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 The Divine Comedy
of
Dante Alighieri
(1265-1321)
TRANSLATED BY
HENRY WADSWORTH
LONGFELLOW
(1807-1882)
Incipit Comoedia Dantis Alagherii,
Florentini natione, non moribus.
 After my weary body I had rested, Thrust me back thither where the sun is silent.
INFERNO The way resumed I on the desert slope, While I was rushing downward to the lowland,
So that the firm foot ever was the lower. Before mine eyes did one present himself,
Inferno: Canto I And lo! almost where the ascent began, Who seemed from long-continued silence hoarse.
A panther light and swift exceedingly, When I beheld him in the desert vast,
Midway upon the journey of our life Which with a spotted skin was covered o’er! “Have pity on me,” unto him I cried,
I found myself within a forest dark, And never moved she from before my face, “Whiche’er thou art, or shade or real man!”
For the straightforward pathway had been lost. Nay, rather did impede so much my way, He answered me: “Not man; man once I was,
Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say That many times I to return had turned. And both my parents were of Lombardy,
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern, The time was the beginning of the morning, And Mantuans by country both of them.
Which in the very thought renews the fear. And up the sun was mounting with those stars ‘Sub Julio’ was I born, though it was late,
So bitter is it, death is little more; That with him were, what time the Love Divine And lived at Rome under the good Augustus,
But of the good to treat, which there I found, At first in motion set those beauteous things; During the time of false and lying gods.
Speak will I of the other things I saw there. So were to me occasion of good hope, A poet was I, and I sang that just
I cannot well repeat how there I entered, The variegated skin of that wild beast, Son of Anchises, who came forth from Troy,
So full was I of slumber at the moment The hour of time, and the delicious season; After that Ilion the superb was burned.
In which I had abandoned the true way. But not so much, that did not give me fear But thou, why goest thou back to such
But after I had reached a mountain’s foot, A lion’s aspect which appeared to me. annoyance?
At that point where the valley terminated, He seemed as if against me he were coming Why climb’st thou not the Mount Delectable,
Which had with consternation pierced my heart, With head uplifted, and with ravenous hunger, Which is the source and cause of every joy?”
So that it seemed the air was afraid of him; “Now, art thou that Virgilius and that fountain
Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders, And a she-wolf, that with all hungerings Which spreads abroad so wide a river of speech?”
Vested already with that planet’s rays Seemed to be laden in her meagreness, I made response to him with bashful forehead.
Which leadeth others right by every road. And many folk has caused to live forlorn! “O, of the other poets honour and light,
Then was the fear a little quieted She brought upon me so much heaviness, Avail me the long study and great love
That in my heart’s lake had endured throughout With the affright that from her aspect came, That have impelled me to explore thy volume!
The night, which I had passed so piteously. That I the hope relinquished of the height. Thou art my master, and my author thou,
And even as he, who, with distressful breath, And as he is who willingly acquires, Thou art alone the one from whom I took
Forth issued from the sea upon the shore, And the time comes that causes him to lose, The beautiful style that has done honour to me.
Turns to the water perilous and gazes; Who weeps in all his thoughts and is despondent, Behold the beast, for which I have turned back;
So did my soul, that still was fleeing onward, Do thou protect me from her, famous Sage,
Turn itself back to re-behold the pass E’en such made me that beast withouten peace, For she doth make my veins and pulses tremble.”
Which never yet a living person left. Which, coming on against me by degrees “Thee it behoves to take another road,”
Responded he, when he beheld me weeping, Because that Emperor, who reigns above, Was courteous, thinking of the high effect
“If from this savage place thou wouldst escape; In that I was rebellious to his law, That issue would from him, and who, and what,
Because this beast, at which thou criest out, Wills that through me none come into his city. To men of intellect unmeet it seems not;
Suffers not any one to pass her way, He governs everywhere, and there he reigns; For he was of great Rome, and of her empire
But so doth harass him, that she destroys him; There is his city and his lofty throne; In the empyreal heaven as father chosen;
And has a nature so malign and ruthless, O happy he whom thereto he elects!” The which and what, wishing to speak the truth,
That never doth she glut her greedy will, And I to him: “Poet, I thee entreat, Were stablished as the holy place, wherein
And after food is hungrier than before. By that same God whom thou didst never know, Sits the successor of the greatest Peter.
So that I may escape this woe and worse, Upon this journey, whence thou givest him vaunt,
Many the animals with whom she weds, Thou wouldst conduct me there where thou hast Things did he hear, which the occasion were
And more they shall be still, until the Greyhound said, Both of his victory and the papal mantle.
Comes, who shall make her perish in her pain. That I may see the portal of Saint Peter, Thither went afterwards the Chosen Vessel,
He shall not feed on either earth or pelf, And those thou makest so disconsolate.” To bring back comfort thence unto that Faith,
But upon wisdom, and on love and virtue; Then he moved on, and I behind him followed. Which of salvation’s way is the beginning.
‘Twixt Feltro and Feltro shall his nation be; But I, why thither come, or who concedes it?
Of that low Italy shall he be the saviour, Inferno: Canto II I not Aeneas am, I am not Paul,
On whose account the maid Camilla died, Nor I, nor others, think me worthy of it.
Euryalus, Turnus, Nisus, of their wounds; Day was departing, and the embrowned air Therefore, if I resign myself to come,
Through every city shall he hunt her down, Released the animals that are on earth I fear the coming may be ill-advised;
Until he shall have driven her back to Hell, From their fatigues; and I the only one Thou’rt wise, and knowest better than I speak.”
There from whence envy first did let her loose. Made myself ready to sustain the war, And as he is, who unwills what he willed,
Therefore I think and judge it for thy best Both of the way and likewise of the woe, And by new thoughts doth his intention change,
Thou follow me, and I will be thy guide, Which memory that errs not shall retrace. So that from his design he quite withdraws,
And lead thee hence through the eternal place, O Muses, O high genius, now assist me!
Where thou shalt hear the desperate lamentations, O memory, that didst write down what I saw, Such I became, upon that dark hillside,
Shalt see the ancient spirits disconsolate, Here thy nobility shall be manifest! Because, in thinking, I consumed the emprise,
Who cry out each one for the second death; And I began: “Poet, who guidest me, Which was so very prompt in the beginning.
And thou shalt see those who contented are Regard my manhood, if it be sufficient, “If I have well thy language understood,”
Within the fire, because they hope to come, Ere to the arduous pass thou dost confide me. Replied that shade of the Magnanimous,
Whene’er it may be, to the blessed people; Thou sayest, that of Silvius the parent, “Thy soul attainted is with cowardice,
To whom, then, if thou wishest to ascend, While yet corruptible, unto the world Which many times a man encumbers so,
A soul shall be for that than I more worthy; Immortal went, and was there bodily. It turns him back from honoured enterprise,
With her at my departure I will leave thee; But if the adversary of all evil As false sight doth a beast, when he is shy.
That thou mayst free thee from this apprehension, But the cause tell me why thou dost not shun Which honours thee, and those who’ve listened to
I’ll tell thee why I came, and what I heard The here descending down into this centre, it.’
At the first moment when I grieved for thee. From the vast place thou burnest to return to.’ After she thus had spoken unto me,
Among those was I who are in suspense, ‘Since thou wouldst fain so inwardly discern, Weeping, her shining eyes she turned away;
And a fair, saintly Lady called to me Briefly will I relate,’ she answered me, Whereby she made me swifter in my coming;
In such wise, I besought her to command me. ‘Why I am not afraid to enter here. And unto thee I came, as she desired;
Her eyes where shining brighter than the Star; Of those things only should one be afraid I have delivered thee from that wild beast,
And she began to say, gentle and low, Which have the power of doing others harm; Which barred the beautiful mountain’s short
With voice angelical, in her own language: Of the rest, no; because they are not fearful. ascent.
‘O spirit courteous of Mantua, God in his mercy such created me What is it, then? Why, why dost thou delay?
Of whom the fame still in the world endures, That misery of yours attains me not, Why is such baseness bedded in thy heart?
And shall endure, long-lasting as the world; Nor any flame assails me of this burning. Daring and hardihood why hast thou not,
A friend of mine, and not the friend of fortune, A gentle Lady is in Heaven, who grieves
Upon the desert slope is so impeded At this impediment, to which I send thee, Seeing that three such Ladies benedight
Upon his way, that he has turned through terror, So that stern judgment there above is broken. Are caring for thee in the court of Heaven,
And may, I fear, already be so lost, In her entreaty she besought Lucia, And so much good my speech doth promise
That I too late have risen to his succour, And said, “Thy faithful one now stands in need thee?”
From that which I have heard of him in Heaven. Of thee, and unto thee I recommend him.” Even as the flowerets, by nocturnal chill,
Bestir thee now, and with thy speech ornate, Lucia, foe of all that cruel is, Bowed down and closed, when the sun whitens
And with what needful is for his release, Hastened away, and came unto the place them,
Assist him so, that I may be consoled. Where I was sitting with the ancient Rachel. Uplift themselves all open on their stems;
Beatrice am I, who do bid thee go; “Beatrice” said she, “the true praise of God, Such I became with my exhausted strength,
I come from there, where I would fain return; Why succourest thou not him, who loved thee so, And such good courage to my heart there
Love moved me, which compelleth me to speak. For thee he issued from the vulgar herd? coursed,
When I shall be in presence of my Lord, Dost thou not hear the pity of his plaint? That I began, like an intrepid person:
Full often will I praise thee unto him.’ Dost thou not see the death that combats him “O she compassionate, who succoured me,
Then paused she, and thereafter I began: Beside that flood, where ocean has no vaunt?” And courteous thou, who hast obeyed so soon
‘O Lady of virtue, thou alone through whom Never were persons in the world so swift The words of truth which she addressed to thee!
The human race exceedeth all contained To work their weal and to escape their woe, Thou hast my heart so with desire disposed
Within the heaven that has the lesser circles, As I, after such words as these were uttered, To the adventure, with these words of thine,
So grateful unto me is thy commandment, Came hither downward from my blessed seat, That to my first intent I have returned.
To obey, if ‘twere already done, were late; Confiding in thy dignified discourse, Now go, for one sole will is in us both,
No farther need’st thou ope to me thy wish. Thou Leader, and thou Lord, and Master thou.”
Thus said I to him; and when he had moved, And voices high and hoarse, with sound of hands, That ever Death so many had undone.
I entered on the deep and savage way. Made up a tumult that goes whirling on When some among them I had recognised,
For ever in that air for ever black, I looked, and I beheld the shade of him
Inferno: Canto III Even as the sand doth, when the whirlwind Who made through cowardice the great refusal.
breathes.
“Through me the way is to the city dolent; And I, who had my head with horror bound, Forthwith I comprehended, and was certain,
Through me the way is to eternal dole; Said: “Master, what is this which now I hear? That this the sect was of the caitiff wretches
Through me the way among the people lost. What folk is this, which seems by pain so Hateful to God and to his enemies.
Justice incited my sublime Creator; vanquished?” These miscreants, who never were alive,
Created me divine Omnipotence, And he to me: “This miserable mode Were naked, and were stung exceedingly
The highest Wisdom and the primal Love. Maintain the melancholy souls of those By gadflies and by hornets that were there.
Before me there were no created things, Who lived withouten infamy or praise. These did their faces irrigate with blood,
Only eterne, and I eternal last. Commingled are they with that caitiff choir Which, with their tears commingled, at their feet
All hope abandon, ye who enter in!” Of Angels, who have not rebellious been, By the disgusting worms was gathered up.
These words in sombre colour I beheld Nor faithful were to God, but were for self. And when to gazing farther I betook me.
Written upon the summit of a gate; The heavens expelled them, not to be less fair; People I saw on a great river’s bank;
Whence I: “Their sense is, Master, hard to me!” Nor them the nethermore abyss receives, Whence said I: “Master, now vouchsafe to me,
And he to me, as one experienced: For glory none the damned would have from That I may know who these are, and what law
“Here all suspicion needs must be abandoned, them.” Makes them appear so ready to pass over,
All cowardice must needs be here extinct. And I: “O Master, what so grievous is As I discern athwart the dusky light.”
We to the place have come, where I have told To these, that maketh them lament so sore?” And he to me: “These things shall all be known
thee He answered: “I will tell thee very briefly. To thee, as soon as we our footsteps stay
Thou shalt behold the people dolorous These have no longer any hope of death; Upon the dismal shore of Acheron.”
Who have foregone the good of intellect.” And this blind life of theirs is so debased, Then with mine eyes ashamed and downward
They envious are of every other fate. cast,
And after he had laid his hand on mine No fame of them the world permits to be; Fearing my words might irksome be to him,
With joyful mien, whence I was comforted, Misericord and Justice both disdain them. From speech refrained I till we reached the river.
He led me in among the secret things. Let us not speak of them, but look, and pass.” And lo! towards us coming in a boat
There sighs, complaints, and ululations loud And I, who looked again, beheld a banner, An old man, hoary with the hair of eld,
Resounded through the air without a star, Which, whirling round, ran on so rapidly, Crying: “Woe unto you, ye souls depraved!
Whence I, at the beginning, wept thereat. That of all pause it seemed to me indignant; Hope nevermore to look upon the heavens;
Languages diverse, horrible dialects, And after it there came so long a train I come to lead you to the other shore,
Accents of anger, words of agony, Of people, that I ne’er would have believed To the eternal shades in heat and frost.
And thou, that yonder standest, living soul, So they depart across the dusky wave, So that by fixing on its depths my sight
Withdraw thee from these people, who are dead!” And ere upon the other side they land, Nothing whatever I discerned therein.
But when he saw that I did not withdraw, Again on this side a new troop assembles. “Let us descend now into the blind world,”
He said: “By other ways, by other ports “My son,” the courteous Master said to me, Began the Poet, pallid utterly;
Thou to the shore shalt come, not here, for “All those who perish in the wrath of God “I will be first, and thou shalt second be.”
passage; Here meet together out of every land; And I, who of his colour was aware,
A lighter vessel needs must carry thee.” And ready are they to pass o’er the river, Said: “How shall I come, if thou art afraid,
And unto him the Guide: “Vex thee not, Charon; Because celestial Justice spurs them on, Who’rt wont to be a comfort to my fears?”
It is so willed there where is power to do So that their fear is turned into desire. And he to me: “The anguish of the people
That which is willed; and farther question not.” This way there never passes a good soul; Who are below here in my face depicts
Thereat were quieted the fleecy cheeks And hence if Charon doth complain of thee, That pity which for terror thou hast taken.
Of him the ferryman of the livid fen, Well mayst thou know now what his speech Let us go on, for the long way impels us.”
Who round about his eyes had wheels of flame. imports.” Thus he went in, and thus he made me enter
But all those souls who weary were and naked This being finished, all the dusk champaign The foremost circle that surrounds the abyss.
Their colour changed and gnashed their teeth Trembled so violently, that of that terror There, as it seemed to me from listening,
together, The recollection bathes me still with sweat. Were lamentations none, but only sighs,
As soon as they had heard those cruel words. The land of tears gave forth a blast of wind, That tremble made the everlasting air.
And fulminated a vermilion light, And this arose from sorrow without torment,
God they blasphemed and their progenitors, Which overmastered in me every sense, Which the crowds had, that many were and great,
The human race, the place, the time, the seed And as a man whom sleep hath seized I fell. Of infants and of women and of men.
Of their engendering and of their birth! To me the Master good: “Thou dost not ask
Thereafter all together they drew back, Inferno: Canto IV What spirits these, which thou beholdest, are?
Bitterly weeping, to the accursed shore, Now will I have thee know, ere thou go farther,
Which waiteth every man who fears not God. Broke the deep lethargy within my head That they sinned not; and if they merit had,
Charon the demon, with the eyes of glede, A heavy thunder, so that I upstarted, ’Tis not enough, because they had not baptism
Beckoning to them, collects them all together, Like to a person who by force is wakened; Which is the portal of the Faith thou holdest;
Beats with his oar whoever lags behind. And round about I moved my rested eyes, And if they were before Christianity,
As in the autumn-time the leaves fall off, Uprisen erect, and steadfastly I gazed, In the right manner they adored not God;
First one and then another, till the branch To recognise the place wherein I was. And among such as these am I myself.
Unto the earth surrenders all its spoils; True is it, that upon the verge I found me
In similar wise the evil seed of Adam Of the abysmal valley dolorous, For such defects, and not for other guilt,
Throw themselves from that margin one by one, That gathers thunder of infinite ululations. Lost are we and are only so far punished,
At signals, as a bird unto its lure. Obscure, profound it was, and nebulous, That without hope we live on in desire.”
Great grief seized on my heart when this I heard, That from the fashion of the rest it parts them?” We came unto a noble castle’s foot,
Because some people of much worthiness And he to me: “The honourable name, Seven times encompassed with lofty walls,
I knew, who in that Limbo were suspended. That sounds of them above there in thy life, Defended round by a fair rivulet;
“Tell me, my Master, tell me, thou my Lord,” Wins grace in Heaven, that so advances them.” This we passed over even as firm ground;
Began I, with desire of being certain In the mean time a voice was heard by me: Through portals seven I entered with these Sages;
Of that Faith which o’ercometh every error, “All honour be to the pre-eminent Poet; We came into a meadow of fresh verdure.
“Came any one by his own merit hence, His shade returns again, that was departed.” People were there with solemn eyes and slow,
Or by another’s, who was blessed thereafter?” Of great authority in their countenance;
And he, who understood my covert speech, After the voice had ceased and quiet was, They spake but seldom, and with gentle voices.
Replied: “I was a novice in this state, Four mighty shades I saw approaching us; Thus we withdrew ourselves upon one side
When I saw hither come a Mighty One, Semblance had they nor sorrowful nor glad. Into an opening luminous and lofty,
With sign of victory incoronate. To say to me began my gracious Master: So that they all of them were visible.
Hence he drew forth the shade of the First Parent, “Him with that falchion in his hand behold, There opposite, upon the green enamel,
And that of his son Abel, and of Noah, Who comes before the three, even as their lord. Were pointed out to me the mighty spirits,
Of Moses the lawgiver, and the obedient That one is Homer, Poet sovereign; Whom to have seen I feel myself exalted.
Abraham, patriarch, and David, king, He who comes next is Horace, the satirist; I saw Electra with companions many,
Israel with his father and his children, The third is Ovid, and the last is Lucan. ‘Mongst whom I knew both Hector and Aeneas,
And Rachel, for whose sake he did so much, Because to each of these with me applies Caesar in armour with gerfalcon eyes;
And others many, and he made them blessed; The name that solitary voice proclaimed,
And thou must know, that earlier than these They do me honour, and in that do well.” I saw Camilla and Penthesilea
Never were any human spirits saved.” Thus I beheld assemble the fair school On the other side, and saw the King Latinus,
We ceased not to advance because he spake, Of that lord of the song pre-eminent, Who with Lavinia his daughter sat;
But still were passing onward through the forest, Who o’er the others like an eagle soars. I saw that Brutus who drove Tarquin forth,
The forest, say I, of thick-crowded ghosts. When they together had discoursed somewhat, Lucretia, Julia, Marcia, and Cornelia,
Not very far as yet our way had gone They turned to me with signs of salutation, And saw alone, apart, the Saladin.
This side the summit, when I saw a fire And on beholding this, my Master smiled; When I had lifted up my brows a little,
That overcame a hemisphere of darkness. And more of honour still, much more, they did The Master I beheld of those who know,
We were a little distant from it still, me, Sit with his philosophic family.
But not so far that I in part discerned not In that they made me one of their own band; All gaze upon him, and all do him honour.
That honourable people held that place. So that the sixth was I, ‘mid so much wit. There I beheld both Socrates and Plato,
“O thou who honourest every art and science, Thus we went on as far as to the light, Who nearer him before the others stand;
Who may these be, which such great honour Things saying ’tis becoming to keep silent, Democritus, who puts the world on chance,
have, As was the saying of them where I was. Diogenes, Anaxagoras, and Thales,
Zeno, Empedocles, and Heraclitus; “O thou, that to this dolorous hostelry Not of repose, but even of lesser pain.
Of qualities I saw the good collector, Comest,” said Minos to me, when he saw me, And as the cranes go chanting forth their lays,
Hight Dioscorides; and Orpheus saw I, Leaving the practice of so great an office, Making in air a long line of themselves,
Tully and Livy, and moral Seneca, “Look how thou enterest, and in whom thou So saw I coming, uttering lamentations,
Euclid, geometrician, and Ptolemy, trustest; Shadows borne onward by the aforesaid stress.
Galen, Hippocrates, and Avicenna, Let not the portal’s amplitude deceive thee.” Whereupon said I: “Master, who are those
Averroes, who the great Comment made. And unto him my Guide: “Why criest thou too? People, whom the black air so castigates?”
I cannot all of them pourtray in full, Do not impede his journey fate-ordained; “The first of those, of whom intelligence
Because so drives me onward the long theme, It is so willed there where is power to do Thou fain wouldst have,” then said he unto me,
That many times the word comes short of fact. That which is willed; and ask no further “The empress was of many languages.
The sixfold company in two divides; question.” To sensual vices she was so abandoned,
Another way my sapient Guide conducts me And now begin the dolesome notes to grow That lustful she made licit in her law,
Forth from the quiet to the air that trembles; Audible unto me; now am I come To remove the blame to which she had been led.
And to a place I come where nothing shines. There where much lamentation strikes upon me. She is Semiramis, of whom we read
I came into a place mute of all light, That she succeeded Ninus, and was his spouse;
Inferno: Canto V Which bellows as the sea does in a tempest, She held the land which now the Sultan rules.
If by opposing winds ‘t is combated. The next is she who killed herself for love,
Thus I descended out of the first circle The infernal hurricane that never rests And broke faith with the ashes of Sichaeus;
Down to the second, that less space begirds, Hurtles the spirits onward in its rapine; Then Cleopatra the voluptuous.”
And so much greater dole, that goads to wailing. Whirling them round, and smiting, it molests Helen I saw, for whom so many ruthless
There standeth Minos horribly, and snarls; them. Seasons revolved; and saw the great Achilles,
Examines the transgressions at the entrance; When they arrive before the precipice, Who at the last hour combated with Love.
Judges, and sends according as he girds him. There are the shrieks, the plaints, and the laments, Paris I saw, Tristan; and more than a thousand
I say, that when the spirit evil-born There they blaspheme the puissance divine. Shades did he name and point out with his finger,
Cometh before him, wholly it confesses; I understood that unto such a torment Whom Love had separated from our life.
And this discriminator of transgressions The carnal malefactors were condemned, After that I had listened to my Teacher,
Seeth what place in Hell is meet for it; Who reason subjugate to appetite. Naming the dames of eld and cavaliers,
Girds himself with his tail as many times Pity prevailed, and I was nigh bewildered.
As grades he wishes it should be thrust down. And as the wings of starlings bear them on And I began: “O Poet, willingly
Always before him many of them stand; In the cold season in large band and full, Speak would I to those two, who go together,
They go by turns each one unto the judgment; So doth that blast the spirits maledict; And seem upon the wind to be so light.”
They speak, and hear, and then are downward It hither, thither, downward, upward, drives them; And, he to me: “Thou’lt mark, when they shall be
hurled. No hope doth comfort them for evermore, Nearer to us; and then do thou implore them
By love which leadeth them, and they will These words were borne along from them to us. And all the while one spirit uttered this,
come.” As soon as I had heard those souls tormented, The other one did weep so, that, for pity,
Soon as the wind in our direction sways them, I bowed my face, and so long held it down I swooned away as if I had been dying,
My voice uplift I: “O ye weary souls! Until the Poet said to me: “What thinkest?” And fell, even as a dead body falls.
Come speak to us, if no one interdicts it.” When I made answer, I began: “Alas!
How many pleasant thoughts, how much desire, Inferno: Canto VI
As turtle-doves, called onward by desire, Conducted these unto the dolorous pass!”
With open and steady wings to the sweet nest Then unto them I turned me, and I spake, At the return of consciousness, that closed
Fly through the air by their volition borne, And I began: “Thine agonies, Francesca, Before the pity of those two relations,
So came they from the band where Dido is, Sad and compassionate to weeping make me. Which utterly with sadness had confused me,
Approaching us athwart the air malign, But tell me, at the time of those sweet sighs, New torments I behold, and new tormented
So strong was the affectionate appeal. By what and in what manner Love conceded, Around me, whichsoever way I move,
“O living creature gracious and benignant, That you should know your dubious desires?” And whichsoever way I turn, and gaze.
Who visiting goest through the purple air And she to me: “There is no greater sorrow In the third circle am I of the rain
Us, who have stained the world incarnadine, Than to be mindful of the happy time Eternal, maledict, and cold, and heavy;
If were the King of the Universe our friend, In misery, and that thy Teacher knows. Its law and quality are never new.
We would pray unto him to give thee peace, Huge hail, and water sombre-hued, and snow,
Since thou hast pity on our woe perverse. But, if to recognise the earliest root Athwart the tenebrous air pour down amain;
Of what it pleases thee to hear and speak, Of love in us thou hast so great desire, Noisome the earth is, that receiveth this.
That will we hear, and we will speak to you, I will do even as he who weeps and speaks. Cerberus, monster cruel and uncouth,
While silent is the wind, as it is now. One day we reading were for our delight With his three gullets like a dog is barking
Sitteth the city, wherein I was born, Of Launcelot, how Love did him enthral. Over the people that are there submerged.
Upon the sea-shore where the Po descends Alone we were and without any fear. Red eyes he has, and unctuous beard and black,
To rest in peace with all his retinue. Full many a time our eyes together drew And belly large, and armed with claws his hands;
Love, that on gentle heart doth swiftly seize, That reading, and drove the colour from our He rends the spirits, flays, and quarters them.
Seized this man for the person beautiful faces;
That was ta’en from me, and still the mode But one point only was it that o’ercame us. Howl the rain maketh them like unto dogs;
offends me. When as we read of the much-longed-for smile One side they make a shelter for the other;
Love, that exempts no one beloved from loving, Being by such a noble lover kissed, Oft turn themselves the wretched reprobates.
Seized me with pleasure of this man so strongly, This one, who ne’er from me shall be divided, When Cerberus perceived us, the great worm!
That, as thou seest, it doth not yet desert me; Kissed me upon the mouth all palpitating. His mouths he opened, and displayed his tusks;
Love has conducted us unto one death; Galeotto was the book and he who wrote it. Not a limb had he that was motionless.
Caina waiteth him who quenched our life!” That day no farther did we read therein.” And my Conductor, with his spans extended,
Took of the earth, and with his fists well filled, Weighs on me so that it to weep invites me; I pray thee to the mind of others bring me;
He threw it into those rapacious gullets. But tell me, if thou knowest, to what shall come No more I tell thee and no more I answer.”
Such as that dog is, who by barking craves, Then his straightforward eyes he turned askance,
And quiet grows soon as his food he gnaws, The citizens of the divided city; Eyed me a little, and then bowed his head;
For to devour it he but thinks and struggles, If any there be just; and the occasion He fell therewith prone like the other blind.
The like became those muzzles filth-begrimed Tell me why so much discord has assailed it.” And the Guide said to me: “He wakes no more
Of Cerberus the demon, who so thunders And he to me: “They, after long contention, This side the sound of the angelic trumpet;
Over the souls that they would fain be deaf. Will come to bloodshed; and the rustic party When shall approach the hostile Potentate,
We passed across the shadows, which subdues Will drive the other out with much offence. Each one shall find again his dismal tomb,
The heavy rain-storm, and we placed our feet Then afterwards behoves it this one fall Shall reassume his flesh and his own figure,
Upon their vanity that person seems. Within three suns, and rise again the other Shall hear what through eternity re-echoes.”
They all were lying prone upon the earth, By force of him who now is on the coast. So we passed onward o’er the filthy mixture
Excepting one, who sat upright as soon High will it hold its forehead a long while, Of shadows and of rain with footsteps slow,
As he beheld us passing on before him. Keeping the other under heavy burdens, Touching a little on the future life.
“O thou that art conducted through this Hell,” Howe’er it weeps thereat and is indignant.
He said to me, “recall me, if thou canst; The just are two, and are not understood there; Wherefore I said: “Master, these torments here,
Thyself wast made before I was unmade.” Envy and Arrogance and Avarice Will they increase after the mighty sentence,
And I to him: “The anguish which thou hast Are the three sparks that have all hearts Or lesser be, or will they be as burning?”
Perhaps doth draw thee out of my remembrance, enkindled.” And he to me: “Return unto thy science,
So that it seems not I have ever seen thee. Here ended he his tearful utterance; Which wills, that as the thing more perfect is,
But tell me who thou art, that in so doleful And I to him: “I wish thee still to teach me, The more it feels of pleasure and of pain.
A place art put, and in such punishment, And make a gift to me of further speech. Albeit that this people maledict
If some are greater, none is so displeasing.” Farinata and Tegghiaio, once so worthy, To true perfection never can attain,
And he to me: “Thy city, which is full Jacopo Rusticucci, Arrigo, and Mosca, Hereafter more than now they look to be.”
Of envy so that now the sack runs over, And others who on good deeds set their thoughts, Round in a circle by that road we went,
Held me within it in the life serene. Say where they are, and cause that I may know Speaking much more, which I do not repeat;
You citizens were wont to call me Ciacco; them; We came unto the point where the descent is;
For the pernicious sin of gluttony For great desire constraineth me to learn There we found Plutus the great enemy.
I, as thou seest, am battered by this rain. If Heaven doth sweeten them, or Hell envenom.”
And I, sad soul, am not the only one, And he: “They are among the blacker souls;
For all these suffer the like penalty A different sin downweighs them to the bottom;
For the like sin;” and word no more spake he. If thou so far descendest, thou canst see them.
I answered him: “Ciacco, thy wretchedness But when thou art again in the sweet world,
Inferno: Canto VII Crying, “Why keepest?” and, “Why squanderest Now canst thou, Son, behold the transient farce
thou?” Of goods that are committed unto Fortune,
“Pape Satan, Pape Satan, Aleppe!” Thus they returned along the lurid circle For which the human race each other buffet;
Thus Plutus with his clucking voice began; On either hand unto the opposite point, For all the gold that is beneath the moon,
And that benignant Sage, who all things knew, Shouting their shameful metre evermore. Or ever has been, of these weary souls
Said, to encourage me: “Let not thy fear Then each, when he arrived there, wheeled about Could never make a single one repose.”
Harm thee; for any power that he may have Through his half-circle to another joust; “Master,” I said to him, “now tell me also
Shall not prevent thy going down this crag.” And I, who had my heart pierced as it were, What is this Fortune which thou speakest of,
Then he turned round unto that bloated lip, Exclaimed: “My Master, now declare to me That has the world’s goods so within its
And said: “Be silent, thou accursed wolf; What people these are, and if all were clerks, clutches?”
Consume within thyself with thine own rage. These shaven crowns upon the left of us.” And he to me: “O creatures imbecile,
Not causeless is this journey to the abyss; And he to me: “All of them were asquint What ignorance is this which doth beset you?
Thus is it willed on high, where Michael wrought In intellect in the first life, so much Now will I have thee learn my judgment of her.
Vengeance upon the proud adultery.” That there with measure they no spending made. He whose omniscience everything transcends
Even as the sails inflated by the wind Clearly enough their voices bark it forth, The heavens created, and gave who should guide
Involved together fall when snaps the mast, Whene’er they reach the two points of the circle, them,
So fell the cruel monster to the earth. Where sunders them the opposite defect. That every part to every part may shine,
Thus we descended into the fourth chasm, Clerks those were who no hairy covering Distributing the light in equal measure;
Gaining still farther on the dolesome shore Have on the head, and Popes and Cardinals, He in like manner to the mundane splendours
Which all the woe of the universe insacks. In whom doth Avarice practise its excess.” Ordained a general ministress and guide,
And I: “My Master, among such as these That she might change at times the empty
Justice of God, ah! who heaps up so many I ought forsooth to recognise some few, treasures
New toils and sufferings as I beheld? Who were infected with these maladies.” From race to race, from one blood to another,
And why doth our transgression waste us so? And he to me: “Vain thought thou entertainest; Beyond resistance of all human wisdom.
As doth the billow there upon Charybdis, The undiscerning life which made them sordid Therefore one people triumphs, and another
That breaks itself on that which it encounters, Now makes them unto all discernment dim. Languishes, in pursuance of her judgment,
So here the folk must dance their roundelay. Forever shall they come to these two buttings; Which hidden is, as in the grass a serpent.
Here saw I people, more than elsewhere, many, These from the sepulchre shall rise again Your knowledge has no counterstand against her;
On one side and the other, with great howls, With the fist closed, and these with tresses shorn. She makes provision, judges, and pursues
Rolling weights forward by main force of chest. Ill giving and ill keeping the fair world Her governance, as theirs the other gods.
They clashed together, and then at that point Have ta’en from them, and placed them in this Her permutations have not any truce;
Each one turned backward, rolling retrograde, scuffle; Necessity makes her precipitate,
Whate’er it be, no words adorn I for it. So often cometh who his turn obtains.
And this is she who is so crucified Bearing within ourselves the sluggish reek; As he who listens to some great deceit
Even by those who ought to give her praise, Now we are sullen in this sable mire.’ That has been done to him, and then resents it,
Giving her blame amiss, and bad repute. This hymn do they keep gurgling in their throats, Such became Phlegyas, in his gathered wrath.
But she is blissful, and she hears it not; For with unbroken words they cannot say it.” My Guide descended down into the boat,
Among the other primal creatures gladsome Thus we went circling round the filthy fen And then he made me enter after him,
She turns her sphere, and blissful she rejoices. A great arc ‘twixt the dry bank and the swamp, And only when I entered seemed it laden.
Let us descend now unto greater woe; With eyes turned unto those who gorge the mire; Soon as the Guide and I were in the boat,
Already sinks each star that was ascending Unto the foot of a tower we came at last. The antique prow goes on its way, dividing
When I set out, and loitering is forbidden.” More of the water than ’tis wont with others.
We crossed the circle to the other bank, Inferno: Canto VIII While we were running through the dead canal,
Near to a fount that boils, and pours itself Uprose in front of me one full of mire,
Along a gully that runs out of it. I say, continuing, that long before And said, “Who ‘rt thou that comest ere the
We to the foot of that high tower had come, hour?”
The water was more sombre far than perse; Our eyes went upward to the summit of it, And I to him: “Although I come, I stay not;
And we, in company with the dusky waves, By reason of two flamelets we saw placed there, But who art thou that hast become so squalid?”
Made entrance downward by a path uncouth. And from afar another answer them, “Thou seest that I am one who weeps,” he
A marsh it makes, which has the name of Styx, So far, that hardly could the eye attain it. answered.
This tristful brooklet, when it has descended And, to the sea of all discernment turned, And I to him: “With weeping and with wailing,
Down to the foot of the malign gray shores. I said: “What sayeth this, and what respondeth Thou spirit maledict, do thou remain;
And I, who stood intent upon beholding, That other fire? and who are they that made it?” For thee I know, though thou art all defiled.”
Saw people mud-besprent in that lagoon, And he to me: “Across the turbid waves
All of them naked and with angry look. What is expected thou canst now discern, Then stretched he both his hands unto the boat;
They smote each other not alone with hands, If reek of the morass conceal it not.” Whereat my wary Master thrust him back,
But with the head and with the breast and feet, Cord never shot an arrow from itself Saying, “Away there with the other dogs!”
Tearing each other piecemeal with their teeth. That sped away athwart the air so swift, Thereafter with his arms he clasped my neck;
Said the good Master: “Son, thou now beholdest As I beheld a very little boat He kissed my face, and said: “Disdainful soul,
The souls of those whom anger overcame; Come o’er the water tow’rds us at that moment, Blessed be she who bore thee in her bosom.
And likewise I would have thee know for certain Under the guidance of a single pilot, That was an arrogant person in the world;
Beneath the water people are who sigh Who shouted, “Now art thou arrived, fell soul?” Goodness is none, that decks his memory;
And make this water bubble at the surface, “Phlegyas, Phlegyas, thou criest out in vain So likewise here his shade is furious.
As the eye tells thee wheresoe’er it turns. For this once,” said my Lord; “thou shalt not How many are esteemed great kings up there,
Fixed in the mire they say, ‘We sullen were have us Who here shall be like unto swine in mire,
In the sweet air, which by the sun is gladdened, Longer than in the passing of the slough.” Leaving behind them horrible dispraises!”
And I: “My Master, much should I be pleased, Were saying, “Who is this that without death On my Lord’s breast, who had remained without
If I could see him soused into this broth, Goes through the kingdom of the people dead?” And turned to me with footsteps far between.
Before we issue forth out of the lake.” And my sagacious Master made a sign His eyes cast down, his forehead shorn had he
And he to me: “Ere unto thee the shore Of wishing secretly to speak with them. Of all its boldness, and he said, with sighs,
Reveal itself, thou shalt be satisfied; A little then they quelled their great disdain, “Who has denied to me the dolesome houses?”
Such a desire ’tis meet thou shouldst enjoy.” And said: “Come thou alone, and he begone And unto me: “Thou, because I am angry,
A little after that, I saw such havoc Who has so boldly entered these dominions. Fear not, for I will conquer in the trial,
Made of him by the people of the mire, Let him return alone by his mad road; Whatever for defence within be planned.
That still I praise and thank my God for it. Try, if he can; for thou shalt here remain,
They all were shouting, “At Philippo Argenti!” Who hast escorted him through such dark This arrogance of theirs is nothing new;
And that exasperate spirit Florentine regions.” For once they used it at less secret gate,
Turned round upon himself with his own teeth. Think, Reader, if I was discomforted Which finds itself without a fastening still.
We left him there, and more of him I tell not; At utterance of the accursed words; O’er it didst thou behold the dead inscription;
But on mine ears there smote a lamentation, For never to return here I believed. And now this side of it descends the steep,
Whence forward I intent unbar mine eyes. “O my dear Guide, who more than seven times Passing across the circles without escort,
And the good Master said: “Even now, my Son, Hast rendered me security, and drawn me One by whose means the city shall be opened.”
The city draweth near whose name is Dis, From imminent peril that before me stood,
With the grave citizens, with the great throng.” Do not desert me,” said I, “thus undone; Inferno: Canto IX
And I: “Its mosques already, Master, clearly And if the going farther be denied us,
Within there in the valley I discern Let us retrace our steps together swiftly.” That hue which cowardice brought out on me,
Vermilion, as if issuing from the fire And that Lord, who had led me thitherward, Beholding my Conductor backward turn,
They were.” And he to me: “The fire eternal Said unto me: “Fear not; because our passage Sooner repressed within him his new colour.
That kindles them within makes them look red, None can take from us, it by Such is given. He stopped attentive, like a man who listens,
As thou beholdest in this nether Hell.” But here await me, and thy weary spirit Because the eye could not conduct him far
Then we arrived within the moats profound, Comfort and nourish with a better hope; Through the black air, and through the heavy fog.
That circumvallate that disconsolate city; For in this nether world I will not leave thee.” “Still it behoveth us to win the fight,”
The walls appeared to me to be of iron. So onward goes and there abandons me Began he; “Else … Such offered us herself …
Not without making first a circuit wide, My Father sweet, and I remain in doubt, O how I long that some one here arrive!”
We came unto a place where loud the pilot For No and Yes within my head contend. Well I perceived, as soon as the beginning
Cried out to us, “Debark, here is the entrance.” I could not hear what he proposed to them; He covered up with what came afterward,
But with them there he did not linger long, That they were words quite different from the
More than a thousand at the gates I saw Ere each within in rivalry ran back. first;
Out of the Heavens rained down, who angrily They closed the portals, those our adversaries, But none the less his saying gave me fear,
Because I carried out the broken phrase, Of everlasting lamentation knew, And puts to flight the wild beasts and the
Perhaps to a worse meaning than he had. Said unto me: “Behold the fierce Erinnys. shepherds.
“Into this bottom of the doleful conch This is Megaera, on the left-hand side; Mine eyes he loosed, and said: “Direct the nerve
Doth any e’er descend from the first grade, She who is weeping on the right, Alecto; Of vision now along that ancient foam,
Which for its pain has only hope cut off?” Tisiphone is between;” and then was silent. There yonder where that smoke is most intense.”
Each one her breast was rending with her nails; Even as the frogs before the hostile serpent
This question put I; and he answered me: They beat them with their palms, and cried so Across the water scatter all abroad,
“Seldom it comes to pass that one of us loud, Until each one is huddled in the earth.
Maketh the journey upon which I go. That I for dread pressed close unto the Poet. More than a thousand ruined souls I saw,
True is it, once before I here below “Medusa come, so we to stone will change him!” Thus fleeing from before one who on foot
Was conjured by that pitiless Erictho, All shouted looking down; “in evil hour Was passing o’er the Styx with soles unwet.
Who summoned back the shades unto their Avenged we not on Theseus his assault!” From off his face he fanned that unctuous air,
bodies. “Turn thyself round, and keep thine eyes close Waving his left hand oft in front of him,
Naked of me short while the flesh had been, shut, And only with that anguish seemed he weary.
Before within that wall she made me enter, For if the Gorgon appear, and thou shouldst see Well I perceived one sent from Heaven was he,
To bring a spirit from the circle of Judas; it, And to the Master turned; and he made sign
That is the lowest region and the darkest, No more returning upward would there be.” That I should quiet stand, and bow before him.
And farthest from the heaven which circles all. Thus said the Master; and he turned me round Ah! how disdainful he appeared to me!
Well know I the way; therefore be reassured. Himself, and trusted not unto my hands He reached the gate, and with a little rod
This fen, which a prodigious stench exhales, So far as not to blind me with his own. He opened it, for there was no resistance.
Encompasses about the city dolent, “O banished out of Heaven, people despised!”
Where now we cannot enter without anger.” O ye who have undistempered intellects, Thus he began upon the horrid threshold;
And more he said, but not in mind I have it; Observe the doctrine that conceals itself “Whence is this arrogance within you couched?
Because mine eye had altogether drawn me Beneath the veil of the mysterious verses! Wherefore recalcitrate against that will,
Tow’rds the high tower with the red-flaming And now there came across the turbid waves From which the end can never be cut off,
summit, The clangour of a sound with terror fraught, And which has many times increased your pain?
Where in a moment saw I swift uprisen Because of which both of the margins trembled; What helpeth it to butt against the fates?
The three infernal Furies stained with blood, Not otherwise it was than of a wind Your Cerberus, if you remember well,
Who had the limbs of women and their mien, Impetuous on account of adverse heats, For that still bears his chin and gullet peeled.”
And with the greenest hydras were begirt; That smites the forest, and, without restraint, Then he returned along the miry road,
Small serpents and cerastes were their tresses, The branches rends, beats down, and bears away; And spake no word to us, but had the look
Wherewith their horrid temples were entwined. Right onward, laden with dust, it goes superb, Of one whom other care constrains and goads
And he who well the handmaids of the Queen
Than that of him who in his presence is; Between the torments and high parapets. From out one of the tombs; wherefore I pressed,
And we our feet directed tow’rds the city, Fearing, a little nearer to my Leader.
After those holy words all confident. Inferno: Canto X And unto me he said: “Turn thee; what dost thou?
Within we entered without any contest; Behold there Farinata who has risen;
And I, who inclination had to see Now onward goes, along a narrow path From the waist upwards wholly shalt thou see
What the condition such a fortress holds, Between the torments and the city wall, him.”
Soon as I was within, cast round mine eye, My Master, and I follow at his back. I had already fixed mine eyes on his,
And see on every hand an ample plain, “O power supreme, that through these impious And he uprose erect with breast and front
Full of distress and torment terrible. circles E’en as if Hell he had in great despite.
Even as at Arles, where stagnant grows the Turnest me,” I began, “as pleases thee, And with courageous hands and prompt my
Rhone, Speak to me, and my longings satisfy; Leader
Even as at Pola near to the Quarnaro, The people who are lying in these tombs, Thrust me between the sepulchres towards him,
That shuts in Italy and bathes its borders, Might they be seen? already are uplifted Exclaiming, “Let thy words explicit be.”
The sepulchres make all the place uneven; The covers all, and no one keepeth guard.”
So likewise did they there on every side, And he to me: “They all will be closed up As soon as I was at the foot of his tomb
Saving that there the manner was more bitter; When from Jehoshaphat they shall return Somewhat he eyed me, and, as if disdainful,
For flames between the sepulchres were Here with the bodies they have left above. Then asked of me, “Who were thine ancestors?”
scattered, Their cemetery have upon this side I, who desirous of obeying was,
By which they so intensely heated were, With Epicurus all his followers, Concealed it not, but all revealed to him;
That iron more so asks not any art. Who with the body mortal make the soul; Whereat he raised his brows a little upward.
All of their coverings uplifted were, But in the question thou dost put to me, Then said he: “Fiercely adverse have they been
And from them issued forth such dire laments, Within here shalt thou soon be satisfied, To me, and to my fathers, and my party;
Sooth seemed they of the wretched and And likewise in the wish thou keepest silent.” So that two several times I scattered them.”
tormented. And I: “Good Leader, I but keep concealed “If they were banished, they returned on all
And I: “My Master, what are all those people From thee my heart, that I may speak the less, sides,”
Who, having sepulture within those tombs, Nor only now hast thou thereto disposed me.” I answered him, “the first time and the second;
Make themselves audible by doleful sighs?” “O Tuscan, thou who through the city of fire But yours have not acquired that art aright.”
And he to me: “Here are the Heresiarchs, Goest alive, thus speaking modestly, Then there uprose upon the sight, uncovered
With their disciples of all sects, and much Be pleased to stay thy footsteps in this place. Down to the chin, a shadow at his side;
More than thou thinkest laden are the tombs. Thy mode of speaking makes thee manifest I think that he had risen on his knees.
Here like together with its like is buried; A native of that noble fatherland, Round me he gazed, as if solicitude
And more and less the monuments are heated.” To which perhaps I too molestful was.” He had to see if some one else were with me,
And when he to the right had turned, we passed Upon a sudden issued forth this sound But after his suspicion was all spent,
Weeping, he said to me: “If through this blind After his head he with a sigh had shaken, Thereon he hid himself; and I towards
Prison thou goest by loftiness of genius, “There I was not alone,” he said, “nor surely The ancient poet turned my steps, reflecting
Where is my son? and why is he not with thee?” Without a cause had with the others moved. Upon that saying, which seemed hostile to me.
And I to him: “I come not of myself; But there I was alone, where every one
He who is waiting yonder leads me here, Consented to the laying waste of Florence, He moved along; and afterward thus going,
Whom in disdain perhaps your Guido had.” He who defended her with open face.” He said to me, “Why art thou so bewildered?”
His language and the mode of punishment “Ah! so hereafter may your seed repose,” And I in his inquiry satisfied him.
Already unto me had read his name; I him entreated, “solve for me that knot, “Let memory preserve what thou hast heard
On that account my answer was so full. Which has entangled my conceptions here. Against thyself,” that Sage commanded me,
Up starting suddenly, he cried out: “How It seems that you can see, if I hear rightly, “And now attend here;” and he raised his finger.
Saidst thou,—he had? Is he not still alive? Beforehand whatsoe’er time brings with it, “When thou shalt be before the radiance sweet
Does not the sweet light strike upon his eyes?” And in the present have another mode.” Of her whose beauteous eyes all things behold,
When he became aware of some delay, “We see, like those who have imperfect sight, From her thou’lt know the journey of thy life.”
Which I before my answer made, supine The things,” he said, “that distant are from us; Unto the left hand then he turned his feet;
He fell again, and forth appeared no more. So much still shines on us the Sovereign Ruler. We left the wall, and went towards the middle,
But the other, magnanimous, at whose desire When they draw near, or are, is wholly vain Along a path that strikes into a valley,
I had remained, did not his aspect change, Our intellect, and if none brings it to us, Which even up there unpleasant made its stench.
Neither his neck he moved, nor bent his side. Not anything know we of your human state.
“And if,” continuing his first discourse, Hence thou canst understand, that wholly dead Inferno: Canto XI
“They have that art,” he said, “not learned aright, Will be our knowledge from the moment when
That more tormenteth me, than doth this bed. The portal of the future shall be closed.” Upon the margin of a lofty bank
But fifty times shall not rekindled be Then I, as if compunctious for my fault, Which great rocks broken in a circle made,
The countenance of the Lady who reigns here, Said: “Now, then, you will tell that fallen one, We came upon a still more cruel throng;
Ere thou shalt know how heavy is that art; That still his son is with the living joined. And there, by reason of the horrible
And if just now, in answering, I was dumb, Excess of stench the deep abyss throws out,
And as thou wouldst to the sweet world return, Tell him I did it because I was thinking We drew ourselves aside behind the cover
Say why that people is so pitiless Already of the error you have solved me.” Of a great tomb, whereon I saw a writing,
Against my race in each one of its laws?” And now my Master was recalling me, Which said: “Pope Anastasius I hold,
Whence I to him: “The slaughter and great Wherefore more eagerly I prayed the spirit Whom out of the right way Photinus drew.”
carnage That he would tell me who was with him there. “Slow it behoveth our descent to be,
Which have with crimson stained the Arbia, He said: “With more than a thousand here I lie; So that the sense be first a little used
cause Within here is the second Frederick, To the sad blast, and then we shall not heed it.”
Such orisons in our temple to be made.” And the Cardinal, and of the rest I speak not.” The Master thus; and unto him I said,
“Some compensation find, that the time pass not Whoever of your world deprives himself, Not punished, if God has them in his wrath,
Idly;” and he: “Thou seest I think of that. Who games, and dissipates his property, And if he has not, wherefore in such fashion?”
My son, upon the inside of these rocks,” And weepeth there, where he should jocund be. And unto me he said: “Why wanders so
Began he then to say, “are three small circles, Violence can be done the Deity, Thine intellect from that which it is wont?
From grade to grade, like those which thou art In heart denying and blaspheming Him, Or, sooth, thy mind where is it elsewhere
leaving. And by disdaining Nature and her bounty. looking?
And for this reason doth the smallest round Hast thou no recollection of those words
They all are full of spirits maledict; Seal with its signet Sodom and Cahors, With which thine Ethics thoroughly discusses
But that hereafter sight alone suffice thee, And who, disdaining God, speaks from the heart. The dispositions three, that Heaven abides not,—
Hear how and wherefore they are in constraint. Fraud, wherewithal is every conscience stung, Incontinence, and Malice, and insane
Of every malice that wins hate in Heaven, A man may practise upon him who trusts, Bestiality? and how Incontinence
Injury is the end; and all such end And him who doth no confidence imburse. Less God offendeth, and less blame attracts?
Either by force or fraud afflicteth others. This latter mode, it would appear, dissevers If thou regardest this conclusion well,
But because fraud is man’s peculiar vice, Only the bond of love which Nature makes; And to thy mind recallest who they are
More it displeases God; and so stand lowest Wherefore within the second circle nestle That up outside are undergoing penance,
The fraudulent, and greater dole assails them. Hypocrisy, flattery, and who deals in magic, Clearly wilt thou perceive why from these felons
All the first circle of the Violent is; Falsification, theft, and simony, They separated are, and why less wroth
But since force may be used against three Panders, and barrators, and the like filth. Justice divine doth smite them with its hammer.”
persons, “O Sun, that healest all distempered vision,
In three rounds ’tis divided and constructed. By the other mode, forgotten is that love Thou dost content me so, when thou resolvest,
To God, to ourselves, and to our neighbour can Which Nature makes, and what is after added, That doubting pleases me no less than knowing!
we From which there is a special faith engendered. Once more a little backward turn thee,” said I,
Use force; I say on them and on their things, Hence in the smallest circle, where the point is “There where thou sayest that usury offends
As thou shalt hear with reason manifest. Of the Universe, upon which Dis is seated, Goodness divine, and disengage the knot.”
A death by violence, and painful wounds, Whoe’er betrays for ever is consumed.” “Philosophy,” he said, “to him who heeds it,
Are to our neighbour given; and in his substance And I: “My Master, clear enough proceeds Noteth, not only in one place alone,
Ruin, and arson, and injurious levies; Thy reasoning, and full well distinguishes After what manner Nature takes her course
Whence homicides, and he who smites unjustly, This cavern and the people who possess it. From Intellect Divine, and from its art;
Marauders, and freebooters, the first round But tell me, those within the fat lagoon, And if thy Physics carefully thou notest,
Tormenteth all in companies diverse. Whom the wind drives, and whom the rain doth After not many pages shalt thou find,
Man may lay violent hands upon himself beat,
And his own goods; and therefore in the second And who encounter with such bitter tongues, That this your art as far as possible
Round must perforce without avail repent Wherefore are they inside of the red city Follows, as the disciple doth the master;
So that your art is, as it were, God’s grandchild. Who in the world above brought death to thee? Whoe’er by violence doth injure others.”
From these two, if thou bringest to thy mind O blind cupidity, O wrath insane,
Genesis at the beginning, it behoves Get thee gone, beast, for this one cometh not That spurs us onward so in our short life,
Mankind to gain their life and to advance; Instructed by thy sister, but he comes And in the eternal then so badly steeps us!
And since the usurer takes another way, In order to behold your punishments.” I saw an ample moat bent like a bow,
Nature herself and in her follower As is that bull who breaks loose at the moment As one which all the plain encompasses,
Disdains he, for elsewhere he puts his hope. In which he has received the mortal blow, Conformable to what my Guide had said.
But follow, now, as I would fain go on, Who cannot walk, but staggers here and there, And between this and the embankment’s foot
For quivering are the Fishes on the horizon, The Minotaur beheld I do the like; Centaurs in file were running, armed with arrows,
And the Wain wholly over Caurus lies, And he, the wary, cried: “Run to the passage; As in the world they used the chase to follow.
And far beyond there we descend the crag.” While he wroth, ’tis well thou shouldst descend.” Beholding us descend, each one stood still,
Thus down we took our way o’er that discharge And from the squadron three detached
Inferno: Canto XII Of stones, which oftentimes did move themselves themselves,
Beneath my feet, from the unwonted burden. With bows and arrows in advance selected;
The place where to descend the bank we came Thoughtful I went; and he said: “Thou art
Was alpine, and from what was there, moreover, thinking And from afar one cried: “Unto what torment
Of such a kind that every eye would shun it. Perhaps upon this ruin, which is guarded Come ye, who down the hillside are descending?
Such as that ruin is which in the flank By that brute anger which just now I quenched. Tell us from there; if not, I draw the bow.”
Smote, on this side of Trent, the Adige, Now will I have thee know, the other time My Master said: “Our answer will we make
Either by earthquake or by failing stay, I here descended to the nether Hell, To Chiron, near you there; in evil hour,
For from the mountain’s top, from which it This precipice had not yet fallen down. That will of thine was evermore so hasty.”
moved, But truly, if I well discern, a little Then touched he me, and said: “This one is
Unto the plain the cliff is shattered so, Before His coming who the mighty spoil Nessus,
Some path ’twould give to him who was above; Bore off from Dis, in the supernal circle, Who perished for the lovely Dejanira,
Even such was the descent of that ravine, Upon all sides the deep and loathsome valley And for himself, himself did vengeance take.
And on the border of the broken chasm Trembled so, that I thought the Universe And he in the midst, who at his breast is gazing,
The infamy of Crete was stretched along, Was thrilled with love, by which there are who Is the great Chiron, who brought up Achilles;
Who was conceived in the fictitious cow; think That other Pholus is, who was so wrathful.
And when he us beheld, he bit himself, The world ofttimes converted into chaos; Thousands and thousands go about the moat
Even as one whom anger racks within. And at that moment this primeval crag Shooting with shafts whatever soul emerges
My Sage towards him shouted: “Peradventure Both here and elsewhere made such overthrow. Out of the blood, more than his crime allots.”
Thou think’st that here may be the Duke of But fix thine eyes below; for draweth near Near we approached unto those monsters fleet;
Athens, The river of blood, within which boiling is Chiron an arrow took, and with the notch
Backward upon his jaws he put his beard. That forehead there which has the hair so black Inferno: Canto XIII
After he had uncovered his great mouth, Is Azzolin; and the other who is blond,
He said to his companions: “Are you ware Obizzo is of Esti, who, in truth, Not yet had Nessus reached the other side,
That he behind moveth whate’er he touches? Up in the world was by his stepson slain.” When we had put ourselves within a wood,
Thus are not wont to do the feet of dead men.” Then turned I to the Poet; and he said, That was not marked by any path whatever.
And my good Guide, who now was at his breast, “Now he be first to thee, and second I.” Not foliage green, but of a dusky colour,
Where the two natures are together joined, A little farther on the Centaur stopped Not branches smooth, but gnarled and
Replied: “Indeed he lives, and thus alone Above a folk, who far down as the throat intertangled,
Me it behoves to show him the dark valley; Seemed from that boiling stream to issue forth. Not apple-trees were there, but thorns with
Necessity, and not delight, impels us. A shade he showed us on one side alone, poison.
Some one withdrew from singing Halleluja, Saying: “He cleft asunder in God’s bosom Such tangled thickets have not, nor so dense,
Who unto me committed this new office; The heart that still upon the Thames is Those savage wild beasts, that in hatred hold
No thief is he, nor I a thievish spirit. honoured.” ‘Twixt Cecina and Corneto the tilled places.
But by that virtue through which I am moving Then people saw I, who from out the river There do the hideous Harpies make their nests,
My steps along this savage thoroughfare, Lifted their heads and also all the chest; Who chased the Trojans from the Strophades,
Give us some one of thine, to be with us, And many among these I recognised. With sad announcement of impending doom;
And who may show us where to pass the ford, Thus ever more and more grew shallower Broad wings have they, and necks and faces
And who may carry this one on his back; That blood, so that the feet alone it covered; human,
For ’tis no spirit that can walk the air.” And there across the moat our passage was. And feet with claws, and their great bellies
Upon his right breast Chiron wheeled about, “Even as thou here upon this side beholdest fledged;
And said to Nessus: “Turn and do thou guide The boiling stream, that aye diminishes,” They make laments upon the wondrous trees.
them, The Centaur said, “I wish thee to believe And the good Master: “Ere thou enter farther,
And warn aside, if other band may meet you.” That on this other more and more declines Know that thou art within the second round,”
We with our faithful escort onward moved Its bed, until it reunites itself Thus he began to say, “and shalt be, till
Along the brink of the vermilion boiling, Where it behoveth tyranny to groan. Thou comest out upon the horrible sand;
Wherein the boiled were uttering loud laments. Justice divine, upon this side, is goading Therefore look well around, and thou shalt see
That Attila, who was a scourge on earth, Things that will credence give unto my speech.”
People I saw within up to the eyebrows, And Pyrrhus, and Sextus; and for ever milks I heard on all sides lamentations uttered,
And the great Centaur said: “Tyrants are these, The tears which with the boiling it unseals And person none beheld I who might make them,
Who dealt in bloodshed and in pillaging. In Rinier da Corneto and Rinier Pazzo, Whence, utterly bewildered, I stood still.
Here they lament their pitiless mischiefs; here Who made upon the highways so much war.” I think he thought that I perhaps might think
Is Alexander, and fierce Dionysius Then back he turned, and passed again the ford. So many voices issued through those trunks
Who upon Sicily brought dolorous years. From people who concealed themselves from us;
Therefore the Master said: “If thou break off That I a little to discourse am tempted. Spirit incarcerate, again be pleased
Some little spray from any of these trees, I am the one who both keys had in keeping To tell us in what way the soul is bound
The thoughts thou hast will wholly be made Of Frederick’s heart, and turned them to and fro Within these knots; and tell us, if thou canst,
vain.” So softly in unlocking and in locking, If any from such members e’er is freed.”
Then stretched I forth my hand a little forward, That from his secrets most men I withheld; Then blew the trunk amain, and afterward
And plucked a branchlet off from a great thorn; Fidelity I bore the glorious office The wind was into such a voice converted:
And the trunk cried, “Why dost thou mangle So great, I lost thereby my sleep and pulses. “With brevity shall be replied to you.
me?” The courtesan who never from the dwelling When the exasperated soul abandons
After it had become embrowned with blood, Of Caesar turned aside her strumpet eyes, The body whence it rent itself away,
It recommenced its cry: “Why dost thou rend me? Death universal and the vice of courts, Minos consigns it to the seventh abyss.
Hast thou no spirit of pity whatsoever? Inflamed against me all the other minds, It falls into the forest, and no part
Men once we were, and now are changed to trees; And they, inflamed, did so inflame Augustus, Is chosen for it; but where Fortune hurls it,
Indeed, thy hand should be more pitiful, That my glad honours turned to dismal There like a grain of spelt it germinates.
Even if the souls of serpents we had been.” mournings. It springs a sapling, and a forest tree;
My spirit, in disdainful exultation, The Harpies, feeding then upon its leaves,
As out of a green brand, that is on fire Thinking by dying to escape disdain, Do pain create, and for the pain an outlet.
At one of the ends, and from the other drips Made me unjust against myself, the just. Like others for our spoils shall we return;
And hisses with the wind that is escaping; I, by the roots unwonted of this wood, But not that any one may them revest,
So from that splinter issued forth together Do swear to you that never broke I faith For ’tis not just to have what one casts off.
Both words and blood; whereat I let the tip Unto my lord, who was so worthy of honour; Here we shall drag them, and along the dismal
Fall, and stood like a man who is afraid. And to the world if one of you return, Forest our bodies shall suspended be,
“Had he been able sooner to believe,” Let him my memory comfort, which is lying Each to the thorn of his molested shade.”
My Sage made answer, “O thou wounded soul, Still prostrate from the blow that envy dealt it.” We were attentive still unto the trunk,
What only in my verses he has seen, Waited awhile, and then: “Since he is silent,” Thinking that more it yet might wish to tell us,
Not upon thee had he stretched forth his hand; The Poet said to me, “lose not the time, When by a tumult we were overtaken,
Whereas the thing incredible has caused me But speak, and question him, if more may please In the same way as he is who perceives
To put him to an act which grieveth me. thee.” The boar and chase approaching to his stand,
But tell him who thou wast, so that by way Who hears the crashing of the beasts and
Of some amends thy fame he may refresh Whence I to him: “Do thou again inquire branches;
Up in the world, to which he can return.” Concerning what thou thinks’t will satisfy me; And two behold! upon our left-hand side,
And the trunk said: “So thy sweet words allure For I cannot, such pity is in my heart.” Naked and scratched, fleeing so furiously,
me, Therefore he recommenced: “So may the man That of the forest, every fan they broke.
I cannot silent be; and you be vexed not, Do for thee freely what thy speech implores,
He who was in advance: “Now help, Death, Forever with his art will make it sad. And some were sitting all drawn up together,
help!” And were it not that on the pass of Arno And others went about continually.
And the other one, who seemed to lag too much, Some glimpses of him are remaining still, Those who were going round were far the more,
Was shouting: “Lano, were not so alert Those citizens, who afterwards rebuilt it And those were less who lay down to their
Those legs of thine at joustings of the Toppo!” Upon the ashes left by Attila, torment,
And then, perchance because his breath was In vain had caused their labour to be done. But had their tongues more loosed to lamentation.
failing, Of my own house I made myself a gibbet.” O’er all the sand-waste, with a gradual fall,
He grouped himself together with a bush. Were raining down dilated flakes of fire,
Inferno: Canto XIV As of the snow on Alp without a wind.
Behind them was the forest full of black As Alexander, in those torrid parts
She-mastiffs, ravenous, and swift of foot Because the charity of my native place Of India, beheld upon his host
As greyhounds, who are issuing from the chain. Constrained me, gathered I the scattered leaves, Flames fall unbroken till they reached the ground.
On him who had crouched down they set their And gave them back to him, who now was Whence he provided with his phalanxes
teeth, hoarse. To trample down the soil, because the vapour
And him they lacerated piece by piece, Then came we to the confine, where disparted Better extinguished was while it was single;
Thereafter bore away those aching members. The second round is from the third, and where Thus was descending the eternal heat,
Thereat my Escort took me by the hand, A horrible form of Justice is beheld. Whereby the sand was set on fire, like tinder
And led me to the bush, that all in vain Clearly to manifest these novel things, Beneath the steel, for doubling of the dole.
