More would I say, but coming and discoursing Can be no longer; for that I behold New smoke uprising yonder from the sand.

A people comes with whom I may not be; Commended unto thee be my Tesoro, In which I still live, and no more I ask."

Then he turned round, and seemed to be of those Who at Verona run for the Green Mantle Across the plain; and seemed to be among them

The one who wins, and not the one who loses.



Inferno: Canto XVI

Now was I where was heard the reverberation Of water falling into the next round, Like to that humming which the beehives make,

When shadows three together started forth, Running, from out a company that passed Beneath the rain of the sharp martyrdom.

Towards us came they, and each one cried out: "Stop, thou; for by thy garb to us thou seemest To be some one of our depraved city."

Ah me! what wounds I saw upon their limbs, Recent and ancient by the flames burnt in! It pains me still but to remember it.

Unto their cries my Teacher paused attentive; He turned his face towards me, and "Now wait," He said; "to these we should be courteous.

And if it were not for the fire that darts The nature of this region, I should say That haste were more becoming thee than them."

As soon as we stood still, they recommenced The old refrain, and when they overtook us, Formed of themselves a wheel, all three of them.

As champions stripped and oiled are wont to do, Watching for their advantage and their hold, Before they come to blows and thrusts between them,

Thus, wheeling round, did every one his visage Direct to me, so that in opposite wise His neck and feet continual journey made.

And, "If the misery of this soft place Bring in disdain ourselves and our entreaties," Began one, "and our aspect black and blistered,

Let the renown of us thy mind incline To tell us who thou art, who thus securely Thy living feet dost move along through Hell.

He in whose footprints thou dost see me treading, Naked and skinless though he now may go, Was of a greater rank than thou dost think;

He was the grandson of the good Gualdrada; His name was Guidoguerra, and in life Much did he with his wisdom and his sword.

The other, who close by me treads the sand, Tegghiaio Aldobrandi is, whose fame Above there in the world should welcome be.

And I, who with them on the cross am placed, Jacopo Rusticucci was; and truly My savage wife, more than aught else, doth harm me."

Could I have been protected from the fire, Below I should have thrown myself among them, And think the Teacher would have suffered it;

But as I should have burned and baked myself, My terror overmastered my good will, Which made me greedy of embracing them.

Then I began: "Sorrow and not disdain Did your condition fix within me so, That tardily it wholly is stripped off,

As soon as this my Lord said unto me Words, on account of which I thought within me That people such as you are were approaching.

I of your city am; and evermore Your labours and your honourable names I with affection have retraced and heard.

I leave the gall, and go for the sweet fruits Promised to me by the veracious Leader; But to the centre first I needs must plunge."

"So may the soul for a long while conduct Those limbs of thine," did he make answer then, "And so may thy renown shine after thee,

Valour and courtesy, say if they dwell Within our city, as they used to do, Or if they wholly have gone out of it;

For Guglielmo Borsier, who is in torment With us of late, and goes there with his comrades, Doth greatly mortify us with his words."

"The new inhabitants and the sudden gains, Pride and extravagance have in thee engendered, Florence, so that thou weep'st thereat already!"

In this wise I exclaimed with face uplifted; And the three, taking that for my reply, Looked at each other, as one looks at truth.

"If other times so little it doth cost thee," Replied they all, "to satisfy another, Happy art thou, thus speaking at thy will!

Therefore, if thou escape from these dark places, And come to rebehold the beauteous stars, When it shall pleasure thee to say, 'I was,'

See that thou speak of us unto the people." Then they broke up the wheel, and in their flight It seemed as if their agile legs were wings.

Not an Amen could possibly be said So rapidly as they had disappeared; Wherefore the Master deemed best to depart.

I followed him, and little had we gone, Before the sound of water was so near us, That speaking we should hardly have been heard.

Even as that stream which holdeth its own course The first from Monte Veso tow'rds the East, Upon the left-hand slope of Apennine,

Which is above called Acquacheta, ere It down descendeth into its low bed, And at Forli is vacant of that name,

Reverberates there above San Benedetto From Alps, by falling at a single leap, Where for a thousand there were room enough;

Thus downward from a bank precipitate, We found resounding that dark-tinted water, So that it soon the ear would have offended.

I had a cord around about me girt, And therewithal I whilom had designed To take the panther with the painted skin.

After I this had all from me unloosed, As my Conductor had commanded me, I reached it to him, gathered up and coiled,

Whereat he turned himself to the right side, And at a little distance from the verge, He cast it down into that deep abyss.

"It must needs be some novelty respond," I said within myself, "to the new signal The Master with his eye is following so."

Ah me! how very cautious men should be With those who not alone behold the act, But with their wisdom look into the thoughts!

He said to me: "Soon there will upward come What I await; and what thy thought is dreaming Must soon reveal itself unto thy sight."

Aye to that truth which has the face of falsehood, A man should close his lips as far as may be, Because without his fault it causes shame;

But here I cannot; and, Reader, by the notes Of this my Comedy to thee I swear, So may they not be void of lasting favour,

Athwart that dense and darksome atmosphere I saw a figure swimming upward come, Marvellous unto every steadfast heart,

Even as he returns who goeth down Sometimes to clear an anchor, which has grappled Reef, or aught else that in the sea is hidden,

Who upward stretches, and draws in his feet.



Inferno: Canto XVII

"Behold the monster with the pointed tail, Who cleaves the hills, and breaketh walls and weapons, Behold him who infecteth all the world."

Thus unto me my Guide began to say, And beckoned him that he should come to shore, Near to the confine of the trodden marble;

And that uncleanly image of deceit Came up and thrust ashore its head and bust, But on the border did not drag its tail.

The face was as the face of a just man, Its semblance outwardly was so benign, And of a serpent all the trunk beside.

Two paws it had, hairy unto the armpits; The back, and breast, and both the sides it had Depicted o'er with nooses and with shields.

With colours more, groundwork or broidery Never in cloth did Tartars make nor Turks, Nor were such tissues by Arachne laid.

As sometimes wherries lie upon the shore, That part are in the water, part on land; And as among the guzzling Germans there,

The beaver plants himself to wage his war; So that vile monster lay upon the border, Which is of stone, and shutteth in the sand.

His tail was wholly quivering in the void, Contorting upwards the envenomed fork, That in the guise of scorpion armed its point.

The Guide said: "Now perforce must turn aside Our way a little, even to that beast Malevolent, that yonder coucheth him."

We therefore on the right side descended, And made ten steps upon the outer verge, Completely to avoid the sand and flame;

And after we are come to him, I see A little farther off upon the sand A people sitting near the hollow place.

Then said to me the Master: "So that full Experience of this round thou bear away, Now go and see what their condition is.

There let thy conversation be concise; Till thou returnest I will speak with him, That he concede to us his stalwart shoulders."

Thus farther still upon the outermost Head of that seventh circle all alone I went, where sat the melancholy folk.

Out of their eyes was gushing forth their woe; This way, that way, they helped them with their hands Now from the flames and now from the hot soil.

Not otherwise in summer do the dogs, Now with the foot, now with the muzzle, when By fleas, or flies, or gadflies, they are bitten.

When I had turned mine eyes upon the faces Of some, on whom the dolorous fire is falling, Not one of them I knew; but I perceived

That from the neck of each there hung a pouch, Which certain colour had, and certain blazon; And thereupon it seems their eyes are feeding.

And as I gazing round me come among them, Upon a yellow pouch I azure saw That had the face and posture of a lion.

Proceeding then the current of my sight, Another of them saw I, red as blood, Display a goose more white than butter is.

And one, who with an azure sow and gravid Emblazoned had his little pouch of white, Said unto me: "What dost thou in this moat?

Now get thee gone; and since thou'rt still alive, Know that a neighbour of mine, Vitaliano, Will have his seat here on my left-hand side.

A Paduan am I with these Florentines; Full many a time they thunder in mine ears, Exclaiming, 'Come the sovereign cavalier,

He who shall bring the satchel with three goats;'" Then twisted he his mouth, and forth he thrust His tongue, like to an ox that licks its nose.

And fearing lest my longer stay might vex Him who had warned me not to tarry long, Backward I turned me from those weary souls.

I found my Guide, who had already mounted Upon the back of that wild animal, And said to me: "Now be both strong and bold.

Now we descend by stairways such as these; Mount thou in front, for I will be midway, So that the tail may have no power to harm thee."

Such as he is who has so near the ague Of quartan that his nails are blue already, And trembles all, but looking at the shade;

Even such became I at those proffered words; But shame in me his menaces produced, Which maketh servant strong before good master.

I seated me upon those monstrous shoulders; I wished to say, and yet the voice came not As I believed, "Take heed that thou embrace me."

But he, who other times had rescued me In other peril, soon as I had mounted, Within his arms encircled and sustained me,

And said: "Now, Geryon, bestir thyself; The circles large, and the descent be little; Think of the novel burden which thou hast."

Even as the little vessel shoves from shore, Backward, still backward, so he thence withdrew; And when he wholly felt himself afloat,

There where his breast had been he turned his tail, And that extended like an eel he moved, And with his paws drew to himself the air.

A greater fear I do not think there was What time abandoned Phaeton the reins, Whereby the heavens, as still appears, were scorched;

Nor when the wretched Icarus his flanks Felt stripped of feathers by the melting wax, His father crying, "An ill way thou takest!"

Than was my own, when I perceived myself On all sides in the air, and saw extinguished The sight of everything but of the monster.

Onward he goeth, swimming slowly, slowly; Wheels and descends, but I perceive it only By wind upon my face and from below.

I heard already on the right the whirlpool Making a horrible crashing under us; Whence I thrust out my head with eyes cast downward.

Then was I still more fearful of the abyss; Because I fires beheld, and heard laments, Whereat I, trembling, all the closer cling.

I saw then, for before I had not seen it, The turning and descending, by great horrors That were approaching upon divers sides.

As falcon who has long been on the wing, Who, without seeing either lure or bird, Maketh the falconer say, "Ah me, thou stoopest,"

Descendeth weary, whence he started swiftly, Thorough a hundred circles, and alights Far from his master, sullen and disdainful;

Even thus did Geryon place us on the bottom, Close to the bases of the rough-hewn rock, And being disencumbered of our persons,

He sped away as arrow from the string.



