ciriatto and Graffiacane,
3870  And Farfarello and mad Rubicante;
3871
3872Search ye all round about the boiling pitch;
3873  Let these be safe as far as the next crag,
3874  That all unbroken passes o'er the dens."
3875
3876"O me! what is it, Master, that I see?
3877  Pray let us go," I said, "without an escort,
3878  If thou knowest how, since for myself I ask none.
3879
3880If thou art as observant as thy wont is,
3881  Dost thou not see that they do gnash their teeth,
3882  And with their brows are threatening woe to us?"
3883
3884And he to me: "I will not have thee fear;
3885  Let them gnash on, according to their fancy,
3886  Because they do it for those boiling wretches."
3887
3888Along the left-hand dike they wheeled about;
3889  But first had each one thrust his tongue between
3890  His teeth towards their leader for a signal;
3891
3892And he had made a trumpet of his rump.
3893
3894
3895
3896Inferno: Canto XXII
3897
3898
3899I have erewhile seen horsemen moving camp,
3900  Begin the storming, and their muster make,
3901  And sometimes starting off for their escape;
3902
3903Vaunt-couriers have I seen upon your land,
3904  O Aretines, and foragers go forth,
3905  Tournaments stricken, and the joustings run,
3906
3907Sometimes with trumpets and sometimes with bells,
3908  With kettle-drums, and signals of the castles,
3909  And with our own, and with outlandish things,
3910
3911But never yet with bagpipe so uncouth
3912  Did I see horsemen move, nor infantry,
3913  Nor ship by any sign of land or star.
3914
3915We went upon our way with the ten demons;
3916  Ah, savage company! but in the church
3917  With saints, and in the tavern with the gluttons!
3918
3919Ever upon the pitch was my intent,
3920  To see the whole condition of that Bolgia,
3921  And of the people who therein were burned.
3922
3923Even as the dolphins, when they make a sign
3924  To mariners by arching of the back,
3925  That they should counsel take to save their vessel,
3926
3927Thus sometimes, to alleviate his pain,
3928  One of the sinners would display his back,
3929  And in less time conceal it than it lightens.
3930
3931As on the brink of water in a ditch
3932  The frogs stand only with their muzzles out,
3933  So that they hide their feet and other bulk,
3934
3935So upon every side the sinners stood;
3936  But ever as Barbariccia near them came,
3937  Thus underneath the boiling they withdrew.
3938
3939I saw, and still my heart doth shudder at it,
3940  One waiting thus, even as it comes to pass
3941  One frog remains, and down another dives;
3942
3943And Graffiacan, who most confronted him,
3944  Grappled him by his tresses smeared with pitch,
3945  And drew him up, so that he seemed an otter.
3946
3947I knew, before, the names of all of them,
3948  So had I noted them when they were chosen,
3949  And when they called each other, listened how.
3950
3951"O Rubicante, see that thou do lay
3952  Thy claws upon him, so that thou mayst flay him,"
3953  Cried all together the accursed ones.
3954
3955And I: "My Master, see to it, if thou canst,
3956  That thou mayst know who is the luckless wight,
3957  Thus come into his adversaries' hands."
3958
3959Near to the side of him my Leader drew,
3960  Asked of him whence he was; and he replied:
3961  "I in the kingdom of Navarre was born;
3962
3963My mother placed me servant to a lord,
3964  For she had borne me to a ribald knave,
3965  Destroyer of himself and of his things.
3966
3967Then I domestic was of good King Thibault;
3968  I set me there to practise barratry,
3969  For which I pay the reckoning in this heat."
3970
3971And Ciriatto, from whose mouth projected,
3972  On either side, a tusk, as in a boar,
3973  Caused him to feel how one of them could rip.
3974
3975Among malicious cats the mouse had come;
3976  But Barbariccia clasped him in his arms,
3977  And said: "Stand ye aside, while I enfork him."
3978
3979And to my Master he turned round his head;
3980  "Ask him again," he said, "if more thou wish
3981  To know from him, before some one destroy him."
3982
3983The Guide: "Now tell then of the other culprits;
3984  Knowest thou any one who is a Latian,
3985  Under the pitch?"  And he: "I separated
3986
3987Lately from one who was a neighbour to it;
3988  Would that I still were covered up with him,
3989  For I should fear not either claw nor hook!"
3990
3991And Libicocco: "We have borne too much;"
3992  And with his grapnel seized him by the arm,
3993  So that, by rending, he tore off a tendon.
3994
3995Eke Draghignazzo wished to pounce upon him
3996  Down at the legs; whence their Decurion
3997  Turned round and round about with evil look.
3998
3999When they again somewhat were pacified,
4000  Of him, who still was looking at his wound,
4001  Demanded my Conductor without stay:
4002
4003"Who was that one, from whom a luckless parting
4004  Thou sayest thou hast made, to come ashore?"
4005  And he replied: "It was the Friar Gomita,
4006
4007He of Gallura, vessel of all fraud,
4008  Who had the enemies of his Lord in hand,
4009  And dealt so with them each exults thereat;
4010
4011Money he took, and let them smoothly off,
4012  As he says; and in other offices
4013  A barrator was he, not mean but sovereign.
4014
4015Foregathers with him one Don Michael Zanche
4016  Of Logodoro; and of Sardinia
4017  To gossip never do their tongues feel tired.
4018
4019O me! see that one, how he grinds his teeth;
4020  Still farther would I speak, but am afraid
4021  Lest he to scratch my itch be making ready."
4022
4023And the grand Provost, turned to Farfarello,
4024  Who rolled his eyes about as if to strike,
4025  Said: "Stand aside there, thou malicious bird."
4026
4027"If you desire either to see or hear,"
4028  The terror-stricken recommenced thereon,
4029  "Tuscans or Lombards, I will make them come.
4030
4031But let the Malebranche cease a little,
4032  So that these may not their revenges fear,
4033  And I, down sitting in this very place,
4034
4035For one that I am will make seven come,
4036  When I shall whistle, as our custom is
4037  To do whenever one of us comes out."
4038
4039Cagnazzo at these words his muzzle lifted,
4040  Shaking his head, and said: "Just hear the trick
4041  Which he has thought of, down to throw himself!"
4042
4043Whence he, who snares in great abundance had,
4044  Responded: "I by far too cunning am,
4045  When I procure for mine a greater sadness."
4046
4047Alichin held not in, but running counter
4048  Unto the rest, said to him: "If thou dive,
4049  I will not follow thee upon the gallop,
4050
4051But I will beat my wings above the pitch;
4052  The height be left, and be the bank a shield
4053  To see if thou alone dost countervail us."
4054
4055O thou who readest, thou shalt hear new sport!
4056  Each to the other side his eyes averted;
4057  He first, who most reluctant was to do it.
4058
4059The Navarrese selected well his time;
4060  Planted his feet on land, and in a moment
4061  Leaped, and released himself from their design.
4062
4063Whereat each one was suddenly stung with shame,
4064  But he most who was cause of the defeat;
4065  Therefore he moved, and cried: "Thou art o'ertakern."
4066
4067But little it availed, for wings could not
4068  Outstrip the fear; the other one went under,
4069  And, flying, upward he his breast directed;
4070
4071Not otherwise the duck upon a sudden
4072  Dives under, when the falcon is approaching,
4073  And upward he returneth cross and weary.
4074
4075Infuriate at the mockery, Calcabrina
4076  Flying behind him followed close, desirous
4077  The other should escape, to have a quarrel.
4078
4079And when the barrator had disappeared,
4080  He turned his talons upon his companion,
4081  And grappled with him right above the moat.
4082
4083But sooth the other was a doughty sparhawk
4084  To clapperclaw him well; and both of them
4085  Fell in the middle of the boiling pond.
4086
4087A sudden intercessor was the heat;
4088  But ne'ertheless of rising there was naught,
4089  To such degree they had their wings belimed.
4090
4091Lamenting with the others, Barbariccia
4092  Made four of them fly to the other side
4093  With all their gaffs, and very speedily
4094
4095This side and that they to their posts descended;
4096  They stretched their hooks towards the pitch-ensnared,
4097  Who were already baked within the crust,
4098
4099And in this manner busied did we leave them.
4100
4101
4102
4103Inferno: Canto XXIII
4104
4105
4106Silent, alone, and without company
4107  We went, the one in front, the other after,
4108  As go the Minor Friars along their way.
4109
4110Upon the fable of Aesop was directed
4111  My thought, by reason of the present quarrel,
4112  Where he has spoken of the frog and mouse;
4113
4114For 'mo' and 'issa' are not more alike
4115  Than this one is to that, if well we couple
4116  End and beginning with a steadfast mind.
4117
4118And even as one thought from another springs,
4119  So afterward from that was born another,
4120  Which the first fear within me double made.
4121
4122Thus did I ponder: "These on our account
4123  Are laughed to scorn, with injury and scoff
4124  So great, that much I think it must annoy them.
4125
4126If anger be engrafted on ill-will,
4127  They will come after us more merciless
4128  Than dog upon the leveret which he seizes,"
4129
4130I felt my hair stand all on end already
4131  With terror, and stood backwardly intent,
4132  When said I: "Master, if thou hidest not
4133
4134Thyself and me forthwith, of Malebranche
4135  I am in dread; we have them now behind us;
4136  I so imagine them, I already feel them."
4137
4138And he: "If I were made of leaded glass,
4139  Thine outward image I should not attract
4140  Sooner to me than I imprint the inner.
4141
4142Just now thy thoughts came in among my own,
4143  With similar attitude and similar face,
4144  So that of both one counsel sole I made.
4145
4146If peradventure the right bank so slope
4147  That we to the next Bolgia can descend,
4148  We shall escape from the imagined chase."
4149
4150Not yet he finished rendering such opinion,
4151  When I beheld them come with outstretched wings,
4152  Not far remote, with will to seize upon us.
4153
4154My Leader on a sudden seized me up,
4155  Even as a mother who by noise is wakened,
4156  And close beside her sees the enkindled flames,
4157
4158Who takes her son, and flies, and does not stop,
4159  Having more care of him than of herself,
4160  So that she clothes her only with a shift;
4161
4162And downward from the top of the hard bank
4163  Supine he gave him to the pendent rock,
4164  That one side of the other Bolgia walls.
4165
4166Ne'er ran so swiftly water through a sluice
4167  To turn the wheel of any land-built mill,
4168  When nearest to the paddles it approaches,
4169
4170As did my Master down along that border,
4171  Bearing me with him on his breast away,
4172  As his own son, and not as a companion.
4173
4174Hardly the bed of the ravine below
4175  His feet had reached, ere they had reached the hill
4176  Right over us; but he was not afraid;
4177
4178For the high Providence, which had ordained
4179  To place them ministers of the fifth moat,
4180  The power of thence departing took from all.
4181
4182A painted people there below we found,
4183  Who went about with footsteps very slow,
4184  Weeping and in their semblance tired and vanquished.
4185
4186They had on mantles with the hoods low down
4187  Before their eyes, and fashioned of the cut
4188  That in Cologne they for the monks are made.
4189
4190Without, they gilded are so that it dazzles;
4191  But inwardly all leaden and so heavy
4192  That Frederick used to put them on of straw.
4193
4194O everlastingly fatiguing mantle!
