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1INFERNO
2
3
4
5Inferno: Canto I
6
7
8Midway upon the journey of our life
9  I found myself within a forest dark,
10  For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
11
12Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
13  What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
14  Which in the very thought renews the fear.
15
16So bitter is it, death is little more;
17  But of the good to treat, which there I found,
18  Speak will I of the other things I saw there.
19
20I cannot well repeat how there I entered,
21  So full was I of slumber at the moment
22  In which I had abandoned the true way.
23
24But after I had reached a mountain's foot,
25  At that point where the valley terminated,
26  Which had with consternation pierced my heart,
27
28Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders,
29  Vested already with that planet's rays
30  Which leadeth others right by every road.
31
32Then was the fear a little quieted
33  That in my heart's lake had endured throughout
34  The night, which I had passed so piteously.
35
36And even as he, who, with distressful breath,
37  Forth issued from the sea upon the shore,
38  Turns to the water perilous and gazes;
39
40So did my soul, that still was fleeing onward,
41  Turn itself back to re-behold the pass
42  Which never yet a living person left.
43
44After my weary body I had rested,
45  The way resumed I on the desert slope,
46  So that the firm foot ever was the lower.
47
48And lo! almost where the ascent began,
49  A panther light and swift exceedingly,
50  Which with a spotted skin was covered o'er!
51
52And never moved she from before my face,
53  Nay, rather did impede so much my way,
54  That many times I to return had turned.
55
56The time was the beginning of the morning,
57  And up the sun was mounting with those stars
58  That with him were, what time the Love Divine
59
60At first in motion set those beauteous things;
61  So were to me occasion of good hope,
62  The variegated skin of that wild beast,
63
64The hour of time, and the delicious season;
65  But not so much, that did not give me fear
66  A lion's aspect which appeared to me.
67
68He seemed as if against me he were coming
69  With head uplifted, and with ravenous hunger,
70  So that it seemed the air was afraid of him;
71
72And a she-wolf, that with all hungerings
73  Seemed to be laden in her meagreness,
74  And many folk has caused to live forlorn!
75
76She brought upon me so much heaviness,
77  With the affright that from her aspect came,
78  That I the hope relinquished of the height.
79
80And as he is who willingly acquires,
81  And the time comes that causes him to lose,
82  Who weeps in all his thoughts and is despondent,
83
84E'en such made me that beast withouten peace,
85  Which, coming on against me by degrees
86  Thrust me back thither where the sun is silent.
87
88While I was rushing downward to the lowland,
89  Before mine eyes did one present himself,
90  Who seemed from long-continued silence hoarse.
91
92When I beheld him in the desert vast,
93  "Have pity on me," unto him I cried,
94  "Whiche'er thou art, or shade or real man!"
95
96He answered me: "Not man; man once I was,
97  And both my parents were of Lombardy,
98  And Mantuans by country both of them.
99
100'Sub Julio' was I born, though it was late,
101  And lived at Rome under the good Augustus,
102  During the time of false and lying gods.
103
104A poet was I, and I sang that just
105  Son of Anchises, who came forth from Troy,
106  After that Ilion the superb was burned.
107
108But thou, why goest thou back to such annoyance?
109  Why climb'st thou not the Mount Delectable,
110  Which is the source and cause of every joy?"
111
112"Now, art thou that Virgilius and that fountain
113  Which spreads abroad so wide a river of speech?"
114  I made response to him with bashful forehead.
115
116"O, of the other poets honour and light,
117  Avail me the long study and great love
118  That have impelled me to explore thy volume!
119
120Thou art my master, and my author thou,
121  Thou art alone the one from whom I took
122  The beautiful style that has done honour to me.
123
124Behold the beast, for which I have turned back;
125  Do thou protect me from her, famous Sage,
126  For she doth make my veins and pulses tremble."
127
128"Thee it behoves to take another road,"
129  Responded he, when he beheld me weeping,
130  "If from this savage place thou wouldst escape;
131
132Because this beast, at which thou criest out,
133  Suffers not any one to pass her way,
134  But so doth harass him, that she destroys him;
135
136And has a nature so malign and ruthless,
137  That never doth she glut her greedy will,
138  And after food is hungrier than before.
139
140Many the animals with whom she weds,
141  And more they shall be still, until the Greyhound
142  Comes, who shall make her perish in her pain.
143
144He shall not feed on either earth or pelf,
145  But upon wisdom, and on love and virtue;
146  'Twixt Feltro and Feltro shall his nation be;
147
148Of that low Italy shall he be the saviour,
149  On whose account the maid Camilla died,
150  Euryalus, Turnus, Nisus, of their wounds;
151
152Through every city shall he hunt her down,
153  Until he shall have driven her back to Hell,
154  There from whence envy first did let her loose.
155
156Therefore I think and judge it for thy best
157  Thou follow me, and I will be thy guide,
158  And lead thee hence through the eternal place,
159
160Where thou shalt hear the desperate lamentations,
161  Shalt see the ancient spirits disconsolate,
162  Who cry out each one for the second death;
163
164And thou shalt see those who contented are
165  Within the fire, because they hope to come,
166  Whene'er it may be, to the blessed people;
167
168To whom, then, if thou wishest to ascend,
169  A soul shall be for that than I more worthy;
170  With her at my departure I will leave thee;
171
172Because that Emperor, who reigns above,
173  In that I was rebellious to his law,
174  Wills that through me none come into his city.
175
176He governs everywhere, and there he reigns;
177  There is his city and his lofty throne;
178  O happy he whom thereto he elects!"
179
180And I to him: "Poet, I thee entreat,
181  By that same God whom thou didst never know,
182  So that I may escape this woe and worse,
183
184Thou wouldst conduct me there where thou hast said,
185  That I may see the portal of Saint Peter,
186  And those thou makest so disconsolate."
187
188Then he moved on, and I behind him followed.
189
190
191
192Inferno: Canto II
193
194
195Day was departing, and the embrowned air
196  Released the animals that are on earth
197  From their fatigues; and I the only one
198
199Made myself ready to sustain the war,
200  Both of the way and likewise of the woe,
201  Which memory that errs not shall retrace.
202
203O Muses, O high genius, now assist me!
204  O memory, that didst write down what I saw,
205  Here thy nobility shall be manifest!
206
207And I began: "Poet, who guidest me,
208  Regard my manhood, if it be sufficient,
209  Ere to the arduous pass thou dost confide me.
210
211Thou sayest, that of Silvius the parent,
212  While yet corruptible, unto the world
213  Immortal went, and was there bodily.
214
215But if the adversary of all evil
216  Was courteous, thinking of the high effect
217  That issue would from him, and who, and what,
218
219To men of intellect unmeet it seems not;
220  For he was of great Rome, and of her empire
221  In the empyreal heaven as father chosen;
222
223The which and what, wishing to speak the truth,
224  Were stablished as the holy place, wherein
225  Sits the successor of the greatest Peter.
226
227Upon this journey, whence thou givest him vaunt,
228  Things did he hear, which the occasion were
229  Both of his victory and the papal mantle.
230
231Thither went afterwards the Chosen Vessel,
232  To bring back comfort thence unto that Faith,
233  Which of salvation's way is the beginning.
234
235But I, why thither come, or who concedes it?
236  I not Aeneas am, I am not Paul,
237  Nor I, nor others, think me worthy of it.
238
239Therefore, if I resign myself to come,
240  I fear the coming may be ill-advised;
241  Thou'rt wise, and knowest better than I speak."
242
243And as he is, who unwills what he willed,
244  And by new thoughts doth his intention change,
245  So that from his design he quite withdraws,
246
247Such I became, upon that dark hillside,
248  Because, in thinking, I consumed the emprise,
249  Which was so very prompt in the beginning.
250
251"If I have well thy language understood,"
252  Replied that shade of the Magnanimous,
253  "Thy soul attainted is with cowardice,
254
255Which many times a man encumbers so,
256  It turns him back from honoured enterprise,
257  As false sight doth a beast, when he is shy.
258
259That thou mayst free thee from this apprehension,
260  I'll tell thee why I came, and what I heard
261  At the first moment when I grieved for thee.
262
263Among those was I who are in suspense,
264  And a fair, saintly Lady called to me
265  In such wise, I besought her to command me.
266
267Her eyes where shining brighter than the Star;
268  And she began to say, gentle and low,
269  With voice angelical, in her own language:
270
271'O spirit courteous of Mantua,
272  Of whom the fame still in the world endures,
273  And shall endure, long-lasting as the world;
274
275A friend of mine, and not the friend of fortune,
276  Upon the desert slope is so impeded
277  Upon his way, that he has turned through terror,
278
279And may, I fear, already be so lost,
280  That I too late have risen to his succour,
281  From that which I have heard of him in Heaven.
282
283Bestir thee now, and with thy speech ornate,
284  And with what needful is for his release,
285  Assist him so, that I may be consoled.
286
287Beatrice am I, who do bid thee go;
288  I come from there, where I would fain return;
289  Love moved me, which compelleth me to speak.
290
291When I shall be in presence of my Lord,
292  Full often will I praise thee unto him.'
293  Then paused she, and thereafter I began:
294
295'O Lady of virtue, thou alone through whom
296  The human race exceedeth all contained
297  Within the heaven that has the lesser circles,
298
299So grateful unto me is thy commandment,
300  To obey, if 'twere already done, were late;
301  No farther need'st thou ope to me thy wish.
302
303But the cause tell me why thou dost not shun
304  The here descending down into this centre,
305  From the vast place thou burnest to return to.'
306
307'Since thou wouldst fain so inwardly discern,
308  Briefly will I relate,' she answered me,
309  'Why I am not afraid to enter here.
310
311Of those things only should one be afraid
312  Which have the power of doing others harm;
313  Of the rest, no; because they are not fearful.
314
315God in his mercy such created me
316  That misery of yours attains me not,
317  Nor any flame assails me of this burning.
318
319A gentle Lady is in Heaven, who grieves
320  At this impediment, to which I send thee,
321  So that stern judgment there above is broken.
322
323In her entreaty she besought Lucia,
324  And said, "Thy faithful one now stands in need
325  Of thee, and unto thee I recommend him."
326
327Lucia, foe of all that cruel is,
328  Hastened away, and came unto the place
329  Where I was sitting with the ancient Rachel.
330
331"Beatrice" said she, "the true praise of God,
332  Why succourest thou not him, who loved thee so,
333  For thee he issued from the vulgar herd?
334
335Dost thou not hear the pity of his plaint?
336  Dost thou not see the death that combats him
337  Beside that flood, where ocean has no vaunt?"
338
339Never were persons in the world so swift
340  To work their weal and to escape their woe,
341  As I, after such words as these were uttered,
342
343Came hither downward from my blessed seat,
344  Confiding in thy dignified discourse,
345  Which honours thee, and those who've listened to it.'
346
347After she thus had spoken unto me,
348  Weeping, her shining eyes she turned away;
349  Whereby she made me swifter in my coming;
350
351And unto thee I came, as she desired;
352  I have delivered thee from that wild beast,
353  Which barred the beautiful mountain's short ascent.
354
355What is it, then?  Why, why dost thou delay?
356  Why is such baseness bedded in thy heart?
357  Daring and hardihood why hast thou not,
358
359Seeing that three such Ladies benedight
360  Are caring for thee in the court of Heaven,
361  And so much good my speech doth promise thee?"
362
363Even as the flowerets, by nocturnal chill,
364  Bowed down and closed, when the sun whitens them,
365  Uplift themselves all open on their stems;
366
367Such I became with my exhausted strength,
368  And such good courage to my heart there coursed,
369  That I began, like an intrepid person:
370
371"O she compassionate, who succoured me,
372  And courteous thou, who hast obeyed so soon
373  The words of truth which she addressed to thee!
374
375Thou hast my heart so with desire disposed
376  To the adventure, with these words of thine,
377  That to my first intent I have returned.
378
379Now go, for one sole will is in us both,
380  Thou Leader, and thou Lord, and Master thou."
381  Thus said I to him; and when he had moved,
382
383I entered on the deep and savage way.
384
385
386
387Inferno: Canto III
388
389
390"Through me the way is to the city dolent;
391  Through me the way is to eternal dole;
392  Through me the way among the people lost.
393
394Justice incited my sublime Creator;
395  Created me divine Omnipotence,
396  The highest Wisdom and the primal Love.
397
398Before me there were no created things,
399  Only eterne, and I eternal last.
400  All hope abandon, ye who enter in!"
401
402These words in sombre colour I beheld
403  Written upon the summit of a gate;
404  Whence I: "Their sense is, Master, hard to me!"
405
406And he to me, as one experienced:
407  "Here all suspicion needs must be abandoned,
408  All cowardice must needs be here extinct.
409
410We to the place have come, where I have told thee
411  Thou shalt behold the people dolorous
412  Who have foregone the good of intellect."
413
414And after he had laid his hand on mine
415  With joyful mien, whence I was comforted,
416  He led me in among the secret things.
417
418There sighs, complaints, and ululations loud
419  Resounded through the air without a star,
420  Whence I, at the beginning, wept thereat.
421
422Languages diverse, horrible dialects,
423  Accents of anger, words of agony,
424  And voices high and hoarse, with sound of hands,
425
426Made up a tumult that goes whirling on
427  For ever in that air for ever black,
428  Even as the sand doth, when the whirlwind breathes.
429
430And I, who had my head with horror bound,
431  Said: "Master, what is this which now I hear?
432  What folk is this, which seems by pain so vanquished?"
433
434And he to me: "This miserable mode
435  Maintain the melancholy souls of those
436  Who lived withouten infamy or praise.
437
438Commingled are they with that caitiff choir
439  Of Angels, who have not rebellious been,
440  Nor faithful were to God, but were for self.
441
442The heavens expelled them, not to be less fair;
443  Nor them the nethermore abyss receives,
444  For glory none the damned would have from them."
445
446And I: "O Master, what so grievous is
447  To these, that maketh them lament so sore?"
448  He answered: "I will tell thee very briefly.
449
450These have no longer any hope of death;
451  And this blind life of theirs is so debased,
452  They envious are of every other fate.
453
454No fame of them the world permits to be;
455  Misericord and Justice both disdain them.
456  Let us not speak of them, but look, and pass."
457
458And I, who looked again, beheld a banner,
459  Which, whirling round, ran on so rapidly,
460  That of all pause it seemed to me indignant;
461
462And after it there came so long a train
463  Of people, that I ne'er would have believed
464  That ever Death so many had undone.
465
466When some among them I had recognised,
467  I looked, and I beheld the shade of him
468  Who made through cowardice the great refusal.
469
470Forthwith I comprehended, and was certain,
471  That this the sect was of the caitiff wretches
472  Hateful to God and to his enemies.
473
474These miscreants, who never were alive,
475  Were naked, and were stung exceedingly
476  By gadflies and by hornets that were there.
477
478These did their faces irrigate with blood,
479  Which, with their tears commingled, at their feet
480  By the disgusting worms was gathered up.
481
482And when to gazing farther I betook me.
483  People I saw on a great river's bank;
484  Whence said I: "Master, now vouchsafe to me,
485
486That I may know who these are, and what law
487  Makes them appear so ready to pass over,
488  As I discern athwart the dusky light."
489
490And he to me: "These things shall all be known
491  To thee, as soon as we our footsteps stay
492  Upon the dismal shore of Acheron."
493
494Then with mine eyes ashamed and downward cast,
495  Fearing my words might irksome be to him,
496  From speech refrained I till we reached the river.
497
498And lo! towards us coming in a boat
499  An old man, hoary with the hair of eld,
500  Crying: "Woe unto you, ye souls depraved!
501
502Hope nevermore to look upon the heavens;
503  I come to lead you to the other shore,
504  To the eternal shades in heat and frost.
505
506And thou, that yonder standest, living soul,
507  Withdraw thee from these people, who are dead!"
508  But when he saw that I did not withdraw,
509
510He said: "By other ways, by other ports
511  Thou to the shore shalt come, not here, for passage;
512  A lighter vessel needs must carry thee."
513
514And unto him the Guide: "Vex thee not, Charon;
515  It is so willed there where is power to do
516  That which is willed; and farther question not."
517
518Thereat were quieted the fleecy cheeks
519  Of him the ferryman of the livid fen,
520  Who round about his eyes had wheels of flame.
521
522But all those souls who weary were and naked
523  Their colour changed and gnashed their teeth together,
524  As soon as they had heard those cruel words.
525
526God they blasphemed and their progenitors,
527  The human race, the place, the time, the seed
528  Of their engendering and of their birth!
529
530Thereafter all together they drew back,
531  Bitterly weeping, to the accursed shore,
532  Which waiteth every man who fears not God.
533
534Charon the demon, with the eyes of glede,
535  Beckoning to them, collects them all together,
536  Beats with his oar whoever lags behind.
537
538As in the autumn-time the leaves fall off,
539  First one and then another, till the branch
540  Unto the earth surrenders all its spoils;
541
542In similar wise the evil seed of Adam
543  Throw themselves from that margin one by one,
544  At signals, as a bird unto its lure.
545
546So they depart across the dusky wave,
547  And ere upon the other side they land,
548  Again on this side a new troop assembles.
549
550"My son," the courteous Master said to me,
551  "All those who perish in the wrath of God
552  Here meet together out of every land;
553
554And ready are they to pass o'er the river,
555  Because celestial Justice spurs them on,
556  So that their fear is turned into desire.
557
558This way there never passes a good soul;
559  And hence if Charon doth complain of thee,
560  Well mayst thou know now what his speech imports."
561
562This being finished, all the dusk champaign
563  Trembled so violently, that of that terror
564  The recollection bathes me still with sweat.
565
566The land of tears gave forth a blast of wind,
567  And fulminated a vermilion light,
568  Which overmastered in me every sense,
569
570And as a man whom sleep hath seized I fell.
571
572
573
574Inferno: Canto IV
575
576
577Broke the deep lethargy within my head
578  A heavy thunder, so that I upstarted,
579  Like to a person who by force is wakened;
580
581And round about I moved my rested eyes,
582  Uprisen erect, and steadfastly I gazed,
583  To recognise the place wherein I was.
584
585True is it, that upon the verge I found me
586  Of the abysmal valley dolorous,
587  That gathers thunder of infinite ululations.
588
589Obscure, profound it was, and nebulous,
590  So that by fixing on its depths my sight
591  Nothing whatever I discerned therein.
592
593"Let us descend now into the blind world,"
594  Began the Poet, pallid utterly;
595  "I will be first, and thou shalt second be."
596
597And I, who of his colour was aware,
598  Said: "How shall I come, if thou art afraid,
599  Who'rt wont to be a comfort to my fears?"
600
601And he to me: "The anguish of the people
602  Who are below here in my face depicts
603  That pity which for terror thou hast taken.
604
605Let us go on, for the long way impels us."
606  Thus he went in, and thus he made me enter
607  The foremost circle that surrounds the abyss.
608
609There, as it seemed to me from listening,
610  Were lamentations none, but only sighs,
611  That tremble made the everlasting air.
612
613And this arose from sorrow without torment,
614  Which the crowds had, that many were and great,
615  Of infants and of women and of men.
616
617To me the Master good: "Thou dost not ask
618  What spirits these, which thou beholdest, are?
619  Now will I have thee know, ere thou go farther,
620
621That they sinned not; and if they merit had,
622  'Tis not enough, because they had not baptism
623  Which is the portal of the Faith thou holdest;
624
625And if they were before Christianity,
626  In the right manner they adored not God;
627  And among such as these am I myself.
628
629For such defects, and not for other guilt,
630  Lost are we and are only so far punished,
631  That without hope we live on in desire."
632
633Great grief seized on my heart when this I heard,
634  Because some people of much worthiness
635  I knew, who in that Limbo were suspended.
636
637"Tell me, my Master, tell me, thou my Lord,"
638  Began I, with desire of being certain
639  Of that Faith which o'ercometh every error,
640
641"Came any one by his own merit hence,
642  Or by another's, who was blessed thereafter?"
643  And he, who understood my covert speech,
644
645Replied: "I was a novice in this state,
646  When I saw hither come a Mighty One,
647  With sign of victory incoronate.
648
649Hence he drew forth the shade of the First Parent,
650  And that of his son Abel, and of Noah,
651  Of Moses the lawgiver, and the obedient
652
653Abraham, patriarch, and David, king,
654  Israel with his father and his children,
655  And Rachel, for whose sake he did so much,
656
657And others many, and he made them blessed;
658  And thou must know, that earlier than these
659  Never were any human spirits saved."
660
661We ceased not to advance because he spake,
662  But still were passing onward through the forest,
663  The forest, say I, of thick-crowded ghosts.
664
665Not very far as yet our way had gone
666  This side the summit, when I saw a fire
667  That overcame a hemisphere of darkness.
668
669We were a little distant from it still,
670  But not so far that I in part discerned not
671  That honourable people held that place.
672
673"O thou who honourest every art and science,
674  Who may these be, which such great honour have,
675  That from the fashion of the rest it parts them?"
676
677And he to me: "The honourable name,
678  That sounds of them above there in thy life,
679  Wins grace in Heaven, that so advances them."
680
681In the mean time a voice was heard by me:
682  "All honour be to the pre-eminent Poet;
683  His shade returns again, that was departed."
684
685After the voice had ceased and quiet was,
686  Four mighty shades I saw approaching us;
687  Semblance had they nor sorrowful nor glad.
688
689To say to me began my gracious Master:
690  "Him with that falchion in his hand behold,
691  Who comes before the three, even as their lord.
692
693That one is Homer, Poet sovereign;
694  He who comes next is Horace, the satirist;
695  The third is Ovid, and the last is Lucan.
696
697Because to each of these with me applies
698  The name that solitary voice proclaimed,
699  They do me honour, and in that do well."
700
701Thus I beheld assemble the fair school
702  Of that lord of the song pre-eminent,
703  Who o'er the others like an eagle soars.
704
705When they together had discoursed somewhat,
706  They turned to me with signs of salutation,
707  And on beholding this, my Master smiled;
708
709And more of honour still, much more, they did me,
710  In that they made me one of their own band;
711  So that the sixth was I, 'mid so much wit.
712
713Thus we went on as far as to the light,
714  Things saying 'tis becoming to keep silent,
715  As was the saying of them where I was.
716
717We came unto a noble castle's foot,
718  Seven times encompassed with lofty walls,
719  Defended round by a fair rivulet;
720
721This we passed over even as firm ground;
722  Through portals seven I entered with these Sages;
723  We came into a meadow of fresh verdure.
724
725People were there with solemn eyes and slow,
726  Of great authority in their countenance;
727  They spake but seldom, and with gentle voices.
728
729Thus we withdrew ourselves upon one side
730  Into an opening luminous and lofty,
731  So that they all of them were visible.
732
733There opposite, upon the green enamel,
734  Were pointed out to me the mighty spirits,
735  Whom to have seen I feel myself exalted.
736
737I saw Electra with companions many,
738  'Mongst whom I knew both Hector and Aeneas,
739  Caesar in armour with gerfalcon eyes;
740
741I saw Camilla and Penthesilea
742  On the other side, and saw the King Latinus,
743  Who with Lavinia his daughter sat;
744
745I saw that Brutus who drove Tarquin forth,
746  Lucretia, Julia, Marcia, and Cornelia,
747  And saw alone, apart, the Saladin.
748
749When I had lifted up my brows a little,
750  The Master I beheld of those who know,
751  Sit with his philosophic family.
752
753All gaze upon him, and all do him honour.
754  There I beheld both Socrates and Plato,
755  Who nearer him before the others stand;
756
757Democritus, who puts the world on chance,
758  Diogenes, Anaxagoras, and Thales,
759  Zeno, Empedocles, and Heraclitus;
760
761Of qualities I saw the good collector,
762  Hight Dioscorides; and Orpheus saw I,
763  Tully and Livy, and moral Seneca,
764
765Euclid, geometrician, and Ptolemy,
766  Galen, Hippocrates, and Avicenna,
767  Averroes, who the great Comment made.
768
769I cannot all of them pourtray in full,
770  Because so drives me onward the long theme,
771  That many times the word comes short of fact.
772
773The sixfold company in two divides;
774  Another way my sapient Guide conducts me
775  Forth from the quiet to the air that trembles;
776
777And to a place I come where nothing shines.
778
779
780
781Inferno: Canto V
782
783
784Thus I descended out of the first circle
785  Down to the second, that less space begirds,
786  And so much greater dole, that goads to wailing.
787
788There standeth Minos horribly, and snarls;
789  Examines the transgressions at the entrance;
790  Judges, and sends according as he girds him.
791
792I say, that when the spirit evil-born
793  Cometh before him, wholly it confesses;
794  And this discriminator of transgressions
795
796Seeth what place in Hell is meet for it;
797  Girds himself with his tail as many times
798  As grades he wishes it should be thrust down.
799
800Always before him many of them stand;
801  They go by turns each one unto the judgment;
802  They speak, and hear, and then are downward hurled.
803
804"O thou, that to this dolorous hostelry
805  Comest," said Minos to me, when he saw me,
806  Leaving the practice of so great an office,
807
808"Look how thou enterest, and in whom thou trustest;
809  Let not the portal's amplitude deceive thee."
810  And unto him my Guide: "Why criest thou too?
811
812Do not impede his journey fate-ordained;
813  It is so willed there where is power to do
814  That which is willed; and ask no further question."
815
816And now begin the dolesome notes to grow
817  Audible unto me; now am I come
818  There where much lamentation strikes upon me.
819
820I came into a place mute of all light,
821  Which bellows as the sea does in a tempest,
822  If by opposing winds 't is combated.
823
824The infernal hurricane that never rests
825  Hurtles the spirits onward in its rapine;
826  Whirling them round, and smiting, it molests them.
827
828When they arrive before the precipice,
829  There are the shrieks, the plaints, and the laments,
830  There they blaspheme the puissance divine.
831
832I understood that unto such a torment
833  The carnal malefactors were condemned,
834  Who reason subjugate to appetite.
835
836And as the wings of starlings bear them on
837  In the cold season in large band and full,
838  So doth that blast the spirits maledict;
839
840It hither, thither, downward, upward, drives them;
841  No hope doth comfort them for evermore,
842  Not of repose, but even of lesser pain.
843
844And as the cranes go chanting forth their lays,
845  Making in air a long line of themselves,
846  So saw I coming, uttering lamentations,
847
848Shadows borne onward by the aforesaid stress.
849  Whereupon said I: "Master, who are those
850  People, whom the black air so castigates?"
851
852"The first of those, of whom intelligence
853  Thou fain wouldst have," then said he unto me,
854  "The empress was of many languages.