Inferno: Canto XVIII

There is a place in Hell called Malebolge, Wholly of stone and of an iron colour, As is the circle that around it turns.

Right in the middle of the field malign There yawns a well exceeding wide and deep, Of which its place the structure will recount.

Round, then, is that enclosure which remains Between the well and foot of the high, hard bank, And has distinct in valleys ten its bottom.

As where for the protection of the walls Many and many moats surround the castles, The part in which they are a figure forms,

Just such an image those presented there; And as about such strongholds from their gates Unto the outer bank are little bridges,

So from the precipice's base did crags Project, which intersected dikes and moats, Unto the well that truncates and collects them.

Within this place, down shaken from the back Of Geryon, we found us; and the Poet Held to the left, and I moved on behind.

Upon my right hand I beheld new anguish, New torments, and new wielders of the lash, Wherewith the foremost Bolgia was replete.

Down at the bottom were the sinners naked; This side the middle came they facing us, Beyond it, with us, but with greater steps;

Even as the Romans, for the mighty host, The year of Jubilee, upon the bridge, Have chosen a mode to pass the people over;

For all upon one side towards the Castle Their faces have, and go unto St. Peter's; On the other side they go towards the Mountain.

This side and that, along the livid stone Beheld I horned demons with great scourges, Who cruelly were beating them behind.

Ah me! how they did make them lift their legs At the first blows! and sooth not any one The second waited for, nor for the third.

While I was going on, mine eyes by one Encountered were; and straight I said: "Already With sight of this one I am not unfed."

Therefore I stayed my feet to make him out, And with me the sweet Guide came to a stand, And to my going somewhat back assented;

And he, the scourged one, thought to hide himself, Lowering his face, but little it availed him; For said I: "Thou that castest down thine eyes,

If false are not the features which thou bearest, Thou art Venedico Caccianimico; But what doth bring thee to such pungent sauces?"

And he to me: "Unwillingly I tell it; But forces me thine utterance distinct, Which makes me recollect the ancient world.

I was the one who the fair Ghisola Induced to grant the wishes of the Marquis, Howe'er the shameless story may be told.

Not the sole Bolognese am I who weeps here; Nay, rather is this place so full of them, That not so many tongues to-day are taught

'Twixt Reno and Savena to say 'sipa;' And if thereof thou wishest pledge or proof, Bring to thy mind our avaricious heart."

While speaking in this manner, with his scourge A demon smote him, and said: "Get thee gone Pander, there are no women here for coin."

I joined myself again unto mine Escort; Thereafterward with footsteps few we came To where a crag projected from the bank.

This very easily did we ascend, And turning to the right along its ridge, From those eternal circles we departed.

When we were there, where it is hollowed out Beneath, to give a passage to the scourged, The Guide said: "Wait, and see that on thee strike

The vision of those others evil-born, Of whom thou hast not yet beheld the faces, Because together with us they have gone."

From the old bridge we looked upon the train Which tow'rds us came upon the other border, And which the scourges in like manner smite.

And the good Master, without my inquiring, Said to me: "See that tall one who is coming, And for his pain seems not to shed a tear;

Still what a royal aspect he retains! That Jason is, who by his heart and cunning The Colchians of the Ram made destitute.

He by the isle of Lemnos passed along After the daring women pitiless Had unto death devoted all their males.

There with his tokens and with ornate words Did he deceive Hypsipyle, the maiden Who first, herself, had all the rest deceived.

There did he leave her pregnant and forlorn; Such sin unto such punishment condemns him, And also for Medea is vengeance done.

With him go those who in such wise deceive; And this sufficient be of the first valley To know, and those that in its jaws it holds."

We were already where the narrow path Crosses athwart the second dike, and forms Of that a buttress for another arch.

Thence we heard people, who are making moan In the next Bolgia, snorting with their muzzles, And with their palms beating upon themselves

The margins were incrusted with a mould By exhalation from below, that sticks there, And with the eyes and nostrils wages war.

The bottom is so deep, no place suffices To give us sight of it, without ascending The arch's back, where most the crag impends.

Thither we came, and thence down in the moat I saw a people smothered in a filth That out of human privies seemed to flow;

And whilst below there with mine eye I search, I saw one with his head so foul with ordure, It was not clear if he were clerk or layman.

He screamed to me: "Wherefore art thou so eager To look at me more than the other foul ones?" And I to him: "Because, if I remember,

I have already seen thee with dry hair, And thou'rt Alessio Interminei of Lucca; Therefore I eye thee more than all the others."

And he thereon, belabouring his pumpkin: "The flatteries have submerged me here below, Wherewith my tongue was never surfeited."

Then said to me the Guide: "See that thou thrust Thy visage somewhat farther in advance, That with thine eyes thou well the face attain

Of that uncleanly and dishevelled drab, Who there doth scratch herself with filthy nails, And crouches now, and now on foot is standing.

Thais the harlot is it, who replied Unto her paramour, when he said, 'Have I Great gratitude from thee?'—'Nay, marvellous;'

And herewith let our sight be satisfied."



Inferno: Canto XIX

O Simon Magus, O forlorn disciples, Ye who the things of God, which ought to be The brides of holiness, rapaciously

For silver and for gold do prostitute, Now it behoves for you the trumpet sound, Because in this third Bolgia ye abide.

We had already on the following tomb Ascended to that portion of the crag Which o'er the middle of the moat hangs plumb.

Wisdom supreme, O how great art thou showest In heaven, in earth, and in the evil world, And with what justice doth thy power distribute!

I saw upon the sides and on the bottom The livid stone with perforations filled, All of one size, and every one was round.

To me less ample seemed they not, nor greater Than those that in my beautiful Saint John Are fashioned for the place of the baptisers,

And one of which, not many years ago, I broke for some one, who was drowning in it; Be this a seal all men to undeceive.

Out of the mouth of each one there protruded The feet of a transgressor, and the legs Up to the calf, the rest within remained.

In all of them the soles were both on fire; Wherefore the joints so violently quivered, They would have snapped asunder withes and bands.

Even as the flame of unctuous things is wont To move upon the outer surface only, So likewise was it there from heel to point.

"Master, who is that one who writhes himself, More than his other comrades quivering," I said, "and whom a redder flame is sucking?"

And he to me: "If thou wilt have me bear thee Down there along that bank which lowest lies, From him thou'lt know his errors and himself."

And I: "What pleases thee, to me is pleasing; Thou art my Lord, and knowest that I depart not From thy desire, and knowest what is not spoken."

Straightway upon the fourth dike we arrived; We turned, and on the left-hand side descended Down to the bottom full of holes and narrow.

And the good Master yet from off his haunch Deposed me not, till to the hole he brought me Of him who so lamented with his shanks.

"Whoe'er thou art, that standest upside down, O doleful soul, implanted like a stake," To say began I, "if thou canst, speak out."

I stood even as the friar who is confessing The false assassin, who, when he is fixed, Recalls him, so that death may be delayed.

And he cried out: "Dost thou stand there already, Dost thou stand there already, Boniface? By many years the record lied to me.

Art thou so early satiate with that wealth, For which thou didst not fear to take by fraud The beautiful Lady, and then work her woe?"

Such I became, as people are who stand, Not comprehending what is answered them, As if bemocked, and know not how to answer.

Then said Virgilius: "Say to him straightway, 'I am not he, I am not he thou thinkest.'" And I replied as was imposed on me.

Whereat the spirit writhed with both his feet, Then, sighing, with a voice of lamentation Said to me: "Then what wantest thou of me?

If who I am thou carest so much to know, That thou on that account hast crossed the bank, Know that I vested was with the great mantle;

And truly was I son of the She-bear, So eager to advance the cubs, that wealth Above, and here myself, I pocketed.

Beneath my head the others are dragged down Who have preceded me in simony, Flattened along the fissure of the rock.

Below there I shall likewise fall, whenever That one shall come who I believed thou wast, What time the sudden question I proposed.

But longer I my feet already toast, And here have been in this way upside down, Than he will planted stay with reddened feet;

For after him shall come of fouler deed From tow'rds the west a Pastor without law, Such as befits to cover him and me.

New Jason will he be, of whom we read In Maccabees; and as his king was pliant, So he who governs France shall be to this one."

I do not know if I were here too bold, That him I answered only in this metre: "I pray thee tell me now how great a treasure

Our Lord demanded of Saint Peter first, Before he put the keys into his keeping? Truly he nothing asked but 'Follow me.'

Nor Peter nor the rest asked of Matthias Silver or gold, when he by lot was chosen Unto the place the guilty soul had lost.

Therefore stay here, for thou art justly punished, And keep safe guard o'er the ill-gotten money, Which caused thee to be valiant against Charles.

And were it not that still forbids it me The reverence for the keys superlative Thou hadst in keeping in the gladsome life,

I would make use of words more grievous still; Because your avarice afflicts the world, Trampling the good and lifting the depraved.

The Evangelist you Pastors had in mind, When she who sitteth upon many waters To fornicate with kings by him was seen;

The same who with the seven heads was born, And power and strength from the ten horns received, So long as virtue to her spouse was pleasing.

Ye have made yourselves a god of gold and silver; And from the idolater how differ ye, Save that he one, and ye a hundred worship?

Ah, Constantine! of how much ill was mother, Not thy conversion, but that marriage dower Which the first wealthy Father took from thee!"

And while I sang to him such notes as these, Either that anger or that conscience stung him, He struggled violently with both his feet.

I think in sooth that it my Leader pleased, With such contented lip he listened ever Unto the sound of the true words expressed.

Therefore with both his arms he took me up, And when he had me all upon his breast, Remounted by the way where he descended.

Nor did he tire to have me clasped to him; But bore me to the summit of the arch Which from the fourth dike to the fifth is passage.

There tenderly he laid his burden down, Tenderly on the crag uneven and steep, That would have been hard passage for the goats:

Thence was unveiled to me another valley.



Inferno: Canto XX

Of a new pain behoves me to make verses And give material to the twentieth canto Of the first song, which is of the submerged.