4195  Again we turned us, still to the left hand
4196  Along with them, intent on their sad plaint;
4197
4198But owing to the weight, that weary folk
4199  Came on so tardily, that we were new
4200  In company at each motion of the haunch.
4201
4202Whence I unto my Leader: "See thou find
4203  Some one who may by deed or name be known,
4204  And thus in going move thine eye about."
4205
4206And one, who understood the Tuscan speech,
4207  Cried to us from behind: "Stay ye your feet,
4208  Ye, who so run athwart the dusky air!
4209
4210Perhaps thou'lt have from me what thou demandest."
4211  Whereat the Leader turned him, and said: "Wait,
4212  And then according to his pace proceed."
4213
4214I stopped, and two beheld I show great haste
4215  Of spirit, in their faces, to be with me;
4216  But the burden and the narrow way delayed them.
4217
4218When they came up, long with an eye askance
4219  They scanned me without uttering a word.
4220  Then to each other turned, and said together:
4221
4222"He by the action of his throat seems living;
4223  And if they dead are, by what privilege
4224  Go they uncovered by the heavy stole?"
4225
4226Then said to me: "Tuscan, who to the college
4227  Of miserable hypocrites art come,
4228  Do not disdain to tell us who thou art."
4229
4230And I to them: "Born was I, and grew up
4231  In the great town on the fair river of Arno,
4232  And with the body am I've always had.
4233
4234But who are ye, in whom there trickles down
4235  Along your cheeks such grief as I behold?
4236  And what pain is upon you, that so sparkles?"
4237
4238And one replied to me: "These orange cloaks
4239  Are made of lead so heavy, that the weights
4240  Cause in this way their balances to creak.
4241
4242Frati Gaudenti were we, and Bolognese;
4243  I Catalano, and he Loderingo
4244  Named, and together taken by thy city,
4245
4246As the wont is to take one man alone,
4247  For maintenance of its peace; and we were such
4248  That still it is apparent round Gardingo."
4249
4250"O Friars," began I, "your iniquitous. . ."
4251  But said no more; for to mine eyes there rushed
4252  One crucified with three stakes on the ground.
4253
4254When me he saw, he writhed himself all over,
4255  Blowing into his beard with suspirations;
4256  And the Friar Catalan, who noticed this,
4257
4258Said to me: "This transfixed one, whom thou seest,
4259  Counselled the Pharisees that it was meet
4260  To put one man to torture for the people.
4261
4262Crosswise and naked is he on the path,
4263  As thou perceivest; and he needs must feel,
4264  Whoever passes, first how much he weighs;
4265
4266And in like mode his father-in-law is punished
4267  Within this moat, and the others of the council,
4268  Which for the Jews was a malignant seed."
4269
4270And thereupon I saw Virgilius marvel
4271  O'er him who was extended on the cross
4272  So vilely in eternal banishment.
4273
4274Then he directed to the Friar this voice:
4275  "Be not displeased, if granted thee, to tell us
4276  If to the right hand any pass slope down
4277
4278By which we two may issue forth from here,
4279  Without constraining some of the black angels
4280  To come and extricate us from this deep."
4281
4282Then he made answer: "Nearer than thou hopest
4283  There is a rock, that forth from the great circle
4284  Proceeds, and crosses all the cruel valleys,
4285
4286Save that at this 'tis broken, and does not bridge it;
4287  You will be able to mount up the ruin,
4288  That sidelong slopes and at the bottom rises."
4289
4290The Leader stood awhile with head bowed down;
4291  Then said: "The business badly he recounted
4292  Who grapples with his hook the sinners yonder."
4293
4294And the Friar: "Many of the Devil's vices
4295  Once heard I at Bologna, and among them,
4296  That he's a liar and the father of lies."
4297
4298Thereat my Leader with great strides went on,
4299  Somewhat disturbed with anger in his looks;
4300  Whence from the heavy-laden I departed
4301
4302After the prints of his beloved feet.
4303
4304
4305
4306Inferno: Canto XXIV
4307
4308
4309In that part of the youthful year wherein
4310  The Sun his locks beneath Aquarius tempers,
4311  And now the nights draw near to half the day,
4312
4313What time the hoar-frost copies on the ground
4314  The outward semblance of her sister white,
4315  But little lasts the temper of her pen,
4316
4317The husbandman, whose forage faileth him,
4318  Rises, and looks, and seeth the champaign
4319  All gleaming white, whereat he beats his flank,
4320
4321Returns in doors, and up and down laments,
4322  Like a poor wretch, who knows not what to do;
4323  Then he returns and hope revives again,
4324
4325Seeing the world has changed its countenance
4326  In little time, and takes his shepherd's crook,
4327  And forth the little lambs to pasture drives.
4328
4329Thus did the Master fill me with alarm,
4330  When I beheld his forehead so disturbed,
4331  And to the ailment came as soon the plaster.
4332
4333For as we came unto the ruined bridge,
4334  The Leader turned to me with that sweet look
4335  Which at the mountain's foot I first beheld.
4336
4337His arms he opened, after some advisement
4338  Within himself elected, looking first
4339  Well at the ruin, and laid hold of me.
4340
4341And even as he who acts and meditates,
4342  For aye it seems that he provides beforehand,
4343  So upward lifting me towards the summit
4344
4345Of a huge rock, he scanned another crag,
4346  Saying: "To that one grapple afterwards,
4347  But try first if 'tis such that it will hold thee."
4348
4349This was no way for one clothed with a cloak;
4350  For hardly we, he light, and I pushed upward,
4351  Were able to ascend from jag to jag.
4352
4353And had it not been, that upon that precinct
4354  Shorter was the ascent than on the other,
4355  He I know not, but I had been dead beat.
4356
4357But because Malebolge tow'rds the mouth
4358  Of the profoundest well is all inclining,
4359  The structure of each valley doth import
4360
4361That one bank rises and the other sinks.
4362  Still we arrived at length upon the point
4363  Wherefrom the last stone breaks itself asunder.
4364
4365The breath was from my lungs so milked away,
4366  When I was up, that I could go no farther,
4367  Nay, I sat down upon my first arrival.
4368
4369"Now it behoves thee thus to put off sloth,"
4370  My Master said; "for sitting upon down,
4371  Or under quilt, one cometh not to fame,
4372
4373Withouten which whoso his life consumes
4374  Such vestige leaveth of himself on earth,
4375  As smoke in air or in the water foam.
4376
4377And therefore raise thee up, o'ercome the anguish
4378  With spirit that o'ercometh every battle,
4379  If with its heavy body it sink not.
4380
4381A longer stairway it behoves thee mount;
4382  'Tis not enough from these to have departed;
4383  Let it avail thee, if thou understand me."
4384
4385Then I uprose, showing myself provided
4386  Better with breath than I did feel myself,
4387  And said: "Go on, for I am strong and bold."
4388
4389Upward we took our way along the crag,
4390  Which jagged was, and narrow, and difficult,
4391  And more precipitous far than that before.
4392
4393Speaking I went, not to appear exhausted;
4394  Whereat a voice from the next moat came forth,
4395  Not well adapted to articulate words.
4396
4397I know not what it said, though o'er the back
4398  I now was of the arch that passes there;
4399  But he seemed moved to anger who was speaking.
4400
4401I was bent downward, but my living eyes
4402  Could not attain the bottom, for the dark;
4403  Wherefore I: "Master, see that thou arrive
4404
4405At the next round, and let us descend the wall;
4406  For as from hence I hear and understand not,
4407  So I look down and nothing I distinguish."
4408
4409"Other response," he said, "I make thee not,
4410  Except the doing; for the modest asking
4411  Ought to be followed by the deed in silence."
4412
4413We from the bridge descended at its head,
4414  Where it connects itself with the eighth bank,
4415  And then was manifest to me the Bolgia;
4416
4417And I beheld therein a terrible throng
4418  Of serpents, and of such a monstrous kind,
4419  That the remembrance still congeals my blood
4420
4421Let Libya boast no longer with her sand;
4422  For if Chelydri, Jaculi, and Phareae
4423  She breeds, with Cenchri and with Amphisbaena,
4424
4425Neither so many plagues nor so malignant
4426  E'er showed she with all Ethiopia,
4427  Nor with whatever on the Red Sea is!
4428
4429Among this cruel and most dismal throng
4430  People were running naked and affrighted.
4431  Without the hope of hole or heliotrope.
4432
4433They had their hands with serpents bound behind them;
4434  These riveted upon their reins the tail
4435  And head, and were in front of them entwined.
4436
4437And lo! at one who was upon our side
4438  There darted forth a serpent, which transfixed him
4439  There where the neck is knotted to the shoulders.
4440
4441Nor 'O' so quickly e'er, nor 'I' was written,
4442  As he took fire, and burned; and ashes wholly
4443  Behoved it that in falling he became.
4444
4445And when he on the ground was thus destroyed,
4446  The ashes drew together, and of themselves
4447  Into himself they instantly returned.
4448
4449Even thus by the great sages 'tis confessed
4450  The phoenix dies, and then is born again,
4451  When it approaches its five-hundredth year;
4452
4453On herb or grain it feeds not in its life,
4454  But only on tears of incense and amomum,
4455  And nard and myrrh are its last winding-sheet.
4456
4457And as he is who falls, and knows not how,
4458  By force of demons who to earth down drag him,
4459  Or other oppilation that binds man,
4460
4461When he arises and around him looks,
4462  Wholly bewildered by the mighty anguish
4463  Which he has suffered, and in looking sighs;
4464
4465Such was that sinner after he had risen.
4466  Justice of God! O how severe it is,
4467  That blows like these in vengeance poureth down!
4468
4469The Guide thereafter asked him who he was;
4470  Whence he replied: "I rained from Tuscany
4471  A short time since into this cruel gorge.
4472
4473A bestial life, and not a human, pleased me,
4474  Even as the mule I was; I'm Vanni Fucci,
4475  Beast, and Pistoia was my worthy den."
4476
4477And I unto the Guide: "Tell him to stir not,
4478  And ask what crime has thrust him here below,
4479  For once a man of blood and wrath I saw him."
4480
4481And the sinner, who had heard, dissembled not,
4482  But unto me directed mind and face,
4483  And with a melancholy shame was painted.
4484
4485Then said: "It pains me more that thou hast caught me
4486  Amid this misery where thou seest me,
4487  Than when I from the other life was taken.
4488
4489What thou demandest I cannot deny;
4490  So low am I put down because I robbed
4491  The sacristy of the fair ornaments,
4492
4493And falsely once 'twas laid upon another;
4494  But that thou mayst not such a sight enjoy,
4495  If thou shalt e'er be out of the dark places,
4496
4497Thine ears to my announcement ope and hear:
4498  Pistoia first of Neri groweth meagre;
4499  Then Florence doth renew her men and manners;
4500
4501Mars draws a vapour up from Val di Magra,
4502  Which is with turbid clouds enveloped round,
4503  And with impetuous and bitter tempest
4504
4505Over Campo Picen shall be the battle;
4506  When it shall suddenly rend the mist asunder,
4507  So that each Bianco shall thereby be smitten.
4508
4509And this I've said that it may give thee pain."
