Reverberates there above San Benedetto
From Alps, by falling at a single leap,Where for a thousand there were room enough;
Thus downward from a bank precipitate,We found resounding that dark-tinted water,So that it soon the ear would have offended.
I had a cord around about me girt,And therewithal I whilom had designedTo take the panther with the painted skin.
After I this had all from me unloosed,As my Conductor had commanded me,I reached it to him, gathered up and coiled,
Whereat he turned himself to the right side,And at a little distance from the verge,He cast it down into that deep abyss.
“It must needs be some novelty respond,”I said within myself, “to the new signalThe Master with his eye is following so.”
Ah me! how very cautious men should beWith those who not alone behold the act,But with their wisdom look into the thoughts!
He said to me: “Soon there will upward comeWhat I await; and what thy thought is dreamingMust soon reveal itself unto thy sight.”
Aye to that truth which has the face of falsehood,A man should close his lips as far as may be,Because without his fault it causes shame;
But here I cannot; and, Reader, by the notesOf this my Comedy to thee I swear,So may they not be void of lasting favour,
Athwart that dense and darksome atmosphereI saw a figure swimming upward come,Marvellous unto every steadfast heart,
Even as he returns who goeth downSometimes to clear an anchor, which has grappledReef, or aught else that in the sea is hidden,
Who upward stretches, and draws in his feet.
Inferno: Canto XVII
“Behold the monster with the pointed tail,Who cleaves the hills, and breaketh walls and weapons,Behold him who infecteth all the world.”
Thus unto me my Guide began to say,And beckoned him that he should come to shore,Near to the confine of the trodden marble;
And that uncleanly image of deceitCame up and thrust ashore its head and bust,But on the border did not drag its tail.
The face was as the face of a just man,Its semblance outwardly was so benign,And of a serpent all the trunk beside.
Two paws it had, hairy unto the armpits;The back, and breast, and both the sides it hadDepicted o’er with nooses and with shields.
With colours more, groundwork or broideryNever in cloth did Tartars make nor Turks,Nor were such tissues by Arachne laid.
As sometimes wherries lie upon the shore,That part are in the water, part on land;And as among the guzzling Germans there,
The beaver plants himself to wage his war;So that vile monster lay upon the border,Which is of stone, and shutteth in the sand.
His tail was wholly quivering in the void,Contorting upwards the envenomed fork,That in the guise of scorpion armed its point.
The Guide said: “Now perforce must turn asideOur way a little, even to that beastMalevolent, that yonder coucheth him.”
We therefore on the right side descended,And made ten steps upon the outer verge,Completely to avoid the sand and flame;
And after we are come to him, I seeA little farther off upon the sandA people sitting near the hollow place.
Then said to me the Master: “So that fullExperience of this round thou bear away,Now go and see what their condition is.
There let thy conversation be concise;Till thou returnest I will speak with him,That he concede to us his stalwart shoulders.”
Thus farther still upon the outermostHead of that seventh circle all aloneI went, where sat the melancholy folk.
Out of their eyes was gushing forth their woe;This way, that way, they helped them with their handsNow from the flames and now from the hot soil.
Not otherwise in summer do the dogs,Now with the foot, now with the muzzle, whenBy fleas, or flies, or gadflies, they are bitten.
When I had turned mine eyes upon the facesOf some, on whom the dolorous fire is falling,Not one of them I knew; but I perceived
That from the neck of each there hung a pouch,Which certain colour had, and certain blazon;And thereupon it seems their eyes are feeding.
And as I gazing round me come among them,Upon a yellow pouch I azure sawThat had the face and posture of a lion.
Proceeding then the current of my sight,Another of them saw I, red as blood,Display a goose more white than butter is.
And one, who with an azure sow and gravidEmblazoned had his little pouch of white,Said unto me: “What dost thou in this moat?
Now get thee gone; and since thou’rt still alive,Know that a neighbour of mine, Vitaliano,Will have his seat here on my left-hand side.
A Paduan am I with these Florentines;Full many a time they thunder in mine ears,Exclaiming, ‘Come the sovereign cavalier,
He who shall bring the satchel with three goats;’”Then twisted he his mouth, and forth he thrustHis tongue, like to an ox that licks its nose.