I was already thoroughly disposed To peer down into the uncovered depth, Which bathed itself with tears of agony;

And people saw I through the circular valley, Silent and weeping, coming at the pace Which in this world the Litanies assume.

As lower down my sight descended on them, Wondrously each one seemed to be distorted From chin to the beginning of the chest;

For tow'rds the reins the countenance was turned, And backward it behoved them to advance, As to look forward had been taken from them.

Perchance indeed by violence of palsy Some one has been thus wholly turned awry; But I ne'er saw it, nor believe it can be.

As God may let thee, Reader, gather fruit From this thy reading, think now for thyself How I could ever keep my face unmoistened,

When our own image near me I beheld Distorted so, the weeping of the eyes Along the fissure bathed the hinder parts.

Truly I wept, leaning upon a peak Of the hard crag, so that my Escort said To me: "Art thou, too, of the other fools?

Here pity lives when it is wholly dead; Who is a greater reprobate than he Who feels compassion at the doom divine?

Lift up, lift up thy head, and see for whom Opened the earth before the Thebans' eyes; Wherefore they all cried: 'Whither rushest thou,

Amphiaraus? Why dost leave the war?' And downward ceased he not to fall amain As far as Minos, who lays hold on all.

See, he has made a bosom of his shoulders! Because he wished to see too far before him Behind he looks, and backward goes his way:

Behold Tiresias, who his semblance changed, When from a male a female he became, His members being all of them transformed;

And afterwards was forced to strike once more The two entangled serpents with his rod, Ere he could have again his manly plumes.

That Aruns is, who backs the other's belly, Who in the hills of Luni, there where grubs The Carrarese who houses underneath,

Among the marbles white a cavern had For his abode; whence to behold the stars And sea, the view was not cut off from him.

And she there, who is covering up her breasts, Which thou beholdest not, with loosened tresses, And on that side has all the hairy skin,

Was Manto, who made quest through many lands, Afterwards tarried there where I was born; Whereof I would thou list to me a little.

After her father had from life departed, And the city of Bacchus had become enslaved, She a long season wandered through the world.

Above in beauteous Italy lies a lake At the Alp's foot that shuts in Germany Over Tyrol, and has the name Benaco.

By a thousand springs, I think, and more, is bathed, 'Twixt Garda and Val Camonica, Pennino, With water that grows stagnant in that lake.

Midway a place is where the Trentine Pastor, And he of Brescia, and the Veronese Might give his blessing, if he passed that way.

Sitteth Peschiera, fortress fair and strong, To front the Brescians and the Bergamasks, Where round about the bank descendeth lowest.

There of necessity must fall whatever In bosom of Benaco cannot stay, And grows a river down through verdant pastures.

Soon as the water doth begin to run, No more Benaco is it called, but Mincio, Far as Governo, where it falls in Po.

Not far it runs before it finds a plain In which it spreads itself, and makes it marshy, And oft 'tis wont in summer to be sickly.

Passing that way the virgin pitiless Land in the middle of the fen descried, Untilled and naked of inhabitants;

There to escape all human intercourse, She with her servants stayed, her arts to practise And lived, and left her empty body there.

The men, thereafter, who were scattered round, Collected in that place, which was made strong By the lagoon it had on every side;

They built their city over those dead bones, And, after her who first the place selected, Mantua named it, without other omen.

Its people once within more crowded were, Ere the stupidity of Casalodi From Pinamonte had received deceit.

Therefore I caution thee, if e'er thou hearest Originate my city otherwise, No falsehood may the verity defraud."

And I: "My Master, thy discourses are To me so certain, and so take my faith, That unto me the rest would be spent coals.

But tell me of the people who are passing, If any one note-worthy thou beholdest, For only unto that my mind reverts."

Then said he to me: "He who from the cheek Thrusts out his beard upon his swarthy shoulders Was, at the time when Greece was void of males,

So that there scarce remained one in the cradle, An augur, and with Calchas gave the moment, In Aulis, when to sever the first cable.

Eryphylus his name was, and so sings My lofty Tragedy in some part or other; That knowest thou well, who knowest the whole of it.

The next, who is so slender in the flanks, Was Michael Scott, who of a verity Of magical illusions knew the game.

Behold Guido Bonatti, behold Asdente, Who now unto his leather and his thread Would fain have stuck, but he too late repents.

Behold the wretched ones, who left the needle, The spool and rock, and made them fortune-tellers; They wrought their magic spells with herb and image.

But come now, for already holds the confines Of both the hemispheres, and under Seville Touches the ocean-wave, Cain and the thorns,

And yesternight the moon was round already; Thou shouldst remember well it did not harm thee From time to time within the forest deep."

Thus spake he to me, and we walked the while.



Inferno: Canto XXI

From bridge to bridge thus, speaking other things Of which my Comedy cares not to sing, We came along, and held the summit, when

We halted to behold another fissure Of Malebolge and other vain laments; And I beheld it marvellously dark.

As in the Arsenal of the Venetians Boils in the winter the tenacious pitch To smear their unsound vessels o'er again,

For sail they cannot; and instead thereof One makes his vessel new, and one recaulks The ribs of that which many a voyage has made;

One hammers at the prow, one at the stern, This one makes oars, and that one cordage twists, Another mends the mainsail and the mizzen;

Thus, not by fire, but by the art divine, Was boiling down below there a dense pitch Which upon every side the bank belimed.

I saw it, but I did not see within it Aught but the bubbles that the boiling raised, And all swell up and resubside compressed.

The while below there fixedly I gazed, My Leader, crying out: "Beware, beware!" Drew me unto himself from where I stood.

Then I turned round, as one who is impatient To see what it behoves him to escape, And whom a sudden terror doth unman,

Who, while he looks, delays not his departure; And I beheld behind us a black devil, Running along upon the crag, approach.

Ah, how ferocious was he in his aspect! And how he seemed to me in action ruthless, With open wings and light upon his feet!

His shoulders, which sharp-pointed were and high, A sinner did encumber with both haunches, And he held clutched the sinews of the feet.

From off our bridge, he said: "O Malebranche, Behold one of the elders of Saint Zita; Plunge him beneath, for I return for others

Unto that town, which is well furnished with them. All there are barrators, except Bonturo; No into Yes for money there is changed."

He hurled him down, and over the hard crag Turned round, and never was a mastiff loosened In so much hurry to pursue a thief.

The other sank, and rose again face downward; But the demons, under cover of the bridge, Cried: "Here the Santo Volto has no place!

Here swims one otherwise than in the Serchio; Therefore, if for our gaffs thou wishest not, Do not uplift thyself above the pitch."

They seized him then with more than a hundred rakes; They said: "It here behoves thee to dance covered, That, if thou canst, thou secretly mayest pilfer."

Not otherwise the cooks their scullions make Immerse into the middle of the caldron The meat with hooks, so that it may not float.

Said the good Master to me: "That it be not Apparent thou art here, crouch thyself down Behind a jag, that thou mayest have some screen;

And for no outrage that is done to me Be thou afraid, because these things I know, For once before was I in such a scuffle."

Then he passed on beyond the bridge's head, And as upon the sixth bank he arrived, Need was for him to have a steadfast front.

With the same fury, and the same uproar, As dogs leap out upon a mendicant, Who on a sudden begs, where'er he stops,

They issued from beneath the little bridge, And turned against him all their grappling-irons; But he cried out: "Be none of you malignant!

Before those hooks of yours lay hold of me, Let one of you step forward, who may hear me, And then take counsel as to grappling me."

They all cried out: "Let Malacoda go;" Whereat one started, and the rest stood still, And he came to him, saying: "What avails it?"

"Thinkest thou, Malacoda, to behold me Advanced into this place," my Master said, "Safe hitherto from all your skill of fence,

Without the will divine, and fate auspicious? Let me go on, for it in Heaven is willed That I another show this savage road."

Then was his arrogance so humbled in him, That he let fall his grapnel at his feet, And to the others said: "Now strike him not."

And unto me my Guide: "O thou, who sittest Among the splinters of the bridge crouched down, Securely now return to me again."

Wherefore I started and came swiftly to him; And all the devils forward thrust themselves, So that I feared they would not keep their compact.

And thus beheld I once afraid the soldiers Who issued under safeguard from Caprona, Seeing themselves among so many foes.

Close did I press myself with all my person Beside my Leader, and turned not mine eyes From off their countenance, which was not good.

They lowered their rakes, and "Wilt thou have me hit him," They said to one another, "on the rump?" And answered: "Yes; see that thou nick him with it."

But the same demon who was holding parley With my Conductor turned him very quickly, And said: "Be quiet, be quiet, Scarmiglione;"

Then said to us: "You can no farther go Forward upon this crag, because is lying All shattered, at the bottom, the sixth arch.

And if it still doth please you to go onward, Pursue your way along upon this rock; Near is another crag that yields a path.

Yesterday, five hours later than this hour, One thousand and two hundred sixty-six Years were complete, that here the way was broken.

I send in that direction some of mine To see if any one doth air himself; Go ye with them; for they will not be vicious.

Step forward, Alichino and Calcabrina," Began he to cry out, "and thou, Cagnazzo; And Barbariccia, do thou guide the ten.

Come forward, Libicocco and Draghignazzo, And tusked Ciriatto and Graffiacane, And Farfarello and mad Rubicante;

Search ye all round about the boiling pitch; Let these be safe as far as the next crag, That all unbroken passes o'er the dens."

"O me! what is it, Master, that I see? Pray let us go," I said, "without an escort, If thou knowest how, since for myself I ask none.

If thou art as observant as thy wont is, Dost thou not see that they do gnash their teeth, And with their brows are threatening woe to us?"

And he to me: "I will not have thee fear; Let them gnash on, according to their fancy, Because they do it for those boiling wretches."

Along the left-hand dike they wheeled about; But first had each one thrust his tongue between His teeth towards their leader for a signal;

And he had made a trumpet of his rump.



Inferno: Canto XXII

I have erewhile seen horsemen moving camp, Begin the storming, and their muster make, And sometimes starting off for their escape;

Vaunt-couriers have I seen upon your land, O Aretines, and foragers go forth, Tournaments stricken, and the joustings run,

Sometimes with trumpets and sometimes with bells, With kettle-drums, and signals of the castles, And with our own, and with outlandish things,

But never yet with bagpipe so uncouth Did I see horsemen move, nor infantry, Nor ship by any sign of land or star.