4510
4511
4512
4513Inferno: Canto XXV
4514
4515
4516At the conclusion of his words, the thief
4517  Lifted his hands aloft with both the figs,
4518  Crying: "Take that, God, for at thee I aim them."
4519
4520From that time forth the serpents were my friends;
4521  For one entwined itself about his neck
4522  As if it said: "I will not thou speak more;"
4523
4524And round his arms another, and rebound him,
4525  Clinching itself together so in front,
4526  That with them he could not a motion make.
4527
4528Pistoia, ah, Pistoia! why resolve not
4529  To burn thyself to ashes and so perish,
4530  Since in ill-doing thou thy seed excellest?
4531
4532Through all the sombre circles of this Hell,
4533  Spirit I saw not against God so proud,
4534  Not he who fell at Thebes down from the walls!
4535
4536He fled away, and spake no further word;
4537  And I beheld a Centaur full of rage
4538  Come crying out: "Where is, where is the scoffer?"
4539
4540I do not think Maremma has so many
4541  Serpents as he had all along his back,
4542  As far as where our countenance begins.
4543
4544Upon the shoulders, just behind the nape,
4545  With wings wide open was a dragon lying,
4546  And he sets fire to all that he encounters.
4547
4548My Master said: "That one is Cacus, who
4549  Beneath the rock upon Mount Aventine
4550  Created oftentimes a lake of blood.
4551
4552He goes not on the same road with his brothers,
4553  By reason of the fraudulent theft he made
4554  Of the great herd, which he had near to him;
4555
4556Whereat his tortuous actions ceased beneath
4557  The mace of Hercules, who peradventure
4558  Gave him a hundred, and he felt not ten."
4559
4560While he was speaking thus, he had passed by,
4561  And spirits three had underneath us come,
4562  Of which nor I aware was, nor my Leader,
4563
4564Until what time they shouted: "Who are you?"
4565  On which account our story made a halt,
4566  And then we were intent on them alone.
4567
4568I did not know them; but it came to pass,
4569  As it is wont to happen by some chance,
4570  That one to name the other was compelled,
4571
4572Exclaiming: "Where can Cianfa have remained?"
4573  Whence I, so that the Leader might attend,
4574  Upward from chin to nose my finger laid.
4575
4576If thou art, Reader, slow now to believe
4577  What I shall say, it will no marvel be,
4578  For I who saw it hardly can admit it.
4579
4580As I was holding raised on them my brows,
4581  Behold! a serpent with six feet darts forth
4582  In front of one, and fastens wholly on him.
4583
4584With middle feet it bound him round the paunch,
4585  And with the forward ones his arms it seized;
4586  Then thrust its teeth through one cheek and the other;
4587
4588The hindermost it stretched upon his thighs,
4589  And put its tail through in between the two,
4590  And up behind along the reins outspread it.
4591
4592Ivy was never fastened by its barbs
4593  Unto a tree so, as this horrible reptile
4594  Upon the other's limbs entwined its own.
4595
4596Then they stuck close, as if of heated wax
4597  They had been made, and intermixed their colour;
4598  Nor one nor other seemed now what he was;
4599
4600E'en as proceedeth on before the flame
4601  Upward along the paper a brown colour,
4602  Which is not black as yet, and the white dies.
4603
4604The other two looked on, and each of them
4605  Cried out: "O me, Agnello, how thou changest!
4606  Behold, thou now art neither two nor one."
4607
4608Already the two heads had one become,
4609  When there appeared to us two figures mingled
4610  Into one face, wherein the two were lost.
4611
4612Of the four lists were fashioned the two arms,
4613  The thighs and legs, the belly and the chest
4614  Members became that never yet were seen.
4615
4616Every original aspect there was cancelled;
4617  Two and yet none did the perverted image
4618  Appear, and such departed with slow pace.
4619
4620Even as a lizard, under the great scourge
4621  Of days canicular, exchanging hedge,
4622  Lightning appeareth if the road it cross;
4623
4624Thus did appear, coming towards the bellies
4625  Of the two others, a small fiery serpent,
4626  Livid and black as is a peppercorn.
4627
4628And in that part whereat is first received
4629  Our aliment, it one of them transfixed;
4630  Then downward fell in front of him extended.
4631
4632The one transfixed looked at it, but said naught;
4633  Nay, rather with feet motionless he yawned,
4634  Just as if sleep or fever had assailed him.
4635
4636He at the serpent gazed, and it at him;
4637  One through the wound, the other through the mouth
4638  Smoked violently, and the smoke commingled.
4639
4640Henceforth be silent Lucan, where he mentions
4641  Wretched Sabellus and Nassidius,
4642  And wait to hear what now shall be shot forth.
4643
4644Be silent Ovid, of Cadmus and Arethusa;
4645  For if him to a snake, her to fountain,
4646  Converts he fabling, that I grudge him not;
4647
4648Because two natures never front to front
4649  Has he transmuted, so that both the forms
4650  To interchange their matter ready were.
4651
4652Together they responded in such wise,
4653  That to a fork the serpent cleft his tail,
4654  And eke the wounded drew his feet together.
4655
4656The legs together with the thighs themselves
4657  Adhered so, that in little time the juncture
4658  No sign whatever made that was apparent.
4659
4660He with the cloven tail assumed the figure
4661  The other one was losing, and his skin
4662  Became elastic, and the other's hard.
4663
4664I saw the arms draw inward at the armpits,
4665  And both feet of the reptile, that were short,
4666  Lengthen as much as those contracted were.
4667
4668Thereafter the hind feet, together twisted,
4669  Became the member that a man conceals,
4670  And of his own the wretch had two created.
4671
4672While both of them the exhalation veils
4673  With a new colour, and engenders hair
4674  On one of them and depilates the other,
4675
4676The one uprose and down the other fell,
4677  Though turning not away their impious lamps,
4678  Underneath which each one his muzzle changed.
4679
4680He who was standing drew it tow'rds the temples,
4681  And from excess of matter, which came thither,
4682  Issued the ears from out the hollow cheeks;
4683
4684What did not backward run and was retained
4685  Of that excess made to the face a nose,
4686  And the lips thickened far as was befitting.
4687
4688He who lay prostrate thrusts his muzzle forward,
4689  And backward draws the ears into his head,
4690  In the same manner as the snail its horns;
4691
4692And so the tongue, which was entire and apt
4693  For speech before, is cleft, and the bi-forked
4694  In the other closes up, and the smoke ceases.
4695
4696The soul, which to a reptile had been changed,
4697  Along the valley hissing takes to flight,
4698  And after him the other speaking sputters.
4699
4700Then did he turn upon him his new shoulders,
4701  And said to the other: "I'll have Buoso run,
4702  Crawling as I have done, along this road."
4703
4704In this way I beheld the seventh ballast
4705  Shift and reshift, and here be my excuse
4706  The novelty, if aught my pen transgress.
4707
4708And notwithstanding that mine eyes might be
4709  Somewhat bewildered, and my mind dismayed,
4710  They could not flee away so secretly
4711
4712But that I plainly saw Puccio Sciancato;
4713  And he it was who sole of three companions,
4714  Which came in the beginning, was not changed;
4715
4716The other was he whom thou, Gaville, weepest.
4717
4718
4719
4720Inferno: Canto XXVI
4721
4722
4723Rejoice, O Florence, since thou art so great,
4724  That over sea and land thou beatest thy wings,
4725  And throughout Hell thy name is spread abroad!
4726
4727Among the thieves five citizens of thine
4728  Like these I found, whence shame comes unto me,
4729  And thou thereby to no great honour risest.
4730
4731But if when morn is near our dreams are true,
4732  Feel shalt thou in a little time from now
4733  What Prato, if none other, craves for thee.
4734
4735And if it now were, it were not too soon;
4736  Would that it were, seeing it needs must be,
4737  For 'twill aggrieve me more the more I age.
4738
4739We went our way, and up along the stairs
4740  The bourns had made us to descend before,
4741  Remounted my Conductor and drew me.
4742
4743And following the solitary path
4744  Among the rocks and ridges of the crag,
4745  The foot without the hand sped not at all.
4746
4747Then sorrowed I, and sorrow now again,
4748  When I direct my mind to what I saw,
4749  And more my genius curb than I am wont,
4750
4751That it may run not unless virtue guide it;
4752  So that if some good star, or better thing,
4753  Have given me good, I may myself not grudge it.
4754
4755As many as the hind (who on the hill
4756  Rests at the time when he who lights the world
4757  His countenance keeps least concealed from us,
4758
4759While as the fly gives place unto the gnat)
4760  Seeth the glow-worms down along the valley,
4761  Perchance there where he ploughs and makes his vintage;
4762
4763With flames as manifold resplendent all
4764  Was the eighth Bolgia, as I grew aware
4765  As soon as I was where the depth appeared.
4766
4767And such as he who with the bears avenged him
4768  Beheld Elijah's chariot at departing,
4769  What time the steeds to heaven erect uprose,
4770
4771For with his eye he could not follow it
4772  So as to see aught else than flame alone,
4773  Even as a little cloud ascending upward,
4774
4775Thus each along the gorge of the intrenchment
4776  Was moving; for not one reveals the theft,
4777  And every flame a sinner steals away.
4778
4779I stood upon the bridge uprisen to see,
4780  So that, if I had seized not on a rock,
4781  Down had I fallen without being pushed.
4782
4783And the Leader, who beheld me so attent,
4784  Exclaimed: "Within the fires the spirits are;
4785  Each swathes himself with that wherewith he burns."
4786
4787"My Master," I replied, "by hearing thee
4788  I am more sure; but I surmised already
4789  It might be so, and already wished to ask thee
4790
4791Who is within that fire, which comes so cleft
4792  At top, it seems uprising from the pyre
4793  Where was Eteocles with his brother placed."
4794
4795He answered me: "Within there are tormented
4796  Ulysses and Diomed, and thus together
4797  They unto vengeance run as unto wrath.
4798
4799And there within their flame do they lament
4800  The ambush of the horse, which made the door
4801  Whence issued forth the Romans' gentle seed;
4802
4803Therein is wept the craft, for which being dead
4804  Deidamia still deplores Achilles,
4805  And pain for the Palladium there is borne."
4806
4807"If they within those sparks possess the power
4808  To speak," I said, "thee, Master, much I pray,
4809  And re-pray, that the prayer be worth a thousand,
4810
4811That thou make no denial of awaiting
4812  Until the horned flame shall hither come;
4813  Thou seest that with desire I lean towards it."
4814
4815And he to me: "Worthy is thy entreaty
4816  Of much applause, and therefore I accept it;
4817  But take heed that thy tongue restrain itself.
4818
4819Leave me to speak, because I have conceived
4820  That which thou wishest; for they might disdain
4821  Perchance, since they were Greeks, discourse of thine."
4822
4823When now the flame had come unto that point,
4824  Where to my Leader it seemed time and place,
4825  After this fashion did I hear him speak:
4826
4827"O ye, who are twofold within one fire,
4828  If I deserved of you, while I was living,
4829  If I deserved of you or much or little
4830
4831When in the world I wrote the lofty verses,
4832  Do not move on, but one of you declare
4833  Whither, being lost, he went away to die."
4834
4835Then of the antique flame the greater horn,
4836  Murmuring, began to wave itself about
4837  Even as a flame doth which the wind fatigues.
4838
4839Thereafterward, the summit to and fro
4840  Moving as if it were the tongue that spake,
4841  It uttered forth a voice, and said: "When I
4842
4843From Circe had departed, who concealed me
4844  More than a year there near unto Gaeta,
4845  Or ever yet Aeneas named it so,
4846
4847Nor fondness for my son, nor reverence
4848  For my old father, nor the due affection
4849  Which joyous should have made Penelope,
4850
4851Could overcome within me the desire
4852  I had to be experienced of the world,
4853  And of the vice and virtue of mankind;
4854
4855But I put forth on the high open sea
4856  With one sole ship, and that small company
4857  By which I never had deserted been.
4858
4859Both of the shores I saw as far as Spain,
4860  Far as Morocco, and the isle of Sardes,
4861  And the others which that sea bathes round about.
4862
4863I and my company were old and slow
4864  When at that narrow passage we arrived
4865  Where Hercules his landmarks set as signals,
4866
4867That man no farther onward should adventure.
