| 1 |
I have seen knights setting forth, beginning assaults and standing muster, and sometimes retreating to save themselves; |
| 4 |
I have seen mounted men coursing your city, O Aretines,I have seen foragers riding, tournaments striking, and jousts running, |
| 7 |
sometimes with trumpets, sometimes with bells,with drums or signals from the tower, with thingsboth our own and foreign: |
| 10 |
but never at so strange a pipe have I seen horsemen or foot-soldiers setting forth, nor a ship at a sign from land or star. |
| 13 |
We were walking with the ten demons. Ah, fierce company! but in church with the saints, in the tavern with the gluttons. |
| 16 |
My attention was all given to the pitch, to see every condition of the moat and of the people burned in it. |
| 19 |
As dolphins do, when they signal to sailors,arching their spines, to take measures to save their ship: |
| 22 |
so from time to time, to lessen the pain, a sinner would show his back and hide it in less than a flash. |
| 25 |
And as at the edge of a ditch the bullfrogs sit with only their snouts showing, hiding their feet and thick bodies: |
| 28 |
so on every side did the sinners, but as Curly Beard came near, like frogs they withdrew into the boiling. |
| 31 |
I saw one wait, and my heart still makes me shudder at it, as sometimes one frog stays while the other jumps; |
| 34 |
and Scratching Dog, who was closest, hooked his grapple in his pitchy locks and drew him up, so that he seemed to me like an otter. |
| 37 |
I had learned all their names, they made such an impression on me when they were chosen and when they called to each other. |
| 40 |
“O Ruby Face, see that you get your nails in him and tear his skin off!”all those cursed ones were shouting at once. |
| 43 |
And I: “My master, see if you can discover who this wretch is who has come into the hands of his enemies.” |
| 46 |
My master stood alongside him; he asked him where he was from, and he replied: “I was born in the kingdom of Navarre. |
| 49 |
My mother placed me in the service of a lord; she had generated me by a wastrel, destroyer of his wealth and of himself. |
| 52 |
Then I was in the household of good king Thibaut; and there I took to barratry, for which square accounts in this heat.” |
| 55 |
And Big Pig, from whose mouth on each side came a tusk like a boar’s, let him feel how one of them could rip. |
| 58 |
Among bad cats had the mouse arrived; but Curly Beard enclosed him with his arms, and said: “Stay over there, while I have him gripped.” |
| 61 |
Then he turned his face toward my master; “Ask again,” he said, “if you want to know more from him before someone does him in.” |
| 64 |
My leader therefore: “Now say: among the other sinners under the pitch, do you know any who is Italian?” And he: “I left one, |
| 67 |
a moment ago, who was from near there. Would I were still hidden with him, I’d not fear claw or crook!” |
| 70 |
And Love Notch said: “We’ve been patient too long,” and he hooked one arm with his pruning knife and pulled, tearing out a muscle. |
| 73 |
Little Big Dragon, too, wanted to hook him below,at the legs; at which their decurion whirled about with an evil look. |
| 76 |
When they had quieted down a little, without delay my master asked the soul, who was still gazing at his wound: |
| 79 |
“Who was he you say you should not have left for the shore?“ and he replied, “It was Brother Gomita, |
| 82 |
the one from Gallura, vessel of every fraud, who had his master’s enemies in his hand and treated them so that each is thankful to him: |
| 85 |
he took their money and let them go scot free, as he tells it; and in his other duties, too, he was not a small barrator, but a champion. |
| 88 |
Master Michel Zanche of Logodoro keep company with him; and their tongues never tire of speaking about Sardinia. |
| 91 |
Oh me, look at this other one snarling; I would say more, but I’m afraid he’s getting ready to scratch my scurf.” |
| 94 |
And the great officer, turning to Butterfly, whose eyes were bulging to strike, said: “Get over there, wicked bird!” |
| 97 |
“If you want to see or hear,” the terrified wretch began again, “Tuscans or Lombards, I can make them come; |
| 100 |
but let the Evil Claws stand a little apart, so they won’t be frightened of their cruelty; and I, sitting right here, |
| 103 |
for one that I am, will make seven come when I whistle, as is our custom to do when one of us is a lookout.” |
| 106 |
At that Evil Dog lifted his snout, shaking his head, and said: “Listen to the trick he’s thought of, so he can jump back in!” |
| 109 |
Therefore he, who had a great wealth of snares,replied: “I am really very tricky, if I procure more suffering for my own kind.” |
| 112 |
Harlequin could not hold back and, against the others, told him: “If you go down, I won’t come after you at a gallop, |
| 115 |
but beating my wings above the pitch. Let’s leave the ridge and hide behind the bank, and we’ll see if all by yourself you can outdo us.” |
| 118 |
O you who read, you will hear strange sport: each of them turned his eyes toward the other bank, and he first who had been most unwilling. |
| 121 |
The Navarrese chose his moment well, planted his feet on the ground, and in one point jumped and escaped their design. |
| 124 |
For that each felt the stab of guilt, but most of all he who had caused the fault; so he moved, crying:“You’re caught!” |
| 127 |
But it did no good, for his wings could not outspeed the other’s fear; the shade dove under, and he straightened his breast to fly back up: |
| 130 |
not otherwise does the duck suddenly disappear when the falcon approaches, and he goes back up,angry and ruffled. |
| 133 |
Trample Frost, angered by the trick, was flying just behind him, hoping the soul would escape, eager to have a scrap; |
| 136 |
and when the barrator had disappeared, he turned his talons against his fellow, and grappled with him above the ditch. |
| 139 |
But the other was a full-grown hawk to grapple him, and both of them fell into the boiling pool. |
| 142 |
The heat was a quick ungrappler; but not for that could they come forth, they had so enlimed theirwings. |
| 145 |
Curly Beard, grieving with his fellows, sent four flying to the inner bank with their hooks, and quickly enough, |