And fearing lest my longer stay might vexHim who had warned me not to tarry long,Backward I turned me from those weary souls.
I found my Guide, who had already mountedUpon the back of that wild animal,And said to me: “Now be both strong and bold.
Now we descend by stairways such as these;Mount thou in front, for I will be midway,So that the tail may have no power to harm thee.”
Such as he is who has so near the agueOf quartan that his nails are blue already,And trembles all, but looking at the shade;
Even such became I at those proffered words;But shame in me his menaces produced,Which maketh servant strong before good master.
I seated me upon those monstrous shoulders;I wished to say, and yet the voice came notAs I believed, “Take heed that thou embrace me.”
But he, who other times had rescued meIn other peril, soon as I had mounted,Within his arms encircled and sustained me,
And said: “Now, Geryon, bestir thyself;The circles large, and the descent be little;Think of the novel burden which thou hast.”
Even as the little vessel shoves from shore,Backward, still backward, so he thence withdrew;And when he wholly felt himself afloat,
There where his breast had been he turned his tail,And that extended like an eel he moved,And with his paws drew to himself the air.
A greater fear I do not think there wasWhat time abandoned Phaeton the reins,Whereby the heavens, as still appears, were scorched;
Nor when the wretched Icarus his flanksFelt stripped of feathers by the melting wax,His father crying, “An ill way thou takest!”
Than was my own, when I perceived myselfOn all sides in the air, and saw extinguishedThe sight of everything but of the monster.
Onward he goeth, swimming slowly, slowly;Wheels and descends, but I perceive it onlyBy wind upon my face and from below.
I heard already on the right the whirlpoolMaking a horrible crashing under us;Whence I thrust out my head with eyes cast downward.
Then was I still more fearful of the abyss;Because I fires beheld, and heard laments,Whereat I, trembling, all the closer cling.
I saw then, for before I had not seen it,The turning and descending, by great horrorsThat were approaching upon divers sides.
As falcon who has long been on the wing,Who, without seeing either lure or bird,Maketh the falconer say, “Ah me, thou stoopest,”
Descendeth weary, whence he started swiftly,Thorough a hundred circles, and alightsFar from his master, sullen and disdainful;
Even thus did Geryon place us on the bottom,Close to the bases of the rough-hewn rock,And being disencumbered of our persons,
He sped away as arrow from the string.
Inferno: Canto XVIII
There is a place in Hell called Malebolge,Wholly of stone and of an iron colour,As is the circle that around it turns.
Right in the middle of the field malignThere yawns a well exceeding wide and deep,Of which its place the structure will recount.
Round, then, is that enclosure which remainsBetween the well and foot of the high, hard bank,And has distinct in valleys ten its bottom.
As where for the protection of the wallsMany and many moats surround the castles,The part in which they are a figure forms,
Just such an image those presented there;And as about such strongholds from their gatesUnto the outer bank are little bridges,
So from the precipice’s base did cragsProject, which intersected dikes and moats,Unto the well that truncates and collects them.
Within this place, down shaken from the backOf Geryon, we found us; and the PoetHeld to the left, and I moved on behind.
Upon my right hand I beheld new anguish,New torments, and new wielders of the lash,Wherewith the foremost Bolgia was replete.
Down at the bottom were the sinners naked;This side the middle came they facing us,Beyond it, with us, but with greater steps;
Even as the Romans, for the mighty host,The year of Jubilee, upon the bridge,Have chosen a mode to pass the people over;
For all upon one side towards the CastleTheir faces have, and go unto St. Peter’s;On the other side they go towards the Mountain.
This side and that, along the livid stoneBeheld I horned demons with great scourges,Who cruelly were beating them behind.
Ah me! how they did make them lift their legsAt the first blows! and sooth not any oneThe second waited for, nor for the third.
While I was going on, mine eyes by oneEncountered were; and straight I said: “AlreadyWith sight of this one I am not unfed.”
Therefore I stayed my feet to make him out,And with me the sweet Guide came to a stand,And to my going somewhat back assented;
And he, the scourged one, thought to hide himself,Lowering his face, but little it availed him;For said I: “Thou that castest down thine eyes,
If false are not the features which thou bearest,Thou art Venedico Caccianimico;But what doth bring thee to such pungent sauces?”