4868  On the right hand behind me left I Seville,
4869  And on the other already had left Ceuta.
4870
4871'O brothers, who amid a hundred thousand
4872  Perils,' I said, 'have come unto the West,
4873  To this so inconsiderable vigil
4874
4875Which is remaining of your senses still
4876  Be ye unwilling to deny the knowledge,
4877  Following the sun, of the unpeopled world.
4878
4879Consider ye the seed from which ye sprang;
4880  Ye were not made to live like unto brutes,
4881  But for pursuit of virtue and of knowledge.'
4882
4883So eager did I render my companions,
4884  With this brief exhortation, for the voyage,
4885  That then I hardly could have held them back.
4886
4887And having turned our stern unto the morning,
4888  We of the oars made wings for our mad flight,
4889  Evermore gaining on the larboard side.
4890
4891Already all the stars of the other pole
4892  The night beheld, and ours so very low
4893  It did not rise above the ocean floor.
4894
4895Five times rekindled and as many quenched
4896  Had been the splendour underneath the moon,
4897  Since we had entered into the deep pass,
4898
4899When there appeared to us a mountain, dim
4900  From distance, and it seemed to me so high
4901  As I had never any one beheld.
4902
4903Joyful were we, and soon it turned to weeping;
4904  For out of the new land a whirlwind rose,
4905  And smote upon the fore part of the ship.
4906
4907Three times it made her whirl with all the waters,
4908  At the fourth time it made the stern uplift,
4909  And the prow downward go, as pleased Another,
4910
4911Until the sea above us closed again."
4912
4913
4914
4915Inferno: Canto XXVII
4916
4917
4918Already was the flame erect and quiet,
4919  To speak no more, and now departed from us
4920  With the permission of the gentle Poet;
4921
4922When yet another, which behind it came,
4923  Caused us to turn our eyes upon its top
4924  By a confused sound that issued from it.
4925
4926As the Sicilian bull (that bellowed first
4927  With the lament of him, and that was right,
4928  Who with his file had modulated it)
4929
4930Bellowed so with the voice of the afflicted,
4931  That, notwithstanding it was made of brass,
4932  Still it appeared with agony transfixed;
4933
4934Thus, by not having any way or issue
4935  At first from out the fire, to its own language
4936  Converted were the melancholy words.
4937
4938But afterwards, when they had gathered way
4939  Up through the point, giving it that vibration
4940  The tongue had given them in their passage out,
4941
4942We heard it said: "O thou, at whom I aim
4943  My voice, and who but now wast speaking Lombard,
4944  Saying, 'Now go thy way, no more I urge thee,'
4945
4946Because I come perchance a little late,
4947  To stay and speak with me let it not irk thee;
4948  Thou seest it irks not me, and I am burning.
4949
4950If thou but lately into this blind world
4951  Hast fallen down from that sweet Latian land,
4952  Wherefrom I bring the whole of my transgression,
4953
4954Say, if the Romagnuols have peace or war,
4955  For I was from the mountains there between
4956  Urbino and the yoke whence Tiber bursts."
4957
4958I still was downward bent and listening,
4959  When my Conductor touched me on the side,
4960  Saying: "Speak thou: this one a Latian is."
4961
4962And I, who had beforehand my reply
4963  In readiness, forthwith began to speak:
4964  "O soul, that down below there art concealed,
4965
4966Romagna thine is not and never has been
4967  Without war in the bosom of its tyrants;
4968  But open war I none have left there now.
4969
4970Ravenna stands as it long years has stood;
4971  The Eagle of Polenta there is brooding,
4972  So that she covers Cervia with her vans.
4973
4974The city which once made the long resistance,
4975  And of the French a sanguinary heap,
4976  Beneath the Green Paws finds itself again;
4977
4978Verrucchio's ancient Mastiff and the new,
4979  Who made such bad disposal of Montagna,
4980  Where they are wont make wimbles of their teeth.
4981
4982The cities of Lamone and Santerno
4983  Governs the Lioncel of the white lair,
4984  Who changes sides 'twixt summer-time and winter;
4985
4986And that of which the Savio bathes the flank,
4987  Even as it lies between the plain and mountain,
4988  Lives between tyranny and a free state.
4989
4990Now I entreat thee tell us who thou art;
4991  Be not more stubborn than the rest have been,
4992  So may thy name hold front there in the world."
4993
4994After the fire a little more had roared
4995  In its own fashion, the sharp point it moved
4996  This way and that, and then gave forth such breath:
4997
4998"If I believed that my reply were made
4999  To one who to the world would e'er return,
5000  This flame without more flickering would stand still;
5001
5002But inasmuch as never from this depth
5003  Did any one return, if I hear true,
5004  Without the fear of infamy I answer,
5005
5006I was a man of arms, then Cordelier,
5007  Believing thus begirt to make amends;
5008  And truly my belief had been fulfilled
5009
5010But for the High Priest, whom may ill betide,
5011  Who put me back into my former sins;
5012  And how and wherefore I will have thee hear.
5013
5014While I was still the form of bone and pulp
5015  My mother gave to me, the deeds I did
5016  Were not those of a lion, but a fox.
5017
5018The machinations and the covert ways
5019  I knew them all, and practised so their craft,
5020  That to the ends of earth the sound went forth.
5021
5022When now unto that portion of mine age
5023  I saw myself arrived, when each one ought
5024  To lower the sails, and coil away the ropes,
5025
5026That which before had pleased me then displeased me;
5027  And penitent and confessing I surrendered,
5028  Ah woe is me! and it would have bestead me;
5029
5030The Leader of the modern Pharisees
5031  Having a war near unto Lateran,
5032  And not with Saracens nor with the Jews,
5033
5034For each one of his enemies was Christian,
5035  And none of them had been to conquer Acre,
5036  Nor merchandising in the Sultan's land,
5037
5038Nor the high office, nor the sacred orders,
5039  In him regarded, nor in me that cord
5040  Which used to make those girt with it more meagre;
5041
5042But even as Constantine sought out Sylvester
5043  To cure his leprosy, within Soracte,
5044  So this one sought me out as an adept
5045
5046To cure him of the fever of his pride.
5047  Counsel he asked of me, and I was silent,
5048  Because his words appeared inebriate.
5049
5050And then he said: 'Be not thy heart afraid;
5051  Henceforth I thee absolve; and thou instruct me
5052  How to raze Palestrina to the ground.
5053
5054Heaven have I power to lock and to unlock,
5055  As thou dost know; therefore the keys are two,
5056  The which my predecessor held not dear.'
5057
5058Then urged me on his weighty arguments
5059  There, where my silence was the worst advice;
5060  And said I: 'Father, since thou washest me
5061
5062Of that sin into which I now must fall,
5063  The promise long with the fulfilment short
5064  Will make thee triumph in thy lofty seat.'
5065
5066Francis came afterward, when I was dead,
5067  For me; but one of the black Cherubim
5068  Said to him: 'Take him not; do me no wrong;
5069
5070He must come down among my servitors,
5071  Because he gave the fraudulent advice
5072  From which time forth I have been at his hair;
5073
5074For who repents not cannot be absolved,
5075  Nor can one both repent and will at once,
5076  Because of the contradiction which consents not.'
5077
5078O miserable me! how I did shudder
5079  When he seized on me, saying: 'Peradventure
5080  Thou didst not think that I was a logician!'
5081
5082He bore me unto Minos, who entwined
5083  Eight times his tail about his stubborn back,
5084  And after he had bitten it in great rage,
5085
5086Said: 'Of the thievish fire a culprit this;'
5087  Wherefore, here where thou seest, am I lost,
5088  And vested thus in going I bemoan me."
5089
5090When it had thus completed its recital,
5091  The flame departed uttering lamentations,
5092  Writhing and flapping its sharp-pointed horn.
5093
5094Onward we passed, both I and my Conductor,
5095  Up o'er the crag above another arch,
5096  Which the moat covers, where is paid the fee
5097
5098By those who, sowing discord, win their burden.
5099
5100
5101
5102Inferno: Canto XXVIII
5103
5104
5105Who ever could, e'en with untrammelled words,
5106  Tell of the blood and of the wounds in full
5107  Which now I saw, by many times narrating?
5108
5109Each tongue would for a certainty fall short
5110  By reason of our speech and memory,
5111  That have small room to comprehend so much.
5112
5113If were again assembled all the people
5114  Which formerly upon the fateful land
5115  Of Puglia were lamenting for their blood
5116
5117Shed by the Romans and the lingering war
5118  That of the rings made such illustrious spoils,
5119  As Livy has recorded, who errs not,
5120
5121With those who felt the agony of blows
5122  By making counterstand to Robert Guiscard,
5123  And all the rest, whose bones are gathered still
5124
5125At Ceperano, where a renegade
5126  Was each Apulian, and at Tagliacozzo,
5127  Where without arms the old Alardo conquered,
5128
5129And one his limb transpierced, and one lopped off,
5130  Should show, it would be nothing to compare
5131  With the disgusting mode of the ninth Bolgia.
5132
5133A cask by losing centre-piece or cant
5134  Was never shattered so, as I saw one
5135  Rent from the chin to where one breaketh wind.
5136
5137Between his legs were hanging down his entrails;
5138  His heart was visible, and the dismal sack
5139  That maketh excrement of what is eaten.
5140
5141While I was all absorbed in seeing him,
5142  He looked at me, and opened with his hands
5143  His bosom, saying: "See now how I rend me;
5144
5145How mutilated, see, is Mahomet;
5146  In front of me doth Ali weeping go,
5147  Cleft in the face from forelock unto chin;
5148
5149And all the others whom thou here beholdest,
5150  Disseminators of scandal and of schism
5151  While living were, and therefore are cleft thus.
5152
5153A devil is behind here, who doth cleave us
5154  Thus cruelly, unto the falchion's edge
5155  Putting again each one of all this ream,
5156
5157When we have gone around the doleful road;
5158  By reason that our wounds are closed again
5159  Ere any one in front of him repass.
5160
5161But who art thou, that musest on the crag,
5162  Perchance to postpone going to the pain
5163  That is adjudged upon thine accusations?"
5164
5165"Nor death hath reached him yet, nor guilt doth bring him,"