855
856To sensual vices she was so abandoned,
857  That lustful she made licit in her law,
858  To remove the blame to which she had been led.
859
860She is Semiramis, of whom we read
861  That she succeeded Ninus, and was his spouse;
862  She held the land which now the Sultan rules.
863
864The next is she who killed herself for love,
865  And broke faith with the ashes of Sichaeus;
866  Then Cleopatra the voluptuous."
867
868Helen I saw, for whom so many ruthless
869  Seasons revolved; and saw the great Achilles,
870  Who at the last hour combated with Love.
871
872Paris I saw, Tristan; and more than a thousand
873  Shades did he name and point out with his finger,
874  Whom Love had separated from our life.
875
876After that I had listened to my Teacher,
877  Naming the dames of eld and cavaliers,
878  Pity prevailed, and I was nigh bewildered.
879
880And I began: "O Poet, willingly
881  Speak would I to those two, who go together,
882  And seem upon the wind to be so light."
883
884And, he to me: "Thou'lt mark, when they shall be
885  Nearer to us; and then do thou implore them
886  By love which leadeth them, and they will come."
887
888Soon as the wind in our direction sways them,
889  My voice uplift I: "O ye weary souls!
890  Come speak to us, if no one interdicts it."
891
892As turtle-doves, called onward by desire,
893  With open and steady wings to the sweet nest
894  Fly through the air by their volition borne,
895
896So came they from the band where Dido is,
897  Approaching us athwart the air malign,
898  So strong was the affectionate appeal.
899
900"O living creature gracious and benignant,
901  Who visiting goest through the purple air
902  Us, who have stained the world incarnadine,
903
904If were the King of the Universe our friend,
905  We would pray unto him to give thee peace,
906  Since thou hast pity on our woe perverse.
907
908Of what it pleases thee to hear and speak,
909  That will we hear, and we will speak to you,
910  While silent is the wind, as it is now.
911
912Sitteth the city, wherein I was born,
913  Upon the sea-shore where the Po descends
914  To rest in peace with all his retinue.
915
916Love, that on gentle heart doth swiftly seize,
917  Seized this man for the person beautiful
918  That was ta'en from me, and still the mode offends me.
919
920Love, that exempts no one beloved from loving,
921  Seized me with pleasure of this man so strongly,
922  That, as thou seest, it doth not yet desert me;
923
924Love has conducted us unto one death;
925  Caina waiteth him who quenched our life!"
926  These words were borne along from them to us.
927
928As soon as I had heard those souls tormented,
929  I bowed my face, and so long held it down
930  Until the Poet said to me: "What thinkest?"
931
932When I made answer, I began: "Alas!
933  How many pleasant thoughts, how much desire,
934  Conducted these unto the dolorous pass!"
935
936Then unto them I turned me, and I spake,
937  And I began: "Thine agonies, Francesca,
938  Sad and compassionate to weeping make me.
939
940But tell me, at the time of those sweet sighs,
941  By what and in what manner Love conceded,
942  That you should know your dubious desires?"
943
944And she to me: "There is no greater sorrow
945  Than to be mindful of the happy time
946  In misery, and that thy Teacher knows.
947
948But, if to recognise the earliest root
949  Of love in us thou hast so great desire,
950  I will do even as he who weeps and speaks.
951
952One day we reading were for our delight
953  Of Launcelot, how Love did him enthral.
954  Alone we were and without any fear.
955
956Full many a time our eyes together drew
957  That reading, and drove the colour from our faces;
958  But one point only was it that o'ercame us.
959
960When as we read of the much-longed-for smile
961  Being by such a noble lover kissed,
962  This one, who ne'er from me shall be divided,
963
964Kissed me upon the mouth all palpitating.
965  Galeotto was the book and he who wrote it.
966  That day no farther did we read therein."
967
968And all the while one spirit uttered this,
969  The other one did weep so, that, for pity,
970  I swooned away as if I had been dying,
971
972And fell, even as a dead body falls.
973
974
975
976Inferno: Canto VI
977
978
979At the return of consciousness, that closed
980  Before the pity of those two relations,
981  Which utterly with sadness had confused me,
982
983New torments I behold, and new tormented
984  Around me, whichsoever way I move,
985  And whichsoever way I turn, and gaze.
986
987In the third circle am I of the rain
988  Eternal, maledict, and cold, and heavy;
989  Its law and quality are never new.
990
991Huge hail, and water sombre-hued, and snow,
992  Athwart the tenebrous air pour down amain;
993  Noisome the earth is, that receiveth this.
994
995Cerberus, monster cruel and uncouth,
996  With his three gullets like a dog is barking
997  Over the people that are there submerged.
998
999Red eyes he has, and unctuous beard and black,
1000  And belly large, and armed with claws his hands;
1001  He rends the spirits, flays, and quarters them.
1002
1003Howl the rain maketh them like unto dogs;
1004  One side they make a shelter for the other;
1005  Oft turn themselves the wretched reprobates.
1006
1007When Cerberus perceived us, the great worm!
1008   His mouths he opened, and displayed his tusks;
1009   Not a limb had he that was motionless.
1010
1011And my Conductor, with his spans extended,
1012  Took of the earth, and with his fists well filled,
1013  He threw it into those rapacious gullets.
1014
1015Such as that dog is, who by barking craves,
1016  And quiet grows soon as his food he gnaws,
1017  For to devour it he but thinks and struggles,
1018
1019The like became those muzzles filth-begrimed
1020  Of Cerberus the demon, who so thunders
1021  Over the souls that they would fain be deaf.
1022
1023We passed across the shadows, which subdues
1024  The heavy rain-storm, and we placed our feet
1025  Upon their vanity that person seems.
1026
1027They all were lying prone upon the earth,
1028  Excepting one, who sat upright as soon
1029  As he beheld us passing on before him.
1030
1031"O thou that art conducted through this Hell,"
1032  He said to me, "recall me, if thou canst;
1033  Thyself wast made before I was unmade."
1034
1035And I to him: "The anguish which thou hast
1036  Perhaps doth draw thee out of my remembrance,
1037  So that it seems not I have ever seen thee.
1038
1039But tell me who thou art, that in so doleful
1040  A place art put, and in such punishment,
1041  If some are greater, none is so displeasing."
1042
1043And he to me: "Thy city, which is full
1044  Of envy so that now the sack runs over,
1045  Held me within it in the life serene.
1046
1047You citizens were wont to call me Ciacco;
1048  For the pernicious sin of gluttony
1049  I, as thou seest, am battered by this rain.
1050
1051And I, sad soul, am not the only one,
1052  For all these suffer the like penalty
1053  For the like sin;" and word no more spake he.
1054
1055I answered him: "Ciacco, thy wretchedness
1056  Weighs on me so that it to weep invites me;
1057  But tell me, if thou knowest, to what shall come
1058
1059The citizens of the divided city;
1060  If any there be just; and the occasion
1061  Tell me why so much discord has assailed it."
1062
1063And he to me: "They, after long contention,
1064  Will come to bloodshed; and the rustic party
1065  Will drive the other out with much offence.
1066
1067Then afterwards behoves it this one fall
1068  Within three suns, and rise again the other
1069  By force of him who now is on the coast.
1070
1071High will it hold its forehead a long while,
1072  Keeping the other under heavy burdens,
1073  Howe'er it weeps thereat and is indignant.
1074
1075The just are two, and are not understood there;
1076  Envy and Arrogance and Avarice
1077  Are the three sparks that have all hearts enkindled."
1078
1079Here ended he his tearful utterance;
1080  And I to him: "I wish thee still to teach me,
1081  And make a gift to me of further speech.
1082
1083Farinata and Tegghiaio, once so worthy,
1084  Jacopo Rusticucci, Arrigo, and Mosca,
1085  And others who on good deeds set their thoughts,
1086
1087Say where they are, and cause that I may know them;
1088  For great desire constraineth me to learn
1089  If Heaven doth sweeten them, or Hell envenom."
1090
1091And he: "They are among the blacker souls;
1092  A different sin downweighs them to the bottom;
1093  If thou so far descendest, thou canst see them.
1094
1095But when thou art again in the sweet world,
1096  I pray thee to the mind of others bring me;
1097  No more I tell thee and no more I answer."
1098
1099Then his straightforward eyes he turned askance,
1100  Eyed me a little, and then bowed his head;
1101  He fell therewith prone like the other blind.
1102
1103And the Guide said to me: "He wakes no more
1104  This side the sound of the angelic trumpet;
1105  When shall approach the hostile Potentate,
1106
1107Each one shall find again his dismal tomb,
1108  Shall reassume his flesh and his own figure,
1109  Shall hear what through eternity re-echoes."
1110
1111So we passed onward o'er the filthy mixture
1112  Of shadows and of rain with footsteps slow,
1113  Touching a little on the future life.
1114
1115Wherefore I said: "Master, these torments here,
1116  Will they increase after the mighty sentence,
1117  Or lesser be, or will they be as burning?"
1118
1119And he to me: "Return unto thy science,
1120  Which wills, that as the thing more perfect is,
1121  The more it feels of pleasure and of pain.
1122
1123Albeit that this people maledict
1124  To true perfection never can attain,
1125  Hereafter more than now they look to be."
1126
1127Round in a circle by that road we went,
1128  Speaking much more, which I do not repeat;
1129  We came unto the point where the descent is;
1130
1131There we found Plutus the great enemy.
1132
1133
1134
1135Inferno: Canto VII
1136
1137
1138"Pape Satan, Pape Satan, Aleppe!"
1139  Thus Plutus with his clucking voice began;
1140  And that benignant Sage, who all things knew,
1141
1142Said, to encourage me: "Let not thy fear
1143  Harm thee; for any power that he may have
1144  Shall not prevent thy going down this crag."
1145
1146Then he turned round unto that bloated lip,
1147  And said: "Be silent, thou accursed wolf;
1148  Consume within thyself with thine own rage.
1149
1150Not causeless is this journey to the abyss;
1151  Thus is it willed on high, where Michael wrought
1152  Vengeance upon the proud adultery."
1153
1154Even as the sails inflated by the wind
1155  Involved together fall when snaps the mast,
1156  So fell the cruel monster to the earth.
1157
1158Thus we descended into the fourth chasm,
1159  Gaining still farther on the dolesome shore
1160  Which all the woe of the universe insacks.
1161
1162Justice of God, ah! who heaps up so many
1163  New toils and sufferings as I beheld?
1164  And why doth our transgression waste us so?
1165
1166As doth the billow there upon Charybdis,
1167  That breaks itself on that which it encounters,
1168  So here the folk must dance their roundelay.
1169
1170Here saw I people, more than elsewhere, many,
1171  On one side and the other, with great howls,
1172  Rolling weights forward by main force of chest.
1173
1174They clashed together, and then at that point
1175  Each one turned backward, rolling retrograde,
1176  Crying, "Why keepest?" and, "Why squanderest thou?"
1177
1178Thus they returned along the lurid circle
1179  On either hand unto the opposite point,
1180  Shouting their shameful metre evermore.
1181
1182Then each, when he arrived there, wheeled about
1183  Through his half-circle to another joust;
1184  And I, who had my heart pierced as it were,
1185
1186Exclaimed: "My Master, now declare to me
1187  What people these are, and if all were clerks,
1188  These shaven crowns upon the left of us."
1189
1190And he to me: "All of them were asquint
1191  In intellect in the first life, so much
1192  That there with measure they no spending made.
1193
1194Clearly enough their voices bark it forth,
1195  Whene'er they reach the two points of the circle,
1196  Where sunders them the opposite defect.
1197
1198Clerks those were who no hairy covering
1199  Have on the head, and Popes and Cardinals,
1200  In whom doth Avarice practise its excess."
1201
1202And I: "My Master, among such as these
1203  I ought forsooth to recognise some few,
1204  Who were infected with these maladies."
1205
1206And he to me: "Vain thought thou entertainest;
1207  The undiscerning life which made them sordid
1208  Now makes them unto all discernment dim.
1209
1210Forever shall they come to these two buttings;
1211  These from the sepulchre shall rise again
1212  With the fist closed, and these with tresses shorn.
1213
1214Ill giving and ill keeping the fair world
1215  Have ta'en from them, and placed them in this scuffle;
1216  Whate'er it be, no words adorn I for it.
1217
1218Now canst thou, Son, behold the transient farce
1219  Of goods that are committed unto Fortune,
1220  For which the human race each other buffet;
1221
1222For all the gold that is beneath the moon,
1223  Or ever has been, of these weary souls
1224  Could never make a single one repose."
1225
1226"Master," I said to him, "now tell me also
1227  What is this Fortune which thou speakest of,
1228  That has the world's goods so within its clutches?"
1229
1230And he to me: "O creatures imbecile,
1231  What ignorance is this which doth beset you?
1232  Now will I have thee learn my judgment of her.
1233
1234He whose omniscience everything transcends
1235  The heavens created, and gave who should guide them,
1236  That every part to every part may shine,
1237
1238Distributing the light in equal measure;
1239  He in like manner to the mundane splendours
1240  Ordained a general ministress and guide,
1241
1242That she might change at times the empty treasures
1243  From race to race, from one blood to another,
1244  Beyond resistance of all human wisdom.
1245
1246Therefore one people triumphs, and another
1247  Languishes, in pursuance of her judgment,
1248  Which hidden is, as in the grass a serpent.
1249
1250Your knowledge has no counterstand against her;
1251  She makes provision, judges, and pursues
1252  Her governance, as theirs the other gods.
1253
1254Her permutations have not any truce;
1255  Necessity makes her precipitate,
1256  So often cometh who his turn obtains.
1257
1258And this is she who is so crucified
1259  Even by those who ought to give her praise,
1260  Giving her blame amiss, and bad repute.
1261
1262But she is blissful, and she hears it not;
1263  Among the other primal creatures gladsome
1264  She turns her sphere, and blissful she rejoices.
1265
1266Let us descend now unto greater woe;
1267  Already sinks each star that was ascending
1268  When I set out, and loitering is forbidden."
1269
1270We crossed the circle to the other bank,
1271  Near to a fount that boils, and pours itself
1272  Along a gully that runs out of it.
1273
1274The water was more sombre far than perse;
1275  And we, in company with the dusky waves,
1276  Made entrance downward by a path uncouth.
1277
1278A marsh it makes, which has the name of Styx,
1279  This tristful brooklet, when it has descended
1280  Down to the foot of the malign gray shores.
1281
1282And I, who stood intent upon beholding,
1283  Saw people mud-besprent in that lagoon,
1284  All of them naked and with angry look.
1285
1286They smote each other not alone with hands,
1287  But with the head and with the breast and feet,
1288  Tearing each other piecemeal with their teeth.
1289
1290Said the good Master: "Son, thou now beholdest
1291  The souls of those whom anger overcame;
1292  And likewise I would have thee know for certain
1293
1294Beneath the water people are who sigh
1295  And make this water bubble at the surface,
1296  As the eye tells thee wheresoe'er it turns.
1297
1298Fixed in the mire they say, 'We sullen were
1299  In the sweet air, which by the sun is gladdened,
1300  Bearing within ourselves the sluggish reek;
1301
1302Now we are sullen in this sable mire.'
1303  This hymn do they keep gurgling in their throats,
1304  For with unbroken words they cannot say it."
1305
1306Thus we went circling round the filthy fen
1307  A great arc 'twixt the dry bank and the swamp,
1308  With eyes turned unto those who gorge the mire;
1309
1310Unto the foot of a tower we came at last.
1311
1312
1313
1314Inferno: Canto VIII
1315
1316
1317I say, continuing, that long before
1318  We to the foot of that high tower had come,
1319  Our eyes went upward to the summit of it,
1320
1321By reason of two flamelets we saw placed there,
1322  And from afar another answer them,
1323  So far, that hardly could the eye attain it.
1324
1325And, to the sea of all discernment turned,
1326  I said: "What sayeth this, and what respondeth
1327  That other fire? and who are they that made it?"
1328
1329And he to me: "Across the turbid waves
1330  What is expected thou canst now discern,
1331  If reek of the morass conceal it not."
1332
1333Cord never shot an arrow from itself
1334  That sped away athwart the air so swift,
1335  As I beheld a very little boat
1336
1337Come o'er the water tow'rds us at that moment,
1338  Under the guidance of a single pilot,
1339  Who shouted, "Now art thou arrived, fell soul?"
1340
1341"Phlegyas, Phlegyas, thou criest out in vain
1342  For this once," said my Lord; "thou shalt not have us
1343  Longer than in the passing of the slough."
1344
1345As he who listens to some great deceit
1346  That has been done to him, and then resents it,
1347  Such became Phlegyas, in his gathered wrath.
1348
1349My Guide descended down into the boat,
1350  And then he made me enter after him,
1351  And only when I entered seemed it laden.
1352
1353Soon as the Guide and I were in the boat,
1354  The antique prow goes on its way, dividing
1355  More of the water than 'tis wont with others.
1356
1357While we were running through the dead canal,
1358  Uprose in front of me one full of mire,
1359  And said, "Who 'rt thou that comest ere the hour?"
1360
1361And I to him: "Although I come, I stay not;
1362  But who art thou that hast become so squalid?"
1363  "Thou seest that I am one who weeps," he answered.
1364
1365And I to him: "With weeping and with wailing,
1366  Thou spirit maledict, do thou remain;
1367  For thee I know, though thou art all defiled."
1368
1369Then stretched he both his hands unto the boat;
1370  Whereat my wary Master thrust him back,
1371  Saying, "Away there with the other dogs!"
1372
1373Thereafter with his arms he clasped my neck;
1374  He kissed my face, and said: "Disdainful soul,
1375  Blessed be she who bore thee in her bosom.
1376
1377That was an arrogant person in the world;
1378  Goodness is none, that decks his memory;
1379  So likewise here his shade is furious.
1380
1381How many are esteemed great kings up there,
1382  Who here shall be like unto swine in mire,
1383  Leaving behind them horrible dispraises!"
1384
1385And I: "My Master, much should I be pleased,
1386  If I could see him soused into this broth,
1387  Before we issue forth out of the lake."
1388
1389And he to me: "Ere unto thee the shore
1390  Reveal itself, thou shalt be satisfied;
1391  Such a desire 'tis meet thou shouldst enjoy."
1392
1393A little after that, I saw such havoc
1394  Made of him by the people of the mire,
1395  That still I praise and thank my God for it.
1396
1397They all were shouting, "At Philippo Argenti!"
1398  And that exasperate spirit Florentine
1399  Turned round upon himself with his own teeth.
1400
1401We left him there, and more of him I tell not;
1402  But on mine ears there smote a lamentation,
1403  Whence forward I intent unbar mine eyes.
1404
1405And the good Master said: "Even now, my Son,
1406  The city draweth near whose name is Dis,
1407  With the grave citizens, with the great throng."
1408
1409And I: "Its mosques already, Master, clearly
1410  Within there in the valley I discern
1411  Vermilion, as if issuing from the fire
1412
1413They were."  And he to me: "The fire eternal
1414  That kindles them within makes them look red,
1415  As thou beholdest in this nether Hell."
1416
1417Then we arrived within the moats profound,
1418  That circumvallate that disconsolate city;
1419  The walls appeared to me to be of iron.
1420
1421Not without making first a circuit wide,
1422  We came unto a place where loud the pilot
1423  Cried out to us, "Debark, here is the entrance."
1424
1425More than a thousand at the gates I saw
1426  Out of the Heavens rained down, who angrily
1427  Were saying, "Who is this that without death
1428
1429Goes through the kingdom of the people dead?"
1430  And my sagacious Master made a sign
1431  Of wishing secretly to speak with them.
1432
1433A little then they quelled their great disdain,
1434  And said: "Come thou alone, and he begone
1435  Who has so boldly entered these dominions.
1436
1437Let him return alone by his mad road;
1438  Try, if he can; for thou shalt here remain,
1439  Who hast escorted him through such dark regions."
1440
1441Think, Reader, if I was discomforted
1442  At utterance of the accursed words;
1443  For never to return here I believed.
1444
1445"O my dear Guide, who more than seven times
1446  Hast rendered me security, and drawn me
1447  From imminent peril that before me stood,
1448
1449Do not desert me," said I, "thus undone;
1450  And if the going farther be denied us,
1451  Let us retrace our steps together swiftly."
1452
1453And that Lord, who had led me thitherward,
1454  Said unto me: "Fear not; because our passage
1455  None can take from us, it by Such is given.
1456
1457But here await me, and thy weary spirit
1458  Comfort and nourish with a better hope;
1459  For in this nether world I will not leave thee."
1460
1461So onward goes and there abandons me
1462  My Father sweet, and I remain in doubt,
1463  For No and Yes within my head contend.
1464
1465I could not hear what he proposed to them;
1466  But with them there he did not linger long,
1467  Ere each within in rivalry ran back.
1468
1469They closed the portals, those our adversaries,
1470  On my Lord's breast, who had remained without
1471  And turned to me with footsteps far between.
1472
1473His eyes cast down, his forehead shorn had he
1474  Of all its boldness, and he said, with sighs,
1475  "Who has denied to me the dolesome houses?"
1476
1477And unto me: "Thou, because I am angry,
1478  Fear not, for I will conquer in the trial,
1479  Whatever for defence within be planned.
1480
1481This arrogance of theirs is nothing new;
1482  For once they used it at less secret gate,
1483  Which finds itself without a fastening still.
1484
1485O'er it didst thou behold the dead inscription;
1486  And now this side of it descends the steep,
1487  Passing across the circles without escort,
1488
1489One by whose means the city shall be opened."
1490
1491
1492
1493Inferno: Canto IX
1494
1495
1496That hue which cowardice brought out on me,
1497  Beholding my Conductor backward turn,
1498  Sooner repressed within him his new colour.
1499
1500He stopped attentive, like a man who listens,
1501  Because the eye could not conduct him far
1502  Through the black air, and through the heavy fog.
1503
1504"Still it behoveth us to win the fight,"
1505  Began he; "Else. . .Such offered us herself. . .
1506  O how I long that some one here arrive!"
1507
1508Well I perceived, as soon as the beginning
1509  He covered up with what came afterward,
1510  That they were words quite different from the first;
1511
1512But none the less his saying gave me fear,
1513  Because I carried out the broken phrase,
1514  Perhaps to a worse meaning than he had.
1515
1516"Into this bottom of the doleful conch
1517  Doth any e'er descend from the first grade,
1518  Which for its pain has only hope cut off?"
1519
1520This question put I; and he answered me:
1521  "Seldom it comes to pass that one of us
1522  Maketh the journey upon which I go.
1523
1524True is it, once before I here below
1525  Was conjured by that pitiless Erictho,
1526  Who summoned back the shades unto their bodies.
1527
1528Naked of me short while the flesh had been,
1529  Before within that wall she made me enter,
1530  To bring a spirit from the circle of Judas;
1531
1532That is the lowest region and the darkest,
1533  And farthest from the heaven which circles all.
1534  Well know I the way; therefore be reassured.
1535
1536This fen, which a prodigious stench exhales,
1537  Encompasses about the city dolent,
1538  Where now we cannot enter without anger."
1539
1540And more he said, but not in mind I have it;
1541  Because mine eye had altogether drawn me
1542  Tow'rds the high tower with the red-flaming summit,
1543
1544Where in a moment saw I swift uprisen
1545  The three infernal Furies stained with blood,
1546  Who had the limbs of women and their mien,
1547
1548And with the greenest hydras were begirt;
1549  Small serpents and cerastes were their tresses,
1550  Wherewith their horrid temples were entwined.
1551
1552And he who well the handmaids of the Queen
1553  Of everlasting lamentation knew,
1554  Said unto me: "Behold the fierce Erinnys.
1555
1556This is Megaera, on the left-hand side;
1557  She who is weeping on the right, Alecto;
1558  Tisiphone is between;" and then was silent.
1559
1560Each one her breast was rending with her nails;
1561  They beat them with their palms, and cried so loud,
1562  That I for dread pressed close unto the Poet.
1563
1564"Medusa come, so we to stone will change him!"
1565  All shouted looking down; "in evil hour
1566  Avenged we not on Theseus his assault!"
1567
1568"Turn thyself round, and keep thine eyes close shut,
1569  For if the Gorgon appear, and thou shouldst see it,
1570  No more returning upward would there be."
1571
1572Thus said the Master; and he turned me round
1573  Himself, and trusted not unto my hands
1574  So far as not to blind me with his own.
1575
1576O ye who have undistempered intellects,
1577  Observe the doctrine that conceals itself
1578  Beneath the veil of the mysterious verses!
1579
1580And now there came across the turbid waves
1581  The clangour of a sound with terror fraught,
1582  Because of which both of the margins trembled;
1583
1584Not otherwise it was than of a wind
1585  Impetuous on account of adverse heats,
1586  That smites the forest, and, without restraint,
1587
1588The branches rends, beats down, and bears away;
1589  Right onward, laden with dust, it goes superb,
1590  And puts to flight the wild beasts and the shepherds.
1591
1592Mine eyes he loosed, and said: "Direct the nerve
1593  Of vision now along that ancient foam,
1594  There yonder where that smoke is most intense."
1595
1596Even as the frogs before the hostile serpent
1597  Across the water scatter all abroad,
1598  Until each one is huddled in the earth.
1599
1600More than a thousand ruined souls I saw,
1601  Thus fleeing from before one who on foot
1602  Was passing o'er the Styx with soles unwet.
1603
1604From off his face he fanned that unctuous air,
1605  Waving his left hand oft in front of him,
1606  And only with that anguish seemed he weary.
1607
1608Well I perceived one sent from Heaven was he,
1609  And to the Master turned; and he made sign
1610  That I should quiet stand, and bow before him.
1611
1612Ah! how disdainful he appeared to me!
1613  He reached the gate, and with a little rod
1614  He opened it, for there was no resistance.
1615
1616"O banished out of Heaven, people despised!"
1617  Thus he began upon the horrid threshold;
1618  "Whence is this arrogance within you couched?
1619
1620Wherefore recalcitrate against that will,
1621  From which the end can never be cut off,
1622  And which has many times increased your pain?
1623
1624What helpeth it to butt against the fates?
1625  Your Cerberus, if you remember well,
1626  For that still bears his chin and gullet peeled."
1627
1628Then he returned along the miry road,
1629  And spake no word to us, but had the look
1630  Of one whom other care constrains and goads
1631
1632Than that of him who in his presence is;
1633  And we our feet directed tow'rds the city,
1634  After those holy words all confident.
1635
1636Within we entered without any contest;
1637  And I, who inclination had to see
1638  What the condition such a fortress holds,
1639
1640Soon as I was within, cast round mine eye,
1641  And see on every hand an ample plain,
1642  Full of distress and torment terrible.
1643
1644Even as at Arles, where stagnant grows the Rhone,
1645  Even as at Pola near to the Quarnaro,
1646  That shuts in Italy and bathes its borders,
1647
1648The sepulchres make all the place uneven;
1649  So likewise did they there on every side,
1650  Saving that there the manner was more bitter;
1651
1652For flames between the sepulchres were scattered,
1653  By which they so intensely heated were,
1654  That iron more so asks not any art.
1655
1656All of their coverings uplifted were,
1657  And from them issued forth such dire laments,
1658  Sooth seemed they of the wretched and tormented.
1659
1660And I: "My Master, what are all those people
1661  Who, having sepulture within those tombs,
1662  Make themselves audible by doleful sighs?"
1663
1664And he to me: "Here are the Heresiarchs,
1665  With their disciples of all sects, and much
1666  More than thou thinkest laden are the tombs.
1667
1668Here like together with its like is buried;
1669  And more and less the monuments are heated."
1670  And when he to the right had turned, we passed
1671
1672Between the torments and high parapets.