We went upon our way with the ten demons; Ah, savage company! but in the church With saints, and in the tavern with the gluttons!

Ever upon the pitch was my intent, To see the whole condition of that Bolgia, And of the people who therein were burned.

Even as the dolphins, when they make a sign To mariners by arching of the back, That they should counsel take to save their vessel,

Thus sometimes, to alleviate his pain, One of the sinners would display his back, And in less time conceal it than it lightens.

As on the brink of water in a ditch The frogs stand only with their muzzles out, So that they hide their feet and other bulk,

So upon every side the sinners stood; But ever as Barbariccia near them came, Thus underneath the boiling they withdrew.

I saw, and still my heart doth shudder at it, One waiting thus, even as it comes to pass One frog remains, and down another dives;

And Graffiacan, who most confronted him, Grappled him by his tresses smeared with pitch, And drew him up, so that he seemed an otter.

I knew, before, the names of all of them, So had I noted them when they were chosen, And when they called each other, listened how.

"O Rubicante, see that thou do lay Thy claws upon him, so that thou mayst flay him," Cried all together the accursed ones.

And I: "My Master, see to it, if thou canst, That thou mayst know who is the luckless wight, Thus come into his adversaries' hands."

Near to the side of him my Leader drew, Asked of him whence he was; and he replied: "I in the kingdom of Navarre was born;

My mother placed me servant to a lord, For she had borne me to a ribald knave, Destroyer of himself and of his things.

Then I domestic was of good King Thibault; I set me there to practise barratry, For which I pay the reckoning in this heat."

And Ciriatto, from whose mouth projected, On either side, a tusk, as in a boar, Caused him to feel how one of them could rip.

Among malicious cats the mouse had come; But Barbariccia clasped him in his arms, And said: "Stand ye aside, while I enfork him."

And to my Master he turned round his head; "Ask him again," he said, "if more thou wish To know from him, before some one destroy him."

The Guide: "Now tell then of the other culprits; Knowest thou any one who is a Latian, Under the pitch?" And he: "I separated

Lately from one who was a neighbour to it; Would that I still were covered up with him, For I should fear not either claw nor hook!"

And Libicocco: "We have borne too much;" And with his grapnel seized him by the arm, So that, by rending, he tore off a tendon.

Eke Draghignazzo wished to pounce upon him Down at the legs; whence their Decurion Turned round and round about with evil look.

When they again somewhat were pacified, Of him, who still was looking at his wound, Demanded my Conductor without stay:

"Who was that one, from whom a luckless parting Thou sayest thou hast made, to come ashore?" And he replied: "It was the Friar Gomita,

He of Gallura, vessel of all fraud, Who had the enemies of his Lord in hand, And dealt so with them each exults thereat;

Money he took, and let them smoothly off, As he says; and in other offices A barrator was he, not mean but sovereign.

Foregathers with him one Don Michael Zanche Of Logodoro; and of Sardinia To gossip never do their tongues feel tired.

O me! see that one, how he grinds his teeth; Still farther would I speak, but am afraid Lest he to scratch my itch be making ready."

And the grand Provost, turned to Farfarello, Who rolled his eyes about as if to strike, Said: "Stand aside there, thou malicious bird."

"If you desire either to see or hear," The terror-stricken recommenced thereon, "Tuscans or Lombards, I will make them come.

But let the Malebranche cease a little, So that these may not their revenges fear, And I, down sitting in this very place,

For one that I am will make seven come, When I shall whistle, as our custom is To do whenever one of us comes out."

Cagnazzo at these words his muzzle lifted, Shaking his head, and said: "Just hear the trick Which he has thought of, down to throw himself!"

Whence he, who snares in great abundance had, Responded: "I by far too cunning am, When I procure for mine a greater sadness."

Alichin held not in, but running counter Unto the rest, said to him: "If thou dive, I will not follow thee upon the gallop,

But I will beat my wings above the pitch; The height be left, and be the bank a shield To see if thou alone dost countervail us."

O thou who readest, thou shalt hear new sport! Each to the other side his eyes averted; He first, who most reluctant was to do it.

The Navarrese selected well his time; Planted his feet on land, and in a moment Leaped, and released himself from their design.

Whereat each one was suddenly stung with shame, But he most who was cause of the defeat; Therefore he moved, and cried: "Thou art o'ertakern."

But little it availed, for wings could not Outstrip the fear; the other one went under, And, flying, upward he his breast directed;

Not otherwise the duck upon a sudden Dives under, when the falcon is approaching, And upward he returneth cross and weary.

Infuriate at the mockery, Calcabrina Flying behind him followed close, desirous The other should escape, to have a quarrel.

And when the barrator had disappeared, He turned his talons upon his companion, And grappled with him right above the moat.

But sooth the other was a doughty sparhawk To clapperclaw him well; and both of them Fell in the middle of the boiling pond.

A sudden intercessor was the heat; But ne'ertheless of rising there was naught, To such degree they had their wings belimed.

Lamenting with the others, Barbariccia Made four of them fly to the other side With all their gaffs, and very speedily

This side and that they to their posts descended; They stretched their hooks towards the pitch-ensnared, Who were already baked within the crust,

And in this manner busied did we leave them.



Inferno: Canto XXIII

Silent, alone, and without company We went, the one in front, the other after, As go the Minor Friars along their way.

Upon the fable of Aesop was directed My thought, by reason of the present quarrel, Where he has spoken of the frog and mouse;

For 'mo' and 'issa' are not more alike Than this one is to that, if well we couple End and beginning with a steadfast mind.

And even as one thought from another springs, So afterward from that was born another, Which the first fear within me double made.

Thus did I ponder: "These on our account Are laughed to scorn, with injury and scoff So great, that much I think it must annoy them.

If anger be engrafted on ill-will, They will come after us more merciless Than dog upon the leveret which he seizes,"

I felt my hair stand all on end already With terror, and stood backwardly intent, When said I: "Master, if thou hidest not

Thyself and me forthwith, of Malebranche I am in dread; we have them now behind us; I so imagine them, I already feel them."

And he: "If I were made of leaded glass, Thine outward image I should not attract Sooner to me than I imprint the inner.

Just now thy thoughts came in among my own, With similar attitude and similar face, So that of both one counsel sole I made.

If peradventure the right bank so slope That we to the next Bolgia can descend, We shall escape from the imagined chase."

Not yet he finished rendering such opinion, When I beheld them come with outstretched wings, Not far remote, with will to seize upon us.

My Leader on a sudden seized me up, Even as a mother who by noise is wakened, And close beside her sees the enkindled flames,

Who takes her son, and flies, and does not stop, Having more care of him than of herself, So that she clothes her only with a shift;

And downward from the top of the hard bank Supine he gave him to the pendent rock, That one side of the other Bolgia walls.

Ne'er ran so swiftly water through a sluice To turn the wheel of any land-built mill, When nearest to the paddles it approaches,

As did my Master down along that border, Bearing me with him on his breast away, As his own son, and not as a companion.

Hardly the bed of the ravine below His feet had reached, ere they had reached the hill Right over us; but he was not afraid;

For the high Providence, which had ordained To place them ministers of the fifth moat, The power of thence departing took from all.

A painted people there below we found, Who went about with footsteps very slow, Weeping and in their semblance tired and vanquished.

They had on mantles with the hoods low down Before their eyes, and fashioned of the cut That in Cologne they for the monks are made.

Without, they gilded are so that it dazzles; But inwardly all leaden and so heavy That Frederick used to put them on of straw.

O everlastingly fatiguing mantle! Again we turned us, still to the left hand Along with them, intent on their sad plaint;

But owing to the weight, that weary folk Came on so tardily, that we were new In company at each motion of the haunch.

Whence I unto my Leader: "See thou find Some one who may by deed or name be known, And thus in going move thine eye about."

And one, who understood the Tuscan speech, Cried to us from behind: "Stay ye your feet, Ye, who so run athwart the dusky air!

Perhaps thou'lt have from me what thou demandest." Whereat the Leader turned him, and said: "Wait, And then according to his pace proceed."

I stopped, and two beheld I show great haste Of spirit, in their faces, to be with me; But the burden and the narrow way delayed them.

When they came up, long with an eye askance They scanned me without uttering a word. Then to each other turned, and said together:

"He by the action of his throat seems living; And if they dead are, by what privilege Go they uncovered by the heavy stole?"

Then said to me: "Tuscan, who to the college Of miserable hypocrites art come, Do not disdain to tell us who thou art."

And I to them: "Born was I, and grew up In the great town on the fair river of Arno, And with the body am I've always had.

But who are ye, in whom there trickles down Along your cheeks such grief as I behold? And what pain is upon you, that so sparkles?"

And one replied to me: "These orange cloaks Are made of lead so heavy, that the weights Cause in this way their balances to creak.

Frati Gaudenti were we, and Bolognese; I Catalano, and he Loderingo Named, and together taken by thy city,

As the wont is to take one man alone, For maintenance of its peace; and we were such That still it is apparent round Gardingo."

"O Friars," began I, "your iniquitous. . ." But said no more; for to mine eyes there rushed One crucified with three stakes on the ground.

When me he saw, he writhed himself all over, Blowing into his beard with suspirations; And the Friar Catalan, who noticed this,

Said to me: "This transfixed one, whom thou seest, Counselled the Pharisees that it was meet To put one man to torture for the people.

Crosswise and naked is he on the path, As thou perceivest; and he needs must feel, Whoever passes, first how much he weighs;

And in like mode his father-in-law is punished Within this moat, and the others of the council, Which for the Jews was a malignant seed."

And thereupon I saw Virgilius marvel O'er him who was extended on the cross So vilely in eternal banishment.

Then he directed to the Friar this voice: "Be not displeased, if granted thee, to tell us If to the right hand any pass slope down

By which we two may issue forth from here, Without constraining some of the black angels To come and extricate us from this deep."

Then he made answer: "Nearer than thou hopest There is a rock, that forth from the great circle Proceeds, and crosses all the cruel valleys,

Save that at this 'tis broken, and does not bridge it; You will be able to mount up the ruin, That sidelong slopes and at the bottom rises."