5166  My Master made reply, "to be tormented;
5167  But to procure him full experience,
5168
5169Me, who am dead, behoves it to conduct him
5170  Down here through Hell, from circle unto circle;
5171  And this is true as that I speak to thee."
5172
5173More than a hundred were there when they heard him,
5174  Who in the moat stood still to look at me,
5175  Through wonderment oblivious of their torture.
5176
5177"Now say to Fra Dolcino, then, to arm him,
5178  Thou, who perhaps wilt shortly see the sun,
5179  If soon he wish not here to follow me,
5180
5181So with provisions, that no stress of snow
5182  May give the victory to the Novarese,
5183  Which otherwise to gain would not be easy."
5184
5185After one foot to go away he lifted,
5186  This word did Mahomet say unto me,
5187  Then to depart upon the ground he stretched it.
5188
5189Another one, who had his throat pierced through,
5190  And nose cut off close underneath the brows,
5191  And had no longer but a single ear,
5192
5193Staying to look in wonder with the others,
5194  Before the others did his gullet open,
5195  Which outwardly was red in every part,
5196
5197And said: "O thou, whom guilt doth not condemn,
5198  And whom I once saw up in Latian land,
5199  Unless too great similitude deceive me,
5200
5201Call to remembrance Pier da Medicina,
5202  If e'er thou see again the lovely plain
5203  That from Vercelli slopes to Marcabo,
5204
5205And make it known to the best two of Fano,
5206  To Messer Guido and Angiolello likewise,
5207  That if foreseeing here be not in vain,
5208
5209Cast over from their vessel shall they be,
5210  And drowned near unto the Cattolica,
5211  By the betrayal of a tyrant fell.
5212
5213Between the isles of Cyprus and Majorca
5214  Neptune ne'er yet beheld so great a crime,
5215  Neither of pirates nor Argolic people.
5216
5217That traitor, who sees only with one eye,
5218  And holds the land, which some one here with me
5219  Would fain be fasting from the vision of,
5220
5221Will make them come unto a parley with him;
5222  Then will do so, that to Focara's wind
5223  They will not stand in need of vow or prayer."
5224
5225And I to him: "Show to me and declare,
5226  If thou wouldst have me bear up news of thee,
5227  Who is this person of the bitter vision."
5228
5229Then did he lay his hand upon the jaw
5230  Of one of his companions, and his mouth
5231  Oped, crying: "This is he, and he speaks not.
5232
5233This one, being banished, every doubt submerged
5234  In Caesar by affirming the forearmed
5235  Always with detriment allowed delay."
5236
5237O how bewildered unto me appeared,
5238  With tongue asunder in his windpipe slit,
5239  Curio, who in speaking was so bold!
5240
5241And one, who both his hands dissevered had,
5242  The stumps uplifting through the murky air,
5243  So that the blood made horrible his face,
5244
5245Cried out: "Thou shalt remember Mosca also,
5246  Who said, alas! 'A thing done has an end!'
5247  Which was an ill seed for the Tuscan people."
5248
5249"And death unto thy race," thereto I added;
5250  Whence he, accumulating woe on woe,
5251  Departed, like a person sad and crazed.
5252
5253But I remained to look upon the crowd;
5254  And saw a thing which I should be afraid,
5255  Without some further proof, even to recount,
5256
5257If it were not that conscience reassures me,
5258  That good companion which emboldens man
5259  Beneath the hauberk of its feeling pure.
5260
5261I truly saw, and still I seem to see it,
5262  A trunk without a head walk in like manner
5263  As walked the others of the mournful herd.
5264
5265And by the hair it held the head dissevered,
5266  Hung from the hand in fashion of a lantern,
5267  And that upon us gazed and said: "O me!"
5268
5269It of itself made to itself a lamp,
5270  And they were two in one, and one in two;
5271  How that can be, He knows who so ordains it.
5272
5273When it was come close to the bridge's foot,
5274  It lifted high its arm with all the head,
5275  To bring more closely unto us its words,
5276
5277Which were: "Behold now the sore penalty,
5278  Thou, who dost breathing go the dead beholding;
5279  Behold if any be as great as this.
5280
5281And so that thou may carry news of me,
5282  Know that Bertram de Born am I, the same
5283  Who gave to the Young King the evil comfort.
5284
5285I made the father and the son rebellious;
5286  Achitophel not more with Absalom
5287  And David did with his accursed goadings.
5288
5289Because I parted persons so united,
5290  Parted do I now bear my brain, alas!
5291  From its beginning, which is in this trunk.
5292
5293Thus is observed in me the counterpoise."
5294
5295
5296
5297Inferno: Canto XXIX
5298
5299
5300The many people and the divers wounds
5301  These eyes of mine had so inebriated,
5302  That they were wishful to stand still and weep;
5303
5304But said Virgilius: "What dost thou still gaze at?
5305  Why is thy sight still riveted down there
5306  Among the mournful, mutilated shades?
5307
5308Thou hast not done so at the other Bolge;
5309  Consider, if to count them thou believest,
5310  That two-and-twenty miles the valley winds,
5311
5312And now the moon is underneath our feet;
5313  Henceforth the time allotted us is brief,
5314  And more is to be seen than what thou seest."
5315
5316"If thou hadst," I made answer thereupon,
5317  "Attended to the cause for which I looked,
5318  Perhaps a longer stay thou wouldst have pardoned."
5319
5320Meanwhile my Guide departed, and behind him
5321  I went, already making my reply,
5322  And superadding: "In that cavern where
5323
5324I held mine eyes with such attention fixed,
5325  I think a spirit of my blood laments
5326  The sin which down below there costs so much."
5327
5328Then said the Master: "Be no longer broken
5329  Thy thought from this time forward upon him;
5330  Attend elsewhere, and there let him remain;
5331
5332For him I saw below the little bridge,
5333  Pointing at thee, and threatening with his finger
5334  Fiercely, and heard him called Geri del Bello.
5335
5336So wholly at that time wast thou impeded
5337  By him who formerly held Altaforte,
5338  Thou didst not look that way; so he departed."
5339
5340"O my Conductor, his own violent death,
5341  Which is not yet avenged for him," I said,
5342  "By any who is sharer in the shame,
5343
5344Made him disdainful; whence he went away,
5345  As I imagine, without speaking to me,
5346  And thereby made me pity him the more."
5347
5348Thus did we speak as far as the first place
5349  Upon the crag, which the next valley shows
5350  Down to the bottom, if there were more light.
5351
5352When we were now right over the last cloister
5353  Of Malebolge, so that its lay-brothers
5354  Could manifest themselves unto our sight,
5355
5356Divers lamentings pierced me through and through,
5357  Which with compassion had their arrows barbed,
5358  Whereat mine ears I covered with my hands.
5359
5360What pain would be, if from the hospitals
5361  Of Valdichiana, 'twixt July and September,
5362  And of Maremma and Sardinia
5363
5364All the diseases in one moat were gathered,
5365  Such was it here, and such a stench came from it
5366  As from putrescent limbs is wont to issue.
5367
5368We had descended on the furthest bank
5369  From the long crag, upon the left hand still,
5370  And then more vivid was my power of sight
5371
5372Down tow'rds the bottom, where the ministress
5373  Of the high Lord, Justice infallible,
5374  Punishes forgers, which she here records.
5375
5376I do not think a sadder sight to see
5377  Was in Aegina the whole people sick,
5378  (When was the air so full of pestilence,
5379
5380The animals, down to the little worm,
5381  All fell, and afterwards the ancient people,
5382  According as the poets have affirmed,
5383
5384Were from the seed of ants restored again,)
5385  Than was it to behold through that dark valley
5386  The spirits languishing in divers heaps.
5387
5388This on the belly, that upon the back
5389  One of the other lay, and others crawling
5390  Shifted themselves along the dismal road.
5391
5392We step by step went onward without speech,
5393  Gazing upon and listening to the sick
5394  Who had not strength enough to lift their bodies.
5395
5396I saw two sitting leaned against each other,
5397  As leans in heating platter against platter,
5398  From head to foot bespotted o'er with scabs;
5399
5400And never saw I plied a currycomb
5401  By stable-boy for whom his master waits,
5402  Or him who keeps awake unwillingly,
5403
5404As every one was plying fast the bite
5405  Of nails upon himself, for the great rage
5406  Of itching which no other succour had.
5407
5408And the nails downward with them dragged the scab,
5409  In fashion as a knife the scales of bream,
5410  Or any other fish that has them largest.
5411
5412"O thou, that with thy fingers dost dismail thee,"
5413  Began my Leader unto one of them,
5414  "And makest of them pincers now and then,
5415
5416Tell me if any Latian is with those
5417  Who are herein; so may thy nails suffice thee
5418  To all eternity unto this work."
5419
5420"Latians are we, whom thou so wasted seest,
5421  Both of us here," one weeping made reply;
5422  "But who art thou, that questionest about us?"
5423
5424And said the Guide: "One am I who descends
5425  Down with this living man from cliff to cliff,
5426  And I intend to show Hell unto him."
5427
5428Then broken was their mutual support,
5429  And trembling each one turned himself to me,
5430  With others who had heard him by rebound.
5431
5432Wholly to me did the good Master gather,
5433  Saying: "Say unto them whate'er thou wishest."
5434  And I began, since he would have it so:
5435
5436"So may your memory not steal away
5437  In the first world from out the minds of men,
5438  But so may it survive 'neath many suns,
5439
5440Say to me who ye are, and of what people;
5441  Let not your foul and loathsome punishment
5442  Make you afraid to show yourselves to me."
5443
5444"I of Arezzo was," one made reply,
5445  "And Albert of Siena had me burned;
5446  But what I died for does not bring me here.
5447
5448'Tis true I said to him, speaking in jest,
5449  That I could rise by flight into the air,
5450  And he who had conceit, but little wit,
5451
5452Would have me show to him the art; and only
5453  Because no Daedalus I made him, made me
5454  Be burned by one who held him as his son.
5455
5456But unto the last Bolgia of the ten,
5457  For alchemy, which in the world I practised,
5458  Minos, who cannot err, has me condemned."
5459
5460And to the Poet said I: "Now was ever
5461  So vain a people as the Sienese?
5462  Not for a certainty the French by far."
5463
5464Whereat the other leper, who had heard me,
5465  Replied unto my speech: "Taking out Stricca,
5466  Who knew the art of moderate expenses,
5467
5468And Niccolo, who the luxurious use
5469  Of cloves discovered earliest of all
5470  Within that garden where such seed takes root;
5471
5472And taking out the band, among whom squandered
5473  Caccia d'Ascian his vineyards and vast woods,
5474  And where his wit the Abbagliato proffered!
5475
5476But, that thou know who thus doth second thee
5477  Against the Sienese, make sharp thine eye
5478  Tow'rds me, so that my face well answer thee,
5479
5480And thou shalt see I am Capocchio's shade,
5481  Who metals falsified by alchemy;
5482  Thou must remember, if I well descry thee,
5483
5484How I a skilful ape of nature was."