1673
1674
1675
1676Inferno: Canto X
1677
1678
1679Now onward goes, along a narrow path
1680  Between the torments and the city wall,
1681  My Master, and I follow at his back.
1682
1683"O power supreme, that through these impious circles
1684  Turnest me," I began, "as pleases thee,
1685  Speak to me, and my longings satisfy;
1686
1687The people who are lying in these tombs,
1688  Might they be seen? already are uplifted
1689  The covers all, and no one keepeth guard."
1690
1691And he to me: "They all will be closed up
1692  When from Jehoshaphat they shall return
1693  Here with the bodies they have left above.
1694
1695Their cemetery have upon this side
1696  With Epicurus all his followers,
1697  Who with the body mortal make the soul;
1698
1699But in the question thou dost put to me,
1700  Within here shalt thou soon be satisfied,
1701  And likewise in the wish thou keepest silent."
1702
1703And I: "Good Leader, I but keep concealed
1704  From thee my heart, that I may speak the less,
1705  Nor only now hast thou thereto disposed me."
1706
1707"O Tuscan, thou who through the city of fire
1708  Goest alive, thus speaking modestly,
1709  Be pleased to stay thy footsteps in this place.
1710
1711Thy mode of speaking makes thee manifest
1712  A native of that noble fatherland,
1713  To which perhaps I too molestful was."
1714
1715Upon a sudden issued forth this sound
1716  From out one of the tombs; wherefore I pressed,
1717  Fearing, a little nearer to my Leader.
1718
1719And unto me he said: "Turn thee; what dost thou?
1720  Behold there Farinata who has risen;
1721  From the waist upwards wholly shalt thou see him."
1722
1723I had already fixed mine eyes on his,
1724  And he uprose erect with breast and front
1725  E'en as if Hell he had in great despite.
1726
1727And with courageous hands and prompt my Leader
1728  Thrust me between the sepulchres towards him,
1729  Exclaiming, "Let thy words explicit be."
1730
1731As soon as I was at the foot of his tomb
1732  Somewhat he eyed me, and, as if disdainful,
1733  Then asked of me, "Who were thine ancestors?"
1734
1735I, who desirous of obeying was,
1736  Concealed it not, but all revealed to him;
1737  Whereat he raised his brows a little upward.
1738
1739Then said he: "Fiercely adverse have they been
1740  To me, and to my fathers, and my party;
1741  So that two several times I scattered them."
1742
1743"If they were banished, they returned on all sides,"
1744  I answered him, "the first time and the second;
1745  But yours have not acquired that art aright."
1746
1747Then there uprose upon the sight, uncovered
1748  Down to the chin, a shadow at his side;
1749  I think that he had risen on his knees.
1750
1751Round me he gazed, as if solicitude
1752  He had to see if some one else were with me,
1753  But after his suspicion was all spent,
1754
1755Weeping, he said to me: "If through this blind
1756  Prison thou goest by loftiness of genius,
1757  Where is my son? and why is he not with thee?"
1758
1759And I to him: "I come not of myself;
1760  He who is waiting yonder leads me here,
1761  Whom in disdain perhaps your Guido had."
1762
1763His language and the mode of punishment
1764  Already unto me had read his name;
1765  On that account my answer was so full.
1766
1767Up starting suddenly, he cried out: "How
1768  Saidst thou,--he had?  Is he not still alive?
1769  Does not the sweet light strike upon his eyes?"
1770
1771When he became aware of some delay,
1772  Which I before my answer made, supine
1773  He fell again, and forth appeared no more.
1774
1775But the other, magnanimous, at whose desire
1776  I had remained, did not his aspect change,
1777  Neither his neck he moved, nor bent his side.
1778
1779"And if," continuing his first discourse,
1780  "They have that art," he said, "not learned aright,
1781  That more tormenteth me, than doth this bed.
1782
1783But fifty times shall not rekindled be
1784  The countenance of the Lady who reigns here,
1785  Ere thou shalt know how heavy is that art;
1786
1787And as thou wouldst to the sweet world return,
1788  Say why that people is so pitiless
1789  Against my race in each one of its laws?"
1790
1791Whence I to him: "The slaughter and great carnage
1792  Which have with crimson stained the Arbia, cause
1793  Such orisons in our temple to be made."
1794
1795After his head he with a sigh had shaken,
1796  "There I was not alone," he said, "nor surely
1797  Without a cause had with the others moved.
1798
1799But there I was alone, where every one
1800  Consented to the laying waste of Florence,
1801  He who defended her with open face."
1802
1803"Ah! so hereafter may your seed repose,"
1804  I him entreated, "solve for me that knot,
1805  Which has entangled my conceptions here.
1806
1807It seems that you can see, if I hear rightly,
1808  Beforehand whatsoe'er time brings with it,
1809  And in the present have another mode."
1810
1811"We see, like those who have imperfect sight,
1812  The things," he said, "that distant are from us;
1813  So much still shines on us the Sovereign Ruler.
1814
1815When they draw near, or are, is wholly vain
1816  Our intellect, and if none brings it to us,
1817  Not anything know we of your human state.
1818
1819Hence thou canst understand, that wholly dead
1820  Will be our knowledge from the moment when
1821  The portal of the future shall be closed."
1822
1823Then I, as if compunctious for my fault,
1824  Said: "Now, then, you will tell that fallen one,
1825  That still his son is with the living joined.
1826
1827And if just now, in answering, I was dumb,
1828  Tell him I did it because I was thinking
1829  Already of the error you have solved me."
1830
1831And now my Master was recalling me,
1832  Wherefore more eagerly I prayed the spirit
1833  That he would tell me who was with him there.
1834
1835He said: "With more than a thousand here I lie;
1836  Within here is the second Frederick,
1837  And the Cardinal, and of the rest I speak not."
1838
1839Thereon he hid himself; and I towards
1840  The ancient poet turned my steps, reflecting
1841  Upon that saying, which seemed hostile to me.
1842
1843He moved along; and afterward thus going,
1844  He said to me, "Why art thou so bewildered?"
1845  And I in his inquiry satisfied him.
1846
1847"Let memory preserve what thou hast heard
1848  Against thyself," that Sage commanded me,
1849  "And now attend here;" and he raised his finger.
1850
1851"When thou shalt be before the radiance sweet
1852  Of her whose beauteous eyes all things behold,
1853  From her thou'lt know the journey of thy life."
1854
1855Unto the left hand then he turned his feet;
1856  We left the wall, and went towards the middle,
1857  Along a path that strikes into a valley,
1858
1859Which even up there unpleasant made its stench.
1860
1861
1862
1863Inferno: Canto XI
1864
1865
1866Upon the margin of a lofty bank
1867  Which great rocks broken in a circle made,
1868  We came upon a still more cruel throng;
1869
1870And there, by reason of the horrible
1871  Excess of stench the deep abyss throws out,
1872  We drew ourselves aside behind the cover
1873
1874Of a great tomb, whereon I saw a writing,
1875  Which said: "Pope Anastasius I hold,
1876  Whom out of the right way Photinus drew."
1877
1878"Slow it behoveth our descent to be,
1879  So that the sense be first a little used
1880  To the sad blast, and then we shall not heed it."
1881
1882The Master thus; and unto him I said,
1883  "Some compensation find, that the time pass not
1884  Idly;" and he: "Thou seest I think of that.
1885
1886My son, upon the inside of these rocks,"
1887  Began he then to say, "are three small circles,
1888  From grade to grade, like those which thou art leaving.
1889
1890They all are full of spirits maledict;
1891  But that hereafter sight alone suffice thee,
1892  Hear how and wherefore they are in constraint.
1893
1894Of every malice that wins hate in Heaven,
1895  Injury is the end; and all such end
1896  Either by force or fraud afflicteth others.
1897
1898But because fraud is man's peculiar vice,
1899  More it displeases God; and so stand lowest
1900  The fraudulent, and greater dole assails them.
1901
1902All the first circle of the Violent is;
1903  But since force may be used against three persons,
1904  In three rounds 'tis divided and constructed.
1905
1906To God, to ourselves, and to our neighbour can we
1907  Use force; I say on them and on their things,
1908  As thou shalt hear with reason manifest.
1909
1910A death by violence, and painful wounds,
1911  Are to our neighbour given; and in his substance
1912  Ruin, and arson, and injurious levies;
1913
1914Whence homicides, and he who smites unjustly,
1915  Marauders, and freebooters, the first round
1916  Tormenteth all in companies diverse.
1917
1918Man may lay violent hands upon himself
1919  And his own goods; and therefore in the second
1920  Round must perforce without avail repent
1921
1922Whoever of your world deprives himself,
1923  Who games, and dissipates his property,
1924  And weepeth there, where he should jocund be.
1925
1926Violence can be done the Deity,
1927  In heart denying and blaspheming Him,
1928  And by disdaining Nature and her bounty.
1929
1930And for this reason doth the smallest round
1931  Seal with its signet Sodom and Cahors,
1932  And who, disdaining God, speaks from the heart.
1933
1934Fraud, wherewithal is every conscience stung,
1935  A man may practise upon him who trusts,
1936  And him who doth no confidence imburse.
1937
1938This latter mode, it would appear, dissevers
1939  Only the bond of love which Nature makes;
1940  Wherefore within the second circle nestle
1941
1942Hypocrisy, flattery, and who deals in magic,
1943  Falsification, theft, and simony,
1944  Panders, and barrators, and the like filth.
1945
1946By the other mode, forgotten is that love
1947  Which Nature makes, and what is after added,
1948  From which there is a special faith engendered.
1949
1950Hence in the smallest circle, where the point is
1951  Of the Universe, upon which Dis is seated,
1952  Whoe'er betrays for ever is consumed."
1953
1954And I: "My Master, clear enough proceeds
1955  Thy reasoning, and full well distinguishes
1956  This cavern and the people who possess it.
1957
1958But tell me, those within the fat lagoon,
1959  Whom the wind drives, and whom the rain doth beat,
1960  And who encounter with such bitter tongues,
1961
1962Wherefore are they inside of the red city
1963  Not punished, if God has them in his wrath,
1964  And if he has not, wherefore in such fashion?"
1965
1966And unto me he said: "Why wanders so
1967  Thine intellect from that which it is wont?
1968  Or, sooth, thy mind where is it elsewhere looking?
1969
1970Hast thou no recollection of those words
1971  With which thine Ethics thoroughly discusses
1972  The dispositions three, that Heaven abides not,--
1973
1974Incontinence, and Malice, and insane
1975  Bestiality? and how Incontinence
1976  Less God offendeth, and less blame attracts?
1977
1978If thou regardest this conclusion well,
1979  And to thy mind recallest who they are
1980  That up outside are undergoing penance,
1981
1982Clearly wilt thou perceive why from these felons
1983  They separated are, and why less wroth
1984  Justice divine doth smite them with its hammer."
1985
1986"O Sun, that healest all distempered vision,
1987  Thou dost content me so, when thou resolvest,
1988  That doubting pleases me no less than knowing!
1989
1990Once more a little backward turn thee," said I,
1991  "There where thou sayest that usury offends
1992  Goodness divine, and disengage the knot."
1993
1994"Philosophy," he said, "to him who heeds it,
1995  Noteth, not only in one place alone,
1996  After what manner Nature takes her course
1997
1998From Intellect Divine, and from its art;
1999  And if thy Physics carefully thou notest,
2000  After not many pages shalt thou find,
2001
2002That this your art as far as possible
2003  Follows, as the disciple doth the master;
2004  So that your art is, as it were, God's grandchild.
2005
2006From these two, if thou bringest to thy mind
2007  Genesis at the beginning, it behoves
2008  Mankind to gain their life and to advance;
2009
2010And since the usurer takes another way,
2011  Nature herself and in her follower
2012  Disdains he, for elsewhere he puts his hope.
2013
2014But follow, now, as I would fain go on,
2015  For quivering are the Fishes on the horizon,
2016  And the Wain wholly over Caurus lies,
2017
2018And far beyond there we descend the crag."
2019
2020
2021
2022Inferno: Canto XII
2023
2024
2025The place where to descend the bank we came
2026  Was alpine, and from what was there, moreover,
2027  Of such a kind that every eye would shun it.
2028
2029Such as that ruin is which in the flank
2030  Smote, on this side of Trent, the Adige,
2031  Either by earthquake or by failing stay,
2032
2033For from the mountain's top, from which it moved,
2034  Unto the plain the cliff is shattered so,
2035  Some path 'twould give to him who was above;
2036
2037Even such was the descent of that ravine,
2038  And on the border of the broken chasm
2039  The infamy of Crete was stretched along,
2040
2041Who was conceived in the fictitious cow;
2042  And when he us beheld, he bit himself,
2043  Even as one whom anger racks within.
2044
2045My Sage towards him shouted: "Peradventure
2046  Thou think'st that here may be the Duke of Athens,
2047  Who in the world above brought death to thee?
2048
2049Get thee gone, beast, for this one cometh not
2050  Instructed by thy sister, but he comes
2051  In order to behold your punishments."
2052
2053As is that bull who breaks loose at the moment
2054  In which he has received the mortal blow,
2055  Who cannot walk, but staggers here and there,
2056
2057The Minotaur beheld I do the like;
2058  And he, the wary, cried: "Run to the passage;
2059  While he wroth, 'tis well thou shouldst descend."
2060
2061Thus down we took our way o'er that discharge
2062  Of stones, which oftentimes did move themselves
2063  Beneath my feet, from the unwonted burden.
2064
2065Thoughtful I went; and he said: "Thou art thinking
2066  Perhaps upon this ruin, which is guarded
2067  By that brute anger which just now I quenched.
2068
2069Now will I have thee know, the other time
2070  I here descended to the nether Hell,
2071  This precipice had not yet fallen down.
2072
2073But truly, if I well discern, a little
2074  Before His coming who the mighty spoil
2075  Bore off from Dis, in the supernal circle,
2076
2077Upon all sides the deep and loathsome valley
2078  Trembled so, that I thought the Universe
2079  Was thrilled with love, by which there are who think
2080
2081The world ofttimes converted into chaos;
2082  And at that moment this primeval crag
2083  Both here and elsewhere made such overthrow.
2084
2085But fix thine eyes below; for draweth near
2086  The river of blood, within which boiling is
2087  Whoe'er by violence doth injure others."
2088
2089O blind cupidity, O wrath insane,
2090  That spurs us onward so in our short life,
2091  And in the eternal then so badly steeps us!
2092
2093I saw an ample moat bent like a bow,
2094  As one which all the plain encompasses,
2095  Conformable to what my Guide had said.
2096
2097And between this and the embankment's foot
2098  Centaurs in file were running, armed with arrows,
2099  As in the world they used the chase to follow.
2100
2101Beholding us descend, each one stood still,
2102  And from the squadron three detached themselves,
2103  With bows and arrows in advance selected;
2104
2105And from afar one cried: "Unto what torment
2106  Come ye, who down the hillside are descending?
2107  Tell us from there; if not, I draw the bow."
2108
2109My Master said: "Our answer will we make
2110  To Chiron, near you there; in evil hour,
2111  That will of thine was evermore so hasty."
2112
2113Then touched he me, and said: "This one is Nessus,
2114  Who perished for the lovely Dejanira,
2115  And for himself, himself did vengeance take.
2116
2117And he in the midst, who at his breast is gazing,
2118  Is the great Chiron, who brought up Achilles;
2119  That other Pholus is, who was so wrathful.
2120
2121Thousands and thousands go about the moat
2122  Shooting with shafts whatever soul emerges
2123  Out of the blood, more than his crime allots."
2124
2125Near we approached unto those monsters fleet;
2126  Chiron an arrow took, and with the notch
2127  Backward upon his jaws he put his beard.
2128
2129After he had uncovered his great mouth,
2130  He said to his companions: "Are you ware
2131  That he behind moveth whate'er he touches?
2132
2133Thus are not wont to do the feet of dead men."
2134  And my good Guide, who now was at his breast,
2135  Where the two natures are together joined,
2136
2137Replied: "Indeed he lives, and thus alone
2138  Me it behoves to show him the dark valley;
2139  Necessity, and not delight, impels us.
2140
2141Some one withdrew from singing Halleluja,
2142  Who unto me committed this new office;
2143  No thief is he, nor I a thievish spirit.
2144
2145But by that virtue through which I am moving
2146  My steps along this savage thoroughfare,
2147  Give us some one of thine, to be with us,
2148
2149And who may show us where to pass the ford,
2150  And who may carry this one on his back;
2151  For 'tis no spirit that can walk the air."
2152
2153Upon his right breast Chiron wheeled about,
2154  And said to Nessus: "Turn and do thou guide them,
2155  And warn aside, if other band may meet you."
2156
2157We with our faithful escort onward moved
2158  Along the brink of the vermilion boiling,
2159  Wherein the boiled were uttering loud laments.
2160
2161People I saw within up to the eyebrows,
2162  And the great Centaur said: "Tyrants are these,
2163  Who dealt in bloodshed and in pillaging.
2164
2165Here they lament their pitiless mischiefs; here
2166  Is Alexander, and fierce Dionysius
2167  Who upon Sicily brought dolorous years.
2168
2169That forehead there which has the hair so black
2170  Is Azzolin; and the other who is blond,
2171  Obizzo is of Esti, who, in truth,
2172
2173Up in the world was by his stepson slain."
2174  Then turned I to the Poet; and he said,
2175  "Now he be first to thee, and second I."
2176
2177A little farther on the Centaur stopped
2178  Above a folk, who far down as the throat
2179  Seemed from that boiling stream to issue forth.
2180
2181A shade he showed us on one side alone,
2182  Saying: "He cleft asunder in God's bosom
2183  The heart that still upon the Thames is honoured."
2184
2185Then people saw I, who from out the river
2186  Lifted their heads and also all the chest;
2187  And many among these I recognised.
2188
2189Thus ever more and more grew shallower
2190  That blood, so that the feet alone it covered;
2191  And there across the moat our passage was.
2192
2193"Even as thou here upon this side beholdest
2194  The boiling stream, that aye diminishes,"
2195  The Centaur said, "I wish thee to believe
2196
2197That on this other more and more declines
2198  Its bed, until it reunites itself
2199  Where it behoveth tyranny to groan.
2200
2201Justice divine, upon this side, is goading
2202  That Attila, who was a scourge on earth,
2203  And Pyrrhus, and Sextus; and for ever milks
2204
2205The tears which with the boiling it unseals
2206  In Rinier da Corneto and Rinier Pazzo,
2207  Who made upon the highways so much war."
2208
2209Then back he turned, and passed again the ford.
2210
2211
2212
2213Inferno: Canto XIII
2214
2215
2216Not yet had Nessus reached the other side,
2217  When we had put ourselves within a wood,
2218  That was not marked by any path whatever.
2219
2220Not foliage green, but of a dusky colour,
2221  Not branches smooth, but gnarled and intertangled,
2222  Not apple-trees were there, but thorns with poison.
2223
2224Such tangled thickets have not, nor so dense,
2225  Those savage wild beasts, that in hatred hold
2226  'Twixt Cecina and Corneto the tilled places.
2227
2228There do the hideous Harpies make their nests,
2229  Who chased the Trojans from the Strophades,
2230  With sad announcement of impending doom;
2231
2232Broad wings have they, and necks and faces human,
2233  And feet with claws, and their great bellies fledged;
2234  They make laments upon the wondrous trees.
2235
2236And the good Master: "Ere thou enter farther,
2237  Know that thou art within the second round,"
2238  Thus he began to say, "and shalt be, till
2239
2240Thou comest out upon the horrible sand;
2241  Therefore look well around, and thou shalt see
2242  Things that will credence give unto my speech."
2243
2244I heard on all sides lamentations uttered,
2245  And person none beheld I who might make them,
2246  Whence, utterly bewildered, I stood still.
2247
2248I think he thought that I perhaps might think
2249  So many voices issued through those trunks
2250  From people who concealed themselves from us;
2251
2252Therefore the Master said: "If thou break off
2253  Some little spray from any of these trees,
2254  The thoughts thou hast will wholly be made vain."
2255
2256Then stretched I forth my hand a little forward,
2257  And plucked a branchlet off from a great thorn;
2258  And the trunk cried, "Why dost thou mangle me?"
2259
2260After it had become embrowned with blood,
2261  It recommenced its cry: "Why dost thou rend me?
2262  Hast thou no spirit of pity whatsoever?
2263
2264Men once we were, and now are changed to trees;
2265  Indeed, thy hand should be more pitiful,
2266  Even if the souls of serpents we had been."
2267
2268As out of a green brand, that is on fire
2269  At one of the ends, and from the other drips
2270  And hisses with the wind that is escaping;
2271
2272So from that splinter issued forth together
2273  Both words and blood; whereat I let the tip
2274  Fall, and stood like a man who is afraid.
2275
2276"Had he been able sooner to believe,"
2277  My Sage made answer, "O thou wounded soul,
2278  What only in my verses he has seen,
2279
2280Not upon thee had he stretched forth his hand;
2281  Whereas the thing incredible has caused me
2282  To put him to an act which grieveth me.
2283
2284But tell him who thou wast, so that by way
2285  Of some amends thy fame he may refresh
2286  Up in the world, to which he can return."
2287
2288And the trunk said: "So thy sweet words allure me,
2289  I cannot silent be; and you be vexed not,
2290  That I a little to discourse am tempted.
2291
2292I am the one who both keys had in keeping
2293  Of Frederick's heart, and turned them to and fro
2294  So softly in unlocking and in locking,
2295
2296That from his secrets most men I withheld;
2297  Fidelity I bore the glorious office
2298  So great, I lost thereby my sleep and pulses.
2299
2300The courtesan who never from the dwelling
2301  Of Caesar turned aside her strumpet eyes,
2302  Death universal and the vice of courts,
2303
2304Inflamed against me all the other minds,
2305  And they, inflamed, did so inflame Augustus,
2306  That my glad honours turned to dismal mournings.
2307
2308My spirit, in disdainful exultation,
2309  Thinking by dying to escape disdain,
2310  Made me unjust against myself, the just.
2311
2312I, by the roots unwonted of this wood,
2313  Do swear to you that never broke I faith
2314  Unto my lord, who was so worthy of honour;
2315
2316And to the world if one of you return,
2317  Let him my memory comfort, which is lying
2318  Still prostrate from the blow that envy dealt it."
2319
2320Waited awhile, and then: "Since he is silent,"
2321  The Poet said to me, "lose not the time,
2322  But speak, and question him, if more may please thee."
2323
2324Whence I to him: "Do thou again inquire
2325  Concerning what thou thinks't will satisfy me;
2326  For I cannot, such pity is in my heart."
2327
2328Therefore he recommenced: "So may the man
2329  Do for thee freely what thy speech implores,
2330  Spirit incarcerate, again be pleased
2331
2332To tell us in what way the soul is bound
2333  Within these knots; and tell us, if thou canst,
2334  If any from such members e'er is freed."
2335
2336Then blew the trunk amain, and afterward
2337  The wind was into such a voice converted:
2338  "With brevity shall be replied to you.
2339
2340When the exasperated soul abandons
2341  The body whence it rent itself away,
2342  Minos consigns it to the seventh abyss.
2343
2344It falls into the forest, and no part
2345  Is chosen for it; but where Fortune hurls it,
2346  There like a grain of spelt it germinates.
2347
2348It springs a sapling, and a forest tree;
2349  The Harpies, feeding then upon its leaves,
2350  Do pain create, and for the pain an outlet.
2351
2352Like others for our spoils shall we return;
2353  But not that any one may them revest,
2354  For 'tis not just to have what one casts off.
2355
2356Here we shall drag them, and along the dismal
2357  Forest our bodies shall suspended be,
2358  Each to the thorn of his molested shade."
2359
2360We were attentive still unto the trunk,
2361  Thinking that more it yet might wish to tell us,
2362  When by a tumult we were overtaken,
2363
2364In the same way as he is who perceives
2365  The boar and chase approaching to his stand,
2366  Who hears the crashing of the beasts and branches;
2367
2368And two behold! upon our left-hand side,
2369  Naked and scratched, fleeing so furiously,
2370  That of the forest, every fan they broke.
2371
2372He who was in advance: "Now help, Death, help!"
2373  And the other one, who seemed to lag too much,
2374  Was shouting: "Lano, were not so alert
2375
2376Those legs of thine at joustings of the Toppo!"
2377  And then, perchance because his breath was failing,
2378  He grouped himself together with a bush.
2379
2380Behind them was the forest full of black
2381  She-mastiffs, ravenous, and swift of foot
2382  As greyhounds, who are issuing from the chain.
2383
2384On him who had crouched down they set their teeth,
2385  And him they lacerated piece by piece,
2386  Thereafter bore away those aching members.
2387
2388Thereat my Escort took me by the hand,
2389  And led me to the bush, that all in vain
2390  Was weeping from its bloody lacerations.
2391
2392"O Jacopo," it said, "of Sant' Andrea,
2393  What helped it thee of me to make a screen?
2394  What blame have I in thy nefarious life?"
2395
2396When near him had the Master stayed his steps,
2397  He said: "Who wast thou, that through wounds so many
2398  Art blowing out with blood thy dolorous speech?"
2399
2400And he to us: "O souls, that hither come
2401  To look upon the shameful massacre
2402  That has so rent away from me my leaves,
2403
2404Gather them up beneath the dismal bush;
2405  I of that city was which to the Baptist
2406  Changed its first patron, wherefore he for this
2407
2408Forever with his art will make it sad.
2409  And were it not that on the pass of Arno
2410  Some glimpses of him are remaining still,
2411
2412Those citizens, who afterwards rebuilt it
2413  Upon the ashes left by Attila,
2414  In vain had caused their labour to be done.
2415
2416Of my own house I made myself a gibbet."
