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Ngôn ngữ: Chưa xác định
Gửi bởi demmuadong ngày 26/10/2006 19:46
When in that season of the youthful year
The sun warms his rays beneath Aquarius,
And soon the nights shall meet the days halfway,
When the hoarfrost paints upon the ground
5 The perfect picture of his pure white sister
(But pigment from his brush soon vanishes),
The peasant, short on fodder for his sheep,
Wakes up and looks out and sees the fields
All blanketed in white: he smacks his thigh,
10 Turns back indoors and walking up and down,
Frets like a wretch not knowing what to do;
Out he comes once more, and hope revives
When he sees the world has changed its face
In so brief a time, and he takes up his staff
15 To drive his sheep outside to the green pasture:
Just so I felt such deep dismay to see
My master’s brow grown pale with some new trouble
And as quickly came the gauze to heal the hurt.
For as soon as we approached the shattered bridge
20 My escort turned to me that same sweet look
Which I’d first seen at the foot of the mountain.
He opened wide his arms — once he had closely
Studied the wreckage and come to some resolve
Within himself — then he took hold of me.
25 And just like one who works and thinks things out,
Who is always ready for what lies ahead,
So he, lifting me toward the dome of one
Huge boulder, spied another crag above
And said, "Now clamber onto that: but first
30 Try it out to see if it will hold you."
It was no path for those clothed in their cloaks!
For we could hardly — he, light, and I, with help —
Handhold by handhold, scale the jutting rocks.
And had it not been that, down from that rampart,
35 The slope of one bank was lower than the other,
I cannot speak for him, but I’d be beaten.
But because Malebolge all falls away
Toward the open mouth of the lowest well,
The layout of each valley predetermined
40 That as one bank rises, the next tapers off.
And so we reached, at last, the point on top
Where the last stone of the bridge fell broken.
The breath was so pumped out of my lungs
When I climbed aloft, I could not go onward,
45 And as soon as I’d come up there I sat down.
"Now you must shake off all your laziness,"
My master said, "for loungers and slugabeds
Will never reach the heights of lasting fame:
"Without fame a man wears away his life,
50 Leaving such traces of himself on earth
As smoke on air or foam upon the water.
"Straighten up! Conquer your fatigue
With the spirit that wins every battle
Unless it sink under the body’s weight.
55 "Longer stairs than these wait to be climbed!
It is not enough to leave these souls behind:
If you have understood my words, act on them!"
I stood up then, showing that I was better
Supplied with wind than I had been before,
60 And said, "Go on, for I am strong and ready."
We picked our way along the curving ridge
Which was more jagged, narrower and harder,
And so much steeper than the ridge before.
Not to seem weak, I talked as I pushed on;
65 Then, from the next ditch there arose a voice
That seemed incapable of forming words.
I don’t know what he said, though now I stood
On the crown of the arch that crosses there,
But whoever spoke appeared to be running.
70 I had bent over, yet my living eyes
Could not pierce through the darkness to the bottom;
So I said, "Master, kindly manage to reach
"The next ring, and let us climb down the wall:
From here I cannot grasp what I am hearing,
75 And I see down but I can make out nothing."
"No other answer," he said, "shall I give you
Than doing it, because a fit request
Should in silence be followed by the deed."
We climbed down where the bridgehead ended
80 And where it merged with the eighth embankment,
And then its pocket opened up to me:
And there within I saw a repulsive mass
Of serpents in such a horrifying state
That still my blood runs cold when I recall them.
85 No more need Libya boast about the sands
Where chelydri, jaculi, phareae,
And cenchres with amphisbaena breed:
She could not show — with all Ethiopia
Nor the lands that lie surrounding the Red Sea —
90 So rampant and pestiferous a plague.
Among this cruel and miserable swarm
Were people running stripped and terrified,
With no hope of hiding-hole or heliotrope.
They had hands tied behind their backs by snakes
95 That thrust out head and tail through their loins
And that coiled then in knots around the front.
And look! A serpent sprang up at one sinner
Upon our strand and it transfixed him there
Where neck and shoulders knotted at the nape.
100 No o or i was ever written faster
Than that sinner flared up and burst in flames
And, falling down, completely turned to ashes.
And then, as he lay scattered on the ground,
The ashy dust collected by itself
105 And suddenly returned to its first shape.
Just so, men of high learning have avowed
That the phoenix dies and is then reborn
When it approaches its five-hundredth year;
In life it does not feed on grass or grain,
110 But only on the tears of balm and incense,
And its last winding-sheet is nard and myrrh.
As one who falls in a fit, not knowing how —
By devilish force that drags him to the ground
Or by some other blockage that binds a man —
115 When he lifts himself up, and looks around,
All out of focus with the heavy anguish
He has suffered, sighing as he stares:
Such was this sinner after he arose.
O power of God, what great severity
120 To have poured down such blows in its vengeance!
My guide then asked the sinner who he was,
And he replied to this, "Not long ago
I rained from Tuscany down to this hellmouth.
"Bestial life and not the human pleased me,
125 Like the mule I was; I am Vanni Fucci,
Beast, and Pistoia was a fit den for me."
I said to my guide, "Tell him not to slink
Away, and ask him what crime cast him here,
For I knew him as a man of blood and tantrums."
130 The sinner, who understood, made no evasions
But turned his mind and face straight toward me
And reddened with distressful shame, then said,
"It grieves me more that you have found me out
Amid the wretchedness in which you see me
135 Than when I was taken from the other life.
"I am not able to refuse your asking.
I am set down so far because I robbed
The sacristy of its splendid treasure,
"And later someone else was falsely blamed.
140 But, that you may not revel in this sight,
If ever you escape from these dark regions,
"Open your ears and listen to my tidings:
Pistoia first divests herself of Blacks;
Then Florence changes over men and laws.
145 "From Valdimagra Mars draws a fiery vapor
Which is enwrapped in dark and smoky clouds,
And with a raging and relentless storm
"There shall be battling on Campo Piceno
Until it will abruptly smash the scud
150 And every White will be struck by the lightning.
"And I have told you this to make you suffer."
Ngôn ngữ: Chưa xác định
Gửi bởi demmuadong ngày 20/10/2006 19:24
Silent, solitary, without escort,
We walked along, one behind the other,
Like minor friars traveling the road.
Because of the scuffle we had just seen,
5 My thoughts turned to one of Aesop’s fables
In which he tells about the frog and mouse.
For "soon" and "shortly" are not more similar
Than fiction is like fact, if carefully
You compare the beginning and end of both.
10 And just as one thought rises from another,
So this gave birth to still another thought
That doubled the first fear that I had felt.
I thought like this: These devils have been mocked
By us with so much damage and derision
15 That I believe they feel deeply offended.
If anger should be added to bad-will,
They will chase us even more viciously
Than the hound that snatches up the hare.
