1 The time had come to climb without delay
for it was after noon. The narrow way
made us go single file. Within my brain
4 a question formed. Just like a little stork
wishing to fly, raises a wing, but since
it fears to leave the nest, drops it again,
7 I was like that, hardly dared clear my throat
when without backward glance my master spoke:
“You are on fire to ask me something. Shoot!”
10 Assured once more I said, “Shades do not eat,
so what makes some of them so very thin?”
Said he, “Our figures in a looking glass
13 are bodiless, yet show us as we are,
thinner or fatter though they do not eat.
I know a better explanation’s due.
16 Statius, may I pass that job to you?”
Came the reply, “You know as much as I,
but your request is one that I accept.”
19 Statius told me, “Listen son, and learn.
The human male’s creative fluids go
through vein and heart, infuse and shape each part
until in loving acts they overflow 22
the female vessel, thus fertilising
her passive fluids into a new life
with whole new soul, but not yet rational. 25
Think it a plant containing seeds. These sprout
into organs that it needs, moving like
water creature, jellyfish or tadpole 28
stirring in the womb. By natural growth
these turn into a complex animal.
How animal becomes a child with mind 31
is mystery. A wiser man than we,
Arabian Averroes, could find
no organ of self-consciousness so said 34
it naturally grew in new-born brains.
Untrue! Believe what Aquinas deduced.
As soon as nature forms the foetal brain 37
the First Creator welcomes it as His.
Rejoicing, he breathes into it His own
freedom that can reflect upon itself. 40
Think of how sunlight changes grapes to wine.
God’s gift of free thought is far more divine.
When, after life, the soul is loosed from flesh 43
it keeps those faculties it gained in life –
memory, intelligence and will –
but more enhanced, much keener than before. 46
These rush it to the one or other shore
where wait the ferries that will take them to
49 fit states in Hell or here, for what they’ve made
of their immortal souls now radiate
on air their shapes and size while still alive,
52 as sunbeams build across a rain-wet sky
a bow of colours to entrance the eye.
That shape moves as the soul moves, for each sense
55 has organs letting it walk, speak, smile, weep
as you experienced. Passions change
souls, shapes, as appeared in glutton’s ring,
58 prompting you to ask for explanation.”
We set foot on the last road round that height,
turned right and I was terrified to see
61 huge flames that blasted from the inner cliff
to almost reach the ring-road’s outer edge.
A strong up-draft of wind from down below
64 drove back that fiery hedge a little way,
leaving space along the precipice’s edge
where we could walk in single file, me last
67 between cremation and a deadly fall.
My master said (but did not need to say)
“Be careful here and do not swerve at all.”
70 Then from the endless bonfire at my side
that mighty hymn, O Lord have mercy came,
sung by a band of spirits in the flame.
73 Fear for my skin and curiosity
made me stare to and fro between my feet
and choir of shades who, finishing the hymn
then cried aloud the words that Mary said 76
on hearing she was carrying a child:
But I have never known a man! They then
softly began singing the hymn again. 79
After each hymn they chanted a new phrase
denouncing lust or praising chastity,
and with these penances they pass their days. 82