O everlastingly fatiguing mantle!
Again we turned us, still to the left handAlong with them, intent on their sad plaint;
But owing to the weight, that weary folkCame on so tardily, that we were newIn company at each motion of the haunch.
Whence I unto my Leader: “See thou findSome one who may by deed or name be known,And thus in going move thine eye about.”
And one, who understood the Tuscan speech,Cried to us from behind: “Stay ye your feet,Ye, who so run athwart the dusky air!
Perhaps thou’lt have from me what thou demandest.”Whereat the Leader turned him, and said: “Wait,And then according to his pace proceed.”
I stopped, and two beheld I show great hasteOf spirit, in their faces, to be with me;But the burden and the narrow way delayed them.
When they came up, long with an eye askanceThey scanned me without uttering a word.Then to each other turned, and said together:
“He by the action of his throat seems living;And if they dead are, by what privilegeGo they uncovered by the heavy stole?”
Then said to me: “Tuscan, who to the collegeOf miserable hypocrites art come,Do not disdain to tell us who thou art.”
And I to them: “Born was I, and grew upIn the great town on the fair river of Arno,And with the body am I’ve always had.
But who are ye, in whom there trickles downAlong your cheeks such grief as I behold?And what pain is upon you, that so sparkles?”
And one replied to me: “These orange cloaksAre made of lead so heavy, that the weightsCause in this way their balances to creak.
Frati Gaudenti were we, and Bolognese;I Catalano, and he LoderingoNamed, and together taken by thy city,
As the wont is to take one man alone,For maintenance of its peace; and we were suchThat still it is apparent round Gardingo.”
“O Friars,” began I, “your iniquitous…”But said no more; for to mine eyes there rushedOne crucified with three stakes on the ground.
When me he saw, he writhed himself all over,Blowing into his beard with suspirations;And the Friar Catalan, who noticed this,
Said to me: “This transfixed one, whom thou seest,Counselled the Pharisees that it was meetTo put one man to torture for the people.
Crosswise and naked is he on the path,As thou perceivest; and he needs must feel,Whoever passes, first how much he weighs;
And in like mode his father-in-law is punishedWithin this moat, and the others of the council,Which for the Jews was a malignant seed.”
And thereupon I saw Virgilius marvelO’er him who was extended on the crossSo vilely in eternal banishment.
Then he directed to the Friar this voice:“Be not displeased, if granted thee, to tell usIf to the right hand any pass slope down
By which we two may issue forth from here,Without constraining some of the black angelsTo come and extricate us from this deep.”
Then he made answer: “Nearer than thou hopestThere is a rock, that forth from the great circleProceeds, and crosses all the cruel valleys,
Save that at this ’tis broken, and does not bridge it;You will be able to mount up the ruin,That sidelong slopes and at the bottom rises.”
The Leader stood awhile with head bowed down;Then said: “The business badly he recountedWho grapples with his hook the sinners yonder.”