Already I felt my hair start to stand up
20 With fear that gripped me as I stared behind.
"Master," I said, "if you don’t find a spot
"To hide us — quick — I dread the Malebranche —
They’re after us right now — I imagine that
They’re there — so close that I can hear them now!"
25 And he replied, "Were I a leaded mirror
I couldn’t catch your outward look more quickly
Than your inner thoughts occur to me.
"Just now, in fact, they mingled with my own,
So similar in act and coloration
30 That I will put them both to one resolve:
"Should the right bank slope in such a way
That we may descend to the next pocket,
We could escape the chase we both have pictured."
He’d hardly finished setting forth his plan
35 When I saw them approaching with spread wings
Not too far off, intent on taking us.
All of a sudden my guide snatched me up,
Just as a mother waking to a roar
And seeing flames bursting next to her
40 Snatches her son and runs and will not stop —
She cares much more for him than for herself —
She does not even pause to put a robe on!
And so down from the height of the hard bank
Upon his back he slid on the sloping rock
45 Which blocks off one side of the next pocket.
Never water ran along a sluice
So fast to turn the wheel of a land-mill
When it courses closest to the paddles,
As my master hastened down that bank,
50 Carrying me held fast upon his breast
As if I were his son, not a companion.
Hardly had his feet hit down on bedrock
On the ground below when the fiends were high
On the ridge right over us — no need to panic:
55 For the divine Providence that willed them
To be placed as servants of the fifth ditch
Deprived them of all power for leaving it.
Below that point we found a painted people
Who walked in circles with the slowest steps,
60 Weeping and worn in looks and overwhelmed.
The cloaks they wore had cowls drawn down low
Over their eyes, made in a similar style
As those that are made for monks in Cluny.
These are so gilded outside that they dazzle,
65 But inside, solid lead, and so heavy that,
Compared to them, Frederick’s capes were straw.
O mantle of unending weariness!
Once again we turned to the left hand,
Along with those souls rapt in their sad tears.
70 But with their weights the tired people trod
So slowly that we had fresh company
With every step we took along the way.
At this sight I asked my guide, "Please find
Someone I should know by deed or name:
75 Let your eyes roam around while we walk on."
And one who had picked up my Tuscan accent
Shouted out behind us, "Halt your steps,
You, racing so fast through this murky air!
"Perhaps you’ll get from me what you ask for!"
80 So my guide turned to me, proposing, "Wait,
Then move ahead according to this pace."
I stopped, and saw two showing in their faces
Their minds’ restless haste to be with me,
But their loads and the narrow road delayed them.
85 When they caught up, they viewed me with their eyes
Askance, staring and not uttering a word;
Then they turned to one another and observed,
"This one seems alive, since his throat moves,
But if they both are dead, what privilege
90 Lets them go unclad by the heavy mantles?"
Then they said to me, "O Tuscan, you come
To this chapter of the sorry hypocrites:
Do not scorn to tell us who you are."
And I told them, "I was born and grew up
95 In the great city by the Arno’s lovely stream,
And I am in the flesh I’ve always had.
"But who are you whose grief distills such tears
As I perceive now coursing down your cheeks?
What is this penance glittering upon you?"
100 And one of them replied, "The yellow cloaks
Are thick with lead of so much weight it makes us
Who are the scales in the balance creak.
"We both were Jovial Friars, and Bolognese:
My name was Catalano, his Loderingo;
105 Together we were chosen by your city
"To do what one man usually is assigned,
Keep the peace, and how much we succeeded
Still can be seen around the Gardingo."
I began, "O friars, your wicked ..." — but said
110 No more: my eyes caught the sight of one
Crucified with three stakes on the ground.
When he saw me, he twisted all around,
Breathing hard into his beard with sighs,
And brother Catalano, who observed this,
115 Said to me, "That one you see nailed down
Advised the Pharisees it was expedient
To sacrifice one man for the people.
"Stretched out naked he lies, across the way,
As you yourself see, and is made to feel
120 The full weight of every passer-by.
"In the same way is his father-in-law racked
In this same ditch, and the rest of that council
Which has sowed so much evil for the Jews."
Then I saw Virgil struck with wonder over
125 The one who lay stretched there on the cross
So ignominiously in unending exile.
He afterwards spoke these words to the friar,
"Would you please, if it’s allowed, tell us
If on the right side there lies any passage
130 "By which we two can go away from here
Without compelling some of those black angels
To come down to this depth to get us out."
He answered then, "Closer than you hope
There is a rocky ridge that reaches out from
135 The huge round wall and spans all the wild valleys
"Except this broken bridge which does not cross.
You can climb back up by way of the ruins
That lie along the slope, heaped at the bottom."
My guide stood awhile, head bowed, then said,
140 "That one who grapples sinners over there
Gave us a false account about this business."
And the friar: "Once in Bologna I heard
Described the devil’s many vices, among them
That he’s a liar and the father of lies."
145 With giant strides my guide then hurried off,
Somewhat perturbed, by the anger in his look.
At this I left those heavy-burdened souls,
Following the prints of his dear feet.
Ngôn ngữ: Chưa xác định
Gửi bởi demmuadong ngày 17/10/2006 19:25
I have seen horsemen in the past break camp,
Muster their army and open assault,
And at times even beat a quick retreat;
I have seen outriders roam your countryside,
5 O Aretines, and seen raiding-parties charge,
Tournaments clash and jousters galloping,
Some called by trumpets and some by bells,
By drumrolls and by flares from castle-walls,
By homemade and imported instruments;
10 But never before have I seen horsemen,
Footsoldiers, or ships that sail by sighting
Of land or stars move to a stranger bugle.
We walked together along with the ten demons —
Ah, what fierce company, and yet: with saints
15 In church, with rioters in the tavern!
My whole attention was fixed on the pitch
To study every aspect of this pocket
And of the people who, within it, burned.
Just as dolphins do, when with arching backs
20 They signal a storm-warning to the sailors
To make all hands ready to save the ship,
So here at times to soothe the suffering
Some sinner showed his back above the top
And hid again as fast as lightning flashes.
25 And just as on the water’s edge of ditches
Frogs squat with only their muzzles showing,
To hide their legs and the rest of their fat flesh,
So here on all sides these sinners squatted,
But the instant Barbariccia stepped forward,
30 They dived back underneath the boiling pitch.
I saw, and still my heart shudders with it,
One lag behind — just as sometimes one frog
Will stay back while another leaps below —
And Graffiacane, the closest to him,
35 Hooked him up by his pitch-knotted hair
And hauled him out — he looked just like an otter!
I knew all of the devils now by name,
For I had watched them when they were selected,
And when they called each other, I had listened.
40 "Oh Rubicante, see that you get your claws
Into his back so you can skin and flay him!"
The whole damned squad shouted all together.