5485
5486
5487
5488Inferno: Canto XXX
5489
5490
5491'Twas at the time when Juno was enraged,
5492  For Semele, against the Theban blood,
5493  As she already more than once had shown,
5494
5495So reft of reason Athamas became,
5496  That, seeing his own wife with children twain
5497  Walking encumbered upon either hand,
5498
5499He cried: "Spread out the nets, that I may take
5500  The lioness and her whelps upon the passage;"
5501  And then extended his unpitying claws,
5502
5503Seizing the first, who had the name Learchus,
5504  And whirled him round, and dashed him on a rock;
5505  And she, with the other burthen, drowned herself;--
5506
5507And at the time when fortune downward hurled
5508  The Trojan's arrogance, that all things dared,
5509  So that the king was with his kingdom crushed,
5510
5511Hecuba sad, disconsolate, and captive,
5512  When lifeless she beheld Polyxena,
5513  And of her Polydorus on the shore
5514
5515Of ocean was the dolorous one aware,
5516  Out of her senses like a dog she barked,
5517  So much the anguish had her mind distorted;
5518
5519But not of Thebes the furies nor the Trojan
5520  Were ever seen in any one so cruel
5521  In goading beasts, and much more human members,
5522
5523As I beheld two shadows pale and naked,
5524  Who, biting, in the manner ran along
5525  That a boar does, when from the sty turned loose.
5526
5527One to Capocchio came, and by the nape
5528  Seized with its teeth his neck, so that in dragging
5529  It made his belly grate the solid bottom.
5530
5531And the Aretine, who trembling had remained,
5532  Said to me: "That mad sprite is Gianni Schicchi,
5533  And raving goes thus harrying other people."
5534
5535"O," said I to him, "so may not the other
5536  Set teeth on thee, let it not weary thee
5537  To tell us who it is, ere it dart hence."
5538
5539And he to me: "That is the ancient ghost
5540  Of the nefarious Myrrha, who became
5541  Beyond all rightful love her father's lover.
5542
5543She came to sin with him after this manner,
5544  By counterfeiting of another's form;
5545  As he who goeth yonder undertook,
5546
5547That he might gain the lady of the herd,
5548  To counterfeit in himself Buoso Donati,
5549  Making a will and giving it due form."
5550
5551And after the two maniacs had passed
5552  On whom I held mine eye, I turned it back
5553  To look upon the other evil-born.
5554
5555I saw one made in fashion of a lute,
5556  If he had only had the groin cut off
5557  Just at the point at which a man is forked.
5558
5559The heavy dropsy, that so disproportions
5560  The limbs with humours, which it ill concocts,
5561  That the face corresponds not to the belly,
5562
5563Compelled him so to hold his lips apart
5564  As does the hectic, who because of thirst
5565  One tow'rds the chin, the other upward turns.
5566
5567"O ye, who without any torment are,
5568  And why I know not, in the world of woe,"
5569  He said to us, "behold, and be attentive
5570
5571Unto the misery of Master Adam;
5572  I had while living much of what I wished,
5573  And now, alas! a drop of water crave.
5574
5575The rivulets, that from the verdant hills
5576  Of Cassentin descend down into Arno,
5577  Making their channels to be cold and moist,
5578
5579Ever before me stand, and not in vain;
5580  For far more doth their image dry me up
5581  Than the disease which strips my face of flesh.
5582
5583The rigid justice that chastises me
5584  Draweth occasion from the place in which
5585  I sinned, to put the more my sighs in flight.
5586
5587There is Romena, where I counterfeited
5588  The currency imprinted with the Baptist,
5589  For which I left my body burned above.
5590
5591But if I here could see the tristful soul
5592  Of Guido, or Alessandro, or their brother,
5593  For Branda's fount I would not give the sight.
5594
5595One is within already, if the raving
5596  Shades that are going round about speak truth;
5597  But what avails it me, whose limbs are tied?
5598
5599If I were only still so light, that in
5600  A hundred years I could advance one inch,
5601  I had already started on the way,
5602
5603Seeking him out among this squalid folk,
5604  Although the circuit be eleven miles,
5605  And be not less than half a mile across.
5606
5607For them am I in such a family;
5608  They did induce me into coining florins,
5609  Which had three carats of impurity."
5610
5611And I to him: "Who are the two poor wretches
5612  That smoke like unto a wet hand in winter,
5613  Lying there close upon thy right-hand confines?"
5614
5615"I found them here," replied he, "when I rained
5616  Into this chasm, and since they have not turned,
5617  Nor do I think they will for evermore.
5618
5619One the false woman is who accused Joseph,
5620  The other the false Sinon, Greek of Troy;
5621  From acute fever they send forth such reek."
5622
5623And one of them, who felt himself annoyed
5624  At being, peradventure, named so darkly,
5625  Smote with the fist upon his hardened paunch.
5626
5627It gave a sound, as if it were a drum;
5628  And Master Adam smote him in the face,
5629  With arm that did not seem to be less hard,
5630
5631Saying to him: "Although be taken from me
5632  All motion, for my limbs that heavy are,
5633  I have an arm unfettered for such need."
5634
5635Whereat he answer made: "When thou didst go
5636  Unto the fire, thou hadst it not so ready:
5637  But hadst it so and more when thou wast coining."
5638
5639The dropsical: "Thou sayest true in that;
5640  But thou wast not so true a witness there,
5641  Where thou wast questioned of the truth at Troy."
5642
5643"If I spake false, thou falsifiedst the coin,"
5644  Said Sinon; "and for one fault I am here,
5645  And thou for more than any other demon."
5646
5647"Remember, perjurer, about the horse,"
5648  He made reply who had the swollen belly,
5649  "And rueful be it thee the whole world knows it."
5650
5651"Rueful to thee the thirst be wherewith cracks
5652  Thy tongue," the Greek said, "and the putrid water
5653  That hedges so thy paunch before thine eyes."
5654
5655Then the false-coiner: "So is gaping wide
5656  Thy mouth for speaking evil, as 'tis wont;
5657  Because if I have thirst, and humour stuff me
5658
5659Thou hast the burning and the head that aches,
5660  And to lick up the mirror of Narcissus
5661  Thou wouldst not want words many to invite thee."
5662
5663In listening to them was I wholly fixed,
5664  When said the Master to me: "Now just look,
5665  For little wants it that I quarrel with thee."
5666
5667When him I heard in anger speak to me,
5668  I turned me round towards him with such shame
5669  That still it eddies through my memory.
5670
5671And as he is who dreams of his own harm,
5672  Who dreaming wishes it may be a dream,
5673  So that he craves what is, as if it were not;
5674
5675Such I became, not having power to speak,
5676  For to excuse myself I wished, and still
5677  Excused myself, and did not think I did it.
5678
5679"Less shame doth wash away a greater fault,"
5680  The Master said, "than this of thine has been;
5681  Therefore thyself disburden of all sadness,
5682
5683And make account that I am aye beside thee,
5684  If e'er it come to pass that fortune bring thee
5685  Where there are people in a like dispute;
5686
5687For a base wish it is to wish to hear it."
5688
5689
5690
5691Inferno: Canto XXXI
5692
5693
5694One and the selfsame tongue first wounded me,
5695  So that it tinged the one cheek and the other,
5696  And then held out to me the medicine;
5697
5698Thus do I hear that once Achilles' spear,
5699  His and his father's, used to be the cause
5700  First of a sad and then a gracious boon.
5701
5702We turned our backs upon the wretched valley,
5703  Upon the bank that girds it round about,
5704  Going across it without any speech.
5705
5706There it was less than night, and less than day,
5707  So that my sight went little in advance;
5708  But I could hear the blare of a loud horn,
5709
5710So loud it would have made each thunder faint,
5711  Which, counter to it following its way,
5712  Mine eyes directed wholly to one place.
5713
5714After the dolorous discomfiture
5715  When Charlemagne the holy emprise lost,
5716  So terribly Orlando sounded not.
5717
5718Short while my head turned thitherward I held
5719  When many lofty towers I seemed to see,
5720  Whereat I: "Master, say, what town is this?"
5721
5722And he to me: "Because thou peerest forth
5723  Athwart the darkness at too great a distance,
5724  It happens that thou errest in thy fancy.
5725
5726Well shalt thou see, if thou arrivest there,
5727  How much the sense deceives itself by distance;
5728  Therefore a little faster spur thee on."
5729
5730Then tenderly he took me by the hand,
5731  And said: "Before we farther have advanced,
5732  That the reality may seem to thee
5733
5734Less strange, know that these are not towers, but giants,
5735  And they are in the well, around the bank,
5736  From navel downward, one and all of them."
5737
5738As, when the fog is vanishing away,
5739  Little by little doth the sight refigure
5740  Whate'er the mist that crowds the air conceals,
5741
5742So, piercing through the dense and darksome air,
5743  More and more near approaching tow'rd the verge,
5744  My error fled, and fear came over me;
5745
5746Because as on its circular parapets
5747  Montereggione crowns itself with towers,
5748  E'en thus the margin which surrounds the well
5749
5750With one half of their bodies turreted
5751  The horrible giants, whom Jove menaces
5752  E'en now from out the heavens when he thunders.
5753
5754And I of one already saw the face,
5755  Shoulders, and breast, and great part of the belly,
5756  And down along his sides both of the arms.
5757
5758Certainly Nature, when she left the making
5759  Of animals like these, did well indeed,
5760  By taking such executors from Mars;
5761
5762And if of elephants and whales she doth not
5763  Repent her, whosoever looketh subtly
5764  More just and more discreet will hold her for it;
5765
5766For where the argument of intellect
5767  Is added unto evil will and power,
5768  No rampart can the people make against it.
5769
5770His face appeared to me as long and large
5771  As is at Rome the pine-cone of Saint Peter's,
5772  And in proportion were the other bones;
5773
5774So that the margin, which an apron was
5775  Down from the middle, showed so much of him
5776  Above it, that to reach up to his hair
5777
5778Three Frieslanders in vain had vaunted them;
5779  For I beheld thirty great palms of him
5780  Down from the place where man his mantle buckles.
5781
5782"Raphael mai amech izabi almi,"
5783  Began to clamour the ferocious mouth,
5784  To which were not befitting sweeter psalms.
5785
5786And unto him my Guide: "Soul idiotic,
5787  Keep to thy horn, and vent thyself with that,
5788  When wrath or other passion touches thee.
5789
5790Search round thy neck, and thou wilt find the belt
5791  Which keeps it fastened, O bewildered soul,
5792  And see it, where it bars thy mighty breast."
5793
5794Then said to me: "He doth himself accuse;
5795  This one is Nimrod, by whose evil thought
5796  One language in the world is not still used.
5797
5798Here let us leave him and not speak in vain;
5799  For even such to him is every language
5800  As his to others, which to none is known."
5801
5802Therefore a longer journey did we make,
5803  Turned to the left, and a crossbow-shot oft
5804  We found another far more fierce and large.
5805
5806In binding him, who might the master be
5807  I cannot say; but he had pinioned close
5808  Behind the right arm, and in front the other,
5809
5810With chains, that held him so begirt about
5811  From the neck down, that on the part uncovered
5812  It wound itself as far as the fifth gyre.
5813
5814"This proud one wished to make experiment
5815  Of his own power against the Supreme Jove,"
5816  My Leader said, "whence he has such a guerdon.
5817
5818Ephialtes is his name; he showed great prowess.