The Leader stood awhile with head bowed down; Then said: "The business badly he recounted Who grapples with his hook the sinners yonder."

And the Friar: "Many of the Devil's vices Once heard I at Bologna, and among them, That he's a liar and the father of lies."

Thereat my Leader with great strides went on, Somewhat disturbed with anger in his looks; Whence from the heavy-laden I departed

After the prints of his beloved feet.



Inferno: Canto XXIV

In that part of the youthful year wherein The Sun his locks beneath Aquarius tempers, And now the nights draw near to half the day,

What time the hoar-frost copies on the ground The outward semblance of her sister white, But little lasts the temper of her pen,

The husbandman, whose forage faileth him, Rises, and looks, and seeth the champaign All gleaming white, whereat he beats his flank,

Returns in doors, and up and down laments, Like a poor wretch, who knows not what to do; Then he returns and hope revives again,

Seeing the world has changed its countenance In little time, and takes his shepherd's crook, And forth the little lambs to pasture drives.

Thus did the Master fill me with alarm, When I beheld his forehead so disturbed, And to the ailment came as soon the plaster.

For as we came unto the ruined bridge, The Leader turned to me with that sweet look Which at the mountain's foot I first beheld.

His arms he opened, after some advisement Within himself elected, looking first Well at the ruin, and laid hold of me.

And even as he who acts and meditates, For aye it seems that he provides beforehand, So upward lifting me towards the summit

Of a huge rock, he scanned another crag, Saying: "To that one grapple afterwards, But try first if 'tis such that it will hold thee."

This was no way for one clothed with a cloak; For hardly we, he light, and I pushed upward, Were able to ascend from jag to jag.

And had it not been, that upon that precinct Shorter was the ascent than on the other, He I know not, but I had been dead beat.

But because Malebolge tow'rds the mouth Of the profoundest well is all inclining, The structure of each valley doth import

That one bank rises and the other sinks. Still we arrived at length upon the point Wherefrom the last stone breaks itself asunder.

The breath was from my lungs so milked away, When I was up, that I could go no farther, Nay, I sat down upon my first arrival.

"Now it behoves thee thus to put off sloth," My Master said; "for sitting upon down, Or under quilt, one cometh not to fame,

Withouten which whoso his life consumes Such vestige leaveth of himself on earth, As smoke in air or in the water foam.

And therefore raise thee up, o'ercome the anguish With spirit that o'ercometh every battle, If with its heavy body it sink not.

A longer stairway it behoves thee mount; 'Tis not enough from these to have departed; Let it avail thee, if thou understand me."

Then I uprose, showing myself provided Better with breath than I did feel myself, And said: "Go on, for I am strong and bold."

Upward we took our way along the crag, Which jagged was, and narrow, and difficult, And more precipitous far than that before.

Speaking I went, not to appear exhausted; Whereat a voice from the next moat came forth, Not well adapted to articulate words.

I know not what it said, though o'er the back I now was of the arch that passes there; But he seemed moved to anger who was speaking.

I was bent downward, but my living eyes Could not attain the bottom, for the dark; Wherefore I: "Master, see that thou arrive

At the next round, and let us descend the wall; For as from hence I hear and understand not, So I look down and nothing I distinguish."

"Other response," he said, "I make thee not, Except the doing; for the modest asking Ought to be followed by the deed in silence."

We from the bridge descended at its head, Where it connects itself with the eighth bank, And then was manifest to me the Bolgia;

And I beheld therein a terrible throng Of serpents, and of such a monstrous kind, That the remembrance still congeals my blood

Let Libya boast no longer with her sand; For if Chelydri, Jaculi, and Phareae She breeds, with Cenchri and with Amphisbaena,

Neither so many plagues nor so malignant E'er showed she with all Ethiopia, Nor with whatever on the Red Sea is!

Among this cruel and most dismal throng People were running naked and affrighted. Without the hope of hole or heliotrope.

They had their hands with serpents bound behind them; These riveted upon their reins the tail And head, and were in front of them entwined.

And lo! at one who was upon our side There darted forth a serpent, which transfixed him There where the neck is knotted to the shoulders.

Nor 'O' so quickly e'er, nor 'I' was written, As he took fire, and burned; and ashes wholly Behoved it that in falling he became.

And when he on the ground was thus destroyed, The ashes drew together, and of themselves Into himself they instantly returned.

Even thus by the great sages 'tis confessed The phoenix dies, and then is born again, When it approaches its five-hundredth year;

On herb or grain it feeds not in its life, But only on tears of incense and amomum, And nard and myrrh are its last winding-sheet.

And as he is who falls, and knows not how, By force of demons who to earth down drag him, Or other oppilation that binds man,

When he arises and around him looks, Wholly bewildered by the mighty anguish Which he has suffered, and in looking sighs;

Such was that sinner after he had risen. Justice of God! O how severe it is, That blows like these in vengeance poureth down!

The Guide thereafter asked him who he was; Whence he replied: "I rained from Tuscany A short time since into this cruel gorge.

A bestial life, and not a human, pleased me, Even as the mule I was; I'm Vanni Fucci, Beast, and Pistoia was my worthy den."

And I unto the Guide: "Tell him to stir not, And ask what crime has thrust him here below, For once a man of blood and wrath I saw him."

And the sinner, who had heard, dissembled not, But unto me directed mind and face, And with a melancholy shame was painted.

Then said: "It pains me more that thou hast caught me Amid this misery where thou seest me, Than when I from the other life was taken.

What thou demandest I cannot deny; So low am I put down because I robbed The sacristy of the fair ornaments,

And falsely once 'twas laid upon another; But that thou mayst not such a sight enjoy, If thou shalt e'er be out of the dark places,

Thine ears to my announcement ope and hear: Pistoia first of Neri groweth meagre; Then Florence doth renew her men and manners;

Mars draws a vapour up from Val di Magra, Which is with turbid clouds enveloped round, And with impetuous and bitter tempest

Over Campo Picen shall be the battle; When it shall suddenly rend the mist asunder, So that each Bianco shall thereby be smitten.

And this I've said that it may give thee pain."



Inferno: Canto XXV

At the conclusion of his words, the thief Lifted his hands aloft with both the figs, Crying: "Take that, God, for at thee I aim them."

From that time forth the serpents were my friends; For one entwined itself about his neck As if it said: "I will not thou speak more;"

And round his arms another, and rebound him, Clinching itself together so in front, That with them he could not a motion make.

Pistoia, ah, Pistoia! why resolve not To burn thyself to ashes and so perish, Since in ill-doing thou thy seed excellest?

Through all the sombre circles of this Hell, Spirit I saw not against God so proud, Not he who fell at Thebes down from the walls!

He fled away, and spake no further word; And I beheld a Centaur full of rage Come crying out: "Where is, where is the scoffer?"

I do not think Maremma has so many Serpents as he had all along his back, As far as where our countenance begins.

Upon the shoulders, just behind the nape, With wings wide open was a dragon lying, And he sets fire to all that he encounters.

My Master said: "That one is Cacus, who Beneath the rock upon Mount Aventine Created oftentimes a lake of blood.

He goes not on the same road with his brothers, By reason of the fraudulent theft he made Of the great herd, which he had near to him;

Whereat his tortuous actions ceased beneath The mace of Hercules, who peradventure Gave him a hundred, and he felt not ten."

While he was speaking thus, he had passed by, And spirits three had underneath us come, Of which nor I aware was, nor my Leader,

Until what time they shouted: "Who are you?" On which account our story made a halt, And then we were intent on them alone.

I did not know them; but it came to pass, As it is wont to happen by some chance, That one to name the other was compelled,

Exclaiming: "Where can Cianfa have remained?" Whence I, so that the Leader might attend, Upward from chin to nose my finger laid.

If thou art, Reader, slow now to believe What I shall say, it will no marvel be, For I who saw it hardly can admit it.

As I was holding raised on them my brows, Behold! a serpent with six feet darts forth In front of one, and fastens wholly on him.

With middle feet it bound him round the paunch, And with the forward ones his arms it seized; Then thrust its teeth through one cheek and the other;

The hindermost it stretched upon his thighs, And put its tail through in between the two, And up behind along the reins outspread it.

Ivy was never fastened by its barbs Unto a tree so, as this horrible reptile Upon the other's limbs entwined its own.

Then they stuck close, as if of heated wax They had been made, and intermixed their colour; Nor one nor other seemed now what he was;

E'en as proceedeth on before the flame Upward along the paper a brown colour, Which is not black as yet, and the white dies.

The other two looked on, and each of them Cried out: "O me, Agnello, how thou changest! Behold, thou now art neither two nor one."

Already the two heads had one become, When there appeared to us two figures mingled Into one face, wherein the two were lost.

Of the four lists were fashioned the two arms, The thighs and legs, the belly and the chest Members became that never yet were seen.

Every original aspect there was cancelled; Two and yet none did the perverted image Appear, and such departed with slow pace.

Even as a lizard, under the great scourge Of days canicular, exchanging hedge, Lightning appeareth if the road it cross;

Thus did appear, coming towards the bellies Of the two others, a small fiery serpent, Livid and black as is a peppercorn.

And in that part whereat is first received Our aliment, it one of them transfixed; Then downward fell in front of him extended.

The one transfixed looked at it, but said naught; Nay, rather with feet motionless he yawned, Just as if sleep or fever had assailed him.

He at the serpent gazed, and it at him; One through the wound, the other through the mouth Smoked violently, and the smoke commingled.

Henceforth be silent Lucan, where he mentions Wretched Sabellus and Nassidius, And wait to hear what now shall be shot forth.

Be silent Ovid, of Cadmus and Arethusa; For if him to a snake, her to fountain, Converts he fabling, that I grudge him not;

Because two natures never front to front Has he transmuted, so that both the forms To interchange their matter ready were.

Together they responded in such wise, That to a fork the serpent cleft his tail, And eke the wounded drew his feet together.

The legs together with the thighs themselves Adhered so, that in little time the juncture No sign whatever made that was apparent.

He with the cloven tail assumed the figure The other one was losing, and his skin Became elastic, and the other's hard.