And I: "My master, if you can, please do
Find out the name of the unfortunate soul
45 Who’s fallen in the clutches of his foes."
My guide, drawing closer to his side,
Asked him where he came from; he replied,
"I was born in the kingdom of Navarre.
"My mother placed me in service to a lord,
50 For she had had me by some fly-by-night,
A destroyer of his goods and suicide.
"Then I served in kind King Thibault’s household
Where I set myself up by accepting graft:
And in this heat I render my account."
55 And Ciriatto, with two tusks stuck out
From both sides of his mouth, just like a boar’s,
Let him feel how one tusk could rip him open.
The mouse had fallen prey to wicked cats.
But Barbariccia grabbed him with his arms,
60 Yelling, "Stay back there while I’ve got a grip!"
Then he turned his face to my guide and said,
"Ask once again, if you want to learn more
From him, before the rest tear him apart."
So my guide: "Tell me then, among the other
65 Sinners, do you know of any Italians sunk
Under the pitch?" And he: "I just now left
"One soul from near there — would that I were still
With him beneath the shelter of that pitch!
These claws and hooks would not then frighten me!"
70 And Libicocco snarled, "We’ve stood enough!"
And with his grapple caught him by the arm
And, tearing at it, hacked out the skin and muscle.
But Draghignazzo also hoped to lay
Hooks to his legs; at that the captain whipped
75 About and rounded them with ill-boding looks.
When they’d become a little more subdued,
Without waiting, my guide questioned the sinner
Who stood there still, studying his wound,
"Who was the soul you said you had to leave
80 Behind you there when you came to the shore?"
He answered, "That was Friar Gomita
"From Gallura, a purse for every fraud!
He had his master’s enemies in his hands
And treated them so that they sang his praises.
85 "He took their cash and let them off scot free,
As he admits, and in his other dealings
He was no petty thief but a royal one.
"With him is his cohort Michel Zanche
Of Logodoro, and their tongues never tire
90 With constant chatter about Sardinia.
"Oh oh, look! there’s another grinding his teeth!
I’d tell you more but I feel terrified
That that fiend is all set to scratch my scabs!"
Then their field marshal, facing Farfarello,
95 His eyes rolling with readiness to strike,
Shouted, "Get back from there, you filthy bird!"
"If it remains your wish to see or hear
Tuscans or Lombards," the frightened soul resumed,
"I will call up still more to come to you.
100 "But let the Malebranche there stand aside
So that the souls may not fear their vengeance,
And I, staying seated in this same spot,
"All by myself, shall make seven surface
By whistling, a practice that we follow
105 Whenever one of us escapes the pitch."
At this news Cagnazzo raised his muzzle;
Shaking his head, he sneered, "Listen to that —
A trick he has thought up to jump back down!"
With that, he who had a store of stratagems
110 Answered, "I am a tricky soul indeed
When I gain deeper pain for my own partners!"
Alichino could not restrain himself
And, counter to the rest, said, "If you jump,
I wouldn’t come galloping after you;
115 "Instead, I’ll flap my wings above the pitch-pot!
We’ll leave this ridge and make the bank a shield
To see if all alone you can outsmart us!"
O reader, listen to the latest sport!
Each turned his eyes toward the other shore —
120 The first one was the fiend who most resisted!
The Navarrese picked his time perfectly,
Fixed both feet on the ground and in a flash
Leaped out and broke free of the fiend-in-charge!
Each one felt guilt-stricken at being gulled,
125 But chief the one who brought about the blunder,
So he took straight off and cried, "You’re caught!"
But it did little good, for wings cannot
Fly faster than can fear: the one dives under
While the other thrusts up his chest in flight.
130 No different is the duck that plunges downward
With a rush when the falcon closes in
And then, beaten and bitter, soars back again.
Calcabrina, fuming at the ruse,
Flew after Alichino; he was hoping
135 The sinner would escape so he could tussle.
And as soon as the grafter disappeared,
He turned his claws on his air-borne comrade
And grappled with him high above the ditch.
But the other was a fullfledged sparrowhawk
140 And clawed at him until they both tumbled
Right in the middle of the boiling pond.
Instantly the heat blew them asunder,
But then they had no way of lifting off
Since they had clogged their wings with gluey pitch.
145 Barbariccia, fretting with the rest,
Sent four fiends to fly to the other side
With all their pitchforks, and swiftly enough,
From here and there they then took up their posts
And stretched their hooks out to the bird-limed pair
150 Who were already cooked inside the crust.
And so we left them embroiled in that mess.
Ngôn ngữ: Chưa xác định
Gửi bởi demmuadong ngày 13/10/2006 19:25
So from bridge to bridge, talking of matters
That my Comedy here has no care to sing,
We traveled on, and we had reached the summit
When we stopped to look at yet another gap
5 Of Malebolge and another empty sorrow:
And I saw how awesomely dark it was!
Just as at the arsenal of the Venetians
In wintertime the sticky pitch for caulking
The seams of the leaky vessels boils —
10 Since they cannot then set sail — and instead,
Some rebuild the keels, some plug up the ribs
Of hulls that rode on many voyagings,
Some hammer at the prow and some the stern,
Others cut oars, still others twist new rope,
15 Another sews patches on the jib and mainsail:
So, not by the fire but by the art of God,
Boiled, there below, a thick and sticky pitch
Which glue-coated the banks on every side.
I saw the pitch, but in it I saw nothing
20 Except the rising of the boiling bubbles,
The whole swelling up and sinking down.
While I stared down intently into it,
My guide, calling to me, "Watch out! Watch out!"
Drew me to his side from where I stood.
25 At that I turned around like someone anxious
To see whatever he is supposed to shun
While he remains so dashed by sudden panic
That he won’t stop his flight but will look back:
And I saw behind us a blackened devil
30 Come running up along the ridge’s length.
Ah, what a ferocious look he had!
And how fierce his actions seemed to me,
With his wings wide-open and his light feet!
Upon his shoulders, which were high and pointed,
35 He had loaded a sinner by both legs,
Gripping him in front by the ankles.
From our bridge he called, "Oh, Malebranche,
Here is one of Saint Zita’s elders!
Toss him below while I go back for more
40 "To that city which is so well supplied:
All men there, except Bonturo, are grafters!
In Lucca they will change no to yes for cash!"
He plunged the sinner down and turned about
Upon the rocky ridge: no hound freed from
45 Its leash ever chased a thief so swiftly!
The sinner sank and surfaced rear end-up,
But the demons under cover of the bridge
Shouted, "The Holy Face has no place here!
"Swimming here is not like in the Serchio!
50 If you don’t want to feel our grappling-hooks,
Don’t raise yourself up above that pitch!"
They chewed him with a hundred prongs or more,
Screaming, "Here you frolic under cover!
See if you can snitch the chance to surface!"
55 In just this way might cooks make their helpers
Plunge the meat down deep into the pot
With their forks, to keep it from floating up.
