| 1 |
“Pape Satan, pape Satan aleppe!” began Plutus with his clucking voice; and that noble sage, who knew all things, |
| 4 |
said, to strengthen me, “Let not your fear harm you; for whatever power he may have shall not prevent us from going down this cliff.” |
| 7 |
Then he turned back to that swollen face and said: “Silence, cursed wolf! consume yourself with your rage within. |
| 10 |
Not without cause is our descent to the depths: it is willed on high, where Michael avenged the proud onslaught.” |
| 13 |
As when sails swollen by the wind fall tangled, when the mast gives way: so did that cruel beast fall to earth. |
| 16 |
So we descended into the fourth pit, taking in more of the sorrowing bank that bags all the evil of the universe. |
| 19 |
Ah, justice of God! who stuffs in so many strange travails and punishments as I saw? and why does our own guilt so destroy us? |
| 22 |
As the waves do there above Charybdis, breaking over each other as they collide: so the people here must dance their round. |
| 25 |
Here I saw people more numerous than before, on one side and the other, with great cries rolling weights by the force of their chests. |
| 28 |
They would collide, and then right there each one, reversing directions, would look back, crying: “Why do you hold?” and “Why do you toss?” |
| 31 |
Thus they would return around the dark circle on either hand to the point opposite, again shouting at each other their shameful meter; |
| 34 |
then each would turn back, once he had arrived through his half-circle to the other jousting. And I, my heart almost pierced through, |
| 37 |
said: “Master, now explain to me what people this is, and if these tonsured ones to our left were all clerics.” |
| 40 |
And he to me: “Every one of them was so cross-eyed of mind in the first life, that no measure governed their spending. |
| 43 |
Very clearly do their voices bay it out, when they come to the two points of the circle where their opposing faults disjoin them. |
| 46 |
These were clerics, who have no hairy covering to their heads, and popes and cardinals, in whom avarice does its worst.” |
| 49 |
And I: “Master, among this last kind, I should certainly be able to recognize some who were soiled with those ills.” |
| 52 |
And he to me: “You are gathering empty thought: the undiscerning life that befouled them makes them dark now to all recognition. |
| 55 |
For eternity they will come to the two buttings: these will rise from the tomb with closed fists, these with hair cut short. |
| 58 |
Bad giving and bad keeping has deprived them of the lovely world and set them to this scuffling: whatever it is, I prettify no words for it. |
| 61 |
Now you can see, my son, the brief mockery of the goods that are committed to Fortune, for which the human race so squabbles; |
| 64 |
for all the gold that is under the moon and that ever was, could not give rest to even one of these weary souls.” |
| 67 |
“My master,” said I, “now tell me also: this Fortune that you touch on here, what is it, that has the goods of the world so in its clutches?” |
| 70 |
And he to me: “O foolish creatures, how great is the ignorance that injures you! Now I would have you drink in my judgment. |
| 73 |
He whose wisdom transcends all things fashioned the heavens, and he gave them governors who see that every part shines to every other part, |
| 76 |
distributing the light equally. Similarly, for worldly splendors he ordained a general minister and leader |
| 79 |
who would transfer from time to time the empty goods from one people to another, from one family to another, beyond any human wisdom’s power to prevent; |
| 82 |
therefore one people rules and another languishes, according to her judgment, that is hidden, like the snake in grass. |
| 85 |
Your knowledge cannot resist her; she foresees, judges, and carries out her rule as the other gods do theirs. |
| 88 |
Her permutations know no truce; necessity makes her swift, so thick come those who must have their turns. |
| 91 |
This is she who is so crucified even by those who should give her praise, wrongly blaming and speaking ill of her; |
| 94 |
but she is blessed in herself and does not listen: with the other first creatures, she gladly turns her sphere and rejoices in her blessedness. |
| 97 |
But now let us go down to even greater pity: already every star is falling that was rising when I set out, and too long a stay is forbidden.” |
| 100 |
We cut across the circle to the other shore, beside a spring that boils and spills into a ditch leading away from it. |
| 103 |
The water was much darker than purple; and we, beside the murky wave, entered a strange, descending path. |
| 106 |
Into the swamp called Styx goes this sad stream, when it has come down to the foot of the evil grey slopes. |
| 109 |
And I, gazing intently, saw people muddied in that slough, all naked, with indignant expressions. |
| 112 |
They kept striking each other, and not only with hands, but with head and breast and feet, tearing each other apart with their teeth, piece by piece. |
| 115 |
My kind master said: “Son, now behold the souls of those whom anger vanquished; and I would have you believe, too, as a certainty, |
| 118 |
that under the water are people who are sighing, making the water bubble at the surface, as your eye will tell you wherever it turns. |
| 121 |
Fixed in the mire, they say: ’We were gloomy in the sweet air that the sun makes glad, bearing within us the fumes of sullenness: |
| 124 |
now we languish in the black slime.’ This hymn they gurgle in their throats, for they cannot fully form the words.“ |
| 127 |
So we wound about a large arc of the filthy swamp, between the dry bank and the wetness, our eyes turned on those who swallow mud. |
| 130 |
We came to the foot of a tower at the last. |