Was weeping from its bloody lacerations. I say that we arrived upon a plain,
“O Jacopo,” it said, “of Sant’ Andrea, Which from its bed rejecteth every plant; Without repose forever was the dance
What helped it thee of me to make a screen? The dolorous forest is a garland to it Of miserable hands, now there, now here,
What blame have I in thy nefarious life?” All round about, as the sad moat to that; Shaking away from off them the fresh gleeds.
When near him had the Master stayed his steps, There close upon the edge we stayed our feet. “Master,” began I, “thou who overcomest
He said: “Who wast thou, that through wounds so The soil was of an arid and thick sand, All things except the demons dire, that issued
many Not of another fashion made than that Against us at the entrance of the gate,
Art blowing out with blood thy dolorous Which by the feet of Cato once was pressed. Who is that mighty one who seems to heed not
speech?” Vengeance of God, O how much oughtest thou The fire, and lieth lowering and disdainful,
And he to us: “O souls, that hither come By each one to be dreaded, who doth read So that the rain seems not to ripen him?”
To look upon the shameful massacre That which was manifest unto mine eyes! And he himself, who had become aware
That has so rent away from me my leaves, Of naked souls beheld I many herds, That I was questioning my Guide about him,
Gather them up beneath the dismal bush; Who all were weeping very miserably, Cried: “Such as I was living, am I, dead.
I of that city was which to the Baptist And over them seemed set a law diverse. If Jove should weary out his smith, from whom
Changed its first patron, wherefore he for this Supine upon the ground some folk were lying; He seized in anger the sharp thunderbolt,
Wherewith upon the last day I was smitten, Whence I perceived that there the passage was. Which gathered together perforate that cavern.
And if he wearied out by turns the others “In all the rest which I have shown to thee From rock to rock they fall into this valley;
In Mongibello at the swarthy forge, Since we have entered in within the gate Acheron, Styx, and Phlegethon they form;
Vociferating, ‘Help, good Vulcan, help!’ Whose threshold unto no one is denied, Then downward go along this narrow sluice
Even as he did there at the fight of Phlegra, Nothing has been discovered by thine eyes Unto that point where is no more descending.
And shot his bolts at me with all his might, So notable as is the present river, They form Cocytus; what that pool may be
He would not have thereby a joyous vengeance.” Which all the little flames above it quenches.” Thou shalt behold, so here ’tis not narrated.”
Then did my Leader speak with such great force, These words were of my Leader; whence I And I to him: “If so the present runnel
That I had never heard him speak so loud: prayed him Doth take its rise in this way from our world,
“O Capaneus, in that is not extinguished That he would give me largess of the food, Why only on this verge appears it to us?”
Thine arrogance, thou punished art the more; For which he had given me largess of desire.
Not any torment, saving thine own rage, “In the mid-sea there sits a wasted land,” And he to me: “Thou knowest the place is round,
Would be unto thy fury pain complete.” Said he thereafterward, “whose name is Crete, And notwithstanding thou hast journeyed far,
Then he turned round to me with better lip, Under whose king the world of old was chaste. Still to the left descending to the bottom,
Saying: “One of the Seven Kings was he There is a mountain there, that once was glad Thou hast not yet through all the circle turned.
Who Thebes besieged, and held, and seems to With waters and with leaves, which was called Therefore if something new appear to us,
hold Ida; It should not bring amazement to thy face.”
God in disdain, and little seems to prize him; Now ’tis deserted, as a thing worn out. And I again: “Master, where shall be found
But, as I said to him, his own despites Rhea once chose it for the faithful cradle Lethe and Phlegethon, for of one thou’rt silent,
Are for his breast the fittest ornaments. Of her own son; and to conceal him better, And sayest the other of this rain is made?”
Now follow me, and mind thou do not place Whene’er he cried, she there had clamours made. “In all thy questions truly thou dost please me,”
As yet thy feet upon the burning sand, A grand old man stands in the mount erect, Replied he; “but the boiling of the red
But always keep them close unto the wood.” Who holds his shoulders turned tow’rds Water might well solve one of them thou makest.
Speaking no word, we came to where there Damietta, Thou shalt see Lethe, but outside this moat,
gushes And looks at Rome as if it were his mirror. There where the souls repair to lave themselves,
Forth from the wood a little rivulet, His head is fashioned of refined gold, When sin repented of has been removed.”
Whose redness makes my hair still stand on end. And of pure silver are the arms and breast; Then said he: “It is time now to abandon
As from the Bulicame springs the brooklet, Then he is brass as far down as the fork. The wood; take heed that thou come after me;
The sinful women later share among them, From that point downward all is chosen iron, A way the margins make that are not burning,
So downward through the sand it went its way. Save that the right foot is of kiln-baked clay, And over them all vapours are extinguished.”
And more he stands on that than on the other.
The bottom of it, and both sloping banks, Each part, except the gold, is by a fissure
Were made of stone, and the margins at the side; Asunder cleft, that dripping is with tears,
Inferno: Canto XV And bowing down my face unto his own, Which of old time from Fesole descended,
I made reply, “Are you here, Ser Brunetto?” And smacks still of the mountain and the granite,
Now bears us onward one of the hard margins, And he: “May’t not displease thee, O my son, Will make itself, for thy good deeds, thy foe;
And so the brooklet’s mist o’ershadows it, If a brief space with thee Brunetto Latini And it is right; for among crabbed sorbs
From fire it saves the water and the dikes. Backward return and let the trail go on.” It ill befits the sweet fig to bear fruit.
Even as the Flemings, ‘twixt Cadsand and I said to him: “With all my power I ask it; Old rumour in the world proclaims them blind;
Bruges, And if you wish me to sit down with you, A people avaricious, envious, proud;
Fearing the flood that tow’rds them hurls itself, I will, if he please, for I go with him.” Take heed that of their customs thou do cleanse
Their bulwarks build to put the sea to flight; “O son,” he said, “whoever of this herd thee.
And as the Paduans along the Brenta, A moment stops, lies then a hundred years, Thy fortune so much honour doth reserve thee,
To guard their villas and their villages, Nor fans himself when smiteth him the fire. One party and the other shall be hungry
Or ever Chiarentana feel the heat; Therefore go on; I at thy skirts will come, For thee; but far from goat shall be the grass.
In such similitude had those been made, And afterward will I rejoin my band, Their litter let the beasts of Fesole
Albeit not so lofty nor so thick, Which goes lamenting its eternal doom.” Make of themselves, nor let them touch the plant,
Whoever he might be, the master made them. I did not dare to go down from the road If any still upon their dunghill rise,
Now were we from the forest so remote, Level to walk with him; but my head bowed In which may yet revive the consecrated
I could not have discovered where it was, I held as one who goeth reverently. Seed of those Romans, who remained there when
Even if backward I had turned myself, And he began: “What fortune or what fate The nest of such great malice it became.”
When we a company of souls encountered, Before the last day leadeth thee down here? “If my entreaty wholly were fulfilled,”
Who came beside the dike, and every one And who is this that showeth thee the way?” Replied I to him, “not yet would you be
Gazed at us, as at evening we are wont “Up there above us in the life serene,” In banishment from human nature placed;
I answered him, “I lost me in a valley, For in my mind is fixed, and touches now
To eye each other under a new moon, Or ever yet my age had been completed. My heart the dear and good paternal image
And so towards us sharpened they their brows But yestermorn I turned my back upon it; Of you, when in the world from hour to hour
As an old tailor at the needle’s eye. This one appeared to me, returning thither, You taught me how a man becomes eternal;
Thus scrutinised by such a family, And homeward leadeth me along this road.” And how much I am grateful, while I live
By some one I was recognised, who seized And he to me: “If thou thy star do follow, Behoves that in my language be discerned.
My garment’s hem, and cried out, “What a Thou canst not fail thee of a glorious port, What you narrate of my career I write,
marvel!” If well I judged in the life beautiful. And keep it to be glossed with other text
And I, when he stretched forth his arm to me, And if I had not died so prematurely, By a Lady who can do it, if I reach her.
On his baked aspect fastened so mine eyes, Seeing Heaven thus benignant unto thee, This much will I have manifest to you;
That the scorched countenance prevented not I would have given thee comfort in the work. Provided that my conscience do not chide me,
His recognition by my intellect; But that ungrateful and malignant people, For whatsoever Fortune I am ready.
Such handsel is not new unto mine ears; Inferno: Canto XVI Let the renown of us thy mind incline
Therefore let Fortune turn her wheel around To tell us who thou art, who thus securely
As it may please her, and the churl his mattock.” Now was I where was heard the reverberation Thy living feet dost move along through Hell.
My Master thereupon on his right cheek Of water falling into the next round, He in whose footprints thou dost see me treading,
Did backward turn himself, and looked at me; Like to that humming which the beehives make, Naked and skinless though he now may go,
Then said: “He listeneth well who noteth it.” When shadows three together started forth, Was of a greater rank than thou dost think;
Nor speaking less on that account, I go Running, from out a company that passed He was the grandson of the good Gualdrada;
With Ser Brunetto, and I ask who are Beneath the rain of the sharp martyrdom. His name was Guidoguerra, and in life
His most known and most eminent companions. Towards us came they, and each one cried out: Much did he with his wisdom and his sword.
“Stop, thou; for by thy garb to us thou seemest
And he to me: “To know of some is well; To be some one of our depraved city.” The other, who close by me treads the sand,
Of others it were laudable to be silent, Ah me! what wounds I saw upon their limbs, Tegghiaio Aldobrandi is, whose fame
For short would be the time for so much speech. Recent and ancient by the flames burnt in! Above there in the world should welcome be.
Know them in sum, that all of them were clerks, It pains me still but to remember it. And I, who with them on the cross am placed,
And men of letters great and of great fame, Unto their cries my Teacher paused attentive; Jacopo Rusticucci was; and truly
In the world tainted with the selfsame sin. He turned his face towards me, and “Now wait,” My savage wife, more than aught else, doth harm
Priscian goes yonder with that wretched crowd, He said; “to these we should be courteous. me.”
And Francis of Accorso; and thou hadst seen And if it were not for the fire that darts Could I have been protected from the fire,
there The nature of this region, I should say Below I should have thrown myself among them,
If thou hadst had a hankering for such scurf, That haste were more becoming thee than them.” And think the Teacher would have suffered it;
That one, who by the Servant of the Servants As soon as we stood still, they recommenced But as I should have burned and baked myself,
From Arno was transferred to Bacchiglione, The old refrain, and when they overtook us, My terror overmastered my good will,
Where he has left his sin-excited nerves. Formed of themselves a wheel, all three of them. Which made me greedy of embracing them.
More would I say, but coming and discoursing As champions stripped and oiled are wont to do, Then I began: “Sorrow and not disdain
Can be no longer; for that I behold Watching for their advantage and their hold, Did your condition fix within me so,
New smoke uprising yonder from the sand. Before they come to blows and thrusts between That tardily it wholly is stripped off,
A people comes with whom I may not be; them, As soon as this my Lord said unto me
Commended unto thee be my Tesoro, Thus, wheeling round, did every one his visage Words, on account of which I thought within me
In which I still live, and no more I ask.” Direct to me, so that in opposite wise That people such as you are were approaching.
Then he turned round, and seemed to be of those His neck and feet continual journey made. I of your city am; and evermore
Who at Verona run for the Green Mantle And, “If the misery of this soft place Your labours and your honourable names
Across the plain; and seemed to be among them Bring in disdain ourselves and our entreaties,” I with affection have retraced and heard.
The one who wins, and not the one who loses. Began one, “and our aspect black and blistered, I leave the gall, and go for the sweet fruits
Promised to me by the veracious Leader; Even as that stream which holdeth its own course Because without his fault it causes shame;
But to the centre first I needs must plunge.” The first from Monte Veso tow’rds the East, But here I cannot; and, Reader, by the notes
“So may the soul for a long while conduct Upon the left-hand slope of Apennine, Of this my Comedy to thee I swear,
Those limbs of thine,” did he make answer then, Which is above called Acquacheta, ere So may they not be void of lasting favour,
“And so may thy renown shine after thee, It down descendeth into its low bed, Athwart that dense and darksome atmosphere
Valour and courtesy, say if they dwell And at Forli is vacant of that name, I saw a figure swimming upward come,
Within our city, as they used to do, Reverberates there above San Benedetto Marvellous unto every steadfast heart,
Or if they wholly have gone out of it; From Alps, by falling at a single leap, Even as he returns who goeth down
For Guglielmo Borsier, who is in torment Where for a thousand there were room enough; Sometimes to clear an anchor, which has
With us of late, and goes there with his comrades, Thus downward from a bank precipitate, grappled
Doth greatly mortify us with his words.” We found resounding that dark-tinted water, Reef, or aught else that in the sea is hidden,
“The new inhabitants and the sudden gains, So that it soon the ear would have offended. Who upward stretches, and draws in his feet.
Pride and extravagance have in thee engendered, I had a cord around about me girt,
Florence, so that thou weep’st thereat already!” And therewithal I whilom had designed Inferno: Canto XVII
In this wise I exclaimed with face uplifted; To take the panther with the painted skin.
And the three, taking that for my reply, After I this had all from me unloosed, “Behold the monster with the pointed tail,
Looked at each other, as one looks at truth. As my Conductor had commanded me, Who cleaves the hills, and breaketh walls and
“If other times so little it doth cost thee,” I reached it to him, gathered up and coiled, weapons,
Replied they all, “to satisfy another, Whereat he turned himself to the right side, Behold him who infecteth all the world.”
Happy art thou, thus speaking at thy will! And at a little distance from the verge, Thus unto me my Guide began to say,
He cast it down into that deep abyss. And beckoned him that he should come to shore,
Therefore, if thou escape from these dark places, “It must needs be some novelty respond,” Near to the confine of the trodden marble;
And come to rebehold the beauteous stars, I said within myself, “to the new signal And that uncleanly image of deceit
When it shall pleasure thee to say, ‘I was,’ The Master with his eye is following so.” Came up and thrust ashore its head and bust,
See that thou speak of us unto the people.” Ah me! how very cautious men should be But on the border did not drag its tail.
Then they broke up the wheel, and in their flight With those who not alone behold the act, The face was as the face of a just man,
It seemed as if their agile legs were wings. But with their wisdom look into the thoughts! Its semblance outwardly was so benign,
Not an Amen could possibly be said He said to me: “Soon there will upward come And of a serpent all the trunk beside.
So rapidly as they had disappeared; What I await; and what thy thought is dreaming Two paws it had, hairy unto the armpits;
Wherefore the Master deemed best to depart. Must soon reveal itself unto thy sight.” The back, and breast, and both the sides it had
I followed him, and little had we gone, Depicted o’er with nooses and with shields.
Before the sound of water was so near us, Aye to that truth which has the face of falsehood, With colours more, groundwork or broidery
That speaking we should hardly have been heard. A man should close his lips as far as may be, Never in cloth did Tartars make nor Turks,
Nor were such tissues by Arachne laid. Not otherwise in summer do the dogs, And said to me: “Now be both strong and bold.
Now with the foot, now with the muzzle, when Now we descend by stairways such as these;
As sometimes wherries lie upon the shore, By fleas, or flies, or gadflies, they are bitten. Mount thou in front, for I will be midway,
That part are in the water, part on land; When I had turned mine eyes upon the faces So that the tail may have no power to harm thee.”
And as among the guzzling Germans there, Of some, on whom the dolorous fire is falling, Such as he is who has so near the ague
The beaver plants himself to wage his war; Not one of them I knew; but I perceived Of quartan that his nails are blue already,
So that vile monster lay upon the border, That from the neck of each there hung a pouch, And trembles all, but looking at the shade;
Which is of stone, and shutteth in the sand. Which certain colour had, and certain blazon; Even such became I at those proffered words;
His tail was wholly quivering in the void, And thereupon it seems their eyes are feeding. But shame in me his menaces produced,
Contorting upwards the envenomed fork, And as I gazing round me come among them, Which maketh servant strong before good master.
That in the guise of scorpion armed its point. Upon a yellow pouch I azure saw I seated me upon those monstrous shoulders;
The Guide said: “Now perforce must turn aside That had the face and posture of a lion. I wished to say, and yet the voice came not
Our way a little, even to that beast As I believed, “Take heed that thou embrace me.”
Malevolent, that yonder coucheth him.” Proceeding then the current of my sight, But he, who other times had rescued me
We therefore on the right side descended, Another of them saw I, red as blood, In other peril, soon as I had mounted,
And made ten steps upon the outer verge, Display a goose more white than butter is. Within his arms encircled and sustained me,
Completely to avoid the sand and flame; And one, who with an azure sow and gravid And said: “Now, Geryon, bestir thyself;
And after we are come to him, I see Emblazoned had his little pouch of white, The circles large, and the descent be little;
A little farther off upon the sand Said unto me: “What dost thou in this moat? Think of the novel burden which thou hast.”
A people sitting near the hollow place. Now get thee gone; and since thou’rt still alive, Even as the little vessel shoves from shore,
Then said to me the Master: “So that full Know that a neighbour of mine, Vitaliano, Backward, still backward, so he thence withdrew;
Experience of this round thou bear away, Will have his seat here on my left-hand side. And when he wholly felt himself afloat,
Now go and see what their condition is. A Paduan am I with these Florentines;
There let thy conversation be concise; Full many a time they thunder in mine ears, There where his breast had been he turned his
Till thou returnest I will speak with him, Exclaiming, ‘Come the sovereign cavalier, tail,
That he concede to us his stalwart shoulders.” He who shall bring the satchel with three goats;’” And that extended like an eel he moved,
Thus farther still upon the outermost Then twisted he his mouth, and forth he thrust And with his paws drew to himself the air.
Head of that seventh circle all alone His tongue, like to an ox that licks its nose. A greater fear I do not think there was
I went, where sat the melancholy folk. And fearing lest my longer stay might vex What time abandoned Phaeton the reins,
Out of their eyes was gushing forth their woe; Him who had warned me not to tarry long, Whereby the heavens, as still appears, were
This way, that way, they helped them with their Backward I turned me from those weary souls. scorched;
hands I found my Guide, who had already mounted Nor when the wretched Icarus his flanks
Now from the flames and now from the hot soil. Upon the back of that wild animal, Felt stripped of feathers by the melting wax,
His father crying, “An ill way thou takest!” Right in the middle of the field malign Ah me! how they did make them lift their legs
Than was my own, when I perceived myself There yawns a well exceeding wide and deep, At the first blows! and sooth not any one
On all sides in the air, and saw extinguished Of which its place the structure will recount. The second waited for, nor for the third.
The sight of everything but of the monster. Round, then, is that enclosure which remains
Onward he goeth, swimming slowly, slowly; Between the well and foot of the high, hard bank, While I was going on, mine eyes by one
Wheels and descends, but I perceive it only And has distinct in valleys ten its bottom. Encountered were; and straight I said: “Already
By wind upon my face and from below. As where for the protection of the walls With sight of this one I am not unfed.”
I heard already on the right the whirlpool Many and many moats surround the castles, Therefore I stayed my feet to make him out,
Making a horrible crashing under us; The part in which they are a figure forms, And with me the sweet Guide came to a stand,
Whence I thrust out my head with eyes cast Just such an image those presented there; And to my going somewhat back assented;
downward. And as about such strongholds from their gates And he, the scourged one, thought to hide
Then was I still more fearful of the abyss; Unto the outer bank are little bridges, himself,
Because I fires beheld, and heard laments, So from the precipice’s base did crags Lowering his face, but little it availed him;
Whereat I, trembling, all the closer cling. Project, which intersected dikes and moats, For said I: “Thou that castest down thine eyes,
I saw then, for before I had not seen it, Unto the well that truncates and collects them. If false are not the features which thou bearest,
The turning and descending, by great horrors Within this place, down shaken from the back Thou art Venedico Caccianimico;
That were approaching upon divers sides. Of Geryon, we found us; and the Poet But what doth bring thee to such pungent
As falcon who has long been on the wing, Held to the left, and I moved on behind. sauces?”
Who, without seeing either lure or bird, Upon my right hand I beheld new anguish, And he to me: “Unwillingly I tell it;
Maketh the falconer say, “Ah me, thou stoopest,” New torments, and new wielders of the lash, But forces me thine utterance distinct,
Descendeth weary, whence he started swiftly, Wherewith the foremost Bolgia was replete. Which makes me recollect the ancient world.
Thorough a hundred circles, and alights Down at the bottom were the sinners naked; I was the one who the fair Ghisola
Far from his master, sullen and disdainful; This side the middle came they facing us, Induced to grant the wishes of the Marquis,
Even thus did Geryon place us on the bottom, Beyond it, with us, but with greater steps; Howe’er the shameless story may be told.
Close to the bases of the rough-hewn rock, Even as the Romans, for the mighty host, Not the sole Bolognese am I who weeps here;
And being disencumbered of our persons, The year of Jubilee, upon the bridge, Nay, rather is this place so full of them,
He sped away as arrow from the string. Have chosen a mode to pass the people over; That not so many tongues to-day are taught
For all upon one side towards the Castle ‘Twixt Reno and Savena to say ‘sipa;’
Inferno: Canto XVIII Their faces have, and go unto St. Peter’s; And if thereof thou wishest pledge or proof,
On the other side they go towards the Mountain. Bring to thy mind our avaricious heart.”
There is a place in Hell called Malebolge, This side and that, along the livid stone While speaking in this manner, with his scourge
Wholly of stone and of an iron colour, Beheld I horned demons with great scourges, A demon smote him, and said: “Get thee gone
As is the circle that around it turns. Who cruelly were beating them behind. Pander, there are no women here for coin.”
I joined myself again unto mine Escort; To know, and those that in its jaws it holds.” Who there doth scratch herself with filthy nails,
Thereafterward with footsteps few we came We were already where the narrow path And crouches now, and now on foot is standing.
To where a crag projected from the bank. Crosses athwart the second dike, and forms Thais the harlot is it, who replied
This very easily did we ascend, Of that a buttress for another arch. Unto her paramour, when he said, ‘Have I
And turning to the right along its ridge, Thence we heard people, who are making moan Great gratitude from thee?’—’Nay, marvellous;’
From those eternal circles we departed. In the next Bolgia, snorting with their muzzles, And herewith let our sight be satisfied.”
When we were there, where it is hollowed out And with their palms beating upon themselves
Beneath, to give a passage to the scourged, The margins were incrusted with a mould Inferno: Canto XIX
The Guide said: “Wait, and see that on thee strike By exhalation from below, that sticks there,
The vision of those others evil-born, And with the eyes and nostrils wages war. O Simon Magus, O forlorn disciples,
Of whom thou hast not yet beheld the faces, The bottom is so deep, no place suffices Ye who the things of God, which ought to be
Because together with us they have gone.” To give us sight of it, without ascending The brides of holiness, rapaciously
From the old bridge we looked upon the train The arch’s back, where most the crag impends. For silver and for gold do prostitute,
Which tow’rds us came upon the other border, Thither we came, and thence down in the moat Now it behoves for you the trumpet sound,
And which the scourges in like manner smite. I saw a people smothered in a filth Because in this third Bolgia ye abide.
That out of human privies seemed to flow; We had already on the following tomb
And the good Master, without my inquiring, And whilst below there with mine eye I search, Ascended to that portion of the crag
Said to me: “See that tall one who is coming, I saw one with his head so foul with ordure, Which o’er the middle of the moat hangs plumb.
And for his pain seems not to shed a tear; It was not clear if he were clerk or layman. Wisdom supreme, O how great art thou showest
Still what a royal aspect he retains! He screamed to me: “Wherefore art thou so eager In heaven, in earth, and in the evil world,
That Jason is, who by his heart and cunning To look at me more than the other foul ones?” And with what justice doth thy power distribute!
The Colchians of the Ram made destitute. And I to him: “Because, if I remember, I saw upon the sides and on the bottom
He by the isle of Lemnos passed along I have already seen thee with dry hair, The livid stone with perforations filled,
After the daring women pitiless And thou’rt Alessio Interminei of Lucca; All of one size, and every one was round.
Had unto death devoted all their males. Therefore I eye thee more than all the others.” To me less ample seemed they not, nor greater
There with his tokens and with ornate words Than those that in my beautiful Saint John
Did he deceive Hypsipyle, the maiden And he thereon, belabouring his pumpkin: Are fashioned for the place of the baptisers,
Who first, herself, had all the rest deceived. “The flatteries have submerged me here below,
There did he leave her pregnant and forlorn; Wherewith my tongue was never surfeited.” And one of which, not many years ago,
Such sin unto such punishment condemns him, Then said to me the Guide: “See that thou thrust I broke for some one, who was drowning in it;
And also for Medea is vengeance done. Thy visage somewhat farther in advance, Be this a seal all men to undeceive.
With him go those who in such wise deceive; That with thine eyes thou well the face attain Out of the mouth of each one there protruded
And this sufficient be of the first valley Of that uncleanly and dishevelled drab, The feet of a transgressor, and the legs
Up to the calf, the rest within remained. Art thou so early satiate with that wealth, So he who governs France shall be to this one.”
In all of them the soles were both on fire; For which thou didst not fear to take by fraud I do not know if I were here too bold,
Wherefore the joints so violently quivered, The beautiful Lady, and then work her woe?” That him I answered only in this metre:
They would have snapped asunder withes and Such I became, as people are who stand, “I pray thee tell me now how great a treasure
bands. Not comprehending what is answered them, Our Lord demanded of Saint Peter first,
Even as the flame of unctuous things is wont As if bemocked, and know not how to answer. Before he put the keys into his keeping?
To move upon the outer surface only, Truly he nothing asked but ‘Follow me.’
So likewise was it there from heel to point. Then said Virgilius: “Say to him straightway, Nor Peter nor the rest asked of Matthias
“Master, who is that one who writhes himself, ‘I am not he, I am not he thou thinkest.’” Silver or gold, when he by lot was chosen
More than his other comrades quivering,” And I replied as was imposed on me. Unto the place the guilty soul had lost.
I said, “and whom a redder flame is sucking?” Whereat the spirit writhed with both his feet, Therefore stay here, for thou art justly punished,
And he to me: “If thou wilt have me bear thee Then, sighing, with a voice of lamentation And keep safe guard o’er the ill-gotten money,
Down there along that bank which lowest lies, Said to me: “Then what wantest thou of me? Which caused thee to be valiant against Charles.
From him thou’lt know his errors and himself.” If who I am thou carest so much to know, And were it not that still forbids it me
And I: “What pleases thee, to me is pleasing; That thou on that account hast crossed the bank, The reverence for the keys superlative
Thou art my Lord, and knowest that I depart not Know that I vested was with the great mantle; Thou hadst in keeping in the gladsome life,
From thy desire, and knowest what is not And truly was I son of the She-bear,
spoken.” So eager to advance the cubs, that wealth I would make use of words more grievous still;
Straightway upon the fourth dike we arrived; Above, and here myself, I pocketed. Because your avarice afflicts the world,
We turned, and on the left-hand side descended Beneath my head the others are dragged down Trampling the good and lifting the depraved.
Down to the bottom full of holes and narrow. Who have preceded me in simony, The Evangelist you Pastors had in mind,
And the good Master yet from off his haunch Flattened along the fissure of the rock. When she who sitteth upon many waters
Deposed me not, till to the hole he brought me Below there I shall likewise fall, whenever To fornicate with kings by him was seen;
Of him who so lamented with his shanks. That one shall come who I believed thou wast, The same who with the seven heads was born,
“Whoe’er thou art, that standest upside down, What time the sudden question I proposed. And power and strength from the ten horns
O doleful soul, implanted like a stake,” But longer I my feet already toast, received,
To say began I, “if thou canst, speak out.” And here have been in this way upside down, So long as virtue to her spouse was pleasing.
I stood even as the friar who is confessing Than he will planted stay with reddened feet; Ye have made yourselves a god of gold and
The false assassin, who, when he is fixed, For after him shall come of fouler deed silver;
Recalls him, so that death may be delayed. From tow’rds the west a Pastor without law, And from the idolater how differ ye,
And he cried out: “Dost thou stand there already, Such as befits to cover him and me. Save that he one, and ye a hundred worship?
Dost thou stand there already, Boniface? New Jason will he be, of whom we read Ah, Constantine! of how much ill was mother,
By many years the record lied to me. In Maccabees; and as his king was pliant, Not thy conversion, but that marriage dower
Which the first wealthy Father took from thee!” And backward it behoved them to advance, That Aruns is, who backs the other’s belly,
And while I sang to him such notes as these, As to look forward had been taken from them. Who in the hills of Luni, there where grubs
Either that anger or that conscience stung him, Perchance indeed by violence of palsy The Carrarese who houses underneath,
He struggled violently with both his feet. Some one has been thus wholly turned awry; Among the marbles white a cavern had
I think in sooth that it my Leader pleased, But I ne’er saw it, nor believe it can be. For his abode; whence to behold the stars
With such contented lip he listened ever As God may let thee, Reader, gather fruit And sea, the view was not cut off from him.
Unto the sound of the true words expressed. From this thy reading, think now for thyself And she there, who is covering up her breasts,
Therefore with both his arms he took me up, How I could ever keep my face unmoistened, Which thou beholdest not, with loosened tresses,
And when he had me all upon his breast, When our own image near me I beheld And on that side has all the hairy skin,
Remounted by the way where he descended. Distorted so, the weeping of the eyes Was Manto, who made quest through many
Nor did he tire to have me clasped to him; Along the fissure bathed the hinder parts. lands,
But bore me to the summit of the arch Truly I wept, leaning upon a peak Afterwards tarried there where I was born;
Which from the fourth dike to the fifth is passage. Of the hard crag, so that my Escort said Whereof I would thou list to me a little.
There tenderly he laid his burden down, To me: “Art thou, too, of the other fools? After her father had from life departed,
Tenderly on the crag uneven and steep, Here pity lives when it is wholly dead; And the city of Bacchus had become enslaved,
That would have been hard passage for the goats: Who is a greater reprobate than he She a long season wandered through the world.
Thence was unveiled to me another valley. Who feels compassion at the doom divine? Above in beauteous Italy lies a lake
Lift up, lift up thy head, and see for whom At the Alp’s foot that shuts in Germany
Inferno: Canto XX Opened the earth before the Thebans’ eyes; Over Tyrol, and has the name Benaco.
Wherefore they all cried: ‘Whither rushest thou, By a thousand springs, I think, and more, is
Of a new pain behoves me to make verses Amphiaraus? Why dost leave the war?’ bathed,
And give material to the twentieth canto And downward ceased he not to fall amain ‘Twixt Garda and Val Camonica, Pennino,
Of the first song, which is of the submerged. As far as Minos, who lays hold on all. With water that grows stagnant in that lake.
I was already thoroughly disposed See, he has made a bosom of his shoulders! Midway a place is where the Trentine Pastor,
To peer down into the uncovered depth, Because he wished to see too far before him And he of Brescia, and the Veronese
Which bathed itself with tears of agony; Behind he looks, and backward goes his way: Might give his blessing, if he passed that way.
And people saw I through the circular valley, Sitteth Peschiera, fortress fair and strong,
Silent and weeping, coming at the pace Behold Tiresias, who his semblance changed, To front the Brescians and the Bergamasks,
Which in this world the Litanies assume. When from a male a female he became, Where round about the bank descendeth lowest.
As lower down my sight descended on them, His members being all of them transformed; There of necessity must fall whatever
Wondrously each one seemed to be distorted And afterwards was forced to strike once more In bosom of Benaco cannot stay,
From chin to the beginning of the chest; The two entangled serpents with his rod, And grows a river down through verdant
For tow’rds the reins the countenance was turned, Ere he could have again his manly plumes. pastures.
Soon as the water doth begin to run, Was, at the time when Greece was void of males, We came along, and held the summit, when
No more Benaco is it called, but Mincio, So that there scarce remained one in the cradle, We halted to behold another fissure
Far as Governo, where it falls in Po. An augur, and with Calchas gave the moment, Of Malebolge and other vain laments;
Not far it runs before it finds a plain In Aulis, when to sever the first cable. And I beheld it marvellously dark.
In which it spreads itself, and makes it marshy, Eryphylus his name was, and so sings As in the Arsenal of the Venetians
And oft ’tis wont in summer to be sickly. My lofty Tragedy in some part or other; Boils in the winter the tenacious pitch
That knowest thou well, who knowest the whole To smear their unsound vessels o’er again,
Passing that way the virgin pitiless of it. For sail they cannot; and instead thereof
Land in the middle of the fen descried, The next, who is so slender in the flanks, One makes his vessel new, and one recaulks
Untilled and naked of inhabitants; Was Michael Scott, who of a verity The ribs of that which many a voyage has made;
There to escape all human intercourse, Of magical illusions knew the game. One hammers at the prow, one at the stern,
She with her servants stayed, her arts to practise Behold Guido Bonatti, behold Asdente, This one makes oars, and that one cordage twists,
And lived, and left her empty body there. Who now unto his leather and his thread Another mends the mainsail and the mizzen;
The men, thereafter, who were scattered round, Would fain have stuck, but he too late repents. Thus, not by fire, but by the art divine,
Collected in that place, which was made strong Behold the wretched ones, who left the needle, Was boiling down below there a dense pitch
By the lagoon it had on every side; The spool and rock, and made them fortune- Which upon every side the bank belimed.
They built their city over those dead bones, tellers;
And, after her who first the place selected, They wrought their magic spells with herb and I saw it, but I did not see within it
Mantua named it, without other omen. image. Aught but the bubbles that the boiling raised,
Its people once within more crowded were, And all swell up and resubside compressed.
Ere the stupidity of Casalodi But come now, for already holds the confines The while below there fixedly I gazed,
From Pinamonte had received deceit. Of both the hemispheres, and under Seville My Leader, crying out: “Beware, beware!”
Therefore I caution thee, if e’er thou hearest Touches the ocean-wave, Cain and the thorns, Drew me unto himself from where I stood.
Originate my city otherwise, And yesternight the moon was round already; Then I turned round, as one who is impatient
No falsehood may the verity defraud.” Thou shouldst remember well it did not harm To see what it behoves him to escape,
And I: “My Master, thy discourses are thee And whom a sudden terror doth unman,
To me so certain, and so take my faith, From time to time within the forest deep.” Who, while he looks, delays not his departure;
That unto me the rest would be spent coals. Thus spake he to me, and we walked the while. And I beheld behind us a black devil,
But tell me of the people who are passing, Running along upon the crag, approach.
If any one note-worthy thou beholdest, Inferno: Canto XXI Ah, how ferocious was he in his aspect!
For only unto that my mind reverts.” And how he seemed to me in action ruthless,
Then said he to me: “He who from the cheek From bridge to bridge thus, speaking other things With open wings and light upon his feet!
Thrusts out his beard upon his swarthy shoulders Of which my Comedy cares not to sing,
His shoulders, which sharp-pointed were and Be thou afraid, because these things I know, So that I feared they would not keep their
high, For once before was I in such a scuffle.” compact.
A sinner did encumber with both haunches, Then he passed on beyond the bridge’s head, And thus beheld I once afraid the soldiers
And he held clutched the sinews of the feet. And as upon the sixth bank he arrived, Who issued under safeguard from Caprona,
From off our bridge, he said: “O Malebranche, Need was for him to have a steadfast front. Seeing themselves among so many foes.
Behold one of the elders of Saint Zita; With the same fury, and the same uproar, Close did I press myself with all my person
Plunge him beneath, for I return for others As dogs leap out upon a mendicant, Beside my Leader, and turned not mine eyes
Unto that town, which is well furnished with Who on a sudden begs, where’er he stops, From off their countenance, which was not good.
them. They issued from beneath the little bridge, They lowered their rakes, and “Wilt thou have me
All there are barrators, except Bonturo; And turned against him all their grappling-irons; hit him,”
No into Yes for money there is changed.” But he cried out: “Be none of you malignant! They said to one another, “on the rump?”
He hurled him down, and over the hard crag Before those hooks of yours lay hold of me, And answered: “Yes; see that thou nick him with
Turned round, and never was a mastiff loosened Let one of you step forward, who may hear me, it.”
In so much hurry to pursue a thief. And then take counsel as to grappling me.”
The other sank, and rose again face downward; They all cried out: “Let Malacoda go;” But the same demon who was holding parley
But the demons, under cover of the bridge, Whereat one started, and the rest stood still, With my Conductor turned him very quickly,
Cried: “Here the Santo Volto has no place! And he came to him, saying: “What avails it?” And said: “Be quiet, be quiet, Scarmiglione;”
Here swims one otherwise than in the Serchio; “Thinkest thou, Malacoda, to behold me Then said to us: “You can no farther go
Therefore, if for our gaffs thou wishest not, Advanced into this place,” my Master said, Forward upon this crag, because is lying
Do not uplift thyself above the pitch.” “Safe hitherto from all your skill of fence, All shattered, at the bottom, the sixth arch.
They seized him then with more than a hundred Without the will divine, and fate auspicious? And if it still doth please you to go onward,
rakes; Let me go on, for it in Heaven is willed Pursue your way along upon this rock;
They said: “It here behoves thee to dance That I another show this savage road.” Near is another crag that yields a path.
covered, Then was his arrogance so humbled in him, Yesterday, five hours later than this hour,
That, if thou canst, thou secretly mayest pilfer.” That he let fall his grapnel at his feet, One thousand and two hundred sixty-six
Not otherwise the cooks their scullions make And to the others said: “Now strike him not.” Years were complete, that here the way was
Immerse into the middle of the caldron And unto me my Guide: “O thou, who sittest broken.
The meat with hooks, so that it may not float. Among the splinters of the bridge crouched I send in that direction some of mine
Said the good Master to me: “That it be not down, To see if any one doth air himself;
Apparent thou art here, crouch thyself down Securely now return to me again.” Go ye with them; for they will not be vicious.
Behind a jag, that thou mayest have some screen; Wherefore I started and came swiftly to him; Step forward, Alichino and Calcabrina,”
And all the devils forward thrust themselves, Began he to cry out, “and thou, Cagnazzo;
And for no outrage that is done to me And Barbariccia, do thou guide the ten.
Come forward, Libicocco and Draghignazzo, Did I see horsemen move, nor infantry, Cried all together the accursed ones.
And tusked Ciriatto and Graffiacane, Nor ship by any sign of land or star. And I: “My Master, see to it, if thou canst,
And Farfarello and mad Rubicante; We went upon our way with the ten demons; That thou mayst know who is the luckless wight,
Search ye all round about the boiling pitch; Ah, savage company! but in the church Thus come into his adversaries’ hands.”
Let these be safe as far as the next crag, With saints, and in the tavern with the gluttons! Near to the side of him my Leader drew,
That all unbroken passes o’er the dens.” Ever upon the pitch was my intent, Asked of him whence he was; and he replied:
“O me! what is it, Master, that I see? To see the whole condition of that Bolgia, “I in the kingdom of Navarre was born;
Pray let us go,” I said, “without an escort, And of the people who therein were burned. My mother placed me servant to a lord,
If thou knowest how, since for myself I ask none. Even as the dolphins, when they make a sign For she had borne me to a ribald knave,
If thou art as observant as thy wont is, To mariners by arching of the back, Destroyer of himself and of his things.
Dost thou not see that they do gnash their teeth, That they should counsel take to save their vessel, Then I domestic was of good King Thibault;
And with their brows are threatening woe to us?” Thus sometimes, to alleviate his pain, I set me there to practise barratry,
And he to me: “I will not have thee fear; One of the sinners would display his back, For which I pay the reckoning in this heat.”
Let them gnash on, according to their fancy, And in less time conceal it than it lightens. And Ciriatto, from whose mouth projected,
Because they do it for those boiling wretches.” As on the brink of water in a ditch On either side, a tusk, as in a boar,
Along the left-hand dike they wheeled about; The frogs stand only with their muzzles out, Caused him to feel how one of them could rip.
But first had each one thrust his tongue between So that they hide their feet and other bulk, Among malicious cats the mouse had come;
His teeth towards their leader for a signal; So upon every side the sinners stood; But Barbariccia clasped him in his arms,
And he had made a trumpet of his rump. But ever as Barbariccia near them came, And said: “Stand ye aside, while I enfork him.”
Thus underneath the boiling they withdrew. And to my Master he turned round his head;
Inferno: Canto XXII I saw, and still my heart doth shudder at it, “Ask him again,” he said, “if more thou wish
One waiting thus, even as it comes to pass To know from him, before some one destroy
I have erewhile seen horsemen moving camp, One frog remains, and down another dives; him.”
Begin the storming, and their muster make, And Graffiacan, who most confronted him, The Guide: “Now tell then of the other culprits;
And sometimes starting off for their escape; Grappled him by his tresses smeared with pitch, Knowest thou any one who is a Latian,
Vaunt-couriers have I seen upon your land, And drew him up, so that he seemed an otter. Under the pitch?” And he: “I separated
O Aretines, and foragers go forth, I knew, before, the names of all of them, Lately from one who was a neighbour to it;
Tournaments stricken, and the joustings run, So had I noted them when they were chosen, Would that I still were covered up with him,
Sometimes with trumpets and sometimes with And when they called each other, listened how. For I should fear not either claw nor hook!”
bells, And Libicocco: “We have borne too much;”
With kettle-drums, and signals of the castles, “O Rubicante, see that thou do lay And with his grapnel seized him by the arm,
And with our own, and with outlandish things, Thy claws upon him, so that thou mayst flay So that, by rending, he tore off a tendon.
But never yet with bagpipe so uncouth him,” Eke Draghignazzo wished to pounce upon him
Down at the legs; whence their Decurion To do whenever one of us comes out.” Flying behind him followed close, desirous
Turned round and round about with evil look. Cagnazzo at these words his muzzle lifted, The other should escape, to have a quarrel.
When they again somewhat were pacified, Shaking his head, and said: “Just hear the trick And when the barrator had disappeared,
Of him, who still was looking at his wound, Which he has thought of, down to throw He turned his talons upon his companion,
Demanded my Conductor without stay: himself!” And grappled with him right above the moat.
“Who was that one, from whom a luckless Whence he, who snares in great abundance had, But sooth the other was a doughty sparhawk
parting Responded: “I by far too cunning am, To clapperclaw him well; and both of them
Thou sayest thou hast made, to come ashore?” When I procure for mine a greater sadness.” Fell in the middle of the boiling pond.
And he replied: “It was the Friar Gomita, Alichin held not in, but running counter A sudden intercessor was the heat;
Unto the rest, said to him: “If thou dive, But ne’ertheless of rising there was naught,
He of Gallura, vessel of all fraud, I will not follow thee upon the gallop, To such degree they had their wings belimed.
Who had the enemies of his Lord in hand, But I will beat my wings above the pitch; Lamenting with the others, Barbariccia
And dealt so with them each exults thereat; The height be left, and be the bank a shield Made four of them fly to the other side
Money he took, and let them smoothly off, To see if thou alone dost countervail us.” With all their gaffs, and very speedily
As he says; and in other offices O thou who readest, thou shalt hear new sport! This side and that they to their posts descended;
A barrator was he, not mean but sovereign. Each to the other side his eyes averted; They stretched their hooks towards the pitch-
Foregathers with him one Don Michael Zanche He first, who most reluctant was to do it. ensnared,
Of Logodoro; and of Sardinia The Navarrese selected well his time; Who were already baked within the crust,
To gossip never do their tongues feel tired. Planted his feet on land, and in a moment And in this manner busied did we leave them.
O me! see that one, how he grinds his teeth; Leaped, and released himself from their design.
Still farther would I speak, but am afraid Inferno: Canto XXIII
Lest he to scratch my itch be making ready.” Whereat each one was suddenly stung with
And the grand Provost, turned to Farfarello, shame, Silent, alone, and without company
Who rolled his eyes about as if to strike, But he most who was cause of the defeat; We went, the one in front, the other after,
Said: “Stand aside there, thou malicious bird.” Therefore he moved, and cried: “Thou art As go the Minor Friars along their way.
“If you desire either to see or hear,” o’ertakern.” Upon the fable of Aesop was directed
The terror-stricken recommenced thereon, But little it availed, for wings could not My thought, by reason of the present quarrel,
“Tuscans or Lombards, I will make them come. Outstrip the fear; the other one went under, Where he has spoken of the frog and mouse;
But let the Malebranche cease a little, And, flying, upward he his breast directed; For ‘mo’ and ‘issa’ are not more alike
So that these may not their revenges fear, Not otherwise the duck upon a sudden Than this one is to that, if well we couple
And I, down sitting in this very place, Dives under, when the falcon is approaching, End and beginning with a steadfast mind.
For one that I am will make seven come, And upward he returneth cross and weary. And even as one thought from another springs,
When I shall whistle, as our custom is Infuriate at the mockery, Calcabrina So afterward from that was born another,
Which the first fear within me double made. And downward from the top of the hard bank And thus in going move thine eye about.”
Thus did I ponder: “These on our account Supine he gave him to the pendent rock, And one, who understood the Tuscan speech,
Are laughed to scorn, with injury and scoff That one side of the other Bolgia walls. Cried to us from behind: “Stay ye your feet,
So great, that much I think it must annoy them. Ne’er ran so swiftly water through a sluice Ye, who so run athwart the dusky air!
If anger be engrafted on ill-will, To turn the wheel of any land-built mill, Perhaps thou’lt have from me what thou
They will come after us more merciless When nearest to the paddles it approaches, demandest.”
Than dog upon the leveret which he seizes,” As did my Master down along that border, Whereat the Leader turned him, and said: “Wait,
I felt my hair stand all on end already Bearing me with him on his breast away, And then according to his pace proceed.”
With terror, and stood backwardly intent, As his own son, and not as a companion.
When said I: “Master, if thou hidest not Hardly the bed of the ravine below I stopped, and two beheld I show great haste
Thyself and me forthwith, of Malebranche His feet had reached, ere they had reached the hill Of spirit, in their faces, to be with me;
I am in dread; we have them now behind us; Right over us; but he was not afraid; But the burden and the narrow way delayed them.
I so imagine them, I already feel them.” For the high Providence, which had ordained When they came up, long with an eye askance
And he: “If I were made of leaded glass, To place them ministers of the fifth moat, They scanned me without uttering a word.
Thine outward image I should not attract The power of thence departing took from all. Then to each other turned, and said together:
Sooner to me than I imprint the inner. A painted people there below we found, “He by the action of his throat seems living;
Just now thy thoughts came in among my own, Who went about with footsteps very slow, And if they dead are, by what privilege
With similar attitude and similar face, Weeping and in their semblance tired and Go they uncovered by the heavy stole?”
So that of both one counsel sole I made. vanquished. Then said to me: “Tuscan, who to the college
If peradventure the right bank so slope They had on mantles with the hoods low down Of miserable hypocrites art come,
That we to the next Bolgia can descend, Before their eyes, and fashioned of the cut Do not disdain to tell us who thou art.”
We shall escape from the imagined chase.” That in Cologne they for the monks are made. And I to them: “Born was I, and grew up
Not yet he finished rendering such opinion, Without, they gilded are so that it dazzles; In the great town on the fair river of Arno,
When I beheld them come with outstretched But inwardly all leaden and so heavy And with the body am I’ve always had.
wings, That Frederick used to put them on of straw. But who are ye, in whom there trickles down
Not far remote, with will to seize upon us. O everlastingly fatiguing mantle! Along your cheeks such grief as I behold?
My Leader on a sudden seized me up, Again we turned us, still to the left hand And what pain is upon you, that so sparkles?”
Even as a mother who by noise is wakened, Along with them, intent on their sad plaint; And one replied to me: “These orange cloaks
And close beside her sees the enkindled flames, But owing to the weight, that weary folk Are made of lead so heavy, that the weights
Came on so tardily, that we were new Cause in this way their balances to creak.
Who takes her son, and flies, and does not stop, In company at each motion of the haunch. Frati Gaudenti were we, and Bolognese;
Having more care of him than of herself, Whence I unto my Leader: “See thou find I Catalano, and he Loderingo
So that she clothes her only with a shift; Some one who may by deed or name be known, Named, and together taken by thy city,
As the wont is to take one man alone, Save that at this ’tis broken, and does not bridge When I beheld his forehead so disturbed,
For maintenance of its peace; and we were such it; And to the ailment came as soon the plaster.
That still it is apparent round Gardingo.” You will be able to mount up the ruin, For as we came unto the ruined bridge,
“O Friars,” began I, “your iniquitous. . .” That sidelong slopes and at the bottom rises.” The Leader turned to me with that sweet look
But said no more; for to mine eyes there rushed The Leader stood awhile with head bowed down; Which at the mountain’s foot I first beheld.
One crucified with three stakes on the ground. Then said: “The business badly he recounted His arms he opened, after some advisement
When me he saw, he writhed himself all over, Who grapples with his hook the sinners yonder.” Within himself elected, looking first
Blowing into his beard with suspirations; And the Friar: “Many of the Devil’s vices Well at the ruin, and laid hold of me.
And the Friar Catalan, who noticed this, Once heard I at Bologna, and among them, And even as he who acts and meditates,
Said to me: “This transfixed one, whom thou That he’s a liar and the father of lies.” For aye it seems that he provides beforehand,
seest, Thereat my Leader with great strides went on, So upward lifting me towards the summit
Counselled the Pharisees that it was meet Somewhat disturbed with anger in his looks; Of a huge rock, he scanned another crag,
To put one man to torture for the people. Whence from the heavy-laden I departed Saying: “To that one grapple afterwards,
Crosswise and naked is he on the path, After the prints of his beloved feet. But try first if ’tis such that it will hold thee.”
As thou perceivest; and he needs must feel, This was no way for one clothed with a cloak;
Whoever passes, first how much he weighs; Inferno: Canto XXIV For hardly we, he light, and I pushed upward,
And in like mode his father-in-law is punished Were able to ascend from jag to jag.
Within this moat, and the others of the council, In that part of the youthful year wherein And had it not been, that upon that precinct
Which for the Jews was a malignant seed.” The Sun his locks beneath Aquarius tempers, Shorter was the ascent than on the other,
And now the nights draw near to half the day, He I know not, but I had been dead beat.
And thereupon I saw Virgilius marvel What time the hoar-frost copies on the ground But because Malebolge tow’rds the mouth
O’er him who was extended on the cross The outward semblance of her sister white, Of the profoundest well is all inclining,
So vilely in eternal banishment. But little lasts the temper of her pen, The structure of each valley doth import
Then he directed to the Friar this voice: The husbandman, whose forage faileth him,
“Be not displeased, if granted thee, to tell us Rises, and looks, and seeth the champaign That one bank rises and the other sinks.
If to the right hand any pass slope down All gleaming white, whereat he beats his flank, Still we arrived at length upon the point
By which we two may issue forth from here, Returns in doors, and up and down laments, Wherefrom the last stone breaks itself asunder.
Without constraining some of the black angels Like a poor wretch, who knows not what to do; The breath was from my lungs so milked away,
To come and extricate us from this deep.” Then he returns and hope revives again, When I was up, that I could go no farther,
Then he made answer: “Nearer than thou hopest Seeing the world has changed its countenance Nay, I sat down upon my first arrival.
There is a rock, that forth from the great circle In little time, and takes his shepherd’s crook, “Now it behoves thee thus to put off sloth,”
Proceeds, and crosses all the cruel valleys, And forth the little lambs to pasture drives. My Master said; “for sitting upon down,
Thus did the Master fill me with alarm, Or under quilt, one cometh not to fame,
Withouten which whoso his life consumes And then was manifest to me the Bolgia; And nard and myrrh are its last winding-sheet.
Such vestige leaveth of himself on earth, And as he is who falls, and knows not how,
As smoke in air or in the water foam. And I beheld therein a terrible throng By force of demons who to earth down drag him,
And therefore raise thee up, o’ercome the anguish Of serpents, and of such a monstrous kind, Or other oppilation that binds man,
With spirit that o’ercometh every battle, That the remembrance still congeals my blood When he arises and around him looks,
If with its heavy body it sink not. Let Libya boast no longer with her sand; Wholly bewildered by the mighty anguish
A longer stairway it behoves thee mount; For if Chelydri, Jaculi, and Phareae Which he has suffered, and in looking sighs;
’Tis not enough from these to have departed; She breeds, with Cenchri and with Amphisbaena, Such was that sinner after he had risen.
Let it avail thee, if thou understand me.” Neither so many plagues nor so malignant Justice of God! O how severe it is,
Then I uprose, showing myself provided E’er showed she with all Ethiopia, That blows like these in vengeance poureth
Better with breath than I did feel myself, Nor with whatever on the Red Sea is! down!
And said: “Go on, for I am strong and bold.” Among this cruel and most dismal throng The Guide thereafter asked him who he was;
Upward we took our way along the crag, People were running naked and affrighted. Whence he replied: “I rained from Tuscany
Which jagged was, and narrow, and difficult, Without the hope of hole or heliotrope. A short time since into this cruel gorge.
And more precipitous far than that before. They had their hands with serpents bound behind
Speaking I went, not to appear exhausted; them; A bestial life, and not a human, pleased me,
Whereat a voice from the next moat came forth, These riveted upon their reins the tail Even as the mule I was; I’m Vanni Fucci,
Not well adapted to articulate words. And head, and were in front of them entwined. Beast, and Pistoia was my worthy den.”
I know not what it said, though o’er the back And lo! at one who was upon our side And I unto the Guide: “Tell him to stir not,
I now was of the arch that passes there; There darted forth a serpent, which transfixed And ask what crime has thrust him here below,
But he seemed moved to anger who was him For once a man of blood and wrath I saw him.”
speaking. There where the neck is knotted to the shoulders. And the sinner, who had heard, dissembled not,
I was bent downward, but my living eyes Nor ‘O’ so quickly e’er, nor ‘I’ was written, But unto me directed mind and face,
Could not attain the bottom, for the dark; As he took fire, and burned; and ashes wholly And with a melancholy shame was painted.
Wherefore I: “Master, see that thou arrive Behoved it that in falling he became. Then said: “It pains me more that thou hast
At the next round, and let us descend the wall; And when he on the ground was thus destroyed, caught me
For as from hence I hear and understand not, The ashes drew together, and of themselves Amid this misery where thou seest me,
So I look down and nothing I distinguish.” Into himself they instantly returned. Than when I from the other life was taken.
“Other response,” he said, “I make thee not, Even thus by the great sages ’tis confessed What thou demandest I cannot deny;
Except the doing; for the modest asking The phoenix dies, and then is born again, So low am I put down because I robbed
Ought to be followed by the deed in silence.” When it approaches its five-hundredth year; The sacristy of the fair ornaments,
We from the bridge descended at its head, On herb or grain it feeds not in its life, And falsely once ’twas laid upon another;
Where it connects itself with the eighth bank, But only on tears of incense and amomum, But that thou mayst not such a sight enjoy,
If thou shalt e’er be out of the dark places, Come crying out: “Where is, where is the As I was holding raised on them my brows,
Thine ears to my announcement ope and hear: scoffer?” Behold! a serpent with six feet darts forth
Pistoia first of Neri groweth meagre; I do not think Maremma has so many In front of one, and fastens wholly on him.
Then Florence doth renew her men and manners; Serpents as he had all along his back, With middle feet it bound him round the paunch,
Mars draws a vapour up from Val di Magra, As far as where our countenance begins. And with the forward ones his arms it seized;
Which is with turbid clouds enveloped round, Upon the shoulders, just behind the nape, Then thrust its teeth through one cheek and the
And with impetuous and bitter tempest With wings wide open was a dragon lying, other;
Over Campo Picen shall be the battle; And he sets fire to all that he encounters. The hindermost it stretched upon his thighs,
When it shall suddenly rend the mist asunder, My Master said: “That one is Cacus, who And put its tail through in between the two,
So that each Bianco shall thereby be smitten. Beneath the rock upon Mount Aventine And up behind along the reins outspread it.
And this I’ve said that it may give thee pain.” Created oftentimes a lake of blood. Ivy was never fastened by its barbs
He goes not on the same road with his brothers, Unto a tree so, as this horrible reptile
Inferno: Canto XXV By reason of the fraudulent theft he made Upon the other’s limbs entwined its own.
Of the great herd, which he had near to him; Then they stuck close, as if of heated wax
At the conclusion of his words, the thief Whereat his tortuous actions ceased beneath They had been made, and intermixed their colour;
Lifted his hands aloft with both the figs, The mace of Hercules, who peradventure Nor one nor other seemed now what he was;
Crying: “Take that, God, for at thee I aim them.” Gave him a hundred, and he felt not ten.” E’en as proceedeth on before the flame
From that time forth the serpents were my While he was speaking thus, he had passed by, Upward along the paper a brown colour,
friends; And spirits three had underneath us come, Which is not black as yet, and the white dies.
For one entwined itself about his neck Of which nor I aware was, nor my Leader, The other two looked on, and each of them
As if it said: “I will not thou speak more;” Until what time they shouted: “Who are you?” Cried out: “O me, Agnello, how thou changest!
And round his arms another, and rebound him, On which account our story made a halt, Behold, thou now art neither two nor one.”
Clinching itself together so in front, And then we were intent on them alone. Already the two heads had one become,
That with them he could not a motion make. When there appeared to us two figures mingled
Pistoia, ah, Pistoia! why resolve not I did not know them; but it came to pass, Into one face, wherein the two were lost.
To burn thyself to ashes and so perish, As it is wont to happen by some chance, Of the four lists were fashioned the two arms,
Since in ill-doing thou thy seed excellest? That one to name the other was compelled, The thighs and legs, the belly and the chest
Through all the sombre circles of this Hell, Exclaiming: “Where can Cianfa have remained?” Members became that never yet were seen.
Spirit I saw not against God so proud, Whence I, so that the Leader might attend, Every original aspect there was cancelled;
Not he who fell at Thebes down from the walls! Upward from chin to nose my finger laid. Two and yet none did the perverted image
He fled away, and spake no further word; If thou art, Reader, slow now to believe Appear, and such departed with slow pace.
And I beheld a Centaur full of rage What I shall say, it will no marvel be, Even as a lizard, under the great scourge
For I who saw it hardly can admit it. Of days canicular, exchanging hedge,
Lightning appeareth if the road it cross; I saw the arms draw inward at the armpits, The novelty, if aught my pen transgress.
And both feet of the reptile, that were short, And notwithstanding that mine eyes might be
Thus did appear, coming towards the bellies Lengthen as much as those contracted were. Somewhat bewildered, and my mind dismayed,
Of the two others, a small fiery serpent, Thereafter the hind feet, together twisted, They could not flee away so secretly
Livid and black as is a peppercorn. Became the member that a man conceals, But that I plainly saw Puccio Sciancato;
And in that part whereat is first received And of his own the wretch had two created. And he it was who sole of three companions,
Our aliment, it one of them transfixed; While both of them the exhalation veils Which came in the beginning, was not changed;
Then downward fell in front of him extended. With a new colour, and engenders hair The other was he whom thou, Gaville, weepest.
The one transfixed looked at it, but said naught; On one of them and depilates the other,
Nay, rather with feet motionless he yawned, The one uprose and down the other fell, Inferno: Canto XXVI
Just as if sleep or fever had assailed him. Though turning not away their impious lamps,
He at the serpent gazed, and it at him; Underneath which each one his muzzle changed. Rejoice, O Florence, since thou art so great,
One through the wound, the other through the That over sea and land thou beatest thy wings,
mouth He who was standing drew it tow’rds the temples, And throughout Hell thy name is spread abroad!
Smoked violently, and the smoke commingled. And from excess of matter, which came thither, Among the thieves five citizens of thine
Henceforth be silent Lucan, where he mentions Issued the ears from out the hollow cheeks; Like these I found, whence shame comes unto
Wretched Sabellus and Nassidius, What did not backward run and was retained me,
And wait to hear what now shall be shot forth. Of that excess made to the face a nose, And thou thereby to no great honour risest.
Be silent Ovid, of Cadmus and Arethusa; And the lips thickened far as was befitting. But if when morn is near our dreams are true,
For if him to a snake, her to fountain, He who lay prostrate thrusts his muzzle forward, Feel shalt thou in a little time from now
Converts he fabling, that I grudge him not; And backward draws the ears into his head, What Prato, if none other, craves for thee.
Because two natures never front to front In the same manner as the snail its horns; And if it now were, it were not too soon;
Has he transmuted, so that both the forms And so the tongue, which was entire and apt Would that it were, seeing it needs must be,
To interchange their matter ready were. For speech before, is cleft, and the bi-forked For ‘twill aggrieve me more the more I age.
Together they responded in such wise, In the other closes up, and the smoke ceases. We went our way, and up along the stairs
That to a fork the serpent cleft his tail, The soul, which to a reptile had been changed, The bourns had made us to descend before,
And eke the wounded drew his feet together. Along the valley hissing takes to flight, Remounted my Conductor and drew me.
The legs together with the thighs themselves And after him the other speaking sputters. And following the solitary path
Adhered so, that in little time the juncture Then did he turn upon him his new shoulders, Among the rocks and ridges of the crag,
No sign whatever made that was apparent. And said to the other: “I’ll have Buoso run, The foot without the hand sped not at all.
He with the cloven tail assumed the figure Crawling as I have done, along this road.” Then sorrowed I, and sorrow now again,
The other one was losing, and his skin In this way I beheld the seventh ballast When I direct my mind to what I saw,
Became elastic, and the other’s hard. Shift and reshift, and here be my excuse And more my genius curb than I am wont,
That it may run not unless virtue guide it; Who is within that fire, which comes so cleft Do not move on, but one of you declare
So that if some good star, or better thing, At top, it seems uprising from the pyre Whither, being lost, he went away to die.”
Have given me good, I may myself not grudge it. Where was Eteocles with his brother placed.” Then of the antique flame the greater horn,
As many as the hind (who on the hill He answered me: “Within there are tormented Murmuring, began to wave itself about
Rests at the time when he who lights the world Ulysses and Diomed, and thus together Even as a flame doth which the wind fatigues.
His countenance keeps least concealed from us, They unto vengeance run as unto wrath. Thereafterward, the summit to and fro
While as the fly gives place unto the gnat) And there within their flame do they lament Moving as if it were the tongue that spake,
Seeth the glow-worms down along the valley, The ambush of the horse, which made the door It uttered forth a voice, and said: “When I
Perchance there where he ploughs and makes his Whence issued forth the Romans’ gentle seed; From Circe had departed, who concealed me
vintage; Therein is wept the craft, for which being dead More than a year there near unto Gaeta,
With flames as manifold resplendent all Deidamia still deplores Achilles, Or ever yet Aeneas named it so,
Was the eighth Bolgia, as I grew aware And pain for the Palladium there is borne.” Nor fondness for my son, nor reverence
As soon as I was where the depth appeared. “If they within those sparks possess the power For my old father, nor the due affection
And such as he who with the bears avenged him To speak,” I said, “thee, Master, much I pray, Which joyous should have made Penelope,
Beheld Elijah’s chariot at departing, And re-pray, that the prayer be worth a thousand, Could overcome within me the desire
What time the steeds to heaven erect uprose, That thou make no denial of awaiting I had to be experienced of the world,
For with his eye he could not follow it Until the horned flame shall hither come; And of the vice and virtue of mankind;
So as to see aught else than flame alone, Thou seest that with desire I lean towards it.” But I put forth on the high open sea
Even as a little cloud ascending upward, And he to me: “Worthy is thy entreaty With one sole ship, and that small company
Of much applause, and therefore I accept it; By which I never had deserted been.
Thus each along the gorge of the intrenchment But take heed that thy tongue restrain itself. Both of the shores I saw as far as Spain,
Was moving; for not one reveals the theft, Leave me to speak, because I have conceived Far as Morocco, and the isle of Sardes,
And every flame a sinner steals away. That which thou wishest; for they might disdain And the others which that sea bathes round about.
I stood upon the bridge uprisen to see, Perchance, since they were Greeks, discourse of I and my company were old and slow
So that, if I had seized not on a rock, thine.” When at that narrow passage we arrived
Down had I fallen without being pushed. When now the flame had come unto that point, Where Hercules his landmarks set as signals,
And the Leader, who beheld me so attent, Where to my Leader it seemed time and place, That man no farther onward should adventure.