My gracious master said, "We don’t want them
To know that you are here, so crouch down low
60 Behind a crag to give yourself some cover.
"No matter what affronts they offer me,
Don’t be afraid: I know how things run here,
And I had a skirmish like this once before."
With this he passed beyond the top of the bridge
65 And, arriving upon the sixth embankment,
Had need to prove his show of self-reliance.
With just the same rage and roaring of dogs
When they rush out on some poor passing beggar
Who stops dead in his tracks and starts to beg,
70 So these devils, from beneath the bridge
Shot out with all their prongs aimed at my guide,
But he shouted, "Stop being savages!
"Before you would impale me with your forks,
One of you step forward to hear me out
75 And then resolve to grapple me or not."
They all shouted, "Malacoda should go!"
Then one of them moved up — the rest stood still —
And, approaching, asked, "How will that help him?"
"Do you think, Malacoda, I have come
80 So far, as you can see," my master said,
"Safe from all these counterblows of yours,
"Without the grace of God and a friendly fate?
Let us pass, since it is willed in heaven
That I show another along this savage path."
85 At this his pride became so crestfallen
That he let his hook drop right at his feet
And told the others, "Now, don’t any strike him!"
And my guide said to me, "You, crouching there
Among the shattered rockpiles of the bridge,
90 Now you can feel safe returning to me."
At that I moved and quickly came to him,
And the devils pressed forward all together;
I panicked that they might not keep their pact.
Just so, I once saw soldiers fill with panic,
95 As they filed from Caprona with safe conduct,
Seeing themselves surrounded by their foes.
With my whole body I pressed against my guide
And not for a moment would I take my eyes
From their looks that boded me no good.
100 They put out pitchforks, and "Shall I prick him,"
One said to the other, "on his bottom?"
And he answered, "Sure, let him have a nick!"
But Malacoda, who all the while was talking
To my master, whirled around suddenly
105 And yelled, "Stop, Scarmiglione, stop!"
Then he told us, "It’s impossible to go
Farther along this ridge since the sixth arch
Lies smashed into pieces at the bottom.
"But if you still are pleased to stroll ahead,
110 Then follow along the bluff until you come
To another ridge, nearby, that offers crossing.
"Yesterday, five hours from now, marked
One thousand two hundred and sixty-six years
Since this bridgeway crashed in ruins here.
115 "I am dispatching some of my troop there
To watch if anyone pops up for air —
Go along with them; they won’t hurt you.
"Front and center, Alichino and Calcabrina,"
He started off, "and you too, Cagnazzo!
120 And Barbariccia, lead the squad of ten.
"Take Libicocco and Draghignazzo,
And tusked Ciriatto and Graffiacane,
And Farfarello and mad Rubicante.
"Reconnoiter around the bubbling gluepot,
125 And see them safe as far as the next ridge
That spans all unbroken from den to den."
"O master," I said, "what am I looking at?
Ah, let us walk alone without an escort:
You know the way? I want no part of them!
130 "If you remain alert as usual,
Do you not notice how they grind their teeth
And how they threaten harm with their fierce looks?"
And he: "I have no wish to see you panic.
Let them grind away all that they want to:
135 They do it to impress the boiling wretches."
They turned around upon the left-face bank,
But first each pressed a tongue between his teeth
To sound a signal to their commandant,
And with his ass he blew a bugle-blast.
Ngôn ngữ: Chưa xác định
Gửi bởi demmuadong ngày 09/10/2006 13:18
Now new punishments I must fit to verse,
Shaping the subject for my twentieth canto
Of the first canticle on the buried damned.
Already I was fully set to look
5 Far down into the depth that opened to me
To see its bottom bathed with tears of anguish,
When through the valley’s circling I descried
People coming hushed and weeping, at the pace
Followed by processions in this world.
10 As my fixed gaze descended lower to them,
Each seemed bizarrely twisted at the neck
Between the chin and top part of the chest,
Because their faces turned round to their haunches
So that they were compelled to walk backwards
15 Since they could not possibly see ahead.
Perhaps a stroke of palsy once has twisted
Someone so completely, but I doubt it
For I have never seen a case like this.
May God so grant you, reader, to find fruit
20 In your reading: now ponder for yourself
How I could keep the eyes in my head dry
When I saw close at hand our human image
Contorted so the tears streaming from their eyes
Bathed their buttocks and ran between the cleft.
25 I wept, surely, while I leaned back against
A rock there on that rugged ridge; my escort
Said, "Still like all the other fools, are you?
"Here pathos lives when its false meaning dies,
Since who is more pathetic than the person
30 Who agonizes over God’s just judgments?
"Lift up your head, lift it, see him for whom
The earth cracked open before the Thebans’ eyes
While they all cried, ‘Where are you rushing off,
" 'Amphiaraus? Why do you flee the battle?’
35 And he didn’t once pause in his headlong flight
Down to Minos who snatches every soul.
"Look how he’s made a chest of his own shoulders:
Because he wished to see too far ahead
He stares behind and takes a backward path.
40 "See Tiresias, who changed his likeness:
Being a man he then became a woman,
Transforming all the members of his body,
"Until, a second time, he had to strike
The two lovemaking serpents with his staff
45 Before he donned again his manly down.
"And backing against his belly is Aruns
Who, in the hills of Luni where the folk
Of Carrara cultivate the valley,
"Dwelt in a cave among white marble cliffs,
50 And from that vantage with an unblocked view
He gazed out at the stars and at the sea.
"And she who with her wild disheveled hair
Covers up her breasts so you can’t see them
And keeps all of her hairy parts to that side
55 "Was Manto, who had searched through many lands
Before she settled there where I was born:
On this I want you to hear me for a while.
"After her father Tiresias left this life
And the city of Bacchus lay enslaved,
60 For long years she wandered through the world.
" High up in lovely Italy, at the foot
Of those Alps that wall in Germany
Above Tirol, lies a lake called Benaco;
"A thousand brooks and more, I believe,
65 Bathe Garda, Val Camonica, and Pennino
With the waters flowing through that lake,
"And in its center is a spot the three
Bishops of Trent, Brescia, and Verona,
If ever they should pass that way, would bless.
70 "Peschiera, a strong and handsome fortress
Built against the Bergarnese and Brescians,
Sits at the low point of the surrounding shore.
"There all the waters which cannot be contained
Within the bosom of Benaco tumble
75 To form a river down through greening fields;
"As soon as this water starts to course,
It is known as the Mincio — not Benaco —
To Governolo where it falls into the Po;
"Not running far, it finds a level ground
80 Where it spreads out and turns into a marsh
Which is in summer sometimes low and foul.
"Passing that way, the savage virgin saw
Land there in the middle of the swamp,
Untilled and barren of inhabitants.
85 "There, to flee all human fellowship,
With her slaves she stopped to ply her arts,
And there she lived and left her empty body.