And he to me: “Unwillingly I tell it;But forces me thine utterance distinct,Which makes me recollect the ancient world.
I was the one who the fair GhisolaInduced to grant the wishes of the Marquis,Howe’er the shameless story may be told.
Not the sole Bolognese am I who weeps here;Nay, rather is this place so full of them,That not so many tongues to-day are taught
’Twixt Reno and Savena to say ‘sipa;’And if thereof thou wishest pledge or proof,Bring to thy mind our avaricious heart.”
While speaking in this manner, with his scourgeA demon smote him, and said: “Get thee gonePander, there are no women here for coin.”
I joined myself again unto mine Escort;Thereafterward with footsteps few we cameTo where a crag projected from the bank.
This very easily did we ascend,And turning to the right along its ridge,From those eternal circles we departed.
When we were there, where it is hollowed outBeneath, to give a passage to the scourged,The Guide said: “Wait, and see that on thee strike
The vision of those others evil-born,Of whom thou hast not yet beheld the faces,Because together with us they have gone.”
From the old bridge we looked upon the trainWhich tow’rds us came upon the other border,And which the scourges in like manner smite.
And the good Master, without my inquiring,Said to me: “See that tall one who is coming,And for his pain seems not to shed a tear;
Still what a royal aspect he retains!That Jason is, who by his heart and cunningThe Colchians of the Ram made destitute.
He by the isle of Lemnos passed alongAfter the daring women pitilessHad unto death devoted all their males.
There with his tokens and with ornate wordsDid he deceive Hypsipyle, the maidenWho first, herself, had all the rest deceived.
There did he leave her pregnant and forlorn;Such sin unto such punishment condemns him,And also for Medea is vengeance done.
With him go those who in such wise deceive;And this sufficient be of the first valleyTo know, and those that in its jaws it holds.”
We were already where the narrow pathCrosses athwart the second dike, and formsOf that a buttress for another arch.
Thence we heard people, who are making moanIn the next Bolgia, snorting with their muzzles,And with their palms beating upon themselves
The margins were incrusted with a mouldBy exhalation from below, that sticks there,And with the eyes and nostrils wages war.
The bottom is so deep, no place sufficesTo give us sight of it, without ascendingThe arch’s back, where most the crag impends.
Thither we came, and thence down in the moatI saw a people smothered in a filthThat out of human privies seemed to flow;
And whilst below there with mine eye I search,I saw one with his head so foul with ordure,It was not clear if he were clerk or layman.
He screamed to me: “Wherefore art thou so eagerTo look at me more than the other foul ones?”And I to him: “Because, if I remember,
I have already seen thee with dry hair,And thou’rt Alessio Interminei of Lucca;Therefore I eye thee more than all the others.”
And he thereon, belabouring his pumpkin:“The flatteries have submerged me here below,Wherewith my tongue was never surfeited.”
Then said to me the Guide: “See that thou thrustThy visage somewhat farther in advance,That with thine eyes thou well the face attain
Of that uncleanly and dishevelled drab,Who there doth scratch herself with filthy nails,And crouches now, and now on foot is standing.
Thais the harlot is it, who repliedUnto her paramour, when he said, ‘Have IGreat gratitude from thee?’—‘Nay, marvellous;’
And herewith let our sight be satisfied.”
Inferno: Canto XIX
O Simon Magus, O forlorn disciples,Ye who the things of God, which ought to beThe brides of holiness, rapaciously
For silver and for gold do prostitute,Now it behoves for you the trumpet sound,Because in this third Bolgia ye abide.
We had already on the following tombAscended to that portion of the cragWhich o’er the middle of the moat hangs plumb.
Wisdom supreme, O how great art thou showestIn heaven, in earth, and in the evil world,And with what justice doth thy power distribute!
I saw upon the sides and on the bottomThe livid stone with perforations filled,All of one size, and every one was round.
To me less ample seemed they not, nor greaterThan those that in my beautiful Saint JohnAre fashioned for the place of the baptisers,
And one of which, not many years ago,I broke for some one, who was drowning in it;Be this a seal all men to undeceive.
Out of the mouth of each one there protrudedThe feet of a transgressor, and the legsUp to the calf, the rest within remained.