2417
2418
2419
2420Inferno: Canto XIV
2421
2422
2423Because the charity of my native place
2424  Constrained me, gathered I the scattered leaves,
2425  And gave them back to him, who now was hoarse.
2426
2427Then came we to the confine, where disparted
2428  The second round is from the third, and where
2429  A horrible form of Justice is beheld.
2430
2431Clearly to manifest these novel things,
2432  I say that we arrived upon a plain,
2433  Which from its bed rejecteth every plant;
2434
2435The dolorous forest is a garland to it
2436  All round about, as the sad moat to that;
2437  There close upon the edge we stayed our feet.
2438
2439The soil was of an arid and thick sand,
2440  Not of another fashion made than that
2441  Which by the feet of Cato once was pressed.
2442
2443Vengeance of God, O how much oughtest thou
2444  By each one to be dreaded, who doth read
2445  That which was manifest unto mine eyes!
2446
2447Of naked souls beheld I many herds,
2448  Who all were weeping very miserably,
2449  And over them seemed set a law diverse.
2450
2451Supine upon the ground some folk were lying;
2452  And some were sitting all drawn up together,
2453  And others went about continually.
2454
2455Those who were going round were far the more,
2456  And those were less who lay down to their torment,
2457  But had their tongues more loosed to lamentation.
2458
2459O'er all the sand-waste, with a gradual fall,
2460  Were raining down dilated flakes of fire,
2461  As of the snow on Alp without a wind.
2462
2463As Alexander, in those torrid parts
2464  Of India, beheld upon his host
2465  Flames fall unbroken till they reached the ground.
2466
2467Whence he provided with his phalanxes
2468  To trample down the soil, because the vapour
2469  Better extinguished was while it was single;
2470
2471Thus was descending the eternal heat,
2472  Whereby the sand was set on fire, like tinder
2473  Beneath the steel, for doubling of the dole.
2474
2475Without repose forever was the dance
2476  Of miserable hands, now there, now here,
2477  Shaking away from off them the fresh gleeds.
2478
2479"Master," began I, "thou who overcomest
2480  All things except the demons dire, that issued
2481  Against us at the entrance of the gate,
2482
2483Who is that mighty one who seems to heed not
2484  The fire, and lieth lowering and disdainful,
2485  So that the rain seems not to ripen him?"
2486
2487And he himself, who had become aware
2488  That I was questioning my Guide about him,
2489  Cried: "Such as I was living, am I, dead.
2490
2491If Jove should weary out his smith, from whom
2492  He seized in anger the sharp thunderbolt,
2493  Wherewith upon the last day I was smitten,
2494
2495And if he wearied out by turns the others
2496  In Mongibello at the swarthy forge,
2497  Vociferating, 'Help, good Vulcan, help!'
2498
2499Even as he did there at the fight of Phlegra,
2500  And shot his bolts at me with all his might,
2501  He would not have thereby a joyous vengeance."
2502
2503Then did my Leader speak with such great force,
2504  That I had never heard him speak so loud:
2505  "O Capaneus, in that is not extinguished
2506
2507Thine arrogance, thou punished art the more;
2508  Not any torment, saving thine own rage,
2509  Would be unto thy fury pain complete."
2510
2511Then he turned round to me with better lip,
2512  Saying: "One of the Seven Kings was he
2513  Who Thebes besieged, and held, and seems to hold
2514
2515God in disdain, and little seems to prize him;
2516  But, as I said to him, his own despites
2517  Are for his breast the fittest ornaments.
2518
2519Now follow me, and mind thou do not place
2520  As yet thy feet upon the burning sand,
2521  But always keep them close unto the wood."
2522
2523Speaking no word, we came to where there gushes
2524  Forth from the wood a little rivulet,
2525  Whose redness makes my hair still stand on end.
2526
2527As from the Bulicame springs the brooklet,
2528  The sinful women later share among them,
2529  So downward through the sand it went its way.
2530
2531The bottom of it, and both sloping banks,
2532  Were made of stone, and the margins at the side;
2533  Whence I perceived that there the passage was.
2534
2535"In all the rest which I have shown to thee
2536  Since we have entered in within the gate
2537  Whose threshold unto no one is denied,
2538
2539Nothing has been discovered by thine eyes
2540  So notable as is the present river,
2541  Which all the little flames above it quenches."
2542
2543These words were of my Leader; whence I prayed him
2544  That he would give me largess of the food,
2545  For which he had given me largess of desire.
2546
2547"In the mid-sea there sits a wasted land,"
2548  Said he thereafterward, "whose name is Crete,
2549  Under whose king the world of old was chaste.
2550
2551There is a mountain there, that once was glad
2552  With waters and with leaves, which was called Ida;
2553  Now 'tis deserted, as a thing worn out.
2554
2555Rhea once chose it for the faithful cradle
2556  Of her own son; and to conceal him better,
2557  Whene'er he cried, she there had clamours made.
2558
2559A grand old man stands in the mount erect,
2560  Who holds his shoulders turned tow'rds Damietta,
2561  And looks at Rome as if it were his mirror.
2562
2563His head is fashioned of refined gold,
2564  And of pure silver are the arms and breast;
2565  Then he is brass as far down as the fork.
2566
2567From that point downward all is chosen iron,
2568  Save that the right foot is of kiln-baked clay,
2569  And more he stands on that than on the other.
2570
2571Each part, except the gold, is by a fissure
2572  Asunder cleft, that dripping is with tears,
2573  Which gathered together perforate that cavern.
2574
2575From rock to rock they fall into this valley;
2576  Acheron, Styx, and Phlegethon they form;
2577  Then downward go along this narrow sluice
2578
2579Unto that point where is no more descending.
2580  They form Cocytus; what that pool may be
2581  Thou shalt behold, so here 'tis not narrated."
2582
2583And I to him: "If so the present runnel
2584  Doth take its rise in this way from our world,
2585  Why only on this verge appears it to us?"
2586
2587And he to me: "Thou knowest the place is round,
2588  And notwithstanding thou hast journeyed far,
2589  Still to the left descending to the bottom,
2590
2591Thou hast not yet through all the circle turned.
2592  Therefore if something new appear to us,
2593  It should not bring amazement to thy face."
2594
2595And I again: "Master, where shall be found
2596  Lethe and Phlegethon, for of one thou'rt silent,
2597  And sayest the other of this rain is made?"
2598
2599"In all thy questions truly thou dost please me,"
2600  Replied he; "but the boiling of the red
2601  Water might well solve one of them thou makest.
2602
2603Thou shalt see Lethe, but outside this moat,
2604  There where the souls repair to lave themselves,
2605  When sin repented of has been removed."
2606
2607Then said he: "It is time now to abandon
2608  The wood; take heed that thou come after me;
2609  A way the margins make that are not burning,
2610
2611And over them all vapours are extinguished."
2612
2613
2614
2615Inferno: Canto XV
2616
2617
2618Now bears us onward one of the hard margins,
2619  And so the brooklet's mist o'ershadows it,
2620  From fire it saves the water and the dikes.
2621
2622Even as the Flemings, 'twixt Cadsand and Bruges,
2623  Fearing the flood that tow'rds them hurls itself,
2624  Their bulwarks build to put the sea to flight;
2625
2626And as the Paduans along the Brenta,
2627  To guard their villas and their villages,
2628  Or ever Chiarentana feel the heat;
2629
2630In such similitude had those been made,
2631  Albeit not so lofty nor so thick,
2632  Whoever he might be, the master made them.
2633
2634Now were we from the forest so remote,
2635  I could not have discovered where it was,
2636  Even if backward I had turned myself,
2637
2638When we a company of souls encountered,
2639  Who came beside the dike, and every one
2640  Gazed at us, as at evening we are wont
2641
2642To eye each other under a new moon,
2643  And so towards us sharpened they their brows
2644  As an old tailor at the needle's eye.
2645
2646Thus scrutinised by such a family,
2647  By some one I was recognised, who seized
2648  My garment's hem, and cried out, "What a marvel!"
2649
2650And I, when he stretched forth his arm to me,
2651  On his baked aspect fastened so mine eyes,
2652  That the scorched countenance prevented not
2653
2654His recognition by my intellect;
2655  And bowing down my face unto his own,
2656  I made reply, "Are you here, Ser Brunetto?"
2657
2658And he: "May't not displease thee, O my son,
2659  If a brief space with thee Brunetto Latini
2660  Backward return and let the trail go on."
2661
2662I said to him: "With all my power I ask it;
2663  And if you wish me to sit down with you,
2664  I will, if he please, for I go with him."
2665
2666"O son," he said, "whoever of this herd
2667  A moment stops, lies then a hundred years,
2668  Nor fans himself when smiteth him the fire.
2669
2670Therefore go on; I at thy skirts will come,
2671  And afterward will I rejoin my band,
2672  Which goes lamenting its eternal doom."
2673
2674I did not dare to go down from the road
2675  Level to walk with him; but my head bowed
2676  I held as one who goeth reverently.
2677
2678And he began: "What fortune or what fate
2679  Before the last day leadeth thee down here?
2680  And who is this that showeth thee the way?"
2681
2682"Up there above us in the life serene,"
2683  I answered him, "I lost me in a valley,
2684  Or ever yet my age had been completed.
2685
2686But yestermorn I turned my back upon it;
2687  This one appeared to me, returning thither,
2688  And homeward leadeth me along this road."
2689
2690And he to me: "If thou thy star do follow,
2691  Thou canst not fail thee of a glorious port,
2692  If well I judged in the life beautiful.
2693
2694And if I had not died so prematurely,
2695  Seeing Heaven thus benignant unto thee,
2696  I would have given thee comfort in the work.
2697
2698But that ungrateful and malignant people,
2699  Which of old time from Fesole descended,
2700  And smacks still of the mountain and the granite,
2701
2702Will make itself, for thy good deeds, thy foe;
2703  And it is right; for among crabbed sorbs
2704  It ill befits the sweet fig to bear fruit.
2705
2706Old rumour in the world proclaims them blind;
2707  A people avaricious, envious, proud;
2708  Take heed that of their customs thou do cleanse thee.
2709
2710Thy fortune so much honour doth reserve thee,
2711  One party and the other shall be hungry
2712  For thee; but far from goat shall be the grass.
2713
2714Their litter let the beasts of Fesole
2715  Make of themselves, nor let them touch the plant,
2716  If any still upon their dunghill rise,
2717
2718In which may yet revive the consecrated
2719  Seed of those Romans, who remained there when
2720  The nest of such great malice it became."
2721
2722"If my entreaty wholly were fulfilled,"
2723  Replied I to him, "not yet would you be
2724  In banishment from human nature placed;
2725
2726For in my mind is fixed, and touches now
2727  My heart the dear and good paternal image
2728  Of you, when in the world from hour to hour
2729
2730You taught me how a man becomes eternal;
2731  And how much I am grateful, while I live
2732  Behoves that in my language be discerned.
2733
2734What you narrate of my career I write,
2735  And keep it to be glossed with other text
2736  By a Lady who can do it, if I reach her.
2737
2738This much will I have manifest to you;
2739  Provided that my conscience do not chide me,
2740  For whatsoever Fortune I am ready.
2741
2742Such handsel is not new unto mine ears;
2743  Therefore let Fortune turn her wheel around
2744  As it may please her, and the churl his mattock."
2745
2746My Master thereupon on his right cheek
2747  Did backward turn himself, and looked at me;
2748  Then said: "He listeneth well who noteth it."
2749
2750Nor speaking less on that account, I go
2751  With Ser Brunetto, and I ask who are
2752  His most known and most eminent companions.
2753
2754And he to me: "To know of some is well;
2755  Of others it were laudable to be silent,
2756  For short would be the time for so much speech.
2757
2758Know them in sum, that all of them were clerks,
2759  And men of letters great and of great fame,
2760  In the world tainted with the selfsame sin.
2761
2762Priscian goes yonder with that wretched crowd,
2763  And Francis of Accorso; and thou hadst seen there
2764  If thou hadst had a hankering for such scurf,
2765
2766That one, who by the Servant of the Servants
2767  From Arno was transferred to Bacchiglione,
2768  Where he has left his sin-excited nerves.
2769
2770More would I say, but coming and discoursing
2771  Can be no longer; for that I behold
2772  New smoke uprising yonder from the sand.
2773
2774A people comes with whom I may not be;
2775  Commended unto thee be my Tesoro,
2776  In which I still live, and no more I ask."
2777
2778Then he turned round, and seemed to be of those
2779  Who at Verona run for the Green Mantle
2780  Across the plain; and seemed to be among them
2781
2782The one who wins, and not the one who loses.
2783
2784
2785
2786Inferno: Canto XVI
2787
2788
2789Now was I where was heard the reverberation
2790  Of water falling into the next round,
2791  Like to that humming which the beehives make,
2792
2793When shadows three together started forth,
2794  Running, from out a company that passed
2795  Beneath the rain of the sharp martyrdom.
2796
2797Towards us came they, and each one cried out:
2798  "Stop, thou; for by thy garb to us thou seemest
2799  To be some one of our depraved city."
2800
2801Ah me! what wounds I saw upon their limbs,
2802  Recent and ancient by the flames burnt in!
2803  It pains me still but to remember it.
2804
2805Unto their cries my Teacher paused attentive;
2806  He turned his face towards me, and "Now wait,"
2807  He said; "to these we should be courteous.
2808
2809And if it were not for the fire that darts
2810  The nature of this region, I should say
2811  That haste were more becoming thee than them."
2812
2813As soon as we stood still, they recommenced
2814  The old refrain, and when they overtook us,
2815  Formed of themselves a wheel, all three of them.
2816
2817As champions stripped and oiled are wont to do,
2818  Watching for their advantage and their hold,
2819  Before they come to blows and thrusts between them,
2820
2821Thus, wheeling round, did every one his visage
2822  Direct to me, so that in opposite wise
2823  His neck and feet continual journey made.
2824
2825And, "If the misery of this soft place
2826  Bring in disdain ourselves and our entreaties,"
2827  Began one, "and our aspect black and blistered,
2828
2829Let the renown of us thy mind incline
2830  To tell us who thou art, who thus securely
2831  Thy living feet dost move along through Hell.
2832
2833He in whose footprints thou dost see me treading,
2834  Naked and skinless though he now may go,
2835  Was of a greater rank than thou dost think;
2836
2837He was the grandson of the good Gualdrada;
2838  His name was Guidoguerra, and in life
2839  Much did he with his wisdom and his sword.
2840
2841The other, who close by me treads the sand,
2842  Tegghiaio Aldobrandi is, whose fame
2843  Above there in the world should welcome be.
2844
2845And I, who with them on the cross am placed,
2846  Jacopo Rusticucci was; and truly
2847  My savage wife, more than aught else, doth harm me."
2848
2849Could I have been protected from the fire,
2850  Below I should have thrown myself among them,
2851  And think the Teacher would have suffered it;
2852
2853But as I should have burned and baked myself,
2854  My terror overmastered my good will,
2855  Which made me greedy of embracing them.
2856
2857Then I began: "Sorrow and not disdain
2858  Did your condition fix within me so,
2859  That tardily it wholly is stripped off,
2860
2861As soon as this my Lord said unto me
2862  Words, on account of which I thought within me
2863  That people such as you are were approaching.
2864
2865I of your city am; and evermore
2866  Your labours and your honourable names
2867  I with affection have retraced and heard.
2868
2869I leave the gall, and go for the sweet fruits
2870  Promised to me by the veracious Leader;
2871  But to the centre first I needs must plunge."
2872
2873"So may the soul for a long while conduct
2874  Those limbs of thine," did he make answer then,
2875  "And so may thy renown shine after thee,
2876
2877Valour and courtesy, say if they dwell
2878  Within our city, as they used to do,
2879  Or if they wholly have gone out of it;
2880
2881For Guglielmo Borsier, who is in torment
2882  With us of late, and goes there with his comrades,
2883  Doth greatly mortify us with his words."
2884
2885"The new inhabitants and the sudden gains,
2886  Pride and extravagance have in thee engendered,
2887  Florence, so that thou weep'st thereat already!"
2888
2889In this wise I exclaimed with face uplifted;
2890  And the three, taking that for my reply,
2891  Looked at each other, as one looks at truth.
2892
2893"If other times so little it doth cost thee,"
2894  Replied they all, "to satisfy another,
2895  Happy art thou, thus speaking at thy will!
2896
2897Therefore, if thou escape from these dark places,
2898  And come to rebehold the beauteous stars,
2899  When it shall pleasure thee to say, 'I was,'
2900
2901See that thou speak of us unto the people."
2902  Then they broke up the wheel, and in their flight
2903  It seemed as if their agile legs were wings.
2904
2905Not an Amen could possibly be said
2906  So rapidly as they had disappeared;
2907  Wherefore the Master deemed best to depart.
2908
2909I followed him, and little had we gone,
2910  Before the sound of water was so near us,
2911  That speaking we should hardly have been heard.
2912
2913Even as that stream which holdeth its own course
2914  The first from Monte Veso tow'rds the East,
2915  Upon the left-hand slope of Apennine,
2916
2917Which is above called Acquacheta, ere
2918  It down descendeth into its low bed,
2919  And at Forli is vacant of that name,
2920
2921Reverberates there above San Benedetto
2922  From Alps, by falling at a single leap,
2923  Where for a thousand there were room enough;
2924
2925Thus downward from a bank precipitate,
2926  We found resounding that dark-tinted water,
2927  So that it soon the ear would have offended.
2928
2929I had a cord around about me girt,
2930  And therewithal I whilom had designed
2931  To take the panther with the painted skin.
2932
2933After I this had all from me unloosed,
2934  As my Conductor had commanded me,
2935  I reached it to him, gathered up and coiled,
2936
2937Whereat he turned himself to the right side,
2938  And at a little distance from the verge,
2939  He cast it down into that deep abyss.
2940
2941"It must needs be some novelty respond,"
2942  I said within myself, "to the new signal
2943  The Master with his eye is following so."
2944
2945Ah me! how very cautious men should be
2946  With those who not alone behold the act,
2947  But with their wisdom look into the thoughts!
2948
2949He said to me: "Soon there will upward come
2950  What I await; and what thy thought is dreaming
2951  Must soon reveal itself unto thy sight."
2952
2953Aye to that truth which has the face of falsehood,
2954  A man should close his lips as far as may be,
2955  Because without his fault it causes shame;
2956
2957But here I cannot; and, Reader, by the notes
2958  Of this my Comedy to thee I swear,
2959  So may they not be void of lasting favour,
2960
2961Athwart that dense and darksome atmosphere
2962  I saw a figure swimming upward come,
2963  Marvellous unto every steadfast heart,
2964
2965Even as he returns who goeth down
2966  Sometimes to clear an anchor, which has grappled
2967  Reef, or aught else that in the sea is hidden,
2968
2969Who upward stretches, and draws in his feet.
2970
2971
2972
2973Inferno: Canto XVII
2974
2975
2976"Behold the monster with the pointed tail,
2977  Who cleaves the hills, and breaketh walls and weapons,
2978  Behold him who infecteth all the world."
2979
2980Thus unto me my Guide began to say,
2981  And beckoned him that he should come to shore,
2982  Near to the confine of the trodden marble;
2983
2984And that uncleanly image of deceit
2985  Came up and thrust ashore its head and bust,
2986  But on the border did not drag its tail.
2987
2988The face was as the face of a just man,
2989  Its semblance outwardly was so benign,
2990  And of a serpent all the trunk beside.
2991
2992Two paws it had, hairy unto the armpits;
2993  The back, and breast, and both the sides it had
2994  Depicted o'er with nooses and with shields.
2995
2996With colours more, groundwork or broidery
2997  Never in cloth did Tartars make nor Turks,
2998  Nor were such tissues by Arachne laid.
2999
3000As sometimes wherries lie upon the shore,
3001  That part are in the water, part on land;
3002  And as among the guzzling Germans there,
3003
3004The beaver plants himself to wage his war;
3005  So that vile monster lay upon the border,
3006  Which is of stone, and shutteth in the sand.
3007
3008His tail was wholly quivering in the void,
3009  Contorting upwards the envenomed fork,
3010  That in the guise of scorpion armed its point.
3011
3012The Guide said: "Now perforce must turn aside
3013  Our way a little, even to that beast
3014  Malevolent, that yonder coucheth him."
3015
3016We therefore on the right side descended,
3017  And made ten steps upon the outer verge,
3018  Completely to avoid the sand and flame;
3019
3020And after we are come to him, I see
3021  A little farther off upon the sand
3022  A people sitting near the hollow place.
3023
3024Then said to me the Master: "So that full
3025  Experience of this round thou bear away,
3026  Now go and see what their condition is.
3027
3028There let thy conversation be concise;
3029  Till thou returnest I will speak with him,
3030  That he concede to us his stalwart shoulders."
3031
3032Thus farther still upon the outermost
3033  Head of that seventh circle all alone
3034  I went, where sat the melancholy folk.
3035
3036Out of their eyes was gushing forth their woe;
3037  This way, that way, they helped them with their hands
3038  Now from the flames and now from the hot soil.
3039
3040Not otherwise in summer do the dogs,
3041  Now with the foot, now with the muzzle, when
3042  By fleas, or flies, or gadflies, they are bitten.
3043
3044When I had turned mine eyes upon the faces
3045  Of some, on whom the dolorous fire is falling,
3046  Not one of them I knew; but I perceived
3047
3048That from the neck of each there hung a pouch,
3049  Which certain colour had, and certain blazon;
3050  And thereupon it seems their eyes are feeding.
3051
3052And as I gazing round me come among them,
3053  Upon a yellow pouch I azure saw
3054  That had the face and posture of a lion.
3055
3056Proceeding then the current of my sight,
3057  Another of them saw I, red as blood,
3058  Display a goose more white than butter is.
3059
3060And one, who with an azure sow and gravid
3061  Emblazoned had his little pouch of white,
3062  Said unto me: "What dost thou in this moat?
3063
3064Now get thee gone; and since thou'rt still alive,
3065  Know that a neighbour of mine, Vitaliano,
3066  Will have his seat here on my left-hand side.
3067
3068A Paduan am I with these Florentines;
3069  Full many a time they thunder in mine ears,
3070  Exclaiming, 'Come the sovereign cavalier,
3071
3072He who shall bring the satchel with three goats;'"
3073  Then twisted he his mouth, and forth he thrust
3074  His tongue, like to an ox that licks its nose.
3075
3076And fearing lest my longer stay might vex
3077  Him who had warned me not to tarry long,
3078  Backward I turned me from those weary souls.
3079
3080I found my Guide, who had already mounted
3081  Upon the back of that wild animal,
3082  And said to me: "Now be both strong and bold.
3083
3084Now we descend by stairways such as these;
3085  Mount thou in front, for I will be midway,
3086  So that the tail may have no power to harm thee."
3087
3088Such as he is who has so near the ague
3089  Of quartan that his nails are blue already,
3090  And trembles all, but looking at the shade;
3091
3092Even such became I at those proffered words;
3093  But shame in me his menaces produced,
3094  Which maketh servant strong before good master.
3095
3096I seated me upon those monstrous shoulders;
3097  I wished to say, and yet the voice came not
3098  As I believed, "Take heed that thou embrace me."
3099
3100But he, who other times had rescued me
3101  In other peril, soon as I had mounted,
3102  Within his arms encircled and sustained me,
3103
3104And said: "Now, Geryon, bestir thyself;
3105  The circles large, and the descent be little;
3106  Think of the novel burden which thou hast."
3107
3108Even as the little vessel shoves from shore,
3109  Backward, still backward, so he thence withdrew;
3110  And when he wholly felt himself afloat,
3111
3112There where his breast had been he turned his tail,
3113  And that extended like an eel he moved,
3114  And with his paws drew to himself the air.
3115
3116A greater fear I do not think there was
3117  What time abandoned Phaeton the reins,
3118  Whereby the heavens, as still appears, were scorched;
3119
3120Nor when the wretched Icarus his flanks
3121  Felt stripped of feathers by the melting wax,
3122  His father crying, "An ill way thou takest!"
3123
3124Than was my own, when I perceived myself
3125  On all sides in the air, and saw extinguished
3126  The sight of everything but of the monster.
3127
3128Onward he goeth, swimming slowly, slowly;
3129  Wheels and descends, but I perceive it only
3130  By wind upon my face and from below.
3131
3132I heard already on the right the whirlpool
3133  Making a horrible crashing under us;
3134  Whence I thrust out my head with eyes cast downward.
3135
3136Then was I still more fearful of the abyss;
3137  Because I fires beheld, and heard laments,
3138  Whereat I, trembling, all the closer cling.
3139
3140I saw then, for before I had not seen it,
3141  The turning and descending, by great horrors
3142  That were approaching upon divers sides.
3143
3144As falcon who has long been on the wing,
3145  Who, without seeing either lure or bird,
3146  Maketh the falconer say, "Ah me, thou stoopest,"
3147
3148Descendeth weary, whence he started swiftly,
3149  Thorough a hundred circles, and alights
3150  Far from his master, sullen and disdainful;
3151
3152Even thus did Geryon place us on the bottom,
3153  Close to the bases of the rough-hewn rock,
3154  And being disencumbered of our persons,
3155
3156He sped away as arrow from the string.
3157
3158
3159
3160Inferno: Canto XVIII
3161
3162
3163There is a place in Hell called Malebolge,
3164  Wholly of stone and of an iron colour,
3165  As is the circle that around it turns.
3166
3167Right in the middle of the field malign
3168  There yawns a well exceeding wide and deep,
3169  Of which its place the structure will recount.
3170
3171Round, then, is that enclosure which remains
3172  Between the well and foot of the high, hard bank,
3173  And has distinct in valleys ten its bottom.
3174
3175As where for the protection of the walls
3176  Many and many moats surround the castles,
3177  The part in which they are a figure forms,
3178
3179Just such an image those presented there;
3180  And as about such strongholds from their gates
3181  Unto the outer bank are little bridges,
3182
3183So from the precipice's base did crags
3184  Project, which intersected dikes and moats,
3185  Unto the well that truncates and collects them.
3186
3187Within this place, down shaken from the back
3188  Of Geryon, we found us; and the Poet
3189  Held to the left, and I moved on behind.
3190
3191Upon my right hand I beheld new anguish,
3192  New torments, and new wielders of the lash,
3193  Wherewith the foremost Bolgia was replete.
3194
3195Down at the bottom were the sinners naked;
3196  This side the middle came they facing us,
3197  Beyond it, with us, but with greater steps;
3198
3199Even as the Romans, for the mighty host,
3200  The year of Jubilee, upon the bridge,
3201  Have chosen a mode to pass the people over;
3202
3203For all upon one side towards the Castle
3204  Their faces have, and go unto St. Peter's;
3205  On the other side they go towards the Mountain.
3206
3207This side and that, along the livid stone
3208  Beheld I horned demons with great scourges,
3209  Who cruelly were beating them behind.
3210
3211Ah me! how they did make them lift their legs
3212  At the first blows! and sooth not any one
3213  The second waited for, nor for the third.
3214
3215While I was going on, mine eyes by one
3216  Encountered were; and straight I said: "Already
3217  With sight of this one I am not unfed."
3218
3219Therefore I stayed my feet to make him out,
3220  And with me the sweet Guide came to a stand,
3221  And to my going somewhat back assented;
3222
3223And he, the scourged one, thought to hide himself,
3224  Lowering his face, but little it availed him;
3225  For said I: "Thou that castest down thine eyes,
3226
3227If false are not the features which thou bearest,
3228  Thou art Venedico Caccianimico;
3229  But what doth bring thee to such pungent sauces?"
3230
3231And he to me: "Unwillingly I tell it;
3232  But forces me thine utterance distinct,
3233  Which makes me recollect the ancient world.
3234
3235I was the one who the fair Ghisola
3236  Induced to grant the wishes of the Marquis,
3237  Howe'er the shameless story may be told.
3238
3239Not the sole Bolognese am I who weeps here;
3240  Nay, rather is this place so full of them,
3241  That not so many tongues to-day are taught
3242
3243'Twixt Reno and Savena to say 'sipa;'
3244  And if thereof thou wishest pledge or proof,
3245  Bring to thy mind our avaricious heart."
3246
3247While speaking in this manner, with his scourge
3248  A demon smote him, and said: "Get thee gone
3249  Pander, there are no women here for coin."
3250
3251I joined myself again unto mine Escort;
3252  Thereafterward with footsteps few we came
3253  To where a crag projected from the bank.
3254
3255This very easily did we ascend,
3256  And turning to the right along its ridge,
3257  From those eternal circles we departed.
3258
3259When we were there, where it is hollowed out
3260  Beneath, to give a passage to the scourged,
3261  The Guide said: "Wait, and see that on thee strike
3262
3263The vision of those others evil-born,
3264  Of whom thou hast not yet beheld the faces,
3265  Because together with us they have gone."
3266
3267From the old bridge we looked upon the train
3268  Which tow'rds us came upon the other border,
3269  And which the scourges in like manner smite.
3270
3271And the good Master, without my inquiring,
3272  Said to me: "See that tall one who is coming,
3273  And for his pain seems not to shed a tear;
3274
3275Still what a royal aspect he retains!