5819  What time the giants terrified the gods;
5820  The arms he wielded never more he moves."
5821
5822And I to him: "If possible, I should wish
5823  That of the measureless Briareus
5824  These eyes of mine might have experience."
5825
5826Whence he replied: "Thou shalt behold Antaeus
5827  Close by here, who can speak and is unbound,
5828  Who at the bottom of all crime shall place us.
5829
5830Much farther yon is he whom thou wouldst see,
5831  And he is bound, and fashioned like to this one,
5832  Save that he seems in aspect more ferocious."
5833
5834There never was an earthquake of such might
5835  That it could shake a tower so violently,
5836  As Ephialtes suddenly shook himself.
5837
5838Then was I more afraid of death than ever,
5839  For nothing more was needful than the fear,
5840  If I had not beheld the manacles.
5841
5842Then we proceeded farther in advance,
5843  And to Antaeus came, who, full five ells
5844  Without the head, forth issued from the cavern.
5845
5846"O thou, who in the valley fortunate,
5847  Which Scipio the heir of glory made,
5848  When Hannibal turned back with all his hosts,
5849
5850Once brought'st a thousand lions for thy prey,
5851  And who, hadst thou been at the mighty war
5852  Among thy brothers, some it seems still think
5853
5854The sons of Earth the victory would have gained:
5855  Place us below, nor be disdainful of it,
5856  There where the cold doth lock Cocytus up.
5857
5858Make us not go to Tityus nor Typhoeus;
5859  This one can give of that which here is longed for;
5860  Therefore stoop down, and do not curl thy lip.
5861
5862Still in the world can he restore thy fame;
5863  Because he lives, and still expects long life,
5864  If to itself Grace call him not untimely."
5865
5866So said the Master; and in haste the other
5867  His hands extended and took up my Guide,--
5868  Hands whose great pressure Hercules once felt.
5869
5870Virgilius, when he felt himself embraced,
5871  Said unto me: "Draw nigh, that I may take thee;"
5872  Then of himself and me one bundle made.
5873
5874As seems the Carisenda, to behold
5875  Beneath the leaning side, when goes a cloud
5876  Above it so that opposite it hangs;
5877
5878Such did Antaeus seem to me, who stood
5879  Watching to see him stoop, and then it was
5880  I could have wished to go some other way.
5881
5882But lightly in the abyss, which swallows up
5883  Judas with Lucifer, he put us down;
5884  Nor thus bowed downward made he there delay,
5885
5886But, as a mast does in a ship, uprose.
5887
5888
5889
5890Inferno: Canto XXXII
5891
5892
5893If I had rhymes both rough and stridulous,
5894  As were appropriate to the dismal hole
5895  Down upon which thrust all the other rocks,
5896
5897I would press out the juice of my conception
5898  More fully; but because I have them not,
5899  Not without fear I bring myself to speak;
5900
5901For 'tis no enterprise to take in jest,
5902  To sketch the bottom of all the universe,
5903  Nor for a tongue that cries Mamma and Babbo.
5904
5905But may those Ladies help this verse of mine,
5906  Who helped Amphion in enclosing Thebes,
5907  That from the fact the word be not diverse.
5908
5909O rabble ill-begotten above all,
5910  Who're in the place to speak of which is hard,
5911  'Twere better ye had here been sheep or goats!
5912
5913When we were down within the darksome well,
5914  Beneath the giant's feet, but lower far,
5915  And I was scanning still the lofty wall,
5916
5917I heard it said to me: "Look how thou steppest!
5918  Take heed thou do not trample with thy feet
5919  The heads of the tired, miserable brothers!"
5920
5921Whereat I turned me round, and saw before me
5922  And underfoot a lake, that from the frost
5923  The semblance had of glass, and not of water.
5924
5925So thick a veil ne'er made upon its current
5926  In winter-time Danube in Austria,
5927  Nor there beneath the frigid sky the Don,
5928
5929As there was here; so that if Tambernich
5930  Had fallen upon it, or Pietrapana,
5931  E'en at the edge 'twould not have given a creak.
5932
5933And as to croak the frog doth place himself
5934  With muzzle out of water,--when is dreaming
5935  Of gleaning oftentimes the peasant-girl,--
5936
5937Livid, as far down as where shame appears,
5938  Were the disconsolate shades within the ice,
5939  Setting their teeth unto the note of storks.
5940
5941Each one his countenance held downward bent;
5942  From mouth the cold, from eyes the doleful heart
5943  Among them witness of itself procures.
5944
5945When round about me somewhat I had looked,
5946  I downward turned me, and saw two so close,
5947  The hair upon their heads together mingled.
5948
5949"Ye who so strain your breasts together, tell me,"
5950  I said, "who are you;" and they bent their necks,
5951  And when to me their faces they had lifted,
5952
5953Their eyes, which first were only moist within,
5954  Gushed o'er the eyelids, and the frost congealed
5955  The tears between, and locked them up again.
5956
5957Clamp never bound together wood with wood
5958  So strongly; whereat they, like two he-goats,
5959  Butted together, so much wrath o'ercame them.
5960
5961And one, who had by reason of the cold
5962  Lost both his ears, still with his visage downward,
5963  Said: "Why dost thou so mirror thyself in us?
5964
5965If thou desire to know who these two are,
5966  The valley whence Bisenzio descends
5967  Belonged to them and to their father Albert.
5968
5969They from one body came, and all Caina
5970  Thou shalt search through, and shalt not find a shade
5971  More worthy to be fixed in gelatine;
5972
5973Not he in whom were broken breast and shadow
5974  At one and the same blow by Arthur's hand;
5975  Focaccia not; not he who me encumbers
5976
5977So with his head I see no farther forward,
5978  And bore the name of Sassol Mascheroni;
5979  Well knowest thou who he was, if thou art Tuscan.
5980
5981And that thou put me not to further speech,
5982  Know that I Camicion de' Pazzi was,
5983  And wait Carlino to exonerate me."
5984
5985Then I beheld a thousand faces, made
5986  Purple with cold; whence o'er me comes a shudder,
5987  And evermore will come, at frozen ponds.
5988
5989And while we were advancing tow'rds the middle,
5990  Where everything of weight unites together,
5991  And I was shivering in the eternal shade,
5992
5993Whether 'twere will, or destiny, or chance,
5994  I know not; but in walking 'mong the heads
5995  I struck my foot hard in the face of one.
5996
5997Weeping he growled: "Why dost thou trample me?
5998  Unless thou comest to increase the vengeance
5999  of Montaperti, why dost thou molest me?"
6000
6001And I: "My Master, now wait here for me,
6002  That I through him may issue from a doubt;
6003  Then thou mayst hurry me, as thou shalt wish."
6004
6005The Leader stopped; and to that one I said
6006  Who was blaspheming vehemently still:
6007  "Who art thou, that thus reprehendest others?"
6008
6009"Now who art thou, that goest through Antenora
6010  Smiting," replied he, "other people's cheeks,
6011  So that, if thou wert living, 'twere too much?"
6012
6013"Living I am, and dear to thee it may be,"
6014  Was my response, "if thou demandest fame,
6015  That 'mid the other notes thy name I place."
6016
6017And he to me: "For the reverse I long;
6018  Take thyself hence, and give me no more trouble;
6019  For ill thou knowest to flatter in this hollow."
6020
6021Then by the scalp behind I seized upon him,
6022  And said: "It must needs be thou name thyself,
6023  Or not a hair remain upon thee here."
6024
6025Whence he to me: "Though thou strip off my hair,
6026  I will not tell thee who I am, nor show thee,
6027  If on my head a thousand times thou fall."
6028
6029I had his hair in hand already twisted,
6030  And more than one shock of it had pulled out,
6031  He barking, with his eyes held firmly down,
6032
6033When cried another: "What doth ail thee, Bocca?
6034  Is't not enough to clatter with thy jaws,
6035  But thou must bark? what devil touches thee?"
6036
6037"Now," said I, "I care not to have thee speak,
6038  Accursed traitor; for unto thy shame
6039  I will report of thee veracious news."
6040
6041"Begone," replied he, "and tell what thou wilt,
6042  But be not silent, if thou issue hence,
6043  Of him who had just now his tongue so prompt;
6044
6045He weepeth here the silver of the French;
6046  'I saw,' thus canst thou phrase it, 'him of Duera
6047  There where the sinners stand out in the cold.'
6048
6049If thou shouldst questioned be who else was there,
6050  Thou hast beside thee him of Beccaria,
6051  Of whom the gorget Florence slit asunder;
6052
6053Gianni del Soldanier, I think, may be
6054  Yonder with Ganellon, and Tebaldello
6055  Who oped Faenza when the people slep."
6056
6057Already we had gone away from him,
6058  When I beheld two frozen in one hole,
6059  So that one head a hood was to the other;
6060
6061And even as bread through hunger is devoured,
6062  The uppermost on the other set his teeth,
6063  There where the brain is to the nape united.
6064
6065Not in another fashion Tydeus gnawed
6066  The temples of Menalippus in disdain,
6067  Than that one did the skull and the other things.
6068
6069"O thou, who showest by such bestial sign
6070  Thy hatred against him whom thou art eating,
6071  Tell me the wherefore," said I, "with this compact,
6072
6073That if thou rightfully of him complain,
6074  In knowing who ye are, and his transgression,
6075  I in the world above repay thee for it,
6076
6077If that wherewith I speak be not dried up."
6078
6079
6080
6081Inferno: Canto XXXIII
6082
6083
6084His mouth uplifted from his grim repast,
6085  That sinner, wiping it upon the hair
6086  Of the same head that he behind had wasted.
6087
6088Then he began: "Thou wilt that I renew
6089  The desperate grief, which wrings my heart already
6090  To think of only, ere I speak of it;
6091
6092But if my words be seed that may bear fruit
6093  Of infamy to the traitor whom I gnaw,
6094  Speaking and weeping shalt thou see together.
6095
6096I know not who thou art, nor by what mode
6097  Thou hast come down here; but a Florentine
6098  Thou seemest to me truly, when I hear thee.
6099
6100Thou hast to know I was Count Ugolino,
6101  And this one was Ruggieri the Archbishop;
6102  Now I will tell thee why I am such a neighbour.
6103
6104That, by effect of his malicious thoughts,
6105  Trusting in him I was made prisoner,
6106  And after put to death, I need not say;
6107
6108 But ne'ertheless what thou canst not have heard,
6109  That is to say, how cruel was my death,
6110  Hear shalt thou, and shalt know if he has wronged me.
6111
6112A narrow perforation in the mew,
6113  Which bears because of me the title of Famine,
6114  And in which others still must be locked up,
6115
6116Had shown me through its opening many moons
6117  Already, when I dreamed the evil dream
6118  Which of the future rent for me the veil.
6119
6120This one appeared to me as lord and master,
6121  Hunting the wolf and whelps upon the mountain
6122  For which the Pisans cannot Lucca see.
6123
6124With sleuth-hounds gaunt, and eager, and well trained,
6125  Gualandi with Sismondi and Lanfianchi
6126  He had sent out before him to the front.
6127
6128After brief course seemed unto me forespent
6129  The father and the sons, and with sharp tushes
6130  It seemed to me I saw their flanks ripped open.
6131
6132When I before the morrow was awake,
6133  Moaning amid their sleep I heard my sons
6134  Who with me were, and asking after bread.
6135
6136Cruel indeed art thou, if yet thou grieve not,
6137  Thinking of what my heart foreboded me,
6138  And weep'st thou not, what art thou wont to weep at?
6139
6140They were awake now, and the hour drew nigh
6141  At which our food used to be brought to us,
6142  And through his dream was each one apprehensive;
6143
6144And I heard locking up the under door
6145  Of the horrible tower; whereat without a word
6146  I gazed into the faces of my sons.
6147
6148I wept not, I within so turned to stone;
6149  They wept; and darling little Anselm mine
6150  Said: 'Thou dost gaze so, father, what doth ail thee?'
6151
6152Still not a tear I shed, nor answer made
6153  All of that day, nor yet the night thereafter,
6154  Until another sun rose on the world.
6155
6156As now a little glimmer made its way
6157  Into the dolorous prison, and I saw
6158  Upon four faces my own very aspect,
6159
6160Both of my hands in agony I bit;
6161  And, thinking that I did it from desire
6162  Of eating, on a sudden they uprose,
6163
6164And said they: 'Father, much less pain 'twill give us
6165  If thou do eat of us; thyself didst clothe us
6166  With this poor flesh, and do thou strip it off.'
6167
6168I calmed me then, not to make them more sad.