"Later the people who were dispersed about
Gathered to that place, since it was protected
90 By the swamp that ringed it on all sides.
"Over her dead bones they built a city
And, after her who first picked out the site,
Without casting lots, they named it Mantua.
"Once far more people dwelt within it,
95 Before Casalodi through his foolishness
Was taken in by Pinamonte’s tricks.
"I charge you, therefore, if you ever hear
Another origin claimed for my city,
Don’t let false stories cheat you of the truth."
100 And I said, "Master, this account of yours
Makes me so sure and so wins all my trust
That I think other versions just dead coals.
"But tell me if among the people passing
You notice anyone worth mentioning,
105 For that alone keeps coming to my mind."
To this he said to me, "That one whose beard
Streams down from his cheeks to his brown shoulders
Was — when Greece became so drained of males
"That scarcely were there sons for the cradles —
110 An augur, and he set the time with Calchas
To cut the first ship-cables at Aulis.
"His name was Eurypylus, and of him
My high tragedy sings in one passage
Which you know well who know the whole of it.
115 "That other one, so thinned-out in the shanks,
Was Michael Scot, who certainly perceived
How to play the game of magic fraud.
"See Guido Bonatti; see Asdente,
Who wishes now he had kept to his thread
120 And shoe-leather, but he repents too late.
"See those wretched women who left needle,
Spool, and spindle for their fortune-telling;
They cast their spells with herbs and image-dolls.
"But come now; already Cain with his thornbush
125 Stands at the border of both hemispheres
And touches the waves below Seville,
"And last night’s moon was already round and full.
Remember her well, for through her in times past
No harm came to you deep in the dark forest."
130 So he spoke to me as we journeyed on.
Ngôn ngữ: Chưa xác định
Gửi bởi phonglan ngày 06/10/2006 12:01
O Simon Magus! O miserable lot
Who take the things of God that ought to be
Wedded to goodness and in your greediness
Adulterate them into gold and silver!
5 Now the trumpet blast must sound for you
Since you are stashed here into the third pocket.
We had arrived at the next graveyard
By climbing to that section of the ridgetop
Which juts right over the middle of the ditch.
10 O highest Wisdom, how great is the art
You show in heaven, earth, and this bad world!
And how just is the power of your judgment!
I saw along the sides and on the bottom
The livid rockface all pocked full of holes,
15 Each one alike in size and rounded shape.
No smaller or no larger they seemed to me
Than are those booths for the baptismal fonts
Built in my beautiful San Giovanni —
And one of those, not many years ago,
20 I broke up to save someone drowning in it:
And let my word here disabuse men’s minds —
Up from the mouth of each hole there stuck out
A sinner’s feet and legs up to the calf,
The rest of him remained stuffed down inside.
25 The soles of both feet blazed all on fire;
The leg-joints wriggled uncontrollably:
They would have snapped any rope or tether.
Just as a flame on anything that’s oily
Spreads only on the object’s outer surface,
30 So did this fire move from heel to toe.
"Who is that sinner, master, who suffers so,
Writhing more than any of his comrades,"
I asked, "the one the redder flame licks dry?"
And he: "If you want to be lifted down
35 Onto that sloping lower bank, then from him
You’ll learn about himself and his wrongdoings."
And I: "My pleasure is what pleases you.
You are my lord, and you know I won’t swerve
From your will: You know what is left unspoken."
40 Coming to the fourth causeway, we then turned
And, bearing to the left, still descended
Down to the strait and perforated bottom.
And my kind master did not put me down
From his side till he’d brought me to the hole
45 Of the sinner who shed tears with his shanks.
"O whatever you are, sorrowful soul,
Planted like a stake with your top downward,"
I started out, "say something, if you can."
I stood there like a friar hearing confession
50 From a foul assassin who, once fixed in place,
To delay execution calls him back again.
And he cried, "Are you already standing there,
Are you already standing there, Boniface?
By several years the record lied to me!
55 "Are you so quickly glutted with the wealth
Which did not make you fear to take by guile
The lovely lady and then lay her waste?"
I acted like a person who’s left standing —
Not comprehending what’s been said to him —
60 Half-mocked and at a loss to make an answer.
Then Virgil spoke up, "Tell him right away,
‘I am not he, I’m not the one you think!’ "
And I replied as I had been instructed.
At this the spirit twisted both feet wildly;
65 Then, sighing deeply, with a voice in tears,
He asked, "What, then, do you demand of me?
"If to know who I am has so compelled you
That you continued down this bank, then know
Once I was vested in the papal mantle,
70 "And truly I was a son of the she-bear,
So avid to advance my cubs that up there
I pocketed the money and here, myself.
"Under my head have been dragged the others
Who went, by way of simony, before me,
75 Squashed flat in the fissures of the stone.
"I shall plunge down there, in my turn, when
The one I took you for — while thrusting at you
That question so abruptly — will arrive here.
"But a longer time now have I baked my feet
80 And stood like this upside-down than he
Will stay planted with his red-hot feet up!
"For after him will come one fouler in deeds,
A lawless shepherd from the westward land,
One fit to cover up both him and me.
85 "He’ll be a new Jason, like him we read of
In Maccabees; just as Jason’s king was kind,
So shall the king of France be kind to him."
I do not know if now I grew too brash,
But I replied to him in the same measure,
90 "Well, then, tell me: how costly was the treasure
"That our Lord demanded of Saint Peter
Before he gave the keys into his keeping?
Surely he said only ‘Follow me.’
"Nor did Peter or the rest take gold
95 Or silver from Matthias when they chose him
By lot to take the place the traitor lost.
"Stay put, therefore, since you are justly punished,
And guard with care the ill-acquired money
That made you so high-handed against Charles.
100 "And were it not that I as yet feel bound
By my deep reverence for the mighty keys
Which you once held in the lighthearted life,
"I would here utter words still far more bitter,
Because your avarice afflicts the world,
105 Trampling good men and vaulting evildoers.
"You are the shepherds the evangelist meant
When he saw ‘she who sits upon the waters’
Fornicating with the kings of earth.
"She is the one born with the seven heads
110 Who from her ten horns begot all her strength
So long as virtue was her bridegroom’s pleasure.
"A god of gold and silver you have fashioned!
How do you differ from idolators
Except they worship one god — you a hundred?
115 "Ah, Constantine, how much foul harm was fostered,
Not by your conversion but by the dowry
Which the first wealthy father took from you?"
And while I chanted him these notes — whether
Bitten by his anger or his conscience —
120 He gave a vicious kick with his two feet.
I honestly believe my guide was pleased,
So contented was his look while he kept listening
To the sound of these true-spoken words.
At that he took me within both his arms
125 And, when he held me wholly to his breast,
Climbed up the path that he had once come down.