Exclaimed: “Within the fires the spirits are; After this fashion did I hear him speak: On the right hand behind me left I Seville,
Each swathes himself with that wherewith he “O ye, who are twofold within one fire, And on the other already had left Ceuta.
burns.” If I deserved of you, while I was living, ‘O brothers, who amid a hundred thousand
“My Master,” I replied, “by hearing thee If I deserved of you or much or little Perils,’ I said, ‘have come unto the West,
I am more sure; but I surmised already To this so inconsiderable vigil
It might be so, and already wished to ask thee When in the world I wrote the lofty verses, Which is remaining of your senses still
Be ye unwilling to deny the knowledge, Caused us to turn our eyes upon its top In readiness, forthwith began to speak:
Following the sun, of the unpeopled world. By a confused sound that issued from it. “O soul, that down below there art concealed,
Consider ye the seed from which ye sprang; As the Sicilian bull (that bellowed first Romagna thine is not and never has been
Ye were not made to live like unto brutes, With the lament of him, and that was right, Without war in the bosom of its tyrants;
But for pursuit of virtue and of knowledge.’ Who with his file had modulated it) But open war I none have left there now.
So eager did I render my companions, Bellowed so with the voice of the afflicted, Ravenna stands as it long years has stood;
With this brief exhortation, for the voyage, That, notwithstanding it was made of brass, The Eagle of Polenta there is brooding,
That then I hardly could have held them back. Still it appeared with agony transfixed; So that she covers Cervia with her vans.
Thus, by not having any way or issue The city which once made the long resistance,
And having turned our stern unto the morning, At first from out the fire, to its own language And of the French a sanguinary heap,
We of the oars made wings for our mad flight, Converted were the melancholy words. Beneath the Green Paws finds itself again;
Evermore gaining on the larboard side. But afterwards, when they had gathered way Verrucchio’s ancient Mastiff and the new,
Already all the stars of the other pole Up through the point, giving it that vibration Who made such bad disposal of Montagna,
The night beheld, and ours so very low The tongue had given them in their passage out, Where they are wont make wimbles of their teeth.
It did not rise above the ocean floor. The cities of Lamone and Santerno
Five times rekindled and as many quenched We heard it said: “O thou, at whom I aim Governs the Lioncel of the white lair,
Had been the splendour underneath the moon, My voice, and who but now wast speaking Who changes sides ‘twixt summer-time and
Since we had entered into the deep pass, Lombard, winter;
When there appeared to us a mountain, dim Saying, ‘Now go thy way, no more I urge thee,’ And that of which the Savio bathes the flank,
From distance, and it seemed to me so high Because I come perchance a little late, Even as it lies between the plain and mountain,
As I had never any one beheld. To stay and speak with me let it not irk thee; Lives between tyranny and a free state.
Joyful were we, and soon it turned to weeping; Thou seest it irks not me, and I am burning. Now I entreat thee tell us who thou art;
For out of the new land a whirlwind rose, If thou but lately into this blind world Be not more stubborn than the rest have been,
And smote upon the fore part of the ship. Hast fallen down from that sweet Latian land, So may thy name hold front there in the world.”
Three times it made her whirl with all the waters, Wherefrom I bring the whole of my After the fire a little more had roared
At the fourth time it made the stern uplift, transgression, In its own fashion, the sharp point it moved
And the prow downward go, as pleased Another, Say, if the Romagnuols have peace or war, This way and that, and then gave forth such
Until the sea above us closed again.” For I was from the mountains there between breath:
Inferno: Canto XXVII Urbino and the yoke whence Tiber bursts.”
Already was the flame erect and quiet, I still was downward bent and listening, “If I believed that my reply were made
To speak no more, and now departed from us When my Conductor touched me on the side, To one who to the world would e’er return,
With the permission of the gentle Poet; Saying: “Speak thou: this one a Latian is.” This flame without more flickering would stand
When yet another, which behind it came, And I, who had beforehand my reply still;
But inasmuch as never from this depth To cure his leprosy, within Soracte, Said: ‘Of the thievish fire a culprit this;’
Did any one return, if I hear true, So this one sought me out as an adept Wherefore, here where thou seest, am I lost,
Without the fear of infamy I answer, To cure him of the fever of his pride. And vested thus in going I bemoan me.”
I was a man of arms, then Cordelier, Counsel he asked of me, and I was silent, When it had thus completed its recital,
Believing thus begirt to make amends; Because his words appeared inebriate. The flame departed uttering lamentations,
And truly my belief had been fulfilled And then he said: ‘Be not thy heart afraid; Writhing and flapping its sharp-pointed horn.
But for the High Priest, whom may ill betide, Henceforth I thee absolve; and thou instruct me Onward we passed, both I and my Conductor,
Who put me back into my former sins; How to raze Palestrina to the ground. Up o’er the crag above another arch,
And how and wherefore I will have thee hear. Which the moat covers, where is paid the fee
While I was still the form of bone and pulp Heaven have I power to lock and to unlock, By those who, sowing discord, win their burden.
My mother gave to me, the deeds I did As thou dost know; therefore the keys are two,
Were not those of a lion, but a fox. The which my predecessor held not dear.’ Inferno: Canto XXVIII
The machinations and the covert ways Then urged me on his weighty arguments
I knew them all, and practised so their craft, There, where my silence was the worst advice; Who ever could, e’en with untrammelled words,
That to the ends of earth the sound went forth. And said I: ‘Father, since thou washest me Tell of the blood and of the wounds in full
When now unto that portion of mine age Of that sin into which I now must fall, Which now I saw, by many times narrating?
I saw myself arrived, when each one ought The promise long with the fulfilment short Each tongue would for a certainty fall short
To lower the sails, and coil away the ropes, Will make thee triumph in thy lofty seat.’ By reason of our speech and memory,
That which before had pleased me then Francis came afterward, when I was dead, That have small room to comprehend so much.
displeased me; For me; but one of the black Cherubim If were again assembled all the people
And penitent and confessing I surrendered, Said to him: ‘Take him not; do me no wrong; Which formerly upon the fateful land
Ah woe is me! and it would have bestead me; He must come down among my servitors, Of Puglia were lamenting for their blood
The Leader of the modern Pharisees Because he gave the fraudulent advice Shed by the Romans and the lingering war
Having a war near unto Lateran, From which time forth I have been at his hair; That of the rings made such illustrious spoils,
And not with Saracens nor with the Jews, For who repents not cannot be absolved, As Livy has recorded, who errs not,
For each one of his enemies was Christian, Nor can one both repent and will at once, With those who felt the agony of blows
And none of them had been to conquer Acre, Because of the contradiction which consents not.’ By making counterstand to Robert Guiscard,
Nor merchandising in the Sultan’s land, O miserable me! how I did shudder And all the rest, whose bones are gathered still
Nor the high office, nor the sacred orders, When he seized on me, saying: ‘Peradventure At Ceperano, where a renegade
In him regarded, nor in me that cord Thou didst not think that I was a logician!’ Was each Apulian, and at Tagliacozzo,
Which used to make those girt with it more He bore me unto Minos, who entwined Where without arms the old Alardo conquered,
meagre; Eight times his tail about his stubborn back, And one his limb transpierced, and one lopped
But even as Constantine sought out Sylvester And after he had bitten it in great rage, off,
Should show, it would be nothing to compare And this is true as that I speak to thee.”
With the disgusting mode of the ninth Bolgia. More than a hundred were there when they heard Between the isles of Cyprus and Majorca
A cask by losing centre-piece or cant him, Neptune ne’er yet beheld so great a crime,
Was never shattered so, as I saw one Who in the moat stood still to look at me, Neither of pirates nor Argolic people.
Rent from the chin to where one breaketh wind. Through wonderment oblivious of their torture. That traitor, who sees only with one eye,
Between his legs were hanging down his entrails; “Now say to Fra Dolcino, then, to arm him, And holds the land, which some one here with
His heart was visible, and the dismal sack Thou, who perhaps wilt shortly see the sun, me
That maketh excrement of what is eaten. If soon he wish not here to follow me, Would fain be fasting from the vision of,
While I was all absorbed in seeing him, So with provisions, that no stress of snow Will make them come unto a parley with him;
He looked at me, and opened with his hands May give the victory to the Novarese, Then will do so, that to Focara’s wind
His bosom, saying: “See now how I rend me; Which otherwise to gain would not be easy.” They will not stand in need of vow or prayer.”
How mutilated, see, is Mahomet; After one foot to go away he lifted, And I to him: “Show to me and declare,
In front of me doth Ali weeping go, This word did Mahomet say unto me, If thou wouldst have me bear up news of thee,
Cleft in the face from forelock unto chin; Then to depart upon the ground he stretched it. Who is this person of the bitter vision.”
And all the others whom thou here beholdest, Another one, who had his throat pierced through, Then did he lay his hand upon the jaw
Disseminators of scandal and of schism And nose cut off close underneath the brows, Of one of his companions, and his mouth
While living were, and therefore are cleft thus. And had no longer but a single ear, Oped, crying: “This is he, and he speaks not.
A devil is behind here, who doth cleave us Staying to look in wonder with the others, This one, being banished, every doubt submerged
Thus cruelly, unto the falchion’s edge Before the others did his gullet open, In Caesar by affirming the forearmed
Putting again each one of all this ream, Which outwardly was red in every part, Always with detriment allowed delay.”
And said: “O thou, whom guilt doth not O how bewildered unto me appeared,
When we have gone around the doleful road; condemn, With tongue asunder in his windpipe slit,
By reason that our wounds are closed again And whom I once saw up in Latian land, Curio, who in speaking was so bold!
Ere any one in front of him repass. Unless too great similitude deceive me, And one, who both his hands dissevered had,
But who art thou, that musest on the crag, Call to remembrance Pier da Medicina, The stumps uplifting through the murky air,
Perchance to postpone going to the pain If e’er thou see again the lovely plain So that the blood made horrible his face,
That is adjudged upon thine accusations?” That from Vercelli slopes to Marcabo, Cried out: “Thou shalt remember Mosca also,
“Nor death hath reached him yet, nor guilt doth And make it known to the best two of Fano, Who said, alas! ‘A thing done has an end!’
bring him,” To Messer Guido and Angiolello likewise, Which was an ill seed for the Tuscan people.”
My Master made reply, “to be tormented; That if foreseeing here be not in vain, “And death unto thy race,” thereto I added;
But to procure him full experience, Cast over from their vessel shall they be, Whence he, accumulating woe on woe,
Me, who am dead, behoves it to conduct him And drowned near unto the Cattolica, Departed, like a person sad and crazed.
Down here through Hell, from circle unto circle; By the betrayal of a tyrant fell. But I remained to look upon the crowd;
And saw a thing which I should be afraid, “O my Conductor, his own violent death,
Without some further proof, even to recount, The many people and the divers wounds Which is not yet avenged for him,” I said,
If it were not that conscience reassures me, These eyes of mine had so inebriated, “By any who is sharer in the shame,
That good companion which emboldens man That they were wishful to stand still and weep; Made him disdainful; whence he went away,
Beneath the hauberk of its feeling pure. But said Virgilius: “What dost thou still gaze at? As I imagine, without speaking to me,
I truly saw, and still I seem to see it, Why is thy sight still riveted down there And thereby made me pity him the more.”
A trunk without a head walk in like manner Among the mournful, mutilated shades? Thus did we speak as far as the first place
As walked the others of the mournful herd. Thou hast not done so at the other Bolge; Upon the crag, which the next valley shows
And by the hair it held the head dissevered, Consider, if to count them thou believest, Down to the bottom, if there were more light.
Hung from the hand in fashion of a lantern, That two-and-twenty miles the valley winds, When we were now right over the last cloister
And that upon us gazed and said: “O me!” And now the moon is underneath our feet; Of Malebolge, so that its lay-brothers
Henceforth the time allotted us is brief, Could manifest themselves unto our sight,
It of itself made to itself a lamp, And more is to be seen than what thou seest.” Divers lamentings pierced me through and
And they were two in one, and one in two; “If thou hadst,” I made answer thereupon, through,
How that can be, He knows who so ordains it. “Attended to the cause for which I looked, Which with compassion had their arrows barbed,
When it was come close to the bridge’s foot, Perhaps a longer stay thou wouldst have Whereat mine ears I covered with my hands.
It lifted high its arm with all the head, pardoned.” What pain would be, if from the hospitals
To bring more closely unto us its words, Meanwhile my Guide departed, and behind him Of Valdichiana, ‘twixt July and September,
Which were: “Behold now the sore penalty, I went, already making my reply, And of Maremma and Sardinia
Thou, who dost breathing go the dead beholding; And superadding: “In that cavern where All the diseases in one moat were gathered,
Behold if any be as great as this. Such was it here, and such a stench came from it
And so that thou may carry news of me, I held mine eyes with such attention fixed, As from putrescent limbs is wont to issue.
Know that Bertram de Born am I, the same I think a spirit of my blood laments We had descended on the furthest bank
Who gave to the Young King the evil comfort. The sin which down below there costs so much.” From the long crag, upon the left hand still,
I made the father and the son rebellious; Then said the Master: “Be no longer broken And then more vivid was my power of sight
Achitophel not more with Absalom Thy thought from this time forward upon him; Down tow’rds the bottom, where the ministress
And David did with his accursed goadings. Attend elsewhere, and there let him remain; Of the high Lord, Justice infallible,
Because I parted persons so united, For him I saw below the little bridge, Punishes forgers, which she here records.
Parted do I now bear my brain, alas! Pointing at thee, and threatening with his finger I do not think a sadder sight to see
From its beginning, which is in this trunk. Fiercely, and heard him called Geri del Bello. Was in Aegina the whole people sick,
Thus is observed in me the counterpoise.” So wholly at that time wast thou impeded (When was the air so full of pestilence,
By him who formerly held Altaforte,
Inferno: Canto XXIX Thou didst not look that way; so he departed.” The animals, down to the little worm,
All fell, and afterwards the ancient people, And said the Guide: “One am I who descends Who knew the art of moderate expenses,
According as the poets have affirmed, Down with this living man from cliff to cliff, And Niccolo, who the luxurious use
Were from the seed of ants restored again,) And I intend to show Hell unto him.” Of cloves discovered earliest of all
Than was it to behold through that dark valley Then broken was their mutual support, Within that garden where such seed takes root;
The spirits languishing in divers heaps. And trembling each one turned himself to me, And taking out the band, among whom
This on the belly, that upon the back With others who had heard him by rebound. squandered
One of the other lay, and others crawling Wholly to me did the good Master gather, Caccia d’Ascian his vineyards and vast woods,
Shifted themselves along the dismal road. Saying: “Say unto them whate’er thou wishest.” And where his wit the Abbagliato proffered!
We step by step went onward without speech, And I began, since he would have it so: But, that thou know who thus doth second thee
Gazing upon and listening to the sick Against the Sienese, make sharp thine eye
Who had not strength enough to lift their bodies. “So may your memory not steal away Tow’rds me, so that my face well answer thee,
I saw two sitting leaned against each other, In the first world from out the minds of men, And thou shalt see I am Capocchio’s shade,
As leans in heating platter against platter, But so may it survive ‘neath many suns, Who metals falsified by alchemy;
From head to foot bespotted o’er with scabs; Say to me who ye are, and of what people; Thou must remember, if I well descry thee,
And never saw I plied a currycomb Let not your foul and loathsome punishment How I a skilful ape of nature was.”
By stable-boy for whom his master waits, Make you afraid to show yourselves to me.”
Or him who keeps awake unwillingly, “I of Arezzo was,” one made reply, Inferno: Canto XXX
As every one was plying fast the bite “And Albert of Siena had me burned;
Of nails upon himself, for the great rage But what I died for does not bring me here. ’Twas at the time when Juno was enraged,
Of itching which no other succour had. ’Tis true I said to him, speaking in jest, For Semele, against the Theban blood,
And the nails downward with them dragged the That I could rise by flight into the air, As she already more than once had shown,
scab, And he who had conceit, but little wit, So reft of reason Athamas became,
In fashion as a knife the scales of bream, Would have me show to him the art; and only That, seeing his own wife with children twain
Or any other fish that has them largest. Because no Daedalus I made him, made me Walking encumbered upon either hand,
“O thou, that with thy fingers dost dismail thee,” Be burned by one who held him as his son. He cried: “Spread out the nets, that I may take
Began my Leader unto one of them, But unto the last Bolgia of the ten, The lioness and her whelps upon the passage;”
“And makest of them pincers now and then, For alchemy, which in the world I practised, And then extended his unpitying claws,
Tell me if any Latian is with those Minos, who cannot err, has me condemned.” Seizing the first, who had the name Learchus,
Who are herein; so may thy nails suffice thee And to the Poet said I: “Now was ever And whirled him round, and dashed him on a
To all eternity unto this work.” So vain a people as the Sienese? rock;
“Latians are we, whom thou so wasted seest, Not for a certainty the French by far.” And she, with the other burthen, drowned herself;
Both of us here,” one weeping made reply; Whereat the other leper, who had heard me, —
“But who art thou, that questionest about us?” Replied unto my speech: “Taking out Stricca, And at the time when fortune downward hurled
The Trojan’s arrogance, that all things dared, Making a will and giving it due form.” For Branda’s fount I would not give the sight.
So that the king was with his kingdom crushed, And after the two maniacs had passed One is within already, if the raving
Hecuba sad, disconsolate, and captive, On whom I held mine eye, I turned it back Shades that are going round about speak truth;
When lifeless she beheld Polyxena, To look upon the other evil-born. But what avails it me, whose limbs are tied?
And of her Polydorus on the shore I saw one made in fashion of a lute,
Of ocean was the dolorous one aware, If he had only had the groin cut off If I were only still so light, that in
Out of her senses like a dog she barked, Just at the point at which a man is forked. A hundred years I could advance one inch,
So much the anguish had her mind distorted; The heavy dropsy, that so disproportions I had already started on the way,
But not of Thebes the furies nor the Trojan The limbs with humours, which it ill concocts, Seeking him out among this squalid folk,
Were ever seen in any one so cruel That the face corresponds not to the belly, Although the circuit be eleven miles,
In goading beasts, and much more human Compelled him so to hold his lips apart And be not less than half a mile across.
members, As does the hectic, who because of thirst For them am I in such a family;
As I beheld two shadows pale and naked, One tow’rds the chin, the other upward turns. They did induce me into coining florins,
Who, biting, in the manner ran along “O ye, who without any torment are, Which had three carats of impurity.”
That a boar does, when from the sty turned loose. And why I know not, in the world of woe,” And I to him: “Who are the two poor wretches
One to Capocchio came, and by the nape He said to us, “behold, and be attentive That smoke like unto a wet hand in winter,
Seized with its teeth his neck, so that in dragging Unto the misery of Master Adam; Lying there close upon thy right-hand confines?”
It made his belly grate the solid bottom. I had while living much of what I wished, “I found them here,” replied he, “when I rained
And the Aretine, who trembling had remained, And now, alas! a drop of water crave. Into this chasm, and since they have not turned,
Said to me: “That mad sprite is Gianni Schicchi, The rivulets, that from the verdant hills Nor do I think they will for evermore.
And raving goes thus harrying other people.” Of Cassentin descend down into Arno, One the false woman is who accused Joseph,
“O,” said I to him, “so may not the other Making their channels to be cold and moist, The other the false Sinon, Greek of Troy;
Set teeth on thee, let it not weary thee Ever before me stand, and not in vain; From acute fever they send forth such reek.”
To tell us who it is, ere it dart hence.” For far more doth their image dry me up And one of them, who felt himself annoyed
And he to me: “That is the ancient ghost Than the disease which strips my face of flesh. At being, peradventure, named so darkly,
Of the nefarious Myrrha, who became The rigid justice that chastises me Smote with the fist upon his hardened paunch.
Beyond all rightful love her father’s lover. Draweth occasion from the place in which It gave a sound, as if it were a drum;
I sinned, to put the more my sighs in flight. And Master Adam smote him in the face,
She came to sin with him after this manner, There is Romena, where I counterfeited With arm that did not seem to be less hard,
By counterfeiting of another’s form; The currency imprinted with the Baptist, Saying to him: “Although be taken from me
As he who goeth yonder undertook, For which I left my body burned above. All motion, for my limbs that heavy are,
That he might gain the lady of the herd, But if I here could see the tristful soul I have an arm unfettered for such need.”
To counterfeit in himself Buoso Donati, Of Guido, or Alessandro, or their brother, Whereat he answer made: “When thou didst go
Unto the fire, thou hadst it not so ready: Such I became, not having power to speak, Whereat I: “Master, say, what town is this?”
But hadst it so and more when thou wast For to excuse myself I wished, and still And he to me: “Because thou peerest forth
coining.” Excused myself, and did not think I did it. Athwart the darkness at too great a distance,
The dropsical: “Thou sayest true in that; “Less shame doth wash away a greater fault,” It happens that thou errest in thy fancy.
But thou wast not so true a witness there, The Master said, “than this of thine has been; Well shalt thou see, if thou arrivest there,
Where thou wast questioned of the truth at Troy.” Therefore thyself disburden of all sadness, How much the sense deceives itself by distance;
“If I spake false, thou falsifiedst the coin,” And make account that I am aye beside thee, Therefore a little faster spur thee on.”
Said Sinon; “and for one fault I am here, If e’er it come to pass that fortune bring thee Then tenderly he took me by the hand,
And thou for more than any other demon.” Where there are people in a like dispute; And said: “Before we farther have advanced,
“Remember, perjurer, about the horse,” For a base wish it is to wish to hear it.” That the reality may seem to thee
He made reply who had the swollen belly, Less strange, know that these are not towers, but
“And rueful be it thee the whole world knows it.” Inferno: Canto XXXI giants,
“Rueful to thee the thirst be wherewith cracks And they are in the well, around the bank,
Thy tongue,” the Greek said, “and the putrid One and the selfsame tongue first wounded me, From navel downward, one and all of them.”
water So that it tinged the one cheek and the other, As, when the fog is vanishing away,
That hedges so thy paunch before thine eyes.” And then held out to me the medicine; Little by little doth the sight refigure
Thus do I hear that once Achilles’ spear, Whate’er the mist that crowds the air conceals,
Then the false-coiner: “So is gaping wide His and his father’s, used to be the cause So, piercing through the dense and darksome air,
Thy mouth for speaking evil, as ’tis wont; First of a sad and then a gracious boon. More and more near approaching tow’rd the
Because if I have thirst, and humour stuff me We turned our backs upon the wretched valley, verge,
Thou hast the burning and the head that aches, Upon the bank that girds it round about, My error fled, and fear came over me;
And to lick up the mirror of Narcissus Going across it without any speech.
Thou wouldst not want words many to invite There it was less than night, and less than day, Because as on its circular parapets
thee.” So that my sight went little in advance; Montereggione crowns itself with towers,
In listening to them was I wholly fixed, But I could hear the blare of a loud horn, E’en thus the margin which surrounds the well
When said the Master to me: “Now just look, So loud it would have made each thunder faint, With one half of their bodies turreted
For little wants it that I quarrel with thee.” Which, counter to it following its way, The horrible giants, whom Jove menaces
When him I heard in anger speak to me, Mine eyes directed wholly to one place. E’en now from out the heavens when he
I turned me round towards him with such shame After the dolorous discomfiture thunders.
That still it eddies through my memory. When Charlemagne the holy emprise lost, And I of one already saw the face,
And as he is who dreams of his own harm, So terribly Orlando sounded not. Shoulders, and breast, and great part of the belly,
Who dreaming wishes it may be a dream, Short while my head turned thitherward I held And down along his sides both of the arms.
So that he craves what is, as if it were not; When many lofty towers I seemed to see, Certainly Nature, when she left the making
Of animals like these, did well indeed, Without the head, forth issued from the cavern.
By taking such executors from Mars; Therefore a longer journey did we make, “O thou, who in the valley fortunate,
And if of elephants and whales she doth not Turned to the left, and a crossbow-shot oft Which Scipio the heir of glory made,
Repent her, whosoever looketh subtly We found another far more fierce and large. When Hannibal turned back with all his hosts,
More just and more discreet will hold her for it; In binding him, who might the master be Once brought’st a thousand lions for thy prey,
For where the argument of intellect I cannot say; but he had pinioned close And who, hadst thou been at the mighty war
Is added unto evil will and power, Behind the right arm, and in front the other, Among thy brothers, some it seems still think
No rampart can the people make against it. With chains, that held him so begirt about The sons of Earth the victory would have gained:
His face appeared to me as long and large From the neck down, that on the part uncovered Place us below, nor be disdainful of it,
As is at Rome the pine-cone of Saint Peter’s, It wound itself as far as the fifth gyre. There where the cold doth lock Cocytus up.
And in proportion were the other bones; “This proud one wished to make experiment
So that the margin, which an apron was Of his own power against the Supreme Jove,” Make us not go to Tityus nor Typhoeus;
Down from the middle, showed so much of him My Leader said, “whence he has such a guerdon. This one can give of that which here is longed
Above it, that to reach up to his hair Ephialtes is his name; he showed great prowess. for;
Three Frieslanders in vain had vaunted them; What time the giants terrified the gods; Therefore stoop down, and do not curl thy lip.
For I beheld thirty great palms of him The arms he wielded never more he moves.” Still in the world can he restore thy fame;
Down from the place where man his mantle And I to him: “If possible, I should wish Because he lives, and still expects long life,
buckles. That of the measureless Briareus If to itself Grace call him not untimely.”
“Raphael mai amech izabi almi,” These eyes of mine might have experience.” So said the Master; and in haste the other
Began to clamour the ferocious mouth, Whence he replied: “Thou shalt behold Antaeus His hands extended and took up my Guide,—
To which were not befitting sweeter psalms. Close by here, who can speak and is unbound, Hands whose great pressure Hercules once felt.
And unto him my Guide: “Soul idiotic, Who at the bottom of all crime shall place us. Virgilius, when he felt himself embraced,
Keep to thy horn, and vent thyself with that, Much farther yon is he whom thou wouldst see, Said unto me: “Draw nigh, that I may take thee;”
When wrath or other passion touches thee. And he is bound, and fashioned like to this one, Then of himself and me one bundle made.
Search round thy neck, and thou wilt find the belt Save that he seems in aspect more ferocious.” As seems the Carisenda, to behold
Which keeps it fastened, O bewildered soul, There never was an earthquake of such might Beneath the leaning side, when goes a cloud
And see it, where it bars thy mighty breast.” That it could shake a tower so violently, Above it so that opposite it hangs;
Then said to me: “He doth himself accuse; As Ephialtes suddenly shook himself. Such did Antaeus seem to me, who stood
This one is Nimrod, by whose evil thought Then was I more afraid of death than ever, Watching to see him stoop, and then it was
One language in the world is not still used. For nothing more was needful than the fear, I could have wished to go some other way.
Here let us leave him and not speak in vain; If I had not beheld the manacles. But lightly in the abyss, which swallows up
For even such to him is every language Then we proceeded farther in advance, Judas with Lucifer, he put us down;
As his to others, which to none is known.” And to Antaeus came, who, full five ells Nor thus bowed downward made he there delay,
But, as a mast does in a ship, uprose. E’en at the edge ’twould not have given a creak. More worthy to be fixed in gelatine;
And as to croak the frog doth place himself Not he in whom were broken breast and shadow
Inferno: Canto XXXII With muzzle out of water,—when is dreaming At one and the same blow by Arthur’s hand;
Of gleaning oftentimes the peasant-girl,— Focaccia not; not he who me encumbers
If I had rhymes both rough and stridulous, Livid, as far down as where shame appears, So with his head I see no farther forward,
As were appropriate to the dismal hole Were the disconsolate shades within the ice, And bore the name of Sassol Mascheroni;
Down upon which thrust all the other rocks, Setting their teeth unto the note of storks. Well knowest thou who he was, if thou art
I would press out the juice of my conception Each one his countenance held downward bent; Tuscan.
More fully; but because I have them not, From mouth the cold, from eyes the doleful heart And that thou put me not to further speech,
Not without fear I bring myself to speak; Among them witness of itself procures. Know that I Camicion de’ Pazzi was,
For ’tis no enterprise to take in jest, And wait Carlino to exonerate me.”
To sketch the bottom of all the universe, When round about me somewhat I had looked, Then I beheld a thousand faces, made
Nor for a tongue that cries Mamma and Babbo. I downward turned me, and saw two so close, Purple with cold; whence o’er me comes a
But may those Ladies help this verse of mine, The hair upon their heads together mingled. shudder,
Who helped Amphion in enclosing Thebes, “Ye who so strain your breasts together, tell me,” And evermore will come, at frozen ponds.
That from the fact the word be not diverse. I said, “who are you;” and they bent their necks, And while we were advancing tow’rds the
O rabble ill-begotten above all, And when to me their faces they had lifted, middle,
Who’re in the place to speak of which is hard, Their eyes, which first were only moist within, Where everything of weight unites together,
‘Twere better ye had here been sheep or goats! Gushed o’er the eyelids, and the frost congealed And I was shivering in the eternal shade,
When we were down within the darksome well, The tears between, and locked them up again. Whether ‘twere will, or destiny, or chance,
Beneath the giant’s feet, but lower far, Clamp never bound together wood with wood I know not; but in walking ‘mong the heads
And I was scanning still the lofty wall, So strongly; whereat they, like two he-goats, I struck my foot hard in the face of one.
I heard it said to me: “Look how thou steppest! Butted together, so much wrath o’ercame them. Weeping he growled: “Why dost thou trample
Take heed thou do not trample with thy feet And one, who had by reason of the cold me?
The heads of the tired, miserable brothers!” Lost both his ears, still with his visage Unless thou comest to increase the vengeance
Whereat I turned me round, and saw before me downward, of Montaperti, why dost thou molest me?”
And underfoot a lake, that from the frost Said: “Why dost thou so mirror thyself in us?
The semblance had of glass, and not of water. If thou desire to know who these two are, And I: “My Master, now wait here for me,
So thick a veil ne’er made upon its current The valley whence Bisenzio descends That I through him may issue from a doubt;
In winter-time Danube in Austria, Belonged to them and to their father Albert. Then thou mayst hurry me, as thou shalt wish.”
Nor there beneath the frigid sky the Don, They from one body came, and all Caina The Leader stopped; and to that one I said
As there was here; so that if Tambernich Thou shalt search through, and shalt not find a Who was blaspheming vehemently still:
Had fallen upon it, or Pietrapana, shade “Who art thou, that thus reprehendest others?”
“Now who art thou, that goest through Antenora Thou hast beside thee him of Beccaria, But if my words be seed that may bear fruit
Smiting,” replied he, “other people’s cheeks, Of whom the gorget Florence slit asunder; Of infamy to the traitor whom I gnaw,
So that, if thou wert living, ‘twere too much?” Gianni del Soldanier, I think, may be Speaking and weeping shalt thou see together.
“Living I am, and dear to thee it may be,” Yonder with Ganellon, and Tebaldello I know not who thou art, nor by what mode
Was my response, “if thou demandest fame, Who oped Faenza when the people slep.” Thou hast come down here; but a Florentine
That ‘mid the other notes thy name I place.” Thou seemest to me truly, when I hear thee.
And he to me: “For the reverse I long; Already we had gone away from him, Thou hast to know I was Count Ugolino,
Take thyself hence, and give me no more trouble; When I beheld two frozen in one hole, And this one was Ruggieri the Archbishop;
For ill thou knowest to flatter in this hollow.” So that one head a hood was to the other; Now I will tell thee why I am such a neighbour.
Then by the scalp behind I seized upon him, And even as bread through hunger is devoured, That, by effect of his malicious thoughts,
And said: “It must needs be thou name thyself, The uppermost on the other set his teeth, Trusting in him I was made prisoner,
Or not a hair remain upon thee here.” There where the brain is to the nape united. And after put to death, I need not say;
Whence he to me: “Though thou strip off my Not in another fashion Tydeus gnawed
hair, The temples of Menalippus in disdain, But ne’ertheless what thou canst not have heard,
I will not tell thee who I am, nor show thee, Than that one did the skull and the other things. That is to say, how cruel was my death,
If on my head a thousand times thou fall.” “O thou, who showest by such bestial sign Hear shalt thou, and shalt know if he has
I had his hair in hand already twisted, Thy hatred against him whom thou art eating, wronged me.
And more than one shock of it had pulled out, Tell me the wherefore,” said I, “with this A narrow perforation in the mew,
He barking, with his eyes held firmly down, compact, Which bears because of me the title of Famine,
When cried another: “What doth ail thee, Bocca? That if thou rightfully of him complain, And in which others still must be locked up,
Is’t not enough to clatter with thy jaws, In knowing who ye are, and his transgression, Had shown me through its opening many moons
But thou must bark? what devil touches thee?” I in the world above repay thee for it, Already, when I dreamed the evil dream
“Now,” said I, “I care not to have thee speak, If that wherewith I speak be not dried up.” Which of the future rent for me the veil.
Accursed traitor; for unto thy shame This one appeared to me as lord and master,
I will report of thee veracious news.” Inferno: Canto XXXIII Hunting the wolf and whelps upon the mountain
“Begone,” replied he, “and tell what thou wilt, For which the Pisans cannot Lucca see.
But be not silent, if thou issue hence, His mouth uplifted from his grim repast, With sleuth-hounds gaunt, and eager, and well
Of him who had just now his tongue so prompt; That sinner, wiping it upon the hair trained,
He weepeth here the silver of the French; Of the same head that he behind had wasted. Gualandi with Sismondi and Lanfianchi
‘I saw,’ thus canst thou phrase it, ‘him of Duera Then he began: “Thou wilt that I renew He had sent out before him to the front.
There where the sinners stand out in the cold.’ The desperate grief, which wrings my heart After brief course seemed unto me forespent
If thou shouldst questioned be who else was already The father and the sons, and with sharp tushes
there, To think of only, ere I speak of it; It seemed to me I saw their flanks ripped open.
When I before the morrow was awake, That day we all were silent, and the next. Turns itself inward to increase the anguish;
Moaning amid their sleep I heard my sons Ah! obdurate earth, wherefore didst thou not Because the earliest tears a cluster form,
Who with me were, and asking after bread. open? And, in the manner of a crystal visor,
Cruel indeed art thou, if yet thou grieve not, When we had come unto the fourth day, Gaddo Fill all the cup beneath the eyebrow full.
Thinking of what my heart foreboded me, Threw himself down outstretched before my feet, And notwithstanding that, as in a callus,
And weep’st thou not, what art thou wont to Saying, ‘My father, why dost thou not help me?’ Because of cold all sensibility
weep at? And there he died; and, as thou seest me, Its station had abandoned in my face,
They were awake now, and the hour drew nigh I saw the three fall, one by one, between
At which our food used to be brought to us, The fifth day and the sixth; whence I betook me, Still it appeared to me I felt some wind;
And through his dream was each one Already blind, to groping over each, Whence I: “My Master, who sets this in motion?
apprehensive; And three days called them after they were dead; Is not below here every vapour quenched?”
And I heard locking up the under door Then hunger did what sorrow could not do.” Whence he to me: “Full soon shalt thou be where
Of the horrible tower; whereat without a word When he had said this, with his eyes distorted, Thine eye shall answer make to thee of this,
I gazed into the faces of my sons. The wretched skull resumed he with his teeth, Seeing the cause which raineth down the blast.”
I wept not, I within so turned to stone; Which, as a dog’s, upon the bone were strong. And one of the wretches of the frozen crust
They wept; and darling little Anselm mine Ah! Pisa, thou opprobrium of the people Cried out to us: “O souls so merciless
Said: ‘Thou dost gaze so, father, what doth ail Of the fair land there where the ‘Si’ doth sound, That the last post is given unto you,
thee?’ Since slow to punish thee thy neighbours are, Lift from mine eyes the rigid veils, that I
Still not a tear I shed, nor answer made Let the Capraia and Gorgona move, May vent the sorrow which impregns my heart
All of that day, nor yet the night thereafter, And make a hedge across the mouth of Arno A little, e’er the weeping recongeal.”
Until another sun rose on the world. That every person in thee it may drown! Whence I to him: “If thou wouldst have me help
As now a little glimmer made its way For if Count Ugolino had the fame thee
Into the dolorous prison, and I saw Of having in thy castles thee betrayed, Say who thou wast; and if I free thee not,
Upon four faces my own very aspect, Thou shouldst not on such cross have put his May I go to the bottom of the ice.”
Both of my hands in agony I bit; sons. Then he replied: “I am Friar Alberigo;
And, thinking that I did it from desire Guiltless of any crime, thou modern Thebes! He am I of the fruit of the bad garden,
Of eating, on a sudden they uprose, Their youth made Uguccione and Brigata, Who here a date am getting for my fig.”
And the other two my song doth name above! “O,” said I to him, “now art thou, too, dead?”
And said they: ‘Father, much less pain ‘twill give We passed still farther onward, where the ice And he to me: “How may my body fare
us Another people ruggedly enswathes, Up in the world, no knowledge I possess.
If thou do eat of us; thyself didst clothe us Not downward turned, but all of them reversed. Such an advantage has this Ptolomaea,
With this poor flesh, and do thou strip it off.’ Weeping itself there does not let them weep, That oftentimes the soul descendeth here
I calmed me then, not to make them more sad. And grief that finds a barrier in the eyes Sooner than Atropos in motion sets it.
And, that thou mayest more willingly remove And still above in body seems alive! The Emperor of the kingdom dolorous
From off my countenance these glassy tears, From his mid-breast forth issued from the ice;
Know that as soon as any soul betrays Inferno: Canto XXXIV And better with a giant I compare
As I have done, his body by a demon Than do the giants with those arms of his;
Is taken from him, who thereafter rules it, “‘Vexilla Regis prodeunt Inferni’ Consider now how great must be that whole,
Until his time has wholly been revolved. Towards us; therefore look in front of thee,” Which unto such a part conforms itself.
Itself down rushes into such a cistern; My Master said, “if thou discernest him.” Were he as fair once, as he now is foul,
And still perchance above appears the body As, when there breathes a heavy fog, or when And lifted up his brow against his Maker,
Of yonder shade, that winters here behind me. Our hemisphere is darkening into night, Well may proceed from him all tribulation.
This thou shouldst know, if thou hast just come Appears far off a mill the wind is turning, O, what a marvel it appeared to me,
down; Methought that such a building then I saw; When I beheld three faces on his head!
It is Ser Branca d’ Oria, and many years And, for the wind, I drew myself behind The one in front, and that vermilion was;
Have passed away since he was thus locked up.” My Guide, because there was no other shelter. Two were the others, that were joined with this
“I think,” said I to him, “thou dost deceive me; Now was I, and with fear in verse I put it, Above the middle part of either shoulder,
For Branca d’ Oria is not dead as yet, There where the shades were wholly covered up, And they were joined together at the crest;
And eats, and drinks, and sleeps, and puts on And glimmered through like unto straws in glass. And the right-hand one seemed ‘twixt white and
clothes.” Some prone are lying, others stand erect, yellow;
“In moat above,” said he, “of Malebranche, This with the head, and that one with the soles; The left was such to look upon as those
There where is boiling the tenacious pitch, Another, bow-like, face to feet inverts. Who come from where the Nile falls valley-ward.
As yet had Michel Zanche not arrived, When in advance so far we had proceeded, Underneath each came forth two mighty wings,
That it my Master pleased to show to me Such as befitting were so great a bird;
When this one left a devil in his stead The creature who once had the beauteous Sails of the sea I never saw so large.
In his own body and one near of kin, semblance, No feathers had they, but as of a bat
Who made together with him the betrayal. Their fashion was; and he was waving them,
But hitherward stretch out thy hand forthwith, He from before me moved and made me stop, So that three winds proceeded forth therefrom.
Open mine eyes;”—and open them I did not, Saying: “Behold Dis, and behold the place Thereby Cocytus wholly was congealed.
And to be rude to him was courtesy. Where thou with fortitude must arm thyself.” With six eyes did he weep, and down three chins
Ah, Genoese! ye men at variance How frozen I became and powerless then, Trickled the tear-drops and the bloody drivel.
With every virtue, full of every vice Ask it not, Reader, for I write it not, At every mouth he with his teeth was crunching
Wherefore are ye not scattered from the world? Because all language would be insufficient. A sinner, in the manner of a brake,
For with the vilest spirit of Romagna I did not die, and I alive remained not; So that he three of them tormented thus.
I found of you one such, who for his deeds Think for thyself now, hast thou aught of wit, To him in front the biting was as naught
In soul already in Cocytus bathes, What I became, being of both deprived. Unto the clawing, for sometimes the spine
Utterly stripped of all the skin remained. And I beheld him upward hold his legs. Upon this side he fell down out of heaven;
And if I then became disquieted, And all the land, that whilom here emerged,
“That soul up there which has the greatest pain,” Let stolid people think who do not see For fear of him made of the sea a veil,
The Master said, “is Judas Iscariot; What the point is beyond which I had passed. And came to our hemisphere; and peradventure
With head inside, he plies his legs without. “Rise up,” the Master said, “upon thy feet; To flee from him, what on this side appears
Of the two others, who head downward are, The way is long, and difficult the road, Left the place vacant here, and back recoiled.”
The one who hangs from the black jowl is Brutus; And now the sun to middle-tierce returns.” A place there is below, from Beelzebub
See how he writhes himself, and speaks no word. It was not any palace corridor As far receding as the tomb extends,
And the other, who so stalwart seems, is Cassius. There where we were, but dungeon natural, Which not by sight is known, but by the sound
But night is reascending, and ’tis time With floor uneven and unease of light. Of a small rivulet, that there descendeth
That we depart, for we have seen the whole.” “Ere from the abyss I tear myself away, Through chasm within the stone, which it has
As seemed him good, I clasped him round the My Master,” said I when I had arisen, gnawed
neck, “To draw me from an error speak a little; With course that winds about and slightly falls.
And he the vantage seized of time and place, The Guide and I into that hidden road
And when the wings were opened wide apart, Where is the ice? and how is this one fixed Now entered, to return to the bright world;
He laid fast hold upon the shaggy sides; Thus upside down? and how in such short time And without care of having any rest
From fell to fell descended downward then From eve to morn has the sun made his transit?” We mounted up, he first and I the second,
Between the thick hair and the frozen crust. And he to me: “Thou still imaginest Till I beheld through a round aperture
When we were come to where the thigh revolves Thou art beyond the centre, where I grasped Some of the beauteous things that Heaven doth
Exactly on the thickness of the haunch, The hair of the fell worm, who mines the world. bear;
The Guide, with labour and with hard-drawn That side thou wast, so long as I descended; Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars.
breath, When round I turned me, thou didst pass the
Turned round his head where he had had his legs, point
And grappled to the hair, as one who mounts, To which things heavy draw from every side,
So that to Hell I thought we were returning. And now beneath the hemisphere art come
“Keep fast thy hold, for by such stairs as these,” Opposite that which overhangs the vast
The Master said, panting as one fatigued, Dry-land, and ‘neath whose cope was put to death
“Must we perforce depart from so much evil.” The Man who without sin was born and lived.
Then through the opening of a rock he issued, Thou hast thy feet upon the little sphere
And down upon the margin seated me; Which makes the other face of the Judecca. PURGATORIO
Then tow’rds me he outstretched his wary step. Here it is morn when it is evening there;
I lifted up mine eyes and thought to see And he who with his hair a stairway made us Purgatorio: Canto I
Lucifer in the same way I had left him; Still fixed remaineth as he was before.
To run o’er better waters hoists its sail That more owes not to father any son. Than this to which I have myself betaken.
The little vessel of my genius now, A long beard and with white hair intermingled I’ve shown him all the people of perdition,
That leaves behind itself a sea so cruel; He wore, in semblance like unto the tresses, And now those spirits I intend to show
And of that second kingdom will I sing Of which a double list fell on his breast. Who purge themselves beneath thy guardianship.
Wherein the human spirit doth purge itself, How I have brought him would be long to tell
And to ascend to heaven becometh worthy. The rays of the four consecrated stars thee.
But let dead Poesy here rise again, Did so adorn his countenance with light, Virtue descendeth from on high that aids me
O holy Muses, since that I am yours, That him I saw as were the sun before him. To lead him to behold thee and to hear thee.
And here Calliope somewhat ascend, “Who are you? ye who, counter the blind river, Now may it please thee to vouchsafe his coming;
My song accompanying with that sound, Have fled away from the eternal prison?” He seeketh Liberty, which is so dear,
Of which the miserable magpies felt Moving those venerable plumes, he said: As knoweth he who life for her refuses.
The blow so great, that they despaired of pardon. “Who guided you? or who has been your lamp Thou know’st it; since, for her, to thee not bitter
Sweet colour of the oriental sapphire, In issuing forth out of the night profound, Was death in Utica, where thou didst leave
That was upgathered in the cloudless aspect That ever black makes the infernal valley? The vesture, that will shine so, the great day.
Of the pure air, as far as the first circle, The laws of the abyss, are they thus broken? By us the eternal edicts are not broken;
Unto mine eyes did recommence delight Or is there changed in heaven some council new, Since this one lives, and Minos binds not me;
Soon as I issued forth from the dead air, That being damned ye come unto my crags?” But of that circle I, where are the chaste
Which had with sadness filled mine eyes and Then did my Leader lay his grasp upon me,
breast. And with his words, and with his hands and Eyes of thy Marcia, who in looks still prays thee,
The beauteous planet, that to love incites, signs, O holy breast, to hold her as thine own;
Was making all the orient to laugh, Reverent he made in me my knees and brow; For her love, then, incline thyself to us.
Veiling the Fishes that were in her escort. Then answered him: “I came not of myself; Permit us through thy sevenfold realm to go;
To the right hand I turned, and fixed my mind A Lady from Heaven descended, at whose I will take back this grace from thee to her,
Upon the other pole, and saw four stars prayers If to be mentioned there below thou deignest.”
Ne’er seen before save by the primal people. I aided this one with my company. “Marcia so pleasing was unto mine eyes
Rejoicing in their flamelets seemed the heaven. But since it is thy will more be unfolded While I was on the other side,” then said he,
O thou septentrional and widowed site, Of our condition, how it truly is, “That every grace she wished of me I granted;
Because thou art deprived of seeing these! Mine cannot be that this should be denied thee. Now that she dwells beyond the evil river,
When from regarding them I had withdrawn, This one has never his last evening seen, She can no longer move me, by that law
Turning a little to the other pole, But by his folly was so near to it Which, when I issued forth from there, was made.
There where the Wain had disappeared already, That very little time was there to turn. But if a Lady of Heaven do move and rule thee,
I saw beside me an old man alone, As I have said, I unto him was sent As thou dost say, no flattery is needful;
Worthy of so much reverence in his look, To rescue him, and other way was none Let it suffice thee that for her thou ask me.
Go, then, and see thou gird this one about Extended unto him my tearful cheeks; Mine eyes, that I might question my Conductor,
With a smooth rush, and that thou wash his face, There did he make in me uncovered wholly Again I saw it brighter grown and larger.
So that thou cleanse away all stain therefrom, That hue which Hell had covered up in me. Then on each side of it appeared to me
For ‘twere not fitting that the eye o’ercast Then came we down upon the desert shore I knew not what of white, and underneath it
By any mist should go before the first Which never yet saw navigate its waters Little by little there came forth another.
Angel, who is of those of Paradise. Any that afterward had known return. My Master yet had uttered not a word
This little island round about its base There he begirt me as the other pleased; While the first whiteness into wings unfolded;
Below there, yonder, where the billow beats it, O marvellous! for even as he culled But when he clearly recognised the pilot,
Doth rushes bear upon its washy ooze; The humble plant, such it sprang up again He cried: “Make haste, make haste to bow the
No other plant that putteth forth the leaf, Suddenly there where he uprooted it. knee!
Or that doth indurate, can there have life, Behold the Angel of God! fold thou thy hands!
Because it yieldeth not unto the shocks. Purgatorio: Canto II Henceforward shalt thou see such officers!
Thereafter be not this way your return; See how he scorneth human arguments,
The sun, which now is rising, will direct you Already had the sun the horizon reached So that nor oar he wants, nor other sail
To take the mount by easier ascent.” Whose circle of meridian covers o’er Than his own wings, between so distant shores.
With this he vanished; and I raised me up Jerusalem with its most lofty point, See how he holds them pointed up to heaven,
Without a word, and wholly drew myself And night that opposite to him revolves Fanning the air with the eternal pinions,
Unto my Guide, and turned mine eyes to him. Was issuing forth from Ganges with the Scales That do not moult themselves like mortal hair!”
And he began: “Son, follow thou my steps; That fall from out her hand when she exceedeth; Then as still nearer and more near us came
Let us turn back, for on this side declines So that the white and the vermilion cheeks The Bird Divine, more radiant he appeared,
The plain unto its lower boundaries.” Of beautiful Aurora, where I was, So that near by the eye could not endure him,
The dawn was vanquishing the matin hour By too great age were changing into orange. But down I cast it; and he came to shore
Which fled before it, so that from afar We still were on the border of the sea, With a small vessel, very swift and light,
I recognised the trembling of the sea. Like people who are thinking of their road, So that the water swallowed naught thereof.
Along the solitary plain we went Who go in heart and with the body stay; Upon the stern stood the Celestial Pilot;
As one who unto the lost road returns, And lo! as when, upon the approach of morning, Beatitude seemed written in his face,
And till he finds it seems to go in vain. Through the gross vapours Mars grows fiery red And more than a hundred spirits sat within.
As soon as we were come to where the dew Down in the West upon the ocean floor, “In exitu Israel de Aegypto!”
Fights with the sun, and, being in a part Appeared to me—may I again behold it!— They chanted all together in one voice,
Where shadow falls, little evaporates, A light along the sea so swiftly coming, With whatso in that psalm is after written.
Both of his hands upon the grass outspread Its motion by no flight of wing is equalled; Then made he sign of holy rood upon them,
In gentle manner did my Master place; Whereat all cast themselves upon the shore,
Whence I, who of his action was aware, From which when I a little had withdrawn And he departed swiftly as he came.
The throng which still remained there unfamiliar Whereat the shadow smiled and backward drew; My Master, and myself, and all that people
Seemed with the place, all round about them And I, pursuing it, pressed farther forward. Which with him were, appeared as satisfied
gazing, Gently it said that I should stay my steps; As if naught else might touch the mind of any.
As one who in new matters makes essay. Then knew I who it was, and I entreated We all of us were moveless and attentive
On every side was darting forth the day. That it would stop awhile to speak with me. Unto his notes; and lo! the grave old man,
The sun, who had with his resplendent shafts It made reply to me: “Even as I loved thee Exclaiming: “What is this, ye laggard spirits?
From the mid-heaven chased forth the Capricorn, In mortal body, so I love thee free; What negligence, what standing still is this?
When the new people lifted up their faces Therefore I stop; but wherefore goest thou?” Run to the mountain to strip off the slough,
Towards us, saying to us: “If ye know, “My own Casella! to return once more That lets not God be manifest to you.”
Show us the way to go unto the mountain.” There where I am, I make this journey,” said I; Even as when, collecting grain or tares,
“But how from thee has so much time be taken?” The doves, together at their pasture met,
And answer made Virgilius: “Ye believe And he to me: “No outrage has been done me, Quiet, nor showing their accustomed pride,
Perchance that we have knowledge of this place, If he who takes both when and whom he pleases If aught appear of which they are afraid,
But we are strangers even as yourselves. Has many times denied to me this passage, Upon a sudden leave their food alone,
Just now we came, a little while before you, For of a righteous will his own is made. Because they are assailed by greater care;
Another way, which was so rough and steep, He, sooth to say, for three months past has taken So that fresh company did I behold
That mounting will henceforth seem sport to us.” Whoever wished to enter with all peace; The song relinquish, and go tow’rds the hill,
The souls who had, from seeing me draw breath, Whence I, who now had turned unto that shore As one who goes, and knows not whitherward;
Become aware that I was still alive, Where salt the waters of the Tiber grow, Nor was our own departure less in haste.
Pallid in their astonishment became; Benignantly by him have been received.
And as to messenger who bears the olive Purgatorio: Canto III
The people throng to listen to the news, Unto that outlet now his wing is pointed,
And no one shows himself afraid of crowding, Because for evermore assemble there Inasmuch as the instantaneous flight
So at the sight of me stood motionless Those who tow’rds Acheron do not descend.” Had scattered them asunder o’er the plain,
Those fortunate spirits, all of them, as if And I: “If some new law take not from thee Turned to the mountain whither reason spurs us,
Oblivious to go and make them fair. Memory or practice of the song of love, I pressed me close unto my faithful comrade,
One from among them saw I coming forward, Which used to quiet in me all my longings, And how without him had I kept my course?
As to embrace me, with such great affection, Thee may it please to comfort therewithal Who would have led me up along the mountain?
That it incited me to do the like. Somewhat this soul of mine, that with its body He seemed to me within himself remorseful;
O empty shadows, save in aspect only! Hitherward coming is so much distressed.” O noble conscience, and without a stain,
Three times behind it did I clasp my hands, “Love, that within my mind discourses with me,” How sharp a sting is trivial fault to thee!
As oft returned with them to my own breast! Forthwith began he so melodiously, After his feet had laid aside the haste
I think with wonder I depicted me; The melody within me still is sounding. Which mars the dignity of every act,
My mind, that hitherto had been restrained, Which evermore is given them for a grief. Virgilius made beginning, “by that peace
Let loose its faculties as if delighted, I speak of Aristotle and of Plato, Which I believe is waiting for you all,
And I my sight directed to the hill And many others;”—and here bowed his head, Tell us upon what side the mountain slopes,
That highest tow’rds the heaven uplifts itself. And more he said not, and remained disturbed. So that the going up be possible,
The sun, that in our rear was flaming red, We came meanwhile unto the mountain’s foot; For to lose time irks him most who most knows.”
Was broken in front of me into the figure There so precipitate we found the rock, As sheep come issuing forth from out the fold
Which had in me the stoppage of its rays; That nimble legs would there have been in vain. By ones and twos and threes, and the others stand
Unto one side I turned me, with the fear ‘Twixt Lerici and Turbia, the most desert, Timidly, holding down their eyes and nostrils,
Of being left alone, when I beheld The most secluded pathway is a stair
Only in front of me the ground obscured. Easy and open, if compared with that. And what the foremost does the others do,
“Why dost thou still mistrust?” my Comforter “Who knoweth now upon which hand the hill Huddling themselves against her, if she stop,
Began to say to me turned wholly round; Slopes down,” my Master said, his footsteps Simple and quiet and the wherefore know not;
“Dost thou not think me with thee, and that I staying, So moving to approach us thereupon
guide thee? “So that who goeth without wings may mount?” I saw the leader of that fortunate flock,
’Tis evening there already where is buried And while he held his eyes upon the ground Modest in face and dignified in gait.
The body within which I cast a shadow; Examining the nature of the path, As soon as those in the advance saw broken
’Tis from Brundusium ta’en, and Naples has it. And I was looking up around the rock, The light upon the ground at my right side,
Now if in front of me no shadow fall, On the left hand appeared to me a throng So that from me the shadow reached the rock,
Marvel not at it more than at the heavens, Of souls, that moved their feet in our direction, They stopped, and backward drew themselves
Because one ray impedeth not another And did not seem to move, they came so slowly. somewhat;
To suffer torments, both of cold and heat, “Lift up thine eyes,” I to the Master said; And all the others, who came after them,
Bodies like this that Power provides, which wills “Behold, on this side, who will give us counsel, Not knowing why nor wherefore, did the same.
That how it works be not unveiled to us. If thou of thine own self can have it not.” “Without your asking, I confess to you
Insane is he who hopeth that our reason Then he looked at me, and with frank expression This is a human body which you see,
Can traverse the illimitable way, Replied: “Let us go there, for they come slowly, Whereby the sunshine on the ground is cleft.
Which the one Substance in three Persons And thou be steadfast in thy hope, sweet son.” Marvel ye not thereat, but be persuaded
follows! Still was that people as far off from us, That not without a power which comes from
Mortals, remain contented at the ‘Quia;’ After a thousand steps of ours I say, Heaven
For if ye had been able to see all, As a good thrower with his hand would reach, Doth he endeavour to surmount this wall.”
No need there were for Mary to give birth; When they all crowded unto the hard masses The Master thus; and said those worthy people:
Of the high bank, and motionless stood and close, “Return ye then, and enter in before us,”
And ye have seen desiring without fruit, As he stands still to look who goes in doubt. Making a signal with the back o’ the hand
Those whose desire would have been quieted, “O happy dead! O spirits elect already!” And one of them began: “Whoe’er thou art,
Thus going turn thine eyes, consider well So long as hope has anything of green. With but a little forkful of his thorns
If e’er thou saw me in the other world.” True is it, who in contumacy dies The villager, what time the grape imbrowns,
I turned me tow’rds him, and looked at him Of Holy Church, though penitent at last, Than was the passage-way through which
closely; Must wait upon the outside this bank ascended
Blond was he, beautiful, and of noble aspect, Thirty times told the time that he has been Only my Leader and myself behind him,
But one of his eyebrows had a blow divided. In his presumption, unless such decree After that company departed from us.
When with humility I had disclaimed Shorter by means of righteous prayers become. One climbs Sanleo and descends in Noli,
E’er having seen him, “Now behold!” he said, See now if thou hast power to make me happy, And mounts the summit of Bismantova,
And showed me high upon his breast a wound. By making known unto my good Costanza With feet alone; but here one needs must fly;
Then said he with a smile: “I am Manfredi, How thou hast seen me, and this ban beside, With the swift pinions and the plumes I say
The grandson of the Empress Costanza; For those on earth can much advance us here.” Of great desire, conducted after him
Therefore, when thou returnest, I beseech thee Who gave me hope, and made a light for me.
Go to my daughter beautiful, the mother Purgatorio: Canto IV We mounted upward through the rifted rock,
Of Sicily’s honour and of Aragon’s, And on each side the border pressed upon us,
And the truth tell her, if aught else be told. Whenever by delight or else by pain, And feet and hands the ground beneath required.
After I had my body lacerated That seizes any faculty of ours, When we were come upon the upper rim
By these two mortal stabs, I gave myself Wholly to that the soul collects itself, Of the high bank, out on the open slope,
Weeping to Him, who willingly doth pardon. It seemeth that no other power it heeds; “My Master,” said I, “what way shall we take?”
Horrible my iniquities had been; And this against that error is which thinks And he to me: “No step of thine descend;
But Infinite Goodness hath such ample arms, One soul above another kindles in us. Still up the mount behind me win thy way,
That it receives whatever turns to it. And hence, whenever aught is heard or seen Till some sage escort shall appear to us.”
Which keeps the soul intently bent upon it,
Had but Cosenza’s pastor, who in chase Time passes on, and we perceive it not, The summit was so high it vanquished sight,
Of me was sent by Clement at that time, Because one faculty is that which listens, And the hillside precipitous far more
In God read understandingly this page, And other that which the soul keeps entire; Than line from middle quadrant to the centre.
The bones of my dead body still would be This is as if in bonds, and that is free. Spent with fatigue was I, when I began:
At the bridge-head, near unto Benevento, Of this I had experience positive “O my sweet Father! turn thee and behold
Under the safeguard of the heavy cairn. In hearing and in gazing at that spirit; How I remain alone, unless thou stay!”
Now the rain bathes and moveth them the wind, For fifty full degrees uprisen was “O son,” he said, “up yonder drag thyself,”
Beyond the realm, almost beside the Verde, The sun, and I had not perceived it, when Pointing me to a terrace somewhat higher,
Where he transported them with tapers quenched. We came to where those souls with one accord Which on that side encircles all the hill.
By malison of theirs is not so lost Cried out unto us: “Here is what you ask.” These words of his so spurred me on, that I
Eternal Love, that it cannot return, A greater opening ofttimes hedges up Strained every nerve, behind him scrambling up,
Until the circle was beneath my feet. For reason which thou sayest, departeth hence Then knew I who he was; and the distress,
Thereon ourselves we seated both of us Tow’rds the Septentrion, what time the Hebrews That still a little did my breathing quicken,
Turned to the East, from which we had ascended, Beheld it tow’rds the region of the heat. My going to him hindered not; and after
For all men are delighted to look back. But, if it pleaseth thee, I fain would learn I came to him he hardly raised his head,
To the low shores mine eyes I first directed, How far we have to go; for the hill rises Saying: “Hast thou seen clearly how the sun
Then to the sun uplifted them, and wondered Higher than eyes of mine have power to rise.” O’er thy left shoulder drives his chariot?”
That on the left hand we were smitten by it. And he to me: “This mount is such, that ever His sluggish attitude and his curt words
The Poet well perceived that I was wholly At the beginning down below ’tis tiresome, A little unto laughter moved my lips;
Bewildered at the chariot of the light, And aye the more one climbs, the less it hurts. Then I began: “Belacqua, I grieve not
Where ‘twixt us and the Aquilon it entered. Therefore, when it shall seem so pleasant to thee,
Whereon he said to me: “If Castor and Pollux That going up shall be to thee as easy For thee henceforth; but tell me, wherefore seated
Were in the company of yonder mirror, As going down the current in a boat, In this place art thou? Waitest thou an escort?
That up and down conducteth with its light, Then at this pathway’s ending thou wilt be; Or has thy usual habit seized upon thee?”
Thou wouldst behold the zodiac’s jagged wheel There to repose thy panting breath expect; And he: “O brother, what’s the use of climbing?
Revolving still more near unto the Bears, No more I answer; and this I know for true.” Since to my torment would not let me go
Unless it swerved aside from its old track. And as he finished uttering these words, The Angel of God, who sitteth at the gate.
How that may be wouldst thou have power to A voice close by us sounded: “Peradventure First heaven must needs so long revolve me
think, Thou wilt have need of sitting down ere that.” round
Collected in thyself, imagine Zion At sound thereof each one of us turned round, Outside thereof, as in my life it did,
Together with this mount on earth to stand, And saw upon the left hand a great rock, Since the good sighs I to the end postponed,
So that they both one sole horizon have, Which neither I nor he before had noticed. Unless, e’er that, some prayer may bring me aid
And hemispheres diverse; whereby the road Thither we drew; and there were persons there Which rises from a heart that lives in grace;
Which Phaeton, alas! knew not to drive, Who in the shadow stood behind the rock, What profit others that in heaven are heard not?”
Thou’lt see how of necessity must pass As one through indolence is wont to stand. Meanwhile the Poet was before me mounting,
This on one side, when that upon the other, And one of them, who seemed to me fatigued, And saying: “Come now; see the sun has touched
If thine intelligence right clearly heed.” Was sitting down, and both his knees embraced, Meridian, and from the shore the night
“Truly, my Master,” said I, “never yet Holding his face low down between them bowed. Covers already with her foot Morocco.”
Saw I so clearly as I now discern, “O my sweet Lord,” I said, “do turn thine eye Purgatorio: Canto V
There where my wit appeared incompetent, On him who shows himself more negligent I had already from those shades departed,
That the mid-circle of supernal motion, Then even Sloth herself his sister were.” And followed in the footsteps of my Guide,
Which in some art is the Equator called, Then he turned round to us, and he gave heed, When from behind, pointing his finger at me,
And aye remains between the Sun and Winter, Just lifting up his eyes above his thigh, One shouted: “See, it seems as if shone not
And said: “Now go thou up, for thou art valiant.” The sunshine on the left of him below,
And like one living seems he to conduct him.” If they stood still because they saw his shadow, In thy good offices without an oath,
Mine eyes I turned at utterance of these words, As I suppose, enough is answered them; Unless the I cannot cut off the I will;
And saw them watching with astonishment Him let them honour, it may profit them.” Whence I, who speak alone before the others,
But me, but me, and the light which was broken! Vapours enkindled saw I ne’er so swiftly Pray thee, if ever thou dost see the land
“Why doth thy mind so occupy itself,” At early nightfall cleave the air serene, That ‘twixt Romagna lies and that of Charles,
The Master said, “that thou thy pace dost Nor, at the set of sun, the clouds of August, Thou be so courteous to me of thy prayers
slacken? But upward they returned in briefer time, In Fano, that they pray for me devoutly,
What matters it to thee what here is whispered? And, on arriving, with the others wheeled That I may purge away my grave offences.