I saw the arms draw inward at the armpits, And both feet of the reptile, that were short, Lengthen as much as those contracted were.

Thereafter the hind feet, together twisted, Became the member that a man conceals, And of his own the wretch had two created.

While both of them the exhalation veils With a new colour, and engenders hair On one of them and depilates the other,

The one uprose and down the other fell, Though turning not away their impious lamps, Underneath which each one his muzzle changed.

He who was standing drew it tow'rds the temples, And from excess of matter, which came thither, Issued the ears from out the hollow cheeks;

What did not backward run and was retained Of that excess made to the face a nose, And the lips thickened far as was befitting.

He who lay prostrate thrusts his muzzle forward, And backward draws the ears into his head, In the same manner as the snail its horns;

And so the tongue, which was entire and apt For speech before, is cleft, and the bi-forked In the other closes up, and the smoke ceases.

The soul, which to a reptile had been changed, Along the valley hissing takes to flight, And after him the other speaking sputters.

Then did he turn upon him his new shoulders, And said to the other: "I'll have Buoso run, Crawling as I have done, along this road."

In this way I beheld the seventh ballast Shift and reshift, and here be my excuse The novelty, if aught my pen transgress.

And notwithstanding that mine eyes might be Somewhat bewildered, and my mind dismayed, They could not flee away so secretly

But that I plainly saw Puccio Sciancato; And he it was who sole of three companions, Which came in the beginning, was not changed;

The other was he whom thou, Gaville, weepest.



Inferno: Canto XXVI

Rejoice, O Florence, since thou art so great, That over sea and land thou beatest thy wings, And throughout Hell thy name is spread abroad!

Among the thieves five citizens of thine Like these I found, whence shame comes unto me, And thou thereby to no great honour risest.

But if when morn is near our dreams are true, Feel shalt thou in a little time from now What Prato, if none other, craves for thee.

And if it now were, it were not too soon; Would that it were, seeing it needs must be, For 'twill aggrieve me more the more I age.

We went our way, and up along the stairs The bourns had made us to descend before, Remounted my Conductor and drew me.

And following the solitary path Among the rocks and ridges of the crag, The foot without the hand sped not at all.

Then sorrowed I, and sorrow now again, When I direct my mind to what I saw, And more my genius curb than I am wont,

That it may run not unless virtue guide it; So that if some good star, or better thing, Have given me good, I may myself not grudge it.

As many as the hind (who on the hill Rests at the time when he who lights the world His countenance keeps least concealed from us,

While as the fly gives place unto the gnat) Seeth the glow-worms down along the valley, Perchance there where he ploughs and makes his vintage;

With flames as manifold resplendent all Was the eighth Bolgia, as I grew aware As soon as I was where the depth appeared.

And such as he who with the bears avenged him Beheld Elijah's chariot at departing, What time the steeds to heaven erect uprose,

For with his eye he could not follow it So as to see aught else than flame alone, Even as a little cloud ascending upward,

Thus each along the gorge of the intrenchment Was moving; for not one reveals the theft, And every flame a sinner steals away.

I stood upon the bridge uprisen to see, So that, if I had seized not on a rock, Down had I fallen without being pushed.

And the Leader, who beheld me so attent, Exclaimed: "Within the fires the spirits are; Each swathes himself with that wherewith he burns."

"My Master," I replied, "by hearing thee I am more sure; but I surmised already It might be so, and already wished to ask thee

Who is within that fire, which comes so cleft At top, it seems uprising from the pyre Where was Eteocles with his brother placed."

He answered me: "Within there are tormented Ulysses and Diomed, and thus together They unto vengeance run as unto wrath.

And there within their flame do they lament The ambush of the horse, which made the door Whence issued forth the Romans' gentle seed;

Therein is wept the craft, for which being dead Deidamia still deplores Achilles, And pain for the Palladium there is borne."

"If they within those sparks possess the power To speak," I said, "thee, Master, much I pray, And re-pray, that the prayer be worth a thousand,

That thou make no denial of awaiting Until the horned flame shall hither come; Thou seest that with desire I lean towards it."

And he to me: "Worthy is thy entreaty Of much applause, and therefore I accept it; But take heed that thy tongue restrain itself.

Leave me to speak, because I have conceived That which thou wishest; for they might disdain Perchance, since they were Greeks, discourse of thine."

When now the flame had come unto that point, Where to my Leader it seemed time and place, After this fashion did I hear him speak:

"O ye, who are twofold within one fire, If I deserved of you, while I was living, If I deserved of you or much or little

When in the world I wrote the lofty verses, Do not move on, but one of you declare Whither, being lost, he went away to die."

Then of the antique flame the greater horn, Murmuring, began to wave itself about Even as a flame doth which the wind fatigues.

Thereafterward, the summit to and fro Moving as if it were the tongue that spake, It uttered forth a voice, and said: "When I

From Circe had departed, who concealed me More than a year there near unto Gaeta, Or ever yet Aeneas named it so,

Nor fondness for my son, nor reverence For my old father, nor the due affection Which joyous should have made Penelope,

Could overcome within me the desire I had to be experienced of the world, And of the vice and virtue of mankind;

But I put forth on the high open sea With one sole ship, and that small company By which I never had deserted been.

Both of the shores I saw as far as Spain, Far as Morocco, and the isle of Sardes, And the others which that sea bathes round about.

I and my company were old and slow When at that narrow passage we arrived Where Hercules his landmarks set as signals,

That man no farther onward should adventure. On the right hand behind me left I Seville, And on the other already had left Ceuta.

'O brothers, who amid a hundred thousand Perils,' I said, 'have come unto the West, To this so inconsiderable vigil

Which is remaining of your senses still Be ye unwilling to deny the knowledge, Following the sun, of the unpeopled world.

Consider ye the seed from which ye sprang; Ye were not made to live like unto brutes, But for pursuit of virtue and of knowledge.'

So eager did I render my companions, With this brief exhortation, for the voyage, That then I hardly could have held them back.

And having turned our stern unto the morning, We of the oars made wings for our mad flight, Evermore gaining on the larboard side.

Already all the stars of the other pole The night beheld, and ours so very low It did not rise above the ocean floor.

Five times rekindled and as many quenched Had been the splendour underneath the moon, Since we had entered into the deep pass,

When there appeared to us a mountain, dim From distance, and it seemed to me so high As I had never any one beheld.

Joyful were we, and soon it turned to weeping; For out of the new land a whirlwind rose, And smote upon the fore part of the ship.

Three times it made her whirl with all the waters, At the fourth time it made the stern uplift, And the prow downward go, as pleased Another,

Until the sea above us closed again."



Inferno: Canto XXVII

Already was the flame erect and quiet, To speak no more, and now departed from us With the permission of the gentle Poet;

When yet another, which behind it came, Caused us to turn our eyes upon its top By a confused sound that issued from it.

As the Sicilian bull (that bellowed first With the lament of him, and that was right, Who with his file had modulated it)

Bellowed so with the voice of the afflicted, That, notwithstanding it was made of brass, Still it appeared with agony transfixed;

Thus, by not having any way or issue At first from out the fire, to its own language Converted were the melancholy words.

But afterwards, when they had gathered way Up through the point, giving it that vibration The tongue had given them in their passage out,

We heard it said: "O thou, at whom I aim My voice, and who but now wast speaking Lombard, Saying, 'Now go thy way, no more I urge thee,'

Because I come perchance a little late, To stay and speak with me let it not irk thee; Thou seest it irks not me, and I am burning.

If thou but lately into this blind world Hast fallen down from that sweet Latian land, Wherefrom I bring the whole of my transgression,

Say, if the Romagnuols have peace or war, For I was from the mountains there between Urbino and the yoke whence Tiber bursts."

I still was downward bent and listening, When my Conductor touched me on the side, Saying: "Speak thou: this one a Latian is."

And I, who had beforehand my reply In readiness, forthwith began to speak: "O soul, that down below there art concealed,

Romagna thine is not and never has been Without war in the bosom of its tyrants; But open war I none have left there now.

Ravenna stands as it long years has stood; The Eagle of Polenta there is brooding, So that she covers Cervia with her vans.

The city which once made the long resistance, And of the French a sanguinary heap, Beneath the Green Paws finds itself again;

Verrucchio's ancient Mastiff and the new, Who made such bad disposal of Montagna, Where they are wont make wimbles of their teeth.

The cities of Lamone and Santerno Governs the Lioncel of the white lair, Who changes sides 'twixt summer-time and winter;

And that of which the Savio bathes the flank, Even as it lies between the plain and mountain, Lives between tyranny and a free state.

Now I entreat thee tell us who thou art; Be not more stubborn than the rest have been, So may thy name hold front there in the world."

After the fire a little more had roared In its own fashion, the sharp point it moved This way and that, and then gave forth such breath:

"If I believed that my reply were made To one who to the world would e'er return, This flame without more flickering would stand still;

But inasmuch as never from this depth Did any one return, if I hear true, Without the fear of infamy I answer,

I was a man of arms, then Cordelier, Believing thus begirt to make amends; And truly my belief had been fulfilled

But for the High Priest, whom may ill betide, Who put me back into my former sins; And how and wherefore I will have thee hear.

While I was still the form of bone and pulp My mother gave to me, the deeds I did Were not those of a lion, but a fox.

The machinations and the covert ways I knew them all, and practised so their craft, That to the ends of earth the sound went forth.

When now unto that portion of mine age I saw myself arrived, when each one ought To lower the sails, and coil away the ropes,

That which before had pleased me then displeased me; And penitent and confessing I surrendered, Ah woe is me! and it would have bestead me;

The Leader of the modern Pharisees Having a war near unto Lateran, And not with Saracens nor with the Jews,

For each one of his enemies was Christian, And none of them had been to conquer Acre, Nor merchandising in the Sultan's land,

Nor the high office, nor the sacred orders, In him regarded, nor in me that cord Which used to make those girt with it more meagre;

But even as Constantine sought out Sylvester To cure his leprosy, within Soracte, So this one sought me out as an adept

To cure him of the fever of his pride. Counsel he asked of me, and I was silent, Because his words appeared inebriate.

And then he said: 'Be not thy heart afraid; Henceforth I thee absolve; and thou instruct me How to raze Palestrina to the ground.