Nor did he weary of clasping me to himself,
But carried me to the crest of the arch
That crosses from the fourth to the fifth causeway.
130 Here he gently set down his heavy load,
Gently because of the steep and craggy ridge
Which even goats would have found hard to pass.
From there another valley opened before me.
Ngôn ngữ: Chưa xác định
Gửi bởi demmuadong ngày 05/10/2006 12:47
Lodged in hell is a place called Malebolge,
All made of stone the color of iron ore,
As is the cliff wall that encloses it.
Right in the middle of this cankered field
5 A broad and deep-cut chasm opens up —
In its place I shall describe its structure.
The belt, then, that is left between the chasm
And the steep stony cliff, forms a circle
And its bottom has been sliced into ten valleys.
10 Just as, where moat on moat encompasses
A castle to defend its central walls,
The ground in which they’re dug shapes a design,
Such a pattern here these ditches formed;
And as such fortresses have footbridges
15 Out from their gates up to the outer banks
So from the bottom of the cliff ran ridges
Which crossed above the embankments and ditches
Up to the chasm where they end and merge.
In this spot we found ourselves, dismounted
20 From the back of Geryon; the poet
Kept to the left and I walked on behind him.
At my right hand I saw fresh cause for pathos,
Fresh punishments and fresh torturers
That fully crammed the first of the ten pockets.
25 Naked sinners filed by on the bottom:
On the near side they came facing toward us,
On the other they moved along with us, but faster:
So the Romans, because of the huge crowds
During Jubilee year, have people pass
30 Over the bridge so that on the other side all face
(According to the plan fixed to divide them)
Toward the Castle and walk to Saint Peter’s,
While on the other they walk toward the Mount.
This side and that, along the gloom-filled rock,
35 I saw horned devils with their huge long whips
Cruelly lashing those sinners from behind.
Ah how they forced them to lift up their heels
At the first strokes! There was nobody there
Who waited for the second or the third!
40 While I moved on, my eye caught someone else’s,
And immediately I said to myself,
"Surely I have seen this one before."
So I held up my steps to stare at him,
And my kindly guide halted with me
45 And gave me leave to go a short way back.
That scourged spirit thought that he could hide
By lowering his head, but little it helped him,
For I said, "You who gaze upon the ground,
"Unless the features which you wear are false,
50 You are Venedico Caccianemico:
But what put you in such a juicy pickle?"
And he replied, "I tell it unwillingly,
But your plain speech forces me to do it
By reminding me of that world of old.
55 "I was the one who led Ghisolabella
To satisfy the will of the Marquis,
Whatever way the vile tale is reported.
"But I am not the only Bolognese
Weeping here; this place is so full of them
60 That not so many tongues have learned to say
"Sipa between the Savena and Reno:
And if you want a proof or witness for this,
Recall to mind our sense of greediness."
While he was talking a devil lashed at him
65 With his whip and cried out, "On your way, pimp!
There are no women here for you to con."
I turned back to be once more with my escort.
Then, a few steps forward, we walked up
To where a ridge out-jutted from the bank.
70 We climbed across it with no difficulty
And, turning to the right along its crest,
We left behind those everlasting circlings.
When we had reached the spot where the ridgeline
Yawns open to let the scourged pass below,
75 My guide said, "Stop and make sure that the sight
"Of these other misbegotten souls strikes you:
Their faces you have not observed before
As they were moving the same direction we were."
From the old bridge we gazed down at the troop
80 Coming toward us along the other tract,
And they were likewise driven by the lash.
Even without my asking, my good master
Spoke up, "Look at that mighty one approaching
Who does not seem to shed a tear for pain.
85 "What a kingly look he still retains!
That is Jason, who with heart and brains
Robbed Colchis of the gold fleece of their ram.
"He voyaged to the island of Lemnos
After the brash and merciless women
90 Had put all of their menfolk to the sword.
"There with his love tokens and stylish words
He beguiled the young Hypsipyle
Who had first beguiled the other women.
"There he left her, pregnant and forsaken:
95 Such sin condemns him to such punishment,
And for Medea, too, is vengeance wreaked.
‘With him go all the beguilers of others —
Let this now be enough for you to know
Of the first valley and sinners in its jaws."
100 We had already come where the narrow path
Crosses over to the second bank
To form a new support for another arch.
From there we heard people in the next pocket
Whining and snorting gruffly from their snouts
105 And whacking themselves with flat open palms.
The banks were coated with a slimy mold
From exhalations below; it stuck to them,
Attacking eyes and nose with stinging must.
The bottom was so deep we could not see it
110 Anywhere, except by climbing up the spine
Of the arch where the ridge rises highest.
Here we arrived, and down there in the ditch
I saw a people plunged in excrement
As if it had been dumped from men’s latrines.
115 And as I searched below there with my eyes
I saw one with his head so smeared with shit
You could not tell if he were lay or cleric.
He yelled up at me, "Why are you more greedy
To stare at me than at the other scum?"
120 And I: "Because, if I remember rightly,
"I have seen you before with your hair dry:
And so I eye you more than all the rest.
You are Alessio Interminei of Lucca."
And he, smacking his squash, replied to me,
125 "Down here I am sunk by the flatteries
That my tongue never tired of repeating."
After this my teacher said to me,
"Stretch your head forward a little farther
So that your eyes may clearly catch the face
130 "Of that slatternly and smutty slut
Who scratches herself with shit-blackened nails,
Now squatting and now staggering to her feet.
"She is Thais the whore, who when her lover
Asked, ‘Are you very grateful to me?' answered,
135 ‘Very! Why, extravagantly so!’
"But now our sight has had enough of this."
Ngôn ngữ: Chưa xác định
Gửi bởi demmuadong ngày 04/10/2006 11:18
"Look at the beast with the pointed tail!
He passes mountains, smashes walls and weapons!
Look at the one that smells up the whole world!"
This way my guide began to talk to me
5 As he signaled the beast to land on shore
Close to the edge of our stone-paved pathway.
And that repugnant picture of pure fraud
Came on, landing his head and his chest first,
But darting his tail out beyond the bank.
10 His face was the face of a saintly person,
So placid was the surface of the skin,
But his whole trunk was the shape of a snake.
He had two paws, with hair up to his armpits;
His back and breasts and both of his flanks
15 Were painted gaudily with knots and loops.
Tartars or Turks never wove a cloth
With more colors in background and design,
Nor did Arachne ever loom such webs.
Just as boats sometimes lie on shore
20 Half in the water and half still on land,
And just as there among the guzzling Germans
The beaver crouches ready to do battle,
So did that worst of all wild beasts lay there
On the rim of stone bordering the sand.
25 Out in the void all his tail stretched quivering,
Twisting in the air its poisonous fork
Which had a tip armed like a scorpion’s.
My leader said, "Now we had better veer
Our way slightly, until we come as far
30 As that wicked beast squatting over there."
We stepped down, then, to the right-hand breast,
And walked ten paces out along the ledge
To keep wholly clear of the sand and flame.