3276  That Jason is, who by his heart and cunning
3277  The Colchians of the Ram made destitute.
3278
3279He by the isle of Lemnos passed along
3280  After the daring women pitiless
3281  Had unto death devoted all their males.
3282
3283There with his tokens and with ornate words
3284  Did he deceive Hypsipyle, the maiden
3285  Who first, herself, had all the rest deceived.
3286
3287There did he leave her pregnant and forlorn;
3288  Such sin unto such punishment condemns him,
3289  And also for Medea is vengeance done.
3290
3291With him go those who in such wise deceive;
3292  And this sufficient be of the first valley
3293  To know, and those that in its jaws it holds."
3294
3295We were already where the narrow path
3296  Crosses athwart the second dike, and forms
3297  Of that a buttress for another arch.
3298
3299Thence we heard people, who are making moan
3300  In the next Bolgia, snorting with their muzzles,
3301  And with their palms beating upon themselves
3302
3303The margins were incrusted with a mould
3304  By exhalation from below, that sticks there,
3305  And with the eyes and nostrils wages war.
3306
3307The bottom is so deep, no place suffices
3308  To give us sight of it, without ascending
3309  The arch's back, where most the crag impends.
3310
3311Thither we came, and thence down in the moat
3312  I saw a people smothered in a filth
3313  That out of human privies seemed to flow;
3314
3315And whilst below there with mine eye I search,
3316  I saw one with his head so foul with ordure,
3317  It was not clear if he were clerk or layman.
3318
3319He screamed to me: "Wherefore art thou so eager
3320  To look at me more than the other foul ones?"
3321  And I to him: "Because, if I remember,
3322
3323I have already seen thee with dry hair,
3324  And thou'rt Alessio Interminei of Lucca;
3325  Therefore I eye thee more than all the others."
3326
3327And he thereon, belabouring his pumpkin:
3328  "The flatteries have submerged me here below,
3329  Wherewith my tongue was never surfeited."
3330
3331Then said to me the Guide: "See that thou thrust
3332  Thy visage somewhat farther in advance,
3333  That with thine eyes thou well the face attain
3334
3335Of that uncleanly and dishevelled drab,
3336  Who there doth scratch herself with filthy nails,
3337  And crouches now, and now on foot is standing.
3338
3339Thais the harlot is it, who replied
3340  Unto her paramour, when he said, 'Have I
3341  Great gratitude from thee?'--'Nay, marvellous;'
3342
3343And herewith let our sight be satisfied."
3344
3345
3346
3347Inferno: Canto XIX
3348
3349
3350O Simon Magus, O forlorn disciples,
3351  Ye who the things of God, which ought to be
3352  The brides of holiness, rapaciously
3353
3354For silver and for gold do prostitute,
3355  Now it behoves for you the trumpet sound,
3356  Because in this third Bolgia ye abide.
3357
3358We had already on the following tomb
3359  Ascended to that portion of the crag
3360  Which o'er the middle of the moat hangs plumb.
3361
3362Wisdom supreme, O how great art thou showest
3363  In heaven, in earth, and in the evil world,
3364  And with what justice doth thy power distribute!
3365
3366I saw upon the sides and on the bottom
3367  The livid stone with perforations filled,
3368  All of one size, and every one was round.
3369
3370To me less ample seemed they not, nor greater
3371  Than those that in my beautiful Saint John
3372  Are fashioned for the place of the baptisers,
3373
3374And one of which, not many years ago,
3375  I broke for some one, who was drowning in it;
3376  Be this a seal all men to undeceive.
3377
3378Out of the mouth of each one there protruded
3379  The feet of a transgressor, and the legs
3380  Up to the calf, the rest within remained.
3381
3382In all of them the soles were both on fire;
3383  Wherefore the joints so violently quivered,
3384  They would have snapped asunder withes and bands.
3385
3386Even as the flame of unctuous things is wont
3387  To move upon the outer surface only,
3388  So likewise was it there from heel to point.
3389
3390"Master, who is that one who writhes himself,
3391  More than his other comrades quivering,"
3392  I said, "and whom a redder flame is sucking?"
3393
3394And he to me: "If thou wilt have me bear thee
3395  Down there along that bank which lowest lies,
3396  From him thou'lt know his errors and himself."
3397
3398And I: "What pleases thee, to me is pleasing;
3399  Thou art my Lord, and knowest that I depart not
3400  From thy desire, and knowest what is not spoken."
3401
3402Straightway upon the fourth dike we arrived;
3403  We turned, and on the left-hand side descended
3404  Down to the bottom full of holes and narrow.
3405
3406And the good Master yet from off his haunch
3407  Deposed me not, till to the hole he brought me
3408  Of him who so lamented with his shanks.
3409
3410"Whoe'er thou art, that standest upside down,
3411  O doleful soul, implanted like a stake,"
3412  To say began I, "if thou canst, speak out."
3413
3414I stood even as the friar who is confessing
3415  The false assassin, who, when he is fixed,
3416  Recalls him, so that death may be delayed.
3417
3418And he cried out: "Dost thou stand there already,
3419  Dost thou stand there already, Boniface?
3420  By many years the record lied to me.
3421
3422Art thou so early satiate with that wealth,
3423  For which thou didst not fear to take by fraud
3424  The beautiful Lady, and then work her woe?"
3425
3426Such I became, as people are who stand,
3427  Not comprehending what is answered them,
3428  As if bemocked, and know not how to answer.
3429
3430Then said Virgilius: "Say to him straightway,
3431  'I am not he, I am not he thou thinkest.'"
3432  And I replied as was imposed on me.
3433
3434Whereat the spirit writhed with both his feet,
3435  Then, sighing, with a voice of lamentation
3436  Said to me: "Then what wantest thou of me?
3437
3438If who I am thou carest so much to know,
3439  That thou on that account hast crossed the bank,
3440  Know that I vested was with the great mantle;
3441
3442And truly was I son of the She-bear,
3443  So eager to advance the cubs, that wealth
3444  Above, and here myself, I pocketed.
3445
3446Beneath my head the others are dragged down
3447  Who have preceded me in simony,
3448  Flattened along the fissure of the rock.
3449
3450Below there I shall likewise fall, whenever
3451  That one shall come who I believed thou wast,
3452  What time the sudden question I proposed.
3453
3454But longer I my feet already toast,
3455  And here have been in this way upside down,
3456  Than he will planted stay with reddened feet;
3457
3458For after him shall come of fouler deed
3459  From tow'rds the west a Pastor without law,
3460  Such as befits to cover him and me.
3461
3462New Jason will he be, of whom we read
3463  In Maccabees; and as his king was pliant,
3464  So he who governs France shall be to this one."
3465
3466I do not know if I were here too bold,
3467  That him I answered only in this metre:
3468  "I pray thee tell me now how great a treasure
3469
3470Our Lord demanded of Saint Peter first,
3471  Before he put the keys into his keeping?
3472  Truly he nothing asked but 'Follow me.'
3473
3474Nor Peter nor the rest asked of Matthias
3475  Silver or gold, when he by lot was chosen
3476  Unto the place the guilty soul had lost.
3477
3478Therefore stay here, for thou art justly punished,
3479  And keep safe guard o'er the ill-gotten money,
3480  Which caused thee to be valiant against Charles.
3481
3482And were it not that still forbids it me
3483  The reverence for the keys superlative
3484  Thou hadst in keeping in the gladsome life,
3485
3486I would make use of words more grievous still;
3487  Because your avarice afflicts the world,
3488  Trampling the good and lifting the depraved.
3489
3490The Evangelist you Pastors had in mind,
3491  When she who sitteth upon many waters
3492  To fornicate with kings by him was seen;
3493
3494The same who with the seven heads was born,
3495  And power and strength from the ten horns received,
3496  So long as virtue to her spouse was pleasing.
3497
3498Ye have made yourselves a god of gold and silver;
3499  And from the idolater how differ ye,
3500  Save that he one, and ye a hundred worship?
3501
3502Ah, Constantine! of how much ill was mother,
3503  Not thy conversion, but that marriage dower
3504  Which the first wealthy Father took from thee!"
3505
3506And while I sang to him such notes as these,
3507  Either that anger or that conscience stung him,
3508  He struggled violently with both his feet.
3509
3510I think in sooth that it my Leader pleased,
3511  With such contented lip he listened ever
3512  Unto the sound of the true words expressed.
3513
3514Therefore with both his arms he took me up,
3515  And when he had me all upon his breast,
3516  Remounted by the way where he descended.
3517
3518Nor did he tire to have me clasped to him;
3519  But bore me to the summit of the arch
3520  Which from the fourth dike to the fifth is passage.
3521
3522There tenderly he laid his burden down,
3523  Tenderly on the crag uneven and steep,
3524  That would have been hard passage for the goats:
3525
3526Thence was unveiled to me another valley.
3527
3528
3529
3530Inferno: Canto XX
3531
3532
3533Of a new pain behoves me to make verses
3534  And give material to the twentieth canto
3535  Of the first song, which is of the submerged.
3536
3537I was already thoroughly disposed
3538  To peer down into the uncovered depth,
3539  Which bathed itself with tears of agony;
3540
3541And people saw I through the circular valley,
3542  Silent and weeping, coming at the pace
3543  Which in this world the Litanies assume.
3544
3545As lower down my sight descended on them,
3546  Wondrously each one seemed to be distorted
3547  From chin to the beginning of the chest;
3548
3549For tow'rds the reins the countenance was turned,
3550  And backward it behoved them to advance,
3551  As to look forward had been taken from them.
3552
3553Perchance indeed by violence of palsy
3554  Some one has been thus wholly turned awry;
3555  But I ne'er saw it, nor believe it can be.
3556
3557As God may let thee, Reader, gather fruit
3558  From this thy reading, think now for thyself
3559  How I could ever keep my face unmoistened,
3560
3561When our own image near me I beheld
3562  Distorted so, the weeping of the eyes
3563  Along the fissure bathed the hinder parts.
3564
3565Truly I wept, leaning upon a peak
3566  Of the hard crag, so that my Escort said
3567  To me: "Art thou, too, of the other fools?
3568
3569Here pity lives when it is wholly dead;
3570  Who is a greater reprobate than he
3571  Who feels compassion at the doom divine?
3572
3573Lift up, lift up thy head, and see for whom
3574  Opened the earth before the Thebans' eyes;
3575  Wherefore they all cried: 'Whither rushest thou,
3576
3577Amphiaraus?  Why dost leave the war?'
3578  And downward ceased he not to fall amain
3579  As far as Minos, who lays hold on all.
3580
3581See, he has made a bosom of his shoulders!
3582  Because he wished to see too far before him
3583  Behind he looks, and backward goes his way:
3584
3585Behold Tiresias, who his semblance changed,
3586  When from a male a female he became,
3587  His members being all of them transformed;
3588
3589And afterwards was forced to strike once more
3590  The two entangled serpents with his rod,
3591  Ere he could have again his manly plumes.
3592
3593That Aruns is, who backs the other's belly,
3594  Who in the hills of Luni, there where grubs
3595  The Carrarese who houses underneath,
3596
3597Among the marbles white a cavern had
3598  For his abode; whence to behold the stars
3599  And sea, the view was not cut off from him.
3600
3601And she there, who is covering up her breasts,
3602  Which thou beholdest not, with loosened tresses,
3603  And on that side has all the hairy skin,
3604
3605Was Manto, who made quest through many lands,
3606  Afterwards tarried there where I was born;
3607  Whereof I would thou list to me a little.
3608
3609After her father had from life departed,
3610  And the city of Bacchus had become enslaved,
3611  She a long season wandered through the world.
3612
3613Above in beauteous Italy lies a lake
3614  At the Alp's foot that shuts in Germany
3615  Over Tyrol, and has the name Benaco.
3616
3617By a thousand springs, I think, and more, is bathed,
3618  'Twixt Garda and Val Camonica, Pennino,
3619  With water that grows stagnant in that lake.
3620
3621Midway a place is where the Trentine Pastor,
3622  And he of Brescia, and the Veronese
3623  Might give his blessing, if he passed that way.
3624
3625Sitteth Peschiera, fortress fair and strong,
3626  To front the Brescians and the Bergamasks,
3627  Where round about the bank descendeth lowest.
3628
3629There of necessity must fall whatever
3630  In bosom of Benaco cannot stay,
3631  And grows a river down through verdant pastures.
3632
3633Soon as the water doth begin to run,
3634  No more Benaco is it called, but Mincio,
3635  Far as Governo, where it falls in Po.
3636
3637Not far it runs before it finds a plain
3638  In which it spreads itself, and makes it marshy,
3639  And oft 'tis wont in summer to be sickly.
3640
3641Passing that way the virgin pitiless
3642  Land in the middle of the fen descried,
3643  Untilled and naked of inhabitants;
3644
3645There to escape all human intercourse,
3646  She with her servants stayed, her arts to practise
3647  And lived, and left her empty body there.
3648
3649The men, thereafter, who were scattered round,
3650  Collected in that place, which was made strong
3651  By the lagoon it had on every side;
3652
3653They built their city over those dead bones,
3654  And, after her who first the place selected,
3655  Mantua named it, without other omen.
3656
3657Its people once within more crowded were,
3658  Ere the stupidity of Casalodi
3659  From Pinamonte had received deceit.
3660
3661Therefore I caution thee, if e'er thou hearest
3662  Originate my city otherwise,
3663  No falsehood may the verity defraud."
3664
3665And I: "My Master, thy discourses are
3666  To me so certain, and so take my faith,
3667  That unto me the rest would be spent coals.
3668
3669But tell me of the people who are passing,
3670  If any one note-worthy thou beholdest,
3671  For only unto that my mind reverts."
3672
3673Then said he to me: "He who from the cheek
3674  Thrusts out his beard upon his swarthy shoulders
3675  Was, at the time when Greece was void of males,
3676
3677So that there scarce remained one in the cradle,
3678  An augur, and with Calchas gave the moment,
3679  In Aulis, when to sever the first cable.
3680
3681Eryphylus his name was, and so sings
3682  My lofty Tragedy in some part or other;
3683  That knowest thou well, who knowest the whole of it.
3684
3685The next, who is so slender in the flanks,
3686  Was Michael Scott, who of a verity
3687  Of magical illusions knew the game.
3688
3689Behold Guido Bonatti, behold Asdente,
3690  Who now unto his leather and his thread
3691  Would fain have stuck, but he too late repents.
3692
3693Behold the wretched ones, who left the needle,
3694  The spool and rock, and made them fortune-tellers;
3695  They wrought their magic spells with herb and image.
3696
3697But come now, for already holds the confines
3698  Of both the hemispheres, and under Seville
3699  Touches the ocean-wave, Cain and the thorns,
3700
3701And yesternight the moon was round already;
3702  Thou shouldst remember well it did not harm thee
3703  From time to time within the forest deep."
3704
3705Thus spake he to me, and we walked the while.
3706
3707
3708
3709Inferno: Canto XXI
3710
3711
3712From bridge to bridge thus, speaking other things
3713  Of which my Comedy cares not to sing,
3714  We came along, and held the summit, when
3715
3716We halted to behold another fissure
3717  Of Malebolge and other vain laments;
3718  And I beheld it marvellously dark.
3719
3720As in the Arsenal of the Venetians
3721  Boils in the winter the tenacious pitch
3722  To smear their unsound vessels o'er again,
3723
3724For sail they cannot; and instead thereof
3725  One makes his vessel new, and one recaulks
3726  The ribs of that which many a voyage has made;
3727
3728One hammers at the prow, one at the stern,
3729  This one makes oars, and that one cordage twists,
3730  Another mends the mainsail and the mizzen;
3731
3732Thus, not by fire, but by the art divine,
3733  Was boiling down below there a dense pitch
3734  Which upon every side the bank belimed.
3735
3736I saw it, but I did not see within it
3737  Aught but the bubbles that the boiling raised,
3738  And all swell up and resubside compressed.
3739
3740The while below there fixedly I gazed,
3741  My Leader, crying out: "Beware, beware!"
3742  Drew me unto himself from where I stood.
3743
3744Then I turned round, as one who is impatient
3745  To see what it behoves him to escape,
3746  And whom a sudden terror doth unman,
3747
3748Who, while he looks, delays not his departure;
3749  And I beheld behind us a black devil,
3750  Running along upon the crag, approach.
3751
3752Ah, how ferocious was he in his aspect!
3753  And how he seemed to me in action ruthless,
3754  With open wings and light upon his feet!
3755
3756His shoulders, which sharp-pointed were and high,
3757  A sinner did encumber with both haunches,
3758  And he held clutched the sinews of the feet.
3759
3760From off our bridge, he said: "O Malebranche,
3761  Behold one of the elders of Saint Zita;
3762  Plunge him beneath, for I return for others
3763
3764Unto that town, which is well furnished with them.
3765  All there are barrators, except Bonturo;
3766  No into Yes for money there is changed."
3767
3768He hurled him down, and over the hard crag
3769  Turned round, and never was a mastiff loosened
3770  In so much hurry to pursue a thief.
3771
3772The other sank, and rose again face downward;
3773  But the demons, under cover of the bridge,
3774  Cried: "Here the Santo Volto has no place!
3775
3776Here swims one otherwise than in the Serchio;
3777  Therefore, if for our gaffs thou wishest not,
3778  Do not uplift thyself above the pitch."
3779
3780They seized him then with more than a hundred rakes;
3781  They said: "It here behoves thee to dance covered,
3782  That, if thou canst, thou secretly mayest pilfer."
3783
3784Not otherwise the cooks their scullions make
3785  Immerse into the middle of the caldron
3786  The meat with hooks, so that it may not float.
3787
3788Said the good Master to me: "That it be not
3789  Apparent thou art here, crouch thyself down
3790  Behind a jag, that thou mayest have some screen;
3791
3792And for no outrage that is done to me
3793  Be thou afraid, because these things I know,
3794  For once before was I in such a scuffle."
3795
3796Then he passed on beyond the bridge's head,
3797  And as upon the sixth bank he arrived,
3798  Need was for him to have a steadfast front.
3799
3800With the same fury, and the same uproar,
3801  As dogs leap out upon a mendicant,
3802  Who on a sudden begs, where'er he stops,
3803
3804They issued from beneath the little bridge,
3805  And turned against him all their grappling-irons;
3806  But he cried out: "Be none of you malignant!
3807
3808Before those hooks of yours lay hold of me,
3809  Let one of you step forward, who may hear me,
3810  And then take counsel as to grappling me."
3811
3812They all cried out: "Let Malacoda go;"
3813  Whereat one started, and the rest stood still,
3814  And he came to him, saying: "What avails it?"
3815
3816"Thinkest thou, Malacoda, to behold me
3817  Advanced into this place," my Master said,
3818  "Safe hitherto from all your skill of fence,
3819
3820Without the will divine, and fate auspicious?
3821  Let me go on, for it in Heaven is willed
3822  That I another show this savage road."
3823
3824Then was his arrogance so humbled in him,
3825  That he let fall his grapnel at his feet,
3826  And to the others said: "Now strike him not."
3827
3828And unto me my Guide: "O thou, who sittest
3829  Among the splinters of the bridge crouched down,
3830  Securely now return to me again."
3831
3832Wherefore I started and came swiftly to him;
3833  And all the devils forward thrust themselves,
3834  So that I feared they would not keep their compact.
3835
3836And thus beheld I once afraid the soldiers
3837  Who issued under safeguard from Caprona,
3838  Seeing themselves among so many foes.
3839
3840Close did I press myself with all my person
3841  Beside my Leader, and turned not mine eyes
3842  From off their countenance, which was not good.
3843
3844They lowered their rakes, and "Wilt thou have me hit him,"
3845  They said to one another, "on the rump?"
3846  And answered: "Yes; see that thou nick him with it."
3847
3848But the same demon who was holding parley
3849  With my Conductor turned him very quickly,
3850  And said: "Be quiet, be quiet, Scarmiglione;"
3851
3852Then said to us: "You can no farther go
3853  Forward upon this crag, because is lying
3854  All shattered, at the bottom, the sixth arch.
3855
3856And if it still doth please you to go onward,
3857  Pursue your way along upon this rock;
3858  Near is another crag that yields a path.
3859
3860Yesterday, five hours later than this hour,
3861  One thousand and two hundred sixty-six
3862  Years were complete, that here the way was broken.
3863
3864I send in that direction some of mine
3865  To see if any one doth air himself;
3866  Go ye with them; for they will not be vicious.
3867
3868Step forward, Alichino and Calcabrina,"
3869  Began he to cry out, "and thou, Cagnazzo;
3870  And Barbariccia, do thou guide the ten.
3871
3872Come forward, Libicocco and Draghignazzo,
3873  And tusked Ciriatto and Graffiacane,
3874  And Farfarello and mad Rubicante;
3875
3876Search ye all round about the boiling pitch;
3877  Let these be safe as far as the next crag,
3878  That all unbroken passes o'er the dens."
3879
3880"O me! what is it, Master, that I see?
3881  Pray let us go," I said, "without an escort,
3882  If thou knowest how, since for myself I ask none.
3883
3884If thou art as observant as thy wont is,
3885  Dost thou not see that they do gnash their teeth,
3886  And with their brows are threatening woe to us?"
3887
3888And he to me: "I will not have thee fear;
3889  Let them gnash on, according to their fancy,
3890  Because they do it for those boiling wretches."
3891
3892Along the left-hand dike they wheeled about;
3893  But first had each one thrust his tongue between
3894  His teeth towards their leader for a signal;
3895
3896And he had made a trumpet of his rump.
3897
3898
3899
3900Inferno: Canto XXII
3901
3902
3903I have erewhile seen horsemen moving camp,
3904  Begin the storming, and their muster make,
3905  And sometimes starting off for their escape;
3906
3907Vaunt-couriers have I seen upon your land,
3908  O Aretines, and foragers go forth,
3909  Tournaments stricken, and the joustings run,
3910
3911Sometimes with trumpets and sometimes with bells,
3912  With kettle-drums, and signals of the castles,
3913  And with our own, and with outlandish things,
3914
3915But never yet with bagpipe so uncouth
3916  Did I see horsemen move, nor infantry,
3917  Nor ship by any sign of land or star.
3918
3919We went upon our way with the ten demons;
3920  Ah, savage company! but in the church
3921  With saints, and in the tavern with the gluttons!
3922
3923Ever upon the pitch was my intent,
3924  To see the whole condition of that Bolgia,
3925  And of the people who therein were burned.
3926
3927Even as the dolphins, when they make a sign
3928  To mariners by arching of the back,
3929  That they should counsel take to save their vessel,
3930
3931Thus sometimes, to alleviate his pain,
3932  One of the sinners would display his back,
3933  And in less time conceal it than it lightens.
3934
3935As on the brink of water in a ditch
3936  The frogs stand only with their muzzles out,
3937  So that they hide their feet and other bulk,
3938
3939So upon every side the sinners stood;
3940  But ever as Barbariccia near them came,
3941  Thus underneath the boiling they withdrew.
3942
3943I saw, and still my heart doth shudder at it,
3944  One waiting thus, even as it comes to pass
3945  One frog remains, and down another dives;
3946
3947And Graffiacan, who most confronted him,
3948  Grappled him by his tresses smeared with pitch,
3949  And drew him up, so that he seemed an otter.
3950
3951I knew, before, the names of all of them,
3952  So had I noted them when they were chosen,
3953  And when they called each other, listened how.
3954
3955"O Rubicante, see that thou do lay
3956  Thy claws upon him, so that thou mayst flay him,"
3957  Cried all together the accursed ones.
3958
3959And I: "My Master, see to it, if thou canst,
3960  That thou mayst know who is the luckless wight,
3961  Thus come into his adversaries' hands."
3962
3963Near to the side of him my Leader drew,
3964  Asked of him whence he was; and he replied:
3965  "I in the kingdom of Navarre was born;
3966
3967My mother placed me servant to a lord,
3968  For she had borne me to a ribald knave,
3969  Destroyer of himself and of his things.
3970
3971Then I domestic was of good King Thibault;
3972  I set me there to practise barratry,
3973  For which I pay the reckoning in this heat."
3974
3975And Ciriatto, from whose mouth projected,
3976  On either side, a tusk, as in a boar,
3977  Caused him to feel how one of them could rip.
3978
3979Among malicious cats the mouse had come;
3980  But Barbariccia clasped him in his arms,
3981  And said: "Stand ye aside, while I enfork him."
3982
3983And to my Master he turned round his head;
3984  "Ask him again," he said, "if more thou wish
3985  To know from him, before some one destroy him."
3986
3987The Guide: "Now tell then of the other culprits;
3988  Knowest thou any one who is a Latian,
3989  Under the pitch?"  And he: "I separated
3990
3991Lately from one who was a neighbour to it;
3992  Would that I still were covered up with him,
3993  For I should fear not either claw nor hook!"
3994
3995And Libicocco: "We have borne too much;"
3996  And with his grapnel seized him by the arm,
3997  So that, by rending, he tore off a tendon.
3998
3999Eke Draghignazzo wished to pounce upon him
4000  Down at the legs; whence their Decurion
4001  Turned round and round about with evil look.
4002
4003When they again somewhat were pacified,
4004  Of him, who still was looking at his wound,
4005  Demanded my Conductor without stay:
4006
4007"Who was that one, from whom a luckless parting
4008  Thou sayest thou hast made, to come ashore?"
4009  And he replied: "It was the Friar Gomita,
4010
4011He of Gallura, vessel of all fraud,
4012  Who had the enemies of his Lord in hand,
4013  And dealt so with them each exults thereat;
4014
4015Money he took, and let them smoothly off,
4016  As he says; and in other offices
4017  A barrator was he, not mean but sovereign.
4018
4019Foregathers with him one Don Michael Zanche
4020  Of Logodoro; and of Sardinia
4021  To gossip never do their tongues feel tired.
4022
4023O me! see that one, how he grinds his teeth;
4024  Still farther would I speak, but am afraid
4025  Lest he to scratch my itch be making ready."
4026
4027And the grand Provost, turned to Farfarello,
4028  Who rolled his eyes about as if to strike,
4029  Said: "Stand aside there, thou malicious bird."
4030
4031"If you desire either to see or hear,"
4032  The terror-stricken recommenced thereon,
4033  "Tuscans or Lombards, I will make them come.
4034
4035But let the Malebranche cease a little,
4036  So that these may not their revenges fear,
4037  And I, down sitting in this very place,
4038
4039For one that I am will make seven come,
4040  When I shall whistle, as our custom is
4041  To do whenever one of us comes out."
4042
4043Cagnazzo at these words his muzzle lifted,
4044  Shaking his head, and said: "Just hear the trick
4045  Which he has thought of, down to throw himself!"
4046
4047Whence he, who snares in great abundance had,
4048  Responded: "I by far too cunning am,
4049  When I procure for mine a greater sadness."
4050
4051Alichin held not in, but running counter
4052  Unto the rest, said to him: "If thou dive,
4053  I will not follow thee upon the gallop,
4054
4055But I will beat my wings above the pitch;
4056  The height be left, and be the bank a shield
4057  To see if thou alone dost countervail us."
4058
4059O thou who readest, thou shalt hear new sport!
4060  Each to the other side his eyes averted;
4061  He first, who most reluctant was to do it.
4062
4063The Navarrese selected well his time;
4064  Planted his feet on land, and in a moment
4065  Leaped, and released himself from their design.
4066
4067Whereat each one was suddenly stung with shame,
4068  But he most who was cause of the defeat;
4069  Therefore he moved, and cried: "Thou art o'ertakern."
4070
4071But little it availed, for wings could not
4072  Outstrip the fear; the other one went under,
4073  And, flying, upward he his breast directed;
4074
4075Not otherwise the duck upon a sudden
4076  Dives under, when the falcon is approaching,
4077  And upward he returneth cross and weary.
4078
4079Infuriate at the mockery, Calcabrina
4080  Flying behind him followed close, desirous
4081  The other should escape, to have a quarrel.
4082
4083And when the barrator had disappeared,
4084  He turned his talons upon his companion,
4085  And grappled with him right above the moat.
4086
4087But sooth the other was a doughty sparhawk
4088  To clapperclaw him well; and both of them
4089  Fell in the middle of the boiling pond.
4090
4091A sudden intercessor was the heat;
4092  But ne'ertheless of rising there was naught,
4093  To such degree they had their wings belimed.
4094
4095Lamenting with the others, Barbariccia
4096  Made four of them fly to the other side
4097  With all their gaffs, and very speedily
4098
4099This side and that they to their posts descended;
4100  They stretched their hooks towards the pitch-ensnared,
4101  Who were already baked within the crust,
4102
4103And in this manner busied did we leave them.