6169  That day we all were silent, and the next.
6170  Ah! obdurate earth, wherefore didst thou not open?
6171
6172When we had come unto the fourth day, Gaddo
6173  Threw himself down outstretched before my feet,
6174  Saying, 'My father, why dost thou not help me?'
6175
6176And there he died; and, as thou seest me,
6177  I saw the three fall, one by one, between
6178  The fifth day and the sixth; whence I betook me,
6179
6180Already blind, to groping over each,
6181  And three days called them after they were dead;
6182  Then hunger did what sorrow could not do."
6183
6184When he had said this, with his eyes distorted,
6185  The wretched skull resumed he with his teeth,
6186  Which, as a dog's, upon the bone were strong.
6187
6188Ah! Pisa, thou opprobrium of the people
6189  Of the fair land there where the 'Si' doth sound,
6190  Since slow to punish thee thy neighbours are,
6191
6192Let the Capraia and Gorgona move,
6193  And make a hedge across the mouth of Arno
6194  That every person in thee it may drown!
6195
6196For if Count Ugolino had the fame
6197  Of having in thy castles thee betrayed,
6198  Thou shouldst not on such cross have put his sons.
6199
6200Guiltless of any crime, thou modern Thebes!
6201  Their youth made Uguccione and Brigata,
6202  And the other two my song doth name above!
6203
6204We passed still farther onward, where the ice
6205  Another people ruggedly enswathes,
6206  Not downward turned, but all of them reversed.
6207
6208Weeping itself there does not let them weep,
6209  And grief that finds a barrier in the eyes
6210  Turns itself inward to increase the anguish;
6211
6212Because the earliest tears a cluster form,
6213  And, in the manner of a crystal visor,
6214  Fill all the cup beneath the eyebrow full.
6215
6216And notwithstanding that, as in a callus,
6217  Because of cold all sensibility
6218  Its station had abandoned in my face,
6219
6220Still it appeared to me I felt some wind;
6221  Whence I: "My Master, who sets this in motion?
6222  Is not below here every vapour quenched?"
6223
6224Whence he to me: "Full soon shalt thou be where
6225  Thine eye shall answer make to thee of this,
6226  Seeing the cause which raineth down the blast."
6227
6228And one of the wretches of the frozen crust
6229  Cried out to us: "O souls so merciless
6230  That the last post is given unto you,
6231
6232Lift from mine eyes the rigid veils, that I
6233  May vent the sorrow which impregns my heart
6234  A little, e'er the weeping recongeal."
6235
6236Whence I to him: "If thou wouldst have me help thee
6237  Say who thou wast; and if I free thee not,
6238  May I go to the bottom of the ice."
6239
6240Then he replied: "I am Friar Alberigo;
6241  He am I of the fruit of the bad garden,
6242  Who here a date am getting for my fig."
6243
6244"O," said I to him, "now art thou, too, dead?"
6245  And he to me: "How may my body fare
6246  Up in the world, no knowledge I possess.
6247
6248Such an advantage has this Ptolomaea,
6249  That oftentimes the soul descendeth here
6250  Sooner than Atropos in motion sets it.
6251
6252And, that thou mayest more willingly remove
6253  From off my countenance these glassy tears,
6254  Know that as soon as any soul betrays
6255
6256As I have done, his body by a demon
6257  Is taken from him, who thereafter rules it,
6258  Until his time has wholly been revolved.
6259
6260Itself down rushes into such a cistern;
6261  And still perchance above appears the body
6262  Of yonder shade, that winters here behind me.
6263
6264This thou shouldst know, if thou hast just come down;
6265  It is Ser Branca d' Oria, and many years
6266  Have passed away since he was thus locked up."
6267
6268"I think," said I to him, "thou dost deceive me;
6269  For Branca d' Oria is not dead as yet,
6270  And eats, and drinks, and sleeps, and puts on clothes."
6271
6272"In moat above," said he, "of Malebranche,
6273  There where is boiling the tenacious pitch,
6274  As yet had Michel Zanche not arrived,
6275
6276When this one left a devil in his stead
6277  In his own body and one near of kin,
6278  Who made together with him the betrayal.
6279
6280But hitherward stretch out thy hand forthwith,
6281  Open mine eyes;"--and open them I did not,
6282  And to be rude to him was courtesy.
6283
6284Ah, Genoese! ye men at variance
6285  With every virtue, full of every vice
6286  Wherefore are ye not scattered from the world?
6287
6288For with the vilest spirit of Romagna
6289  I found of you one such, who for his deeds
6290  In soul already in Cocytus bathes,
6291
6292And still above in body seems alive!
6293
6294
6295
6296Inferno: Canto XXXIV
6297
6298
6299"'Vexilla Regis prodeunt Inferni'
6300  Towards us; therefore look in front of thee,"
6301  My Master said, "if thou discernest him."
6302
6303As, when there breathes a heavy fog, or when
6304  Our hemisphere is darkening into night,
6305  Appears far off a mill the wind is turning,
6306
6307Methought that such a building then I saw;
6308  And, for the wind, I drew myself behind
6309  My Guide, because there was no other shelter.
6310
6311Now was I, and with fear in verse I put it,
6312  There where the shades were wholly covered up,
6313  And glimmered through like unto straws in glass.
6314
6315Some prone are lying, others stand erect,
6316  This with the head, and that one with the soles;
6317  Another, bow-like, face to feet inverts.
6318
6319When in advance so far we had proceeded,
6320  That it my Master pleased to show to me
6321  The creature who once had the beauteous semblance,
6322
6323He from before me moved and made me stop,
6324  Saying: "Behold Dis, and behold the place
6325  Where thou with fortitude must arm thyself."
6326
6327How frozen I became and powerless then,
6328  Ask it not, Reader, for I write it not,
6329  Because all language would be insufficient.
6330
6331I did not die, and I alive remained not;
6332  Think for thyself now, hast thou aught of wit,
6333  What I became, being of both deprived.
6334
6335The Emperor of the kingdom dolorous
6336  From his mid-breast forth issued from the ice;
6337  And better with a giant I compare
6338
6339Than do the giants with those arms of his;
6340  Consider now how great must be that whole,
6341  Which unto such a part conforms itself.
6342
6343Were he as fair once, as he now is foul,
6344  And lifted up his brow against his Maker,
6345  Well may proceed from him all tribulation.
6346
6347O, what a marvel it appeared to me,
6348  When I beheld three faces on his head!
6349  The one in front, and that vermilion was;
6350
6351Two were the others, that were joined with this
6352  Above the middle part of either shoulder,
6353  And they were joined together at the crest;
6354
6355And the right-hand one seemed 'twixt white and yellow;
6356  The left was such to look upon as those
6357  Who come from where the Nile falls valley-ward.
6358
6359Underneath each came forth two mighty wings,
6360  Such as befitting were so great a bird;
6361  Sails of the sea I never saw so large.
6362
6363 No feathers had they, but as of a bat
6364  Their fashion was; and he was waving them,
6365  So that three winds proceeded forth therefrom.
6366
6367Thereby Cocytus wholly was congealed.
6368  With six eyes did he weep, and down three chins
6369  Trickled the tear-drops and the bloody drivel.
6370
6371At every mouth he with his teeth was crunching
6372  A sinner, in the manner of a brake,
6373  So that he three of them tormented thus.
6374
6375To him in front the biting was as naught
6376  Unto the clawing, for sometimes the spine
6377  Utterly stripped of all the skin remained.
6378
6379"That soul up there which has the greatest pain,"
6380  The Master said, "is Judas Iscariot;
6381  With head inside, he plies his legs without.
6382
6383Of the two others, who head downward are,
6384  The one who hangs from the black jowl is Brutus;
6385  See how he writhes himself, and speaks no word.
6386
6387And the other, who so stalwart seems, is Cassius.
6388  But night is reascending, and 'tis time
6389  That we depart, for we have seen the whole."
6390
6391As seemed him good, I clasped him round the neck,
6392  And he the vantage seized of time and place,
6393  And when the wings were opened wide apart,
6394
6395He laid fast hold upon the shaggy sides;
6396  From fell to fell descended downward then
6397  Between the thick hair and the frozen crust.
6398
6399When we were come to where the thigh revolves
6400  Exactly on the thickness of the haunch,
6401  The Guide, with labour and with hard-drawn breath,
6402
6403Turned round his head where he had had his legs,
6404  And grappled to the hair, as one who mounts,
6405  So that to Hell I thought we were returning.
6406
6407"Keep fast thy hold, for by such stairs as these,"
6408  The Master said, panting as one fatigued,
6409  "Must we perforce depart from so much evil."
6410
6411Then through the opening of a rock he issued,
6412  And down upon the margin seated me;
6413  Then tow'rds me he outstretched his wary step.
6414
6415I lifted up mine eyes and thought to see
6416  Lucifer in the same way I had left him;
6417  And I beheld him upward hold his legs.
6418
6419And if I then became disquieted,
6420  Let stolid people think who do not see
6421  What the point is beyond which I had passed.
6422
6423"Rise up," the Master said, "upon thy feet;
6424  The way is long, and difficult the road,
6425  And now the sun to middle-tierce returns."
6426
6427It was not any palace corridor
6428  There where we were, but dungeon natural,
6429  With floor uneven and unease of light.
6430
6431"Ere from the abyss I tear myself away,
6432  My Master," said I when I had arisen,
6433  "To draw me from an error speak a little;
6434
6435Where is the ice? and how is this one fixed
6436  Thus upside down? and how in such short time
6437  From eve to morn has the sun made his transit?"
6438
6439And he to me: "Thou still imaginest
6440  Thou art beyond the centre, where I grasped
6441  The hair of the fell worm, who mines the world.
6442
6443That side thou wast, so long as I descended;
6444  When round I turned me, thou didst pass the point
6445  To which things heavy draw from every side,
6446
6447And now beneath the hemisphere art come
6448  Opposite that which overhangs the vast
6449  Dry-land, and 'neath whose cope was put to death
6450
6451The Man who without sin was born and lived.
6452  Thou hast thy feet upon the little sphere
6453  Which makes the other face of the Judecca.
6454
6455Here it is morn when it is evening there;
6456  And he who with his hair a stairway made us
6457  Still fixed remaineth as he was before.
6458
6459Upon this side he fell down out of heaven;
6460  And all the land, that whilom here emerged,
6461  For fear of him made of the sea a veil,
6462
6463And came to our hemisphere; and peradventure
6464  To flee from him, what on this side appears
6465  Left the place vacant here, and back recoiled."
6466
6467A place there is below, from Beelzebub
6468  As far receding as the tomb extends,
6469  Which not by sight is known, but by the sound
6470
6471Of a small rivulet, that there descendeth
6472  Through chasm within the stone, which it has gnawed
6473  With course that winds about and slightly falls.
6474
6475The Guide and I into that hidden road
6476  Now entered, to return to the bright world;
6477  And without care of having any rest
6478
6479We mounted up, he first and I the second,
6480  Till I beheld through a round aperture
6481  Some of the beauteous things that Heaven doth bear;
6482
6483Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars.