| 1 |
The color that cowardice brought out on my face,seeing my leader turn back, caused him more quickly to master his own new pallor. |
| 4 |
He stood still, attentive, like one who listens; for his glance could not go far through the black air and the thick fog. |
| 7 |
“Still, we must win the fight,” he began, “if not …Such a one was offered to us. Oh how long it seems to me until someone arrives!” |
| 10 |
I saw well how he covered up his beginning with what came next, words different from the first; |
| 13 |
but nonetheless his speech made me afraid, for I drew from his truncated words a meaning worse than perhaps they held. |
| 16 |
“Into this depth of the sad pit does anyone from the first level ever come, of those whose only punishment is to have hope cut off?” |
| 19 |
Such was my question; and: “Rarely does it happen,” he replied, “that any of us makes the journey I am taking. |
| 22 |
It is true that I have been down here once before, conjured by that harsh Erichtho who called souls back to their bodies. |
| 25 |
My flesh had been naked of me only a little while,when she made me enter those walls, to bring up a spirit from the circle of Judas. |
| 28 |
That is the lowest place and the darkest and the farthest from the sky that turns all things: well do I know the way; therefore be free of care. |
31 |
This swamp that breathes forth the great stench,girds the grieving city all about, where now we cannot enter without wrath.” |
| 34 |
And he said more, but I do not remember it; for my eyes had made me all intent on the high tower with its glowing summit, |
| 37 |
where suddenly, in an instant, stood up three Furies of Hell, stained with blood, who had the limbs and gestures of women |
| 40 |
and were girt with bright green water snakes;little asps and horned serpents they had for hair,which wound about their fierce temples. |
| 43 |
And he, who well knew the maid-servants of the queen of eternal weeping, “Look,” he told me, “at the ferocious Erinyes. |
| 46 |
This is Megaera on the left; she who weeps on the right there is Allecto; Tisiphone is in the middle,” and he fell silent. |
| 49 |
With her nails each was tearing at her breast; they beat themselves with their palms and shrieked so loudly that for fear I drew closer to the poet. |
| 52 |
“Let Medusa come: so we will turn him to concrete,” they were all saying, looking down; “we did ill in not avenging on Theseus his attack.” |
| 55 |
“Turn around and keep your eyes closed; for if the Gorgon appears and you should see her, there would never be any going back up.” |
| 58 |
So spoke my master; and he himself turned me,and he did not stop with my hands, but closed me up with his own as well. |
| 61 |
O you who have sound intellects, gaze on the teaching that is hidden beneath the veil of the strange verses. |
| 64 |
And already, over across the turbid waves, came the crashing of a fearful sound, at which both the banks were shaking, |
| 67 |
not otherwise than of a wind made impetuous by conflicting heats, that strikes the wood and without any resistance |
70 |
shatters the branches, beats them down, and carries them away; full of dust it goes proudly on and makes the beasts and shepherds flee. |
| 73 |
He loosed my eyes and said: “Now direct your beam of sight out over that ancient foam, there where the smoke is darkest.” |
| 76 |
Like frogs before the enemy snake, who scatter themselves through the water until each huddles on the bottom: |
| 79 |
so saw I more than a thousand shattered souls fleeing before one who was walking across Styx with dry feet. |
| 82 |
From his face he was moving that greasy air,waving his left hand before him frequently, and only of that discomfort did he seem weary. |
| 85 |
Well did I perceive that he was sent from Heaven,and I turned to my master, who made a sign that I should stand still and bow to him. |
| 88 |
Ah, how full of disdain he seemed to me! He came to the gate and with a little wand he opened it, for nothing held it. |
| 91 |
“O driven forth from Heaven, despised people,” he began on the horrid threshold, “how is this overweening nursed in you? |
| 94 |
Why do you kick back against that Will whose ends can never be cut short and which has many times increased your suffering? |
| 97 |
What is the good of butting against fate? Your Cerberus, if you remember, still has his chin and gullet stripped because of it.” |
| 100 |
Then he turned back along the filthy way and said not a word to us; he had the look of a man whom other cares urge and gnaw |
| 103 |
than his who stands before him; and we directed our feet toward the city, unafraid after the holy words. |
| 106 |
We entered in without any battle; and I, in my desire to examine the conditions enclosed by such a fortress, |
109 |
as soon as I was inside, send my eye around; and I see on every hand a broad plain, full of grief and harsh torments. |
| 112 |
As at Aries, where the Rhone makes its delta, as at Pola, near the Carnaro that encloses Italy and bathes its boundaries, |
| 115 |
tombs variegate the place, so they did here on every side, except that the manner was more bitter: |
| 118 |
for among the tombs flames were scattered, by which they were so entirely fired that no art asks for iron that is hotter. |
| 121 |
All their covers were lifted, and from them came forth laments so grievous that they surely seemed those of wretches suffering within. |
| 124 |
And I: “Master, who are the people buried within these arks, who make themselves heard with anguished sighs?” |
| 127 |
And he to me: “Here are the chiefs of heresies with their followers, of every sect, and much more than you believe are the tombs laden. |
| 130 |
Like with like is buried here, and the monuments are more and less hot.” And when he had turned to the right, |
| 133 |
we passed between the torments and the high battlements. |