4104
4105
4106
4107Inferno: Canto XXIII
4108
4109
4110Silent, alone, and without company
4111  We went, the one in front, the other after,
4112  As go the Minor Friars along their way.
4113
4114Upon the fable of Aesop was directed
4115  My thought, by reason of the present quarrel,
4116  Where he has spoken of the frog and mouse;
4117
4118For 'mo' and 'issa' are not more alike
4119  Than this one is to that, if well we couple
4120  End and beginning with a steadfast mind.
4121
4122And even as one thought from another springs,
4123  So afterward from that was born another,
4124  Which the first fear within me double made.
4125
4126Thus did I ponder: "These on our account
4127  Are laughed to scorn, with injury and scoff
4128  So great, that much I think it must annoy them.
4129
4130If anger be engrafted on ill-will,
4131  They will come after us more merciless
4132  Than dog upon the leveret which he seizes,"
4133
4134I felt my hair stand all on end already
4135  With terror, and stood backwardly intent,
4136  When said I: "Master, if thou hidest not
4137
4138Thyself and me forthwith, of Malebranche
4139  I am in dread; we have them now behind us;
4140  I so imagine them, I already feel them."
4141
4142And he: "If I were made of leaded glass,
4143  Thine outward image I should not attract
4144  Sooner to me than I imprint the inner.
4145
4146Just now thy thoughts came in among my own,
4147  With similar attitude and similar face,
4148  So that of both one counsel sole I made.
4149
4150If peradventure the right bank so slope
4151  That we to the next Bolgia can descend,
4152  We shall escape from the imagined chase."
4153
4154Not yet he finished rendering such opinion,
4155  When I beheld them come with outstretched wings,
4156  Not far remote, with will to seize upon us.
4157
4158My Leader on a sudden seized me up,
4159  Even as a mother who by noise is wakened,
4160  And close beside her sees the enkindled flames,
4161
4162Who takes her son, and flies, and does not stop,
4163  Having more care of him than of herself,
4164  So that she clothes her only with a shift;
4165
4166And downward from the top of the hard bank
4167  Supine he gave him to the pendent rock,
4168  That one side of the other Bolgia walls.
4169
4170Ne'er ran so swiftly water through a sluice
4171  To turn the wheel of any land-built mill,
4172  When nearest to the paddles it approaches,
4173
4174As did my Master down along that border,
4175  Bearing me with him on his breast away,
4176  As his own son, and not as a companion.
4177
4178Hardly the bed of the ravine below
4179  His feet had reached, ere they had reached the hill
4180  Right over us; but he was not afraid;
4181
4182For the high Providence, which had ordained
4183  To place them ministers of the fifth moat,
4184  The power of thence departing took from all.
4185
4186A painted people there below we found,
4187  Who went about with footsteps very slow,
4188  Weeping and in their semblance tired and vanquished.
4189
4190They had on mantles with the hoods low down
4191  Before their eyes, and fashioned of the cut
4192  That in Cologne they for the monks are made.
4193
4194Without, they gilded are so that it dazzles;
4195  But inwardly all leaden and so heavy
4196  That Frederick used to put them on of straw.
4197
4198O everlastingly fatiguing mantle!
4199  Again we turned us, still to the left hand
4200  Along with them, intent on their sad plaint;
4201
4202But owing to the weight, that weary folk
4203  Came on so tardily, that we were new
4204  In company at each motion of the haunch.
4205
4206Whence I unto my Leader: "See thou find
4207  Some one who may by deed or name be known,
4208  And thus in going move thine eye about."
4209
4210And one, who understood the Tuscan speech,
4211  Cried to us from behind: "Stay ye your feet,
4212  Ye, who so run athwart the dusky air!
4213
4214Perhaps thou'lt have from me what thou demandest."
4215  Whereat the Leader turned him, and said: "Wait,
4216  And then according to his pace proceed."
4217
4218I stopped, and two beheld I show great haste
4219  Of spirit, in their faces, to be with me;
4220  But the burden and the narrow way delayed them.
4221
4222When they came up, long with an eye askance
4223  They scanned me without uttering a word.
4224  Then to each other turned, and said together:
4225
4226"He by the action of his throat seems living;
4227  And if they dead are, by what privilege
4228  Go they uncovered by the heavy stole?"
4229
4230Then said to me: "Tuscan, who to the college
4231  Of miserable hypocrites art come,
4232  Do not disdain to tell us who thou art."
4233
4234And I to them: "Born was I, and grew up
4235  In the great town on the fair river of Arno,
4236  And with the body am I've always had.
4237
4238But who are ye, in whom there trickles down
4239  Along your cheeks such grief as I behold?
4240  And what pain is upon you, that so sparkles?"
4241
4242And one replied to me: "These orange cloaks
4243  Are made of lead so heavy, that the weights
4244  Cause in this way their balances to creak.
4245
4246Frati Gaudenti were we, and Bolognese;
4247  I Catalano, and he Loderingo
4248  Named, and together taken by thy city,
4249
4250As the wont is to take one man alone,
4251  For maintenance of its peace; and we were such
4252  That still it is apparent round Gardingo."
4253
4254"O Friars," began I, "your iniquitous. . ."
4255  But said no more; for to mine eyes there rushed
4256  One crucified with three stakes on the ground.
4257
4258When me he saw, he writhed himself all over,
4259  Blowing into his beard with suspirations;
4260  And the Friar Catalan, who noticed this,
4261
4262Said to me: "This transfixed one, whom thou seest,
4263  Counselled the Pharisees that it was meet
4264  To put one man to torture for the people.
4265
4266Crosswise and naked is he on the path,
4267  As thou perceivest; and he needs must feel,
4268  Whoever passes, first how much he weighs;
4269
4270And in like mode his father-in-law is punished
4271  Within this moat, and the others of the council,
4272  Which for the Jews was a malignant seed."
4273
4274And thereupon I saw Virgilius marvel
4275  O'er him who was extended on the cross
4276  So vilely in eternal banishment.
4277
4278Then he directed to the Friar this voice:
4279  "Be not displeased, if granted thee, to tell us
4280  If to the right hand any pass slope down
4281
4282By which we two may issue forth from here,
4283  Without constraining some of the black angels
4284  To come and extricate us from this deep."
4285
4286Then he made answer: "Nearer than thou hopest
4287  There is a rock, that forth from the great circle
4288  Proceeds, and crosses all the cruel valleys,
4289
4290Save that at this 'tis broken, and does not bridge it;
4291  You will be able to mount up the ruin,
4292  That sidelong slopes and at the bottom rises."
4293
4294The Leader stood awhile with head bowed down;
4295  Then said: "The business badly he recounted
4296  Who grapples with his hook the sinners yonder."
4297
4298And the Friar: "Many of the Devil's vices
4299  Once heard I at Bologna, and among them,
4300  That he's a liar and the father of lies."
4301
4302Thereat my Leader with great strides went on,
4303  Somewhat disturbed with anger in his looks;
4304  Whence from the heavy-laden I departed
4305
4306After the prints of his beloved feet.
4307
4308
4309
4310Inferno: Canto XXIV
4311
4312
4313In that part of the youthful year wherein
4314  The Sun his locks beneath Aquarius tempers,
4315  And now the nights draw near to half the day,
4316
4317What time the hoar-frost copies on the ground
4318  The outward semblance of her sister white,
4319  But little lasts the temper of her pen,
4320
4321The husbandman, whose forage faileth him,
4322  Rises, and looks, and seeth the champaign
4323  All gleaming white, whereat he beats his flank,
4324
4325Returns in doors, and up and down laments,
4326  Like a poor wretch, who knows not what to do;
4327  Then he returns and hope revives again,
4328
4329Seeing the world has changed its countenance
4330  In little time, and takes his shepherd's crook,
4331  And forth the little lambs to pasture drives.
4332
4333Thus did the Master fill me with alarm,
4334  When I beheld his forehead so disturbed,
4335  And to the ailment came as soon the plaster.
4336
4337For as we came unto the ruined bridge,
4338  The Leader turned to me with that sweet look
4339  Which at the mountain's foot I first beheld.
4340
4341His arms he opened, after some advisement
4342  Within himself elected, looking first
4343  Well at the ruin, and laid hold of me.
4344
4345And even as he who acts and meditates,
4346  For aye it seems that he provides beforehand,
4347  So upward lifting me towards the summit
4348
4349Of a huge rock, he scanned another crag,
4350  Saying: "To that one grapple afterwards,
4351  But try first if 'tis such that it will hold thee."
4352
4353This was no way for one clothed with a cloak;
4354  For hardly we, he light, and I pushed upward,
4355  Were able to ascend from jag to jag.
4356
4357And had it not been, that upon that precinct
4358  Shorter was the ascent than on the other,
4359  He I know not, but I had been dead beat.
4360
4361But because Malebolge tow'rds the mouth
4362  Of the profoundest well is all inclining,
4363  The structure of each valley doth import
4364
4365That one bank rises and the other sinks.
4366  Still we arrived at length upon the point
4367  Wherefrom the last stone breaks itself asunder.
4368
4369The breath was from my lungs so milked away,
4370  When I was up, that I could go no farther,
4371  Nay, I sat down upon my first arrival.
4372
4373"Now it behoves thee thus to put off sloth,"
4374  My Master said; "for sitting upon down,
4375  Or under quilt, one cometh not to fame,
4376
4377Withouten which whoso his life consumes
4378  Such vestige leaveth of himself on earth,
4379  As smoke in air or in the water foam.
4380
4381And therefore raise thee up, o'ercome the anguish
4382  With spirit that o'ercometh every battle,
4383  If with its heavy body it sink not.
4384
4385A longer stairway it behoves thee mount;
4386  'Tis not enough from these to have departed;
4387  Let it avail thee, if thou understand me."
4388
4389Then I uprose, showing myself provided
4390  Better with breath than I did feel myself,
4391  And said: "Go on, for I am strong and bold."
4392
4393Upward we took our way along the crag,
4394  Which jagged was, and narrow, and difficult,
4395  And more precipitous far than that before.
4396
4397Speaking I went, not to appear exhausted;
4398  Whereat a voice from the next moat came forth,
4399  Not well adapted to articulate words.
4400
4401I know not what it said, though o'er the back
4402  I now was of the arch that passes there;
4403  But he seemed moved to anger who was speaking.
4404
4405I was bent downward, but my living eyes
4406  Could not attain the bottom, for the dark;
4407  Wherefore I: "Master, see that thou arrive
4408
4409At the next round, and let us descend the wall;
4410  For as from hence I hear and understand not,
4411  So I look down and nothing I distinguish."
4412
4413"Other response," he said, "I make thee not,
4414  Except the doing; for the modest asking
4415  Ought to be followed by the deed in silence."
4416
4417We from the bridge descended at its head,
4418  Where it connects itself with the eighth bank,
4419  And then was manifest to me the Bolgia;
4420
4421And I beheld therein a terrible throng
4422  Of serpents, and of such a monstrous kind,
4423  That the remembrance still congeals my blood
4424
4425Let Libya boast no longer with her sand;
4426  For if Chelydri, Jaculi, and Phareae
4427  She breeds, with Cenchri and with Amphisbaena,
4428
4429Neither so many plagues nor so malignant
4430  E'er showed she with all Ethiopia,
4431  Nor with whatever on the Red Sea is!
4432
4433Among this cruel and most dismal throng
4434  People were running naked and affrighted.
4435  Without the hope of hole or heliotrope.
4436
4437They had their hands with serpents bound behind them;
4438  These riveted upon their reins the tail
4439  And head, and were in front of them entwined.
4440
4441And lo! at one who was upon our side
4442  There darted forth a serpent, which transfixed him
4443  There where the neck is knotted to the shoulders.
4444
4445Nor 'O' so quickly e'er, nor 'I' was written,
4446  As he took fire, and burned; and ashes wholly
4447  Behoved it that in falling he became.
4448
4449And when he on the ground was thus destroyed,
4450  The ashes drew together, and of themselves
4451  Into himself they instantly returned.
4452
4453Even thus by the great sages 'tis confessed
4454  The phoenix dies, and then is born again,
4455  When it approaches its five-hundredth year;
4456
4457On herb or grain it feeds not in its life,
4458  But only on tears of incense and amomum,
4459  And nard and myrrh are its last winding-sheet.
4460
4461And as he is who falls, and knows not how,
4462  By force of demons who to earth down drag him,
4463  Or other oppilation that binds man,
4464
4465When he arises and around him looks,
4466  Wholly bewildered by the mighty anguish
4467  Which he has suffered, and in looking sighs;
4468
4469Such was that sinner after he had risen.
4470  Justice of God! O how severe it is,
4471  That blows like these in vengeance poureth down!
4472
4473The Guide thereafter asked him who he was;
4474  Whence he replied: "I rained from Tuscany
4475  A short time since into this cruel gorge.
4476
4477A bestial life, and not a human, pleased me,
4478  Even as the mule I was; I'm Vanni Fucci,
4479  Beast, and Pistoia was my worthy den."
4480
4481And I unto the Guide: "Tell him to stir not,
4482  And ask what crime has thrust him here below,
4483  For once a man of blood and wrath I saw him."
4484
4485And the sinner, who had heard, dissembled not,
4486  But unto me directed mind and face,
4487  And with a melancholy shame was painted.
4488
4489Then said: "It pains me more that thou hast caught me
4490  Amid this misery where thou seest me,
4491  Than when I from the other life was taken.
4492
4493What thou demandest I cannot deny;
4494  So low am I put down because I robbed
4495  The sacristy of the fair ornaments,
4496
4497And falsely once 'twas laid upon another;
4498  But that thou mayst not such a sight enjoy,
4499  If thou shalt e'er be out of the dark places,
4500
4501Thine ears to my announcement ope and hear:
4502  Pistoia first of Neri groweth meagre;
4503  Then Florence doth renew her men and manners;
4504
4505Mars draws a vapour up from Val di Magra,
4506  Which is with turbid clouds enveloped round,
4507  And with impetuous and bitter tempest
4508
4509Over Campo Picen shall be the battle;
4510  When it shall suddenly rend the mist asunder,
4511  So that each Bianco shall thereby be smitten.
4512
4513And this I've said that it may give thee pain."
4514
4515
4516
4517Inferno: Canto XXV
4518
4519
4520At the conclusion of his words, the thief
4521  Lifted his hands aloft with both the figs,
4522  Crying: "Take that, God, for at thee I aim them."
4523
4524From that time forth the serpents were my friends;
4525  For one entwined itself about his neck
4526  As if it said: "I will not thou speak more;"
4527
4528And round his arms another, and rebound him,
4529  Clinching itself together so in front,
4530  That with them he could not a motion make.
4531
4532Pistoia, ah, Pistoia! why resolve not
4533  To burn thyself to ashes and so perish,
4534  Since in ill-doing thou thy seed excellest?
4535
4536Through all the sombre circles of this Hell,
4537  Spirit I saw not against God so proud,
4538  Not he who fell at Thebes down from the walls!
4539
4540He fled away, and spake no further word;
4541  And I beheld a Centaur full of rage
4542  Come crying out: "Where is, where is the scoffer?"
4543
4544I do not think Maremma has so many
4545  Serpents as he had all along his back,
4546  As far as where our countenance begins.
4547
4548Upon the shoulders, just behind the nape,
4549  With wings wide open was a dragon lying,
4550  And he sets fire to all that he encounters.
4551
4552My Master said: "That one is Cacus, who
4553  Beneath the rock upon Mount Aventine
4554  Created oftentimes a lake of blood.
4555
4556He goes not on the same road with his brothers,
4557  By reason of the fraudulent theft he made
4558  Of the great herd, which he had near to him;
4559
4560Whereat his tortuous actions ceased beneath
4561  The mace of Hercules, who peradventure
4562  Gave him a hundred, and he felt not ten."
4563
4564While he was speaking thus, he had passed by,
4565  And spirits three had underneath us come,
4566  Of which nor I aware was, nor my Leader,
4567
4568Until what time they shouted: "Who are you?"
4569  On which account our story made a halt,
4570  And then we were intent on them alone.
4571
4572I did not know them; but it came to pass,
4573  As it is wont to happen by some chance,
4574  That one to name the other was compelled,
4575
4576Exclaiming: "Where can Cianfa have remained?"
4577  Whence I, so that the Leader might attend,
4578  Upward from chin to nose my finger laid.
4579
4580If thou art, Reader, slow now to believe
4581  What I shall say, it will no marvel be,
4582  For I who saw it hardly can admit it.
4583
4584As I was holding raised on them my brows,
4585  Behold! a serpent with six feet darts forth
4586  In front of one, and fastens wholly on him.
4587
4588With middle feet it bound him round the paunch,
4589  And with the forward ones his arms it seized;
4590  Then thrust its teeth through one cheek and the other;
4591
4592The hindermost it stretched upon his thighs,
4593  And put its tail through in between the two,
4594  And up behind along the reins outspread it.
4595
4596Ivy was never fastened by its barbs
4597  Unto a tree so, as this horrible reptile
4598  Upon the other's limbs entwined its own.
4599
4600Then they stuck close, as if of heated wax
4601  They had been made, and intermixed their colour;
4602  Nor one nor other seemed now what he was;
4603
4604E'en as proceedeth on before the flame
4605  Upward along the paper a brown colour,
4606  Which is not black as yet, and the white dies.
4607
4608The other two looked on, and each of them
4609  Cried out: "O me, Agnello, how thou changest!
4610  Behold, thou now art neither two nor one."
4611
4612Already the two heads had one become,
4613  When there appeared to us two figures mingled
4614  Into one face, wherein the two were lost.
4615
4616Of the four lists were fashioned the two arms,
4617  The thighs and legs, the belly and the chest
4618  Members became that never yet were seen.
4619
4620Every original aspect there was cancelled;
4621  Two and yet none did the perverted image
4622  Appear, and such departed with slow pace.
4623
4624Even as a lizard, under the great scourge
4625  Of days canicular, exchanging hedge,
4626  Lightning appeareth if the road it cross;
4627
4628Thus did appear, coming towards the bellies
4629  Of the two others, a small fiery serpent,
4630  Livid and black as is a peppercorn.
4631
4632And in that part whereat is first received
4633  Our aliment, it one of them transfixed;
4634  Then downward fell in front of him extended.
4635
4636The one transfixed looked at it, but said naught;
4637  Nay, rather with feet motionless he yawned,
4638  Just as if sleep or fever had assailed him.
4639
4640He at the serpent gazed, and it at him;
4641  One through the wound, the other through the mouth
4642  Smoked violently, and the smoke commingled.
4643
4644Henceforth be silent Lucan, where he mentions
4645  Wretched Sabellus and Nassidius,
4646  And wait to hear what now shall be shot forth.
4647
4648Be silent Ovid, of Cadmus and Arethusa;
4649  For if him to a snake, her to fountain,
4650  Converts he fabling, that I grudge him not;
4651
4652Because two natures never front to front
4653  Has he transmuted, so that both the forms
4654  To interchange their matter ready were.
4655
4656Together they responded in such wise,
4657  That to a fork the serpent cleft his tail,
4658  And eke the wounded drew his feet together.
4659
4660The legs together with the thighs themselves
4661  Adhered so, that in little time the juncture
4662  No sign whatever made that was apparent.
4663
4664He with the cloven tail assumed the figure
4665  The other one was losing, and his skin
4666  Became elastic, and the other's hard.
4667
4668I saw the arms draw inward at the armpits,
4669  And both feet of the reptile, that were short,
4670  Lengthen as much as those contracted were.
4671
4672Thereafter the hind feet, together twisted,
4673  Became the member that a man conceals,
4674  And of his own the wretch had two created.
4675
4676While both of them the exhalation veils
4677  With a new colour, and engenders hair
4678  On one of them and depilates the other,
4679
4680The one uprose and down the other fell,
4681  Though turning not away their impious lamps,
4682  Underneath which each one his muzzle changed.
4683
4684He who was standing drew it tow'rds the temples,
4685  And from excess of matter, which came thither,
4686  Issued the ears from out the hollow cheeks;
4687
4688What did not backward run and was retained
4689  Of that excess made to the face a nose,
4690  And the lips thickened far as was befitting.
4691
4692He who lay prostrate thrusts his muzzle forward,
4693  And backward draws the ears into his head,
4694  In the same manner as the snail its horns;
4695
4696And so the tongue, which was entire and apt
4697  For speech before, is cleft, and the bi-forked
4698  In the other closes up, and the smoke ceases.
4699
4700The soul, which to a reptile had been changed,
4701  Along the valley hissing takes to flight,
4702  And after him the other speaking sputters.
4703
4704Then did he turn upon him his new shoulders,
4705  And said to the other: "I'll have Buoso run,
4706  Crawling as I have done, along this road."
4707
4708In this way I beheld the seventh ballast
4709  Shift and reshift, and here be my excuse
4710  The novelty, if aught my pen transgress.
4711
4712And notwithstanding that mine eyes might be
4713  Somewhat bewildered, and my mind dismayed,
4714  They could not flee away so secretly
4715
4716But that I plainly saw Puccio Sciancato;
4717  And he it was who sole of three companions,
4718  Which came in the beginning, was not changed;
4719
4720The other was he whom thou, Gaville, weepest.
4721
4722
4723
4724Inferno: Canto XXVI
4725
4726
4727Rejoice, O Florence, since thou art so great,
4728  That over sea and land thou beatest thy wings,
4729  And throughout Hell thy name is spread abroad!
4730
4731Among the thieves five citizens of thine
4732  Like these I found, whence shame comes unto me,
4733  And thou thereby to no great honour risest.
4734
4735But if when morn is near our dreams are true,
4736  Feel shalt thou in a little time from now
4737  What Prato, if none other, craves for thee.
4738
4739And if it now were, it were not too soon;
4740  Would that it were, seeing it needs must be,
4741  For 'twill aggrieve me more the more I age.
4742
4743We went our way, and up along the stairs
4744  The bourns had made us to descend before,
4745  Remounted my Conductor and drew me.
4746
4747And following the solitary path
4748  Among the rocks and ridges of the crag,
4749  The foot without the hand sped not at all.
4750
4751Then sorrowed I, and sorrow now again,
4752  When I direct my mind to what I saw,
4753  And more my genius curb than I am wont,
4754
4755That it may run not unless virtue guide it;
4756  So that if some good star, or better thing,
4757  Have given me good, I may myself not grudge it.
4758
4759As many as the hind (who on the hill
4760  Rests at the time when he who lights the world
4761  His countenance keeps least concealed from us,
4762
4763While as the fly gives place unto the gnat)
4764  Seeth the glow-worms down along the valley,
4765  Perchance there where he ploughs and makes his vintage;
4766
4767With flames as manifold resplendent all
4768  Was the eighth Bolgia, as I grew aware
4769  As soon as I was where the depth appeared.
4770
4771And such as he who with the bears avenged him
4772  Beheld Elijah's chariot at departing,
4773  What time the steeds to heaven erect uprose,
4774
4775For with his eye he could not follow it
4776  So as to see aught else than flame alone,
4777  Even as a little cloud ascending upward,
4778
4779Thus each along the gorge of the intrenchment
4780  Was moving; for not one reveals the theft,
4781  And every flame a sinner steals away.
4782
4783I stood upon the bridge uprisen to see,
4784  So that, if I had seized not on a rock,
4785  Down had I fallen without being pushed.
4786
4787And the Leader, who beheld me so attent,
4788  Exclaimed: "Within the fires the spirits are;
4789  Each swathes himself with that wherewith he burns."
4790
4791"My Master," I replied, "by hearing thee
4792  I am more sure; but I surmised already
4793  It might be so, and already wished to ask thee
4794
4795Who is within that fire, which comes so cleft
4796  At top, it seems uprising from the pyre
4797  Where was Eteocles with his brother placed."
4798
4799He answered me: "Within there are tormented
4800  Ulysses and Diomed, and thus together
4801  They unto vengeance run as unto wrath.
4802
4803And there within their flame do they lament
4804  The ambush of the horse, which made the door
4805  Whence issued forth the Romans' gentle seed;
4806
4807Therein is wept the craft, for which being dead
4808  Deidamia still deplores Achilles,
4809  And pain for the Palladium there is borne."
4810
4811"If they within those sparks possess the power
4812  To speak," I said, "thee, Master, much I pray,
4813  And re-pray, that the prayer be worth a thousand,
4814
4815That thou make no denial of awaiting
4816  Until the horned flame shall hither come;
4817  Thou seest that with desire I lean towards it."
4818
4819And he to me: "Worthy is thy entreaty
4820  Of much applause, and therefore I accept it;
4821  But take heed that thy tongue restrain itself.
4822
4823Leave me to speak, because I have conceived
4824  That which thou wishest; for they might disdain
4825  Perchance, since they were Greeks, discourse of thine."
4826
4827When now the flame had come unto that point,
4828  Where to my Leader it seemed time and place,
4829  After this fashion did I hear him speak:
4830
4831"O ye, who are twofold within one fire,
4832  If I deserved of you, while I was living,
4833  If I deserved of you or much or little
4834
4835When in the world I wrote the lofty verses,
4836  Do not move on, but one of you declare
4837  Whither, being lost, he went away to die."
4838
4839Then of the antique flame the greater horn,
4840  Murmuring, began to wave itself about
4841  Even as a flame doth which the wind fatigues.
4842
4843Thereafterward, the summit to and fro
4844  Moving as if it were the tongue that spake,
4845  It uttered forth a voice, and said: "When I
4846
4847From Circe had departed, who concealed me
4848  More than a year there near unto Gaeta,
4849  Or ever yet Aeneas named it so,
4850
4851Nor fondness for my son, nor reverence
4852  For my old father, nor the due affection
4853  Which joyous should have made Penelope,
4854
4855Could overcome within me the desire
4856  I had to be experienced of the world,
4857  And of the vice and virtue of mankind;
4858
4859But I put forth on the high open sea
4860  With one sole ship, and that small company
4861  By which I never had deserted been.
4862
4863Both of the shores I saw as far as Spain,
4864  Far as Morocco, and the isle of Sardes,
4865  And the others which that sea bathes round about.
4866
4867I and my company were old and slow
4868  When at that narrow passage we arrived
4869  Where Hercules his landmarks set as signals,
4870
4871That man no farther onward should adventure.