Come after me, and let the people talk; Tow’rds us, like troops that run without a rein. From thence was I; but the deep wounds, through
Stand like a steadfast tower, that never wags “This folk that presses unto us is great, which
Its top for all the blowing of the winds; And cometh to implore thee,” said the Poet; Issued the blood wherein I had my seat,
For evermore the man in whom is springing “So still go onward, and in going listen.” Were dealt me in bosom of the Antenori,
Thought upon thought, removes from him the “O soul that goest to beatitude There where I thought to be the most secure;
mark, With the same members wherewith thou wast ’Twas he of Este had it done, who held me
Because the force of one the other weakens.” born,” In hatred far beyond what justice willed.
Shouting they came, “a little stay thy steps, But if towards the Mira I had fled,
What could I say in answer but “I come”? Look, if thou e’er hast any of us seen, When I was overtaken at Oriaco,
I said it somewhat with that colour tinged So that o’er yonder thou bear news of him; I still should be o’er yonder where men breathe.
Which makes a man of pardon sometimes Ah, why dost thou go on? Ah, why not stay? I ran to the lagoon, and reeds and mire
worthy. Long since we all were slain by violence, Did so entangle me I fell, and saw there
Meanwhile along the mountain-side across And sinners even to the latest hour; A lake made from my veins upon the ground.”
Came people in advance of us a little, Then did a light from heaven admonish us, Then said another: “Ah, be that desire
Singing the Miserere verse by verse. So that, both penitent and pardoning, forth Fulfilled that draws thee to the lofty mountain,
When they became aware I gave no place From life we issued reconciled to God, As thou with pious pity aidest mine.
For passage of the sunshine through my body, Who with desire to see Him stirs our hearts.” I was of Montefeltro, and am Buonconte;
They changed their song into a long, hoarse And I: “Although I gaze into your faces, Giovanna, nor none other cares for me;
“Oh!” No one I recognize; but if may please you Hence among these I go with downcast front.”
And two of them, in form of messengers, Aught I have power to do, ye well-born spirits, And I to him: “What violence or what chance
Ran forth to meet us, and demanded of us, Led thee astray so far from Campaldino,
“Of your condition make us cognisant.” Speak ye, and I will do it, by that peace That never has thy sepulture been known?”
And said my Master: “Ye can go your way Which, following the feet of such a Guide, “Oh,” he replied, “at Casentino’s foot
And carry back again to those who sent you, From world to world makes itself sought by me.” A river crosses named Archiano, born
That this one’s body is of very flesh. And one began: “Each one has confidence Above the Hermitage in Apennine.
There where the name thereof becometh void I made of me, when agony o’ercame me; I saw Count Orso; and the soul divided
Did I arrive, pierced through and through the It rolled me on the banks and on the bottom, By hatred and by envy from its body,
throat, Then with its booty covered and begirt me.” As it declared, and not for crime committed,
Fleeing on foot, and bloodying the plain; “Ah, when thou hast returned unto the world, Pierre de la Brosse I say; and here provide
There my sight lost I, and my utterance And rested thee from thy long journeying,” While still on earth the Lady of Brabant,
Ceased in the name of Mary, and thereat After the second followed the third spirit, So that for this she be of no worse flock!
I fell, and tenantless my flesh remained. “Do thou remember me who am the Pia; As soon as I was free from all those shades
Siena made me, unmade me Maremma; Who only prayed that some one else may pray,
Truth will I speak, repeat it to the living; He knoweth it, who had encircled first, So as to hasten their becoming holy,
God’s Angel took me up, and he of hell Espousing me, my finger with his gem.” Began I: “It appears that thou deniest,
Shouted: ‘O thou from heaven, why dost thou rob O light of mine, expressly in some text,
me? Purgatorio: Canto VI That orison can bend decree of Heaven;
Thou bearest away the eternal part of him, And ne’ertheless these people pray for this.
For one poor little tear, that takes him from me; Whene’er is broken up the game of Zara, Might then their expectation bootless be?
But with the rest I’ll deal in other fashion!’ He who has lost remains behind despondent, Or is to me thy saying not quite clear?”
Well knowest thou how in the air is gathered The throws repeating, and in sadness learns; And he to me: “My writing is explicit,
That humid vapour which to water turns, The people with the other all depart; And not fallacious is the hope of these,
Soon as it rises where the cold doth grasp it. One goes in front, and one behind doth pluck If with sane intellect ’tis well regarded;
He joined that evil will, which aye seeks evil, him, For top of judgment doth not vail itself,
To intellect, and moved the mist and wind And at his side one brings himself to mind; Because the fire of love fulfils at once
By means of power, which his own nature gave; He pauses not, and this and that one hears; What he must satisfy who here installs him.
Thereafter, when the day was spent, the valley They crowd no more to whom his hand he
From Pratomagno to the great yoke covered stretches, And there, where I affirmed that proposition,
With fog, and made the heaven above intent, And from the throng he thus defends himself. Defect was not amended by a prayer,
So that the pregnant air to water changed; Even such was I in that dense multitude, Because the prayer from God was separate.
Down fell the rain, and to the gullies came Turning to them this way and that my face, Verily, in so deep a questioning
Whate’er of it earth tolerated not; And, promising, I freed myself therefrom. Do not decide, unless she tell it thee,
And as it mingled with the mighty torrents, There was the Aretine, who from the arms Who light ‘twixt truth and intellect shall be.
Towards the royal river with such speed Untamed of Ghin di Tacco had his death, I know not if thou understand; I speak
It headlong rushed, that nothing held it back. And he who fleeing from pursuit was drowned. Of Beatrice; her shalt thou see above,
My frozen body near unto its outlet There was imploring with his hands outstretched Smiling and happy, on this mountain’s top.”
The robust Archian found, and into Arno Frederick Novello, and that one of Pisa And I: “Good Leader, let us make more haste,
Thrust it, and loosened from my breast the cross Who made the good Marzucco seem so strong. For I no longer tire me as before;
And see, e’en now the hill a shadow casts.” And now within thee are not without war “My Caesar, why hast thou forsaken me?”
“We will go forward with this day” he answered, Thy living ones, and one doth gnaw the other Come and behold how loving are the people;
“As far as now is possible for us; Of those whom one wall and one fosse shut in! And if for us no pity moveth thee,
But otherwise the fact is than thou thinkest. Search, wretched one, all round about the shores Come and be made ashamed of thy renown!
Ere thou art up there, thou shalt see return Thy seaboard, and then look within thy bosom, And if it lawful be, O Jove Supreme!
Him, who now hides himself behind the hill, If any part of thee enjoyeth peace! Who upon earth for us wast crucified,
So that thou dost not interrupt his rays. What boots it, that for thee Justinian Are thy just eyes averted otherwhere?
But yonder there behold! a soul that stationed The bridle mend, if empty be the saddle? Or preparation is ‘t, that, in the abyss
All, all alone is looking hitherward; Withouten this the shame would be the less. Of thine own counsel, for some good thou makest
It will point out to us the quickest way.” Ah! people, thou that oughtest to be devout, From our perception utterly cut off?
We came up unto it; O Lombard soul, And to let Caesar sit upon the saddle,
How lofty and disdainful thou didst bear thee, If well thou hearest what God teacheth thee, For all the towns of Italy are full
And grand and slow in moving of thine eyes! Behold how fell this wild beast has become, Of tyrants, and becometh a Marcellus
Nothing whatever did it say to us, Being no longer by the spur corrected, Each peasant churl who plays the partisan!
But let us go our way, eying us only Since thou hast laid thy hand upon the bridle. My Florence! well mayst thou contented be
After the manner of a couchant lion; O German Albert! who abandonest With this digression, which concerns thee not,
Still near to it Virgilius drew, entreating Her that has grown recalcitrant and savage, Thanks to thy people who such forethought take!
That it would point us out the best ascent; And oughtest to bestride her saddle-bow, Many at heart have justice, but shoot slowly,
And it replied not unto his demand, May a just judgment from the stars down fall That unadvised they come not to the bow,
But of our native land and of our life Upon thy blood, and be it new and open, But on their very lips thy people have it!
It questioned us; and the sweet Guide began: That thy successor may have fear thereof; Many refuse to bear the common burden;
“Mantua,”—and the shade, all in itself recluse, Because thy father and thyself have suffered, But thy solicitous people answereth
Rose tow’rds him from the place where first it By greed of those transalpine lands distrained, Without being asked, and crieth: “I submit.”
was, The garden of the empire to be waste. Now be thou joyful, for thou hast good reason;
Saying: “O Mantuan, I am Sordello Come and behold Montecchi and Cappelletti, Thou affluent, thou in peace, thou full of
Of thine own land!” and one embraced the other. Monaldi and Fillippeschi, careless man! wisdom!
Ah! servile Italy, grief ’s hostelry! Those sad already, and these doubt-depressed! If I speak true, the event conceals it not.
A ship without a pilot in great tempest! Come, cruel one! come and behold the Athens and Lacedaemon, they who made
No Lady thou of Provinces, but brothel! oppression The ancient laws, and were so civilized,
That noble soul was so impatient, only Of thy nobility, and cure their wounds, Made towards living well a little sign
At the sweet sound of his own native land, And thou shalt see how safe is Santafiore! Compared with thee, who makest such fine-spun
To make its citizen glad welcome there; Come and behold thy Rome, that is lamenting, Provisions, that to middle of November
Widowed, alone, and day and night exclaims, Reaches not what thou in October spinnest.
How oft, within the time of thy remembrance, If thou dost come from Hell, and from what To mount by night would he prevented be
Laws, money, offices, and usages cloister.” By others? or mayhap would not have power?”
Hast thou remodelled, and renewed thy “Through all the circles of the doleful realm,” And on the ground the good Sordello drew
members? Responded he, “have I come hitherward; His finger, saying, “See, this line alone
And if thou mind thee well, and see the light, Heaven’s power impelled me, and with that I Thou couldst not pass after the sun is gone;
Thou shalt behold thyself like a sick woman, come. Not that aught else would hindrance give,
Who cannot find repose upon her down, I by not doing, not by doing, lost however,
But by her tossing wardeth off her pain. The sight of that high sun which thou desirest, To going up, save the nocturnal darkness;
And which too late by me was recognized. This with the want of power the will perplexes.
Purgatorio: Canto VII A place there is below not sad with torments, We might indeed therewith return below,
But darkness only, where the lamentations And, wandering, walk the hill-side round about,
After the gracious and glad salutations Have not the sound of wailing, but are sighs. While the horizon holds the day imprisoned.”
Had three and four times been reiterated, There dwell I with the little innocents Thereon my Lord, as if in wonder, said:
Sordello backward drew and said, “Who are Snatched by the teeth of Death, or ever they “Do thou conduct us thither, where thou sayest
you?” Were from our human sinfulness exempt. That we can take delight in tarrying.”
“Or ever to this mountain were directed There dwell I among those who the three saintly Little had we withdrawn us from that place,
The souls deserving to ascend to God, Virtues did not put on, and without vice When I perceived the mount was hollowed out
My bones were buried by Octavian. The others knew and followed all of them. In fashion as the valleys here are hollowed.
I am Virgilius; and for no crime else But if thou know and can, some indication “Thitherward,” said that shade, “will we repair,
Did I lose heaven, than for not having faith;” Give us by which we may the sooner come Where of itself the hill-side makes a lap,
In this wise then my Leader made reply. Where Purgatory has its right beginning.” And there for the new day will we await.”
As one who suddenly before him sees ‘Twixt hill and plain there was a winding path
Something whereat he marvels, who believes He answered: “No fixed place has been assigned Which led us to the margin of that dell,
And yet does not, saying, “It is! it is not!” us; Where dies the border more than half away.
So he appeared; and then bowed down his brow, ’Tis lawful for me to go up and round; Gold and fine silver, and scarlet and pearl-white,
And with humility returned towards him, So far as I can go, as guide I join thee. The Indian wood resplendent and serene,
And, where inferiors embrace, embraced him. But see already how the day declines, Fresh emerald the moment it is broken,
“O glory of the Latians, thou,” he said, And to go up by night we are not able; By herbage and by flowers within that hollow
“Through whom our language showed what it Therefore ’tis well to think of some fair sojourn. Planted, each one in colour would be vanquished,
could do Souls are there on the right hand here withdrawn; As by its greater vanquished is the less.
O pride eternal of the place I came from, If thou permit me I will lead thee to them, Nor in that place had nature painted only,
What merit or what grace to me reveals thee? And thou shalt know them not without delight.” But of the sweetness of a thousand odours
If I to hear thy words be worthy, tell me “How is this?” was the answer; “should one wish Made there a mingled fragrance and unknown.
 Singing, with that one of the manly nose, If he doth hear from far away a bell
“Salve Regina,” on the green and flowers The cord of every valour wore begirt; That seemeth to deplore the dying day,
There seated, singing, spirits I beheld, And if as King had after him remained When I began to make of no avail
Which were not visible outside the valley. The stripling who in rear of him is sitting, My hearing, and to watch one of the souls
“Before the scanty sun now seeks his nest,” Well had the valour passed from vase to vase, Uprisen, that begged attention with its hand.
Began the Mantuan who had led us thither, Which cannot of the other heirs be said. It joined and lifted upward both its palms,
“Among them do not wish me to conduct you. Frederick and Jacomo possess the realms, Fixing its eyes upon the orient,
Better from off this ledge the acts and faces But none the better heritage possesses. As if it said to God, “Naught else I care for.”
Of all of them will you discriminate, Not oftentimes upriseth through the branches “Te lucis ante” so devoutly issued
Than in the plain below received among them. The probity of man; and this He wills Forth from its mouth, and with such dulcet notes,
He who sits highest, and the semblance bears Who gives it, so that we may ask of Him. It made me issue forth from my own mind.
Of having what he should have done neglected, And then the others, sweetly and devoutly,
And to the others’ song moves not his lips, Eke to the large-nosed reach my words, no less Accompanied it through all the hymn entire,
Rudolph the Emperor was, who had the power Than to the other, Pier, who with him sings; Having their eyes on the supernal wheels.
To heal the wounds that Italy have slain, Whence Provence and Apulia grieve already
So that through others slowly she revives. The plant is as inferior to its seed, Here, Reader, fix thine eyes well on the truth,
The other, who in look doth comfort him, As more than Beatrice and Margaret For now indeed so subtile is the veil,
Governed the region where the water springs, Costanza boasteth of her husband still. Surely to penetrate within is easy.
The Moldau bears the Elbe, and Elbe the sea. Behold the monarch of the simple life, I saw that army of the gentle-born
His name was Ottocar; and in swaddling-clothes Harry of England, sitting there alone; Thereafterward in silence upward gaze,
Far better he than bearded Winceslaus He in his branches has a better issue. As if in expectation, pale and humble;
His son, who feeds in luxury and ease. He who the lowest on the ground among them And from on high come forth and down descend,
And the small-nosed, who close in council seems Sits looking upward, is the Marquis William, I saw two Angels with two flaming swords,
With him that has an aspect so benign, For whose sake Alessandria and her war Truncated and deprived of their points.
Died fleeing and disflowering the lily; Make Monferrat and Canavese weep.” Green as the little leaflets just now born
Look there, how he is beating at his breast! Their garments were, which, by their verdant
Behold the other one, who for his cheek Purgatorio: Canto VIII pinions
Sighing has made of his own palm a bed; Beaten and blown abroad, they trailed behind.
Father and father-in-law of France’s Pest ’Twas now the hour that turneth back desire One just above us came to take his station,
Are they, and know his vicious life and lewd, In those who sail the sea, and melts the heart, And one descended to the opposite bank,
And hence proceeds the grief that so doth pierce The day they’ve said to their sweet friends So that the people were contained between them.
them. farewell, Clearly in them discerned I the blond head;
He who appears so stalwart, and chimes in, And the new pilgrim penetrates with love, But in their faces was the eye bewildered,
As faculty confounded by excess. Come and behold what God in grace has willed!” No barrier hath, a serpent was; perchance
“From Mary’s bosom both of them have come,” Then, turned to me: “By that especial grace The same which gave to Eve the bitter food.
Sordello said, “as guardians of the valley Thou owest unto Him, who so conceals ‘Twixt grass and flowers came on the evil streak,
Against the serpent, that will come anon.” His own first wherefore, that it has no ford, Turning at times its head about, and licking
Whereupon I, who knew not by what road, When thou shalt be beyond the waters wide, Its back like to a beast that smoothes itself.
Turned round about, and closely drew myself, Tell my Giovanna that she pray for me,
Utterly frozen, to the faithful shoulders. Where answer to the innocent is made. I did not see, and therefore cannot say
And once again Sordello: “Now descend we I do not think her mother loves me more, How the celestial falcons ‘gan to move,
‘Mid the grand shades, and we will speak to Since she has laid aside her wimple white, But well I saw that they were both in motion.
them; Which she, unhappy, needs must wish again. Hearing the air cleft by their verdant wings,
Right pleasant will it be for them to see you.” Through her full easily is comprehended The serpent fled, and round the Angels wheeled,
Only three steps I think that I descended, How long in woman lasts the fire of love, Up to their stations flying back alike.
And was below, and saw one who was looking If eye or touch do not relight it often. The shade that to the Judge had near approached
Only at me, as if he fain would know me. So fair a hatchment will not make for her When he had called, throughout that whole
Already now the air was growing dark, The Viper marshalling the Milanese assault
But not so that between his eyes and mine A-field, as would have made Gallura’s Cock.” Had not a moment loosed its gaze on me.
It did not show what it before locked up. In this wise spake he, with the stamp impressed “So may the light that leadeth thee on high
Tow’rds me he moved, and I tow’rds him did Upon his aspect of that righteous zeal Find in thine own free-will as much of wax
move; Which measurably burneth in the heart. As needful is up to the highest azure,”
Noble Judge Nino! how it me delighted, My greedy eyes still wandered up to heaven, Began it, “if some true intelligence
When I beheld thee not among the damned! Still to that point where slowest are the stars, Of Valdimagra or its neighbourhood
No greeting fair was left unsaid between us; Even as a wheel the nearest to its axle. Thou knowest, tell it me, who once was great
Then asked he: “How long is it since thou camest And my Conductor: “Son, what dost thou gaze at there.
O’er the far waters to the mountain’s foot?” Up there?” And I to him: “At those three torches Currado Malaspina was I called;
“Oh!” said I to him, “through the dismal places With which this hither pole is all on fire.” I’m not the elder, but from him descended;
I came this morn; and am in the first life, And he to me: “The four resplendent stars To mine I bore the love which here refineth.”
Albeit the other, going thus, I gain.” Thou sawest this morning are down yonder low, “O,” said I unto him, “through your domains
And these have mounted up to where those I never passed, but where is there a dwelling
And on the instant my reply was heard, were.” Throughout all Europe, where they are not
He and Sordello both shrank back from me, As he was speaking, to himself Sordello known?
Like people who are suddenly bewildered. Drew him, and said, “Lo there our Adversary!” That fame, which doeth honour to your house,
One to Virgilius, and the other turned And pointed with his finger to look thither. Proclaims its Signors and proclaims its land,
To one who sat there, crying, “Up, Currado! Upon the side on which the little valley So that he knows of them who ne’er was there.
And, as I hope for heaven, I swear to you More from the flesh, and less by thought Thou hast at length arrived at Purgatory;
Your honoured family in naught abates imprisoned, See there the cliff that closes it around;
The glory of the purse and of the sword. Almost prophetic in its visions is, See there the entrance, where it seems disjoined.
It is so privileged by use and nature, In dreams it seemed to me I saw suspended Whilom at dawn, which doth precede the day,
That though a guilty head misguide the world, An eagle in the sky, with plumes of gold, When inwardly thy spirit was asleep
Sole it goes right, and scorns the evil way.” With wings wide open, and intent to stoop, Upon the flowers that deck the land below,
And he: “Now go; for the sun shall not lie And this, it seemed to me, was where had been There came a Lady and said: ‘I am Lucia;
Seven times upon the pillow which the Ram By Ganymede his kith and kin abandoned, Let me take this one up, who is asleep;
With all his four feet covers and bestrides, When to the high consistory he was rapt. So will I make his journey easier for him.’
Before that such a courteous opinion I thought within myself, perchance he strikes Sordello and the other noble shapes
Shall in the middle of thy head be nailed From habit only here, and from elsewhere Remained; she took thee, and, as day grew bright,
With greater nails than of another’s speech, Disdains to bear up any in his feet. Upward she came, and I upon her footsteps.
Unless the course of justice standeth still.” Then wheeling somewhat more, it seemed to me, She laid thee here; and first her beauteous eyes
Terrible as the lightning he descended, That open entrance pointed out to me;
Purgatorio: Canto IX And snatched me upward even to the fire. Then she and sleep together went away.”
Therein it seemed that he and I were burning, In guise of one whose doubts are reassured,
The concubine of old Tithonus now And the imagined fire did scorch me so, And who to confidence his fear doth change,
Gleamed white upon the eastern balcony, That of necessity my sleep was broken. After the truth has been discovered to him,
Forth from the arms of her sweet paramour; Not otherwise Achilles started up, So did I change; and when without disquiet
With gems her forehead all relucent was, Around him turning his awakened eyes, My Leader saw me, up along the cliff
Set in the shape of that cold animal And knowing not the place in which he was, He moved, and I behind him, tow’rd the height.
Which with its tail doth smite amain the nations, What time from Chiron stealthily his mother Reader, thou seest well how I exalt
And of the steps, with which she mounts, the Carried him sleeping in her arms to Scyros, My theme, and therefore if with greater art
Night Wherefrom the Greeks withdrew him afterwards, I fortify it, marvel not thereat.
Had taken two in that place where we were, Than I upstarted, when from off my face Nearer approached we, and were in such place,
And now the third was bending down its wings; Sleep fled away; and pallid I became, That there, where first appeared to me a rift
When I, who something had of Adam in me, As doth the man who freezes with affright. Like to a crevice that disparts a wall,
Vanquished by sleep, upon the grass reclined, Only my Comforter was at my side, I saw a portal, and three stairs beneath,
There were all five of us already sat. And now the sun was more than two hours high, Diverse in colour, to go up to it,
Just at the hour when her sad lay begins And turned towards the sea-shore was my face. And a gate-keeper, who yet spake no word.
The little swallow, near unto the morning, “Be not intimidated,” said my Lord, And as I opened more and more mine eyes,
Perchance in memory of her former woes, “Be reassured, for all is well with us; I saw him seated on the highest stair,
And when the mind of man, a wanderer Do not restrain, but put forth all thy strength. Such in the face that I endured it not.
 Seven P’s upon my forehead he described Exactly such an image rendered me
And in his hand he had a naked sword, With the sword’s point, and, “Take heed that thou That which I heard, as we are wont to catch,
Which so reflected back the sunbeams tow’rds wash When people singing with the organ stand;
us, These wounds, when thou shalt be within,” he For now we hear, and now hear not, the words.
That oft in vain I lifted up mine eyes. said.
“Tell it from where you are, what is’t you wish?” Ashes, or earth that dry is excavated, Purgatorio: Canto X
Began he to exclaim; “where is the escort? Of the same colour were with his attire,
Take heed your coming hither harm you not!” And from beneath it he drew forth two keys. When we had crossed the threshold of the door
“A Lady of Heaven, with these things One was of gold, and the other was of silver; Which the perverted love of souls disuses,
conversant,” First with the white, and after with the yellow, Because it makes the crooked way seem straight,
My Master answered him, “but even now Plied he the door, so that I was content. Re-echoing I heard it closed again;
Said to us, ‘Thither go; there is the portal.’” “Whenever faileth either of these keys And if I had turned back mine eyes upon it,
“And may she speed your footsteps in all good,” So that it turn not rightly in the lock,” What for my failing had been fit excuse?
Again began the courteous janitor; He said to us, “this entrance doth not open. We mounted upward through a rifted rock,
“Come forward then unto these stairs of ours.” Which undulated to this side and that,
Thither did we approach; and the first stair More precious one is, but the other needs Even as a wave receding and advancing.
Was marble white, so polished and so smooth, More art and intellect ere it unlock, “Here it behoves us use a little art,”
I mirrored myself therein as I appear. For it is that which doth the knot unloose. Began my Leader, “to adapt ourselves
The second, tinct of deeper hue than perse, From Peter I have them; and he bade me err Now here, now there, to the receding side.”
Was of a calcined and uneven stone, Rather in opening than in keeping shut, And this our footsteps so infrequent made,
Cracked all asunder lengthwise and across. If people but fall down before my feet.” That sooner had the moon’s decreasing disk
The third, that uppermost rests massively, Then pushed the portals of the sacred door, Regained its bed to sink again to rest,
Porphyry seemed to me, as flaming red Exclaiming: “Enter; but I give you warning Than we were forth from out that needle’s eye;
As blood that from a vein is spirting forth. That forth returns whoever looks behind.” But when we free and in the open were,
Both of his feet was holding upon this And when upon their hinges were turned round There where the mountain backward piles itself,
The Angel of God, upon the threshold seated, The swivels of that consecrated gate, I wearied out, and both of us uncertain
Which seemed to me a stone of diamond. Which are of metal, massive and sonorous, About our way, we stopped upon a plain
Along the three stairs upward with good will Roared not so loud, nor so discordant seemed More desolate than roads across the deserts.
Did my Conductor draw me, saying: “Ask Tarpeia, when was ta’en from it the good From where its margin borders on the void,
Humbly that he the fastening may undo.” Metellus, wherefore meagre it remained. To foot of the high bank that ever rises,
Devoutly at the holy feet I cast me, At the first thunder-peal I turned attentive, A human body three times told would measure;
For mercy’s sake besought that he would open, And “Te Deum laudamus” seemed to hear And far as eye of mine could wing its flight,
But first upon my breast three times I smote. In voices mingled with sweet melody. Now on the left, and on the right flank now,
The same this cornice did appear to me. People appeared in front, and all of them What boots it thee, if thou neglect thine own?”
Thereon our feet had not been moved as yet, In seven choirs divided, of two senses Whence he: “Now comfort thee, for it behoves
When I perceived the embankment round about, Made one say “No,” the other, “Yes, they sing.” me
Which all right of ascent had interdicted, Likewise unto the smoke of the frankincense, That I discharge my duty ere I move;
To be of marble white, and so adorned Which there was imaged forth, the eyes and nose Justice so wills, and pity doth retain me.”
With sculptures, that not only Polycletus, Were in the yes and no discordant made. He who on no new thing has ever looked
But Nature’s self, had there been put to shame. Preceded there the vessel benedight, Was the creator of this visible language,
The Angel, who came down to earth with tidings Dancing with girded loins, the humble Psalmist, Novel to us, for here it is not found.
Of peace, that had been wept for many a year, And more and less than King was he in this. While I delighted me in contemplating
And opened Heaven from its long interdict, Opposite, represented at the window The images of such humility,
In front of us appeared so truthfully Of a great palace, Michal looked upon him, And dear to look on for their Maker’s sake,
There sculptured in a gracious attitude, Even as a woman scornful and afflicted. “Behold, upon this side, but rare they make
He did not seem an image that is silent. I moved my feet from where I had been standing, Their steps,” the Poet murmured, “many people;
To examine near at hand another story, These will direct us to the lofty stairs.”
One would have sworn that he was saying, Which after Michal glimmered white upon me. Mine eyes, that in beholding were intent
“Ave;” There the high glory of the Roman Prince To see new things, of which they curious are,
For she was there in effigy portrayed Was chronicled, whose great beneficence In turning round towards him were not slow.
Who turned the key to ope the exalted love, Moved Gregory to his great victory; But still I wish not, Reader, thou shouldst swerve
And in her mien this language had impressed, ’Tis of the Emperor Trajan I am speaking; From thy good purposes, because thou hearest
“Ecce ancilla Dei,” as distinctly And a poor widow at his bridle stood, How God ordaineth that the debt be paid;
As any figure stamps itself in wax. In attitude of weeping and of grief. Attend not to the fashion of the torment,
“Keep not thy mind upon one place alone,” Around about him seemed it thronged and full Think of what follows; think that at the worst
The gentle Master said, who had me standing Of cavaliers, and the eagles in the gold It cannot reach beyond the mighty sentence.
Upon that side where people have their hearts; Above them visibly in the wind were moving. “Master,” began I, “that which I behold
Whereat I moved mine eyes, and I beheld The wretched woman in the midst of these Moving towards us seems to me not persons,
In rear of Mary, and upon that side Seemed to be saying: “Give me vengeance, Lord, And what I know not, so in sight I waver.”
Where he was standing who conducted me, For my dead son, for whom my heart is And he to me: “The grievous quality
Another story on the rock imposed; breaking.” Of this their torment bows them so to earth,
Wherefore I passed Virgilius and drew near, And he to answer her: “Now wait until That my own eyes at first contended with it;
So that before mine eyes it might be set. I shall return.” And she: “My Lord,” like one But look there fixedly, and disentangle
There sculptured in the self-same marble were In whom grief is impatient, “shouldst thou not By sight what cometh underneath those stones;
The cart and oxen, drawing the holy ark, Return?” And he: “Who shall be where I am Already canst thou see how each is stricken.”
Wherefore one dreads an office not appointed. Will give it thee.” And she: “Good deed of others O ye proud Christians! wretched, weary ones!
Who, in the vision of the mind infirm So may all men make sacrifice of theirs. Of Adam’s flesh wherewith he is invested,
Confidence have in your backsliding steps, Give unto us this day our daily manna, Against his will is chary of his climbing.”
Withouten which in this rough wilderness The words of theirs which they returned to those
Do ye not comprehend that we are worms, Backward goes he who toils most to advance. That he whom I was following had spoken,
Born to bring forth the angelic butterfly And even as we the trespass we have suffered It was not manifest from whom they came,
That flieth unto judgment without screen? Pardon in one another, pardon thou But it was said: “To the right hand come with us
Why floats aloft your spirit high in air? Benignly, and regard not our desert. Along the bank, and ye shall find a pass
Like are ye unto insects undeveloped, Possible for living person to ascend.
Even as the worm in whom formation fails! Our virtue, which is easily o’ercome, And were I not impeded by the stone,
As to sustain a ceiling or a roof, Put not to proof with the old Adversary, Which this proud neck of mine doth subjugate,
In place of corbel, oftentimes a figure But thou from him who spurs it so, deliver. Whence I am forced to hold my visage down,
Is seen to join its knees unto its breast, This last petition verily, dear Lord, Him, who still lives and does not name himself,
Which makes of the unreal real anguish Not for ourselves is made, who need it not, Would I regard, to see if I may know him
Arise in him who sees it, fashioned thus But for their sake who have remained behind us.” And make him piteous unto this burden.
Beheld I those, when I had ta’en good heed. Thus for themselves and us good furtherance A Latian was I, and born of a great Tuscan;
True is it, they were more or less bent down, Those shades imploring, went beneath a weight Guglielmo Aldobrandeschi was my father;
According as they more or less were laden; Like unto that of which we sometimes dream, I know not if his name were ever with you.
And he who had most patience in his looks Unequally in anguish round and round
Weeping did seem to say, “I can no more!” And weary all, upon that foremost cornice, The ancient blood and deeds of gallantry
Purging away the smoke-stains of the world. Of my progenitors so arrogant made me
Purgatorio: Canto XI If there good words are always said for us, That, thinking not upon the common mother,
What may not here be said and done for them, All men I held in scorn to such extent
“Our Father, thou who dwellest in the heavens, By those who have a good root to their will? I died therefor, as know the Sienese,
Not circumscribed, but from the greater love Well may we help them wash away the marks And every child in Campagnatico.
Thou bearest to the first effects on high, That hence they carried, so that clean and light I am Omberto; and not to me alone
Praised be thy name and thine omnipotence They may ascend unto the starry wheels! Has pride done harm, but all my kith and kin
By every creature, as befitting is “Ah! so may pity and justice you disburden Has with it dragged into adversity.
To render thanks to thy sweet effluence. Soon, that ye may have power to move the wing, And here must I this burden bear for it
Come unto us the peace of thy dominion, That shall uplift you after your desire, Till God be satisfied, since I did not
For unto it we cannot of ourselves, Show us on which hand tow’rd the stairs the way Among the living, here among the dead.”
If it come not, with all our intellect. Is shortest, and if more than one the passes, Listening I downward bent my countenance;
Even as thine own Angels of their will Point us out that which least abruptly falls; And one of them, not this one who was speaking,
Make sacrifice to thee, Hosanna singing, For he who cometh with me, through the burden
Twisted himself beneath the weight that cramps Before thou left the ‘pappo’ and the ‘dindi,’ He brought himself to tremble in each vein.
him, Ere pass a thousand years? which is a shorter I say no more, and know that I speak darkly;
And looked at me, and knew me, and called out, Space to the eterne, than twinkling of an eye Yet little time shall pass before thy neighbours
Keeping his eyes laboriously fixed Unto the circle that in heaven wheels slowest. Will so demean themselves that thou canst gloss
On me, who all bowed down was going with With him, who takes so little of the road it.
them. In front of me, all Tuscany resounded; This action has released him from those
“O,” asked I him, “art thou not Oderisi, And now he scarce is lisped of in Siena, confines.”
Agobbio’s honour, and honour of that art Where he was lord, what time was overthrown
Which is in Paris called illuminating?” The Florentine delirium, that superb Purgatorio: Canto XII
“Brother,” said he, “more laughing are the leaves Was at that day as now ’tis prostitute.
Touched by the brush of Franco Bolognese; Your reputation is the colour of grass Abreast, like oxen going in a yoke,
All his the honour now, and mine in part. Which comes and goes, and that discolours it I with that heavy-laden soul went on,
In sooth I had not been so courteous By which it issues green from out the earth.” As long as the sweet pedagogue permitted;
While I was living, for the great desire And I: “Thy true speech fills my heart with good But when he said, “Leave him, and onward pass,
Of excellence, on which my heart was bent. Humility, and great tumour thou assuagest; For here ’tis good that with the sail and oars,
Here of such pride is paid the forfeiture; But who is he, of whom just now thou spakest?” As much as may be, each push on his barque;”
And yet I should not be here, were it not “That,” he replied, “is Provenzan Salvani, Upright, as walking wills it, I redressed
That, having power to sin, I turned to God. And he is here because he had presumed My person, notwithstanding that my thoughts
O thou vain glory of the human powers, To bring Siena all into his hands. Remained within me downcast and abashed.
How little green upon thy summit lingers, He has gone thus, and goeth without rest I had moved on, and followed willingly
If ’t be not followed by an age of grossness! E’er since he died; such money renders back The footsteps of my Master, and we both
In painting Cimabue thought that he In payment he who is on earth too daring.” Already showed how light of foot we were,
Should hold the field, now Giotto has the cry, And I: “If every spirit who awaits When unto me he said: “Cast down thine eyes;
So that the other’s fame is growing dim. The verge of life before that he repent, ‘Twere well for thee, to alleviate the way,
So has one Guido from the other taken Remains below there and ascends not hither, To look upon the bed beneath thy feet.”
The glory of our tongue, and he perchance (Unless good orison shall him bestead,) As, that some memory may exist of them,
Is born, who from the nest shall chase them both. Until as much time as he lived be passed, Above the buried dead their tombs in earth
Naught is this mundane rumour but a breath How was the coming granted him in largess?” Bear sculptured on them what they were before;
Of wind, that comes now this way and now that, “When he in greatest splendour lived,” said he, Whence often there we weep for them afresh,
And changes name, because it changes side. “Freely upon the Campo of Siena, From pricking of remembrance, which alone
All shame being laid aside, he placed himself; To the compassionate doth set its spur;
What fame shalt thou have more, if old peel off And there to draw his friend from the duress So saw I there, but of a better semblance
From thee thy flesh, than if thou hadst been dead Which in the prison-house of Charles he suffered, In point of artifice, with figures covered
Whate’er as pathway from the mount projects. Displayed the ruin and the cruel carnage I was familiar with his admonition
I saw that one who was created noble That Tomyris wrought, when she to Cyrus said, Ever to lose no time; so on this theme
More than all other creatures, down from heaven “Blood didst thou thirst for, and with blood I glut He could not unto me speak covertly.
Flaming with lightnings fall upon one side. thee!” Towards us came the being beautiful
I saw Briareus smitten by the dart Displayed how routed fled the Assyrians Vested in white, and in his countenance
Celestial, lying on the other side, After that Holofernes had been slain, Such as appears the tremulous morning star.
Heavy upon the earth by mortal frost. And likewise the remainder of that slaughter. His arms he opened, and opened then his wings;
I saw Thymbraeus, Pallas saw, and Mars, I saw there Troy in ashes and in caverns; “Come,” said he, “near at hand here are the steps,
Still clad in armour round about their father, O Ilion! thee, how abject and debased, And easy from henceforth is the ascent.”
Gaze at the scattered members of the giants. Displayed the image that is there discerned! At this announcement few are they who come!
I saw, at foot of his great labour, Nimrod, Whoe’er of pencil master was or stile, O human creatures, born to soar aloft,
As if bewildered, looking at the people That could portray the shades and traits which Why fall ye thus before a little wind?
Who had been proud with him in Sennaar. there He led us on to where the rock was cleft;
O Niobe! with what afflicted eyes Would cause each subtile genius to admire? There smote upon my forehead with his wings,
Thee I beheld upon the pathway traced, Dead seemed the dead, the living seemed alive; Then a safe passage promised unto me.
Between thy seven and seven children slain! Better than I saw not who saw the truth, As on the right hand, to ascend the mount
All that I trod upon while bowed I went. Where seated is the church that lordeth it
O Saul! how fallen upon thy proper sword Now wax ye proud, and on with looks uplifted, O’er the well-guided, above Rubaconte,
Didst thou appear there lifeless in Gilboa, Ye sons of Eve, and bow not down your faces The bold abruptness of the ascent is broken
That felt thereafter neither rain nor dew! So that ye may behold your evil ways! By stairways that were made there in the age
O mad Arachne! so I thee beheld More of the mount by us was now encompassed, When still were safe the ledger and the stave,
E’en then half spider, sad upon the shreds And far more spent the circuit of the sun, E’en thus attempered is the bank which falls
Of fabric wrought in evil hour for thee! Than had the mind preoccupied imagined, Sheer downward from the second circle there;
O Rehoboam! no more seems to threaten When he, who ever watchful in advance But on this, side and that the high rock graze.
Thine image there; but full of consternation Was going on, began: “Lift up thy head, As we were turning thitherward our persons,
A chariot bears it off, when none pursues! ’Tis no more time to go thus meditating. “Beati pauperes spiritu,” voices
Displayed moreo’er the adamantine pavement Lo there an Angel who is making haste Sang in such wise that speech could tell it not.
How unto his own mother made Alcmaeon To come towards us; lo, returning is Ah me! how different are these entrances
Costly appear the luckless ornament; From service of the day the sixth handmaiden. From the Infernal! for with anthems here
Displayed how his own sons did throw One enters, and below with wild laments.
themselves With reverence thine acts and looks adorn, We now were hunting up the sacred stairs,
Upon Sennacherib within the temple, So that he may delight to speed us upward; And it appeared to me by far more easy
And how, he being dead, they left him there; Think that this day will never dawn again.” Than on the plain it had appeared before.
Whence I: “My Master, say, what heavy thing With but the livid colour of the stone. The bridle of another sound shall be;
Has been uplifted from me, so that hardly “If to inquire we wait for people here,” I think that thou wilt hear it, as I judge,
Aught of fatigue is felt by me in walking?” The Poet said, “I fear that peradventure Before thou comest to the Pass of Pardon.
He answered: “When the P’s which have Too much delay will our election have.” But fix thine eyes athwart the air right steadfast,
remained Then steadfast on the sun his eyes he fixed, And people thou wilt see before us sitting,
Still on thy face almost obliterate Made his right side the centre of his motion, And each one close against the cliff is seated.”
Shall wholly, as the first is, be erased, And turned the left part of himself about. Then wider than at first mine eyes I opened;
“O thou sweet light! with trust in whom I enter I looked before me, and saw shades with mantles
Thy feet will be so vanquished by good will, Upon this novel journey, do thou lead us,” Not from the colour of the stone diverse.
That not alone they shall not feel fatigue, Said he, “as one within here should be led. And when we were a little farther onward,
But urging up will be to them delight.” I heard a cry of, “Mary, pray for us!”
Then did I even as they do who are going Thou warmest the world, thou shinest over it; A cry of, “Michael, Peter, and all Saints!”
With something on the head to them unknown, If other reason prompt not otherwise, I do not think there walketh still on earth
Unless the signs of others make them doubt, Thy rays should evermore our leaders be!” A man so hard, that he would not be pierced
Wherefore the hand to ascertain is helpful, As much as here is counted for a mile, With pity at what afterward I saw.
And seeks and finds, and doth fulfill the office So much already there had we advanced For when I had approached so near to them
Which cannot be accomplished by the sight; In little time, by dint of ready will; That manifest to me their acts became,
And with the fingers of the right hand spread And tow’rds us there were heard to fly, albeit Drained was I at the eyes by heavy grief.
I found but six the letters, that had carved They were not visible, spirits uttering Covered with sackcloth vile they seemed to me,
Upon my temples he who bore the keys; Unto Love’s table courteous invitations, And one sustained the other with his shoulder,
Upon beholding which my Leader smiled. The first voice that passed onward in its flight, And all of them were by the bank sustained.
“Vinum non habent,” said in accents loud,
Purgatorio: Canto XIII And went reiterating it behind us. Thus do the blind, in want of livelihood,
And ere it wholly grew inaudible Stand at the doors of churches asking alms,
We were upon the summit of the stairs, Because of distance, passed another, crying, And one upon another leans his head,
Where for the second time is cut away “I am Orestes!” and it also stayed not. So that in others pity soon may rise,
The mountain, which ascending shriveth all. “O,” said I, “Father, these, what voices are they?” Not only at the accent of their words,
There in like manner doth a cornice bind And even as I asked, behold the third, But at their aspect, which no less implores.
The hill all round about, as does the first, Saying: “Love those from whom ye have had And as unto the blind the sun comes not,
Save that its arc more suddenly is curved. evil!” So to the shades, of whom just now I spake,
Shade is there none, nor sculpture that appears; And the good Master said: “This circle scourges Heaven’s light will not be bounteous of itself;
So seems the bank, and so the road seems The sin of envy, and on that account For all their lids an iron wire transpierces,
smooth, Are drawn from love the lashes of the scourge. And sews them up, as to a sparhawk wild
Is done, because it will not quiet stay. But for short space; for small is the offence
To me it seemed, in passing, to do outrage, “Spirit,” I said, “who stoopest to ascend, Committed by their being turned with envy.
Seeing the others without being seen; If thou art he who did reply to me, Far greater is the fear, wherein suspended
Wherefore I turned me to my counsel sage. Make thyself known to me by place or name.” My soul is, of the torment underneath,
Well knew he what the mute one wished to say, “Sienese was I,” it replied, “and with For even now the load down there weighs on
And therefore waited not for my demand, The others here recleanse my guilty life, me.”
But said: “Speak, and be brief, and to the point.” Weeping to Him to lend himself to us. And she to me: “Who led thee, then, among us
I had Virgilius upon that side Sapient I was not, although I Sapia Up here, if to return below thou thinkest?”
Of the embankment from which one may fall, Was called, and I was at another’s harm And I: “He who is with me, and speaks not;
Since by no border ’tis engarlanded; More happy far than at my own good fortune. And living am I; therefore ask of me,
Upon the other side of me I had And that thou mayst not think that I deceive thee, Spirit elect, if thou wouldst have me move
The shades devout, who through the horrible Hear if I was as foolish as I tell thee. O’er yonder yet my mortal feet for thee.”
seam The arc already of my years descending,
Pressed out the tears so that they bathed their My fellow-citizens near unto Colle “O, this is such a novel thing to hear,”
cheeks. Were joined in battle with their adversaries, She answered, “that great sign it is God loves
To them I turned me, and, “O people, certain,” And I was praying God for what he willed. thee;
Began I, “of beholding the high light, Routed were they, and turned into the bitter Therefore with prayer of thine sometimes assist
Which your desire has solely in its care, Passes of flight; and I, the chase beholding, me.
So may grace speedily dissolve the scum A joy received unequalled by all others; And I implore, by what thou most desirest,
Upon your consciences, that limpidly So that I lifted upward my bold face If e’er thou treadest the soil of Tuscany,
Through them descend the river of the mind, Crying to God, ‘Henceforth I fear thee not,’ Well with my kindred reinstate my fame.
Tell me, for dear ‘twill be to me and gracious, As did the blackbird at the little sunshine. Them wilt thou see among that people vain
If any soul among you here is Latian, Peace I desired with God at the extreme Who hope in Talamone, and will lose there
And ‘twill perchance be good for him I learn it.” Of my existence, and as yet would not More hope than in discovering the Diana;
“O brother mine, each one is citizen My debt have been by penitence discharged, But there still more the admirals will lose.”
Of one true city; but thy meaning is, Had it not been that in remembrance held me Purgatorio: Canto XIV
Who may have lived in Italy a pilgrim.” Pier Pettignano in his holy prayers,
By way of answer this I seemed to hear Who out of charity was grieved for me. “Who is this one that goes about our mountain,
A little farther on than where I stood, But who art thou, that into our conditions Or ever Death has given him power of flight,
Whereat I made myself still nearer heard. Questioning goest, and hast thine eyes unbound And opes his eyes and shuts them at his will?”
Among the rest I saw a shade that waited As I believe, and breathing dost discourse?” “I know not who, but know he’s not alone;
In aspect, and should any one ask how, “Mine eyes,” I said, “will yet be here ta’en from Ask him thyself, for thou art nearer to him,
Its chin it lifted upward like a blind man. me, And gently, so that he may speak, accost him.”
Thus did two spirits, leaning tow’rds each other, Virtue is like an enemy avoided From whate’er side the peril seize upon him;
Discourse about me there on the right hand; By all, as is a serpent, through misfortune So I beheld that other soul, which stood
Then held supine their faces to address me. Of place, or through bad habit that impels them; Turned round to listen, grow disturbed and sad,
And said the one: “O soul, that, fastened still On which account have so transformed their When it had gathered to itself the word.
Within the body, tow’rds the heaven art going, nature The speech of one and aspect of the other
For charity console us, and declare The dwellers in that miserable valley, Had me desirous made to know their names,
Whence comest and who art thou; for thou It seems that Circe had them in her pasture. And question mixed with prayers I made thereof,
mak’st us ‘Mid ugly swine, of acorns worthier Whereat the spirit which first spake to me
As much to marvel at this grace of thine Than other food for human use created, Began again: “Thou wishest I should bring me
As must a thing that never yet has been.” It first directeth its impoverished way. To do for thee what thou’lt not do for me;
And I: “Through midst of Tuscany there wanders Curs findeth it thereafter, coming downward, But since God willeth that in thee shine forth
A streamlet that is born in Falterona, More snarling than their puissance demands, Such grace of his, I’ll not be chary with thee;
And not a hundred miles of course suffice it; And turns from them disdainfully its muzzle. Know, then, that I Guido del Duca am.
It goes on falling, and the more it grows, My blood was so with envy set on fire,
From thereupon do I this body bring. The more it finds the dogs becoming wolves, That if I had beheld a man make merry,
To tell you who I am were speech in vain, This maledict and misadventurous ditch. Thou wouldst have seen me sprinkled o’er with
Because my name as yet makes no great noise.” Descended then through many a hollow gulf, pallor.
“If well thy meaning I can penetrate It finds the foxes so replete with fraud, From my own sowing such the straw I reap!
With intellect of mine,” then answered me They fear no cunning that may master them. O human race! why dost thou set thy heart
He who first spake, “thou speakest of the Arno.” Nor will I cease because another hears me; Where interdict of partnership must be?
And said the other to him: “Why concealed And well ‘twill be for him, if still he mind him This is Renier; this is the boast and honour
This one the appellation of that river, Of what a truthful spirit to me unravels. Of the house of Calboli, where no one since
Even as a man doth of things horrible?” Thy grandson I behold, who doth become Has made himself the heir of his desert.
And thus the shade that questioned was of this A hunter of those wolves upon the bank And not alone his blood is made devoid,
Himself acquitted: “I know not; but truly Of the wild stream, and terrifies them all. ‘Twixt Po and mount, and sea-shore and the
’Tis fit the name of such a valley perish; He sells their flesh, it being yet alive; Reno,
For from its fountain-head (where is so pregnant Thereafter slaughters them like ancient beeves; Of good required for truth and for diversion;
The Alpine mountain whence is cleft Peloro Many of life, himself of praise, deprives. For all within these boundaries is full
That in few places it that mark surpasses) Blood-stained he issues from the dismal forest; Of venomous roots, so that too tardily
To where it yields itself in restoration He leaves it such, a thousand years from now By cultivation now would they diminish.
Of what the heaven doth of the sea dry up, In its primeval state ’tis not re-wooded.” Where is good Lizio, and Arrigo Manardi,
Whence have the rivers that which goes with As at the announcement of impending ills Pier Traversaro, and Guido di Carpigna,
them, The face of him who listens is disturbed, O Romagnuoli into bastards turned?
When in Bologna will a Fabbro rise? A voice, that counter to us came, exclaiming: Because by us the mount was so encircled,
When in Faenza a Bernardin di Fosco, “Shall slay me whosoever findeth me!” That straight towards the west we now were
The noble scion of ignoble seed? And fled as the reverberation dies going
If suddenly the cloud asunder bursts. When I perceived my forehead overpowered
Be not astonished, Tuscan, if I weep, As soon as hearing had a truce from this, Beneath the splendour far more than at first,
When I remember, with Guido da Prata, Behold another, with so great a crash, And stupor were to me the things unknown,
Ugolin d’ Azzo, who was living with us, That it resembled thunderings following fast: Whereat towards the summit of my brow
Frederick Tignoso and his company, “I am Aglaurus, who became a stone!” I raised my hands, and made myself the visor
The house of Traversara, and th’ Anastagi, And then, to press myself close to the Poet, Which the excessive glare diminishes.
And one race and the other is extinct; I backward, and not forward, took a step. As when from off the water, or a mirror,
The dames and cavaliers, the toils and ease Already on all sides the air was quiet; The sunbeam leaps unto the opposite side,
That filled our souls with love and courtesy, And said he to me: “That was the hard curb Ascending upward in the selfsame measure
There where the hearts have so malicious grown! That ought to hold a man within his bounds;
O Brettinoro! why dost thou not flee, That it descends, and deviates as far
Seeing that all thy family is gone, But you take in the bait so that the hook From falling of a stone in line direct,
And many people, not to be corrupted? Of the old Adversary draws you to him, (As demonstrate experiment and art,)
Bagnacaval does well in not begetting And hence availeth little curb or call. So it appeared to me that by a light
And ill does Castrocaro, and Conio worse, The heavens are calling you, and wheel around Refracted there before me I was smitten;
In taking trouble to beget such Counts. you, On which account my sight was swift to flee.
Will do well the Pagani, when their Devil Displaying to you their eternal beauties, “What is that, Father sweet, from which I cannot
Shall have departed; but not therefore pure And still your eye is looking on the ground; So fully screen my sight that it avail me,”
Will testimony of them e’er remain. Whence He, who all discerns, chastises you.” Said I, “and seems towards us to be moving?”
O Ugolin de’ Fantoli, secure “Marvel thou not, if dazzle thee as yet
Thy name is, since no longer is awaited The family of heaven,” he answered me;
One who, degenerating, can obscure it! “An angel ’tis, who comes to invite us upward.
Purgatorio: Canto XV
But go now, Tuscan, for it now delights me Soon will it be, that to behold these things
To weep far better than it does to speak, Shall not be grievous, but delightful to thee
As much as ‘twixt the close of the third hour
So much has our discourse my mind distressed.” As much as nature fashioned thee to feel.”
And dawn of day appeareth of that sphere
We were aware that those beloved souls When we had reached the Angel benedight,
Which aye in fashion of a child is playing,
Heard us depart; therefore, by keeping silent, With joyful voice he said: “Here enter in
So much it now appeared, towards the night,
They made us of our pathway confident. To stairway far less steep than are the others.”
Was of his course remaining to the sun;
When we became alone by going onward, We mounting were, already thence departed,
There it was evening, and ’twas midnight here;
Thunder, when it doth cleave the air, appeared And “Beati misericordes” was
And the rays smote the middle of our faces,
Behind us sung, “Rejoice, thou that o’ercomest!” So that as far as charity extends,
My Master and myself, we two alone O’er it increases the eternal valour. To answer her with aspect temperate:
Were going upward, and I thought, in going, And the more people thitherward aspire, “What shall we do to those who wish us ill,
Some profit to acquire from words of his; More are there to love well, and more they love If he who loves us be by us condemned?”
And I to him directed me, thus asking: there, Then saw I people hot in fire of wrath,
“What did the spirit of Romagna mean, And, as a mirror, one reflects the other. With stones a young man slaying, clamorously
Mentioning interdict and partnership?” And if my reasoning appease thee not, Still crying to each other, “Kill him! kill him!”
Whence he to me: “Of his own greatest failing Thou shalt see Beatrice; and she will fully And him I saw bow down, because of death
He knows the harm; and therefore wonder not Take from thee this and every other longing. That weighed already on him, to the earth,
If he reprove us, that we less may rue it. Endeavour, then, that soon may be extinct, But of his eyes made ever gates to heaven,
Because are thither pointed your desires As are the two already, the five wounds Imploring the high Lord, in so great strife,
Where by companionship each share is lessened, That close themselves again by being painful.” That he would pardon those his persecutors,
Envy doth ply the bellows to your sighs. Even as I wished to say, “Thou dost appease me,” With such an aspect as unlocks compassion.
But if the love of the supernal sphere I saw that I had reached another circle, Soon as my soul had outwardly returned
Should upwardly direct your aspiration, So that my eager eyes made me keep silence. To things external to it which are true,
There would not be that fear within your breast; There it appeared to me that in a vision Did I my not false errors recognize.
For there, as much the more as one says ‘Our,’ Ecstatic on a sudden I was rapt, My Leader, who could see me bear myself
So much the more of good each one possesses, And in a temple many persons saw; Like to a man that rouses him from sleep,
And more of charity in that cloister burns.” And at the door a woman, with the sweet Exclaimed: “What ails thee, that thou canst not
“I am more hungering to be satisfied,” Behaviour of a mother, saying: “Son, stand?
I said, “than if I had before been silent, Why in this manner hast thou dealt with us? But hast been coming more than half a league
And more of doubt within my mind I gather. Lo, sorrowing, thy father and myself Veiling thine eyes, and with thy legs entangled,
Were seeking for thee;”—and as here she ceased, In guise of one whom wine or sleep subdues?”
How can it be, that boon distributed That which appeared at first had disappeared. “O my sweet Father, if thou listen to me,
The more possessors can more wealthy make Then I beheld another with those waters I’ll tell thee,” said I, “what appeared to me,
Therein, than if by few it be possessed?” Adown her cheeks which grief distils whenever When thus from me my legs were ta’en away.”
And he to me: “Because thou fixest still From great disdain of others it is born, And he: “If thou shouldst have a hundred masks
Thy mind entirely upon earthly things, And saying: “If of that city thou art lord, Upon thy face, from me would not be shut
Thou pluckest darkness from the very light. For whose name was such strife among the gods, Thy cogitations, howsoever small.
That goodness infinite and ineffable And whence doth every science scintillate, What thou hast seen was that thou mayst not fail
Which is above there, runneth unto love, Avenge thyself on those audacious arms To ope thy heart unto the waters of peace,
As to a lucid body comes the sunbeam. That clasped our daughter, O Pisistratus;” Which from the eternal fountain are diffused.
So much it gives itself as it finds ardour, And the lord seemed to me benign and mild I did not ask, ‘What ails thee?’ as he does
Who only looketh with the eyes that see not Thus he made answer, and subjoined: “I pray thee
When of the soul bereft the body lies, Still “Agnus Dei” their exordium was; To pray for me when thou shalt be above.”
But asked it to give vigour to thy feet; One word there was in all, and metre one, And I to him: “My faith I pledge to thee
Thus must we needs urge on the sluggards, slow So that all harmony appeared among them. To do what thou dost ask me; but am bursting
To use their wakefulness when it returns.” “Master,” I said, “are spirits those I hear?” Inly with doubt, unless I rid me of it.
We passed along, athwart the twilight peering And he to me: “Thou apprehendest truly, First it was simple, and is now made double
Forward as far as ever eye could stretch And they the knot of anger go unloosing.” By thy opinion, which makes certain to me,
Against the sunbeams serotine and lucent; “Now who art thou, that cleavest through our Here and elsewhere, that which I couple with it.
And lo! by slow degrees a smoke approached smoke The world forsooth is utterly deserted
In our direction, sombre as the night, And art discoursing of us even as though By every virtue, as thou tellest me,
Nor was there place to hide one’s self therefrom. Thou didst by calends still divide the time?” And with iniquity is big and covered;
This of our eyes and the pure air bereft us. After this manner by a voice was spoken;
Whereon my Master said: “Do thou reply, But I beseech thee point me out the cause,
Purgatorio: Canto XVI And ask if on this side the way go upward.” That I may see it, and to others show it;
And I: “O creature that dost cleanse thyself For one in the heavens, and here below one puts
Darkness of hell, and of a night deprived To return beautiful to Him who made thee, it.”
Of every planet under a poor sky, Thou shalt hear marvels if thou follow me.” A sigh profound, that grief forced into Ai!
As much as may be tenebrous with cloud, “Thee will I follow far as is allowed me,” He first sent forth, and then began he: “Brother,
Ne’er made unto my sight so thick a veil, He answered; “and if smoke prevent our seeing, The world is blind, and sooth thou comest from
As did that smoke which there enveloped us, Hearing shall keep us joined instead thereof.” it!
Nor to the feeling of so rough a texture; Thereon began I: “With that swathing band Ye who are living every cause refer
For not an eye it suffered to stay open; Which death unwindeth am I going upward, Still upward to the heavens, as if all things
Whereat mine escort, faithful and sagacious, And hither came I through the infernal anguish. They of necessity moved with themselves.
Drew near to me and offered me his shoulder. And if God in his grace has me infolded, If this were so, in you would be destroyed
E’en as a blind man goes behind his guide, So that he wills that I behold his court Free will, nor any justice would there be
Lest he should wander, or should strike against By method wholly out of modern usage, In having joy for good, or grief for evil.
Aught that may harm or peradventure kill him, Conceal not from me who ere death thou wast, The heavens your movements do initiate,
So went I through the bitter and foul air, But tell it me, and tell me if I go I say not all; but granting that I say it,
Listening unto my Leader, who said only, Right for the pass, and be thy words our escort.” Light has been given you for good and evil,
“Look that from me thou be not separated.” “Lombard was I, and I was Marco called; And free volition; which, if some fatigue
Voices I heard, and every one appeared The world I knew, and loved that excellence, In the first battles with the heavens it suffers,
To supplicate for peace and misericord At which has each one now unbent his bow. Afterwards conquers all, if well ’tis nurtured.
The Lamb of God who takes away our sins. For mounting upward, thou art going right.” To greater force and to a better nature,
Though free, ye subject are, and that creates If thou believe not, think upon the grain, Yonder the Angel is—ere he appear.”
The mind in you the heavens have not in charge. For by its seed each herb is recognized. Thus did he speak, and would no farther hear me.
Hence, if the present world doth go astray, In the land laved by Po and Adige,
In you the cause is, be it sought in you; Valour and courtesy used to be found, Purgatorio: Canto XVII
And I therein will now be thy true spy. Before that Frederick had his controversy;
Forth from the hand of Him, who fondles it Now in security can pass that way Remember, Reader, if e’er in the Alps
Before it is, like to a little girl Whoever will abstain, through sense of shame, A mist o’ertook thee, through which thou couldst
Weeping and laughing in her childish sport, From speaking with the good, or drawing near see
Issues the simple soul, that nothing knows, them. Not otherwise than through its membrane mole,
Save that, proceeding from a joyous Maker, True, three old men are left, in whom upbraids How, when the vapours humid and condensed
Gladly it turns to that which gives it pleasure. The ancient age the new, and late they deem it Begin to dissipate themselves, the sphere
Of trivial good at first it tastes the savour; That God restore them to the better life: Of the sun feebly enters in among them,
Is cheated by it, and runs after it, Currado da Palazzo, and good Gherardo, And thy imagination will be swift
If guide or rein turn not aside its love. And Guido da Castel, who better named is, In coming to perceive how I re-saw
Hence it behoved laws for a rein to place, In fashion of the French, the simple Lombard: The sun at first, that was already setting.
Behoved a king to have, who at the least Say thou henceforward that the Church of Rome, Thus, to the faithful footsteps of my Master
Of the true city should discern the tower. Confounding in itself two governments, Mating mine own, I issued from that cloud
The laws exist, but who sets hand to them? Falls in the mire, and soils itself and burden.” To rays already dead on the low shores.
No one; because the shepherd who precedes “O Marco mine,” I said, “thou reasonest well; O thou, Imagination, that dost steal us
Can ruminate, but cleaveth not the hoof; And now discern I why the sons of Levi So from without sometimes, that man perceives
Wherefore the people that perceives its guide Have been excluded from the heritage. not,
Strike only at the good for which it hankers, But what Gherardo is it, who, as sample Although around may sound a thousand trumpets,
Feeds upon that, and farther seeketh not. Of a lost race, thou sayest has remained Who moveth thee, if sense impel thee not?
Clearly canst thou perceive that evil guidance In reprobation of the barbarous age?” Moves thee a light, which in the heaven takes
The cause is that has made the world depraved, “Either thy speech deceives me, or it tempts me,” form,
And not that nature is corrupt in you. He answered me; “for speaking Tuscan to me, By self, or by a will that downward guides it.
Rome, that reformed the world, accustomed was It seems of good Gherardo naught thou knowest.
Two suns to have, which one road and the other, By other surname do I know him not, Of her impiety, who changed her form
Of God and of the world, made manifest. Unless I take it from his daughter Gaia. Into the bird that most delights in singing,
One has the other quenched, and to the crosier May God be with you, for I come no farther. In my imagining appeared the trace;
The sword is joined, and ill beseemeth it Behold the dawn, that through the smoke rays And hereupon my mind was so withdrawn
That by main force one with the other go, out, Within itself, that from without there came
Because, being joined, one feareth not the other; Already whitening; and I must depart— Nothing that then might be received by it.
Then reigned within my lofty fantasy He does with us as man doth with himself; Turn unto me thy mind, and thou shalt gather
One crucified, disdainful and ferocious For he who sees the need, and waits the asking, Some profitable fruit from our delay.
In countenance, and even thus was dying. Malignly leans already tow’rds denial. Neither Creator nor a creature ever,
Around him were the great Ahasuerus, Son,” he began, “was destitute of love
Esther his wife, and the just Mordecai, Accord we now our feet to such inviting, Natural or spiritual; and thou knowest it.
Who was in word and action so entire. Let us make haste to mount ere it grow dark; The natural was ever without error;
And even as this image burst asunder For then we could not till the day return.” But err the other may by evil object,
Of its own self, in fashion of a bubble Thus my Conductor said; and I and he Or by too much, or by too little vigour.
In which the water it was made of fails, Together turned our footsteps to a stairway; While in the first it well directed is,
There rose up in my vision a young maiden And I, as soon as the first step I reached, And in the second moderates itself,
Bitterly weeping, and she said: “O queen, Near me perceived a motion as of wings, It cannot be the cause of sinful pleasure;
Why hast thou wished in anger to be naught? And fanning in the face, and saying, “‘Beati But when to ill it turns, and, with more care
Thou’st slain thyself, Lavinia not to lose; Pacifici,’ who are without ill anger.” Or lesser than it ought, runs after good,
Now hast thou lost me; I am she who mourns, Already over us were so uplifted ‘Gainst the Creator works his own creation.
Mother, at thine ere at another’s ruin.” The latest sunbeams, which the night pursues,
As sleep is broken, when upon a sudden That upon many sides the stars appeared. Hence thou mayst comprehend that love must be
New light strikes in upon the eyelids closed, “O manhood mine, why dost thou vanish so?” The seed within yourselves of every virtue,
And broken quivers ere it dieth wholly, I said within myself; for I perceived And every act that merits punishment.
So this imagining of mine fell down The vigour of my legs was put in truce. Now inasmuch as never from the welfare
As soon as the effulgence smote my face, We at the point were where no more ascends Of its own subject can love turn its sight,
Greater by far than what is in our wont. The stairway upward, and were motionless, From their own hatred all things are secure;
I turned me round to see where I might be, Even as a ship, which at the shore arrives; And since we cannot think of any being
When said a voice, “Here is the passage up;” And I gave heed a little, if I might hear Standing alone, nor from the First divided,
Which from all other purposes removed me, Aught whatsoever in the circle new; Of hating Him is all desire cut off.
And made my wish so full of eagerness Then to my Master turned me round and said: Hence if, discriminating, I judge well,
To look and see who was it that was speaking, “Say, my sweet Father, what delinquency The evil that one loves is of one’s neighbour,
It never rests till meeting face to face; Is purged here in the circle where we are? And this is born in three modes in your clay.
But as before the sun, which quells the sight, Although our feet may pause, pause not thy There are, who, by abasement of their neighbour,
And in its own excess its figure veils, speech.” Hope to excel, and therefore only long
Even so my power was insufficient here. And he to me: “The love of good, remiss That from his greatness he may be cast down;
“This is a spirit divine, who in the way In what it should have done, is here restored; There are, who power, grace, honour, and renown
Of going up directs us without asking, Here plied again the ill-belated oar; Fear they may lose because another rises,
And who with his own light himself conceals. But still more openly to understand, Thence are so sad that the reverse they love;
And there are those whom injury seems to chafe, By speaking gave me hardihood to speak. I answered him, “have love revealed to me;
So that it makes them greedy for revenge, Whence I: “My sight is, Master, vivified But that has made me more impregned with
And such must needs shape out another’s harm. So in thy light, that clearly I discern doubt;
This threefold love is wept for down below; Whate’er thy speech importeth or describes. For if love from without be offered us,
Now of the other will I have thee hear, Therefore I thee entreat, sweet Father dear, And with another foot the soul go not,
That runneth after good with measure faulty. To teach me love, to which thou dost refer If right or wrong she go, ’tis not her merit.”
Each one confusedly a good conceives Every good action and its contrary.” And he to me: “What reason seeth here,
Wherein the mind may rest, and longeth for it; “Direct,” he said, “towards me the keen eyes Myself can tell thee; beyond that await
Therefore to overtake it each one strives. Of intellect, and clear will be to thee For Beatrice, since ’tis a work of faith.
If languid love to look on this attract you, The error of the blind, who would be leaders. Every substantial form, that segregate
Or in attaining unto it, this cornice, The soul, which is created apt to love, From matter is, and with it is united,
After just penitence, torments you for it. Is mobile unto everything that pleases, Specific power has in itself collected,
There’s other good that does not make man Soon as by pleasure she is waked to action. Which without act is not perceptible,
happy; Your apprehension from some real thing Nor shows itself except by its effect,
’Tis not felicity, ’tis not the good An image draws, and in yourselves displays it As life does in a plant by the green leaves.
Essence, of every good the fruit and root. So that it makes the soul turn unto it. But still, whence cometh the intelligence
The love that yields itself too much to this And if, when turned, towards it she incline, Of the first notions, man is ignorant,
Above us is lamented in three circles; Love is that inclination; it is nature, And the affection for the first allurements,
But how tripartite it may be described, Which is by pleasure bound in you anew Which are in you as instinct in the bee
I say not, that thou seek it for thyself.” Then even as the fire doth upward move To make its honey; and this first desire
By its own form, which to ascend is born, Merit of praise or blame containeth not.
Where longest in its matter it endures, Now, that to this all others may be gathered,
So comes the captive soul into desire, Innate within you is the power that counsels,
Which is a motion spiritual, and ne’er rests And it should keep the threshold of assent.
Purgatorio: Canto XVIII
Until she doth enjoy the thing beloved. This is the principle, from which is taken
Now may apparent be to thee how hidden Occasion of desert in you, according
An end had put unto his reasoning
The truth is from those people, who aver As good and guilty loves it takes and winnows.
The lofty Teacher, and attent was looking
All love is in itself a laudable thing; Those who, in reasoning, to the bottom went,
Into my face, if I appeared content;
Because its matter may perchance appear Were of this innate liberty aware,
And I, whom a new thirst still goaded on,
Aye to be good; but yet not each impression Therefore bequeathed they Ethics to the world.
Without was mute, and said within: “Perchance
Is good, albeit good may be the wax.” Supposing, then, that from necessity
The too much questioning I make annoys him.”
Springs every love that is within you kindled,
But that true Father, who had comprehended
“Thy words, and my sequacious intellect,” Within yourselves the power is to restrain it.
The timid wish, that opened not itself,
The noble virtue Beatrice understands By little love!” forthwith the others cried, And those who the fatigue did not endure
By the free will; and therefore see that thou “For ardour in well-doing freshens grace!” Unto the issue, with Anchises’ son,
Bear it in mind, if she should speak of it.” “O folk, in whom an eager fervour now Themselves to life withouten glory offered.”
The moon, belated almost unto midnight, Supplies perhaps delay and negligence, Then when from us so separated were
Now made the stars appear to us more rare, Put by you in well-doing, through lukewarmness, Those shades, that they no longer could be seen,
Formed like a bucket, that is all ablaze, This one who lives, and truly I lie not, Within me a new thought did entrance find,
And counter to the heavens ran through those Would fain go up, if but the sun relight us; Whence others many and diverse were born;
paths So tell us where the passage nearest is.” And so I lapsed from one into another,
Which the sun sets aflame, when he of Rome These were the words of him who was my Guide; That in a reverie mine eyes I closed,
Sees it ‘twixt Sardes and Corsicans go down; And some one of those spirits said: “Come on And meditation into dream transmuted.
Behind us, and the opening shalt thou find;
And that patrician shade, for whom is named So full of longing are we to move onward, Purgatorio: Canto XIX
Pietola more than any Mantuan town, That stay we cannot; therefore pardon us,
Had laid aside the burden of my lading; If thou for churlishness our justice take. It was the hour when the diurnal heat
Whence I, who reason manifest and plain I was San Zeno’s Abbot at Verona, No more can warm the coldness of the moon,
In answer to my questions had received, Under the empire of good Barbarossa, Vanquished by earth, or peradventure Saturn,
Stood like a man in drowsy reverie. Of whom still sorrowing Milan holds discourse; When geomancers their Fortuna Major
But taken from me was this drowsiness And he has one foot in the grave already, See in the orient before the dawn
Suddenly by a people, that behind Who shall erelong lament that monastery, Rise by a path that long remains not dim,
Our backs already had come round to us. And sorry be of having there had power, There came to me in dreams a stammering
And as, of old, Ismenus and Asopus woman,
Beside them saw at night the rush and throng, Because his son, in his whole body sick, Squint in her eyes, and in her feet distorted,
If but the Thebans were in need of Bacchus, And worse in mind, and who was evil-born, With hands dissevered and of sallow hue.
So they along that circle curve their step, He put into the place of its true pastor.” I looked at her; and as the sun restores
From what I saw of those approaching us, If more he said, or silent was, I know not, The frigid members which the night benumbs,
Who by good-will and righteous love are ridden. He had already passed so far beyond us; Even thus my gaze did render voluble
Full soon they were upon us, because running But this I heard, and to retain it pleased me. Her tongue, and made her all erect thereafter
Moved onward all that mighty multitude, And he who was in every need my succour In little while, and the lost countenance
And two in the advance cried out, lamenting, Said: “Turn thee hitherward; see two of them As love desires it so in her did colour.
“Mary in haste unto the mountain ran, Come fastening upon slothfulness their teeth.” When in this wise she had her speech unloosed,
And Caesar, that he might subdue Ilerda, In rear of all they shouted: “Sooner were She ‘gan to sing so, that with difficulty
Thrust at Marseilles, and then ran into Spain.” The people dead to whom the sea was opened, Could I have turned my thoughts away from her.
“Quick! quick! so that the time may not be lost Than their inheritors the Jordan saw; “I am,” she sang, “I am the Siren sweet
Who mariners amid the main unman, For they shall have their souls with comfort Let your right hands be evermore outside.”
So full am I of pleasantness to hear. filled.
I drew Ulysses from his wandering way “What aileth thee, that aye to earth thou gazest?” Thus did the Poet ask, and thus was answered
Unto my song, and he who dwells with me To me my Guide began to say, we both By them somewhat in front of us; whence I
Seldom departs so wholly I content him.” Somewhat beyond the Angel having mounted. In what was spoken divined the rest concealed,
Her mouth was not yet closed again, before And I: “With such misgiving makes me go And unto my Lord’s eyes mine eyes I turned;
Appeared a Lady saintly and alert A vision new, which bends me to itself, Whence he assented with a cheerful sign
Close at my side to put her to confusion. So that I cannot from the thought withdraw me.” To what the sight of my desire implored.
“Virgilius, O Virgilius! who is this?” “Didst thou behold,” he said, “that old When of myself I could dispose at will,
Sternly she said; and he was drawing near enchantress, Above that creature did I draw myself,
With eyes still fixed upon that modest one. Who sole above us henceforth is lamented? Whose words before had caused me to take note,
She seized the other and in front laid open, Didst thou behold how man is freed from her? Saying: “O Spirit, in whom weeping ripens
Rending her garments, and her belly showed me; Suffice it thee, and smite earth with thy heels, That without which to God we cannot turn,
This waked me with the stench that issued from Thine eyes lift upward to the lure, that whirls Suspend awhile for me thy greater care.
it. The Eternal King with revolutions vast.” Who wast thou, and why are your backs turned
I turned mine eyes, and good Virgilius said: Even as the hawk, that first his feet surveys, upwards,
“At least thrice have I called thee; rise and come; Then turns him to the call and stretches forward, Tell me, and if thou wouldst that I procure thee
Find we the opening by which thou mayst enter.” Through the desire of food that draws him thither, Anything there whence living I departed.”
I rose; and full already of high day Such I became, and such, as far as cleaves And he to me: “Wherefore our backs the heaven
Were all the circles of the Sacred Mountain, The rock to give a way to him who mounts, Turns to itself, know shalt thou; but beforehand
And with the new sun at our back we went. Went on to where the circling doth begin. ‘Scias quod ego fui successor Petri.’
On the fifth circle when I had come forth, Between Siestri and Chiaveri descends
Following behind him, I my forehead bore People I saw upon it who were weeping, A river beautiful, and of its name
Like unto one who has it laden with thought, Stretched prone upon the ground, all downward The title of my blood its summit makes.
Who makes himself the half arch of a bridge, turned. A month and little more essayed I how
When I heard say, “Come, here the passage is,” “Adhaesit pavimento anima mea,” Weighs the great cloak on him from mire who
Spoken in a manner gentle and benign, I heard them say with sighings so profound, keeps it,
Such as we hear not in this mortal region. That hardly could the words be understood. For all the other burdens seem a feather.
With open wings, which of a swan appeared, “O ye elect of God, whose sufferings Tardy, ah woe is me! was my conversion;
Upward he turned us who thus spake to us, Justice and Hope both render less severe, But when the Roman Shepherd I was made,
Between the two walls of the solid granite. Direct ye us towards the high ascents.” Then I discovered life to be a lie.
He moved his pinions afterwards and fanned us, “If ye are come secure from this prostration, I saw that there the heart was not at rest,
Affirming those ‘qui lugent’ to be blessed, And wish to find the way most speedily, Nor farther in that life could one ascend;
Whereby the love of this was kindled in me. Because thy stay doth incommode my weeping, Is manifested by that hostelry
Until that time a wretched soul and parted With which I ripen that which thou hast said. Where thou didst lay thy sacred burden down.”
From God was I, and wholly avaricious; On earth I have a grandchild named Alagia, Thereafterward I heard: “O good Fabricius,
Now, as thou seest, I here am punished for it. Good in herself, unless indeed our house Virtue with poverty didst thou prefer
What avarice does is here made manifest Malevolent may make her by example, To the possession of great wealth with vice.”
In the purgation of these souls converted, And she alone remains to me on earth.” So pleasurable were these words to me
And no more bitter pain the Mountain has. That I drew farther onward to have knowledge
Even as our eye did not uplift itself Purgatorio: Canto XX Touching that spirit whence they seemed to
Aloft, being fastened upon earthly things, come.
So justice here has merged it in the earth. Ill strives the will against a better will; He furthermore was speaking of the largess
As avarice had extinguished our affection Therefore, to pleasure him, against my pleasure Which Nicholas unto the maidens gave,
For every good, whereby was action lost, I drew the sponge not saturate from the water. In order to conduct their youth to honour.
So justice here doth hold us in restraint, Onward I moved, and onward moved my Leader, “O soul that dost so excellently speak,
Through vacant places, skirting still the rock, Tell me who wast thou,” said I, “and why only
Bound and imprisoned by the feet and hands; As on a wall close to the battlements; Thou dost renew these praises well deserved?
And so long as it pleases the just Lord For they that through their eyes pour drop by Not without recompense shall be thy word,
Shall we remain immovable and prostrate.” drop If I return to finish the short journey
I on my knees had fallen, and wished to speak; The malady which all the world pervades, Of that life which is flying to its end.”
But even as I began, and he was ‘ware, On the other side too near the verge approach.
Only by listening, of my reverence, Accursed mayst thou be, thou old she-wolf, And he: “I’ll tell thee, not for any comfort
“What cause,” he said, “has downward bent thee That more than all the other beasts hast prey, I may expect from earth, but that so much
thus?” Because of hunger infinitely hollow! Grace shines in thee or ever thou art dead.
And I to him: “For your own dignity, O heaven, in whose gyrations some appear I was the root of that malignant plant
Standing, my conscience stung me with To think conditions here below are changed, Which overshadows all the Christian world,
remorse.” When will he come through whom she shall So that good fruit is seldom gathered from it;
“Straighten thy legs, and upward raise thee, depart? But if Douay and Ghent, and Lille and Bruges
brother,” Onward we went with footsteps slow and scarce, Had Power, soon vengeance would be taken on it;
He answered: “Err not, fellow-servant am I And I attentive to the shades I heard And this I pray of Him who judges all.
With thee and with the others to one power. Piteously weeping and bemoaning them; Hugh Capet was I called upon the earth;
If e’er that holy, evangelic sound, And I by peradventure heard “Sweet Mary!” From me were born the Louises and Philips,
Which sayeth ‘neque nubent,’ thou hast heard, Uttered in front of us amid the weeping By whom in later days has France been governed.
Well canst thou see why in this wise I speak. Even as a woman does who is in child-birth; I was the son of a Parisian butcher,
Now go; no longer will I have thee linger, And in continuance: “How poor thou wast What time the ancient kings had perished all,
Excepting one, contrite in cloth of gray. That less may seem the future ill and past, Sometimes we speak, one loud, another low,
I found me grasping in my hands the rein I see the flower-de-luce Alagna enter, According to desire of speech, that spurs us
Of the realm’s government, and so great power And Christ in his own Vicar captive made. To greater now and now to lesser pace.
Of new acquest, and so with friends abounding, I see him yet another time derided; But in the good that here by day is talked of,
That to the widowed diadem promoted I see renewed the vinegar and gall, Erewhile alone I was not; yet near by
The head of mine own offspring was, from whom And between living thieves I see him slain. No other person lifted up his voice.”
The consecrated bones of these began. I see the modern Pilate so relentless,
So long as the great dowry of Provence This does not sate him, but without decretal From him already we departed were,
Out of my blood took not the sense of shame, He to the temple bears his sordid sails! And made endeavour to o’ercome the road
’Twas little worth, but still it did no harm. When, O my Lord! shall I be joyful made As much as was permitted to our power,
Then it began with falsehood and with force By looking on the vengeance which, concealed, When I perceived, like something that is falling,
Its rapine; and thereafter, for amends, Makes sweet thine anger in thy secrecy? The mountain tremble, whence a chill seized on
Took Ponthieu, Normandy, and Gascony. What I was saying of that only bride me,
Charles came to Italy, and for amends Of the Holy Ghost, and which occasioned thee As seizes him who to his death is going.
A victim made of Conradin, and then To turn towards me for some commentary, Certes so violently shook not Delos,
Thrust Thomas back to heaven, for amends. So long has been ordained to all our prayers Before Latona made her nest therein
A time I see, not very distant now, As the day lasts; but when the night comes on, To give birth to the two eyes of the heaven.
Which draweth forth another Charles from Contrary sound we take instead thereof. Then upon all sides there began a cry,
France, At that time we repeat Pygmalion, Such that the Master drew himself towards me,
The better to make known both him and his. Of whom a traitor, thief, and parricide Saying, “Fear not, while I am guiding thee.”
Unarmed he goes, and only with the lance Made his insatiable desire of gold; “Gloria in excelsis Deo,” all
That Judas jousted with; and that he thrusts And the misery of avaricious Midas, Were saying, from what near I comprehended,
So that he makes the paunch of Florence burst. That followed his inordinate demand, Where it was possible to hear the cry.
He thence not land, but sin and infamy, At which forevermore one needs but laugh. We paused immovable and in suspense,
Shall gain, so much more grievous to himself The foolish Achan each one then records, Even as the shepherds who first heard that song,
As the more light such damage he accounts. And how he stole the spoils; so that the wrath Until the trembling ceased, and it was finished.
The other, now gone forth, ta’en in his ship, Of Joshua still appears to sting him here. Then we resumed again our holy path,
See I his daughter sell, and chaffer for her Then we accuse Sapphira with her husband, Watching the shades that lay upon the ground,
As corsairs do with other female slaves. We laud the hoof-beats Heliodorus had, Already turned to their accustomed plaint.
And the whole mount in infamy encircles No ignorance ever with so great a strife
What more, O Avarice, canst thou do to us, Polymnestor who murdered Polydorus. Had rendered me importunate to know,
Since thou my blood so to thyself hast drawn, Here finally is cried: ‘O Crassus, tell us, If erreth not in this my memory,
It careth not for its own proper flesh? For thou dost know, what is the taste of gold?’ As meditating then I seemed to have;
Nor out of haste to question did I dare, Which Clotho lays for each one and compacts, Feels itself pure, so that it soars, or moves
Nor of myself I there could aught perceive; His soul, which is thy sister and my own, To mount aloft, and such a cry attends it.
So I went onward timorous and thoughtful. In coming upwards could not come alone, Of purity the will alone gives proof,
By reason that it sees not in our fashion. Which, being wholly free to change its convent,
Purgatorio: Canto XXI Whence I was drawn from out the ample throat Takes by surprise the soul, and helps it fly.
Of Hell to be his guide, and I shall guide him First it wills well; but the desire permits not,
The natural thirst, that ne’er is satisfied As far on as my school has power to lead. Which divine justice with the self-same will
Excepting with the water for whose grace But tell us, if thou knowest, why such a shudder There was to sin, upon the torment sets.
The woman of Samaria besought, Erewhile the mountain gave, and why together And I, who have been lying in this pain
Put me in travail, and haste goaded me All seemed to cry, as far as its moist feet?” Five hundred years and more, but just now felt
Along the encumbered path behind my Leader In asking he so hit the very eye A free volition for a better seat.
And I was pitying that righteous vengeance; Of my desire, that merely with the hope Therefore thou heardst the earthquake, and the
And lo! in the same manner as Luke writeth My thirst became the less unsatisfied. pious
That Christ appeared to two upon the way Spirits along the mountain rendering praise
From the sepulchral cave already risen, “Naught is there,” he began, “that without order Unto the Lord, that soon he speed them
A shade appeared to us, and came behind us, May the religion of the mountain feel, upwards.”
Down gazing on the prostrate multitude, Nor aught that may be foreign to its custom. So said he to him; and since we enjoy
Nor were we ware of it, until it spake, Free is it here from every permutation; As much in drinking as the thirst is great,
Saying, “My brothers, may God give you peace!” What from itself heaven in itself receiveth I could not say how much it did me good.
We turned us suddenly, and Virgilius rendered Can be of this the cause, and naught beside; And the wise Leader: “Now I see the net
To him the countersign thereto conforming. Because that neither rain, nor hail, nor snow, That snares you here, and how ye are set free,
Thereon began he: “In the blessed council, Nor dew, nor hoar-frost any higher falls Why the earth quakes, and wherefore ye rejoice.
Thee may the court veracious place in peace, Than the short, little stairway of three steps. Now who thou wast be pleased that I may know;
That me doth banish in eternal exile!” Dense clouds do not appear, nor rarefied, And why so many centuries thou hast here
“How,” said he, and the while we went with Nor coruscation, nor the daughter of Thaumas, Been lying, let me gather from thy words.”
speed, That often upon earth her region shifts;
“If ye are shades whom God deigns not on high, No arid vapour any farther rises “In days when the good Titus, with the aid
Who up his stairs so far has guided you?” Than to the top of the three steps I spake of, Of the supremest King, avenged the wounds
And said my Teacher: “If thou note the marks Whereon the Vicar of Peter has his feet. Whence issued forth the blood by Judas sold,
Which this one bears, and which the Angel traces Lower down perchance it trembles less or more, Under the name that most endures and honours,
Well shalt thou see he with the good must reign. But, for the wind that in the earth is hidden Was I on earth,” that spirit made reply,
But because she who spinneth day and night I know not how, up here it never trembled. “Greatly renowned, but not with faith as yet.
For him had not yet drawn the distaff off, It trembles here, whenever any soul My vocal spirit was so sweet, that Rome
Me, a Thoulousian, drew unto herself, O antique spirit, at the smile I gave; When thus Virgilius began: “The love
Where I deserved to deck my brows with myrtle. But I will have more wonder seize upon thee. Kindled by virtue aye another kindles,
Statius the people name me still on earth; Provided outwardly its flame appear.
I sang of Thebes, and then of great Achilles; This one, who guides on high these eyes of mine, Hence from the hour that Juvenal descended
But on the way fell with my second burden. Is that Virgilius, from whom thou didst learn Among us into the infernal Limbo,
The seeds unto my ardour were the sparks To sing aloud of men and of the Gods. Who made apparent to me thy affection,
Of that celestial flame which heated me, If other cause thou to my smile imputedst, My kindliness towards thee was as great
Whereby more than a thousand have been fired; Abandon it as false, and trust it was As ever bound one to an unseen person,
Of the Aeneid speak I, which to me Those words which thou hast spoken concerning So that these stairs will now seem short to me.
A mother was, and was my nurse in song; him.”
Without this weighed I not a drachma’s weight. Already he was stooping to embrace But tell me, and forgive me as a friend,
And to have lived upon the earth what time My Teacher’s feet; but he said to him: “Brother, If too great confidence let loose the rein,
Virgilius lived, I would accept one sun Do not; for shade thou art, and shade beholdest.” And as a friend now hold discourse with me;
More than I must ere issuing from my ban.” And he uprising: “Now canst thou the sum How was it possible within thy breast
These words towards me made Virgilius turn Of love which warms me to thee comprehend, For avarice to find place, ‘mid so much wisdom
With looks that in their silence said, “Be silent!” When this our vanity I disremember, As thou wast filled with by thy diligence?”
But yet the power that wills cannot do all things; Treating a shadow as substantial thing.” These words excited Statius at first
For tears and laughter are such pursuivants Somewhat to laughter; afterward he answered:
Unto the passion from which each springs forth, “Each word of thine is love’s dear sign to me.
In the most truthful least the will they follow. Verily oftentimes do things appear
I only smiled, as one who gives the wink; Which give fallacious matter to our doubts,
Whereat the shade was silent, and it gazed Instead of the true causes which are hidden!
Into mine eyes, where most expression dwells; Purgatorio: Canto XXII Thy question shows me thy belief to be
And, “As thou well mayst consummate a labour That I was niggard in the other life,
So great,” it said, “why did thy face just now Already was the Angel left behind us, It may be from the circle where I was;
Display to me the lightning of a smile?” The Angel who to the sixth round had turned us, Therefore know thou, that avarice was removed
Now am I caught on this side and on that; Having erased one mark from off my face; Too far from me; and this extravagance
One keeps me silent, one to speak conjures me, And those who have in justice their desire Thousands of lunar periods have punished.
Wherefore I sigh, and I am understood. Had said to us, “Beati,” in their voices, And were it not that I my thoughts uplifted,
“Speak,” said my Master, “and be not afraid With “sitio,” and without more ended it. When I the passage heard where thou exclaimest,
Of speaking, but speak out, and say to him And I, more light than through the other passes, As if indignant, unto human nature,
What he demands with such solicitude.” Went onward so, that without any labour ‘To what impellest thou not, O cursed hunger
Whence I: “Thou peradventure marvellest, I followed upward the swift-footed spirits; Of gold, the appetite of mortal men?’
Revolving I should feel the dismal joustings. Through thee I Poet was, through thee a In the first circle of the prison blind;
Then I perceived the hands could spread too wide Christian; Ofttimes we of the mountain hold discourse
Their wings in spending, and repented me But that thou better see what I design, Which has our nurses ever with itself.
As well of that as of my other sins; To colour it will I extend my hand. Euripides is with us, Antiphon,
How many with shorn hair shall rise again Already was the world in every part Simonides, Agatho, and many other
Because of ignorance, which from this sin Pregnant with the true creed, disseminated Greeks who of old their brows with laurel
Cuts off repentance living and in death! By messengers of the eternal kingdom; decked.
And know that the transgression which rebuts And thy assertion, spoken of above, There some of thine own people may be seen,
By direct opposition any sin With the new preachers was in unison; Antigone, Deiphile and Argia,
Together with it here its verdure dries. Whence I to visit them the custom took. And there Ismene mournful as of old.
Therefore if I have been among that folk Then they became so holy in my sight, There she is seen who pointed out Langia;
Which mourns its avarice, to purify me, That, when Domitian persecuted them, There is Tiresias’ daughter, and there Thetis,
For its opposite has this befallen me.” Not without tears of mine were their laments; And there Deidamia with her sisters.”
“Now when thou sangest the relentless weapons And all the while that I on earth remained, Silent already were the poets both,
Of the twofold affliction of Jocasta,” Them I befriended, and their upright customs Attent once more in looking round about,
The singer of the Songs Bucolic said, Made me disparage all the other sects. From the ascent and from the walls released;
“From that which Clio there with thee preludes, And ere I led the Greeks unto the rivers And four handmaidens of the day already
It does not seem that yet had made thee faithful Of Thebes, in poetry, I was baptized, Were left behind, and at the pole the fifth
That faith without which no good works suffice. But out of fear was covertly a Christian, Was pointing upward still its burning horn,
For a long time professing paganism; What time my Guide: “I think that tow’rds the
If this be so, what candles or what sun And this lukewarmness caused me the fourth edge
Scattered thy darkness so that thou didst trim circle Our dexter shoulders it behoves us turn,
Thy sails behind the Fisherman thereafter?” To circuit round more than four centuries. Circling the mount as we are wont to do.”
And he to him: “Thou first directedst me Thou, therefore, who hast raised the covering Thus in that region custom was our ensign;
Towards Parnassus, in its grots to drink, That hid from me whatever good I speak of, And we resumed our way with less suspicion
And first concerning God didst me enlighten. While in ascending we have time to spare, For the assenting of that worthy soul
Thou didst as he who walketh in the night, Tell me, in what place is our friend Terentius, They in advance went on, and I alone
Who bears his light behind, which helps him not, Caecilius, Plautus, Varro, if thou knowest; Behind them, and I listened to their speech,
But wary makes the persons after him, Tell me if they are damned, and in what alley.” Which gave me lessons in the art of song.
When thou didst say: ‘The age renews itself, “These, Persius and myself, and others many,” But soon their sweet discourses interrupted
Justice returns, and man’s primeval time, Replied my Leader, “with that Grecian are A tree which midway in the road we found,
And a new progeny descends from heaven.’ Whom more than all the rest the Muses suckled, With apples sweet and grateful to the smell.
And even as a fir-tree tapers upward
From bough to bough, so downwardly did that; And lo! were heard a song and a lament, His eyes a shade turned on me, and looked
I think in order that no one might climb it. “Labia mea, Domine,” in fashion keenly;
On that side where our pathway was enclosed Such that delight and dolence it brought forth. Then cried aloud: “What grace to me is this?”
Fell from the lofty rock a limpid water, “O my sweet Father, what is this I hear?” Never should I have known him by his look;
And spread itself abroad upon the leaves. Began I; and he answered: “Shades that go But in his voice was evident to me
The Poets twain unto the tree drew near, Perhaps the knot unloosing of their debt.” That which his aspect had suppressed within it.
And from among the foliage a voice In the same way that thoughtful pilgrims do, This spark within me wholly re-enkindled
Cried: “Of this food ye shall have scarcity.” Who, unknown people on the road o’ertaking, My recognition of his altered face,
Then said: “More thoughtful Mary was of making Turn themselves round to them, and do not stop, And I recalled the features of Forese.
The marriage feast complete and honourable, “Ah, do not look at this dry leprosy,”
Than of her mouth which now for you responds; Even thus, behind us with a swifter motion Entreated he, “which doth my skin discolour,
Coming and passing onward, gazed upon us Nor at default of flesh that I may have;
And for their drink the ancient Roman women A crowd of spirits silent and devout. But tell me truth of thee, and who are those
With water were content; and Daniel Each in his eyes was dark and cavernous, Two souls, that yonder make for thee an escort;
Disparaged food, and understanding won. Pallid in face, and so emaciate Do not delay in speaking unto me.”
The primal age was beautiful as gold; That from the bones the skin did shape itself. “That face of thine, which dead I once bewept,
Acorns it made with hunger savorous, I do not think that so to merest rind Gives me for weeping now no lesser grief,”
And nectar every rivulet with thirst. Could Erisichthon have been withered up I answered him, “beholding it so changed!
Honey and locusts were the aliments By famine, when most fear he had of it. But tell me, for God’s sake, what thus denudes
That fed the Baptist in the wilderness; Thinking within myself I said: “Behold, you?
Whence he is glorious, and so magnified This is the folk who lost Jerusalem, Make me not speak while I am marvelling,
As by the Evangel is revealed to you.” When Mary made a prey of her own son.” For ill speaks he who’s full of other longings.”
Purgatorio: Canto XXIII Their sockets were like rings without the gems;
Whoever in the face of men reads ‘omo’ And he to me: “From the eternal council
The while among the verdant leaves mine eyes Might well in these have recognised the ‘m.’ Falls power into the water and the tree
I riveted, as he is wont to do Who would believe the odour of an apple, Behind us left, whereby I grow so thin.
Who wastes his life pursuing little birds, Begetting longing, could consume them so, All of this people who lamenting sing,
My more than Father said unto me: “Son, And that of water, without knowing how? For following beyond measure appetite
Come now; because the time that is ordained us I still was wondering what so famished them, In hunger and thirst are here re-sanctified.
More usefully should be apportioned out.” For the occasion not yet manifest Desire to eat and drink enkindles in us
I turned my face and no less soon my steps Of their emaciation and sad squalor; The scent that issues from the apple-tree,
Unto the Sages, who were speaking so And lo! from out the hollow of his head And from the spray that sprinkles o’er the
They made the going of no cost to me; verdure;
And not a single time alone, this ground To the unblushing womankind of Florence And him I pointed at; “the other is
Encompassing, is refreshed our pain,— To go about displaying breast and paps. That shade for whom just now shook every slope
I say our pain, and ought to say our solace,— Your realm, that from itself discharges him.”
For the same wish doth lead us to the tree What savages were e’er, what Saracens,
Which led the Christ rejoicing to say ‘Eli,’ Who stood in need, to make them covered go, Purgatorio: Canto XXIV
When with his veins he liberated us.” Of spiritual or other discipline?
And I to him: “Forese, from that day But if the shameless women were assured Nor speech the going, nor the going that
When for a better life thou changedst worlds, Of what swift Heaven prepares for them, already Slackened; but talking we went bravely on,
Up to this time five years have not rolled round. Wide open would they have their mouths to Even as a vessel urged by a good wind.
If sooner were the power exhausted in thee howl; And shadows, that appeared things doubly dead,
Of sinning more, than thee the hour surprised For if my foresight here deceive me not, From out the sepulchres of their eyes betrayed
Of that good sorrow which to God reweds us, They shall be sad ere he has bearded cheeks Wonder at me, aware that I was living.
How hast thou come up hitherward already? Who now is hushed to sleep with lullaby. And I, continuing my colloquy,
I thought to find thee down there underneath, O brother, now no longer hide thee from me; Said: “Peradventure he goes up more slowly
Where time for time doth restitution make.” See that not only I, but all these people Than he would do, for other people’s sake.
And he to me: “Thus speedily has led me Are gazing there, where thou dost veil the sun.” But tell me, if thou knowest, where is Piccarda;
To drink of the sweet wormwood of these Whence I to him: “If thou bring back to mind Tell me if any one of note I see
torments, What thou with me hast been and I with thee, Among this folk that gazes at me so.”
My Nella with her overflowing tears; The present memory will be grievous still. “My sister, who, ‘twixt beautiful and good,
She with her prayers devout and with her sighs Out of that life he turned me back who goes I know not which was more, triumphs rejoicing
Has drawn me from the coast where one where In front of me, two days agone when round Already in her crown on high Olympus.”
one awaits, The sister of him yonder showed herself,” So said he first, and then: “’Tis not forbidden
And from the other circles set me free. And to the sun I pointed. “Through the deep To name each other here, so milked away
So much more dear and pleasing is to God Night of the truly dead has this one led me, Is our resemblance by our dieting.
My little widow, whom so much I loved, With this true flesh, that follows after him. This,” pointing with his finger, “is Buonagiunta,
As in good works she is the more alone; Thence his encouragements have led me up, Buonagiunta, of Lucca; and that face
For the Barbagia of Sardinia Ascending and still circling round the mount Beyond him there, more peaked than the others,
By far more modest in its women is That you doth straighten, whom the world made Has held the holy Church within his arms;
Than the Barbagia I have left her in. crooked. From Tours was he, and purges by his fasting
O brother sweet, what wilt thou have me say? He says that he will bear me company, Bolsena’s eels and the Vernaccia wine.”
A future time is in my sight already, Till I shall be where Beatrice will be; He named me many others one by one;
To which this hour will not be very old, There it behoves me to remain without him. And all contented seemed at being named,
When from the pulpit shall be interdicted This is Virgilius, who thus says to me,” So that for this I saw not one dark look.
I saw for hunger bite the empty air Which with our own forsooth came not to pass; By coming onward thus abreast with thee.”
Ubaldin dalla Pila, and Boniface, And he who sets himself to go beyond, As sometimes issues forth upon a gallop
Who with his crook had pastured many people. No difference sees from one style to another;” A cavalier from out a troop that ride,
I saw Messer Marchese, who had leisure And as if satisfied, he held his peace. And seeks the honour of the first encounter,
Once at Forli for drinking with less dryness, Even as the birds, that winter tow’rds the Nile, So he with greater strides departed from us;
And he was one who ne’er felt satisfied. Sometimes into a phalanx form themselves, And on the road remained I with those two,
But as he does who scans, and then doth prize Then fly in greater haste, and go in file; Who were such mighty marshals of the world.
One more than others, did I him of Lucca, In such wise all the people who were there, And when before us he had gone so far
Who seemed to take most cognizance of me. Turning their faces, hurried on their steps, Mine eyes became to him such pursuivants
He murmured, and I know not what Gentucca Both by their leanness and their wishes light. As was my understanding to his words,
From that place heard I, where he felt the wound And as a man, who weary is with trotting, Appeared to me with laden and living boughs
Of justice, that doth macerate them so. Lets his companions onward go, and walks, Another apple-tree, and not far distant,
Until he vents the panting of his chest; From having but just then turned thitherward.
“O soul,” I said, “that seemest so desirous So did Forese let the holy flock People I saw beneath it lift their hands,
To speak with me, do so that I may hear thee, Pass by, and came with me behind it, saying, And cry I know not what towards the leaves,
And with thy speech appease thyself and me.” “When will it be that I again shall see thee?” Like little children eager and deluded,
“A maid is born, and wears not yet the veil,” “How long,” I answered, “I may live, I know not; Who pray, and he they pray to doth not answer,
Began he, “who to thee shall pleasant make Yet my return will not so speedy be, But, to make very keen their appetite,
My city, howsoever men may blame it. But I shall sooner in desire arrive; Holds their desire aloft, and hides it not.
Thou shalt go on thy way with this prevision; Because the place where I was set to live Then they departed as if undeceived;
If by my murmuring thou hast been deceived, From day to day of good is more depleted, And now we came unto the mighty tree
True things hereafter will declare it to thee. And unto dismal ruin seems ordained.” Which prayers and tears so manifold refuses.
But say if him I here behold, who forth “Now go,” he said, “for him most guilty of it “Pass farther onward without drawing near;
Evoked the new-invented rhymes, beginning, At a beast’s tail behold I dragged along The tree of which Eve ate is higher up,
‘Ladies, that have intelligence of love?’” Towards the valley where is no repentance. And out of that one has this tree been raised.”
And I to him: “One am I, who, whenever Faster at every step the beast is going, Thus said I know not who among the branches;
Love doth inspire me, note, and in that measure Increasing evermore until it smites him, Whereat Virgilius, Statius, and myself
Which he within me dictates, singing go.” And leaves the body vilely mutilated. Went crowding forward on the side that rises.
“O brother, now I see,” he said, “the knot Not long those wheels shall turn,” and he uplifted “Be mindful,” said he, “of the accursed ones
Which me, the Notary, and Guittone held His eyes to heaven, “ere shall be clear to thee Formed of the cloud-rack, who inebriate
Short of the sweet new style that now I hear. That which my speech no farther can declare. Combated Theseus with their double breasts;
I do perceive full clearly how your pens Now stay behind; because the time so precious
Go closely following after him who dictates, Is in this kingdom, that I lose too much
And of the Jews who showed them soft in Hungering at all times so far as is just.” But that thou mayst content thee in thy wish
drinking, Lo Statius here; and him I call and pray
Whence Gideon would not have them for Purgatorio: Canto XXV He now will be the healer of thy wounds.”
companions “If I unfold to him the eternal vengeance,”
When he tow’rds Midian the hills descended.” Now was it the ascent no hindrance brooked, Responded Statius, “where thou present art,
Thus, closely pressed to one of the two borders, Because the sun had his meridian circle Be my excuse that I can naught deny thee.”
On passed we, hearing sins of gluttony, To Taurus left, and night to Scorpio; Then he began: “Son, if these words of mine
Followed forsooth by miserable gains; Wherefore as doth a man who tarries not, Thy mind doth contemplate and doth receive,
Then set at large upon the lonely road, But goes his way, whate’er to him appear, They’ll be thy light unto the How thou sayest.
A thousand steps and more we onward went, If of necessity the sting transfix him, The perfect blood, which never is drunk up
In contemplation, each without a word. In this wise did we enter through the gap, Into the thirsty veins, and which remaineth
“What go ye thinking thus, ye three alone?” Taking the stairway, one before the other, Like food that from the table thou removest,
Said suddenly a voice, whereat I started Which by its narrowness divides the climbers.
As terrified and timid beasts are wont. And as the little stork that lifts its wing Takes in the heart for all the human members
I raised my head to see who this might be, With a desire to fly, and does not venture Virtue informative, as being that
And never in a furnace was there seen To leave the nest, and lets it downward droop, Which to be changed to them goes through the
Metals or glass so lucent and so red Even such was I, with the desire of asking veins
As one I saw who said: “If it may please you Kindled and quenched, unto the motion coming Again digest, descends it where ’tis better
To mount aloft, here it behoves you turn; He makes who doth address himself to speak. Silent to be than say; and then drops thence
This way goes he who goeth after peace.” Not for our pace, though rapid it might be, Upon another’s blood in natural vase.
His aspect had bereft me of my sight, My father sweet forbore, but said: “Let fly There one together with the other mingles,
So that I turned me back unto my Teachers, The bow of speech thou to the barb hast drawn.” One to be passive meant, the other active
Like one who goeth as his hearing guides him. With confidence I opened then my mouth, By reason of the perfect place it springs from;
And as, the harbinger of early dawn, And I began: “How can one meagre grow And being conjoined, begins to operate,
The air of May doth move and breathe out There where the need of nutriment applies not?” Coagulating first, then vivifying
fragrance, “If thou wouldst call to mind how Meleager What for its matter it had made consistent.
Impregnate all with herbage and with flowers, Was wasted by the wasting of a brand, The active virtue, being made a soul
So did I feel a breeze strike in the midst This would not,” said he, “be to thee so sour; As of a plant, (in so far different,
My front, and felt the moving of the plumes And wouldst thou think how at each tremulous This on the way is, that arrived already,)
That breathed around an odour of ambrosia; motion Then works so much, that now it moves and feels
And heard it said: “Blessed are they whom grace Trembles within a mirror your own image; Like a sea-fungus, and then undertakes
So much illumines, that the love of taste That which seems hard would mellow seem to To organize the powers whose seed it is.
Excites not in their breasts too great desire, thee. Now, Son, dilates and now distends itself
The virtue from the generator’s heart, By alien rays that are therein reflected,
Where nature is intent on all the members. With divers colours shows itself adorned, And spirits saw I walking through the flame;
But how from animal it man becomes So there the neighbouring air doth shape itself Wherefore I looked, to my own steps and theirs
Thou dost not see as yet; this is a point Into that form which doth impress upon it Apportioning my sight from time to time.
Which made a wiser man than thou once err Virtually the soul that has stood still. After the close which to that hymn is made,
So far, that in his doctrine separate And then in manner of the little flame, Aloud they shouted, “Virum non cognosco;”
He made the soul from possible intellect, Which followeth the fire where’er it shifts, Then recommenced the hymn with voices low.
For he no organ saw by this assumed. After the spirit followeth its new form. This also ended, cried they: “To the wood
Open thy breast unto the truth that’s coming, Since afterwards it takes from this its semblance, Diana ran, and drove forth Helice
And know that, just as soon as in the foetus It is called shade; and thence it organizes Therefrom, who had of Venus felt the poison.”
The articulation of the brain is perfect, Thereafter every sense, even to the sight. Then to their song returned they; then the wives
The primal Motor turns to it well pleased Thence is it that we speak, and thence we laugh; They shouted, and the husbands who were chaste.
At so great art of nature, and inspires Thence is it that we form the tears and sighs, As virtue and the marriage vow imposes.
A spirit new with virtue all replete, That on the mountain thou mayhap hast heard. And I believe that them this mode suffices,
Which what it finds there active doth attract According as impress us our desires For all the time the fire is burning them;
Into its substance, and becomes one soul, And other affections, so the shade is shaped, With such care is it needful, and such food,
Which lives, and feels, and on itself revolves. And this is cause of what thou wonderest at.” That the last wound of all should be closed up.
And that thou less may wonder at my word, And now unto the last of all the circles
Behold the sun’s heat, which becometh wine, Had we arrived, and to the right hand turned, Purgatorio: Canto XXVI
Joined to the juice that from the vine distils. And were attentive to another care.
Whenever Lachesis has no more thread, There the embankment shoots forth flames of While on the brink thus one before the other
It separates from the flesh, and virtually fire, We went upon our way, oft the good Master
And upward doth the cornice breathe a blast Said: “Take thou heed! suffice it that I warn
The other faculties are voiceless all; That drives them back, and from itself sequesters. thee.”
The memory, the intelligence, and the will Hence we must needs go on the open side, On the right shoulder smote me now the sun,
In action far more vigorous than before. And one by one; and I did fear the fire That, raying out, already the whole west
Without a pause it falleth of itself On this side, and on that the falling down. Changed from its azure aspect into white.
In marvellous way on one shore or the other; My Leader said: “Along this place one ought And with my shadow did I make the flame
There of its roads it first is cognizant. To keep upon the eyes a tightened rein, Appear more red; and even to such a sign
Soon as the place there circumscribeth it, Seeing that one so easily might err.” Shades saw I many, as they went, give heed.
The virtue informative rays round about, “Summae Deus clementiae,” in the bosom This was the cause that gave them a beginning
As, and as much as, in the living members. Of the great burning chanted then I heard, To speak of me; and to themselves began they
And even as the air, when full of rain, Which made me no less eager to turn round; To say: “That seems not a factitious body!”
Then towards me, as far as they could come, These of the frost, those of the sun avoidant, The folk that comes not with us have offended
Came certain of them, always with regard One folk is going, and the other coming, In that for which once Caesar, triumphing,
Not to step forth where they would not be burned. And weeping they return to their first songs, Heard himself called in contumely, ‘Queen.’
“O thou who goest, not from being slower And to the cry that most befitteth them; Therefore they separate, exclaiming, ‘Sodom!’
But reverent perhaps, behind the others, And close to me approached, even as before, Themselves reproving, even as thou hast heard,
Answer me, who in thirst and fire am burning. The very same who had entreated me, And add unto their burning by their shame.
Attent to listen in their countenance. Our own transgression was hermaphrodite;
Nor to me only is thine answer needful; I, who their inclination twice had seen, But because we observed not human law,
For all of these have greater thirst for it Began: “O souls secure in the possession, Following like unto beasts our appetite,
Than for cold water Ethiop or Indian. Whene’er it may be, of a state of peace, In our opprobrium by us is read,
Tell us how is it that thou makest thyself Neither unripe nor ripened have remained When we part company, the name of her
A wall unto the sun, as if thou hadst not My members upon earth, but here are with me Who bestialized herself in bestial wood.
Entered as yet into the net of death.” With their own blood and their articulations. Now knowest thou our acts, and what our crime
Thus one of them addressed me, and I straight I go up here to be no longer blind; was;
Should have revealed myself, were I not bent A Lady is above, who wins this grace, Wouldst thou perchance by name know who we
On other novelty that then appeared. Whereby the mortal through your world I bring. are,
For through the middle of the burning road There is not time to tell, nor could I do it.
There came a people face to face with these, But as your greatest longing satisfied Thy wish to know me shall in sooth be granted;
Which held me in suspense with gazing at them. May soon become, so that the Heaven may house I’m Guido Guinicelli, and now purge me,
There see I hastening upon either side you Having repented ere the hour extreme.”
Each of the shades, and kissing one another Which full of love is, and most amply spreads, The same that in the sadness of Lycurgus
Without a pause, content with brief salute. Tell me, that I again in books may write it, Two sons became, their mother re-beholding,
Thus in the middle of their brown battalions Who are you, and what is that multitude Such I became, but rise not to such height,
Muzzle to muzzle one ant meets another Which goes upon its way behind your backs?” The moment I heard name himself the father
Perchance to spy their journey or their fortune. Not otherwise with wonder is bewildered Of me and of my betters, who had ever
No sooner is the friendly greeting ended, The mountaineer, and staring round is dumb, Practised the sweet and gracious rhymes of love;
Or ever the first footstep passes onward, When rough and rustic to the town he goes, And without speech and hearing thoughtfully
Each one endeavours to outcry the other; Than every shade became in its appearance; For a long time I went, beholding him,
The new-come people: “Sodom and Gomorrah!” But when they of their stupor were disburdened, Nor for the fire did I approach him nearer.
The rest: “Into the cow Pasiphae enters, Which in high hearts is quickly quieted,
So that the bull unto her lust may run!” “Blessed be thou, who of our border-lands,” When I was fed with looking, utterly
Then as the cranes, that to Riphaean mountains He recommenced who first had questioned us, Myself I offered ready for his service,
Might fly in part, and part towards the sands, “Experience freightest for a better life. With affirmation that compels belief.
And he to me: “Thou leavest footprints such He of his own free will began to say: And be not deaf unto the song beyond.”
In me, from what I hear, and so distinct, ‘Tan m’ abellis vostre cortes deman, When we were close beside him thus he said;
Lethe cannot efface them, nor make dim. Que jeu nom’ puesc ni vueill a vos cobrire; Wherefore e’en such became I, when I heard him,
But if thy words just now the truth have sworn, Jeu sui Arnaut, que plor e vai chantan; As he is who is put into the grave.
Tell me what is the cause why thou displayest Consiros vei la passada folor, Upon my clasped hands I straightened me,
In word and look that dear thou holdest me?” E vei jauzen lo jorn qu’ esper denan. Scanning the fire, and vividly recalling
And I to him: “Those dulcet lays of yours The human bodies I had once seen burned.
Which, long as shall endure our modern fashion, Ara vus prec per aquella valor,
Shall make for ever dear their very ink!” Que vus condus al som de la scalina, Towards me turned themselves my good
“O brother,” said he, “he whom I point out,” Sovenga vus a temprar ma dolor.’* Conductors,
And here he pointed at a spirit in front, Then hid him in the fire that purifies them. And unto me Virgilius said: “My son,
“Was of the mother tongue a better smith. * So pleases me your courteous demand, Here may indeed be torment, but not death.
Verses of love and proses of romance, I cannot and I will not hide me from you. Remember thee, remember! and if I
He mastered all; and let the idiots talk, I am Arnaut, who weep and singing go; On Geryon have safely guided thee,
Who think the Lemosin surpasses him. Contrite I see the folly of the past, What shall I do now I am nearer God?
To clamour more than truth they turn their faces, And joyous see the hoped-for day before me. Believe for certain, shouldst thou stand a full
And in this way establish their opinion, Therefore do I implore you, by that power Millennium in the bosom of this flame,
Ere art or reason has by them been heard. Which guides you to the summit of the stairs, It could not make thee bald a single hair.
Thus many ancients with Guittone did, Be mindful to assuage my suffering! And if perchance thou think that I deceive thee,
From cry to cry still giving him applause, Draw near to it, and put it to the proof
Until the truth has conquered with most persons. Purgatorio: Canto XXVII With thine own hands upon thy garment’s hem.
Now, if thou hast such ample privilege Now lay aside, now lay aside all fear,
’Tis granted thee to go unto the cloister As when he vibrates forth his earliest rays, Turn hitherward, and onward come securely;”
Wherein is Christ the abbot of the college, In regions where his Maker shed his blood, And I still motionless, and ‘gainst my
To him repeat for me a Paternoster, (The Ebro falling under lofty Libra, conscience!
So far as needful to us of this world, And waters in the Ganges burnt with noon,) Seeing me stand still motionless and stubborn,
Where power of sinning is no longer ours.” So stood the Sun; hence was the day departing, Somewhat disturbed he said: “Now look thou,
Then, to give place perchance to one behind, When the glad Angel of God appeared to us. Son,
Whom he had near, he vanished in the fire Outside the flame he stood upon the verge, ‘Twixt Beatrice and thee there is this wall.”
As fish in water going to the bottom. And chanted forth, “Beati mundo corde,” As at the name of Thisbe oped his lids
I moved a little tow’rds him pointed out, In voice by far more living than our own. The dying Pyramus, and gazed upon her,
And said that to his name my own desire Then: “No one farther goes, souls sanctified, What time the mulberry became vermilion,
An honourable place was making ready. If first the fire bite not; within it enter, Even thus, my obduracy being softened,
I turned to my wise Guide, hearing the name The horizon of one aspect had become, To please me at the mirror, here I deck me,
That in my memory evermore is welling. And Night her boundless dispensation held, But never does my sister Rachel leave
Whereat he wagged his head, and said: “How Each of us of a stair had made his bed; Her looking-glass, and sitteth all day long.
now? Because the nature of the mount took from us To see her beauteous eyes as eager is she,
Shall we stay on this side?” then smiled as one The power of climbing, more than the delight. As I am to adorn me with my hands;
Does at a child who’s vanquished by an apple. Even as in ruminating passive grow Her, seeing, and me, doing satisfies.”
Then into the fire in front of me he entered, The goats, who have been swift and venturesome And now before the antelucan splendours
Beseeching Statius to come after me, Upon the mountain-tops ere they were fed, That unto pilgrims the more grateful rise,
Who a long way before divided us. Hushed in the shadow, while the sun is hot, As, home-returning, less remote they lodge,
When I was in it, into molten glass Watched by the herdsman, who upon his staff The darkness fled away on every side,
I would have cast me to refresh myself, Is leaning, and in leaning tendeth them; And slumber with it; whereupon I rose,
So without measure was the burning there! And as the shepherd, lodging out of doors, Seeing already the great Masters risen.
And my sweet Father, to encourage me, Passes the night beside his quiet flock, “That apple sweet, which through so many
Discoursing still of Beatrice went on, Watching that no wild beast may scatter it, branches
Saying: “Her eyes I seem to see already!” Such at that hour were we, all three of us, The care of mortals goeth in pursuit of,
A voice, that on the other side was singing, I like the goat, and like the herdsmen they, To-day shall put in peace thy hungerings.”
Directed us, and we, attent alone Begirt on this side and on that by rocks. Speaking to me, Virgilius of such words
On that, came forth where the ascent began. Little could there be seen of things without; As these made use; and never were there
“Venite, benedicti Patris mei,” But through that little I beheld the stars guerdons
Sounded within a splendour, which was there More luminous and larger than their wont. That could in pleasantness compare with these.
Such it o’ercame me, and I could not look. Thus ruminating, and beholding these, Such longing upon longing came upon me
Sleep seized upon me,—sleep, that oftentimes To be above, that at each step thereafter
“The sun departs,” it added, “and night cometh; Before a deed is done has tidings of it. For flight I felt in me the pinions growing.
Tarry ye not, but onward urge your steps, It was the hour, I think, when from the East When underneath us was the stairway all
So long as yet the west becomes not dark.” First on the mountain Citherea beamed, Run o’er, and we were on the highest step,
Straight forward through the rock the path Who with the fire of love seems always burning; Virgilius fastened upon me his eyes,
ascended Youthful and beautiful in dreams methought And said: “The temporal fire and the eternal,
In such a way that I cut off the rays I saw a lady walking in a meadow, Son, thou hast seen, and to a place art come
Before me of the sun, that now was low. Gathering flowers; and singing she was saying: Where of myself no farther I discern.
And of few stairs we yet had made assay, “Know whosoever may my name demand By intellect and art I here have brought thee;
Ere by the vanished shadow the sun’s setting That I am Leah, and go moving round Take thine own pleasure for thy guide henceforth;
Behind us we perceived, I and my Sages. My beauteous hands to make myself a garland. Beyond the steep ways and the narrow art thou.
And ere in all its parts immeasurable Behold the sun, that shines upon thy forehead;
Behold the grass, the flowerets, and the shrubs When Eolus unlooses the Sirocco. Her mother her, and she herself the Spring.”
Which of itself alone this land produces. Already my slow steps had carried me As turns herself, with feet together pressed
Until rejoicing come the beauteous eyes Into the ancient wood so far, that I And to the ground, a lady who is dancing,
Which weeping caused me to come unto thee, Could not perceive where I had entered it. And hardly puts one foot before the other,
Thou canst sit down, and thou canst walk among And lo! my further course a stream cut off, On the vermilion and the yellow flowerets
them. Which tow’rd the left hand with its little waves She turned towards me, not in other wise
Expect no more or word or sign from me; Bent down the grass that on its margin sprang. Than maiden who her modest eyes casts down;
Free and upright and sound is thy free-will, All waters that on earth most limpid are And my entreaties made to be content,
And error were it not to do its bidding; Would seem to have within themselves some So near approaching, that the dulcet sound
Thee o’er thyself I therefore crown and mitre!” mixture Came unto me together with its meaning
Compared with that which nothing doth conceal, As soon as she was where the grasses are.
Purgatorio: Canto XXVIII Although it moves on with a brown, brown Bathed by the waters of the beauteous river,
current To lift her eyes she granted me the boon.
Eager already to search in and round Under the shade perpetual, that never I do not think there shone so great a light
The heavenly forest, dense and living-green, Ray of the sun lets in, nor of the moon. Under the lids of Venus, when transfixed
Which tempered to the eyes the new-born day, With feet I stayed, and with mine eyes I passed By her own son, beyond his usual custom!
Withouten more delay I left the bank, Beyond the rivulet, to look upon Erect upon the other bank she smiled,
Taking the level country slowly, slowly The great variety of the fresh may. Bearing full many colours in her hands,
Over the soil that everywhere breathes fragrance. And there appeared to me (even as appears Which that high land produces without seed.
A softly-breathing air, that no mutation Suddenly something that doth turn aside Apart three paces did the river make us;
Had in itself, upon the forehead smote me Through very wonder every other thought) But Hellespont, where Xerxes passed across,
No heavier blow than of a gentle wind, (A curb still to all human arrogance,)
Whereat the branches, lightly tremulous, A lady all alone, who went along More hatred from Leander did not suffer
Did all of them bow downward toward that side Singing and culling floweret after floweret, For rolling between Sestos and Abydos,
Where its first shadow casts the Holy Mountain; With which her pathway was all painted over. Than that from me, because it oped not then.
Yet not from their upright direction swayed, “Ah, beauteous lady, who in rays of love “Ye are new-comers; and because I smile,”
So that the little birds upon their tops Dost warm thyself, if I may trust to looks, Began she, “peradventure, in this place
Should leave the practice of each art of theirs; Which the heart’s witnesses are wont to be, Elect to human nature for its nest,
But with full ravishment the hours of prime, May the desire come unto thee to draw Some apprehension keeps you marvelling;
Singing, received they in the midst of leaves, Near to this river’s bank,” I said to her, But the psalm ‘Delectasti’ giveth light
That ever bore a burden to their rhymes, “So much that I might hear what thou art singing. Which has the power to uncloud your intellect.
Such as from branch to branch goes gathering on Thou makest me remember where and what
Through the pine forest on the shore of Chiassi, Proserpina that moment was when lost And thou who foremost art, and didst entreat me,
Speak, if thou wouldst hear more; for I came It should not seem a marvel then on earth, They had been listening to these closing words;
ready This being heard, whenever any plant Then to the beautiful lady turned mine eyes.
To all thy questionings, as far as needful.” Without seed manifest there taketh root.
“The water,” said I, “and the forest’s sound, And thou must know, this holy table-land Purgatorio: Canto XXIX
Are combating within me my new faith In which thou art is full of every seed,
In something which I heard opposed to this.” And fruit has in it never gathered there. Singing like unto an enamoured lady
Whence she: “I will relate how from its cause The water which thou seest springs not from vein She, with the ending of her words, continued:
Proceedeth that which maketh thee to wonder, Restored by vapour that the cold condenses, “Beati quorum tecta sunt peccata.”
And purge away the cloud that smites upon thee. Like to a stream that gains or loses breath; And even as Nymphs, that wandered all alone
The Good Supreme, sole in itself delighting, Among the sylvan shadows, sedulous
Created man good, and this goodly place But issues from a fountain safe and certain, One to avoid and one to see the sun,
Gave him as hansel of eternal peace. Which by the will of God as much regains She then against the stream moved onward, going
By his default short while he sojourned here; As it discharges, open on two sides. Along the bank, and I abreast of her,
By his default to weeping and to toil Upon this side with virtue it descends, Her little steps with little steps attending.
He changed his innocent laughter and sweet play. Which takes away all memory of sin; Between her steps and mine were not a hundred,
That the disturbance which below is made On that, of every good deed done restores it. When equally the margins gave a turn,
By exhalations of the land and water, Here Lethe, as upon the other side In such a way, that to the East I faced.
(Which far as may be follow after heat,) Eunoe, it is called; and worketh not Nor even thus our way continued far
Might not upon mankind wage any war, If first on either side it be not tasted. Before the lady wholly turned herself
This mount ascended tow’rds the heaven so high, This every other savour doth transcend; Unto me, saying, “Brother, look and listen!”
And is exempt, from there where it is locked. And notwithstanding slaked so far may be And lo! a sudden lustre ran across
Now since the universal atmosphere Thy thirst, that I reveal to thee no more, On every side athwart the spacious forest,
Turns in a circuit with the primal motion I’ll give thee a corollary still in grace, Such that it made me doubt if it were lightning.
Unless the circle is broken on some side, Nor think my speech will be to thee less dear But since the lightning ceases as it comes,
Upon this height, that all is disengaged If it spread out beyond my promise to thee. And that continuing brightened more and more,
In living ether, doth this motion strike Those who in ancient times have feigned in song Within my thought I said, “What thing is this?”
And make the forest sound, for it is dense; The Age of Gold and its felicity, And a delicious melody there ran
And so much power the stricken plant possesses Dreamed of this place perhaps upon Parnassus. Along the luminous air, whence holy zeal
That with its virtue it impregns the air, Here was the human race in innocence; Made me rebuke the hardihood of Eve;
And this, revolving, scatters it around; Here evermore was Spring, and every fruit; For there where earth and heaven obedient were,
And yonder earth, according as ’tis worthy This is the nectar of which each one speaks.” The woman only, and but just created,
In self or in its clime, conceives and bears Then backward did I turn me wholly round Could not endure to stay ‘neath any veil;
Of divers qualities the divers trees; Unto my Poets, and saw that with a smile Underneath which had she devoutly stayed,
I sooner should have tasted those delights The lady chid me: “Why dost thou burn only There came close after them four animals,
Ineffable, and for a longer time. So with affection for the living lights, Incoronate each one with verdant leaf.
While ‘mid such manifold first-fruits I walked And dost not look at what comes after them?” Plumed with six wings was every one of them,
Of the eternal pleasure all enrapt, Then saw I people, as behind their leaders, The plumage full of eyes; the eyes of Argus
And still solicitous of more delights, Coming behind them, garmented in white, If they were living would be such as these.
In front of us like an enkindled fire And such a whiteness never was on earth. Reader! to trace their forms no more I waste
Became the air beneath the verdant boughs, The water on my left flank was resplendent, My rhymes; for other spendings press me so,
And the sweet sound as singing now was heard. And back to me reflected my left side, That I in this cannot be prodigal.
O Virgins sacrosanct! if ever hunger, E’en as a mirror, if I looked therein. But read Ezekiel, who depicteth them
Vigils, or cold for you I have endured, When I upon my margin had such post As he beheld them from the region cold
The occasion spurs me their reward to claim! That nothing but the stream divided us, Coming with cloud, with whirlwind, and with
Better to see I gave my steps repose; fire;
Now Helicon must needs pour forth for me, And I beheld the flamelets onward go, And such as thou shalt find them in his pages,
And with her choir Urania must assist me, Leaving behind themselves the air depicted, Such were they here; saving that in their plumage
To put in verse things difficult to think. And they of trailing pennons had the semblance, John is with me, and differeth from him.
A little farther on, seven trees of gold So that it overhead remained distinct The interval between these four contained
In semblance the long space still intervening With sevenfold lists, all of them of the colours A chariot triumphal on two wheels,
Between ourselves and them did counterfeit; Whence the sun’s bow is made, and Delia’s Which by a Griffin’s neck came drawn along;
But when I had approached so near to them girdle. And upward he extended both his wings
The common object, which the sense deceives, These standards to the rearward longer were Between the middle list and three and three,
Lost not by distance any of its marks, Than was my sight; and, as it seemed to me, So that he injured none by cleaving it.
The faculty that lends discourse to reason Ten paces were the outermost apart. So high they rose that they were lost to sight;
Did apprehend that they were candlesticks, His limbs were gold, so far as he was bird,
And in the voices of the song “Hosanna!” Under so fair a heaven as I describe And white the others with vermilion mingled.
Above them flamed the harness beautiful, The four and twenty Elders, two by two, Not only Rome with no such splendid car
Far brighter than the moon in the serene Came on incoronate with flower-de-luce. E’er gladdened Africanus, or Augustus,
Of midnight, at the middle of her month. They all of them were singing: “Blessed thou But poor to it that of the Sun would be,—
I turned me round, with admiration filled, Among the daughters of Adam art, and blessed That of the Sun, which swerving was burnt up
To good Virgilius, and he answered me For evermore shall be thy loveliness.” At the importunate orison of Earth,
With visage no less full of wonderment. After the flowers and other tender grasses When Jove was so mysteriously just.
Then back I turned my face to those high things, In front of me upon the other margin Three maidens at the right wheel in a circle
Which moved themselves towards us so sedately, Were disencumbered of that race elect, Came onward dancing; one so very red
They had been distanced by new-wedded brides. Even as in heaven star followeth after star, That in the fire she hardly had been noted.
 Purgatorio: Canto XXX Appeared a lady under a green mantle,
The second was as if her flesh and bones Vested in colour of the living flame.
Had all been fashioned out of emerald; When the Septentrion of the highest heaven And my own spirit, that already now
The third appeared as snow but newly fallen. (Which never either setting knew or rising, So long a time had been, that in her presence
And now they seemed conducted by the white, Nor veil of other cloud than that of sin, Trembling with awe it had not stood abashed,
Now by the red, and from the song of her And which made every one therein aware Without more knowledge having by mine eyes,
The others took their step, or slow or swift. Of his own duty, as the lower makes Through occult virtue that from her proceeded
Upon the left hand four made holiday Whoever turns the helm to come to port) Of ancient love the mighty influence felt.
Vested in purple, following the measure Motionless halted, the veracious people,
Of one of them with three eyes m her head. That came at first between it and the Griffin, As soon as on my vision smote the power
In rear of all the group here treated of Turned themselves to the car, as to their peace. Sublime, that had already pierced me through
Two old men I beheld, unlike in habit, And one of them, as if by Heaven commissioned, Ere from my boyhood I had yet come forth,
But like in gait, each dignified and grave. Singing, “Veni, sponsa, de Libano” To the left hand I turned with that reliance
One showed himself as one of the disciples Shouted three times, and all the others after. With which the little child runs to his mother,
Of that supreme Hippocrates, whom nature Even as the Blessed at the final summons When he has fear, or when he is afflicted,
Made for the animals she holds most dear; Shall rise up quickened each one from his cavern, To say unto Virgilius: “Not a drachm
Contrary care the other manifested, Uplifting light the reinvested flesh, Of blood remains in me, that does not tremble;
With sword so shining and so sharp, it caused So upon that celestial chariot I know the traces of the ancient flame.”
Terror to me on this side of the river. A hundred rose ‘ad vocem tanti senis,’ But us Virgilius of himself deprived
Thereafter four I saw of humble aspect, Ministers and messengers of life eternal. Had left, Virgilius, sweetest of all fathers,
And behind all an aged man alone They all were saying, “Benedictus qui venis,” Virgilius, to whom I for safety gave me:
Walking in sleep with countenance acute. And, scattering flowers above and round about, Nor whatsoever lost the ancient mother
And like the foremost company these seven “Manibus o date lilia plenis.” Availed my cheeks now purified from dew,
Were habited; yet of the flower-de-luce Ere now have I beheld, as day began, That weeping they should not again be darkened.
No garland round about the head they wore, The eastern hemisphere all tinged with rose, “Dante, because Virgilius has departed
But of the rose, and other flowers vermilion; And the other heaven with fair serene adorned; Do not weep yet, do not weep yet awhile;
At little distance would the sight have sworn And the sun’s face, uprising, overshadowed For by another sword thou need’st must weep.”
That all were in a flame above their brows. So that by tempering influence of vapours E’en as an admiral, who on poop and prow
And when the car was opposite to me For a long interval the eye sustained it; Comes to behold the people that are working
Thunder was heard; and all that folk august Thus in the bosom of a cloud of flowers In other ships, and cheers them to well-doing,
Seemed to have further progress interdicted, Which from those hands angelical ascended, Upon the left hand border of the car,
There with the vanward ensigns standing still. And downward fell again inside and out, When at the sound I turned of my own name,
Over her snow-white veil with olive cinct Which of necessity is here recorded,
I saw the Lady, who erewhile appeared Compassion for me, more than had they said, Himself from me he took and gave to others.
Veiled underneath the angelic festival, “O wherefore, lady, dost thou thus upbraid him?” When from the flesh to spirit I ascended,
Direct her eyes to me across the river. The ice, that was about my heart congealed, And beauty and virtue were in me increased,
Although the veil, that from her head descended, To air and water changed, and in my anguish I was to him less dear and less delightful;
Encircled with the foliage of Minerva, Through mouth and eyes came gushing from my And into ways untrue he turned his steps,
Did not permit her to appear distinctly, breast. Pursuing the false images of good,
In attitude still royally majestic She, on the right-hand border of the car That never any promises fulfil;
Continued she, like unto one who speaks, Still firmly standing, to those holy beings Nor prayer for inspiration me availed,
And keeps his warmest utterance in reserve: Thus her discourse directed afterwards: By means of which in dreams and otherwise
“Look at me well; in sooth I’m Beatrice! “Ye keep your watch in the eternal day, I called him back, so little did he heed them.
How didst thou deign to come unto the So that nor night nor sleep can steal from you So low he fell, that all appliances
Mountain? One step the ages make upon their path; For his salvation were already short,
Didst thou not know that man is happy here?” Therefore my answer is with greater care, Save showing him the people of perdition.
Mine eyes fell downward into the clear fountain, That he may hear me who is weeping yonder, For this I visited the gates of death,
But, seeing myself therein, I sought the grass, So that the sin and dole be of one measure. And unto him, who so far up has led him,
So great a shame did weigh my forehead down. Not only by the work of those great wheels, My intercessions were with weeping borne.
As to the son the mother seems superb, That destine every seed unto some end, God’s lofty fiat would be violated,
So she appeared to me; for somewhat bitter According as the stars are in conjunction, If Lethe should be passed, and if such viands
Tasteth the savour of severe compassion. But by the largess of celestial graces, Should tasted be, withouten any scot
Which have such lofty vapours for their rain Of penitence, that gushes forth in tears.”
Silent became she, and the Angels sang That near to them our sight approaches not,
Suddenly, “In te, Domine, speravi:” Such had this man become in his new life
But beyond ‘pedes meos’ did not pass. Potentially, that every righteous habit
Even as the snow among the living rafters Would have made admirable proof in him; Purgatorio: Canto XXXI
Upon the back of Italy congeals, But so much more malignant and more savage
Blown on and drifted by Sclavonian winds, Becomes the land untilled and with bad seed, “O thou who art beyond the sacred river,”
And then, dissolving, trickles through itself The more good earthly vigour it possesses. Turning to me the point of her discourse,
Whene’er the land that loses shadow breathes, Some time did I sustain him with my look; That edgewise even had seemed to me so keen,
So that it seems a fire that melts a taper; Revealing unto him my youthful eyes, She recommenced, continuing without pause,
E’en thus was I without a tear or sigh, I led him with me turned in the right way. “Say, say if this be true; to such a charge,
Before the song of those who sing for ever Thy own confession needs must be conjoined.”
After the music of the eternal spheres. As soon as ever of my second age My faculties were in so great confusion,
But when I heard in their sweet melodies I was upon the threshold and changed life, That the voice moved, but sooner was extinct
Than by its organs it was set at large. With less resistance is a robust holm
Awhile she waited; then she said: “What But when from one’s own cheeks comes bursting Uprooted, either by a native wind
thinkest? forth Or else by that from regions of Iarbas,
Answer me; for the mournful memories The accusal of the sin, in our tribunal Than I upraised at her command my chin;
In thee not yet are by the waters injured.” Against the edge the wheel doth turn itself. And when she by the beard the face demanded,
Confusion and dismay together mingled But still, that thou mayst feel a greater shame Well I perceived the venom of her meaning.
Forced such a Yes! from out my mouth, that sight For thy transgression, and another time And as my countenance was lifted up,
Was needful to the understanding of it. Hearing the Sirens thou mayst be more strong, Mine eye perceived those creatures beautiful
Even as a cross-bow breaks, when ’tis discharged Cast down the seed of weeping and attend; Had rested from the strewing of the flowers;
Too tensely drawn the bowstring and the bow, So shalt thou hear, how in an opposite way And, still but little reassured, mine eyes
And with less force the arrow hits the mark, My buried flesh should have directed thee. Saw Beatrice turned round towards the monster,
So I gave way beneath that heavy burden, Never to thee presented art or nature That is one person only in two natures.
Outpouring in a torrent tears and sighs, Pleasure so great as the fair limbs wherein
And the voice flagged upon its passage forth. I was enclosed, which scattered are in earth. Beneath her veil, beyond the margent green,
Whence she to me: “In those desires of mine And if the highest pleasure thus did fail thee She seemed to me far more her ancient self
Which led thee to the loving of that good, By reason of my death, what mortal thing To excel, than others here, when she was here.
Beyond which there is nothing to aspire to, Should then have drawn thee into its desire? So pricked me then the thorn of penitence,
What trenches lying traverse or what chains Thou oughtest verily at the first shaft That of all other things the one which turned me
Didst thou discover, that of passing onward Of things fallacious to have risen up Most to its love became the most my foe.
Thou shouldst have thus despoiled thee of the To follow me, who was no longer such. Such self-conviction stung me at the heart
hope? Thou oughtest not to have stooped thy pinions O’erpowered I fell, and what I then became
And what allurements or what vantages downward She knoweth who had furnished me the cause.
Upon the forehead of the others showed, To wait for further blows, or little girl, Then, when the heart restored my outward sense,
That thou shouldst turn thy footsteps unto them?” Or other vanity of such brief use. The lady I had found alone, above me
After the heaving of a bitter sigh, The callow birdlet waits for two or three, I saw, and she was saying, “Hold me, hold me.”
Hardly had I the voice to make response, But to the eyes of those already fledged, Up to my throat she in the stream had drawn me,
And with fatigue my lips did fashion it. In vain the net is spread or shaft is shot.” And, dragging me behind her, she was moving
Weeping I said: “The things that present were Even as children silent in their shame Upon the water lightly as a shuttle.
With their false pleasure turned aside my steps, Stand listening with their eyes upon the ground, When I was near unto the blessed shore,
Soon as your countenance concealed itself.” And conscious of their fault, and penitent; “Asperges me,” I heard so sweetly sung,
And she: “Shouldst thou be silent, or deny So was I standing; and she said: “If thou Remember it I cannot, much less write it.
What thou confessest, not less manifest In hearing sufferest pain, lift up thy beard The beautiful lady opened wide her arms,
Would be thy fault, by such a Judge ’tis known. And thou shalt feel a greater pain in seeing.” Embraced my head, and plunged me underneath,
Where I was forced to swallow of the water. In bearing, did the other three advance, Splendour from which perforce I had withdrawn,
Then forth she drew me, and all dripping brought Singing to their angelic saraband. I saw upon its right wing wheeled about
Into the dance of the four beautiful, “Turn, Beatrice, O turn thy holy eyes,” The glorious host returning with the sun
And each one with her arm did cover me. Such was their song, “unto thy faithful one, And with the sevenfold flames upon their faces.
‘We here are Nymphs, and in the Heaven are Who has to see thee ta’en so many steps. As underneath its shields, to save itself,
stars; In grace do us the grace that thou unveil A squadron turns, and with its banner wheels,
Ere Beatrice descended to the world, Thy face to him, so that he may discern Before the whole thereof can change its front,
We as her handmaids were appointed her. The second beauty which thou dost conceal.” That soldiery of the celestial kingdom
We’ll lead thee to her eyes; but for the pleasant O splendour of the living light eternal! Which marched in the advance had wholly passed
Light that within them is, shall sharpen thine Who underneath the shadow of Parnassus us
The three beyond, who more profoundly look.’ Has grown so pale, or drunk so at its cistern, Before the chariot had turned its pole.
Thus singing they began; and afterwards He would not seem to have his mind encumbered Then to the wheels the maidens turned
Unto the Griffin’s breast they led me with them, Striving to paint thee as thou didst appear, themselves,
Where Beatrice was standing, turned towards us. Where the harmonious heaven o’ershadowed And the Griffin moved his burden benedight,
“See that thou dost not spare thine eyes,” they thee, But so that not a feather of him fluttered.
said; When in the open air thou didst unveil? The lady fair who drew me through the ford
“Before the emeralds have we stationed thee, Followed with Statius and myself the wheel
Whence Love aforetime drew for thee his Purgatorio: Canto XXXII Which made its orbit with the lesser arc.
weapons.” So passing through the lofty forest, vacant
A thousand longings, hotter than the flame, So steadfast and attentive were mine eyes By fault of her who in the serpent trusted,
Fastened mine eyes upon those eyes relucent, In satisfying their decennial thirst, Angelic music made our steps keep time.
That still upon the Griffin steadfast stayed. That all my other senses were extinct, Perchance as great a space had in three flights
As in a glass the sun, not otherwise And upon this side and on that they had An arrow loosened from the string o’erpassed,
Within them was the twofold monster shining, Walls of indifference, so the holy smile As we had moved when Beatrice descended.
Now with the one, now with the other nature. Drew them unto itself with the old net I heard them murmur altogether, “Adam!”
When forcibly my sight was turned away Then circled they about a tree despoiled
Think, Reader, if within myself I marvelled, Towards my left hand by those goddesses, Of blooms and other leafage on each bough.
When I beheld the thing itself stand still, Because I heard from them a “Too intently!”
And in its image it transformed itself. And that condition of the sight which is Its tresses, which so much the more dilate
While with amazement filled and jubilant, In eyes but lately smitten by the sun As higher they ascend, had been by Indians
My soul was tasting of the food, that while Bereft me of my vision some short while; Among their forests marvelled at for height.
It satisfies us makes us hunger for it, But to the less when sight re-shaped itself, “Blessed art thou, O Griffin, who dost not
Themselves revealing of the highest rank I say the less in reference to the greater Pluck with thy beak these branches sweet to taste,
Since appetite by this was turned to evil.” And, overcome, recovered at the word Of her commandments all devoted was,
After this fashion round the tree robust By which still greater slumbers have been My mind and eyes directed where she willed.
The others shouted; and the twofold creature: broken, Never descended with so swift a motion
“Thus is preserved the seed of all the just.” And saw their school diminished by the loss Fire from a heavy cloud, when it is raining
And turning to the pole which he had dragged, Not only of Elias, but of Moses, From out the region which is most remote,
He drew it close beneath the widowed bough, And the apparel of their Master changed; As I beheld the bird of Jove descend
And what was of it unto it left bound. Down through the tree, rending away the bark,
In the same manner as our trees (when downward So I revived, and saw that piteous one As well as blossoms and the foliage new,
Falls the great light, with that together mingled Above me standing, who had been conductress And he with all his might the chariot smote,
Which after the celestial Lasca shines) Aforetime of my steps beside the river, Whereat it reeled, like vessel in a tempest
Begin to swell, and then renew themselves, And all in doubt I said, “Where’s Beatrice?” Tossed by the waves, now starboard and now
Each one with its own colour, ere the Sun And she: “Behold her seated underneath larboard.
Harness his steeds beneath another star: The leafage new, upon the root of it. Thereafter saw I leap into the body
Less than of rose and more than violet Behold the company that circles her; Of the triumphal vehicle a Fox,
A hue disclosing, was renewed the tree The rest behind the Griffin are ascending That seemed unfed with any wholesome food.
That had erewhile its boughs so desolate. With more melodious song, and more profound.” But for his hideous sins upbraiding him,
I never heard, nor here below is sung, And if her speech were more diffuse I know not, My Lady put him to as swift a flight
The hymn which afterward that people sang, Because already in my sight was she As such a fleshless skeleton could bear.
Nor did I bear the melody throughout. Who from the hearing of aught else had shut me.
Had I the power to paint how fell asleep Alone she sat upon the very earth, Then by the way that it before had come,
Those eyes compassionless, of Syrinx hearing, Left there as guardian of the chariot Into the chariot’s chest I saw the Eagle
Those eyes to which more watching cost so dear, Which I had seen the biform monster fasten. Descend, and leave it feathered with his plumes.
Even as a painter who from model paints Encircling her, a cloister made themselves And such as issues from a heart that mourns,
I would portray how I was lulled asleep; The seven Nymphs, with those lights in their A voice from Heaven there issued, and it said:
He may, who well can picture drowsihood. hands “My little bark, how badly art thou freighted!”
Therefore I pass to what time I awoke, Which are secure from Aquilon and Auster. Methought, then, that the earth did yawn between
And say a splendour rent from me the veil “Short while shalt thou be here a forester, Both wheels, and I saw rise from it a Dragon,
Of slumber, and a calling: “Rise, what dost And thou shalt be with me for evermore Who through the chariot upward fixed his tail,
thou?” A citizen of that Rome where Christ is Roman. And as a wasp that draweth back its sting,
As to behold the apple-tree in blossom Therefore, for that world’s good which liveth ill, Drawing unto himself his tail malign,
Which makes the Angels greedy for its fruit, Fix on the car thine eyes, and what thou seest, Drew out the floor, and went his way rejoicing.
And keeps perpetual bridals in the Heaven, Having returned to earth, take heed thou write.” That which remained behind, even as with grass
Peter and John and James conducted were, Thus Beatrice; and I, who at the feet A fertile region, with the feathers, offered
Perhaps with pure intention and benign, But when the other virgins place had given Whence it became a monster, then a prey;
Reclothed itself, and with them were reclothed For her to speak, uprisen to her feet
The pole and both the wheels so speedily, With colour as of fire, she made response: For verily I see, and hence narrate it,
A sigh doth longer keep the lips apart. “‘Modicum, et non videbitis me; The stars already near to bring the time,
Transfigured thus the holy edifice Et iterum,’ my sisters predilect, From every hindrance safe, and every bar,
Thrust forward heads upon the parts of it, ‘Modicum, et vos videbitis me.’” Within which a Five-hundred, Ten, and Five,
Three on the pole and one at either corner. Then all the seven in front of her she placed; One sent from God, shall slay the thievish woman
The first were horned like oxen; but the four And after her, by beckoning only, moved And that same giant who is sinning with her.
Had but a single horn upon the forehead; Me and the lady and the sage who stayed. And peradventure my dark utterance,
A monster such had never yet been seen! So she moved onward; and I do not think Like Themis and the Sphinx, may less persuade
Firm as a rock upon a mountain high, That her tenth step was placed upon the ground, thee,
Seated upon it, there appeared to me When with her eyes upon mine eyes she smote, Since, in their mode, it clouds the intellect;
A shameless whore, with eyes swift glancing And with a tranquil aspect, “Come more But soon the facts shall be the Naiades
round, quickly,” Who shall this difficult enigma solve,
And, as if not to have her taken from him, To me she said, “that, if I speak with thee, Without destruction of the flocks and harvests.
Upright beside her I beheld a giant; To listen to me thou mayst be well placed.” Note thou; and even as by me are uttered
And ever and anon they kissed each other. As soon as I was with her as I should be, These words, so teach them unto those who live
But because she her wanton, roving eye She said to me: “Why, brother, dost thou not That life which is a running unto death;
Turned upon me, her angry paramour Venture to question now, in coming with me?” And bear in mind, whene’er thou writest them,
Did scourge her from her head unto her feet. As unto those who are too reverential, Not to conceal what thou hast seen the plant,
Then full of jealousy, and fierce with wrath, Speaking in presence of superiors, That twice already has been pillaged here.
He loosed the monster, and across the forest Who drag no living utterance to their teeth, Whoever pillages or shatters it,
Dragged it so far, he made of that alone It me befell, that without perfect sound With blasphemy of deed offendeth God,
A shield unto the whore and the strange beast. Began I: “My necessity, Madonna, Who made it holy for his use alone.
You know, and that which thereunto is good.” For biting that, in pain and in desire
Purgatorio: Canto XXXIII And she to me: “Of fear and bashfulness Five thousand years and more the first-born soul
Henceforward I will have thee strip thyself, Craved Him, who punished in himself the bite.
“Deus venerunt gentes,” alternating So that thou speak no more as one who dreams. Thy genius slumbers, if it deem it not
Now three, now four, melodious psalmody Know that the vessel which the serpent broke For special reason so pre-eminent
The maidens in the midst of tears began; Was, and is not; but let him who is guilty In height, and so inverted in its summit.
And Beatrice, compassionate and sighing, Think that God’s vengeance does not fear a sop. And if thy vain imaginings had not been
Listened to them with such a countenance, Without an heir shall not for ever be Water of Elsa round about thy mind,
That scarce more changed was Mary at the cross. The Eagle that left his plumes upon the car, And Pyramus to the mulberry, their pleasure,
Thou by so many circumstances only Truly from this time forward shall my words Revive again the half-dead virtue in him.”
The justice of the interdict of God Be naked, so far as it is befitting Like gentle soul, that maketh no excuse,
Morally in the tree wouldst recognize. To lay them open unto thy rude gaze.” But makes its own will of another’s will
But since I see thee in thine intellect And more coruscant and with slower steps As soon as by a sign it is disclosed,
Converted into stone and stained with sin, The sun was holding the meridian circle, Even so, when she had taken hold of me,
So that the light of my discourse doth daze thee, Which, with the point of view, shifts here and The beautiful lady moved, and unto Statius
I will too, if not written, at least painted, there Said, in her womanly manner, “Come with him.”
Thou bear it back within thee, for the reason When halted (as he cometh to a halt, If, Reader, I possessed a longer space
That cinct with palm the pilgrim’s staff is borne.” Who goes before a squadron as its escort, For writing it, I yet would sing in part
And I: “As by a signet is the wax If something new he find upon his way) Of the sweet draught that ne’er would satiate me;
Which does not change the figure stamped upon The ladies seven at a dark shadow’s edge, But inasmuch as full are all the leaves
it, Such as, beneath green leaves and branches Made ready for this second canticle,
My brain is now imprinted by yourself. black, The curb of art no farther lets me go.
The Alp upon its frigid border wears. From the most holy water I returned
But wherefore so beyond my power of sight In front of them the Tigris and Euphrates Regenerate, in the manner of new trees
Soars your desirable discourse, that aye Methought I saw forth issue from one fountain, That are renewed with a new foliage,
The more I strive, so much the more I lose it?” And slowly part, like friends, from one another. Pure and disposed to mount unto the stars.
“That thou mayst recognize,” she said, “the “O light, O glory of the human race!
school What stream is this which here unfolds itself
Which thou hast followed, and mayst see how far From out one source, and from itself withdraws?”
Its doctrine follows after my discourse, For such a prayer, ’twas said unto me, “Pray
And mayst behold your path from the divine Matilda that she tell thee;” and here answered,
Distant as far as separated is As one does who doth free himself from blame, PARADISO
From earth the heaven that highest hastens on.” The beautiful lady: “This and other things
Whence her I answered: “I do not remember Were told to him by me; and sure I am Paradiso: Canto I
That ever I estranged myself from you, The water of Lethe has not hid them from him.”
Nor have I conscience of it that reproves me.” 254 The glory of Him who moveth everything
“And if thou art not able to remember,” Longfellow Doth penetrate the universe, and shine
Smiling she answered, “recollect thee now And Beatrice: “Perhaps a greater care, In one part more and in another less.
That thou this very day hast drunk of Lethe; Which oftentimes our memory takes away, Within that heaven which most his light receives
And if from smoke a fire may be inferred, Has made the vision of his mind obscure. Was I, and things beheld which to repeat
Such an oblivion clearly demonstrates But Eunoe behold, that yonder rises; Nor knows, nor can, who from above descends;
Some error in thy will elsewhere intent. Lead him to it, and, as thou art accustomed, Because in drawing near to its desire
Our intellect ingulphs itself so far, Which circles four uniteth with three crosses, Him for whom Grace the experience reserves.
That after it the memory cannot go. With better course and with a better star If I was merely what of me thou newly
Truly whatever of the holy realm Conjoined it issues, and the mundane wax Createdst, Love who governest the heaven,
I had the power to treasure in my mind Tempers and stamps more after its own fashion. Thou knowest, who didst lift me with thy light!
Shall now become the subject of my song. Almost that passage had made morning there When now the wheel, which thou dost make
O good Apollo, for this last emprise And evening here, and there was wholly white eternal
Make of me such a vessel of thy power That hemisphere, and black the other part, Desiring thee, made me attentive to it
As giving the beloved laurel asks! When Beatrice towards the left-hand side By harmony thou dost modulate and measure,
One summit of Parnassus hitherto I saw turned round, and gazing at the sun;
Has been enough for me, but now with both Never did eagle fasten so upon it! Then seemed to me so much of heaven enkindled
I needs must enter the arena left. And even as a second ray is wont By the sun’s flame, that neither rain nor river
Enter into my bosom, thou, and breathe To issue from the first and reascend, E’er made a lake so widely spread abroad.
As at the time when Marsyas thou didst draw Like to a pilgrim who would fain return, The newness of the sound and the great light
Out of the scabbard of those limbs of his. Thus of her action, through the eyes infused Kindled in me a longing for their cause,
O power divine, lend’st thou thyself to me In my imagination, mine I made, Never before with such acuteness felt;
So that the shadow of the blessed realm And sunward fixed mine eyes beyond our wont. Whence she, who saw me as I saw myself,
Stamped in my brain I can make manifest, There much is lawful which is here unlawful To quiet in me my perturbed mind,
Thou’lt see me come unto thy darling tree, Unto our powers, by virtue of the place Opened her mouth, ere I did mine to ask,
And crown myself thereafter with those leaves Made for the human species as its own. And she began: “Thou makest thyself so dull
Of which the theme and thou shall make me Not long I bore it, nor so little while With false imagining, that thou seest not
worthy. But I beheld it sparkle round about What thou wouldst see if thou hadst shaken it off.
So seldom, Father, do we gather them Like iron that comes molten from the fire; Thou art not upon earth, as thou believest;
For triumph or of Caesar or of Poet, And suddenly it seemed that day to day But lightning, fleeing its appropriate site,
(The fault and shame of human inclinations,) Was added, as if He who has the power Ne’er ran as thou, who thitherward returnest.”
That the Peneian foliage should bring forth Had with another sun the heaven adorned. If of my former doubt I was divested
Joy to the joyous Delphic deity, With eyes upon the everlasting wheels By these brief little words more smiled than
When any one it makes to thirst for it. Stood Beatrice all intent, and I, on her spoken,
A little spark is followed by great flame; Fixing my vision from above removed, I in a new one was the more ensnared;
Perchance with better voices after me Such at her aspect inwardly became And said: “Already did I rest content
Shall prayer be made that Cyrrha may respond! As Glaucus, tasting of the herb that made him From great amazement; but am now amazed
Peer of the other gods beneath the sea. In what way I transcend these bodies light.”
To mortal men by passages diverse To represent transhumanise in words Whereupon she, after a pitying sigh,
Uprises the world’s lamp; but by that one Impossible were; the example, then, suffice Her eyes directed tow’rds me with that look
A mother casts on a delirious child; (In the same wise as one may see the fire For the realm deiform did bear us on,
And she began: “All things whate’er they be Fall from a cloud,) if the first impetus As swift almost as ye the heavens behold.
Have order among themselves, and this is form, Earthward is wrested by some false delight. Upward gazed Beatrice, and I at her;
That makes the universe resemble God. Thou shouldst not wonder more, if well I judge, And in such space perchance as strikes a bolt
Here do the higher creatures see the footprints At thine ascent, than at a rivulet And flies, and from the notch unlocks itself,
Of the Eternal Power, which is the end From some high mount descending to the Arrived I saw me where a wondrous thing
Whereto is made the law already mentioned. lowland. Drew to itself my sight; and therefore she
In the order that I speak of are inclined Marvel it would be in thee, if deprived From whom no care of mine could be concealed,
All natures, by their destinies diverse, Of hindrance, thou wert seated down below, Towards me turning, blithe as beautiful,
More or less near unto their origin; As if on earth the living fire were quiet.” Said unto me: “Fix gratefully thy mind
Hence they move onward unto ports diverse Thereat she heavenward turned again her face. On God, who unto the first star has brought us.”
O’er the great sea of being; and each one It seemed to me a cloud encompassed us,
With instinct given it which bears it on. Paradiso: Canto II Luminous, dense, consolidate and bright
This bears away the fire towards the moon; As adamant on which the sun is striking.
This is in mortal hearts the motive power O Ye, who in some pretty little boat, Into itself did the eternal pearl
This binds together and unites the earth. Eager to listen, have been following Receive us, even as water doth receive
Nor only the created things that are Behind my ship, that singing sails along, A ray of light, remaining still unbroken.
Without intelligence this bow shoots forth, Turn back to look again upon your shores; If I was body, (and we here conceive not
But those that have both intellect and love. Do not put out to sea, lest peradventure, How one dimension tolerates another,
In losing me, you might yourselves be lost. Which needs must be if body enter body,)
The Providence that regulates all this The sea I sail has never yet been passed;
Makes with its light the heaven forever quiet, Minerva breathes, and pilots me Apollo, More the desire should be enkindled in us
Wherein that turns which has the greatest haste. And Muses nine point out to me the Bears. That essence to behold, wherein is seen
And thither now, as to a site decreed, Ye other few who have the neck uplifted How God and our own nature were united.
Bears us away the virtue of that cord Betimes to th’ bread of Angels upon which There will be seen what we receive by faith,
Which aims its arrows at a joyous mark. One liveth here and grows not sated by it, Not demonstrated, but self-evident
True is it, that as oftentimes the form Well may you launch upon the deep salt-sea In guise of the first truth that man believes.
Accords not with the intention of the art, Your vessel, keeping still my wake before you I made reply: “Madonna, as devoutly
Because in answering is matter deaf, Upon the water that grows smooth again. As most I can do I give thanks to Him
So likewise from this course doth deviate Those glorious ones who unto Colchos passed Who has removed me from the mortal world.
Sometimes the creature, who the power Were not so wonder-struck as you shall be, But tell me what the dusky spots may be
possesses, When Jason they beheld a ploughman made! Upon this body, which below on earth
Though thus impelled, to swerve some other way, The con-created and perpetual thirst Make people tell that fabulous tale of Cain?”
Somewhat she smiled; and then, “If the opinion And if it chance the other I demolish, Divides this being by essences diverse,
Of mortals be erroneous,” she said, Then falsified will thy opinion be. Distinguished from it, and by it contained.
“Where’er the key of sense doth not unlock, But if this rarity go not through and through, The other spheres, by various differences,
Certes, the shafts of wonder should not pierce There needs must be a limit, beyond which All the distinctions which they have within them
thee Its contrary prevents the further passing, Dispose unto their ends and their effects.
Now, forasmuch as, following the senses, And thence the foreign radiance is reflected, Thus do these organs of the world proceed,
Thou seest that the reason has short wings. Even as a colour cometh back from glass, As thou perceivest now, from grade to grade;
But tell me what thou think’st of it thyself.” The which behind itself concealeth lead. Since from above they take, and act beneath.
And I: “What seems to us up here diverse, Now thou wilt say the sunbeam shows itself
Is caused, I think, by bodies rare and dense.” More dimly there than in the other parts, Observe me well, how through this place I come
And she: “Right truly shalt thou see immersed By being there reflected farther back. Unto the truth thou wishest, that hereafter
In error thy belief, if well thou hearest From this reply experiment will free thee Thou mayst alone know how to keep the ford
The argument that I shall make against it. If e’er thou try it, which is wont to be The power and motion of the holy spheres,
Lights many the eighth sphere displays to you The fountain to the rivers of your arts. As from the artisan the hammer’s craft,
Which in their quality and quantity Three mirrors shalt thou take, and two remove Forth from the blessed motors must proceed.
May noted be of aspects different. Alike from thee, the other more remote The heaven, which lights so manifold make fair,
If this were caused by rare and dense alone, Between the former two shall meet thine eyes. From the Intelligence profound, which turns it,
One only virtue would there be in all Turned towards these, cause that behind thy back The image takes, and makes of it a seal.
Or more or less diffused, or equally. Be placed a light, illuming the three mirrors And even as the soul within your dust
Virtues diverse must be perforce the fruits And coming back to thee by all reflected. Through members different and accommodated
Of formal principles; and these, save one, Though in its quantity be not so ample To faculties diverse expands itself,
Of course would by thy reasoning be destroyed. The image most remote, there shalt thou see So likewise this Intelligence diffuses
Besides, if rarity were of this dimness How it perforce is equally resplendent. Its virtue multiplied among the stars.
The cause thou askest, either through and through Now, as beneath the touches of warm rays Itself revolving on its unity.
This planet thus attenuate were of matter, Naked the subject of the snow remains Virtue diverse doth a diverse alloyage
Or else, as in a body is apportioned Both of its former colour and its cold, Make with the precious body that it quickens,
The fat and lean, so in like manner this Thee thus remaining in thy intellect, In which, as life in you, it is combined.
Would in its volume interchange the leaves. Will I inform with such a living light, From the glad nature whence it is derived,
Were it the former, in the sun’s eclipse That it shall tremble in its aspect to thee. The mingled virtue through the body shines,
It would be manifest by the shining through Within the heaven of the divine repose Even as gladness through the living pupil.
Of light, as through aught tenuous interfused. Revolves a body, in whose virtue lies From this proceeds whate’er from light to light
The being of whatever it contains. Appeareth different, not from dense and rare:
This is not so; hence we must scan the other, The following heaven, that has so many eyes, This is the formal principle that produces,
According to its goodness, dark and bright.” Since on the truth it trusts not yet its foot, Whence I to her: “In your miraculous aspects
But turns thee, as ’tis wont, on emptiness. There shines I know not what of the divine,
Paradiso: Canto III True substances are these which thou beholdest, Which doth transform you from our first
Here relegate for breaking of some vow. conceptions.
That Sun, which erst with love my bosom Therefore speak with them, listen and believe; Therefore I was not swift in my remembrance;
warmed, For the true light, which giveth peace to them, But what thou tellest me now aids me so,
Of beauteous truth had unto me discovered, Permits them not to turn from it their feet.” That the refiguring is easier to me.
By proving and reproving, the sweet aspect. And I unto the shade that seemed most wishful But tell me, ye who in this place are happy,
And, that I might confess myself convinced To speak directed me, and I began, Are you desirous of a higher place,
And confident, so far as was befitting, As one whom too great eagerness bewilders: To see more or to make yourselves more
I lifted more erect my head to speak. “O well-created spirit, who in the rays friends?”
But there appeared a vision, which withdrew me Of life eternal dost the sweetness taste First with those other shades she smiled a little;
So close to it, in order to be seen, Which being untasted ne’er is comprehended, Thereafter answered me so full of gladness,
That my confession I remembered not. She seemed to burn in the first fire of love:
Such as through polished and transparent glass, Grateful ‘twill be to me, if thou content me “Brother, our will is quieted by virtue
Or waters crystalline and undisturbed, Both with thy name and with your destiny.” Of charity, that makes us wish alone
But not so deep as that their bed be lost, Whereat she promptly and with laughing eyes: For what we have, nor gives us thirst for more.
Come back again the outlines of our faces “Our charity doth never shut the doors If to be more exalted we aspired,
So feeble, that a pearl on forehead white Against a just desire, except as one Discordant would our aspirations be
Comes not less speedily unto our eyes; Who wills that all her court be like herself. Unto the will of Him who here secludes us;
Such saw I many faces prompt to speak, I was a virgin sister in the world; Which thou shalt see finds no place in these
So that I ran in error opposite And if thy mind doth contemplate me well, circles,
To that which kindled love ‘twixt man and The being more fair will not conceal me from If being in charity is needful here,
fountain. thee, And if thou lookest well into its nature;
As soon as I became aware of them, But thou shalt recognise I am Piccarda, Nay, ’tis essential to this blest existence
Esteeming them as mirrored semblances, Who, stationed here among these other blessed, To keep itself within the will divine,
To see of whom they were, mine eyes I turned, Myself am blessed in the slowest sphere. Whereby our very wishes are made one;
And nothing saw, and once more turned them All our affections, that alone inflamed
forward Are in the pleasure of the Holy Ghost, So that, as we are station above station
Direct into the light of my sweet Guide, Rejoice at being of his order formed; Throughout this realm, to all the realm ’tis
Who smiling kindled in her holy eyes. And this allotment, which appears so low, pleasing,
“Marvel thou not,” she said to me, “because Therefore is given us, because our vows As to the King, who makes his will our will.
I smile at this thy puerile conceit, Have been neglected and in some part void.” And his will is our peace; this is the sea
To which is moving onward whatsoever Of great Costanza this is the effulgence, And said: “Well see I how attracteth thee
It doth create, and all that nature makes.” Who from the second wind of Suabia One and the other wish, so that thy care
Then it was clear to me how everywhere Brought forth the third and latest puissance.” Binds itself so that forth it does not breathe.
In heaven is Paradise, although the grace Thus unto me she spake, and then began
Of good supreme there rain not in one measure. “Ave Maria” singing, and in singing Thou arguest, if good will be permanent,
But as it comes to pass, if one food sates, Vanished, as through deep water something The violence of others, for what reason
And for another still remains the longing, heavy. Doth it decrease the measure of my merit?
We ask for this, and that decline with thanks, Again for doubting furnish thee occasion
E’en thus did I; with gesture and with word, My sight, that followed her as long a time Souls seeming to return unto the stars,
To learn from her what was the web wherein As it was possible, when it had lost her According to the sentiment of Plato.
She did not ply the shuttle to the end. Turned round unto the mark of more desire, These are the questions which upon thy wish
“A perfect life and merit high in-heaven And wholly unto Beatrice reverted; Are thrusting equally; and therefore first
A lady o’er us,” said she, “by whose rule But she such lightnings flashed into mine eyes, Will I treat that which hath the most of gall.
Down in your world they vest and veil That at the first my sight endured it not; He of the Seraphim most absorbed in God,
themselves, And this in questioning more backward made me. Moses, and Samuel, and whichever John
That until death they may both watch and sleep Thou mayst select, I say, and even Mary,
Beside that Spouse who every vow accepts Paradiso: Canto IV Have not in any other heaven their seats,
Which charity conformeth to his pleasure. Than have those spirits that just appeared to thee,
To follow her, in girlhood from the world Between two viands, equally removed Nor of existence more or fewer years;
I fled, and in her habit shut myself, And tempting, a free man would die of hunger But all make beautiful the primal circle,
And pledged me to the pathway of her sect. Ere either he could bring unto his teeth. And have sweet life in different degrees,
Then men accustomed unto evil more So would a lamb between the ravenings By feeling more or less the eternal breath.
Than unto good, from the sweet cloister tore me; Of two fierce wolves stand fearing both alike; They showed themselves here, not because
God knows what afterward my life became. And so would stand a dog between two does. allotted
This other splendour, which to thee reveals Hence, if I held my peace, myself I blame not, This sphere has been to them, but to give sign
Itself on my right side, and is enkindled Impelled in equal measure by my doubts, Of the celestial which is least exalted.
With all the illumination of our sphere, Since it must be so, nor do I commend. To speak thus is adapted to your mind,
What of myself I say applies to her; I held my peace; but my desire was painted Since only through the sense it apprehendeth
A nun was she, and likewise from her head Upon my face, and questioning with that What then it worthy makes of intellect.
Was ta’en the shadow of the sacred wimple. More fervent far than by articulate speech. On this account the Scripture condescends
But when she too was to the world returned Beatrice did as Daniel had done Unto your faculties, and feet and hands
Against her wishes and against good usage, Relieving Nebuchadnezzar from the wrath To God attributes, and means something else;
Of the heart’s veil she never was divested. Which rendered him unjustly merciless, And Holy Church under an aspect human
Gabriel and Michael represent to you, Hence, if it yieldeth more or less, it seconds Will absolute consenteth not to evil;
And him who made Tobias whole again. The force; and these have done so, having power But in so far consenteth as it fears,
That which Timaeus argues of the soul Of turning back unto the holy place. If it refrain, to fall into more harm.
Doth not resemble that which here is seen, If their will had been perfect, like to that Hence when Piccarda uses this expression,
Because it seems that as he speaks he thinks. Which Lawrence fast upon his gridiron held, She meaneth the will absolute, and I
He says the soul unto its star returns, And Mutius made severe to his own hand, The other, so that both of us speak truth.”
Believing it to have been severed thence It would have urged them back along the road Such was the flowing of the holy river
Whenever nature gave it as a form. Whence they were dragged, as soon as they were That issued from the fount whence springs all
Perhaps his doctrine is of other guise free; truth;
Than the words sound, and possibly may be But such a solid will is all too rare. This put to rest my wishes one and all.
With meaning that is not to be derided. And by these words, if thou hast gathered them “O love of the first lover, O divine,”
If he doth mean that to these wheels return As thou shouldst do, the argument is refuted Said I forthwith, “whose speech inundates me
The honour of their influence and the blame, That would have still annoyed thee many times. And warms me so, it more and more revives me,
Perhaps his bow doth hit upon some truth. But now another passage runs across My own affection is not so profound
Before thine eyes, and such that by thyself As to suffice in rendering grace for grace;
This principle ill understood once warped Thou couldst not thread it ere thou wouldst be Let Him, who sees and can, thereto respond.
The whole world nearly, till it went astray weary. Well I perceive that never sated is
Invoking Jove and Mercury and Mars. I have for certain put into thy mind Our intellect unless the Truth illume it,
The other doubt which doth disquiet thee That soul beatified could never lie, Beyond which nothing true expands itself.
Less venom has, for its malevolence For it is near the primal Truth, It rests therein, as wild beast in his lair,
Could never lead thee otherwhere from me. And then thou from Piccarda might’st have heard When it attains it; and it can attain it;
That as unjust our justice should appear Costanza kept affection for the veil, If not, then each desire would frustrate be.
In eyes of mortals, is an argument So that she seemeth here to contradict me. Therefore springs up, in fashion of a shoot,
Of faith, and not of sin heretical. Many times, brother, has it come to pass, Doubt at the foot of truth; and this is nature,
But still, that your perception may be able That, to escape from peril, with reluctance Which to the top from height to height impels us.
To thoroughly penetrate this verity, That has been done it was not right to do, This doth invite me, this assurance give me
As thou desirest, I will satisfy thee. With reverence, Lady, to inquire of you
If it be violence when he who suffers E’en as Alcmaeon (who, being by his father Another truth, which is obscure to me.
Co-operates not with him who uses force, Thereto entreated, his own mother slew) I wish to know if man can satisfy you
These souls were not on that account excused; Not to lose pity pitiless became. For broken vows with other good deeds, so
For will is never quenched unless it will, At this point I desire thee to remember That in your balance they will not be light.”
But operates as nature doth in fire That force with will commingles, and they cause Beatrice gazed upon me with her eyes
If violence a thousand times distort it. That the offences cannot be excused. Full of the sparks of love, and so divine,
That, overcome my power, I turned my back A sacrifice is of this treasure made, If in the substitute the thing relinquished,
And almost lost myself with eyes downcast. Such as I say, and made by its own act. As the four is in six, be not contained.
What can be rendered then as compensation? Therefore whatever thing has so great weight
Paradiso: Canto V Think’st thou to make good use of what thou’st In value that it drags down every balance,
offered, Cannot be satisfied with other spending.
“If in the heat of love I flame upon thee With gains ill gotten thou wouldst do good deed. Let mortals never take a vow in jest;
Beyond the measure that on earth is seen, Now art thou certain of the greater point; Be faithful and not blind in doing that,
So that the valour of thine eyes I vanquish, But because Holy Church in this dispenses, As Jephthah was in his first offering,
Marvel thou not thereat; for this proceeds Which seems against the truth which I have Whom more beseemed to say, ‘I have done
From perfect sight, which as it apprehends shown thee, wrong,
To the good apprehended moves its feet. Behoves thee still to sit awhile at table, Than to do worse by keeping; and as foolish
Well I perceive how is already shining Because the solid food which thou hast taken Thou the great leader of the Greeks wilt find,
Into thine intellect the eternal light, Requireth further aid for thy digestion. Whence wept Iphigenia her fair face,
That only seen enkindles always love; And made for her both wise and simple weep,
And if some other thing your love seduce, Open thy mind to that which I reveal, Who heard such kind of worship spoken of.’
’Tis nothing but a vestige of the same, And fix it there within; for ’tis not knowledge, Christians, be ye more serious in your
Ill understood, which there is shining through. The having heard without retaining it. movements;
Thou fain wouldst know if with another service In the essence of this sacrifice two things Be ye not like a feather at each wind,
For broken vow can such return be made Convene together; and the one is that And think not every water washes you.
As to secure the soul from further claim.” Of which ’tis made, the other is the agreement. Ye have the Old and the New Testament,
This Canto thus did Beatrice begin; This last for evermore is cancelled not And the Pastor of the Church who guideth you
And, as a man who breaks not off his speech, Unless complied with, and concerning this Let this suffice you unto your salvation.
Continued thus her holy argument: With such precision has above been spoken. If evil appetite cry aught else to you,
“The greatest gift that in his largess God Therefore it was enjoined upon the Hebrews Be ye as men, and not as silly sheep,
Creating made, and unto his own goodness To offer still, though sometimes what was offered So that the Jew among you may not mock you.
Nearest conformed, and that which he doth prize Might be commuted, as thou ought’st to know.
Most highly, is the freedom of the will, The other, which is known to thee as matter, Be ye not as the lamb that doth abandon
Wherewith the creatures of intelligence May well indeed be such that one errs not Its mother’s milk, and frolicsome and simple
Both all and only were and are endowed. If it for other matter be exchanged. Combats at its own pleasure with itself.”
Now wilt thou see, if thence thou reasonest, But let none shift the burden on his shoulder Thus Beatrice to me even as I write it;
The high worth of a vow, if it he made At his arbitrament, without the turning Then all desireful turned herself again
So that when thou consentest God consents: Both of the white and of the yellow key; To that part where the world is most alive.
For, closing between God and man the compact, And every permutation deem as foolish, Her silence and her change of countenance
Silence imposed upon my eager mind, Kindled are we, and hence if thou desirest It governed there the world from hand to hand,
That had already in advance new questions; To know of us, at thine own pleasure sate thee.” And, changing thus, upon mine own alighted.
And as an arrow that upon the mark Thus by some one among those holy spirits Caesar I was, and am Justinian,
Strikes ere the bowstring quiet hath become, Was spoken, and by Beatrice: “Speak, speak Who, by the will of primal Love I feel,
So did we speed into the second realm. Securely, and believe them even as Gods.” Took from the laws the useless and redundant;
My Lady there so joyful I beheld, And ere unto the work I was attent,
As into the brightness of that heaven she entered, “Well I perceive how thou dost nest thyself One nature to exist in Christ, not more,
More luminous thereat the planet grew; In thine own light, and drawest it from thine eyes, Believed, and with such faith was I contented.
And if the star itself was changed and smiled, Because they coruscate when thou dost smile, But blessed Agapetus, he who was
What became I, who by my nature am But know not who thou art, nor why thou hast, The supreme pastor, to the faith sincere
Exceeding mutable in every guise! Spirit august, thy station in the sphere Pointed me out the way by words of his.
As, in a fish-pond which is pure and tranquil, That veils itself to men in alien rays.”
The fishes draw to that which from without This said I in direction of the light Him I believed, and what was his assertion
Comes in such fashion that their food they deem Which first had spoken to me; whence it became I now see clearly, even as thou seest
it; By far more lucent than it was before. Each contradiction to be false and true.
So I beheld more than a thousand splendours Even as the sun, that doth conceal himself As soon as with the Church I moved my feet,
Drawing towards us, and in each was heard: By too much light, when heat has worn away God in his grace it pleased with this high task
“Lo, this is she who shall increase our love.” The tempering influence of the vapours dense, To inspire me, and I gave me wholly to it,
And as each one was coming unto us, By greater rapture thus concealed itself And to my Belisarius I commended
Full of beatitude the shade was seen, In its own radiance the figure saintly, The arms, to which was heaven’s right hand so
By the effulgence clear that issued from it. And thus close, close enfolded answered me joined
Think, Reader, if what here is just beginning In fashion as the following Canto sings. It was a signal that I should repose.
No farther should proceed, how thou wouldst Now here to the first question terminates
have Paradiso: Canto VI My answer; but the character thereof
An agonizing need of knowing more; Constrains me to continue with a sequel,
And of thyself thou’lt see how I from these “After that Constantine the eagle turned In order that thou see with how great reason
Was in desire of hearing their conditions, Against the course of heaven, which it had Men move against the standard sacrosanct,
As they unto mine eyes were manifest. followed Both who appropriate and who oppose it.
“O thou well-born, unto whom Grace concedes Behind the ancient who Lavinia took, Behold how great a power has made it worthy
To see the thrones of the eternal triumph, Two hundred years and more the bird of God Of reverence, beginning from the hour
Or ever yet the warfare be abandoned In the extreme of Europe held itself, When Pallas died to give it sovereignty.
With light that through the whole of heaven is Near to the mountains whence it issued first; Thou knowest it made in Alba its abode
spread And under shadow of the sacred plumes Three hundred years and upward, till at last
The three to three fought for it yet again. And ill for Ptolemy then roused itself. Opposes, the other claims it for a party,
Thou knowest what it achieved from Sabine From thence it came like lightning upon Juba; So that ’tis hard to see which sins the most.
wrong Then wheeled itself again into your West,
Down to Lucretia’s sorrow, in seven kings Where the Pompeian clarion it heard. Let, let the Ghibellines ply their handicraft
O’ercoming round about the neighboring nations; From what it wrought with the next standard- Beneath some other standard; for this ever
Thou knowest what it achieved, borne by the bearer Ill follows he who it and justice parts.
Romans Brutus and Cassius howl in Hell together, And let not this new Charles e’er strike it down,
Illustrious against Brennus, against Pyrrhus, And Modena and Perugia dolent were; He and his Guelfs, but let him fear the talons
Against the other princes and confederates. Still doth the mournful Cleopatra weep That from a nobler lion stripped the fell.
Torquatus thence and Quinctius, who from locks Because thereof, who, fleeing from before it, Already oftentimes the sons have wept
Unkempt was named, Decii and Fabii, Took from the adder sudden and black death. The father’s crime; and let him not believe
Received the fame I willingly embalm; With him it ran even to the Red Sea shore; That God will change His scutcheon for the lilies.
It struck to earth the pride of the Arabians, With him it placed the world in so great peace, This little planet doth adorn itself
Who, following Hannibal, had passed across That unto Janus was his temple closed. With the good spirits that have active been,
The Alpine ridges, Po, from which thou glidest; But what the standard that has made me speak That fame and honour might come after them;
Beneath it triumphed while they yet were young Achieved before, and after should achieve And whensoever the desires mount thither,
Pompey and Scipio, and to the hill Throughout the mortal realm that lies beneath it, Thus deviating, must perforce the rays
Beneath which thou wast born it bitter seemed; Becometh in appearance mean and dim, Of the true love less vividly mount upward.
Then, near unto the time when heaven had willed If in the hand of the third Caesar seen But in commensuration of our wages
To bring the whole world to its mood serene, With eye unclouded and affection pure, With our desert is portion of our joy,
Did Caesar by the will of Rome assume it. Because the living Justice that inspires me Because we see them neither less nor greater.
What it achieved from Var unto the Rhine, Granted it, in the hand of him I speak of, Herein doth living Justice sweeten so
Isere beheld and Saone, beheld the Seine, The glory of doing vengeance for its wrath. Affection in us, that for evermore
And every valley whence the Rhone is filled; Now here attend to what I answer thee; It cannot warp to any iniquity.
Later it ran with Titus to do vengeance Voices diverse make up sweet melodies;
What it achieved when it had left Ravenna, Upon the vengeance of the ancient sin. So in this life of ours the seats diverse
And leaped the Rubicon, was such a flight And when the tooth of Lombardy had bitten Render sweet harmony among these spheres;
That neither tongue nor pen could follow it. The Holy Church, then underneath its wings And in the compass of this present pearl
Round towards Spain it wheeled its legions; then Did Charlemagne victorious succor her. Shineth the sheen of Romeo, of whom
Towards Durazzo, and Pharsalia smote Now hast thou power to judge of such as those The grand and beauteous work was ill rewarded.
That to the calid Nile was felt the pain. Whom I accused above, and of their crimes, But the Provencals who against him wrought,
Antandros and the Simois, whence it started, Which are the cause of all your miseries. They have not laughed, and therefore ill goes he
It saw again, and there where Hector lies, To the public standard one the yellow lilies Who makes his hurt of the good deeds of others.
Four daughters, and each one of them a queen, “According to infallible advisement, By a just court was afterward avenged.
Had Raymond Berenger, and this for him After what manner a just vengeance justly But now do I behold thy mind entangled
Did Romeo, a poor man and a pilgrim; Could be avenged has put thee upon thinking, From thought to thought within a knot, from
And then malicious words incited him But I will speedily thy mind unloose; which
To summon to a reckoning this just man, And do thou listen, for these words of mine With great desire it waits to free itself.
Who rendered to him seven and five for ten. Of a great doctrine will a present make thee. Thou sayest, ‘Well discern I what I hear;
Then he departed poor and stricken in years, By not enduring on the power that wills But it is hidden from me why God willed
And if the world could know the heart he had, Curb for his good, that man who ne’er was born, For our redemption only this one mode.’
In begging bit by bit his livelihood, Damning himself damned all his progeny; Buried remaineth, brother, this decree
Though much it laud him, it would laud him Whereby the human species down below Unto the eyes of every one whose nature
more.” Lay sick for many centuries in great error, Is in the flame of love not yet adult.
Till to descend it pleased the Word of God Verily, inasmuch as at this mark
Paradiso: Canto VII To where the nature, which from its own Maker One gazes long and little is discerned,
Estranged itself, he joined to him in person Wherefore this mode was worthiest will I say.
“Osanna sanctus Deus Sabaoth, By the sole act of his eternal love. Goodness Divine, which from itself doth spurn
Superillustrans claritate tua Now unto what is said direct thy sight; All envy, burning in itself so sparkles
Felices ignes horum malahoth!” This nature when united to its Maker, That the eternal beauties it unfolds.
In this wise, to his melody returning, Such as created, was sincere and good; Whate’er from this immediately distils
This substance, upon which a double light But by itself alone was banished forth Has afterwards no end, for ne’er removed
Doubles itself, was seen by me to sing, From Paradise, because it turned aside Is its impression when it sets its seal.
And to their dance this and the others moved, Out of the way of truth and of its life. Whate’er from this immediately rains down
And in the manner of swift-hurrying sparks Is wholly free, because it is not subject
Veiled themselves from me with a sudden Therefore the penalty the cross held out, Unto the influences of novel things.
distance. If measured by the nature thus assumed, The more conformed thereto, the more it pleases;
Doubting was I, and saying, “Tell her, tell her,” None ever yet with so great justice stung, For the blest ardour that irradiates all things
Within me, “tell her,” saying, “tell my Lady,” And none was ever of so great injustice, In that most like itself is most vivacious.
Who slakes my thirst with her sweet effluences; Considering who the Person was that suffered, With all of these things has advantaged been
And yet that reverence which doth lord it over Within whom such a nature was contracted. The human creature; and if one be wanting,
The whole of me only by B and ICE, From one act therefore issued things diverse; From his nobility he needs must fall.
Bowed me again like unto one who drowses. To God and to the Jews one death was pleasing; ’Tis sin alone which doth disfranchise him,
Short while did Beatrice endure me thus; Earth trembled at it and the Heaven was opened. And render him unlike the Good Supreme,
And she began, lighting me with a smile It should no longer now seem difficult So that he little with its light is blanched,
Such as would make one happy in the fire: To thee, when it is said that a just vengeance
And to his dignity no more returns, For God more bounteous was himself to give How human flesh was fashioned at that time
Unless he fill up where transgression empties To make man able to uplift himself, When the first parents both of them were made.”
With righteous pains for criminal delights. Than if he only of himself had pardoned;
Your nature when it sinned so utterly And all the other modes were insufficient Paradiso: Canto VIII
In its own seed, out of these dignities For justice, were it not the Son of God
Even as out of Paradise was driven, Himself had humbled to become incarnate. The world used in its peril to believe
Nor could itself recover, if thou notest Now, to fill fully each desire of thine, That the fair Cypria delirious love
With nicest subtilty, by any way, Return I to elucidate one place, Rayed out, in the third epicycle turning;
Except by passing one of these two fords: In order that thou there mayst see as I do. Wherefore not only unto her paid honour
Either that God through clemency alone Of sacrifices and of votive cry
Had pardon granted, or that man himself Thou sayst: ‘I see the air, I see the fire, The ancient nations in the ancient error,
Had satisfaction for his folly made. The water, and the earth, and all their mixtures But both Dione honoured they and Cupid,
Fix now thine eye deep into the abyss Come to corruption, and short while endure; That as her mother, this one as her son,
Of the eternal counsel, to my speech And these things notwithstanding were created;’ And said that he had sat in Dido’s lap;
As far as may be fastened steadfastly! Therefore if that which I have said were true, And they from her, whence I beginning take,
Man in his limitations had not power They should have been secure against corruption. Took the denomination of the star
To satisfy, not having power to sink The Angels, brother, and the land sincere That woos the sun, now following, now in front.
In his humility obeying then, In which thou art, created may be called I was not ware of our ascending to it;
Far as he disobeying thought to rise; Just as they are in their entire existence; But of our being in it gave full faith
And for this reason man has been from power But all the elements which thou hast named, My Lady whom I saw more beauteous grow.
Of satisfying by himself excluded. And all those things which out of them are made, And as within a flame a spark is seen,
Therefore it God behoved in his own ways By a created virtue are informed. And as within a voice a voice discerned,
Man to restore unto his perfect life, Created was the matter which they have; When one is steadfast, and one comes and goes,
I say in one, or else in both of them. Created was the informing influence Within that light beheld I other lamps
But since the action of the doer is Within these stars that round about them go. Move in a circle, speeding more and less,
So much more grateful, as it more presents The soul of every brute and of the plants Methinks in measure of their inward vision.
The goodness of the heart from which it issues, By its potential temperament attracts From a cold cloud descended never winds,
Goodness Divine, that doth imprint the world, The ray and motion of the holy lights; Or visible or not, so rapidly
Has been contented to proceed by each But your own life immediately inspires They would not laggard and impeded seem
And all its ways to lift you up again; Supreme Beneficence, and enamours it To any one who had those lights divine
Nor ‘twixt the first day and the final night So with herself, it evermore desires her. Seen come towards us, leaving the gyration
Such high and such magnificent proceeding And thou from this mayst argue furthermore Begun at first in the high Seraphim.
By one or by the other was or shall be; Your resurrection, if thou think again And behind those that most in front appeared
Sounded “Osanna!” so that never since Somewhat beyond the foliage of my love. Thy speech infuses into me, my Lord,
To hear again was I without desire. That left-hand margin, which doth bathe itself Where every good thing doth begin and end
Then unto us more nearly one approached, In Rhone, when it is mingled with the Sorgue, Thou seest as I see it, the more grateful
And it alone began: “We all are ready Me for its lord awaited in due time, Is it to me; and this too hold I dear,
Unto thy pleasure, that thou joy in us. And that horn of Ausonia, which is towned That gazing upon God thou dost discern it.
We turn around with the celestial Princes, With Bari, with Gaeta and Catona, Glad hast thou made me; so make clear to me,
One gyre and one gyration and one thirst, Whence Tronto and Verde in the sea disgorge. Since speaking thou hast stirred me up to doubt,
To whom thou in the world of old didst say, Already flashed upon my brow the crown How from sweet seed can bitter issue forth.”
‘Ye who, intelligent, the third heaven are Of that dominion which the Danube waters This I to him; and he to me: “If I
moving;’ After the German borders it abandons; Can show to thee a truth, to what thou askest
And are so full of love, to pleasure thee And beautiful Trinacria, that is murky Thy face thou’lt hold as thou dost hold thy back.
A little quiet will not be less sweet.” ‘Twixt Pachino and Peloro, (on the gulf The Good which all the realm thou art ascending
Which greatest scath from Eurus doth receive,) Turns and contents, maketh its providence
After these eyes of mine themselves had offered Not through Typhoeus, but through nascent To be a power within these bodies vast;
Unto my Lady reverently, and she sulphur, And not alone the natures are foreseen
Content and certain of herself had made them, Would have awaited her own monarchs still, Within the mind that in itself is perfect,
Back to the light they turned, which so great Through me from Charles descended and from But they together with their preservation.
promise Rudolph, For whatsoever thing this bow shoots forth
Made of itself, and “Say, who art thou?” was If evil lordship, that exasperates ever Falls foreordained unto an end foreseen,
My voice, imprinted with a great affection. The subject populations, had not moved Even as a shaft directed to its mark.
O how and how much I beheld it grow Palermo to the outcry of ‘Death! death!’ If that were not, the heaven which thou dost walk
With the new joy that superadded was And if my brother could but this foresee, Would in such manner its effects produce,
Unto its joys, as soon as I had spoken! The greedy poverty of Catalonia That they no longer would be arts, but ruins.
Thus changed, it said to me: “The world Straight would he flee, that it might not molest This cannot be, if the Intelligences
possessed me him; That keep these stars in motion are not maimed,
Short time below; and, if it had been more, For verily ’tis needful to provide, And maimed the First that has not made them
Much evil will be which would not have been. Through him or other, so that on his bark perfect.
My gladness keepeth me concealed from thee, Already freighted no more freight be placed. Wilt thou this truth have clearer made to thee?”
Which rayeth round about me, and doth hide me And I: “Not so; for ’tis impossible
Like as a creature swathed in its own silk. His nature, which from liberal covetous That nature tire, I see, in what is needful.”
Much didst thou love me, and thou hadst good Descended, such a soldiery would need Whence he again: “Now say, would it be worse
reason; As should not care for hoarding in a chest.” For men on earth were they not citizens?”
For had I been below, I should have shown thee “Because I do believe the lofty joy “Yes,” I replied; “and here I ask no reason.”
“And can they be so, if below they live not Paradiso: Canto IX Cunizza was I called, and here I shine
Diversely unto offices diverse? Because the splendour of this star o’ercame me.
No, if your master writeth well for you.” Beautiful Clemence, after that thy Charles But gladly to myself the cause I pardon
So came he with deductions to this point; Had me enlightened, he narrated to me Of my allotment, and it does not grieve me;
Then he concluded: “Therefore it behoves The treacheries his seed should undergo; Which would perhaps seem strong unto your
The roots of your effects to be diverse. But said: “Be still and let the years roll round;” vulgar.
So I can only say, that lamentation Of this so luculent and precious jewel,
Hence one is Solon born, another Xerxes, Legitimate shall follow on your wrongs. Which of our heaven is nearest unto me,
Another Melchisedec, and another he And of that holy light the life already Great fame remained; and ere it die away
Who, flying through the air, his son did lose. Had to the Sun which fills it turned again,
Revolving Nature, which a signet is As to that good which for each thing sufficeth. This hundredth year shall yet quintupled be.
To mortal wax, doth practise well her art, Ah, souls deceived, and creatures impious, See if man ought to make him excellent,
But not one inn distinguish from another; Who from such good do turn away your hearts, So that another life the first may leave!
Thence happens it that Esau differeth Directing upon vanity your foreheads! And thus thinks not the present multitude
In seed from Jacob; and Quirinus comes And now, behold, another of those splendours Shut in by Adige and Tagliamento,
From sire so vile that he is given to Mars. Approached me, and its will to pleasure me Nor yet for being scourged is penitent.
A generated nature its own way It signified by brightening outwardly. But soon ‘twill be that Padua in the marsh
Would always make like its progenitors, The eyes of Beatrice, that fastened were Will change the water that Vicenza bathes,
If Providence divine were not triumphant. Upon me, as before, of dear assent Because the folk are stubborn against duty;
Now that which was behind thee is before thee; To my desire assurance gave to me. And where the Sile and Cagnano join
But that thou know that I with thee am pleased, “Ah, bring swift compensation to my wish, One lordeth it, and goes with lofty head,
With a corollary will I mantle thee. Thou blessed spirit,” I said, “and give me proof For catching whom e’en now the net is making.
Evermore nature, if it fortune find That what I think in thee I can reflect!” Feltro moreover of her impious pastor
Discordant to it, like each other seed Whereat the light, that still was new to me, Shall weep the crime, which shall so monstrous
Out of its region, maketh evil thrift; Out of its depths, whence it before was singing, be
And if the world below would fix its mind As one delighted to do good, continued: That for the like none ever entered Malta.
On the foundation which is laid by nature, “Within that region of the land depraved Ample exceedingly would be the vat
Pursuing that, ’twould have the people good. Of Italy, that lies between Rialto That of the Ferrarese could hold the blood,
But you unto religion wrench aside And fountain-heads of Brenta and of Piava, And weary who should weigh it ounce by ounce,
Him who was born to gird him with the sword, Rises a hill, and mounts not very high, Of which this courteous priest shall make a gift
And make a king of him who is for sermons; Wherefrom descended formerly a torch To show himself a partisan; and such gifts
Therefore your footsteps wander from the road.” That made upon that region great assault. Will to the living of the land conform.
Out of one root were born both I and it;
Above us there are mirrors, Thrones you call With the same sunset and same sunrise nearly Which he acquired with one palm and the other,
them, Sit Buggia and the city whence I was,
From which shines out on us God Judicant, That with its blood once made the harbour hot. Because she favoured the first glorious deed
So that this utterance seems good to us.” Folco that people called me unto whom Of Joshua upon the Holy Land,
Here it was silent, and it had the semblance My name was known; and now with me this That little stirs the memory of the Pope.
Of being turned elsewhither, by the wheel heaven Thy city, which an offshoot is of him
On which it entered as it was before. Imprints itself, as I did once with it; Who first upon his Maker turned his back,
The other joy, already known to me, For more the daughter of Belus never burned, And whose ambition is so sorely wept,
Became a thing transplendent in my sight, Offending both Sichaeus and Creusa, Brings forth and scatters the accursed flower
As a fine ruby smitten by the sun. Than I, so long as it became my locks, Which both the sheep and lambs hath led astray
Through joy effulgence is acquired above, Nor yet that Rodophean, who deluded Since it has turned the shepherd to a wolf.
As here a smile; but down below, the shade was by Demophoon, nor yet Alcides, For this the Evangel and the mighty Doctors
Outwardly darkens, as the mind is sad. When Iole he in his heart had locked. Are derelict, and only the Decretals
“God seeth all things, and in Him, blest spirit, Yet here is no repenting, but we smile, So studied that it shows upon their margins.
Thy sight is,” said I, “so that never will Not at the fault, which comes not back to mind, On this are Pope and Cardinals intent;
Of his can possibly from thee be hidden; But at the power which ordered and foresaw. Their meditations reach not Nazareth,
Thy voice, then, that for ever makes the heavens Here we behold the art that doth adorn There where his pinions Gabriel unfolded;
Glad, with the singing of those holy fires With such affection, and the good discover But Vatican and the other parts elect
Which of their six wings make themselves a Whereby the world above turns that below. Of Rome, which have a cemetery been
cowl, But that thou wholly satisfied mayst bear Unto the soldiery that followed Peter
Wherefore does it not satisfy my longings? Thy wishes hence which in this sphere are born, Shall soon be free from this adultery.”
Indeed, I would not wait thy questioning Still farther to proceed behoveth me.
If I in thee were as thou art in me.” Thou fain wouldst know who is within this light Paradiso: Canto X
That here beside me thus is scintillating,
“The greatest of the valleys where the water Even as a sunbeam in the limpid water. Looking into his Son with all the Love
Expands itself,” forthwith its words began, Then know thou, that within there is at rest Which each of them eternally breathes forth,
“That sea excepted which the earth engarlands, Rahab, and being to our order joined, The Primal and unutterable Power
Between discordant shores against the sun With her in its supremest grade ’tis sealed. Whate’er before the mind or eye revolves
Extends so far, that it meridian makes Into this heaven, where ends the shadowy cone With so much order made, there can be none
Where it was wont before to make the horizon. Cast by your world, before all other souls Who this beholds without enjoying Him.
I was a dweller on that valley’s shore First of Christ’s triumph was she taken up. Lift up then, Reader, to the lofty wheels
‘Twixt Ebro and Magra that with journey short Full meet it was to leave her in some heaven, With me thy vision straight unto that part
Doth from the Tuscan part the Genoese. Even as a palm of the high victory Where the one motion on the other strikes,
And there begin to contemplate with joy Apparent not by colour but by light, Who takes not wings that he may fly up thither,
That Master’s art, who in himself so loves it I, though I call on genius, art, and practice, The tidings thence may from the dumb await!
That never doth his eye depart therefrom. Cannot so tell that it could be imagined; As soon as singing thus those burning suns
Behold how from that point goes branching off Believe one can, and let him long to see it. Had round about us whirled themselves three
The oblique circle, which conveys the planets, And if our fantasies too lowly are times,
To satisfy the world that calls upon them; For altitude so great, it is no marvel, Like unto stars neighbouring the steadfast poles,
And if their pathway were not thus inflected, Since o’er the sun was never eye could go. Ladies they seemed, not from the dance released,
Much virtue in the heavens would be in vain, Such in this place was the fourth family But who stop short, in silence listening
And almost every power below here dead. Of the high Father, who forever sates it, Till they have gathered the new melody.
Showing how he breathes forth and how begets. And within one I heard beginning: “When
If from the straight line distant more or less And Beatrice began: “Give thanks, give thanks The radiance of grace, by which is kindled
Were the departure, much would wanting be Unto the Sun of Angels, who to this True love, and which thereafter grows by loving,
Above and underneath of mundane order. Sensible one has raised thee by his grace!” Within thee multiplied is so resplendent
Remain now, Reader, still upon thy bench, Never was heart of mortal so disposed That it conducts thee upward by that stair,
In thought pursuing that which is foretasted, To worship, nor to give itself to God Where without reascending none descends,
If thou wouldst jocund be instead of weary. With all its gratitude was it so ready, Who should deny the wine out of his vial
I’ve set before thee; henceforth feed thyself, As at those words did I myself become; Unto thy thirst, in liberty were not
For to itself diverteth all my care And all my love was so absorbed in Him, Except as water which descends not seaward.
That theme whereof I have been made the scribe. That in oblivion Beatrice was eclipsed. Fain wouldst thou know with what plants is
The greatest of the ministers of nature, enflowered
Who with the power of heaven the world imprints Nor this displeased her; but she smiled at it This garland that encircles with delight
And measures with his light the time for us, So that the splendour of her laughing eyes The Lady fair who makes thee strong for heaven.
With that part which above is called to mind My single mind on many things divided. Of the lambs was I of the holy flock
Conjoined, along the spirals was revolving, Lights many saw I, vivid and triumphant, Which Dominic conducteth by a road
Where each time earlier he presents himself; Make us a centre and themselves a circle, Where well one fattens if he strayeth not.
And I was with him; but of the ascending More sweet in voice than luminous in aspect. He who is nearest to me on the right
I was not conscious, saving as a man Thus girt about the daughter of Latona My brother and master was; and he Albertus
Of a first thought is conscious ere it come; We sometimes see, when pregnant is the air, Is of Cologne, I Thomas of Aquinum.
And Beatrice, she who is seen to pass So that it holds the thread which makes her zone. If thou of all the others wouldst be certain,
From good to better, and so suddenly Within the court of Heaven, whence I return, Follow behind my speaking with thy sight
That not by time her action is expressed, Are many jewels found, so fair and precious Upward along the blessed garland turning.
How lucent in herself must she have been! They cannot be transported from the realm;
And what was in the sun, wherein I entered, And of them was the singing of those lights. That next effulgence issues from the smile
Of Gratian, who assisted both the courts Who, reading lectures in the Street of Straw, Had spoken unto me, I heard begin
In such wise that it pleased in Paradise. Did syllogize invidious verities.” Smiling while it more luminous became:
The other which near by adorns our choir Then, as a horologe that calleth us
That Peter was who, e’en as the poor widow, What time the Bride of God is rising up “Even as I am kindled in its ray,
Offered his treasure unto Holy Church. With matins to her Spouse that he may love her, So, looking into the Eternal Light,
The fifth light, that among us is the fairest, Wherein one part the other draws and urges, The occasion of thy thoughts I apprehend.
Breathes forth from such a love, that all the world Ting! ting! resounding with so sweet a note, Thou doubtest, and wouldst have me to resift
Below is greedy to learn tidings of it. That swells with love the spirit well disposed, In language so extended and so open
Within it is the lofty mind, where knowledge My speech, that to thy sense it may be plain,
So deep was put, that, if the true be true, Thus I beheld the glorious wheel move round, Where just before I said, ‘where well one
To see so much there never rose a second. And render voice to voice, in modulation fattens,’
Thou seest next the lustre of that taper, And sweetness that can not be comprehended, And where I said, ‘there never rose a second;’
Which in the flesh below looked most within Excepting there where joy is made eternal. And here ’tis needful we distinguish well.
The angelic nature and its ministry. The Providence, which governeth the world
Within that other little light is smiling Paradiso: Canto XI With counsel, wherein all created vision
The advocate of the Christian centuries, Is vanquished ere it reach unto the bottom,
Out of whose rhetoric Augustine was furnished. O Thou insensate care of mortal men, (So that towards her own Beloved might go
Now if thou trainest thy mind’s eye along How inconclusive are the syllogisms The bride of Him who, uttering a loud cry,
From light to light pursuant of my praise, That make thee beat thy wings in downward Espoused her with his consecrated blood,
With thirst already of the eighth thou waitest. flight! Self-confident and unto Him more faithful,)
By seeing every good therein exults One after laws and one to aphorisms Two Princes did ordain in her behoof,
The sainted soul, which the fallacious world Was going, and one following the priesthood, Which on this side and that might be her guide.
Makes manifest to him who listeneth well; And one to reign by force or sophistry, The one was all seraphical in ardour;
The body whence ’twas hunted forth is lying And one in theft, and one in state affairs, The other by his wisdom upon earth
Down in Cieldauro, and from martyrdom One in the pleasures of the flesh involved A splendour was of light cherubical.
And banishment it came unto this peace. Wearied himself, one gave himself to ease; One will I speak of, for of both is spoken
See farther onward flame the burning breath When I, from all these things emancipate, In praising one, whichever may be taken,
Of Isidore, of Beda, and of Richard With Beatrice above there in the Heavens Because unto one end their labours were.
Who was in contemplation more than man. With such exceeding glory was received! Between Tupino and the stream that falls
This, whence to me returneth thy regard, When each one had returned unto that point Down from the hill elect of blessed Ubald,
The light is of a spirit unto whom Within the circle where it was before, A fertile slope of lofty mountain hangs,
In his grave meditations death seemed slow. It stood as in a candlestick a candle; From which Perugia feels the cold and heat
It is the light eternal of Sigier, And from within the effulgence which at first Through Porta Sole, and behind it weep
Gualdo and Nocera their grievous yoke. First bared his feet, and after so great peace Unto his friars, as to the rightful heirs,
From out that slope, there where it breaketh most Ran, and, in running, thought himself too slow. His most dear Lady did he recommend,
Its steepness, rose upon the world a sun O wealth unknown! O veritable good! And bade that they should love her faithfully;
As this one does sometimes from out the Ganges; Giles bares his feet, and bares his feet Sylvester And from her bosom the illustrious soul
Therefore let him who speaketh of that place, Behind the bridegroom, so doth please the bride! Wished to depart, returning to its realm,
Say not Ascesi, for he would say little, Then goes his way that father and that master, And for its body wished no other bier.
But Orient, if he properly would speak. He and his Lady and that family Think now what man was he, who was a fit
He was not yet far distant from his rising Which now was girding on the humble cord; Companion over the high seas to keep
Before he had begun to make the earth Nor cowardice of heart weighed down his brow The bark of Peter to its proper bearings.
Some comfort from his mighty virtue feel. At being son of Peter Bernardone, And this man was our Patriarch; hence whoever
For he in youth his father’s wrath incurred Nor for appearing marvellously scorned; Doth follow him as he commands can see
For certain Dame, to whom, as unto death, But regally his hard determination That he is laden with good merchandise.
The gate of pleasure no one doth unlock; To Innocent he opened, and from him But for new pasturage his flock has grown
Received the primal seal upon his Order. So greedy, that it is impossible
And was before his spiritual court After the people mendicant increased They be not scattered over fields diverse;
‘Et coram patre’ unto her united; Behind this man, whose admirable life And in proportion as his sheep remote
Then day by day more fervently he loved her. Better in glory of the heavens were sung, And vagabond go farther off from him,
She, reft of her first husband, scorned, obscure, Incoronated with a second crown More void of milk return they to the fold.
One thousand and one hundred years and more, Was through Honorius by the Eternal Spirit Verily some there are that fear a hurt,
Waited without a suitor till he came. The holy purpose of this Archimandrite. And keep close to the shepherd; but so few,
Naught it availed to hear, that with Amyclas And when he had, through thirst of martyrdom, That little cloth doth furnish forth their hoods.
Found her unmoved at sounding of his voice In the proud presence of the Sultan preached Now if my utterance be not indistinct,
He who struck terror into all the world; Christ and the others who came after him, If thine own hearing hath attentive been,
Naught it availed being constant and undaunted, If thou recall to mind what I have said,
So that, when Mary still remained below, And, finding for conversion too unripe In part contented shall thy wishes be;
She mounted up with Christ upon the cross. The folk, and not to tarry there in vain, For thou shalt see the plant that’s chipped away,
But that too darkly I may not proceed, Returned to fruit of the Italic grass, And the rebuke that lieth in the words,
Francis and Poverty for these two lovers On the rude rock ‘twixt Tiber and the Arno ‘Where well one fattens, if he strayeth not.’”
Take thou henceforward in my speech diffuse. From Christ did he receive the final seal,
Their concord and their joyous semblances, Which during two whole years his members bore. Paradiso: Canto XII
The love, the wonder, and the sweet regard, When He, who chose him unto so much good,
They made to be the cause of holy thoughts; Was pleased to draw him up to the reward Soon as the blessed flame had taken up
So much so that the venerable Bernard That he had merited by being lowly, The final word to give it utterance,
Began the holy millstone to revolve, That, as they were united in their warfare, Saw in a dream the admirable fruit
And in its gyre had not turned wholly round, Together likewise may their glory shine. That issue would from him and from his heirs;
Before another in a ring enclosed it, The soldiery of Christ, which it had cost And that he might be construed as he was,
And motion joined to motion, song to song; So dear to arm again, behind the standard A spirit from this place went forth to name him
Song that as greatly doth transcend our Muses, Moved slow and doubtful and in numbers few, With His possessive whose he wholly was.
Our Sirens, in those dulcet clarions, Dominic was he called; and him I speak of
As primal splendour that which is reflected. When the Emperor who reigneth evermore Even as of the husbandman whom Christ
And as are spanned athwart a tender cloud Provided for the host that was in peril, Elected to his garden to assist him.
Two rainbows parallel and like in colour, Through grace alone and not that it was worthy; Envoy and servant sooth he seemed of Christ,
When Juno to her handmaid gives command, And, as was said, he to his Bride brought succour For the first love made manifest in him
(The one without born of the one within, With champions twain, at whose deed, at whose Was the first counsel that was given by Christ.
Like to the speaking of that vagrant one word Silent and wakeful many a time was he
Whom love consumed as doth the sun the The straggling people were together drawn. Discovered by his nurse upon the ground,
vapours,) Within that region where the sweet west wind As if he would have said, ‘For this I came.’
And make the people here, through covenant Rises to open the new leaves, wherewith O thou his father, Felix verily!
God set with Noah, presageful of the world Europe is seen to clothe herself afresh, O thou his mother, verily Joanna,
That shall no more be covered with a flood, Not far off from the beating of the waves, If this, interpreted, means as is said!
In such wise of those sempiternal roses Behind which in his long career the sun
The garlands twain encompassed us about, Sometimes conceals himself from every man, Not for the world which people toil for now
And thus the outer to the inner answered. Is situate the fortunate Calahorra, In following Ostiense and Taddeo,
After the dance, and other grand rejoicings, Under protection of the mighty shield But through his longing after the true manna,
Both of the singing, and the flaming forth In which the Lion subject is and sovereign. He in short time became so great a teacher,
Effulgence with effulgence blithe and tender, Therein was born the amorous paramour That he began to go about the vineyard,
Together, at once, with one accord had stopped, Of Christian Faith, the athlete consecrate, Which fadeth soon, if faithless be the dresser;
(Even as the eyes, that, as volition moves them, Kind to his own and cruel to his foes; And of the See, (that once was more benignant
Must needs together shut and lift themselves,) And when it was created was his mind Unto the righteous poor, not through itself,
Out of the heart of one of the new lights Replete with such a living energy, But him who sits there and degenerates,)
There came a voice, that needle to the star That in his mother her it made prophetic. Not to dispense or two or three for six,
Made me appear in turning thitherward. As soon as the espousals were complete Not any fortune of first vacancy,
And it began: “The love that makes me fair Between him and the Faith at holy font, ‘Non decimas quae sunt pauperum Dei,’
Draws me to speak about the other leader, Where they with mutual safety dowered each He asked for, but against the errant world
By whom so well is spoken here of mine. other, Permission to do battle for the seed,
’Tis right, where one is, to bring in the other, The woman, who for him had given assent,
Of which these four and twenty plants surround That one avoids it, and the other narrows. That in the point beginneth of the axis
thee. Bonaventura of Bagnoregio’s life Round about which the primal wheel revolves,—
Then with the doctrine and the will together, Am I, who always in great offices To have fashioned of themselves two signs in
With office apostolical he moved, Postponed considerations sinister. heaven,
Like torrent which some lofty vein out-presses; Here are Illuminato and Agostino, Like unto that which Minos’ daughter made,
And in among the shoots heretical Who of the first barefooted beggars were The moment when she felt the frost of death;
His impetus with greater fury smote, That with the cord the friends of God became. And one to have its rays within the other,
Wherever the resistance was the greatest. Hugh of Saint Victor is among them here, And both to whirl themselves in such a manner
Of him were made thereafter divers runnels, And Peter Mangiador, and Peter of Spain, That one should forward go, the other backward;
Whereby the garden catholic is watered, Who down below in volumes twelve is shining; And he will have some shadowing forth of that
So that more living its plantations stand. Nathan the seer, and metropolitan True constellation and the double dance
If such the one wheel of the Biga was, Chrysostom, and Anselmus, and Donatus That circled round the point at which I was;
In which the Holy Church itself defended Who deigned to lay his hand to the first art; Because it is as much beyond our wont,
And in the field its civic battle won, Here is Rabanus, and beside me here As swifter than the motion of the Chiana
Truly full manifest should be to thee Shines the Calabrian Abbot Joachim, Moveth the heaven that all the rest outspeeds.
The excellence of the other, unto whom He with the spirit of prophecy endowed. There sang they neither Bacchus, nor Apollo,
Thomas so courteous was before my coming. To celebrate so great a paladin But in the divine nature Persons three,
But still the orbit, which the highest part Have moved me the impassioned courtesy And in one person the divine and human.
Of its circumference made, is derelict, And the discreet discourses of Friar Thomas, The singing and the dance fulfilled their measure,
So that the mould is where was once the crust. And with me they have moved this company.” And unto us those holy lights gave need,
His family, that had straight forward moved Growing in happiness from care to care.
With feet upon his footprints, are turned round Paradiso: Canto XIII Then broke the silence of those saints concordant
So that they set the point upon the heel. The light in which the admirable life
And soon aware they will be of the harvest Let him imagine, who would well conceive Of God’s own mendicant was told to me,
Of this bad husbandry, when shall the tares What now I saw, and let him while I speak And said: “Now that one straw is trodden out
Complain the granary is taken from them. Retain the image as a steadfast rock, Now that its seed is garnered up already,
Yet say I, he who searcheth leaf by leaf The fifteen stars, that in their divers regions Sweet love invites me to thresh out the other.
Our volume through, would still some page The sky enliven with a light so great Into that bosom, thou believest, whence
discover That it transcends all clusters of the air; Was drawn the rib to form the beauteous cheek
Where he could read, ‘I am as I am wont.’ Let him the Wain imagine unto which Whose taste to all the world is costing dear,
Our vault of heaven sufficeth night and day,
‘Twill not be from Casal nor Acquasparta, So that in turning of its pole it fails not; And into that which, by the lance transfixed,
From whence come such unto the written word Let him the mouth imagine of the horn Before and since, such satisfaction made
That it weighs down the balance of all sin, The brilliance of the seal would all appear; Thou’lt see that it has reference alone
Whate’er of light it has to human nature But nature gives it evermore deficient, To kings who’re many, and the good are rare.
Been lawful to possess was all infused In the like manner working as the artist, With this distinction take thou what I said,
By the same power that both of them created; Who has the skill of art and hand that trembles. And thus it can consist with thy belief
And hence at what I said above dost wonder, If then the fervent Love, the Vision clear, Of the first father and of our Delight.
When I narrated that no second had Of primal Virtue do dispose and seal, And lead shall this be always to thy feet,
The good which in the fifth light is enclosed. Perfection absolute is there acquired. To make thee, like a weary man, move slowly
Now ope thine eyes to what I answer thee, Both to the Yes and No thou seest not;
And thou shalt see thy creed and my discourse Thus was of old the earth created worthy For very low among the fools is he
Fit in the truth as centre in a circle. Of all and every animal perfection; Who affirms without distinction, or denies,
That which can die, and that which dieth not, And thus the Virgin was impregnate made; As well in one as in the other case;
Are nothing but the splendour of the idea So that thine own opinion I commend, Because it happens that full often bends
Which by his love our Lord brings into being; That human nature never yet has been, Current opinion in the false direction,
Because that living Light, which from its fount Nor will be, what it was in those two persons. And then the feelings bind the intellect.
Effulgent flows, so that it disunites not Now if no farther forth I should proceed, Far more than uselessly he leaves the shore,
From Him nor from the Love in them intrined, ‘Then in what way was he without a peer?’ (Since he returneth not the same he went,)
Through its own goodness reunites its rays Would be the first beginning of thy words. Who fishes for the truth, and has no skill;
In nine subsistences, as in a mirror, But, that may well appear what now appears not,
Itself eternally remaining One. Think who he was, and what occasion moved him And in the world proofs manifest thereof
Thence it descends to the last potencies, To make request, when it was told him, ‘Ask.’ Parmenides, Melissus, Brissus are,
Downward from act to act becoming such I’ve not so spoken that thou canst not see And many who went on and knew not whither;
That only brief contingencies it makes; Clearly he was a king who asked for wisdom, Thus did Sabellius, Arius, and those fools
And these contingencies I hold to be That he might be sufficiently a king; Who have been even as swords unto the
Things generated, which the heaven produces ’Twas not to know the number in which are Scriptures
By its own motion, with seed and without. The motors here above, or if ‘necesse’ In rendering distorted their straight faces.
Neither their wax, nor that which tempers it, With a contingent e’er ‘necesse’ make, Nor yet shall people be too confident
Remains immutable, and hence beneath ‘Non si est dare primum motum esse,’ In judging, even as he is who doth count
The ideal signet more and less shines through; Or if in semicircle can be made The corn in field or ever it be ripe.
Therefore it happens, that the selfsame tree Triangle so that it have no right angle. For I have seen all winter long the thorn
After its kind bears worse and better fruit, Whence, if thou notest this and what I said, First show itself intractable and fierce,
And ye are born with characters diverse. A regal prudence is that peerless seeing And after bear the rose upon its top;
If in perfection tempered were the wax, In which the shaft of my intention strikes. And I have seen a ship direct and swift
And were the heaven in its supremest virtue, And if on ‘rose’ thou turnest thy clear eyes, Run o’er the sea throughout its course entire,
To perish at the harbour’s mouth at last. Whoso lamenteth him that here we die Nor can so great a splendour weary us,
Let not Dame Bertha nor Ser Martin think, That we may live above, has never there For strong will be the organs of the body
Seeing one steal, another offering make, Seen the refreshment of the eternal rain. To everything which hath the power to please
To see them in the arbitrament divine; The One and Two and Three who ever liveth, us.”
For one may rise, and fall the other may.” And reigneth ever in Three and Two and One,
Not circumscribed and all things circumscribing, So sudden and alert appeared to me
Paradiso: Canto XIV Three several times was chanted by each one Both one and the other choir to say Amen,
Among those spirits, with such melody That well they showed desire for their dead
From centre unto rim, from rim to centre, That for all merit it were just reward; bodies;
In a round vase the water moves itself, And, in the lustre most divine of all Nor sole for them perhaps, but for the mothers,
As from without ’tis struck or from within. The lesser ring, I heard a modest voice, The fathers, and the rest who had been dear
Into my mind upon a sudden dropped Such as perhaps the Angel’s was to Mary, Or ever they became eternal flames.
What I am saying, at the moment when Answer: “As long as the festivity And lo! all round about of equal brightness
Silent became the glorious life of Thomas, Of Paradise shall be, so long our love Arose a lustre over what was there,
Because of the resemblance that was born Shall radiate round about us such a vesture. Like an horizon that is clearing up.
Of his discourse and that of Beatrice, Its brightness is proportioned to the ardour, And as at rise of early eve begin
Whom, after him, it pleased thus to begin: The ardour to the vision; and the vision Along the welkin new appearances,
“This man has need (and does not tell you so, Equals what grace it has above its worth. So that the sight seems real and unreal,
Nor with the voice, nor even in his thought) When, glorious and sanctified, our flesh It seemed to me that new subsistences
Of going to the root of one truth more. Is reassumed, then shall our persons be Began there to be seen, and make a circle
Declare unto him if the light wherewith More pleasing by their being all complete; Outside the other two circumferences.
Blossoms your substance shall remain with you For will increase whate’er bestows on us O very sparkling of the Holy Spirit,
Eternally the same that it is now; Of light gratuitous the Good Supreme, How sudden and incandescent it became
And if it do remain, say in what manner, Light which enables us to look on Him; Unto mine eyes, that vanquished bore it not!
After ye are again made visible, Therefore the vision must perforce increase, But Beatrice so beautiful and smiling
It can be that it injure not your sight.” Increase the ardour which from that is kindled, Appeared to me, that with the other sights
Increase the radiance which from this proceeds. That followed not my memory I must leave her.
As by a greater gladness urged and drawn But even as a coal that sends forth flame, Then to uplift themselves mine eyes resumed
They who are dancing in a ring sometimes And by its vivid whiteness overpowers it The power, and I beheld myself translated
Uplift their voices and their motions quicken; So that its own appearance it maintains, To higher salvation with my Lady only.
So, at that orison devout and prompt, Thus the effulgence that surrounds us now Well was I ware that I was more uplifted
The holy circles a new joy displayed Shall be o’erpowered in aspect by the flesh, By the enkindled smiling of the star,
In their revolving and their wondrous song. Which still to-day the earth doth cover up; That seemed to me more ruddy than its wont.
With all my heart, and in that dialect With many strings, a dulcet tinkling make ’Tis well that without end he should lament,
Which is the same in all, such holocaust To him by whom the notes are not distinguished, Who for the love of thing that doth not last
To God I made as the new grace beseemed; So from the lights that there to me appeared Eternally despoils him of that love!
And not yet from my bosom was exhausted Upgathered through the cross a melody, As through the pure and tranquil evening air
The ardour of sacrifice, before I knew Which rapt me, not distinguishing the hymn. There shoots from time to time a sudden fire,
This offering was accepted and auspicious; Well was I ware it was of lofty laud, Moving the eyes that steadfast were before,
For with so great a lustre and so red Because there came to me, “Arise and conquer!” And seems to be a star that changeth place,
Splendours appeared to me in twofold rays, As unto him who hears and comprehends not. Except that in the part where it is kindled
I said: “O Helios who dost so adorn them!” So much enamoured I became therewith, Nothing is missed, and this endureth little;
Even as distinct with less and greater lights That until then there was not anything So from the horn that to the right extends
Glimmers between the two poles of the world That e’er had fettered me with such sweet bonds. Unto that cross’s foot there ran a star
The Galaxy that maketh wise men doubt, Perhaps my word appears somewhat too bold, Out of the constellation shining there;
Thus constellated in the depths of Mars, Postponing the delight of those fair eyes, Nor was the gem dissevered from its ribbon,
Those rays described the venerable sign Into which gazing my desire has rest; But down the radiant fillet ran along,
That quadrants joining in a circle make. But who bethinks him that the living seals So that fire seemed it behind alabaster.
Of every beauty grow in power ascending, Thus piteous did Anchises’ shade reach forward,
Here doth my memory overcome my genius; And that I there had not turned round to those, If any faith our greatest Muse deserve,
For on that cross as levin gleamed forth Christ, Can me excuse, if I myself accuse When in Elysium he his son perceived.
So that I cannot find ensample worthy; To excuse myself, and see that I speak truly: “O sanguis meus, O superinfusa
But he who takes his cross and follows Christ For here the holy joy is not disclosed, Gratia Dei, sicut tibi, cui
Again will pardon me what I omit, Because ascending it becomes more pure. Bis unquam Coeli janua reclusa?”
Seeing in that aurora lighten Christ. Thus that effulgence; whence I gave it heed;
From horn to horn, and ‘twixt the top and base, Paradiso: Canto XV Then round unto my Lady turned my sight,
Lights were in motion, brightly scintillating And on this side and that was stupefied;
As they together met and passed each other; A will benign, in which reveals itself For in her eyes was burning such a smile
Thus level and aslant and swift and slow Ever the love that righteously inspires, That with mine own methought I touched the
We here behold, renewing still the sight, As in the iniquitous, cupidity, bottom
The particles of bodies long and short, Silence imposed upon that dulcet lyre, Both of my grace and of my Paradise!
Across the sunbeam move, wherewith is listed And quieted the consecrated chords, Then, pleasant to the hearing and the sight,
Sometimes the shade, which for their own That Heaven’s right hand doth tighten and relax. The spirit joined to its beginning things
defence How unto just entreaties shall be deaf I understood not, so profound it spake;
People with cunning and with art contrive. Those substances, which, to give me desire
And as a lute and harp, accordant strung Of praying them, with one accord grew silent? Nor did it hide itself from me by choice,
But by necessity; for its conception Before I spake, and smiled to me a sign, That caught the eye more than the person did.
Above the mark of mortals set itself. That made the wings of my desire increase; Not yet the daughter at her birth struck fear
And when the bow of burning sympathy Then in this wise began I: “Love and knowledge, Into the father, for the time and dower
Was so far slackened, that its speech descended When on you dawned the first Equality, Did not o’errun this side or that the measure.
Towards the mark of our intelligence, Of the same weight for each of you became; No houses had she void of families,
The first thing that was understood by me For in the Sun, which lighted you and burned Not yet had thither come Sardanapalus
Was “Benedight be Thou, O Trine and One, With heat and radiance, they so equal are, To show what in a chamber can be done;
Who hast unto my seed so courteous been!” That all similitudes are insufficient. Not yet surpassed had Montemalo been
And it continued: “Hunger long and grateful, But among mortals will and argument, By your Uccellatojo, which surpassed
Drawn from the reading of the mighty volume For reason that to you is manifest, Shall in its downfall be as in its rise.
Wherein is never changed the white nor dark, Diversely feathered in their pinions are. Bellincion Berti saw I go begirt
Thou hast appeased, my son, within this light With leather and with bone, and from the mirror
In which I speak to thee, by grace of her Whence I, who mortal am, feel in myself His dame depart without a painted face;
Who to this lofty flight with plumage clothed This inequality; so give not thanks, And him of Nerli saw, and him of Vecchio,
thee. Save in my heart, for this paternal welcome. Contented with their simple suits of buff
Thou thinkest that to me thy thought doth pass Truly do I entreat thee, living topaz! And with the spindle and the flax their dames.
From Him who is the first, as from the unit, Set in this precious jewel as a gem, O fortunate women! and each one was certain
If that be known, ray out the five and six; That thou wilt satisfy me with thy name.” Of her own burial-place, and none as yet
And therefore who I am thou askest not, “O leaf of mine, in whom I pleasure took For sake of France was in her bed deserted.
And why I seem more joyous unto thee E’en while awaiting, I was thine own root!” One o’er the cradle kept her studious watch,
Than any other of this gladsome crowd. Such a beginning he in answer made me. And in her lullaby the language used
Thou think’st the truth; because the small and Then said to me: “That one from whom is named That first delights the fathers and the mothers;
great Thy race, and who a hundred years and more
Of this existence look into the mirror Has circled round the mount on the first cornice, Another, drawing tresses from her distaff,
Wherein, before thou think’st, thy thought thou A son of mine and thy great-grandsire was; Told o’er among her family the tales
showest. Well it behoves thee that the long fatigue Of Trojans and of Fesole and Rome.
But that the sacred love, in which I watch Thou shouldst for him make shorter with thy As great a marvel then would have been held
With sight perpetual, and which makes me thirst works. A Lapo Salterello, a Cianghella,
With sweet desire, may better be fulfilled, Florence, within the ancient boundary As Cincinnatus or Cornelia now.
Now let thy voice secure and frank and glad From which she taketh still her tierce and nones, To such a quiet, such a beautiful
Proclaim the wishes, the desire proclaim, Abode in quiet, temperate and chaste. Life of the citizen, to such a safe
To which my answer is decreed already.” No golden chain she had, nor coronal, Community, and to so sweet an inn,
To Beatrice I turned me, and she heard Nor ladies shod with sandal shoon, nor girdle Did Mary give me, with loud cries invoked,
And in your ancient Baptistery at once And I began: “You are my ancestor, Mars and the Baptist, fit for bearing arms,
Christian and Cacciaguida I became. You give to me all hardihood to speak, Were a fifth part of those who now are living;
Moronto was my brother, and Eliseo; You lift me so that I am more than I. But the community, that now is mixed
From Val di Pado came to me my wife, So many rivulets with gladness fill With Campi and Certaldo and Figghine,
And from that place thy surname was derived. My mind, that of itself it makes a joy Pure in the lowest artisan was seen.
I followed afterward the Emperor Conrad, Because it can endure this and not burst. O how much better ‘twere to have as neighbours
And he begirt me of his chivalry, Then tell me, my beloved root ancestral, The folk of whom I speak, and at Galluzzo
So much I pleased him with my noble deeds. Who were your ancestors, and what the years And at Trespiano have your boundary,
I followed in his train against that law’s That in your boyhood chronicled themselves? Than have them in the town, and bear the stench
Iniquity, whose people doth usurp Tell me about the sheepfold of Saint John, Of Aguglione’s churl, and him of Signa
Your just possession, through your Pastor’s fault. How large it was, and who the people were Who has sharp eyes for trickery already.
There by that execrable race was I Within it worthy of the highest seats.” Had not the folk, which most of all the world
Released from bonds of the fallacious world, As at the blowing of the winds a coal Degenerates, been a step-dame unto Caesar,
The love of which defileth many souls, Quickens to flame, so I beheld that light But as a mother to her son benignant,
And came from martyrdom unto this peace.” Become resplendent at my blandishments. Some who turn Florentines, and trade and
And as unto mine eyes it grew more fair, discount,
Paradiso: Canto XVI With voice more sweet and tender, but not in Would have gone back again to Simifonte
This modern dialect, it said to me: There where their grandsires went about as
O thou our poor nobility of blood, “From uttering of the ‘Ave,’ till the birth beggars.
If thou dost make the people glory in thee In which my mother, who is now a saint, At Montemurlo still would be the Counts,
Down here where our affection languishes, Of me was lightened who had been her burden, The Cerchi in the parish of Acone,
A marvellous thing it ne’er will be to me; Unto its Lion had this fire returned Perhaps in Valdigrieve the Buondelmonti.
For there where appetite is not perverted, Five hundred fifty times and thirty more, Ever the intermingling of the people
I say in Heaven, of thee I made a boast! To reinflame itself beneath his paw. Has been the source of malady in cities,
Truly thou art a cloak that quickly shortens, As in the body food it surfeits on;
So that unless we piece thee day by day My ancestors and I our birthplace had And a blind bull more headlong plunges down
Time goeth round about thee with his shears! Where first is found the last ward of the city Than a blind lamb; and very often cuts
With ‘You,’ which Rome was first to tolerate, By him who runneth in your annual game. Better and more a single sword than five.
(Wherein her family less perseveres,) Suffice it of my elders to hear this; If Luni thou regard, and Urbisaglia,
Yet once again my words beginning made; But who they were, and whence they thither How they have passed away, and how are passing
Whence Beatrice, who stood somewhat apart, came, Chiusi and Sinigaglia after them,
Smiling, appeared like unto her who coughed Silence is more considerate than speech. To hear how races waste themselves away,
At the first failing writ of Guenever. All those who at that time were there between Will seem to thee no novel thing nor hard,
Seeing that even cities have an end. By their own pride! and how the Balls of Gold Thou fled’st the bridal at another’s promptings!
All things of yours have their mortality, Florence enflowered in all their mighty deeds! Many would be rejoicing who are sad,
Even as yourselves; but it is hidden in some So likewise did the ancestors of those If God had thee surrendered to the Ema
That a long while endure, and lives are short; Who evermore, when vacant is your church, The first time that thou camest to the city.
Fatten by staying in consistory. But it behoved the mutilated stone
And as the turning of the lunar heaven The insolent race, that like a dragon follows Which guards the bridge, that Florence should
Covers and bares the shores without a pause, Whoever flees, and unto him that shows provide
In the like manner fortune does with Florence. His teeth or purse is gentle as a lamb, A victim in her latest hour of peace.
Therefore should not appear a marvellous thing Already rising was, but from low people; With all these families, and others with them,
What I shall say of the great Florentines So that it pleased not Ubertin Donato Florence beheld I in so great repose,
Of whom the fame is hidden in the Past. That his wife’s father should make him their kin. That no occasion had she whence to weep;
I saw the Ughi, saw the Catellini, Already had Caponsacco to the Market With all these families beheld so just
Filippi, Greci, Ormanni, and Alberichi, From Fesole descended, and already And glorious her people, that the lily
Even in their fall illustrious citizens; Giuda and Infangato were good burghers. Never upon the spear was placed reversed,
And saw, as mighty as they ancient were, Nor by division was vermilion made.”
With him of La Sannella him of Arca, I’ll tell a thing incredible, but true;
And Soldanier, Ardinghi, and Bostichi. One entered the small circuit by a gate Paradiso: Canto XVII
Near to the gate that is at present laden Which from the Della Pera took its name!
With a new felony of so much weight Each one that bears the beautiful escutcheon As came to Clymene, to be made certain
That soon it shall be jetsam from the bark, Of the great baron whose renown and name Of that which he had heard against himself,
The Ravignani were, from whom descended The festival of Thomas keepeth fresh, He who makes fathers chary still to children,
The County Guido, and whoe’er the name Knighthood and privilege from him received; Even such was I, and such was I perceived
Of the great Bellincione since hath taken. Though with the populace unites himself By Beatrice and by the holy light
He of La Pressa knew the art of ruling To-day the man who binds it with a border. That first on my account had changed its place.
Already, and already Galigajo Already were Gualterotti and Importuni; Therefore my Lady said to me: “Send forth
Had hilt and pommel gilded in his house. And still more quiet would the Borgo be The flame of thy desire, so that it issue
Mighty already was the Column Vair, If with new neighbours it remained unfed. Imprinted well with the internal stamp;
Sacchetti, Giuochi, Fifant, and Barucci, The house from which is born your lamentation, Not that our knowledge may be greater made
And Galli, and they who for the bushel blush. Through just disdain that death among you By speech of thine, but to accustom thee
The stock from which were the Calfucci born brought To tell thy thirst, that we may give thee drink.”
Was great already, and already chosen And put an end unto your joyous life, “O my beloved tree, (that so dost lift thee,
To curule chairs the Sizii and Arrigucci. Was honoured in itself and its companions. That even as minds terrestrial perceive
O how beheld I those who are undone O Buondelmonte, how in evil hour No triangle containeth two obtuse,
So thou beholdest the contingent things So thou from Florence must perforce depart. Not yet the people are aware of him
Ere in themselves they are, fixing thine eyes Already this is willed, and this is sought for; Through his young age, since only nine years yet
Upon the point in which all times are present,) And soon it shall be done by him who thinks it, Around about him have these wheels revolved.
While I was with Virgilius conjoined Where every day the Christ is bought and sold.
Upon the mountain that the souls doth heal, The blame shall follow the offended party But ere the Gascon cheat the noble Henry,
And when descending into the dead world, In outcry as is usual; but the vengeance Some sparkles of his virtue shall appear
Were spoken to me of my future life Shall witness to the truth that doth dispense it. In caring not for silver nor for toil.
Some grievous words; although I feel myself Thou shalt abandon everything beloved So recognized shall his magnificence
In sooth foursquare against the blows of chance. Most tenderly, and this the arrow is Become hereafter, that his enemies
On this account my wish would be content Which first the bow of banishment shoots forth. Will not have power to keep mute tongues about
To hear what fortune is approaching me, Thou shalt have proof how savoureth of salt it.
Because foreseen an arrow comes more slowly.” The bread of others, and how hard a road On him rely, and on his benefits;
Thus did I say unto that selfsame light The going down and up another’s stairs. By him shall many people be transformed,
That unto me had spoken before; and even And that which most shall weigh upon thy Changing condition rich and mendicant;
As Beatrice willed was my own will confessed. shoulders And written in thy mind thou hence shalt bear
Not in vague phrase, in which the foolish folk Will be the bad and foolish company Of him, but shalt not say it”—and things said he
Ensnared themselves of old, ere yet was slain With which into this valley thou shalt fall; Incredible to those who shall be present.
The Lamb of God who taketh sins away, For all ingrate, all mad and impious Then added: “Son, these are the commentaries
But with clear words and unambiguous Will they become against thee; but soon after On what was said to thee; behold the snares
Language responded that paternal love, They, and not thou, shall have the forehead That are concealed behind few revolutions;
Hid and revealed by its own proper smile: scarlet. Yet would I not thy neighbours thou shouldst
“Contingency, that outside of the volume Of their bestiality their own proceedings envy,
Of your materiality extends not, Shall furnish proof; so ‘twill be well for thee Because thy life into the future reaches
Is all depicted in the eternal aspect. A party to have made thee by thyself. Beyond the punishment of their perfidies.”
Thine earliest refuge and thine earliest inn When by its silence showed that sainted soul
Necessity however thence it takes not, Shall be the mighty Lombard’s courtesy, That it had finished putting in the woof
Except as from the eye, in which ’tis mirrored, Who on the Ladder bears the holy bird, Into that web which I had given it warped,
A ship that with the current down descends. Who such benign regard shall have for thee Began I, even as he who yearneth after,
From thence, e’en as there cometh to the ear That ‘twixt you twain, in doing and in asking, Being in doubt, some counsel from a person
Sweet harmony from an organ, comes in sight That shall be first which is with others last. Who seeth, and uprightly wills, and loves:
To me the time that is preparing for thee. With him shalt thou see one who at his birth “Well see I, father mine, how spurreth on
As forth from Athens went Hippolytus, Has by this star of strength been so impressed, The time towards me such a blow to deal me
By reason of his step-dame false and cruel, That notable shall his achievements be. As heaviest is to him who most gives way.
Therefore with foresight it is well I arm me, Nor doth confirm its faith by an example The wish of speaking to me somewhat farther.
That, if the dearest place be taken from me, Which has the root of it unknown and hidden, And it began: “In this fifth resting-place
I may not lose the others by my songs. Or other reason that is not apparent.” Upon the tree that liveth by its summit,
Down through the world of infinite bitterness, And aye bears fruit, and never loses leaf,
And o’er the mountain, from whose beauteous Paradiso: Canto XVIII Are blessed spirits that below, ere yet
summit They came to Heaven, were of such great renown
The eyes of my own Lady lifted me, Now was alone rejoicing in its word That every Muse therewith would affluent be.
And afterward through heaven from light to light, That soul beatified, and I was tasting Therefore look thou upon the cross’s horns;
I have learned that which, if I tell again, My own, the bitter tempering with the sweet, He whom I now shall name will there enact
Will be a savour of strong herbs to many. And the Lady who to God was leading me What doth within a cloud its own swift fire.”
And if I am a timid friend to truth, Said: “Change thy thought; consider that I am I saw athwart the Cross a splendour drawn
I fear lest I may lose my life with those Near unto Him who every wrong disburdens.” By naming Joshua, (even as he did it,)
Who will hereafter call this time the olden.” Unto the loving accents of my comfort Nor noted I the word before the deed;
The light in which was smiling my own treasure I turned me round, and then what love I saw And at the name of the great Maccabee
Which there I had discovered, flashed at first Within those holy eyes I here relinquish; I saw another move itself revolving,
As in the sunshine doth a golden mirror; Not only that my language I distrust, And gladness was the whip unto that top.
But that my mind cannot return so far Likewise for Charlemagne and for Orlando,
Then made reply: “A conscience overcast Above itself, unless another guide it. Two of them my regard attentive followed
Or with its own or with another’s shame, Thus much upon that point can I repeat, As followeth the eye its falcon flying.
Will taste forsooth the tartness of thy word; That, her again beholding, my affection William thereafterward, and Renouard,
But ne’ertheless, all falsehood laid aside, From every other longing was released. And the Duke Godfrey, did attract my sight
Make manifest thy vision utterly, While the eternal pleasure, which direct Along upon that Cross, and Robert Guiscard.
And let them scratch wherever is the itch; Rayed upon Beatrice, from her fair face Then, moved and mingled with the other lights,
For if thine utterance shall offensive be Contented me with its reflected aspect, The soul that had addressed me showed how
At the first taste, a vital nutriment great
‘Twill leave thereafter, when it is digested. Conquering me with the radiance of a smile, An artist ’twas among the heavenly singers.
This cry of thine shall do as doth the wind, She said to me, “Turn thee about and listen; To my right side I turned myself around,
Which smiteth most the most exalted summits, Not in mine eyes alone is Paradise.” My duty to behold in Beatrice
And that is no slight argument of honour. Even as sometimes here do we behold Either by words or gesture signified;
Therefore are shown to thee within these wheels, The affection in the look, if it be such And so translucent I beheld her eyes,
Upon the mount and in the dolorous valley, That all the soul is wrapt away by it, So full of pleasure, that her countenance
Only the souls that unto fame are known; So, by the flaming of the effulgence holy Surpassed its other and its latest wont.
Because the spirit of the hearer rests not, To which I turned, I recognized therein And as, by feeling greater delectation,
A man in doing good from day to day Themselves then they displayed in five times Effect is of that heaven which thou ingemmest!
Becomes aware his virtue is increasing, seven Wherefore I pray the Mind, in which begin
Vowels and consonants; and I observed Thy motion and thy virtue, to regard
So I became aware that my gyration The parts as they seemed spoken unto me. Whence comes the smoke that vitiates thy rays;
With heaven together had increased its arc, ‘Diligite justitiam,’ these were So that a second time it now be wroth
That miracle beholding more adorned. First verb and noun of all that was depicted; With buying and with selling in the temple
And such as is the change, in little lapse ‘Qui judicatis terram’ were the last. Whose walls were built with signs and
Of time, in a pale woman, when her face Thereafter in the M of the fifth word martyrdoms!
Is from the load of bashfulness unladen, Remained they so arranged, that Jupiter O soldiery of heaven, whom I contemplate,
Such was it in mine eyes, when I had turned, Seemed to be silver there with gold inlaid. Implore for those who are upon the earth
Caused by the whiteness of the temperate star, And other lights I saw descend where was All gone astray after the bad example!
The sixth, which to itself had gathered me. The summit of the M, and pause there singing Once ’twas the custom to make war with swords;
Within that Jovial torch did I behold The good, I think, that draws them to itself. But now ’tis made by taking here and there
The sparkling of the love which was therein Then, as in striking upon burning logs The bread the pitying Father shuts from none.
Delineate our language to mine eyes. Upward there fly innumerable sparks, Yet thou, who writest but to cancel, think
And even as birds uprisen from the shore, Whence fools are wont to look for auguries, That Peter and that Paul, who for this vineyard
As in congratulation o’er their food, Which thou art spoiling died, are still alive!
Make squadrons of themselves, now round, now More than a thousand lights seemed thence to Well canst thou say: “So steadfast my desire
long, rise, Is unto him who willed to live alone,
So from within those lights the holy creatures And to ascend, some more, and others less, And for a dance was led to martyrdom,
Sang flying to and fro, and in their figures Even as the Sun that lights them had allotted; That I know not the Fisherman nor Paul.”
Made of themselves now D, now I, now L. And, each one being quiet in its place,
First singing they to their own music moved; The head and neck beheld I of an eagle Paradiso: Canto XIX
Then one becoming of these characters, Delineated by that inlaid fire.
A little while they rested and were silent. He who there paints has none to be his guide; Appeared before me with its wings outspread
O divine Pegasea, thou who genius But Himself guides; and is from Him The beautiful image that in sweet fruition
Dost glorious make, and render it long-lived, remembered Made jubilant the interwoven souls;
And this through thee the cities and the That virtue which is form unto the nest. Appeared a little ruby each, wherein
kingdoms, The other beatitude, that contented seemed Ray of the sun was burning so enkindled
Illume me with thyself, that I may bring At first to bloom a lily on the M, That each into mine eyes refracted it.
Their figures out as I have them conceived! By a slight motion followed out the imprint. And what it now behoves me to retrace
Apparent be thy power in these brief verses! O gentle star! what and how many gems Nor voice has e’er reported, nor ink written,
Did demonstrate to me, that all our justice Nor was by fantasy e’er comprehended;
For speak I saw, and likewise heard, the beak, On the world’s outer verge, and who within it Are good, so far as human reason sees,
And utter with its voice both ‘I’ and ‘My,’ Devised so much occult and manifest, Without a sin in life or in discourse:
When in conception it was ‘We’ and ‘Our.’ Could not the impress of his power so make He dieth unbaptised and without faith;
And it began: “Being just and merciful On all the universe, as that his Word Where is this justice that condemneth him?
Am I exalted here unto that glory Should not remain in infinite excess. Where is his fault, if he do not believe?’
Which cannot be exceeded by desire; And this makes certain that the first proud being, Now who art thou, that on the bench wouldst sit
And upon earth I left my memory Who was the paragon of every creature, In judgment at a thousand miles away,
Such, that the evil-minded people there By not awaiting light fell immature. With the short vision of a single span?
Commend it, but continue not the story.” And hence appears it, that each minor nature
So doth a single heat from many embers Is scant receptacle unto that good Truly to him who with me subtilizes,
Make itself felt, even as from many loves Which has no end, and by itself is measured. If so the Scripture were not over you,
Issued a single sound from out that image. In consequence our vision, which perforce For doubting there were marvellous occasion.
Whence I thereafter: “O perpetual flowers Must be some ray of that intelligence O animals terrene, O stolid minds,
Of the eternal joy, that only one With which all things whatever are replete, The primal will, that in itself is good,
Make me perceive your odours manifold, Cannot in its own nature be so potent, Ne’er from itself, the Good Supreme, has moved.
Exhaling, break within me the great fast That it shall not its origin discern So much is just as is accordant with it;
Which a long season has in hunger held me, Far beyond that which is apparent to it. No good created draws it to itself,
Not finding for it any food on earth. Therefore into the justice sempiternal But it, by raying forth, occasions that.”
Well do I know, that if in heaven its mirror The power of vision that your world receives, Even as above her nest goes circling round
Justice Divine another realm doth make, As eye into the ocean, penetrates; The stork when she has fed her little ones,
Yours apprehends it not through any veil. Which, though it see the bottom near the shore, And he who has been fed looks up at her,
You know how I attentively address me Upon the deep perceives it not, and yet So lifted I my brows, and even such
To listen; and you know what is the doubt ’Tis there, but it is hidden by the depth. Became the blessed image, which its wings
That is in me so very old a fast.” There is no light but comes from the serene Was moving, by so many counsels urged.
Even as a falcon, issuing from his hood, That never is o’ercast, nay, it is darkness Circling around it sang, and said: “As are
Doth move his head, and with his wings applaud Or shadow of the flesh, or else its poison. My notes to thee, who dost not comprehend
him, Amply to thee is opened now the cavern them,
Showing desire, and making himself fine, Which has concealed from thee the living justice Such is the eternal judgment to you mortals.”
Saw I become that standard, which of lauds Of which thou mad’st such frequent questioning. Those lucent splendours of the Holy Spirit
Was interwoven of the grace divine, For saidst thou: ‘Born a man is on the shore Grew quiet then, but still within the standard
With such songs as he knows who there rejoices. Of Indus, and is none who there can speak That made the Romans reverend to the world.
Of Christ, nor who can read, nor who can write; It recommenced: “Unto this kingdom never
Then it began: “He who a compass turned And all his inclinations and his actions Ascended one who had not faith in Christ,
Before or since he to the tree was nailed. Of uncle and of brother who a nation I seemed to hear the murmuring of a river
But look thou, many crying are, ‘Christ, Christ!’ So famous have dishonoured, and two crowns. That clear descendeth down from rock to rock,
Who at the judgment shall be far less near And he of Portugal and he of Norway Showing the affluence of its mountain-top.
To him than some shall be who knew not Christ. Shall there be known, and he of Rascia too, And as the sound upon the cithern’s neck
Such Christians shall the Ethiop condemn, Who saw in evil hour the coin of Venice. Taketh its form, and as upon the vent
When the two companies shall be divided, O happy Hungary, if she let herself Of rustic pipe the wind that enters it,
The one for ever rich, the other poor. Be wronged no farther! and Navarre the happy, Even thus, relieved from the delay of waiting,
What to your kings may not the Persians say, If with the hills that gird her she be armed! That murmuring of the eagle mounted up
When they that volume opened shall behold And each one may believe that now, as hansel Along its neck, as if it had been hollow.
In which are written down all their dispraises? Thereof, do Nicosia and Famagosta There it became a voice, and issued thence
There shall be seen, among the deeds of Albert, Lament and rage because of their own beast, From out its beak, in such a form of words
That which ere long shall set the pen in motion, Who from the others’ flank departeth not.” As the heart waited for wherein I wrote them.
For which the realm of Prague shall be deserted. “The part in me which sees and bears the sun
There shall be seen the woe that on the Seine Paradiso: Canto XX In mortal eagles,” it began to me,
He brings by falsifying of the coin, “Now fixedly must needs be looked upon;
Who by the blow of a wild boar shall die. When he who all the world illuminates For of the fires of which I make my figure,
There shall be seen the pride that causes thirst, Out of our hemisphere so far descends Those whence the eye doth sparkle in my head
Which makes the Scot and Englishman so mad That on all sides the daylight is consumed, Of all their orders the supremest are.
That they within their boundaries cannot rest; The heaven, that erst by him alone was kindled, He who is shining in the midst as pupil
Doth suddenly reveal itself again Was once the singer of the Holy Spirit,
Be seen the luxury and effeminate life By many lights, wherein is one resplendent. Who bore the ark from city unto city;
Of him of Spain, and the Bohemian, And came into my mind this act of heaven,
Who valour never knew and never wished; When the ensign of the world and of its leaders Now knoweth he the merit of his song,
Be seen the Cripple of Jerusalem, Had silent in the blessed beak become; In so far as effect of his own counsel,
His goodness represented by an I, Because those living luminaries all, By the reward which is commensurate.
While the reverse an M shall represent; By far more luminous, did songs begin Of five, that make a circle for my brow,
Be seen the avarice and poltroonery Lapsing and falling from my memory. He that approacheth nearest to my beak
Of him who guards the Island of the Fire, O gentle Love, that with a smile dost cloak thee, Did the poor widow for her son console;
Wherein Anchises finished his long life; How ardent in those sparks didst thou appear, Now knoweth he how dearly it doth cost
And to declare how pitiful he is That had the breath alone of holy thoughts! Not following Christ, by the experience
Shall be his record in contracted letters After the precious and pellucid crystals, Of this sweet life and of its opposite.
Which shall make note of much in little space. With which begemmed the sixth light I beheld, He who comes next in the circumference
And shall appear to each one the foul deeds Silence imposed on the angelic bells, Of which I speak, upon its highest arc,
Did death postpone by penitence sincere; But forth from out my mouth, “What things are Returning to the flesh, where brief its stay,
Now knoweth he that the eternal judgment these?” Believed in Him who had the power to aid it;
Suffers no change, albeit worthy prayer Extorted with the force of its own weight; And, in believing, kindled to such fire
Maketh below to-morrow of to-day. Whereat I saw great joy of coruscation. Of genuine love, that at the second death
The next who follows, with the laws and me, Thereafterward with eye still more enkindled Worthy it was to come unto this joy.
Under the good intent that bore bad fruit The blessed standard made to me reply, The other one, through grace, that from so deep
Became a Greek by ceding to the pastor; To keep me not in wonderment suspended: A fountain wells that never hath the eye
Now knoweth he how all the ill deduced “I see that thou believest in these things Of any creature reached its primal wave,
From his good action is not harmful to him, Because I say them, but thou seest not how; Set all his love below on righteousness;
Although the world thereby may be destroyed. So that, although believed in, they are hidden. Wherefore from grace to grace did God unclose
And he, whom in the downward arc thou seest, Thou doest as he doth who a thing by name His eye to our redemption yet to be,
Guglielmo was, whom the same land deplores Well apprehendeth, but its quiddity
That weepeth Charles and Frederick yet alive; Cannot perceive, unless another show it. Whence he believed therein, and suffered not
Now knoweth he how heaven enamoured is ‘Regnum coelorum’ suffereth violence From that day forth the stench of paganism,
With a just king; and in the outward show From fervent love, and from that living hope And he reproved therefor the folk perverse.
Of his effulgence he reveals it still. That overcometh the Divine volition; Those Maidens three, whom at the right-hand
Who would believe, down in the errant world, Not in the guise that man o’ercometh man, wheel
That e’er the Trojan Ripheus in this round But conquers it because it will be conquered, Thou didst behold, were unto him for baptism
Could be the fifth one of the holy lights? And conquered conquers by benignity. More than a thousand years before baptizing.
Now knoweth he enough of what the world The first life of the eyebrow and the fifth O thou predestination, how remote
Has not the power to see of grace divine, Cause thee astonishment, because with them Thy root is from the aspect of all those
Although his sight may not discern the bottom.” Thou seest the region of the angels painted. Who the First Cause do not behold entire!
Like as a lark that in the air expatiates, They passed not from their bodies, as thou And you, O mortals! hold yourselves restrained
First singing and then silent with content thinkest, In judging; for ourselves, who look on God,
Of the last sweetness that doth satisfy her, Gentiles, but Christians in the steadfast faith We do not know as yet all the elect;
Such seemed to me the image of the imprint Of feet that were to suffer and had suffered. And sweet to us is such a deprivation,
Of the eternal pleasure, by whose will For one from Hell, where no one e’er turns back Because our good in this good is made perfect,
Doth everything become the thing it is. Unto good will, returned unto his bones, That whatsoe’er God wills, we also will.”
And notwithstanding to my doubt I was And that of living hope was the reward,— After this manner by that shape divine,
As glass is to the colour that invests it, Of living hope, that placed its efficacy To make clear in me my short-sightedness,
To wait the time in silence it endured not, In prayers to God made to resuscitate him, Was given to me a pleasant medicine;
So that ‘twere possible to move his will. And as good singer a good lutanist
The glorious soul concerning which I speak, Accompanies with vibrations of the chords,
Whereby more pleasantness the song acquires, Revolving, bears the name of its dear leader, The cause which draweth thee so near my side;
So, while it spake, do I remember me Under whom every wickedness lay dead, And tell me why is silent in this wheel
That I beheld both of those blessed lights, Coloured like gold, on which the sunshine The dulcet symphony of Paradise,
Even as the winking of the eyes concords, gleams, That through the rest below sounds so devoutly.”
Moving unto the words their little flames. A stairway I beheld to such a height “Thou hast thy hearing mortal as thy sight,”
Uplifted, that mine eye pursued it not. It answer made to me; “they sing not here,
Paradiso: Canto XXI Likewise beheld I down the steps descending For the same cause that Beatrice has not smiled.
So many splendours, that I thought each light Thus far adown the holy stairway’s steps
Already on my Lady’s face mine eyes That in the heaven appears was there diffused. Have I descended but to give thee welcome
Again were fastened, and with these my mind, And as accordant with their natural custom With words, and with the light that mantles me;
And from all other purpose was withdrawn; The rooks together at the break of day Nor did more love cause me to be more ready,
And she smiled not; but “If I were to smile,” Bestir themselves to warm their feathers cold; For love as much and more up there is burning,
She unto me began, “thou wouldst become Then some of them fly off without return, As doth the flaming manifest to thee.
Like Semele, when she was turned to ashes. Others come back to where they started from, But the high charity, that makes us servants
Because my beauty, that along the stairs And others, wheeling round, still keep at home; Prompt to the counsel which controls the world,
Of the eternal palace more enkindles, Allotteth here, even as thou dost observe.”
As thou hast seen, the farther we ascend, Such fashion it appeared to me was there “I see full well,” said I, “O sacred lamp!
If it were tempered not, is so resplendent Within the sparkling that together came, How love unfettered in this court sufficeth
That all thy mortal power in its effulgence As soon as on a certain step it struck, To follow the eternal Providence;
Would seem a leaflet that the thunder crushes. And that which nearest unto us remained But this is what seems hard for me to see,
We are uplifted to the seventh splendour, Became so clear, that in my thought I said, Wherefore predestinate wast thou alone
That underneath the burning Lion’s breast “Well I perceive the love thou showest me; Unto this office from among thy consorts.”
Now radiates downward mingled with his power. But she, from whom I wait the how and when No sooner had I come to the last word,
Fix in direction of thine eyes the mind, Of speech and silence, standeth still; whence I Than of its middle made the light a centre,
And make of them a mirror for the figure Against desire do well if I ask not.” Whirling itself about like a swift millstone.
That in this mirror shall appear to thee.” She thereupon, who saw my silentness
He who could know what was the pasturage In the sight of Him who seeth everything, When answer made the love that was therein:
My sight had in that blessed countenance, Said unto me, “Let loose thy warm desire.” “On me directed is a light divine,
When I transferred me to another care, And I began: “No merit of my own Piercing through this in which I am embosomed,
Would recognize how grateful was to me Renders me worthy of response from thee; Of which the virtue with my sight conjoined
Obedience unto my celestial escort, But for her sake who granteth me the asking, Lifts me above myself so far, I see
By counterpoising one side with the other. Thou blessed life that dost remain concealed The supreme essence from which this is drawn.
Within the crystal which, around the world In thy beatitude, make known to me Hence comes the joyfulness with which I flame,
For to my sight, as far as it is clear, I in that place was Peter Damiano; Said to me: “Knowest thou not thou art in
The clearness of the flame I equal make. And Peter the Sinner was I in the house heaven,
But that soul in the heaven which is most pure, Of Our Lady on the Adriatic shore. And knowest thou not that heaven is holy all
That seraph which his eye on God most fixes, And what is done here cometh from good zeal?
Could this demand of thine not satisfy; Little of mortal life remained to me, After what wise the singing would have changed
Because so deeply sinks in the abyss When I was called and dragged forth to the hat thee
Of the eternal statute what thou askest, Which shifteth evermore from bad to worse. And I by smiling, thou canst now imagine,
From all created sight it is cut off. Came Cephas, and the mighty Vessel came Since that the cry has startled thee so much,
And to the mortal world, when thou returnest, Of the Holy Spirit, meagre and barefooted, In which if thou hadst understood its prayers
This carry back, that it may not presume Taking the food of any hostelry. Already would be known to thee the vengeance
Longer tow’rd such a goal to move its feet. Now some one to support them on each side Which thou shalt look upon before thou diest.
The mind, that shineth here, on earth doth smoke; The modern shepherds need, and some to lead The sword above here smiteth not in haste
From this observe how can it do below them, Nor tardily, howe’er it seem to him
That which it cannot though the heaven assume So heavy are they, and to hold their trains. Who fearing or desiring waits for it.
it?” They cover up their palfreys with their cloaks,
Such limit did its words prescribe to me, So that two beasts go underneath one skin; But turn thee round towards the others now,
The question I relinquished, and restricted O Patience, that dost tolerate so much!” For very illustrious spirits shalt thou see,
Myself to ask it humbly who it was. At this voice saw I many little flames If thou thy sight directest as I say.”
“Between two shores of Italy rise cliffs, From step to step descending and revolving, As it seemed good to her mine eyes I turned,
And not far distant from thy native place, And every revolution made them fairer. And saw a hundred spherules that together
So high, the thunders far below them sound, Round about this one came they and stood still, With mutual rays each other more embellished.
And form a ridge that Catria is called, And a cry uttered of so loud a sound, I stood as one who in himself represses
‘Neath which is consecrate a hermitage It here could find no parallel, nor I The point of his desire, and ventures not
Wont to be dedicate to worship only.” Distinguished it, the thunder so o’ercame me. To question, he so feareth the too much.
Thus unto me the third speech recommenced, And now the largest and most luculent
And then, continuing, it said: “Therein Paradiso: Canto XXII Among those pearls came forward, that it might
Unto God’s service I became so steadfast, Make my desire concerning it content.
That feeding only on the juice of olives Oppressed with stupor, I unto my guide Within it then I heard: “If thou couldst see
Lightly I passed away the heats and frosts, Turned like a little child who always runs Even as myself the charity that burns
Contented in my thoughts contemplative. For refuge there where he confideth most; Among us, thy conceits would be expressed;
That cloister used to render to these heavens And she, even as a mother who straightway But, that by waiting thou mayst not come late
Abundantly, and now is empty grown, Gives comfort to her pale and breathless boy To the high end, I will make answer even
So that perforce it soon must be revealed. With voice whose wont it is to reassure him, Unto the thought of which thou art so chary.
That mountain on whose slope Cassino stands And unto it our stairway reaches up, The gentle Lady urged me on behind them
Was frequented of old upon its summit Whence thus from out thy sight it steals away. Up o’er that stairway by a single sign,
By a deluded folk and ill-disposed; Up to that height the Patriarch Jacob saw it So did her virtue overcome my nature;
And I am he who first up thither bore Extending its supernal part, what time
The name of Him who brought upon the earth So thronged with angels it appeared to him. Nor here below, where one goes up and down
The truth that so much sublimateth us. But to ascend it now no one uplifts By natural law, was motion e’er so swift
And such abundant grace upon me shone His feet from off the earth, and now my Rule That it could be compared unto my wing.
That all the neighbouring towns I drew away Below remaineth for mere waste of paper. Reader, as I may unto that devout
From the impious worship that seduced the The walls that used of old to be an Abbey Triumph return, on whose account I often
world. Are changed to dens of robbers, and the cowls For my transgressions weep and beat my breast,
These other fires, each one of them, were men Are sacks filled full of miserable flour. —
Contemplative, enkindled by that heat But heavy usury is not taken up Thou hadst not thrust thy finger in the fire
Which maketh holy flowers and fruits spring up. So much against God’s pleasure as that fruit And drawn it out again, before I saw
Here is Macarius, here is Romualdus, Which maketh so insane the heart of monks; The sign that follows Taurus, and was in it.
Here are my brethren, who within the cloisters For whatsoever hath the Church in keeping O glorious stars, O light impregnated
Their footsteps stayed and kept a steadfast heart.” Is for the folk that ask it in God’s name, With mighty virtue, from which I acknowledge
And I to him: “The affection which thou showest Not for one’s kindred or for something worse. All of my genius, whatsoe’er it be,
Speaking with me, and the good countenance The flesh of mortals is so very soft, With you was born, and hid himself with you,
Which I behold and note in all your ardours, That good beginnings down below suffice not He who is father of all mortal life,
In me have so my confidence dilated From springing of the oak to bearing acorns. When first I tasted of the Tuscan air;
As the sun doth the rose, when it becomes Peter began with neither gold nor silver, And then when grace was freely given to me
As far unfolded as it hath the power. And I with orison and abstinence, To enter the high wheel which turns you round,
Therefore I pray, and thou assure me, father, And Francis with humility his convent. Your region was allotted unto me.
If I may so much grace receive, that I And if thou lookest at each one’s beginning, To you devoutly at this hour my soul
May thee behold with countenance unveiled.” And then regardest whither he has run, Is sighing, that it virtue may acquire
Thou shalt behold the white changed into brown. For the stern pass that draws it to itself.
He thereupon: “Brother, thy high desire In verity the Jordan backward turned, “Thou art so near unto the last salvation,”
In the remotest sphere shall be fulfilled, And the sea’s fleeing, when God willed were Thus Beatrice began, “thou oughtest now
Where are fulfilled all others and my own. more To have thine eves unclouded and acute;
There perfect is, and ripened, and complete, A wonder to behold, than succour here.” And therefore, ere thou enter farther in,
Every desire; within that one alone Thus unto me he said; and then withdrew Look down once more, and see how vast a world
Is every part where it has always been; To his own band, and the band closed together; Thou hast already put beneath thy feet;
For it is not in space, nor turns on poles, Then like a whirlwind all was upward rapt. So that thy heart, as jocund as it may,
Present itself to the triumphant throng And find the food wherewith to nourish them, There are the wisdom and the omnipotence
That comes rejoicing through this rounded ether.” In which, to her, grave labours grateful are, That oped the thoroughfares ‘twixt heaven and
I with my sight returned through one and all Anticipates the time on open spray earth,
The sevenfold spheres, and I beheld this globe And with an ardent longing waits the sun, For which there erst had been so long a
Such that I smiled at its ignoble semblance; Gazing intent as soon as breaks the dawn: yearning.”
And that opinion I approve as best Even thus my Lady standing was, erect As fire from out a cloud unlocks itself,
Which doth account it least; and he who thinks And vigilant, turned round towards the zone Dilating so it finds not room therein,
Of something else may truly be called just. Underneath which the sun displays less haste; And down, against its nature, falls to earth,
I saw the daughter of Latona shining So that beholding her distraught and wistful, So did my mind, among those aliments
Without that shadow, which to me was cause Such I became as he is who desiring Becoming larger, issue from itself,
That once I had believed her rare and dense. For something yearns, and hoping is appeased. And that which it became cannot remember.
The aspect of thy son, Hyperion, But brief the space from one When to the other; “Open thine eyes, and look at what I am:
Here I sustained, and saw how move themselves Of my awaiting, say I, and the seeing Thou hast beheld such things, that strong enough
Around and near him Maia and Dione. The welkin grow resplendent more and more. Hast thou become to tolerate my smile.”
I was as one who still retains the feeling
Thence there appeared the temperateness of Jove And Beatrice exclaimed: “Behold the hosts Of a forgotten vision, and endeavours
‘Twixt son and father, and to me was clear Of Christ’s triumphal march, and all the fruit In vain to bring it back into his mind,
The change that of their whereabout they make; Harvested by the rolling of these spheres!” When I this invitation heard, deserving
And all the seven made manifest to me It seemed to me her face was all aflame; Of so much gratitude, it never fades
How great they are, and eke how swift they are, And eyes she had so full of ecstasy Out of the book that chronicles the past.
And how they are in distant habitations. That I must needs pass on without describing. If at this moment sounded all the tongues
The threshing-floor that maketh us so proud, As when in nights serene of the full moon That Polyhymnia and her sisters made
To me revolving with the eternal Twins, Smiles Trivia among the nymphs eternal Most lubrical with their delicious milk,
Was all apparent made from hill to harbour! Who paint the firmament through all its gulfs, To aid me, to a thousandth of the truth
Then to the beauteous eyes mine eyes I turned. Saw I, above the myriads of lamps, It would not reach, singing the holy smile
A Sun that one and all of them enkindled, And how the holy aspect it illumed.
Paradiso: Canto XXIII E’en as our own doth the supernal sights,
And through the living light transparent shone And therefore, representing Paradise,
Even as a bird, ‘mid the beloved leaves, The lucent substance so intensely clear The sacred poem must perforce leap over,
Quiet upon the nest of her sweet brood Into my sight, that I sustained it not. Even as a man who finds his way cut off;
Throughout the night, that hideth all things from O Beatrice, thou gentle guide and dear! But whoso thinketh of the ponderous theme,
us, To me she said: “What overmasters thee And of the mortal shoulder laden with it,
Who, that she may behold their longed-for looks A virtue is from which naught shields itself. Should blame it not, if under this it tremble.
It is no passage for a little boat On earth, and to itself most draws the soul, Thereafter they remained there in my sight,
This which goes cleaving the audacious prow, Would seem a cloud that, rent asunder, thunders, ‘Regina coeli’ singing with such sweetness,
Nor for a pilot who would spare himself. Compared unto the sounding of that lyre That ne’er from me has the delight departed.
“Why doth my face so much enamour thee, Wherewith was crowned the sapphire beautiful, O, what exuberance is garnered up
That to the garden fair thou turnest not, Which gives the clearest heaven its sapphire hue. Within those richest coffers, which had been
Which under the rays of Christ is blossoming? Good husbandmen for sowing here below!
There is the Rose in which the Word Divine “I am Angelic Love, that circle round There they enjoy and live upon the treasure
Became incarnate; there the lilies are The joy sublime which breathes from out the Which was acquired while weeping in the exile
By whose perfume the good way was womb Of Babylon, wherein the gold was left.
discovered.” That was the hostelry of our Desire; There triumpheth, beneath the exalted Son
Thus Beatrice; and I, who to her counsels And I shall circle, Lady of Heaven, while Of God and Mary, in his victory,
Was wholly ready, once again betook me Thou followest thy Son, and mak’st diviner Both with the ancient council and the new,
Unto the battle of the feeble brows. The sphere supreme, because thou enterest He who doth keep the keys of such a glory.
As in the sunshine, that unsullied streams there.”
Through fractured cloud, ere now a meadow of Thus did the circulated melody Paradiso: Canto XXIV
flowers Seal itself up; and all the other lights
Mine eyes with shadow covered o’er have seen, Were making to resound the name of Mary. “O company elect to the great supper
So troops of splendours manifold I saw The regal mantle of the volumes all Of the Lamb benedight, who feedeth you
Illumined from above with burning rays, Of that world, which most fervid is and living So that for ever full is your desire,
Beholding not the source of the effulgence. With breath of God and with his works and ways, If by the grace of God this man foretaste
O power benignant that dost so imprint them! Extended over us its inner border, Something of that which falleth from your table,
Thou didst exalt thyself to give more scope So very distant, that the semblance of it Or ever death prescribe to him the time,
There to mine eyes, that were not strong enough. There where I was not yet appeared to me. Direct your mind to his immense desire,
The name of that fair flower I e’er invoke Therefore mine eyes did not possess the power And him somewhat bedew; ye drinking are
Morning and evening utterly enthralled Of following the incoronated flame, For ever at the fount whence comes his thought.”
My soul to gaze upon the greater fire. Which mounted upward near to its own seed. Thus Beatrice; and those souls beatified
And when in both mine eyes depicted were And as a little child, that towards its mother Transformed themselves to spheres on steadfast
The glory and greatness of the living star Stretches its arms, when it the milk has taken, poles,
Which there excelleth, as it here excelled, Through impulse kindled into outward flame, Flaming intensely in the guise of comets.
Athwart the heavens a little torch descended Each of those gleams of whiteness upward And as the wheels in works of horologes
Formed in a circle like a coronal, reached Revolve so that the first to the beholder
And cinctured it, and whirled itself about it. So with its summit, that the deep affection Motionless seems, and the last one to fly,
Whatever melody most sweetly soundeth They had for Mary was revealed to me. So in like manner did those carols, dancing
In different measure, of their affluence So did I arm myself with every reason, No sophist’s subtlety would there find place.”
Give me the gauge, as they were swift or slow. While she was speaking, that I might be ready
From that one which I noted of most beauty For such a questioner and such profession. Thus was breathed forth from that enkindled
Beheld I issue forth a fire so happy “Say, thou good Christian; manifest thyself; love;
That none it left there of a greater brightness; What is the Faith?” Whereat I raised my brow Then added: “Very well has been gone over
And around Beatrice three several times Unto that light wherefrom was this breathed Already of this coin the alloy and weight;
It whirled itself with so divine a song, forth. But tell me if thou hast it in thy purse?”
My fantasy repeats it not to me; Then turned I round to Beatrice, and she And I: “Yes, both so shining and so round
Therefore the pen skips, and I write it not, Prompt signals made to me that I should pour That in its stamp there is no peradventure.”
Since our imagination for such folds, The water forth from my internal fountain. Thereafter issued from the light profound
Much more our speech, is of a tint too glaring. “May grace, that suffers me to make confession,” That there resplendent was: “This precious jewel,
“O holy sister mine, who us implorest Began I, “to the great centurion, Upon the which is every virtue founded,
With such devotion, by thine ardent love Cause my conceptions all to be explicit!” Whence hadst thou it?” And I: “The large
Thou dost unbind me from that beautiful sphere!” And I continued: “As the truthful pen, outpouring
Thereafter, having stopped, the blessed fire Father, of thy dear brother wrote of it, Of Holy Spirit, which has been diffused
Unto my Lady did direct its breath, Who put with thee Rome into the good way, Upon the ancient parchments and the new,
Which spake in fashion as I here have said. Faith is the substance of the things we hope for, A syllogism is, which proved it to me
And she: “O light eterne of the great man And evidence of those that are not seen; With such acuteness, that, compared therewith,
To whom our Lord delivered up the keys And this appears to me its quiddity.” All demonstration seems to me obtuse.”
He carried down of this miraculous joy, Then heard I: “Very rightly thou perceivest, And then I heard: “The ancient and the new
This one examine on points light and grave, If well thou understandest why he placed it Postulates, that to thee are so conclusive,
As good beseemeth thee, about the Faith With substances and then with evidences.” Why dost thou take them for the word divine?”
By means of which thou on the sea didst walk. And I thereafterward: “The things profound, And I: “The proofs, which show the truth to me,
That here vouchsafe to me their apparition, Are the works subsequent, whereunto Nature
If he love well, and hope well, and believe, Unto all eyes below are so concealed, Ne’er heated iron yet, nor anvil beat.”
From thee ’tis hid not; for thou hast thy sight That they exist there only in belief, ’Twas answered me: “Say, who assureth thee
There where depicted everything is seen. Upon the which is founded the high hope, That those works ever were? the thing itself
But since this kingdom has made citizens And hence it takes the nature of a substance. That must be proved, nought else to thee affirms
By means of the true Faith, to glorify it And it behoveth us from this belief it.”
’Tis well he have the chance to speak thereof.” To reason without having other sight, “Were the world to Christianity converted,”
As baccalaureate arms himself, and speaks not And hence it has the nature of evidence.” I said, “withouten miracles, this one
Until the master doth propose the question, Then heard I: “If whatever is acquired Is such, the rest are not its hundredth part;
To argue it, and not to terminate it, Below by doctrine were thus understood, Because that poor and fasting thou didst enter
Into the field to sow there the good plant, In Persons three eterne believe, and these Thereafterward towards us moved a light
Which was a vine and has become a thorn!” One essence I believe, so one and trine Out of that band whence issued the first-fruits
This being finished, the high, holy Court They bear conjunction both with ‘sunt’ and ‘est.’ Which of his vicars Christ behind him left,
Resounded through the spheres, “One God we With the profound condition and divine And then my Lady, full of ecstasy,
praise!” Which now I touch upon, doth stamp my mind Said unto me: “Look, look! behold the Baron
In melody that there above is chanted. Ofttimes the doctrine evangelical. For whom below Galicia is frequented.”
And then that Baron, who from branch to branch, This the beginning is, this is the spark In the same way as, when a dove alights
Examining, had thus conducted me, Which afterwards dilates to vivid flame, Near his companion, both of them pour forth,
Till the extremest leaves we were approaching, And, like a star in heaven, is sparkling in me.” Circling about and murmuring, their affection,
Again began: “The Grace that dallying Even as a lord who hears what pleaseth him So one beheld I by the other grand
Plays with thine intellect thy mouth has opened, His servant straight embraces, gratulating Prince glorified to be with welcome greeted,
Up to this point, as it should opened be, For the good news as soon as he is silent; Lauding the food that there above is eaten.
So that I do approve what forth emerged; So, giving me its benediction, singing, But when their gratulations were complete,
But now thou must express what thou believest, Three times encircled me, when I was silent, Silently ‘coram me’ each one stood still,
And whence to thy belief it was presented.” The apostolic light, at whose command So incandescent it o’ercame my sight.
I spoken had, in speaking I so pleased him. Smiling thereafterwards, said Beatrice:
“O holy father, spirit who beholdest “Illustrious life, by whom the benefactions
What thou believedst so that thou o’ercamest, Paradiso: Canto XXV Of our Basilica have been described,
Towards the sepulchre, more youthful feet,” Make Hope resound within this altitude;
Began I, “thou dost wish me in this place If e’er it happen that the Poem Sacred, Thou knowest as oft thou dost personify it
The form to manifest of my prompt belief, To which both heaven and earth have set their As Jesus to the three gave greater clearness.”—
And likewise thou the cause thereof demandest. hand, “Lift up thy head, and make thyself assured;
And I respond: In one God I believe, So that it many a year hath made me lean, For what comes hither from the mortal world
Sole and eterne, who moveth all the heavens O’ercome the cruelty that bars me out Must needs be ripened in our radiance.”
With love and with desire, himself unmoved; From the fair sheepfold, where a lamb I This comfort came to me from the second fire;
And of such faith not only have I proofs slumbered, Wherefore mine eyes I lifted to the hills,
Physical and metaphysical, but gives them An enemy to the wolves that war upon it, Which bent them down before with too great
Likewise the truth that from this place rains down With other voice forthwith, with other fleece weight.
Through Moses, through the Prophets and the Poet will I return, and at my font
Psalms, Baptismal will I take the laurel crown; “Since, through his grace, our Emperor wills that
Through the Evangel, and through you, who Because into the Faith that maketh known thou
wrote All souls to God there entered I, and then Shouldst find thee face to face, before thy death,
After the fiery Spirit sanctified you; Peter for her sake thus my brow encircled. In the most secret chamber, with his Counts,
So that, the truth beholden of this court, Thou didst instil me, then, with his instilling Approach the two, who in a wheel revolved
Hope, which below there rightfully enamours, In the Epistle, so that I am full, As was beseeming to their ardent love.
Thereby thou strengthen in thyself and others, And upon others rain again your rain.” Into the song and music there it entered;
Say what it is, and how is flowering with it While I was speaking, in the living bosom And fixed on them my Lady kept her look,
Thy mind, and say from whence it came to thee.” Of that combustion quivered an effulgence, Even as a bride silent and motionless.
Thus did the second light again continue. Sudden and frequent, in the guise of lightning; “This is the one who lay upon the breast
And the Compassionate, who piloted Of him our Pelican; and this is he
The plumage of my wings in such high flight, Then breathed: “The love wherewith I am To the great office from the cross elected.”
Did in reply anticipate me thus: inflamed My Lady thus; but therefore none the more
“No child whatever the Church Militant Towards the virtue still which followed me Did move her sight from its attentive gaze
Of greater hope possesses, as is written Unto the palm and issue of the field, Before or afterward these words of hers.
In that Sun which irradiates all our band; Wills that I breathe to thee that thou delight Even as a man who gazes, and endeavours
Therefore it is conceded him from Egypt In her; and grateful to me is thy telling To see the eclipsing of the sun a little,
To come into Jerusalem to see, Whatever things Hope promises to thee.” And who, by seeing, sightless doth become,
Or ever yet his warfare be completed. And I: “The ancient Scriptures and the new So I became before that latest fire,
The two remaining points, that not for knowledge The mark establish, and this shows it me, While it was said, “Why dost thou daze thyself
Have been demanded, but that he report Of all the souls whom God hath made his friends. To see a thing which here hath no existence?
How much this virtue unto thee is pleasing, Isaiah saith, that each one garmented
To him I leave; for hard he will not find them, In his own land shall be with twofold garments,
Nor of self-praise; and let him answer them; And his own land is this delightful life. Earth in the earth my body is, and shall be
And may the grace of God in this assist him!” Thy brother, too, far more explicitly, With all the others there, until our number
As a disciple, who his teacher follows, There where he treateth of the robes of white, With the eternal proposition tallies.
Ready and willing, where he is expert, This revelation manifests to us.” With the two garments in the blessed cloister
That his proficiency may be displayed, And first, and near the ending of these words, Are the two lights alone that have ascended:
“Hope,” said I, “is the certain expectation “Sperent in te” from over us was heard, And this shalt thou take back into your world.”
Of future glory, which is the effect To which responsive answered all the carols. And at this utterance the flaming circle
Of grace divine and merit precedent. Thereafterward a light among them brightened, Grew quiet, with the dulcet intermingling
From many stars this light comes unto me; So that, if Cancer one such crystal had, Of sound that by the trinal breath was made,
But he instilled it first into my heart Winter would have a month of one sole day. As to escape from danger or fatigue
Who was chief singer unto the chief captain. And as uprises, goes, and enters the dance The oars that erst were in the water beaten
‘Sperent in te,’ in the high Theody A winsome maiden, only to do honour Are all suspended at a whistle’s sound.
He sayeth, ‘those who know thy name;’ and who To the new bride, and not from any failing, Ah, how much in my mind was I disturbed,
Knoweth it not, if he my faith possess? Even thus did I behold the brightened splendour When I turned round to look on Beatrice,
That her I could not see, although I was Such love must needs imprint itself in me; The death which He endured that I may live,
Close at her side and in the Happy World! For Good, so far as good, when comprehended And that which all the faithful hope, as I do,
Doth straight enkindle love, and so much greater
Paradiso: Canto XXVI As more of goodness in itself it holds; With the forementioned vivid consciousness
Then to that Essence (whose is such advantage Have drawn me from the sea of love perverse,
While I was doubting for my vision quenched, That every good which out of it is found And of the right have placed me on the shore.
Out of the flame refulgent that had quenched it Is nothing but a ray of its own light) The leaves, wherewith embowered is all the
Issued a breathing, that attentive made me, More than elsewhither must the mind be moved garden
Saying: “While thou recoverest the sense Of every one, in loving, who discerns Of the Eternal Gardener, do I love
Of seeing which in me thou hast consumed, The truth in which this evidence is founded. As much as he has granted them of good.”
’Tis well that speaking thou shouldst compensate Such truth he to my intellect reveals As soon as I had ceased, a song most sweet
it. Who demonstrates to me the primal love Throughout the heaven resounded, and my Lady
Begin then, and declare to what thy soul Of all the sempiternal substances. Said with the others, “Holy, holy, holy!”
Is aimed, and count it for a certainty, The voice reveals it of the truthful Author, And as at some keen light one wakes from sleep
Sight is in thee bewildered and not dead; Who says to Moses, speaking of Himself, By reason of the visual spirit that runs
Because the Lady, who through this divine ‘I will make all my goodness pass before thee.’ Unto the splendour passed from coat to coat,
Region conducteth thee, has in her look Thou too revealest it to me, beginning And he who wakes abhorreth what he sees,
The power the hand of Ananias had.” The loud Evangel, that proclaims the secret So all unconscious is his sudden waking,
I said: “As pleaseth her, or soon or late Of heaven to earth above all other edict.” Until the judgment cometh to his aid,
Let the cure come to eyes that portals were And I heard say: “By human intellect So from before mine eyes did Beatrice
When she with fire I ever burn with entered. And by authority concordant with it, Chase every mote with radiance of her own,
The Good, that gives contentment to this Court, Of all thy loves reserve for God the highest. That cast its light a thousand miles and more.
The Alpha and Omega is of all But say again if other cords thou feelest, Whence better after than before I saw,
The writing that love reads me low or loud.” Draw thee towards Him, that thou mayst And in a kind of wonderment I asked
proclaim About a fourth light that I saw with us.
The selfsame voice, that taken had from me With how many teeth this love is biting thee.” And said my Lady: “There within those rays
The terror of the sudden dazzlement, The holy purpose of the Eagle of Christ Gazes upon its Maker the first soul
To speak still farther put it in my thought; Not latent was, nay, rather I perceived That ever the first virtue did create.”
And said: “In verity with finer sieve Whither he fain would my profession lead. Even as the bough that downward bends its top
Behoveth thee to sift; thee it behoveth Therefore I recommenced: “All of those bites At transit of the wind, and then is lifted
To say who aimed thy bow at such a target.” Which have the power to turn the heart to God By its own virtue, which inclines it upward,
And I: “By philosophic arguments, Unto my charity have been concurrent. Likewise did I, the while that she was speaking,
And by authority that hence descends, The being of the world, and my own being, Being amazed, and then I was made bold
By a desire to speak wherewith I burned. Four thousand and three hundred and two circuits Found entrance through the hearing and the sight.
And I began: “O apple, that mature Made by the sun, this Council I desired; O joy! O gladness inexpressible!
Alone hast been produced, O ancient father, And him I saw return to all the lights O perfect life of love and peacefulness!
To whom each wife is daughter and daughter-in- Of his highway nine hundred times and thirty, O riches without hankering secure!
law, Whilst I upon the earth was tarrying. Before mine eyes were standing the four torches
Devoutly as I can I supplicate thee The language that I spake was quite extinct Enkindled, and the one that first had come
That thou wouldst speak to me; thou seest my Before that in the work interminable Began to make itself more luminous;
wish; The people under Nimrod were employed; And even such in semblance it became
And I, to hear thee quickly, speak it not.” For nevermore result of reasoning As Jupiter would become, if he and Mars
Sometimes an animal, when covered, struggles (Because of human pleasure that doth change, Were birds, and they should interchange their
So that his impulse needs must be apparent, Obedient to the heavens) was durable. feathers.
By reason of the wrappage following it; A natural action is it that man speaks; That Providence, which here distributeth
And in like manner the primeval soul But whether thus or thus, doth nature leave Season and service, in the blessed choir
Made clear to me athwart its covering To your own art, as seemeth best to you. Had silence upon every side imposed.
How jubilant it was to give me pleasure. Ere I descended to the infernal anguish, When I heard say: “If I my colour change,
‘El’ was on earth the name of the Chief Good, Marvel not at it; for while I am speaking
Then breathed: “Without thy uttering it to me, From whom comes all the joy that wraps me Thou shalt behold all these their colour change.
Thine inclination better I discern round He who usurps upon the earth my place,
Than thou whatever thing is surest to thee; ‘Eli’ he then was called, and that is proper, My place, my place, which vacant has become
For I behold it in the truthful mirror, Because the use of men is like a leaf Before the presence of the Son of God,
That of Himself all things parhelion makes, On bough, which goeth and another cometh. Has of my cemetery made a sewer
And none makes Him parhelion of itself. Upon the mount that highest o’er the wave Of blood and stench, whereby the Perverse One,
Thou fain wouldst hear how long ago God placed Rises was I, in life or pure or sinful, Who fell from here, below there is appeased!”
me From the first hour to that which is the second, With the same colour which, through sun
Within the lofty garden, where this Lady As the sun changes quadrant, to the sixth.” adverse,
Unto so long a stairway thee disposed. Painteth the clouds at evening or at morn,
And how long to mine eyes it was a pleasure, Paradiso: Canto XXVII Beheld I then the whole of heaven suffused.
And of the great disdain the proper cause, And as a modest woman, who abides
And the language that I used and that I made. “Glory be to the Father, to the Son, Sure of herself, and at another’s failing,
Now, son of mine, the tasting of the tree And Holy Ghost!” all Paradise began, From listening only, timorous becomes,
Not in itself was cause of so great exile, So that the melody inebriate made me. Even thus did Beatrice change countenance;
But solely the o’erstepping of the bounds. What I beheld seemed unto me a smile And I believe in heaven was such eclipse,
There, whence thy Lady moved Virgilius, Of the universe; for my inebriation When suffered the supreme Omnipotence;
Thereafterward proceeded forth his words Of the celestial Goat doth touch the sun, Are all so uniform, I cannot say
With voice so much transmuted from itself, Upward in such array saw I the ether Which Beatrice selected for my place.
The very countenance was not more changed. Become, and flaked with the triumphant vapours, But she, who was aware of my desire,
Which there together with us had remained. Began, the while she smiled so joyously
“The spouse of Christ has never nurtured been My sight was following up their semblances, That God seemed in her countenance to rejoice:
On blood of mine, of Linus and of Cletus, And followed till the medium, by excess, “The nature of that motion, which keeps quiet
To be made use of in acquest of gold; The passing farther onward took from it; The centre and all the rest about it moves,
But in acquest of this delightful life Whereat the Lady, who beheld me freed From hence begins as from its starting point.
Sixtus and Pius, Urban and Calixtus, From gazing upward, said to me: “Cast down And in this heaven there is no other Where
After much lamentation, shed their blood. Thy sight, and see how far thou art turned round.” Than in the Mind Divine, wherein is kindled
Our purpose was not, that on the right hand Since the first time that I had downward looked, The love that turns it, and the power it rains.
Of our successors should in part be seated I saw that I had moved through the whole arc Within a circle light and love embrace it,
The Christian folk, in part upon the other; Which the first climate makes from midst to end; Even as this doth the others, and that precinct
Nor that the keys which were to me confided He who encircles it alone controls.
Should e’er become the escutcheon on a banner, So that I saw the mad track of Ulysses Its motion is not by another meted,
That should wage war on those who are baptized; Past Gades, and this side, well nigh the shore But all the others measured are by this,
Nor I be made the figure of a seal Whereon became Europa a sweet burden. As ten is by the half and by the fifth.
To privileges venal and mendacious, And of this threshing-floor the site to me And in what manner time in such a pot
Whereat I often redden and flash with fire. Were more unveiled, but the sun was proceeding May have its roots, and in the rest its leaves,
In garb of shepherds the rapacious wolves Under my feet, a sign and more removed. Now unto thee can manifest be made.
Are seen from here above o’er all the pastures! My mind enamoured, which is dallying O Covetousness, that mortals dost ingulf
O wrath of God, why dost thou slumber still? At all times with my Lady, to bring back Beneath thee so, that no one hath the power
To drink our blood the Caorsines and Gascons To her mine eyes was more than ever ardent. Of drawing back his eyes from out thy waves!
Are making ready. O thou good beginning, And if or Art or Nature has made bait
Unto how vile an end must thou needs fall! To catch the eyes and so possess the mind, Full fairly blossoms in mankind the will;
But the high Providence, that with Scipio In human flesh or in its portraiture, But the uninterrupted rain converts
At Rome the glory of the world defended, All joined together would appear as nought Into abortive wildings the true plums.
Will speedily bring aid, as I conceive; To the divine delight which shone upon me Fidelity and innocence are found
And thou, my son, who by thy mortal weight When to her smiling face I turned me round. Only in children; afterwards they both
Shalt down return again, open thy mouth; The virtue that her look endowed me with Take flight or e’er the cheeks with down are
What I conceal not, do not thou conceal.” From the fair nest of Leda tore me forth, covered.
As with its frozen vapours downward falls And up into the swiftest heaven impelled me. One, while he prattles still, observes the fasts,
In flakes our atmosphere, what time the horn Its parts exceeding full of life and lofty
Who, when his tongue is loosed, forthwith Of which Love made the springes to ensnare me. Dependent is the heaven and nature all.
devours And as I turned me round, and mine were Behold that circle most conjoined to it,
Whatever food under whatever moon; touched And know thou, that its motion is so swift
Another, while he prattles, loves and listens By that which is apparent in that volume, Through burning love whereby it is spurred on.”
Unto his mother, who when speech is perfect Whenever on its gyre we gaze intent, And I to her: “If the world were arranged
Forthwith desires to see her in her grave. A point beheld I, that was raying out In the order which I see in yonder wheels,
Even thus is swarthy made the skin so white Light so acute, the sight which it enkindles What’s set before me would have satisfied me;
In its first aspect of the daughter fair Must close perforce before such great acuteness. But in the world of sense we can perceive
Of him who brings the morn, and leaves the And whatsoever star seems smallest here That evermore the circles are diviner
night. Would seem to be a moon, if placed beside it. As they are from the centre more remote
Thou, that it may not be a marvel to thee, As one star with another star is placed. Wherefore if my desire is to be ended
Think that on earth there is no one who governs; Perhaps at such a distance as appears In this miraculous and angelic temple,
Whence goes astray the human family. A halo cincturing the light that paints it, That has for confines only love and light,
Ere January be unwintered wholly When densest is the vapour that sustains it, To hear behoves me still how the example
By the centesimal on earth neglected, Thus distant round the point a circle of fire And the exemplar go not in one fashion,
Shall these supernal circles roar so loud So swiftly whirled, that it would have surpassed Since for myself in vain I contemplate it.”
The tempest that has been so long awaited Whatever motion soonest girds the world; “If thine own fingers unto such a knot
Shall whirl the poops about where are the prows; And this was by another circumcinct, Be insufficient, it is no great wonder,
So that the fleet shall run its course direct, That by a third, the third then by a fourth, So hard hath it become for want of trying.”
And the true fruit shall follow on the flower.” By a fifth the fourth, and then by a sixth the fifth; My Lady thus; then said she: “Do thou take
Paradiso: Canto XXVIII The seventh followed thereupon in width What I shall tell thee, if thou wouldst be sated,
So ample now, that Juno’s messenger And exercise on that thy subtlety.
After the truth against the present life Entire would be too narrow to contain it. The circles corporal are wide and narrow
Of miserable mortals was unfolded Even so the eighth and ninth; and every one According to the more or less of virtue
By her who doth imparadise my mind, More slowly moved, according as it was Which is distributed through all their parts.
As in a looking-glass a taper’s flame In number distant farther from the first. The greater goodness works the greater weal,
He sees who from behind is lighted by it, And that one had its flame most crystalline The greater weal the greater body holds,
Before he has it in his sight or thought, From which less distant was the stainless spark, If perfect equally are all its parts.
And turns him round to see if so the glass I think because more with its truth imbued. Therefore this one which sweeps along with it
Tell him the truth, and sees that it accords The universe sublime, doth correspond
Therewith as doth a music with its metre, My Lady, who in my anxiety Unto the circle which most loves and knows.
In similar wise my memory recollecteth Beheld me much perplexed, said: “From that On which account, if thou unto the virtue
That I did, looking into those fair eyes, point Apply thy measure, not to the appearance
Of substances that unto thee seem round, As much as their own vision penetrates For he who saw it here revealed it to him,
Thou wilt behold a marvellous agreement, The Truth, in which all intellect finds rest. With much more of the truth about these circles.”
Of more to greater, and of less to smaller, From this it may be seen how blessedness
In every heaven, with its Intelligence.” Is founded in the faculty which sees, Paradiso: Canto XXIX
Even as remaineth splendid and serene And not in that which loves, and follows next;
The hemisphere of air, when Boreas And of this seeing merit is the measure, At what time both the children of Latona,
Is blowing from that cheek where he is mildest, Which is brought forth by grace, and by good Surmounted by the Ram and by the Scales,
will; Together make a zone of the horizon,
Because is purified and resolved the rack Thus on from grade to grade doth it proceed. As long as from the time the zenith holds them
That erst disturbed it, till the welkin laughs The second Triad, which is germinating In equipoise, till from that girdle both
With all the beauties of its pageantry; In such wise in this sempiternal spring, Changing their hemisphere disturb the balance,
Thus did I likewise, after that my Lady That no nocturnal Aries despoils, So long, her face depicted with a smile,
Had me provided with her clear response, Perpetually hosanna warbles forth Did Beatrice keep silence while she gazed
And like a star in heaven the truth was seen. With threefold melody, that sounds in three Fixedly at the point which had o’ercome me.
And soon as to a stop her words had come, Orders of joy, with which it is intrined. Then she began: “I say, and I ask not
Not otherwise does iron scintillate The three Divine are in this hierarchy, What thou dost wish to hear, for I have seen it
When molten, than those circles scintillated. First the Dominions, and the Virtues next; Where centres every When and every ‘Ubi.’
Their coruscation all the sparks repeated, And the third order is that of the Powers. Not to acquire some good unto himself,
And they so many were, their number makes Which is impossible, but that his splendour
More millions than the doubling of the chess. Then in the dances twain penultimate In its resplendency may say, ‘Subsisto,’
I heard them sing hosanna choir by choir The Principalities and Archangels wheel; In his eternity outside of time,
To the fixed point which holds them at the ‘Ubi,’ The last is wholly of angelic sports. Outside all other limits, as it pleased him,
And ever will, where they have ever been. These orders upward all of them are gazing, Into new Loves the Eternal Love unfolded.
And she, who saw the dubious meditations And downward so prevail, that unto God
Within my mind, “The primal circles,” said, They all attracted are and all attract. Nor as if torpid did he lie before;
“Have shown thee Seraphim and Cherubim. And Dionysius with so great desire For neither after nor before proceeded
Thus rapidly they follow their own bonds, To contemplate these Orders set himself, The going forth of God upon these waters.
To be as like the point as most they can, He named them and distinguished them as I do. Matter and Form unmingled and conjoined
And can as far as they are high in vision. But Gregory afterwards dissented from him; Came into being that had no defect,
Those other Loves, that round about them go, Wherefore, as soon as he unclosed his eyes E’en as three arrows from a three-stringed bow.
Thrones of the countenance divine are called, Within this heaven, he at himself did smile. And as in glass, in amber, or in crystal
Because they terminate the primal Triad. And if so much of secret truth a mortal A sunbeam flashes so, that from its coming
And thou shouldst know that they all have delight Proffered on earth, I would not have thee marvel, To its full being is no interval,
So from its Lord did the triform effect Which made them apt for so much understanding; They think not there how much of blood it costs
Ray forth into its being all together, To sow it in the world, and how he pleases
Without discrimination of beginning. On which account their vision was exalted Who in humility keeps close to it.
Order was con-created and constructed By the enlightening grace and their own merit, Each striveth for appearance, and doth make
In substances, and summit of the world So that they have a full and steadfast will. His own inventions; and these treated are
Were those wherein the pure act was produced. I would not have thee doubt, but certain be, By preachers, and the Evangel holds its peace.
Pure potentiality held the lowest part; ’Tis meritorious to receive this grace, One sayeth that the moon did backward turn,
Midway bound potentiality with act According as the affection opens to it. In the Passion of Christ, and interpose herself
Such bond that it shall never be unbound. Now round about in this consistory So that the sunlight reached not down below;
Jerome has written unto you of angels Much mayst thou contemplate, if these my words And lies; for of its own accord the light
Created a long lapse of centuries Be gathered up, without all further aid. Hid itself; whence to Spaniards and to Indians,
Or ever yet the other world was made; But since upon the earth, throughout your As to the Jews, did such eclipse respond.
But written is this truth in many places schools,
By writers of the Holy Ghost, and thou They teach that such is the angelic nature Florence has not so many Lapi and Bindi
Shalt see it, if thou lookest well thereat. That it doth hear, and recollect, and will, As fables such as these, that every year
And even reason seeth it somewhat, More will I say, that thou mayst see unmixed Are shouted from the pulpit back and forth,
For it would not concede that for so long The truth that is confounded there below, In such wise that the lambs, who do not know,
Could be the motors without their perfection. Equivocating in such like prelections. Come back from pasture fed upon the wind,
Now dost thou know both where and when these These substances, since in God’s countenance And not to see the harm doth not excuse them.
Loves They jocund were, turned not away their sight Christ did not to his first disciples say,
Created were, and how; so that extinct From that wherefrom not anything is hidden; ‘Go forth, and to the world preach idle tales,’
In thy desire already are three fires. Hence they have not their vision intercepted But unto them a true foundation gave;
Nor could one reach, in counting, unto twenty By object new, and hence they do not need And this so loudly sounded from their lips,
So swiftly, as a portion of these angels To recollect, through interrupted thought. That, in the warfare to enkindle Faith,
Disturbed the subject of your elements. So that below, not sleeping, people dream, They made of the Evangel shields and lances.
The rest remained, and they began this art Believing they speak truth, and not believing; Now men go forth with jests and drolleries
Which thou discernest, with so great delight And in the last is greater sin and shame. To preach, and if but well the people laugh,
That never from their circling do they cease. Below you do not journey by one path The hood puffs out, and nothing more is asked.
The occasion of the fall was the accursed Philosophising; so transporteth you But in the cowl there nestles such a bird,
Presumption of that One, whom thou hast seen Love of appearance and the thought thereof. That, if the common people were to see it,
By all the burden of the world constrained. And even this above here is endured They would perceive what pardons they confide
Those whom thou here beholdest modest were With less disdain, than when is set aside in,
To recognise themselves as of that goodness The Holy Writ, or when it is distorted. For which so great on earth has grown the folly,
That, without proof of any testimony, And as advances bright exceedingly Have issued to the heaven that is pure light;
To each indulgence they would flock together. The handmaid of the sun, the heaven is closed Light intellectual replete with love,
By this Saint Anthony his pig doth fatten, Light after light to the most beautiful; Love of true good replete with ecstasy,
And many others, who are worse than pigs, Not otherwise the Triumph, which for ever Ecstasy that transcendeth every sweetness.
Paying in money without mark of coinage. Plays round about the point that vanquished me, Here shalt thou see the one host and the other
But since we have digressed abundantly, Seeming enclosed by what itself encloses, Of Paradise, and one in the same aspects
Turn back thine eyes forthwith to the right path, Little by little from my vision faded; Which at the final judgment thou shalt see.”
So that the way be shortened with the time. Whereat to turn mine eyes on Beatrice Even as a sudden lightning that disperses
This nature doth so multiply itself My seeing nothing and my love constrained me. The visual spirits, so that it deprives
In numbers, that there never yet was speech If what has hitherto been said of her The eye of impress from the strongest objects,
Nor mortal fancy that can go so far. Were all concluded in a single praise, Thus round about me flashed a living light,
And if thou notest that which is revealed Scant would it be to serve the present turn. And left me swathed around with such a veil
By Daniel, thou wilt see that in his thousands Of its effulgence, that I nothing saw.
Number determinate is kept concealed. Not only does the beauty I beheld “Ever the Love which quieteth this heaven
The primal light, that all irradiates it, Transcend ourselves, but truly I believe Welcomes into itself with such salute,
By modes as many is received therein, Its Maker only may enjoy it all. To make the candle ready for its flame.”
As are the splendours wherewith it is mated. Vanquished do I confess me by this passage No sooner had within me these brief words
Hence, inasmuch as on the act conceptive More than by problem of his theme was ever An entrance found, than I perceived myself
The affection followeth, of love the sweetness O’ercome the comic or the tragic poet; To be uplifted over my own power,
Therein diversely fervid is or tepid. For as the sun the sight that trembles most, And I with vision new rekindled me,
The height behold now and the amplitude Even so the memory of that sweet smile Such that no light whatever is so pure
Of the eternal power, since it hath made My mind depriveth of its very self. But that mine eyes were fortified against it.
Itself so many mirrors, where ’tis broken, From the first day that I beheld her face
One in itself remaining as before.” In this life, to the moment of this look, And light I saw in fashion of a river
The sequence of my song has ne’er been severed; Fulvid with its effulgence, ‘twixt two banks
Paradiso: Canto XXX But now perforce this sequence must desist Depicted with an admirable Spring.
From following her beauty with my verse, Out of this river issued living sparks,
Perchance six thousand miles remote from us As every artist at his uttermost. And on all sides sank down into the flowers,
Is glowing the sixth hour, and now this world Such as I leave her to a greater fame Like unto rubies that are set in gold;
Inclines its shadow almost to a level, Than any of my trumpet, which is bringing And then, as if inebriate with the odours,
When the mid-heaven begins to make itself Its arduous matter to a final close, They plunged again into the wondrous torrent,
So deep to us, that here and there a star With voice and gesture of a perfect leader And as one entered issued forth another.
Ceases to shine so far down as this depth, She recommenced: “We from the greatest body
“The high desire, that now inflames and moves Makes the Creator unto every creature, That here henceforward are few people wanting!
thee Who only in beholding Him has peace, On that great throne whereon thine eyes are fixed
To have intelligence of what thou seest, For the crown’s sake already placed upon it,
Pleaseth me all the more, the more it swells. And it expands itself in circular form Before thou suppest at this wedding feast
But of this water it behoves thee drink To such extent, that its circumference Shall sit the soul (that is to be Augustus
Before so great a thirst in thee be slaked.” Would be too large a girdle for the sun. On earth) of noble Henry, who shall come
Thus said to me the sunshine of mine eyes; The semblance of it is all made of rays To redress Italy ere she be ready.
And added: “The river and the topazes Reflected from the top of Primal Motion, Blind covetousness, that casts its spell upon you,
Going in and out, and the laughing of the Which takes therefrom vitality and power. Has made you like unto the little child,
herbage, And as a hill in water at its base Who dies of hunger and drives off the nurse.
Are of their truth foreshadowing prefaces; Mirrors itself, as if to see its beauty And in the sacred forum then shall be
Not that these things are difficult in themselves, When affluent most in verdure and in flowers, A Prefect such, that openly or covert
But the deficiency is on thy side, So, ranged aloft all round about the light, On the same road he will not walk with him.
For yet thou hast not vision so exalted.” Mirrored I saw in more ranks than a thousand
There is no babe that leaps so suddenly All who above there have from us returned. But long of God he will not be endured
With face towards the milk, if he awake And if the lowest row collect within it In holy office; he shall be thrust down
Much later than his usual custom is, So great a light, how vast the amplitude Where Simon Magus is for his deserts,
As I did, that I might make better mirrors Is of this Rose in its extremest leaves! And make him of Alagna lower go!”
Still of mine eyes, down stooping to the wave My vision in the vastness and the height
Which flows that we therein be better made. Lost not itself, but comprehended all
And even as the penthouse of mine eyelids The quantity and quality of that gladness.
Paradiso: Canto XXXI
Drank of it, it forthwith appeared to me There near and far nor add nor take away;
Out of its length to be transformed to round. For there where God immediately doth govern,
In fashion then as of a snow-white rose
Then as a folk who have been under masks The natural law in naught is relevant.
Displayed itself to me the saintly host,
Seem other than before, if they divest Into the yellow of the Rose Eternal
Whom Christ in his own blood had made his
The semblance not their own they disappeared in, That spreads, and multiplies, and breathes an
bride,
Thus into greater pomp were changed for me odour
But the other host, that flying sees and sings
The flowerets and the sparks, so that I saw Of praise unto the ever-vernal Sun,
The glory of Him who doth enamour it,
Both of the Courts of Heaven made manifest. As one who silent is and fain would speak,
And the goodness that created it so noble,
O splendour of God! by means of which I saw Me Beatrice drew on, and said: “Behold
Even as a swarm of bees, that sinks in flowers
The lofty triumph of the realm veracious, Of the white stoles how vast the convent is!
One moment, and the next returns again
Give me the power to say how it I saw! Behold how vast the circuit of our city!
To where its labour is to sweetness turned,
There is a light above, which visible Behold our seats so filled to overflowing,
Sank into the great flower, that is adorned
With leaves so many, and thence reascended And as a pilgrim who delighteth him In whatsoever sea it deepest sinks,
To where its love abideth evermore. In gazing round the temple of his vow, As there from Beatrice my sight; but this
Their faces had they all of living flame, And hopes some day to retell how it was, Was nothing unto me; because her image
And wings of gold, and all the rest so white So through the living light my way pursuing Descended not to me by medium blurred.
No snow unto that limit doth attain. Directed I mine eyes o’er all the ranks, “O Lady, thou in whom my hope is strong,
From bench to bench, into the flower descending, Now up, now down, and now all round about. And who for my salvation didst endure
They carried something of the peace and ardour Faces I saw of charity persuasive, In Hell to leave the imprint of thy feet,
Which by the fanning of their flanks they won. Embellished by His light and their own smile, Of whatsoever things I have beheld,
And attitudes adorned with every grace. As coming from thy power and from thy
Nor did the interposing ‘twixt the flower The general form of Paradise already goodness
And what was o’er it of such plenitude My glance had comprehended as a whole, I recognise the virtue and the grace.
Of flying shapes impede the sight and splendour; In no part hitherto remaining fixed, Thou from a slave hast brought me unto freedom,
Because the light divine so penetrates And round I turned me with rekindled wish By all those ways, by all the expedients,
The universe, according to its merit, My Lady to interrogate of things Whereby thou hadst the power of doing it.
That naught can be an obstacle against it. Concerning which my mind was in suspense. Preserve towards me thy magnificence,
This realm secure and full of gladsomeness, One thing I meant, another answered me; So that this soul of mine, which thou hast healed,
Crowded with ancient people and with modern, I thought I should see Beatrice, and saw Pleasing to thee be loosened from the body.”
Unto one mark had all its look and love. An Old Man habited like the glorious people. Thus I implored; and she, so far away,
O Trinal Light, that in a single star Smiled, as it seemed, and looked once more at
Sparkling upon their sight so satisfies them, O’erflowing was he in his eyes and cheeks me;
Look down upon our tempest here below! With joy benign, in attitude of pity Then unto the eternal fountain turned.
If the barbarians, coming from some region As to a tender father is becoming. And said the Old Man holy: “That thou mayst
That every day by Helice is covered, And “She, where is she?” instantly I said; Accomplish perfectly thy journeying,
Revolving with her son whom she delights in, Whence he: “To put an end to thy desire, Whereunto prayer and holy love have sent me,
Beholding Rome and all her noble works, Me Beatrice hath sent from mine own place. Fly with thine eyes all round about this garden;
Were wonder-struck, what time the Lateran And if thou lookest up to the third round For seeing it will discipline thy sight
Above all mortal things was eminent,— Of the first rank, again shalt thou behold her Farther to mount along the ray divine.
I who to the divine had from the human, Upon the throne her merits have assigned her.” And she, the Queen of Heaven, for whom I burn
From time unto eternity, had come, Without reply I lifted up mine eyes, Wholly with love, will grant us every grace,
From Florence to a people just and sane, And saw her, as she made herself a crown Because that I her faithful Bernard am.”
With what amazement must I have been filled! Reflecting from herself the eternal rays.
Truly between this and the joy, it was Not from that region which the highest thunders As he who peradventure from Croatia
My pleasure not to hear, and to be mute. Is any mortal eye so far removed, Cometh to gaze at our Veronica,
Who through its ancient fame is never sated, To attempt the smallest part of its delight. With vacant spaces are the semicircles,
But says in thought, the while it is displayed, Bernard, as soon as he beheld mine eyes Are those who looked to Christ already come.
“My Lord, Christ Jesus, God of very God, Fixed and intent upon its fervid fervour, And as, upon this side, the glorious seat
Now was your semblance made like unto this?” His own with such affection turned to her Of the Lady of Heaven, and the other seats
Even such was I while gazing at the living That it made mine more ardent to behold. Below it, such a great division make,
Charity of the man, who in this world So opposite doth that of the great John,
By contemplation tasted of that peace. Paradiso: Canto XXXII Who, ever holy, desert and martyrdom
“Thou son of grace, this jocund life,” began he, Endured, and afterwards two years in Hell.
“Will not be known to thee by keeping ever Absorbed in his delight, that contemplator And under him thus to divide were chosen
Thine eyes below here on the lowest place; Assumed the willing office of a teacher, Francis, and Benedict, and Augustine,
But mark the circles to the most remote, And gave beginning to these holy words: And down to us the rest from round to round.
Until thou shalt behold enthroned the Queen “The wound that Mary closed up and anointed, Behold now the high providence divine;
To whom this realm is subject and devoted.” She at her feet who is so beautiful, For one and other aspect of the Faith
I lifted up mine eyes, and as at morn She is the one who opened it and pierced it. In equal measure shall this garden fill.
The oriental part of the horizon Within that order which the third seats make
Surpasses that wherein the sun goes down, Is seated Rachel, lower than the other, And know that downward from that rank which
Thus, as if going with mine eyes from vale With Beatrice, in manner as thou seest. cleaves
To mount, I saw a part in the remoteness Sarah, Rebecca, Judith, and her who was Midway the sequence of the two divisions,
Surpass in splendour all the other front. Ancestress of the Singer, who for dole Not by their proper merit are they seated;
And even as there where we await the pole Of the misdeed said, ‘Miserere mei,’ But by another’s under fixed conditions;
That Phaeton drove badly, blazes more Canst thou behold from seat to seat descending For these are spirits one and all assoiled
The light, and is on either side diminished, Down in gradation, as with each one’s name Before they any true election had.
So likewise that pacific oriflamme I through the Rose go down from leaf to leaf. Well canst thou recognise it in their faces,
Gleamed brightest in the centre, and each side And downward from the seventh row, even as And also in their voices puerile,
In equal measure did the flame abate. Above the same, succeed the Hebrew women, If thou regard them well and hearken to them.
And at that centre, with their wings expanded, Dividing all the tresses of the flower; Now doubtest thou, and doubting thou art silent;
More than a thousand jubilant Angels saw I, Because, according to the view which Faith But I will loosen for thee the strong bond
Each differing in effulgence and in kind. In Christ had taken, these are the partition In which thy subtile fancies hold thee fast.
I saw there at their sports and at their songs By which the sacred stairways are divided. Within the amplitude of this domain
A beauty smiling, which the gladness was Upon this side, where perfect is the flower No casual point can possibly find place,
Within the eyes of all the other saints; With each one of its petals, seated are No more than sadness can, or thirst, or hunger;
And if I had in speaking as much wealth Those who believed in Christ who was to come. For by eternal law has been established
As in imagining, I should not dare Upon the other side, where intersected Whatever thou beholdest, so that closely
The ring is fitted to the finger here. Rain down, borne onward in the holy minds The father is, by whose audacious taste
And therefore are these people, festinate Created through that altitude to fly, The human species so much bitter tastes.
Unto true life, not ‘sine causa’ here That whatsoever I had seen before
More and less excellent among themselves. Did not suspend me in such admiration, Upon the right thou seest that ancient father
The King, by means of whom this realm reposes Nor show me such similitude of God. Of Holy Church, into whose keeping Christ
In so great love and in so great delight And the same Love that first descended there, The keys committed of this lovely flower.
That no will ventureth to ask for more, “Ave Maria, gratia plena,” singing, And he who all the evil days beheld,
In his own joyous aspect every mind In front of her his wings expanded wide. Before his death, of her the beauteous bride
Creating, at his pleasure dowers with grace Unto the canticle divine responded Who with the spear and with the nails was won,
Diversely; and let here the effect suffice. From every part the court beatified, Beside him sits, and by the other rests
And this is clearly and expressly noted So that each sight became serener for it. That leader under whom on manna lived
For you in Holy Scripture, in those twins “O holy father, who for me endurest The people ingrate, fickle, and stiff-necked.
Who in their mother had their anger roused. To be below here, leaving the sweet place Opposite Peter seest thou Anna seated,
According to the colour of the hair, In which thou sittest by eternal lot, So well content to look upon her daughter,
Therefore, with such a grace the light supreme Who is the Angel that with so much joy Her eyes she moves not while she sings Hosanna.
Consenteth that they worthily be crowned. Into the eyes is looking of our Queen, And opposite the eldest household father
Without, then, any merit of their deeds, Enamoured so that he seems made of fire?” Lucia sits, she who thy Lady moved
Stationed are they in different gradations, Thus I again recourse had to the teaching When to rush downward thou didst bend thy
Differing only in their first acuteness. Of that one who delighted him in Mary brows.
’Tis true that in the early centuries, As doth the star of morning in the sun. But since the moments of thy vision fly,
With innocence, to work out their salvation And he to me: “Such gallantry and grace Here will we make full stop, as a good tailor
Sufficient was the faith of parents only. As there can be in Angel and in soul, Who makes the gown according to his cloth,
After the earlier ages were completed, All is in him; and thus we fain would have it; And unto the first Love will turn our eyes,
Behoved it that the males by circumcision Because he is the one who bore the palm That looking upon Him thou penetrate
Unto their innocent wings should virtue add; Down unto Mary, when the Son of God As far as possible through his effulgence.
To take our burden on himself decreed. Truly, lest peradventure thou recede,
But after that the time of grace had come But now come onward with thine eyes, as I Moving thy wings believing to advance,
Without the baptism absolute of Christ, Speaking shall go, and note the great patricians By prayer behoves it that grace be obtained;
Such innocence below there was retained. Of this most just and merciful of empires. Grace from that one who has the power to aid
Look now into the face that unto Christ Those two that sit above there most enrapture thee;
Hath most resemblance; for its brightness only As being very near unto Augusta, And thou shalt follow me with thy affection
Is able to prepare thee to see Christ.” Are as it were the two roots of this Rose. That from my words thy heart turn not aside.”
On her did I behold so great a gladness He who upon the left is near her placed And he began this holy orison.
 That thou wouldst scatter from him every cloud Ceases my vision, and distilleth yet
Paradiso: Canto XXXIII Of his mortality so with thy prayers, Within my heart the sweetness born of it;
That the Chief Pleasure be to him displayed. Even thus the snow is in the sun unsealed,
“Thou Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son, Still farther do I pray thee, Queen, who canst Even thus upon the wind in the light leaves
Humble and high beyond all other creature, Whate’er thou wilt, that sound thou mayst Were the soothsayings of the Sibyl lost.
The limit fixed of the eternal counsel, preserve O Light Supreme, that dost so far uplift thee
Thou art the one who such nobility After so great a vision his affections. From the conceits of mortals, to my mind
To human nature gave, that its Creator Let thy protection conquer human movements; Of what thou didst appear re-lend a little,
Did not disdain to make himself its creature. See Beatrice and all the blessed ones And make my tongue of so great puissance,
Within thy womb rekindled was the love, My prayers to second clasp their hands to thee!” That but a single sparkle of thy glory
By heat of which in the eternal peace It may bequeath unto the future people;
After such wise this flower has germinated. The eyes beloved and revered of God, For by returning to my memory somewhat,
Here unto us thou art a noonday torch Fastened upon the speaker, showed to us And by a little sounding in these verses,
Of charity, and below there among mortals How grateful unto her are prayers devout; More of thy victory shall be conceived!
Thou art the living fountain-head of hope. Then unto the Eternal Light they turned, I think the keenness of the living ray
Lady, thou art so great, and so prevailing, On which it is not credible could be Which I endured would have bewildered me,
That he who wishes grace, nor runs to thee, By any creature bent an eye so clear. If but mine eyes had been averted from it;
His aspirations without wings would fly. And I, who to the end of all desires And I remember that I was more bold
Not only thy benignity gives succour Was now approaching, even as I ought On this account to bear, so that I joined
To him who asketh it, but oftentimes The ardour of desire within me ended. My aspect with the Glory Infinite.
Forerunneth of its own accord the asking. Bernard was beckoning unto me, and smiling, O grace abundant, by which I presumed
In thee compassion is, in thee is pity, That I should upward look; but I already To fix my sight upon the Light Eternal,
In thee magnificence; in thee unites Was of my own accord such as he wished; So that the seeing I consumed therein!
Whate’er of goodness is in any creature. Because my sight, becoming purified, I saw that in its depth far down is lying
Now doth this man, who from the lowest depth Was entering more and more into the ray Bound up with love together in one volume,
Of the universe as far as here has seen Of the High Light which of itself is true. What through the universe in leaves is scattered;
One after one the spiritual lives, From that time forward what I saw was greater Substance, and accident, and their operations,
Supplicate thee through grace for so much power Than our discourse, that to such vision yields, All interfused together in such wise
That with his eyes he may uplift himself And yields the memory unto such excess. That what I speak of is one simple light.
Higher towards the uttermost salvation. Even as he is who seeth in a dream, The universal fashion of this knot
And I, who never burned for my own seeing And after dreaming the imprinted passion Methinks I saw, since more abundantly
More than I do for his, all of my prayers Remains, and to his mind the rest returns not, In saying this I feel that I rejoice.
Proffer to thee, and pray they come not short, Even such am I, for almost utterly One moment is more lethargy to me,
Than five and twenty centuries to the emprise That circulation, which being thus conceived
That startled Neptune with the shade of Argo! Appeared in thee as a reflected light,
My mind in this wise wholly in suspense, When somewhat contemplated by mine eyes,
Steadfast, immovable, attentive gazed, Within itself, of its own very colour
And evermore with gazing grew enkindled. Seemed to me painted with our effigy,
In presence of that light one such becomes, Wherefore my sight was all absorbed therein.
That to withdraw therefrom for other prospect As the geometrician, who endeavours
It is impossible he e’er consent; To square the circle, and discovers not,
Because the good, which object is of will, By taking thought, the principle he wants,
Is gathered all in this, and out of it Even such was I at that new apparition;
That is defective which is perfect there. I wished to see how the image to the circle
Shorter henceforward will my language fall Conformed itself, and how it there finds place;
Of what I yet remember, than an infant’s But my own wings were not enough for this,
Who still his tongue doth moisten at the breast. Had it not been that then my mind there smote
Not because more than one unmingled semblance A flash of lightning, wherein came its wish.
Was in the living light on which I looked, Here vigour failed the lofty fantasy:
For it is always what it was before; But now was turning my desire and will,
But through the sight, that fortified itself Even as a wheel that equally is moved,
In me by looking, one appearance only The Love which moves the sun and the other
To me was ever changing as I changed. stars. SIX SONNETS ON DANTE’S DIVINE
Within the deep and luminous subsistence COMEDY BY
Of the High Light appeared to me three circles, HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Of threefold colour and of one dimension, (1807-1882)
And by the second seemed the first reflected I
As Iris is by Iris, and the third Oft have I seen at some cathedral door
Seemed fire that equally from both is breathed. A laborer, pausing in the dust and heat,
O how all speech is feeble and falls short Lay down his burden, and with reverent feet
Of my conceit, and this to what I saw Enter, and cross himself, and on the floor
Is such, ’tis not enough to call it little! Kneel to repeat his paternoster o’er;
Far off the noises of the world retreat;
O Light Eterne, sole in thyself that dwellest, The loud vociferations of the street
Sole knowest thyself, and, known unto thyself Become an undistinguishable roar.
And knowing, lovest and smilest on thyself! So, as I enter here from day to day,
And leave my burden at this minster gate, Rehearsals of forgotten tragedies, And the melodious bells among the spires
Kneeling in prayer, and not ashamed to pray, And lamentations from the crypts below O’er all the house-tops and through heaven above
The tumult of the time disconsolate And then a voice celestial that begins Proclaim the elevation of the Host!
To inarticulate murmurs dies away, With the pathetic words, “Although your sins VI
While the eternal ages watch and wait. As scarlet be,” and ends with “as the snow.” O star of morning and of liberty!
II IV O bringer of the light, whose splendor shines
How strange the sculptures that adorn these With snow-white veil, and garments as of flame, Above the darkness of the Apennines,
towers! She stands before thee, who so long ago Forerunner of the day that is to be!
This crowd of statues, in whose folded sleeves Filled thy young heart with passion and the woe The voices of the city and the sea,
Birds build their nests; while canopied with From which thy song in all its splendors came; The voices of the mountains and the pines,
leaves And while with stern rebuke she speaks thy Repeat thy song, till the familiar lines
Parvis and portal bloom like trellised bowers, name, Are footpaths for the thought of Italy!
And the vast minster seems a cross of flowers! The ice about thy heart melts as the snow Thy fame is blown abroad from all the heights,
But fiends and dragons on the gargoyled eaves On mountain heights, and in swift overflow Through all the nations; and a sound is heard,
Watch the dead Christ between the living thieves, Comes gushing from thy lips in sobs of shame. As of a mighty wind, and men devout,
And, underneath, the traitor Judas lowers! Thou makest full confession; and a gleam Strangers of Rome, and the new proselytes,
Ah! from what agonies of heart and brain, As of the dawn on some dark forest cast, In their own language hear thy wondrous word,
What exultations trampling on despair, Seems on thy lifted forehead to increase; And many are amazed and many doubt.
What tenderness, what tears, what hate of wrong, Lethe and Eunoe—the remembered dream
What passionate outcry of a soul in pain, And the forgotten sorrow—bring at last
Uprose this poem of the earth and air, That perfect pardon which is perfect peace.
This mediaeval miracle of song! V
III I Lift mine eyes, and all the windows blaze
I enter, and I see thee in the gloom With forms of saints and holy men who died,
Of the long aisles, O poet saturnine! Here martyred and hereafter glorified;
And strive to make my steps keep pace with And the great Rose upon its leaves displays
thine. Christ’s Triumph, and the angelic roundelays,
The air is filled with some unknown perfume; With splendor upon splendor multiplied;
The congregation of the dead make room And Beatrice again at Dante’s side
For thee to pass; the votive tapers shine; No more rebukes, but smiles her words of praise.
Like rooks that haunt Ravenna’s groves of pine, And then the organ sounds, and unseen choirs
The hovering echoes fly from tomb to tomb. Sing the old Latin hymns of peace and love
From the confessionals I hear arise And benedictions of the Holy Ghost;