And when we had walked up to Geryon,
35 I noticed on the sand, a bit farther on,
People sitting next to empty space.
Here my master said to me, "That you may
Acquire the full experience this ring offers,
Go now and see the state that they are in.
40 "But let your conversation there be brief.
Till you come back, I shall talk with this beast
To have him lend us his strong shoulders."
So still farther along the utmost brink
Of that seventh circle I walked alone
45 To where the people deep in mourning sat.
Misery was bursting from their eyes;
This way and that, they ward off with their hands
One time the flames and next the burning sands,
No differently do dogs in summertime,
50 Now with muzzles, now with paws, when they are
Bitten by fleas or gnats or by horseflies.
When I had cast my eyes on certain faces
Of those on whom the oppressive fire falls,
I recognized none of them, but I observed
55 That from the neck of each there hung a purse
Having a special color and coat of arms,
And on his own each seemed to feast his eyes.
While I went among them, looking about
I glimpsed a purse of yellow upon azure
60 Which bore the face and figure of a lion.
Then, letting my gaze wander over them,
I saw another purse as red as blood
Displaying a goose whiter than butter.
And one who had an azure pregnant sow
65 Represented on his small white pouch
Asked me, "What are you doing in this ditch?
"Now get going — and since you’re still alive,
You should know my neighbor Vitaliano
Shall have a seat here soon at my left side.
70 "I, a Paduan, am with these Florentines;
Incessantly they deafen my poor eardrums
With their shouting, ‘Bring on the royal knight
" ‘Who bears on him his pouch with the three goats!’ "
At this he twisted his mouth around and stuck
75 His tongue out, like an ox licking its nose.
And I, in fear that any longer stay
Might vex him who had warned me not to tarry,
Turned my back upon these worn-out sinners.
I found my guide who had already climbed
80 Up on the rump of that wild animal,
And he said to me, "Now be strong and stout!
"Our way down from here is by stairs like these.
You mount in front: I want the middle section
So that his sharp tail cannot cause you harm."
85 As one who, feeling the shivers of a fever
So close his nails already are turned blue,
Shudders just at the sight of some cool shade,
So I became when I had heard his words.
But then I felt the taunt of shame which makes
90 A servant bold before his worthy master.
I hunched down on those monstrous shoulders
Wanting to say — but my voice did not come
As I thought — "Make sure you hold on to me."
But he who had at other times helped me
95 In other dangers, as soon as I was mounted,
Folded me in his arms and held me tight.
He called, "Now, Geryon, get up! Be sure
To make your circles wide and move down slowly:
Remember the strange weight that you now carry."
100 Just as a rowboat pulls out from its berth
Backwards, backwards, so that beast pushed off,
And when he felt himself all free in space,
There where his chest had been he turned his tail,
Stretching it out and waving it like an eel,
105 While with his paws he gathered in the air.
I do not think the fear was any sharper
When Phaethon let the sun’s reins drop away
(The reason why the sky is scorched with stars)
Nor when unhappy Icarus felt his flanks
110 Unfeathering as the wax started melting,
His father shouting, "You’re going the wrong way!"
Than mine was when I saw that on all sides
I floated in the air and I saw all
Sights lost to view except the beast himself.
115 He flew on slowly, slowly swimming on,
Spiraling and gliding: this I knew only
By the winds in my face and underneath me.
I heard already on my right the whirlpool
Roaring with such horror there beneath us
120 That I stretched out my neck and peered below.
Then I grew more panicky of going down
For I saw flames and I heard wailing cries;
So, trembling, I pressed my legs in tighter.
And then I saw, what I had not seen before:
125 His descent was spiraled, since I saw torments
On every side were drawing nearer to us.
Just as a falcon, a long while on the wing,
Who, without spotting lure or prey,
Makes the falconer cry, "Ah, you’re coming down,"
130 Descends, tired, with a hundred turnings
To where he set out so swiftly, and perches,
Aloof and furious, far off from his master,
So at the bottom Geryon set us down
Right next to the base of a jagged rockface
135 And, once rid of the burden of our bodies,
He vanished like an arrow from a bowstring.
Ngôn ngữ: Chưa xác định
Gửi bởi demmuadong ngày 04/10/2006 11:06
Already I was where I heard the rumbling fall
Of water running down to the next circle,
Like the sound that a humming beehive makes,
When three shades broke away together,
5 Racing, out of the squad that went on past us
Under the rain of grating punishment.
They ran toward us, each of them shouting,
"Stop! You — by the clothes you wear — seem
To be like someone from our rotten city."
10 Ah me, what old and recent wounds I saw
Seared into their bodies by those flames!
Just to remember it still gives me pain.
Their shouts caught the attention of my guide.
He turned his face toward me: "Now wait,"
15 He said; "we must be courteous to them.
"And were it not for the hot darting fire
Which the nature of this place rains down on them,
I’d say haste suits you better than it does them."
While we stood still, they once again began
20 Their ancient dirge, and when they came to us
The three of them together formed a wheel,
As stripped and oiled wrestlers often do,
First studying their grip and their advantage
Before they come to blows and holds between them,
25 So, wheeling, each one directed his face
Toward me, so that, in constant motion,
His neck kept turning opposite his feet.
"If the debasement of this unsteady sand
And our bare and burnt-out faces," one began,
30 "Makes you feel contempt for our pleas and us,
"May fame of ours induce the soul in you
To tell us who you are who in such safety
Can drag your feet, still living, throughout hell.
"He in whose footsteps you see me tread,
35 Although he turns about here, skinned and naked,
Was of a higher rank than you may think:
"He was the grandson of the good Gualdrada;
His name was Guido Guerra — in his life
Much he achieved by counsel and his sword.
40 "The other who thrashes the sand behind me
Is Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, whose voice
In the world above ought to have won favor.
"And I who am placed with them in this torment
Was Jacopo Rusticucci, and surely
45 My hell-cat wife — more than anyone — ruined me!"
If I had found a shelter from the flames,
I would have hurled myself below with them,
And I think my teacher would have allowed it.
But since I would have been baked and toasted,
50 Fear conquered my initially kind impulse
Which first made me so eager to embrace them.
Then I began, "Not disdain, but distress
For your condition seized me — so deeply that
It will only leave me slowly, and not soon —
55 "At the instant my lord spoke to me the words
Which led me then to realize that such men,
Worthy as you are, were coming here.
"I am of your city, and at all times
I have spoken and heard others speak
60 Of your achievements and your honored names.
"I quit the gall and go for the sweet apples
Promised to me by my truthful leader,
But first I must pass down into the center."
"So may your soul long lead on your body,"
65 Once more he answered me, "and may your fame,
After you have passed on, shed its light,
"Tell us if courtesy and valor still
Dwell in our city as they did in our day
Or have they been entirely driven out?