4872  On the right hand behind me left I Seville,
4873  And on the other already had left Ceuta.
4874
4875'O brothers, who amid a hundred thousand
4876  Perils,' I said, 'have come unto the West,
4877  To this so inconsiderable vigil
4878
4879Which is remaining of your senses still
4880  Be ye unwilling to deny the knowledge,
4881  Following the sun, of the unpeopled world.
4882
4883Consider ye the seed from which ye sprang;
4884  Ye were not made to live like unto brutes,
4885  But for pursuit of virtue and of knowledge.'
4886
4887So eager did I render my companions,
4888  With this brief exhortation, for the voyage,
4889  That then I hardly could have held them back.
4890
4891And having turned our stern unto the morning,
4892  We of the oars made wings for our mad flight,
4893  Evermore gaining on the larboard side.
4894
4895Already all the stars of the other pole
4896  The night beheld, and ours so very low
4897  It did not rise above the ocean floor.
4898
4899Five times rekindled and as many quenched
4900  Had been the splendour underneath the moon,
4901  Since we had entered into the deep pass,
4902
4903When there appeared to us a mountain, dim
4904  From distance, and it seemed to me so high
4905  As I had never any one beheld.
4906
4907Joyful were we, and soon it turned to weeping;
4908  For out of the new land a whirlwind rose,
4909  And smote upon the fore part of the ship.
4910
4911Three times it made her whirl with all the waters,
4912  At the fourth time it made the stern uplift,
4913  And the prow downward go, as pleased Another,
4914
4915Until the sea above us closed again."
4916
4917
4918
4919Inferno: Canto XXVII
4920
4921
4922Already was the flame erect and quiet,
4923  To speak no more, and now departed from us
4924  With the permission of the gentle Poet;
4925
4926When yet another, which behind it came,
4927  Caused us to turn our eyes upon its top
4928  By a confused sound that issued from it.
4929
4930As the Sicilian bull (that bellowed first
4931  With the lament of him, and that was right,
4932  Who with his file had modulated it)
4933
4934Bellowed so with the voice of the afflicted,
4935  That, notwithstanding it was made of brass,
4936  Still it appeared with agony transfixed;
4937
4938Thus, by not having any way or issue
4939  At first from out the fire, to its own language
4940  Converted were the melancholy words.
4941
4942But afterwards, when they had gathered way
4943  Up through the point, giving it that vibration
4944  The tongue had given them in their passage out,
4945
4946We heard it said: "O thou, at whom I aim
4947  My voice, and who but now wast speaking Lombard,
4948  Saying, 'Now go thy way, no more I urge thee,'
4949
4950Because I come perchance a little late,
4951  To stay and speak with me let it not irk thee;
4952  Thou seest it irks not me, and I am burning.
4953
4954If thou but lately into this blind world
4955  Hast fallen down from that sweet Latian land,
4956  Wherefrom I bring the whole of my transgression,
4957
4958Say, if the Romagnuols have peace or war,
4959  For I was from the mountains there between
4960  Urbino and the yoke whence Tiber bursts."
4961
4962I still was downward bent and listening,
4963  When my Conductor touched me on the side,
4964  Saying: "Speak thou: this one a Latian is."
4965
4966And I, who had beforehand my reply
4967  In readiness, forthwith began to speak:
4968  "O soul, that down below there art concealed,
4969
4970Romagna thine is not and never has been
4971  Without war in the bosom of its tyrants;
4972  But open war I none have left there now.
4973
4974Ravenna stands as it long years has stood;
4975  The Eagle of Polenta there is brooding,
4976  So that she covers Cervia with her vans.
4977
4978The city which once made the long resistance,
4979  And of the French a sanguinary heap,
4980  Beneath the Green Paws finds itself again;
4981
4982Verrucchio's ancient Mastiff and the new,
4983  Who made such bad disposal of Montagna,
4984  Where they are wont make wimbles of their teeth.
4985
4986The cities of Lamone and Santerno
4987  Governs the Lioncel of the white lair,
4988  Who changes sides 'twixt summer-time and winter;
4989
4990And that of which the Savio bathes the flank,
4991  Even as it lies between the plain and mountain,
4992  Lives between tyranny and a free state.
4993
4994Now I entreat thee tell us who thou art;
4995  Be not more stubborn than the rest have been,
4996  So may thy name hold front there in the world."
4997
4998After the fire a little more had roared
4999  In its own fashion, the sharp point it moved
5000  This way and that, and then gave forth such breath:
5001
5002"If I believed that my reply were made
5003  To one who to the world would e'er return,
5004  This flame without more flickering would stand still;
5005
5006But inasmuch as never from this depth
5007  Did any one return, if I hear true,
5008  Without the fear of infamy I answer,
5009
5010I was a man of arms, then Cordelier,
5011  Believing thus begirt to make amends;
5012  And truly my belief had been fulfilled
5013
5014But for the High Priest, whom may ill betide,
5015  Who put me back into my former sins;
5016  And how and wherefore I will have thee hear.
5017
5018While I was still the form of bone and pulp
5019  My mother gave to me, the deeds I did
5020  Were not those of a lion, but a fox.
5021
5022The machinations and the covert ways
5023  I knew them all, and practised so their craft,
5024  That to the ends of earth the sound went forth.
5025
5026When now unto that portion of mine age
5027  I saw myself arrived, when each one ought
5028  To lower the sails, and coil away the ropes,
5029
5030That which before had pleased me then displeased me;
5031  And penitent and confessing I surrendered,
5032  Ah woe is me! and it would have bestead me;
5033
5034The Leader of the modern Pharisees
5035  Having a war near unto Lateran,
5036  And not with Saracens nor with the Jews,
5037
5038For each one of his enemies was Christian,
5039  And none of them had been to conquer Acre,
5040  Nor merchandising in the Sultan's land,
5041
5042Nor the high office, nor the sacred orders,
5043  In him regarded, nor in me that cord
5044  Which used to make those girt with it more meagre;
5045
5046But even as Constantine sought out Sylvester
5047  To cure his leprosy, within Soracte,
5048  So this one sought me out as an adept
5049
5050To cure him of the fever of his pride.
5051  Counsel he asked of me, and I was silent,
5052  Because his words appeared inebriate.
5053
5054And then he said: 'Be not thy heart afraid;
5055  Henceforth I thee absolve; and thou instruct me
5056  How to raze Palestrina to the ground.
5057
5058Heaven have I power to lock and to unlock,
5059  As thou dost know; therefore the keys are two,
5060  The which my predecessor held not dear.'
5061
5062Then urged me on his weighty arguments
5063  There, where my silence was the worst advice;
5064  And said I: 'Father, since thou washest me
5065
5066Of that sin into which I now must fall,
5067  The promise long with the fulfilment short
5068  Will make thee triumph in thy lofty seat.'
5069
5070Francis came afterward, when I was dead,
5071  For me; but one of the black Cherubim
5072  Said to him: 'Take him not; do me no wrong;
5073
5074He must come down among my servitors,
5075  Because he gave the fraudulent advice
5076  From which time forth I have been at his hair;
5077
5078For who repents not cannot be absolved,
5079  Nor can one both repent and will at once,
5080  Because of the contradiction which consents not.'
5081
5082O miserable me! how I did shudder
5083  When he seized on me, saying: 'Peradventure
5084  Thou didst not think that I was a logician!'
5085
5086He bore me unto Minos, who entwined
5087  Eight times his tail about his stubborn back,
5088  And after he had bitten it in great rage,
5089
5090Said: 'Of the thievish fire a culprit this;'
5091  Wherefore, here where thou seest, am I lost,
5092  And vested thus in going I bemoan me."
5093
5094When it had thus completed its recital,
5095  The flame departed uttering lamentations,
5096  Writhing and flapping its sharp-pointed horn.
5097
5098Onward we passed, both I and my Conductor,
5099  Up o'er the crag above another arch,
5100  Which the moat covers, where is paid the fee
5101
5102By those who, sowing discord, win their burden.
5103
5104
5105
5106Inferno: Canto XXVIII
5107
5108
5109Who ever could, e'en with untrammelled words,
5110  Tell of the blood and of the wounds in full
5111  Which now I saw, by many times narrating?
5112
5113Each tongue would for a certainty fall short
5114  By reason of our speech and memory,
5115  That have small room to comprehend so much.
5116
5117If were again assembled all the people
5118  Which formerly upon the fateful land
5119  Of Puglia were lamenting for their blood
5120
5121Shed by the Romans and the lingering war
5122  That of the rings made such illustrious spoils,
5123  As Livy has recorded, who errs not,
5124
5125With those who felt the agony of blows
5126  By making counterstand to Robert Guiscard,
5127  And all the rest, whose bones are gathered still
5128
5129At Ceperano, where a renegade
5130  Was each Apulian, and at Tagliacozzo,
5131  Where without arms the old Alardo conquered,
5132
5133And one his limb transpierced, and one lopped off,
5134  Should show, it would be nothing to compare
5135  With the disgusting mode of the ninth Bolgia.
5136
5137A cask by losing centre-piece or cant
5138  Was never shattered so, as I saw one
5139  Rent from the chin to where one breaketh wind.
5140
5141Between his legs were hanging down his entrails;
5142  His heart was visible, and the dismal sack
5143  That maketh excrement of what is eaten.
5144
5145While I was all absorbed in seeing him,
5146  He looked at me, and opened with his hands
5147  His bosom, saying: "See now how I rend me;
5148
5149How mutilated, see, is Mahomet;
5150  In front of me doth Ali weeping go,
5151  Cleft in the face from forelock unto chin;
5152
5153And all the others whom thou here beholdest,
5154  Disseminators of scandal and of schism
5155  While living were, and therefore are cleft thus.
5156
5157A devil is behind here, who doth cleave us
5158  Thus cruelly, unto the falchion's edge
5159  Putting again each one of all this ream,
5160
5161When we have gone around the doleful road;
5162  By reason that our wounds are closed again
5163  Ere any one in front of him repass.
5164
5165But who art thou, that musest on the crag,
5166  Perchance to postpone going to the pain
5167  That is adjudged upon thine accusations?"
5168
5169"Nor death hath reached him yet, nor guilt doth bring him,"
5170  My Master made reply, "to be tormented;
5171  But to procure him full experience,
5172
5173Me, who am dead, behoves it to conduct him
5174  Down here through Hell, from circle unto circle;
5175  And this is true as that I speak to thee."
5176
5177More than a hundred were there when they heard him,
5178  Who in the moat stood still to look at me,
5179  Through wonderment oblivious of their torture.
5180
5181"Now say to Fra Dolcino, then, to arm him,
5182  Thou, who perhaps wilt shortly see the sun,
5183  If soon he wish not here to follow me,
5184
5185So with provisions, that no stress of snow
5186  May give the victory to the Novarese,
5187  Which otherwise to gain would not be easy."
5188
5189After one foot to go away he lifted,
5190  This word did Mahomet say unto me,
5191  Then to depart upon the ground he stretched it.
5192
5193Another one, who had his throat pierced through,
5194  And nose cut off close underneath the brows,
5195  And had no longer but a single ear,
5196
5197Staying to look in wonder with the others,
5198  Before the others did his gullet open,
5199  Which outwardly was red in every part,
5200
5201And said: "O thou, whom guilt doth not condemn,
5202  And whom I once saw up in Latian land,
5203  Unless too great similitude deceive me,
5204
5205Call to remembrance Pier da Medicina,
5206  If e'er thou see again the lovely plain
5207  That from Vercelli slopes to Marcabo,
5208
5209And make it known to the best two of Fano,
5210  To Messer Guido and Angiolello likewise,
5211  That if foreseeing here be not in vain,
5212
5213Cast over from their vessel shall they be,
5214  And drowned near unto the Cattolica,
5215  By the betrayal of a tyrant fell.
5216
5217Between the isles of Cyprus and Majorca
5218  Neptune ne'er yet beheld so great a crime,
5219  Neither of pirates nor Argolic people.
5220
5221That traitor, who sees only with one eye,
5222  And holds the land, which some one here with me
5223  Would fain be fasting from the vision of,
5224
5225Will make them come unto a parley with him;
5226  Then will do so, that to Focara's wind
5227  They will not stand in need of vow or prayer."
5228
5229And I to him: "Show to me and declare,
5230  If thou wouldst have me bear up news of thee,
5231  Who is this person of the bitter vision."
5232
5233Then did he lay his hand upon the jaw
5234  Of one of his companions, and his mouth
5235  Oped, crying: "This is he, and he speaks not.
5236
5237This one, being banished, every doubt submerged
5238  In Caesar by affirming the forearmed
5239  Always with detriment allowed delay."
5240
5241O how bewildered unto me appeared,
5242  With tongue asunder in his windpipe slit,
5243  Curio, who in speaking was so bold!
5244
5245And one, who both his hands dissevered had,
5246  The stumps uplifting through the murky air,
5247  So that the blood made horrible his face,
5248
5249Cried out: "Thou shalt remember Mosca also,
5250  Who said, alas! 'A thing done has an end!'
5251  Which was an ill seed for the Tuscan people."
5252
5253"And death unto thy race," thereto I added;
5254  Whence he, accumulating woe on woe,
5255  Departed, like a person sad and crazed.
5256
5257But I remained to look upon the crowd;
5258  And saw a thing which I should be afraid,
5259  Without some further proof, even to recount,
5260
5261If it were not that conscience reassures me,
5262  That good companion which emboldens man
5263  Beneath the hauberk of its feeling pure.
5264
5265I truly saw, and still I seem to see it,
5266  A trunk without a head walk in like manner
5267  As walked the others of the mournful herd.
5268
5269And by the hair it held the head dissevered,
5270  Hung from the hand in fashion of a lantern,
5271  And that upon us gazed and said: "O me!"
5272
5273It of itself made to itself a lamp,
5274  And they were two in one, and one in two;
5275  How that can be, He knows who so ordains it.
5276
5277When it was come close to the bridge's foot,
5278  It lifted high its arm with all the head,
5279  To bring more closely unto us its words,
5280
5281Which were: "Behold now the sore penalty,
5282  Thou, who dost breathing go the dead beholding;
5283  Behold if any be as great as this.
5284
5285And so that thou may carry news of me,
5286  Know that Bertram de Born am I, the same
5287  Who gave to the Young King the evil comfort.
5288
5289I made the father and the son rebellious;
5290  Achitophel not more with Absalom
5291  And David did with his accursed goadings.
5292
5293Because I parted persons so united,
5294  Parted do I now bear my brain, alas!
5295  From its beginning, which is in this trunk.
5296
5297Thus is observed in me the counterpoise."
5298
5299
5300
5301Inferno: Canto XXIX
5302
5303
5304The many people and the divers wounds
5305  These eyes of mine had so inebriated,
5306  That they were wishful to stand still and weep;
5307
5308But said Virgilius: "What dost thou still gaze at?
5309  Why is thy sight still riveted down there
5310  Among the mournful, mutilated shades?
5311
5312Thou hast not done so at the other Bolge;
5313  Consider, if to count them thou believest,
5314  That two-and-twenty miles the valley winds,
5315
5316And now the moon is underneath our feet;
5317  Henceforth the time allotted us is brief,
5318  And more is to be seen than what thou seest."
5319
5320"If thou hadst," I made answer thereupon,
5321  "Attended to the cause for which I looked,
5322  Perhaps a longer stay thou wouldst have pardoned."
5323
5324Meanwhile my Guide departed, and behind him
5325  I went, already making my reply,
5326  And superadding: "In that cavern where
5327
5328I held mine eyes with such attention fixed,
5329  I think a spirit of my blood laments
5330  The sin which down below there costs so much."
5331
5332Then said the Master: "Be no longer broken
5333  Thy thought from this time forward upon him;
5334  Attend elsewhere, and there let him remain;
5335
5336For him I saw below the little bridge,
5337  Pointing at thee, and threatening with his finger
5338  Fiercely, and heard him called Geri del Bello.
5339
5340So wholly at that time wast thou impeded
5341  By him who formerly held Altaforte,
5342  Thou didst not look that way; so he departed."
5343
5344"O my Conductor, his own violent death,
5345  Which is not yet avenged for him," I said,
5346  "By any who is sharer in the shame,
5347
5348Made him disdainful; whence he went away,
5349  As I imagine, without speaking to me,
5350  And thereby made me pity him the more."
5351
5352Thus did we speak as far as the first place
5353  Upon the crag, which the next valley shows
5354  Down to the bottom, if there were more light.
5355
5356When we were now right over the last cloister
5357  Of Malebolge, so that its lay-brothers
5358  Could manifest themselves unto our sight,
5359
5360Divers lamentings pierced me through and through,
5361  Which with compassion had their arrows barbed,
5362  Whereat mine ears I covered with my hands.
5363
5364What pain would be, if from the hospitals
5365  Of Valdichiana, 'twixt July and September,
5366  And of Maremma and Sardinia
5367
5368All the diseases in one moat were gathered,
5369  Such was it here, and such a stench came from it
5370  As from putrescent limbs is wont to issue.
5371
5372We had descended on the furthest bank
5373  From the long crag, upon the left hand still,
5374  And then more vivid was my power of sight
5375
5376Down tow'rds the bottom, where the ministress
5377  Of the high Lord, Justice infallible,
5378  Punishes forgers, which she here records.
5379
5380I do not think a sadder sight to see
5381  Was in Aegina the whole people sick,
5382  (When was the air so full of pestilence,
5383
5384The animals, down to the little worm,
5385  All fell, and afterwards the ancient people,
5386  According as the poets have affirmed,
5387
5388Were from the seed of ants restored again,)
5389  Than was it to behold through that dark valley
5390  The spirits languishing in divers heaps.
5391
5392This on the belly, that upon the back
5393  One of the other lay, and others crawling
5394  Shifted themselves along the dismal road.
5395
5396We step by step went onward without speech,
5397  Gazing upon and listening to the sick
5398  Who had not strength enough to lift their bodies.
5399
5400I saw two sitting leaned against each other,
5401  As leans in heating platter against platter,
5402  From head to foot bespotted o'er with scabs;
5403
5404And never saw I plied a currycomb
5405  By stable-boy for whom his master waits,
5406  Or him who keeps awake unwillingly,
5407
5408As every one was plying fast the bite
5409  Of nails upon himself, for the great rage
5410  Of itching which no other succour had.
5411
5412And the nails downward with them dragged the scab,
5413  In fashion as a knife the scales of bream,
5414  Or any other fish that has them largest.
5415
5416"O thou, that with thy fingers dost dismail thee,"
5417  Began my Leader unto one of them,
5418  "And makest of them pincers now and then,
5419
5420Tell me if any Latian is with those
5421  Who are herein; so may thy nails suffice thee
5422  To all eternity unto this work."
5423
5424"Latians are we, whom thou so wasted seest,
5425  Both of us here," one weeping made reply;
5426  "But who art thou, that questionest about us?"
5427
5428And said the Guide: "One am I who descends
5429  Down with this living man from cliff to cliff,
5430  And I intend to show Hell unto him."
5431
5432Then broken was their mutual support,
5433  And trembling each one turned himself to me,
5434  With others who had heard him by rebound.
5435
5436Wholly to me did the good Master gather,
5437  Saying: "Say unto them whate'er thou wishest."
5438  And I began, since he would have it so:
5439
5440"So may your memory not steal away
5441  In the first world from out the minds of men,
5442  But so may it survive 'neath many suns,
5443
5444Say to me who ye are, and of what people;
5445  Let not your foul and loathsome punishment
5446  Make you afraid to show yourselves to me."
5447
5448"I of Arezzo was," one made reply,
5449  "And Albert of Siena had me burned;
5450  But what I died for does not bring me here.
5451
5452'Tis true I said to him, speaking in jest,
5453  That I could rise by flight into the air,
5454  And he who had conceit, but little wit,
5455
5456Would have me show to him the art; and only
5457  Because no Daedalus I made him, made me
5458  Be burned by one who held him as his son.
5459
5460But unto the last Bolgia of the ten,
5461  For alchemy, which in the world I practised,
5462  Minos, who cannot err, has me condemned."
5463
5464And to the Poet said I: "Now was ever
5465  So vain a people as the Sienese?
5466  Not for a certainty the French by far."
5467
5468Whereat the other leper, who had heard me,
5469  Replied unto my speech: "Taking out Stricca,
5470  Who knew the art of moderate expenses,
5471
5472And Niccolo, who the luxurious use
5473  Of cloves discovered earliest of all
5474  Within that garden where such seed takes root;
5475
5476And taking out the band, among whom squandered
5477  Caccia d'Ascian his vineyards and vast woods,
5478  And where his wit the Abbagliato proffered!
5479
5480But, that thou know who thus doth second thee
5481  Against the Sienese, make sharp thine eye
5482  Tow'rds me, so that my face well answer thee,
5483
5484And thou shalt see I am Capocchio's shade,
5485  Who metals falsified by alchemy;
5486  Thou must remember, if I well descry thee,
5487
5488How I a skilful ape of nature was."
5489
5490
5491
5492Inferno: Canto XXX
5493
5494
5495'Twas at the time when Juno was enraged,
5496  For Semele, against the Theban blood,
5497  As she already more than once had shown,
5498
5499So reft of reason Athamas became,
5500  That, seeing his own wife with children twain
5501  Walking encumbered upon either hand,
5502
5503He cried: "Spread out the nets, that I may take
5504  The lioness and her whelps upon the passage;"
5505  And then extended his unpitying claws,
5506
5507Seizing the first, who had the name Learchus,
5508  And whirled him round, and dashed him on a rock;
5509  And she, with the other burthen, drowned herself;--
5510
5511And at the time when fortune downward hurled
5512  The Trojan's arrogance, that all things dared,
5513  So that the king was with his kingdom crushed,
5514
5515Hecuba sad, disconsolate, and captive,
5516  When lifeless she beheld Polyxena,
5517  And of her Polydorus on the shore
5518
5519Of ocean was the dolorous one aware,
5520  Out of her senses like a dog she barked,
5521  So much the anguish had her mind distorted;
5522
5523But not of Thebes the furies nor the Trojan
5524  Were ever seen in any one so cruel
5525  In goading beasts, and much more human members,
5526
5527As I beheld two shadows pale and naked,
5528  Who, biting, in the manner ran along
5529  That a boar does, when from the sty turned loose.
5530
5531One to Capocchio came, and by the nape
5532  Seized with its teeth his neck, so that in dragging
5533  It made his belly grate the solid bottom.
5534
5535And the Aretine, who trembling had remained,
5536  Said to me: "That mad sprite is Gianni Schicchi,
5537  And raving goes thus harrying other people."
5538
5539"O," said I to him, "so may not the other
5540  Set teeth on thee, let it not weary thee
5541  To tell us who it is, ere it dart hence."
5542
5543And he to me: "That is the ancient ghost
5544  Of the nefarious Myrrha, who became
5545  Beyond all rightful love her father's lover.
5546
5547She came to sin with him after this manner,
5548  By counterfeiting of another's form;
5549  As he who goeth yonder undertook,
5550
5551That he might gain the lady of the herd,
5552  To counterfeit in himself Buoso Donati,
5553  Making a will and giving it due form."
5554
5555And after the two maniacs had passed
5556  On whom I held mine eye, I turned it back
5557  To look upon the other evil-born.
5558
5559I saw one made in fashion of a lute,
5560  If he had only had the groin cut off
5561  Just at the point at which a man is forked.
5562
5563The heavy dropsy, that so disproportions
5564  The limbs with humours, which it ill concocts,
5565  That the face corresponds not to the belly,
5566
5567Compelled him so to hold his lips apart
5568  As does the hectic, who because of thirst
5569  One tow'rds the chin, the other upward turns.
5570
5571"O ye, who without any torment are,
5572  And why I know not, in the world of woe,"
5573  He said to us, "behold, and be attentive
5574
5575Unto the misery of Master Adam;
5576  I had while living much of what I wished,
5577  And now, alas! a drop of water crave.
5578
5579The rivulets, that from the verdant hills
5580  Of Cassentin descend down into Arno,
5581  Making their channels to be cold and moist,
5582
5583Ever before me stand, and not in vain;
5584  For far more doth their image dry me up
5585  Than the disease which strips my face of flesh.
5586
5587The rigid justice that chastises me
5588  Draweth occasion from the place in which
5589  I sinned, to put the more my sighs in flight.
5590
5591There is Romena, where I counterfeited
5592  The currency imprinted with the Baptist,
5593  For which I left my body burned above.
5594
5595But if I here could see the tristful soul
5596  Of Guido, or Alessandro, or their brother,
5597  For Branda's fount I would not give the sight.
5598
5599One is within already, if the raving
5600  Shades that are going round about speak truth;
5601  But what avails it me, whose limbs are tied?
5602
5603If I were only still so light, that in
5604  A hundred years I could advance one inch,
5605  I had already started on the way,
5606
5607Seeking him out among this squalid folk,
5608  Although the circuit be eleven miles,
5609  And be not less than half a mile across.
5610
5611For them am I in such a family;
5612  They did induce me into coining florins,
5613  Which had three carats of impurity."
5614
5615And I to him: "Who are the two poor wretches
5616  That smoke like unto a wet hand in winter,
5617  Lying there close upon thy right-hand confines?"
5618
5619"I found them here," replied he, "when I rained
5620  Into this chasm, and since they have not turned,
5621  Nor do I think they will for evermore.
5622
5623One the false woman is who accused Joseph,
5624  The other the false Sinon, Greek of Troy;
5625  From acute fever they send forth such reek."
5626
5627And one of them, who felt himself annoyed
5628  At being, peradventure, named so darkly,
5629  Smote with the fist upon his hardened paunch.
5630
5631It gave a sound, as if it were a drum;
5632  And Master Adam smote him in the face,
5633  With arm that did not seem to be less hard,
5634
5635Saying to him: "Although be taken from me
5636  All motion, for my limbs that heavy are,
5637  I have an arm unfettered for such need."
5638
5639Whereat he answer made: "When thou didst go
5640  Unto the fire, thou hadst it not so ready:
5641  But hadst it so and more when thou wast coining."
5642
5643The dropsical: "Thou sayest true in that;
5644  But thou wast not so true a witness there,
5645  Where thou wast questioned of the truth at Troy."
5646
5647"If I spake false, thou falsifiedst the coin,"
5648  Said Sinon; "and for one fault I am here,
5649  And thou for more than any other demon."
5650
5651"Remember, perjurer, about the horse,"
5652  He made reply who had the swollen belly,
5653  "And rueful be it thee the whole world knows it."
5654
5655"Rueful to thee the thirst be wherewith cracks
5656  Thy tongue," the Greek said, "and the putrid water
5657  That hedges so thy paunch before thine eyes."
5658
5659Then the false-coiner: "So is gaping wide
5660  Thy mouth for speaking evil, as 'tis wont;
5661  Because if I have thirst, and humour stuff me
5662
5663Thou hast the burning and the head that aches,
5664  And to lick up the mirror of Narcissus
5665  Thou wouldst not want words many to invite thee."
5666
5667In listening to them was I wholly fixed,
5668  When said the Master to me: "Now just look,
5669  For little wants it that I quarrel with thee."
5670
5671When him I heard in anger speak to me,
5672  I turned me round towards him with such shame
5673  That still it eddies through my memory.
5674
5675And as he is who dreams of his own harm,
5676  Who dreaming wishes it may be a dream,
5677  So that he craves what is, as if it were not;
5678
5679Such I became, not having power to speak,
5680  For to excuse myself I wished, and still
5681  Excused myself, and did not think I did it.
5682
5683"Less shame doth wash away a greater fault,"
5684  The Master said, "than this of thine has been;
5685  Therefore thyself disburden of all sadness,
5686
5687And make account that I am aye beside thee,
5688  If e'er it come to pass that fortune bring thee
5689  Where there are people in a like dispute;
5690
5691For a base wish it is to wish to hear it."