Heaven have I power to lock and to unlock, As thou dost know; therefore the keys are two, The which my predecessor held not dear.'

Then urged me on his weighty arguments There, where my silence was the worst advice; And said I: 'Father, since thou washest me

Of that sin into which I now must fall, The promise long with the fulfilment short Will make thee triumph in thy lofty seat.'

Francis came afterward, when I was dead, For me; but one of the black Cherubim Said to him: 'Take him not; do me no wrong;

He must come down among my servitors, Because he gave the fraudulent advice From which time forth I have been at his hair;

For who repents not cannot be absolved, Nor can one both repent and will at once, Because of the contradiction which consents not.'

O miserable me! how I did shudder When he seized on me, saying: 'Peradventure Thou didst not think that I was a logician!'

He bore me unto Minos, who entwined Eight times his tail about his stubborn back, And after he had bitten it in great rage,

Said: 'Of the thievish fire a culprit this;' Wherefore, here where thou seest, am I lost, And vested thus in going I bemoan me."

When it had thus completed its recital, The flame departed uttering lamentations, Writhing and flapping its sharp-pointed horn.

Onward we passed, both I and my Conductor, Up o'er the crag above another arch, Which the moat covers, where is paid the fee

By those who, sowing discord, win their burden.



Inferno: Canto XXVIII

Who ever could, e'en with untrammelled words, Tell of the blood and of the wounds in full Which now I saw, by many times narrating?

Each tongue would for a certainty fall short By reason of our speech and memory, That have small room to comprehend so much.

If were again assembled all the people Which formerly upon the fateful land Of Puglia were lamenting for their blood

Shed by the Romans and the lingering war That of the rings made such illustrious spoils, As Livy has recorded, who errs not,

With those who felt the agony of blows By making counterstand to Robert Guiscard, And all the rest, whose bones are gathered still

At Ceperano, where a renegade Was each Apulian, and at Tagliacozzo, Where without arms the old Alardo conquered,

And one his limb transpierced, and one lopped off, Should show, it would be nothing to compare With the disgusting mode of the ninth Bolgia.

A cask by losing centre-piece or cant Was never shattered so, as I saw one Rent from the chin to where one breaketh wind.

Between his legs were hanging down his entrails; His heart was visible, and the dismal sack That maketh excrement of what is eaten.

While I was all absorbed in seeing him, He looked at me, and opened with his hands His bosom, saying: "See now how I rend me;

How mutilated, see, is Mahomet; In front of me doth Ali weeping go, Cleft in the face from forelock unto chin;

And all the others whom thou here beholdest, Disseminators of scandal and of schism While living were, and therefore are cleft thus.

A devil is behind here, who doth cleave us Thus cruelly, unto the falchion's edge Putting again each one of all this ream,

When we have gone around the doleful road; By reason that our wounds are closed again Ere any one in front of him repass.

But who art thou, that musest on the crag, Perchance to postpone going to the pain That is adjudged upon thine accusations?"

"Nor death hath reached him yet, nor guilt doth bring him," My Master made reply, "to be tormented; But to procure him full experience,

Me, who am dead, behoves it to conduct him Down here through Hell, from circle unto circle; And this is true as that I speak to thee."

More than a hundred were there when they heard him, Who in the moat stood still to look at me, Through wonderment oblivious of their torture.

"Now say to Fra Dolcino, then, to arm him, Thou, who perhaps wilt shortly see the sun, If soon he wish not here to follow me,

So with provisions, that no stress of snow May give the victory to the Novarese, Which otherwise to gain would not be easy."

After one foot to go away he lifted, This word did Mahomet say unto me, Then to depart upon the ground he stretched it.

Another one, who had his throat pierced through, And nose cut off close underneath the brows, And had no longer but a single ear,

Staying to look in wonder with the others, Before the others did his gullet open, Which outwardly was red in every part,

And said: "O thou, whom guilt doth not condemn, And whom I once saw up in Latian land, Unless too great similitude deceive me,

Call to remembrance Pier da Medicina, If e'er thou see again the lovely plain That from Vercelli slopes to Marcabo,

And make it known to the best two of Fano, To Messer Guido and Angiolello likewise, That if foreseeing here be not in vain,

Cast over from their vessel shall they be, And drowned near unto the Cattolica, By the betrayal of a tyrant fell.

Between the isles of Cyprus and Majorca Neptune ne'er yet beheld so great a crime, Neither of pirates nor Argolic people.

That traitor, who sees only with one eye, And holds the land, which some one here with me Would fain be fasting from the vision of,

Will make them come unto a parley with him; Then will do so, that to Focara's wind They will not stand in need of vow or prayer."

And I to him: "Show to me and declare, If thou wouldst have me bear up news of thee, Who is this person of the bitter vision."

Then did he lay his hand upon the jaw Of one of his companions, and his mouth Oped, crying: "This is he, and he speaks not.

This one, being banished, every doubt submerged In Caesar by affirming the forearmed Always with detriment allowed delay."

O how bewildered unto me appeared, With tongue asunder in his windpipe slit, Curio, who in speaking was so bold!

And one, who both his hands dissevered had, The stumps uplifting through the murky air, So that the blood made horrible his face,

Cried out: "Thou shalt remember Mosca also, Who said, alas! 'A thing done has an end!' Which was an ill seed for the Tuscan people."

"And death unto thy race," thereto I added; Whence he, accumulating woe on woe, Departed, like a person sad and crazed.

But I remained to look upon the crowd; And saw a thing which I should be afraid, Without some further proof, even to recount,

If it were not that conscience reassures me, That good companion which emboldens man Beneath the hauberk of its feeling pure.

I truly saw, and still I seem to see it, A trunk without a head walk in like manner As walked the others of the mournful herd.

And by the hair it held the head dissevered, Hung from the hand in fashion of a lantern, And that upon us gazed and said: "O me!"

It of itself made to itself a lamp, And they were two in one, and one in two; How that can be, He knows who so ordains it.

When it was come close to the bridge's foot, It lifted high its arm with all the head, To bring more closely unto us its words,

Which were: "Behold now the sore penalty, Thou, who dost breathing go the dead beholding; Behold if any be as great as this.

And so that thou may carry news of me, Know that Bertram de Born am I, the same Who gave to the Young King the evil comfort.

I made the father and the son rebellious; Achitophel not more with Absalom And David did with his accursed goadings.

Because I parted persons so united, Parted do I now bear my brain, alas! From its beginning, which is in this trunk.

Thus is observed in me the counterpoise."



Inferno: Canto XXIX

The many people and the divers wounds These eyes of mine had so inebriated, That they were wishful to stand still and weep;

But said Virgilius: "What dost thou still gaze at? Why is thy sight still riveted down there Among the mournful, mutilated shades?

Thou hast not done so at the other Bolge; Consider, if to count them thou believest, That two-and-twenty miles the valley winds,

And now the moon is underneath our feet; Henceforth the time allotted us is brief, And more is to be seen than what thou seest."

"If thou hadst," I made answer thereupon, "Attended to the cause for which I looked, Perhaps a longer stay thou wouldst have pardoned."

Meanwhile my Guide departed, and behind him I went, already making my reply, And superadding: "In that cavern where

I held mine eyes with such attention fixed, I think a spirit of my blood laments The sin which down below there costs so much."

Then said the Master: "Be no longer broken Thy thought from this time forward upon him; Attend elsewhere, and there let him remain;

For him I saw below the little bridge, Pointing at thee, and threatening with his finger Fiercely, and heard him called Geri del Bello.

So wholly at that time wast thou impeded By him who formerly held Altaforte, Thou didst not look that way; so he departed."

"O my Conductor, his own violent death, Which is not yet avenged for him," I said, "By any who is sharer in the shame,

Made him disdainful; whence he went away, As I imagine, without speaking to me, And thereby made me pity him the more."

Thus did we speak as far as the first place Upon the crag, which the next valley shows Down to the bottom, if there were more light.

When we were now right over the last cloister Of Malebolge, so that its lay-brothers Could manifest themselves unto our sight,

Divers lamentings pierced me through and through, Which with compassion had their arrows barbed, Whereat mine ears I covered with my hands.

What pain would be, if from the hospitals Of Valdichiana, 'twixt July and September, And of Maremma and Sardinia

All the diseases in one moat were gathered, Such was it here, and such a stench came from it As from putrescent limbs is wont to issue.

We had descended on the furthest bank From the long crag, upon the left hand still, And then more vivid was my power of sight

Down tow'rds the bottom, where the ministress Of the high Lord, Justice infallible, Punishes forgers, which she here records.

I do not think a sadder sight to see Was in Aegina the whole people sick, (When was the air so full of pestilence,

The animals, down to the little worm, All fell, and afterwards the ancient people, According as the poets have affirmed,

Were from the seed of ants restored again,) Than was it to behold through that dark valley The spirits languishing in divers heaps.

This on the belly, that upon the back One of the other lay, and others crawling Shifted themselves along the dismal road.

We step by step went onward without speech, Gazing upon and listening to the sick Who had not strength enough to lift their bodies.

I saw two sitting leaned against each other, As leans in heating platter against platter, From head to foot bespotted o'er with scabs;

And never saw I plied a currycomb By stable-boy for whom his master waits, Or him who keeps awake unwillingly,

As every one was plying fast the bite Of nails upon himself, for the great rage Of itching which no other succour had.

And the nails downward with them dragged the scab, In fashion as a knife the scales of bream, Or any other fish that has them largest.

"O thou, that with thy fingers dost dismail thee," Began my Leader unto one of them, "And makest of them pincers now and then,

Tell me if any Latian is with those Who are herein; so may thy nails suffice thee To all eternity unto this work."

"Latians are we, whom thou so wasted seest, Both of us here," one weeping made reply; "But who art thou, that questionest about us?"

And said the Guide: "One am I who descends Down with this living man from cliff to cliff, And I intend to show Hell unto him."

Then broken was their mutual support, And trembling each one turned himself to me, With others who had heard him by rebound.

Wholly to me did the good Master gather, Saying: "Say unto them whate'er thou wishest." And I began, since he would have it so:

"So may your memory not steal away In the first world from out the minds of men, But so may it survive 'neath many suns,

Say to me who ye are, and of what people; Let not your foul and loathsome punishment Make you afraid to show yourselves to me."