In all of them the soles were both on fire;Wherefore the joints so violently quivered,They would have snapped asunder withes and bands.
Even as the flame of unctuous things is wontTo move upon the outer surface only,So likewise was it there from heel to point.
“Master, who is that one who writhes himself,More than his other comrades quivering,”I said, “and whom a redder flame is sucking?”
And he to me: “If thou wilt have me bear theeDown there along that bank which lowest lies,From him thou’lt know his errors and himself.”
And I: “What pleases thee, to me is pleasing;Thou art my Lord, and knowest that I depart notFrom thy desire, and knowest what is not spoken.”
Straightway upon the fourth dike we arrived;We turned, and on the left-hand side descendedDown to the bottom full of holes and narrow.
And the good Master yet from off his haunchDeposed me not, till to the hole he brought meOf him who so lamented with his shanks.
“Whoe’er thou art, that standest upside down,O doleful soul, implanted like a stake,”To say began I, “if thou canst, speak out.”
I stood even as the friar who is confessingThe false assassin, who, when he is fixed,Recalls him, so that death may be delayed.
And he cried out: “Dost thou stand there already,Dost thou stand there already, Boniface?By many years the record lied to me.
Art thou so early satiate with that wealth,For which thou didst not fear to take by fraudThe beautiful Lady, and then work her woe?”
Such I became, as people are who stand,Not comprehending what is answered them,As if bemocked, and know not how to answer.
Then said Virgilius: “Say to him straightway,‘I am not he, I am not he thou thinkest.’”And I replied as was imposed on me.
Whereat the spirit writhed with both his feet,Then, sighing, with a voice of lamentationSaid to me: “Then what wantest thou of me?
If who I am thou carest so much to know,That thou on that account hast crossed the bank,Know that I vested was with the great mantle;
And truly was I son of the She-bear,So eager to advance the cubs, that wealthAbove, and here myself, I pocketed.
Beneath my head the others are dragged downWho have preceded me in simony,Flattened along the fissure of the rock.
Below there I shall likewise fall, wheneverThat one shall come who I believed thou wast,What time the sudden question I proposed.
But longer I my feet already toast,And here have been in this way upside down,Than he will planted stay with reddened feet;
For after him shall come of fouler deedFrom tow’rds the west a Pastor without law,Such as befits to cover him and me.
New Jason will he be, of whom we readIn Maccabees; and as his king was pliant,So he who governs France shall be to this one.”
I do not know if I were here too bold,That him I answered only in this metre:“I pray thee tell me now how great a treasure
Our Lord demanded of Saint Peter first,Before he put the keys into his keeping?Truly he nothing asked but ‘Follow me.’
Nor Peter nor the rest asked of MatthiasSilver or gold, when he by lot was chosenUnto the place the guilty soul had lost.
Therefore stay here, for thou art justly punished,And keep safe guard o’er the ill-gotten money,Which caused thee to be valiant against Charles.
And were it not that still forbids it meThe reverence for the keys superlativeThou hadst in keeping in the gladsome life,
I would make use of words more grievous still;Because your avarice afflicts the world,Trampling the good and lifting the depraved.
The Evangelist you Pastors had in mind,When she who sitteth upon many watersTo fornicate with kings by him was seen;
The same who with the seven heads was born,And power and strength from the ten horns received,So long as virtue to her spouse was pleasing.
Ye have made yourselves a god of gold and silver;And from the idolater how differ ye,Save that he one, and ye a hundred worship?
Ah, Constantine! of how much ill was mother,Not thy conversion, but that marriage dowerWhich the first wealthy Father took from thee!”
And while I sang to him such notes as these,Either that anger or that conscience stung him,He struggled violently with both his feet.
I think in sooth that it my Leader pleased,With such contented lip he listened everUnto the sound of the true words expressed.
Therefore with both his arms he took me up,And when he had me all upon his breast,Remounted by the way where he descended.
Nor did he tire to have me clasped to him;But bore me to the summit of the archWhich from the fourth dike to the fifth is passage.
There tenderly he laid his burden down,Tenderly on the crag uneven and steep,That would have been hard passage for the goats:
Thence was unveiled to me another valley.
Inferno: Canto XX
Of a new pain behoves me to make versesAnd give material to the twentieth cantoOf the first song, which is of the submerged.