5692
5693
5694
5695Inferno: Canto XXXI
5696
5697
5698One and the selfsame tongue first wounded me,
5699  So that it tinged the one cheek and the other,
5700  And then held out to me the medicine;
5701
5702Thus do I hear that once Achilles' spear,
5703  His and his father's, used to be the cause
5704  First of a sad and then a gracious boon.
5705
5706We turned our backs upon the wretched valley,
5707  Upon the bank that girds it round about,
5708  Going across it without any speech.
5709
5710There it was less than night, and less than day,
5711  So that my sight went little in advance;
5712  But I could hear the blare of a loud horn,
5713
5714So loud it would have made each thunder faint,
5715  Which, counter to it following its way,
5716  Mine eyes directed wholly to one place.
5717
5718After the dolorous discomfiture
5719  When Charlemagne the holy emprise lost,
5720  So terribly Orlando sounded not.
5721
5722Short while my head turned thitherward I held
5723  When many lofty towers I seemed to see,
5724  Whereat I: "Master, say, what town is this?"
5725
5726And he to me: "Because thou peerest forth
5727  Athwart the darkness at too great a distance,
5728  It happens that thou errest in thy fancy.
5729
5730Well shalt thou see, if thou arrivest there,
5731  How much the sense deceives itself by distance;
5732  Therefore a little faster spur thee on."
5733
5734Then tenderly he took me by the hand,
5735  And said: "Before we farther have advanced,
5736  That the reality may seem to thee
5737
5738Less strange, know that these are not towers, but giants,
5739  And they are in the well, around the bank,
5740  From navel downward, one and all of them."
5741
5742As, when the fog is vanishing away,
5743  Little by little doth the sight refigure
5744  Whate'er the mist that crowds the air conceals,
5745
5746So, piercing through the dense and darksome air,
5747  More and more near approaching tow'rd the verge,
5748  My error fled, and fear came over me;
5749
5750Because as on its circular parapets
5751  Montereggione crowns itself with towers,
5752  E'en thus the margin which surrounds the well
5753
5754With one half of their bodies turreted
5755  The horrible giants, whom Jove menaces
5756  E'en now from out the heavens when he thunders.
5757
5758And I of one already saw the face,
5759  Shoulders, and breast, and great part of the belly,
5760  And down along his sides both of the arms.
5761
5762Certainly Nature, when she left the making
5763  Of animals like these, did well indeed,
5764  By taking such executors from Mars;
5765
5766And if of elephants and whales she doth not
5767  Repent her, whosoever looketh subtly
5768  More just and more discreet will hold her for it;
5769
5770For where the argument of intellect
5771  Is added unto evil will and power,
5772  No rampart can the people make against it.
5773
5774His face appeared to me as long and large
5775  As is at Rome the pine-cone of Saint Peter's,
5776  And in proportion were the other bones;
5777
5778So that the margin, which an apron was
5779  Down from the middle, showed so much of him
5780  Above it, that to reach up to his hair
5781
5782Three Frieslanders in vain had vaunted them;
5783  For I beheld thirty great palms of him
5784  Down from the place where man his mantle buckles.
5785
5786"Raphael mai amech izabi almi,"
5787  Began to clamour the ferocious mouth,
5788  To which were not befitting sweeter psalms.
5789
5790And unto him my Guide: "Soul idiotic,
5791  Keep to thy horn, and vent thyself with that,
5792  When wrath or other passion touches thee.
5793
5794Search round thy neck, and thou wilt find the belt
5795  Which keeps it fastened, O bewildered soul,
5796  And see it, where it bars thy mighty breast."
5797
5798Then said to me: "He doth himself accuse;
5799  This one is Nimrod, by whose evil thought
5800  One language in the world is not still used.
5801
5802Here let us leave him and not speak in vain;
5803  For even such to him is every language
5804  As his to others, which to none is known."
5805
5806Therefore a longer journey did we make,
5807  Turned to the left, and a crossbow-shot oft
5808  We found another far more fierce and large.
5809
5810In binding him, who might the master be
5811  I cannot say; but he had pinioned close
5812  Behind the right arm, and in front the other,
5813
5814With chains, that held him so begirt about
5815  From the neck down, that on the part uncovered
5816  It wound itself as far as the fifth gyre.
5817
5818"This proud one wished to make experiment
5819  Of his own power against the Supreme Jove,"
5820  My Leader said, "whence he has such a guerdon.
5821
5822Ephialtes is his name; he showed great prowess.
5823  What time the giants terrified the gods;
5824  The arms he wielded never more he moves."
5825
5826And I to him: "If possible, I should wish
5827  That of the measureless Briareus
5828  These eyes of mine might have experience."
5829
5830Whence he replied: "Thou shalt behold Antaeus
5831  Close by here, who can speak and is unbound,
5832  Who at the bottom of all crime shall place us.
5833
5834Much farther yon is he whom thou wouldst see,
5835  And he is bound, and fashioned like to this one,
5836  Save that he seems in aspect more ferocious."
5837
5838There never was an earthquake of such might
5839  That it could shake a tower so violently,
5840  As Ephialtes suddenly shook himself.
5841
5842Then was I more afraid of death than ever,
5843  For nothing more was needful than the fear,
5844  If I had not beheld the manacles.
5845
5846Then we proceeded farther in advance,
5847  And to Antaeus came, who, full five ells
5848  Without the head, forth issued from the cavern.
5849
5850"O thou, who in the valley fortunate,
5851  Which Scipio the heir of glory made,
5852  When Hannibal turned back with all his hosts,
5853
5854Once brought'st a thousand lions for thy prey,
5855  And who, hadst thou been at the mighty war
5856  Among thy brothers, some it seems still think
5857
5858The sons of Earth the victory would have gained:
5859  Place us below, nor be disdainful of it,
5860  There where the cold doth lock Cocytus up.
5861
5862Make us not go to Tityus nor Typhoeus;
5863  This one can give of that which here is longed for;
5864  Therefore stoop down, and do not curl thy lip.
5865
5866Still in the world can he restore thy fame;
5867  Because he lives, and still expects long life,
5868  If to itself Grace call him not untimely."
5869
5870So said the Master; and in haste the other
5871  His hands extended and took up my Guide,--
5872  Hands whose great pressure Hercules once felt.
5873
5874Virgilius, when he felt himself embraced,
5875  Said unto me: "Draw nigh, that I may take thee;"
5876  Then of himself and me one bundle made.
5877
5878As seems the Carisenda, to behold
5879  Beneath the leaning side, when goes a cloud
5880  Above it so that opposite it hangs;
5881
5882Such did Antaeus seem to me, who stood
5883  Watching to see him stoop, and then it was
5884  I could have wished to go some other way.
5885
5886But lightly in the abyss, which swallows up
5887  Judas with Lucifer, he put us down;
5888  Nor thus bowed downward made he there delay,
5889
5890But, as a mast does in a ship, uprose.
5891
5892
5893
5894Inferno: Canto XXXII
5895
5896
5897If I had rhymes both rough and stridulous,
5898  As were appropriate to the dismal hole
5899  Down upon which thrust all the other rocks,
5900
5901I would press out the juice of my conception
5902  More fully; but because I have them not,
5903  Not without fear I bring myself to speak;
5904
5905For 'tis no enterprise to take in jest,
5906  To sketch the bottom of all the universe,
5907  Nor for a tongue that cries Mamma and Babbo.
5908
5909But may those Ladies help this verse of mine,
5910  Who helped Amphion in enclosing Thebes,
5911  That from the fact the word be not diverse.
5912
5913O rabble ill-begotten above all,
5914  Who're in the place to speak of which is hard,
5915  'Twere better ye had here been sheep or goats!
5916
5917When we were down within the darksome well,
5918  Beneath the giant's feet, but lower far,
5919  And I was scanning still the lofty wall,
5920
5921I heard it said to me: "Look how thou steppest!
5922  Take heed thou do not trample with thy feet
5923  The heads of the tired, miserable brothers!"
5924
5925Whereat I turned me round, and saw before me
5926  And underfoot a lake, that from the frost
5927  The semblance had of glass, and not of water.
5928
5929So thick a veil ne'er made upon its current
5930  In winter-time Danube in Austria,
5931  Nor there beneath the frigid sky the Don,
5932
5933As there was here; so that if Tambernich
5934  Had fallen upon it, or Pietrapana,
5935  E'en at the edge 'twould not have given a creak.
5936
5937And as to croak the frog doth place himself
5938  With muzzle out of water,--when is dreaming
5939  Of gleaning oftentimes the peasant-girl,--
5940
5941Livid, as far down as where shame appears,
5942  Were the disconsolate shades within the ice,
5943  Setting their teeth unto the note of storks.
5944
5945Each one his countenance held downward bent;
5946  From mouth the cold, from eyes the doleful heart
5947  Among them witness of itself procures.
5948
5949When round about me somewhat I had looked,
5950  I downward turned me, and saw two so close,
5951  The hair upon their heads together mingled.
5952
5953"Ye who so strain your breasts together, tell me,"
5954  I said, "who are you;" and they bent their necks,
5955  And when to me their faces they had lifted,
5956
5957Their eyes, which first were only moist within,
5958  Gushed o'er the eyelids, and the frost congealed
5959  The tears between, and locked them up again.
5960
5961Clamp never bound together wood with wood
5962  So strongly; whereat they, like two he-goats,
5963  Butted together, so much wrath o'ercame them.
5964
5965And one, who had by reason of the cold
5966  Lost both his ears, still with his visage downward,
5967  Said: "Why dost thou so mirror thyself in us?
5968
5969If thou desire to know who these two are,
5970  The valley whence Bisenzio descends
5971  Belonged to them and to their father Albert.
5972
5973They from one body came, and all Caina
5974  Thou shalt search through, and shalt not find a shade
5975  More worthy to be fixed in gelatine;
5976
5977Not he in whom were broken breast and shadow
5978  At one and the same blow by Arthur's hand;
5979  Focaccia not; not he who me encumbers
5980
5981So with his head I see no farther forward,
5982  And bore the name of Sassol Mascheroni;
5983  Well knowest thou who he was, if thou art Tuscan.
5984
5985And that thou put me not to further speech,
5986  Know that I Camicion de' Pazzi was,
5987  And wait Carlino to exonerate me."
5988
5989Then I beheld a thousand faces, made
5990  Purple with cold; whence o'er me comes a shudder,
5991  And evermore will come, at frozen ponds.
5992
5993And while we were advancing tow'rds the middle,
5994  Where everything of weight unites together,
5995  And I was shivering in the eternal shade,
5996
5997Whether 'twere will, or destiny, or chance,
5998  I know not; but in walking 'mong the heads
5999  I struck my foot hard in the face of one.
6000
6001Weeping he growled: "Why dost thou trample me?
6002  Unless thou comest to increase the vengeance
6003  of Montaperti, why dost thou molest me?"
6004
6005And I: "My Master, now wait here for me,
6006  That I through him may issue from a doubt;
6007  Then thou mayst hurry me, as thou shalt wish."
6008
6009The Leader stopped; and to that one I said
6010  Who was blaspheming vehemently still:
6011  "Who art thou, that thus reprehendest others?"
6012
6013"Now who art thou, that goest through Antenora
6014  Smiting," replied he, "other people's cheeks,
6015  So that, if thou wert living, 'twere too much?"
6016
6017"Living I am, and dear to thee it may be,"
6018  Was my response, "if thou demandest fame,
6019  That 'mid the other notes thy name I place."
6020
6021And he to me: "For the reverse I long;
6022  Take thyself hence, and give me no more trouble;
6023  For ill thou knowest to flatter in this hollow."
6024
6025Then by the scalp behind I seized upon him,
6026  And said: "It must needs be thou name thyself,
6027  Or not a hair remain upon thee here."
6028
6029Whence he to me: "Though thou strip off my hair,
6030  I will not tell thee who I am, nor show thee,
6031  If on my head a thousand times thou fall."
6032
6033I had his hair in hand already twisted,
6034  And more than one shock of it had pulled out,
6035  He barking, with his eyes held firmly down,
6036
6037When cried another: "What doth ail thee, Bocca?
6038  Is't not enough to clatter with thy jaws,
6039  But thou must bark? what devil touches thee?"
6040
6041"Now," said I, "I care not to have thee speak,
6042  Accursed traitor; for unto thy shame
6043  I will report of thee veracious news."
6044
6045"Begone," replied he, "and tell what thou wilt,
6046  But be not silent, if thou issue hence,
6047  Of him who had just now his tongue so prompt;
6048
6049He weepeth here the silver of the French;
6050  'I saw,' thus canst thou phrase it, 'him of Duera
6051  There where the sinners stand out in the cold.'
6052
6053If thou shouldst questioned be who else was there,
6054  Thou hast beside thee him of Beccaria,
6055  Of whom the gorget Florence slit asunder;
6056
6057Gianni del Soldanier, I think, may be
6058  Yonder with Ganellon, and Tebaldello
6059  Who oped Faenza when the people slep."
6060
6061Already we had gone away from him,
6062  When I beheld two frozen in one hole,
6063  So that one head a hood was to the other;
6064
6065And even as bread through hunger is devoured,
6066  The uppermost on the other set his teeth,
6067  There where the brain is to the nape united.
6068
6069Not in another fashion Tydeus gnawed
6070  The temples of Menalippus in disdain,
6071  Than that one did the skull and the other things.
6072
6073"O thou, who showest by such bestial sign
6074  Thy hatred against him whom thou art eating,
6075  Tell me the wherefore," said I, "with this compact,
6076
6077That if thou rightfully of him complain,
6078  In knowing who ye are, and his transgression,
6079  I in the world above repay thee for it,
6080
6081If that wherewith I speak be not dried up."
6082
6083
6084
6085Inferno: Canto XXXIII
6086
6087
6088His mouth uplifted from his grim repast,
6089  That sinner, wiping it upon the hair
6090  Of the same head that he behind had wasted.
6091
6092Then he began: "Thou wilt that I renew
6093  The desperate grief, which wrings my heart already
6094  To think of only, ere I speak of it;
6095
6096But if my words be seed that may bear fruit
6097  Of infamy to the traitor whom I gnaw,
6098  Speaking and weeping shalt thou see together.
6099
6100I know not who thou art, nor by what mode
6101  Thou hast come down here; but a Florentine
6102  Thou seemest to me truly, when I hear thee.
6103
6104Thou hast to know I was Count Ugolino,
6105  And this one was Ruggieri the Archbishop;
6106  Now I will tell thee why I am such a neighbour.
6107
6108That, by effect of his malicious thoughts,
6109  Trusting in him I was made prisoner,
6110  And after put to death, I need not say;
6111
6112 But ne'ertheless what thou canst not have heard,
6113  That is to say, how cruel was my death,
6114  Hear shalt thou, and shalt know if he has wronged me.
6115
6116A narrow perforation in the mew,
6117  Which bears because of me the title of Famine,
6118  And in which others still must be locked up,
6119
6120Had shown me through its opening many moons
6121  Already, when I dreamed the evil dream
6122  Which of the future rent for me the veil.
6123
6124This one appeared to me as lord and master,
6125  Hunting the wolf and whelps upon the mountain
6126  For which the Pisans cannot Lucca see.
6127
6128With sleuth-hounds gaunt, and eager, and well trained,
6129  Gualandi with Sismondi and Lanfianchi
6130  He had sent out before him to the front.
6131
6132After brief course seemed unto me forespent
6133  The father and the sons, and with sharp tushes
6134  It seemed to me I saw their flanks ripped open.
6135
6136When I before the morrow was awake,
6137  Moaning amid their sleep I heard my sons
6138  Who with me were, and asking after bread.
6139
6140Cruel indeed art thou, if yet thou grieve not,
6141  Thinking of what my heart foreboded me,
6142  And weep'st thou not, what art thou wont to weep at?
6143
6144They were awake now, and the hour drew nigh
6145  At which our food used to be brought to us,
6146  And through his dream was each one apprehensive;
6147
6148And I heard locking up the under door
6149  Of the horrible tower; whereat without a word
6150  I gazed into the faces of my sons.
6151
6152I wept not, I within so turned to stone;
6153  They wept; and darling little Anselm mine
6154  Said: 'Thou dost gaze so, father, what doth ail thee?'
6155
6156Still not a tear I shed, nor answer made
6157  All of that day, nor yet the night thereafter,
6158  Until another sun rose on the world.
6159
6160As now a little glimmer made its way
6161  Into the dolorous prison, and I saw
6162  Upon four faces my own very aspect,
6163
6164Both of my hands in agony I bit;
6165  And, thinking that I did it from desire
6166  Of eating, on a sudden they uprose,
6167
6168And said they: 'Father, much less pain 'twill give us
6169  If thou do eat of us; thyself didst clothe us
6170  With this poor flesh, and do thou strip it off.'
6171
6172I calmed me then, not to make them more sad.
6173  That day we all were silent, and the next.
6174  Ah! obdurate earth, wherefore didst thou not open?
6175
6176When we had come unto the fourth day, Gaddo
6177  Threw himself down outstretched before my feet,
6178  Saying, 'My father, why dost thou not help me?'
6179
6180And there he died; and, as thou seest me,
6181  I saw the three fall, one by one, between
6182  The fifth day and the sixth; whence I betook me,
6183
6184Already blind, to groping over each,
6185  And three days called them after they were dead;
6186  Then hunger did what sorrow could not do."
6187
6188When he had said this, with his eyes distorted,
6189  The wretched skull resumed he with his teeth,
6190  Which, as a dog's, upon the bone were strong.
6191
6192Ah! Pisa, thou opprobrium of the people
6193  Of the fair land there where the 'Si' doth sound,
6194  Since slow to punish thee thy neighbours are,
6195
6196Let the Capraia and Gorgona move,
6197  And make a hedge across the mouth of Arno
6198  That every person in thee it may drown!
6199
6200For if Count Ugolino had the fame
6201  Of having in thy castles thee betrayed,
6202  Thou shouldst not on such cross have put his sons.
6203
6204Guiltless of any crime, thou modern Thebes!
6205  Their youth made Uguccione and Brigata,
6206  And the other two my song doth name above!
6207
6208We passed still farther onward, where the ice
6209  Another people ruggedly enswathes,
6210  Not downward turned, but all of them reversed.
6211
6212Weeping itself there does not let them weep,
6213  And grief that finds a barrier in the eyes
6214  Turns itself inward to increase the anguish;
6215
6216Because the earliest tears a cluster form,
6217  And, in the manner of a crystal visor,
6218  Fill all the cup beneath the eyebrow full.
6219
6220And notwithstanding that, as in a callus,
6221  Because of cold all sensibility
6222  Its station had abandoned in my face,
6223
6224Still it appeared to me I felt some wind;
6225  Whence I: "My Master, who sets this in motion?
6226  Is not below here every vapour quenched?"
6227
6228Whence he to me: "Full soon shalt thou be where
6229  Thine eye shall answer make to thee of this,
6230  Seeing the cause which raineth down the blast."
6231
6232And one of the wretches of the frozen crust
6233  Cried out to us: "O souls so merciless
6234  That the last post is given unto you,
6235
6236Lift from mine eyes the rigid veils, that I
6237  May vent the sorrow which impregns my heart
6238  A little, e'er the weeping recongeal."
6239
6240Whence I to him: "If thou wouldst have me help thee
6241  Say who thou wast; and if I free thee not,
6242  May I go to the bottom of the ice."
6243
6244Then he replied: "I am Friar Alberigo;
6245  He am I of the fruit of the bad garden,
6246  Who here a date am getting for my fig."
6247
6248"O," said I to him, "now art thou, too, dead?"
6249  And he to me: "How may my body fare
6250  Up in the world, no knowledge I possess.
6251
6252Such an advantage has this Ptolomaea,
6253  That oftentimes the soul descendeth here
6254  Sooner than Atropos in motion sets it.
6255
6256And, that thou mayest more willingly remove
6257  From off my countenance these glassy tears,
6258  Know that as soon as any soul betrays
6259
6260As I have done, his body by a demon
6261  Is taken from him, who thereafter rules it,
6262  Until his time has wholly been revolved.
6263
6264Itself down rushes into such a cistern;
6265  And still perchance above appears the body
6266  Of yonder shade, that winters here behind me.
6267
6268This thou shouldst know, if thou hast just come down;
6269  It is Ser Branca d' Oria, and many years
6270  Have passed away since he was thus locked up."
6271
6272"I think," said I to him, "thou dost deceive me;
6273  For Branca d' Oria is not dead as yet,
6274  And eats, and drinks, and sleeps, and puts on clothes."
6275
6276"In moat above," said he, "of Malebranche,
6277  There where is boiling the tenacious pitch,
6278  As yet had Michel Zanche not arrived,
6279
6280When this one left a devil in his stead
6281  In his own body and one near of kin,
6282  Who made together with him the betrayal.
6283
6284But hitherward stretch out thy hand forthwith,
6285  Open mine eyes;"--and open them I did not,
6286  And to be rude to him was courtesy.
6287
6288Ah, Genoese! ye men at variance
6289  With every virtue, full of every vice
6290  Wherefore are ye not scattered from the world?
6291
6292For with the vilest spirit of Romagna
6293  I found of you one such, who for his deeds
6294  In soul already in Cocytus bathes,
6295
6296And still above in body seems alive!
6297
6298
6299
6300Inferno: Canto XXXIV
6301
6302
6303"'Vexilla Regis prodeunt Inferni'
6304  Towards us; therefore look in front of thee,"
6305  My Master said, "if thou discernest him."
6306
6307As, when there breathes a heavy fog, or when
6308  Our hemisphere is darkening into night,
6309  Appears far off a mill the wind is turning,
6310
6311Methought that such a building then I saw;
6312  And, for the wind, I drew myself behind
6313  My Guide, because there was no other shelter.
6314
6315Now was I, and with fear in verse I put it,
6316  There where the shades were wholly covered up,
6317  And glimmered through like unto straws in glass.
6318
6319Some prone are lying, others stand erect,
6320  This with the head, and that one with the soles;
6321  Another, bow-like, face to feet inverts.
6322
6323When in advance so far we had proceeded,
6324  That it my Master pleased to show to me
6325  The creature who once had the beauteous semblance,
6326
6327He from before me moved and made me stop,
6328  Saying: "Behold Dis, and behold the place
6329  Where thou with fortitude must arm thyself."
6330
6331How frozen I became and powerless then,
6332  Ask it not, Reader, for I write it not,
6333  Because all language would be insufficient.
6334
6335I did not die, and I alive remained not;
6336  Think for thyself now, hast thou aught of wit,
6337  What I became, being of both deprived.
6338
6339The Emperor of the kingdom dolorous
6340  From his mid-breast forth issued from the ice;
6341  And better with a giant I compare
6342
6343Than do the giants with those arms of his;
6344  Consider now how great must be that whole,
6345  Which unto such a part conforms itself.
6346
6347Were he as fair once, as he now is foul,
6348  And lifted up his brow against his Maker,
6349  Well may proceed from him all tribulation.
6350
6351O, what a marvel it appeared to me,
6352  When I beheld three faces on his head!
6353  The one in front, and that vermilion was;
6354
6355Two were the others, that were joined with this
6356  Above the middle part of either shoulder,
6357  And they were joined together at the crest;
6358
6359And the right-hand one seemed 'twixt white and yellow;
6360  The left was such to look upon as those
6361  Who come from where the Nile falls valley-ward.
6362
6363Underneath each came forth two mighty wings,
6364  Such as befitting were so great a bird;
6365  Sails of the sea I never saw so large.
6366
6367 No feathers had they, but as of a bat
6368  Their fashion was; and he was waving them,
6369  So that three winds proceeded forth therefrom.
6370
6371Thereby Cocytus wholly was congealed.
6372  With six eyes did he weep, and down three chins
6373  Trickled the tear-drops and the bloody drivel.
6374
6375At every mouth he with his teeth was crunching
6376  A sinner, in the manner of a brake,
6377  So that he three of them tormented thus.
6378
6379To him in front the biting was as naught
6380  Unto the clawing, for sometimes the spine
6381  Utterly stripped of all the skin remained.
6382
6383"That soul up there which has the greatest pain,"
6384  The Master said, "is Judas Iscariot;
6385  With head inside, he plies his legs without.
6386
6387Of the two others, who head downward are,
6388  The one who hangs from the black jowl is Brutus;
6389  See how he writhes himself, and speaks no word.
6390
6391And the other, who so stalwart seems, is Cassius.
6392  But night is reascending, and 'tis time
6393  That we depart, for we have seen the whole."
6394
6395As seemed him good, I clasped him round the neck,
6396  And he the vantage seized of time and place,
6397  And when the wings were opened wide apart,
6398
6399He laid fast hold upon the shaggy sides;
6400  From fell to fell descended downward then
6401  Between the thick hair and the frozen crust.
6402
6403When we were come to where the thigh revolves
6404  Exactly on the thickness of the haunch,
6405  The Guide, with labour and with hard-drawn breath,
6406
6407Turned round his head where he had had his legs,
6408  And grappled to the hair, as one who mounts,
6409  So that to Hell I thought we were returning.
6410
6411"Keep fast thy hold, for by such stairs as these,"
6412  The Master said, panting as one fatigued,
6413  "Must we perforce depart from so much evil."
6414
6415Then through the opening of a rock he issued,
6416  And down upon the margin seated me;
6417  Then tow'rds me he outstretched his wary step.
6418
6419I lifted up mine eyes and thought to see
6420  Lucifer in the same way I had left him;
6421  And I beheld him upward hold his legs.
6422
6423And if I then became disquieted,
6424  Let stolid people think who do not see
6425  What the point is beyond which I had passed.
6426
6427"Rise up," the Master said, "upon thy feet;
6428  The way is long, and difficult the road,
6429  And now the sun to middle-tierce returns."
6430
6431It was not any palace corridor
6432  There where we were, but dungeon natural,
6433  With floor uneven and unease of light.
6434
6435"Ere from the abyss I tear myself away,
6436  My Master," said I when I had arisen,
6437  "To draw me from an error speak a little;
6438
6439Where is the ice? and how is this one fixed
6440  Thus upside down? and how in such short time
6441  From eve to morn has the sun made his transit?"
6442
6443And he to me: "Thou still imaginest
6444  Thou art beyond the centre, where I grasped
6445  The hair of the fell worm, who mines the world.
6446
6447That side thou wast, so long as I descended;
6448  When round I turned me, thou didst pass the point
6449  To which things heavy draw from every side,
6450
6451And now beneath the hemisphere art come
6452  Opposite that which overhangs the vast
6453  Dry-land, and 'neath whose cope was put to death
6454
6455The Man who without sin was born and lived.
6456  Thou hast thy feet upon the little sphere
6457  Which makes the other face of the Judecca.
6458
6459Here it is morn when it is evening there;
6460  And he who with his hair a stairway made us
6461  Still fixed remaineth as he was before.
6462
6463Upon this side he fell down out of heaven;
6464  And all the land, that whilom here emerged,
6465  For fear of him made of the sea a veil,
6466
6467And came to our hemisphere; and peradventure
6468  To flee from him, what on this side appears
6469  Left the place vacant here, and back recoiled."
6470
6471A place there is below, from Beelzebub
6472  As far receding as the tomb extends,
6473  Which not by sight is known, but by the sound
6474
6475Of a small rivulet, that there descendeth
6476  Through chasm within the stone, which it has gnawed
6477  With course that winds about and slightly falls.
6478
6479The Guide and I into that hidden road
6480  Now entered, to return to the bright world;
6481  And without care of having any rest
6482
6483We mounted up, he first and I the second,
6484  Till I beheld through a round aperture
6485  Some of the beauteous things that Heaven doth bear;
6486
6487Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars.