| 1 |
O Simon Magus, O wretched followers, you who the things of God, that should be brides of goodness, rapaciously |
| 4 |
adulterate for gold and for silver, now the trumpet must sound for you, because you are in the third pocket. |
| 7 |
We had already climbed to that part of the ridge that is exactly above the center of the next tomb. |
| 10 |
O highest Wisdom, how great is the art you show in the heavens, on earth, and in the evil world, and how justly your Power distributes! |
| 13 |
I saw, along the sides and the bottom, the livid rock perforated with holes, all of the same size, and each was round. |
| 16 |
They seemed no less ample, nor greater, than those in my lovely San Giovanni, made as places for the baptizers; |
| 19 |
one of which, not many years ago, I broke because of one drowning inside it: and let this be a seal to undeceive all men. |
| 22 |
From the mouth of each protruded the feet and legs of a sinner, as far as the thighs, and the rest was inside. |
| 25 |
All of them had both soles aflame; therefore they wriggled their joints so violently that they would have broken twisted withes or braided ropes. |
| 28 |
As the flaming of oily things moves over just the outer rind: so did it there from heel to toes. |
| 31 |
“Who is that one, master, who shows the torture by wriggling more than his other companions,” I said, “and whom a ruddier flame sucks at?” |
| 34 |
And he to me: “If you wish me to carry you there, down the bank that is less steep, from him you will learn of him and his wrongs.” |
| 37 |
And I: ”So much is pleasant to me as pleases you: you are my lord, you know that I do not depart from your will, and you know what I leave unsaid.” |
| 40 |
Then we came to the fourth bank; we turned and descended to the left, down there into the narrow, perforated ditch. |
| 43 |
My good master did not put me down from his hip until we reached the place of him who was weeping so with his shanks. |
| 46 |
“O whatever you are, you who hold your up side down, sorrowing soul, planted like a pole,” I began speaking, “if you can, say a word.” |
| 49 |
I was standing like the friar that confesses the treacherous assassin who, once he is fixed in the earth, calls him back so as to put off his death. |
| 52 |
And he cried out: “Are you already standing there, are you already standing there, Boniface? The writing lied to me by several years. |
| 55 |
Are you so soon sated by the wealth for which you did not fear to marry the lovely lady fraudulently, and then to tear her apart?” |
| 58 |
I became like those who, not understanding what is said to them, stand as if mocked, at a loss for a reply. |
| 61 |
Then Virgil said: “Tell him quickly, ‘I am not he, I am not he you suppose,’”; and I replied as was commanded me. |
| 64 |
Therefore the spirit twisted its feet; next, sighing, its voice full of tears, it said to me: “Then what do you want from me? |
| 67 |
If it matters so much to know who I am, that just for this you have run down the bank, know that I was clothed in the great mantle; |
| 70 |
and truly I was a son of the she-bear, so greedy to advance her cubs, that I pocketed wealth up there, and myself down here. |
| 73 |
Beneath my head are driven the others who preceded me in simony, squeezed into the cracks of the rock. |
| 76 |
I, too, will fall down there, when he comes who I believed you to be, when I asked my sudden question. |
| 79 |
But it has been a longer time that my feet have burned and that I have been upsidedown like this, than he will be planted with red feet: |
| 82 |
for after him will come, from towards the west, a lawless shepherd of even uglier deeds, such that he will cover both him and me. |
| 85 |
He will be a new Jason, like the one we read of in Maccabees; and as his king was indulgent to the first one, so the ruler of France will be to him.” |
| 88 |
I do not know if here I became too rash, but I replied to him in this meter: “Ah, now tell me: how much treasure did |
| 91 |
our Lord demand from Saint Peter, before he gave the keys into his keeping? Surely he asked only, ‘Follow me.’ |
| 94 |
Neither Peter nor the others took from Matthias gold or silver, when he was chosen for the place lost by the wicked soul. |
| 97 |
Therefore stay here, for you deserve your punishment; and be sure to keep your ill-gotten coin, which made you bold against Charles. |
| 100 |
And were it not that I am forbidden by my reverence for the highest keys, which you held in happy life, |
| 103 |
I would use still heavier words; for your avarice afflicts the world, trampling the good and raising up the wicked. |
| 106 |
Of you shepherds the Evangelist took note, when he saw her who sits upon the waters whoring with the kings; |
| 109 |
she who was born with seven heads, and took strength from her ten horns as long as virtue pleased her husband. |
| 112 |
You have made gold and silver your god; and what difference is there between you and the idol-worshipper, except that he prays to one, and you to a hundred? |
| 115 |
Ah, Constantine, not your conversion, but that dowry which the first rich father took from you, has been the mother of so much evil!” |
| 118 |
And while I was singing these notes to him, whether it was anger or conscience that was biting him, he kicked violently with both his feet. |
| 121 |
I firmly believe that it pleased my leader, with such a contented smile he listened still to the sound of the true words I spoke. |
| 124 |
Therefore with both arms he seized me; and when he had lifted me up to his breast, he climbed back up by the way he had come down. |
| 127 |
Nor did he tire of holding me embraced, but carried me to the top of the arch that gives passage from the fourth to the fifth bank. |
| 130 |
There he gently put his burden down, gently on the rough, steep ridge, which even for she-goats would be a difficult crossing. |
| 133 |
From there another valley was revealed to me. |