"I of Arezzo was," one made reply, "And Albert of Siena had me burned; But what I died for does not bring me here.

'Tis true I said to him, speaking in jest, That I could rise by flight into the air, And he who had conceit, but little wit,

Would have me show to him the art; and only Because no Daedalus I made him, made me Be burned by one who held him as his son.

But unto the last Bolgia of the ten, For alchemy, which in the world I practised, Minos, who cannot err, has me condemned."

And to the Poet said I: "Now was ever So vain a people as the Sienese? Not for a certainty the French by far."

Whereat the other leper, who had heard me, Replied unto my speech: "Taking out Stricca, Who knew the art of moderate expenses,

And Niccolo, who the luxurious use Of cloves discovered earliest of all Within that garden where such seed takes root;

And taking out the band, among whom squandered Caccia d'Ascian his vineyards and vast woods, And where his wit the Abbagliato proffered!

But, that thou know who thus doth second thee Against the Sienese, make sharp thine eye Tow'rds me, so that my face well answer thee,

And thou shalt see I am Capocchio's shade, Who metals falsified by alchemy; Thou must remember, if I well descry thee,

How I a skilful ape of nature was."



Inferno: Canto XXX

'Twas at the time when Juno was enraged, For Semele, against the Theban blood, As she already more than once had shown,

So reft of reason Athamas became, That, seeing his own wife with children twain Walking encumbered upon either hand,

He cried: "Spread out the nets, that I may take The lioness and her whelps upon the passage;" And then extended his unpitying claws,

Seizing the first, who had the name Learchus, And whirled him round, and dashed him on a rock; And she, with the other burthen, drowned herself;—

And at the time when fortune downward hurled The Trojan's arrogance, that all things dared, So that the king was with his kingdom crushed,

Hecuba sad, disconsolate, and captive, When lifeless she beheld Polyxena, And of her Polydorus on the shore

Of ocean was the dolorous one aware, Out of her senses like a dog she barked, So much the anguish had her mind distorted;

But not of Thebes the furies nor the Trojan Were ever seen in any one so cruel In goading beasts, and much more human members,

As I beheld two shadows pale and naked, Who, biting, in the manner ran along That a boar does, when from the sty turned loose.

One to Capocchio came, and by the nape Seized with its teeth his neck, so that in dragging It made his belly grate the solid bottom.

And the Aretine, who trembling had remained, Said to me: "That mad sprite is Gianni Schicchi, And raving goes thus harrying other people."

"O," said I to him, "so may not the other Set teeth on thee, let it not weary thee To tell us who it is, ere it dart hence."

And he to me: "That is the ancient ghost Of the nefarious Myrrha, who became Beyond all rightful love her father's lover.

She came to sin with him after this manner, By counterfeiting of another's form; As he who goeth yonder undertook,

That he might gain the lady of the herd, To counterfeit in himself Buoso Donati, Making a will and giving it due form."

And after the two maniacs had passed On whom I held mine eye, I turned it back To look upon the other evil-born.

I saw one made in fashion of a lute, If he had only had the groin cut off Just at the point at which a man is forked.

The heavy dropsy, that so disproportions The limbs with humours, which it ill concocts, That the face corresponds not to the belly,

Compelled him so to hold his lips apart As does the hectic, who because of thirst One tow'rds the chin, the other upward turns.

"O ye, who without any torment are, And why I know not, in the world of woe," He said to us, "behold, and be attentive

Unto the misery of Master Adam; I had while living much of what I wished, And now, alas! a drop of water crave.

The rivulets, that from the verdant hills Of Cassentin descend down into Arno, Making their channels to be cold and moist,

Ever before me stand, and not in vain; For far more doth their image dry me up Than the disease which strips my face of flesh.

The rigid justice that chastises me Draweth occasion from the place in which I sinned, to put the more my sighs in flight.

There is Romena, where I counterfeited The currency imprinted with the Baptist, For which I left my body burned above.

But if I here could see the tristful soul Of Guido, or Alessandro, or their brother, For Branda's fount I would not give the sight.

One is within already, if the raving Shades that are going round about speak truth; But what avails it me, whose limbs are tied?

If I were only still so light, that in A hundred years I could advance one inch, I had already started on the way,

Seeking him out among this squalid folk, Although the circuit be eleven miles, And be not less than half a mile across.

For them am I in such a family; They did induce me into coining florins, Which had three carats of impurity."

And I to him: "Who are the two poor wretches That smoke like unto a wet hand in winter, Lying there close upon thy right-hand confines?"

"I found them here," replied he, "when I rained Into this chasm, and since they have not turned, Nor do I think they will for evermore.

One the false woman is who accused Joseph, The other the false Sinon, Greek of Troy; From acute fever they send forth such reek."

And one of them, who felt himself annoyed At being, peradventure, named so darkly, Smote with the fist upon his hardened paunch.

It gave a sound, as if it were a drum; And Master Adam smote him in the face, With arm that did not seem to be less hard,

Saying to him: "Although be taken from me All motion, for my limbs that heavy are, I have an arm unfettered for such need."

Whereat he answer made: "When thou didst go Unto the fire, thou hadst it not so ready: But hadst it so and more when thou wast coining."

The dropsical: "Thou sayest true in that; But thou wast not so true a witness there, Where thou wast questioned of the truth at Troy."

"If I spake false, thou falsifiedst the coin," Said Sinon; "and for one fault I am here, And thou for more than any other demon."

"Remember, perjurer, about the horse," He made reply who had the swollen belly, "And rueful be it thee the whole world knows it."

"Rueful to thee the thirst be wherewith cracks Thy tongue," the Greek said, "and the putrid water That hedges so thy paunch before thine eyes."

Then the false-coiner: "So is gaping wide Thy mouth for speaking evil, as 'tis wont; Because if I have thirst, and humour stuff me

Thou hast the burning and the head that aches, And to lick up the mirror of Narcissus Thou wouldst not want words many to invite thee."

In listening to them was I wholly fixed, When said the Master to me: "Now just look, For little wants it that I quarrel with thee."

When him I heard in anger speak to me, I turned me round towards him with such shame That still it eddies through my memory.

And as he is who dreams of his own harm, Who dreaming wishes it may be a dream, So that he craves what is, as if it were not;

Such I became, not having power to speak, For to excuse myself I wished, and still Excused myself, and did not think I did it.

"Less shame doth wash away a greater fault," The Master said, "than this of thine has been; Therefore thyself disburden of all sadness,

And make account that I am aye beside thee, If e'er it come to pass that fortune bring thee Where there are people in a like dispute;

For a base wish it is to wish to hear it."



Inferno: Canto XXXI

One and the selfsame tongue first wounded me, So that it tinged the one cheek and the other, And then held out to me the medicine;

Thus do I hear that once Achilles' spear, His and his father's, used to be the cause First of a sad and then a gracious boon.

We turned our backs upon the wretched valley, Upon the bank that girds it round about, Going across it without any speech.

There it was less than night, and less than day, So that my sight went little in advance; But I could hear the blare of a loud horn,

So loud it would have made each thunder faint, Which, counter to it following its way, Mine eyes directed wholly to one place.

After the dolorous discomfiture When Charlemagne the holy emprise lost, So terribly Orlando sounded not.

Short while my head turned thitherward I held When many lofty towers I seemed to see, Whereat I: "Master, say, what town is this?"

And he to me: "Because thou peerest forth Athwart the darkness at too great a distance, It happens that thou errest in thy fancy.

Well shalt thou see, if thou arrivest there, How much the sense deceives itself by distance; Therefore a little faster spur thee on."

Then tenderly he took me by the hand, And said: "Before we farther have advanced, That the reality may seem to thee

Less strange, know that these are not towers, but giants, And they are in the well, around the bank, From navel downward, one and all of them."

As, when the fog is vanishing away, Little by little doth the sight refigure Whate'er the mist that crowds the air conceals,

So, piercing through the dense and darksome air, More and more near approaching tow'rd the verge, My error fled, and fear came over me;

Because as on its circular parapets Montereggione crowns itself with towers, E'en thus the margin which surrounds the well

With one half of their bodies turreted The horrible giants, whom Jove menaces E'en now from out the heavens when he thunders.

And I of one already saw the face, Shoulders, and breast, and great part of the belly, And down along his sides both of the arms.

Certainly Nature, when she left the making Of animals like these, did well indeed, By taking such executors from Mars;

And if of elephants and whales she doth not Repent her, whosoever looketh subtly More just and more discreet will hold her for it;

For where the argument of intellect Is added unto evil will and power, No rampart can the people make against it.

His face appeared to me as long and large As is at Rome the pine-cone of Saint Peter's, And in proportion were the other bones;

So that the margin, which an apron was Down from the middle, showed so much of him Above it, that to reach up to his hair

Three Frieslanders in vain had vaunted them; For I beheld thirty great palms of him Down from the place where man his mantle buckles.

"Raphael mai amech izabi almi," Began to clamour the ferocious mouth, To which were not befitting sweeter psalms.

And unto him my Guide: "Soul idiotic, Keep to thy horn, and vent thyself with that, When wrath or other passion touches thee.

Search round thy neck, and thou wilt find the belt Which keeps it fastened, O bewildered soul, And see it, where it bars thy mighty breast."

Then said to me: "He doth himself accuse; This one is Nimrod, by whose evil thought One language in the world is not still used.

Here let us leave him and not speak in vain; For even such to him is every language As his to others, which to none is known."

Therefore a longer journey did we make, Turned to the left, and a crossbow-shot oft We found another far more fierce and large.

In binding him, who might the master be I cannot say; but he had pinioned close Behind the right arm, and in front the other,

With chains, that held him so begirt about From the neck down, that on the part uncovered It wound itself as far as the fifth gyre.

"This proud one wished to make experiment Of his own power against the Supreme Jove," My Leader said, "whence he has such a guerdon.

Ephialtes is his name; he showed great prowess. What time the giants terrified the gods; The arms he wielded never more he moves."

And I to him: "If possible, I should wish That of the measureless Briareus These eyes of mine might have experience."