70 "For Guglielmo Borsiere, who just joined
Us in our grief and goes with our comrades,
With his reports has caused us deep distress."
"The new arrivals and the instant profits
Have given rise to such pride and unrestraint
75 In you, Florence, that you already weep."
These words I cried out with my face raised high,
And the three, who took it for my answer,
Gazed at each other as though they heard the truth.
"If at other times you find it so easy
80 To please other people," all three replied,
"Happy you to speak so fluently!
"Should you escape, then, from these sunless regions
And return to view once more the splendid stars,
When it shall gladden you to say, ‘I was there,’
85 "Be sure to tell the people about us."
At that they broke out of their wheeling circle,
And, in fleeing, their legs resembled wings.
An "Amen" would take less time to pronounce
Than it took for the three of them to vanish:
90 And so my master thought it well to leave.
I followed him, and we hadn’t walked on far
Before the sound of water was so near
We hardly could have heard each other talk.
Just as that river, which first takes its course
95 From Mount Visco and flows toward the east
On the left slope of the Apennines —
Called the Acquacheta up above
Before descending to its lower bed
And at Forĺ is known as the Montone —
100 Roars above San Benedetto dell’Alpe,
Cascading in a single waterfall
Where a thousand falls could easily have settled:
Just so, down from one steep and rocky bank
We found that tainted water so thundering
105 That in no time it would have burst our ears.
I had a cord tied fast around my waist,
And with it I had thought on one occasion
To catch the leopard with the gaudy coat.
As soon as I unwrapped the cord completely,
110 Exactly as my guide directed me,
I passed it to him wound in a tight coil.
At that he swung around toward his right
And, far out over from the edge, threw it
Right into the depth of the dark chasm.
115 "Surely there will be a strange response,"
I said to myself, "to this strange signal:
My master follows it so closely with his eye."
Ah what care men need to show with those
Who can not only see the outward act
120 But have the mind to read our inner thoughts!
He said to me, "Soon shall come up from below
What I wait for and your mind dreams about:
Soon must it be discovered to your sight."
Always, to the truth that seems a lie,
125 As far as he can, one must close his lips,
For through no fault of his, it still brings shame.
But here I cannot remain silent — reader,
By the lines of this Comedy, I swear
(So may my verse attain long-lasting favor)
130 That I saw through that thick and darkened air
A figure come, swimming up toward us —
A thing to dumbfound any steadfast heart —
Like someone coming up from depths below
Where he went down to free an anchor snagged
135 On a reef or something else hid in the sea,
Stretching upward and drawing up his legs.
Ngôn ngữ: Chưa xác định
Gửi bởi demmuadong ngày 03/10/2006 12:10
Đã sửa 1 lần, lần cuối bởi demmuadong vào 03/10/2006 12:13
Now one of the stone margins bears us on.
Above, the river’s smoke throws up a shadow
Which screens the banks and water from the fire.
Just as the Flemings, between Wissant and Bruges,
5 In terror of the tide that surges toward them
Build dikes to make the flooding sea recede,
And as the Paduans, along the Brenta,
Before the heat wave comes to Chiarentana,
Build walls to defend their towns and castles,
10 In the same fashion were these banks constructed,
Except the builder, whoever he might be,
Had made them not so high and not so wide.
Already we were so far from the wood
That I could not have noticed where it was
15 Even had I turned round to look for it,
When we came across a troop of spirits
Walking along the bankside, and each one
Stared at us as men at dusk will study
Each other in the light of a new moon,
20 Knitting their eyebrows at us in a squint
Like an old tailor threading a needle’s eye.
Eyed in this manner by that brotherhood,
I there was recognized by one who grasped me
By the hem — and cried, "How wonderful!"
25 And I, when he stretched out his arm to me,
So fixed my eyes upon his burnt-out features
Even his crusted face did not prevent me
From apprehending him in my mind’s eye,
And bending down my face to be with his,
30 I asked him, "Ser Brunetto, are you here?"
And he: "My son, pray do not be displeased
If Brunetto Latini stays back a while
With you and lets that line trek on ahead."
And I: "With all my heart, I beg you to,
35 And should you want me to sit here with you,
I will, if he who goes with me permits it."
"My son," he said, "whoever of this flock
Stops for an instant must stay a hundred years,
Unable to brush off the burning flames.
40 "Go on then. I will walk here at your hem,
And later I will join my company
Who pass in sorrow for their endless woes."
I did not dare to step down from the path
To walk by him; instead I held my head
45 Bowed down like a man reverently walking.
He then began, "What chance or destiny
Brings you down here before your final day
And who is this one here who shows the way?"
"Up there above in the sun-brightened life,"
50 I answered him, "I lost myself in a valley
Before reaching the fullness of my years.
"Just yesterday morning I turned my back
On it: when I was lost, this one appeared
To lead me home once more along this road."
55 And he said to me, "Follow your own star
And you cannot miss your harbor of glory
If I judged you rightly in that lovely life.
"And if I had not died before the time,
60 Seeing how gracious heaven has been to you,
I should have warmly championed your work.
"But that unthankful, evil-minded people
Who long ago came down from Fiesole,
And still have the rock and mountain in them,
"For the good you do shall be your enemy,
65 And the reason is: among the bitter sorb trees
It is not right the sweet fig should bear fruit.
"The world’s word of old for them was ‘blind’:
A greedy, envious, and haughty stock,
Make sure you rid yourself of their bad ways.
70 "Your future holds out such honor to you
That one party and the other will hunger
For you — but grass does not grow near the goat!
"Let the beasts of Fiesole feed on
Each other, and let them not touch the plant —
75 Should any still be growing on their dungheap —
"A plant in which lives on the holy seed
Of the Romans who remained in Florence
When that nest of foul wickedness was built."
"If my appeal then had been fully granted,"
80 I responded to him, "you would not be
Still banished from the ranks of humankind.
"For in my memory is etched — it grieves me
Even now — the dear, kind, fatherly image
Of you, when in the world, hour by hour,
85 "You taught me how man makes himself immortal,
And I am so grateful that, while I live,
I will fittingly express it in my speech.
"What you tell me of my course I write down
And keep it with another text to read to
90 A lady who, if I reach her, shall gloss it.
"One thing at least I purpose to make clear:
As long as my conscience does not blame me,
Whatever fate wills I am ready for it.
"Nothing new I hear in this prediction,
95 So let Fortune, as she pleases, rotate
Her wheel and let the peasant turn his spade."
At this my master twisted his head back,
Around to his right, and peering at me,
He said, "Whoever notes this down, listens well."
100 But for all that, I did not cease from speaking
To Ser Brunetto, and I asked who were
His most noble and renowned companions.
And he told me, "To know of some is good,
Of others it is better to be silent,
105 As time would be too short for so much talk.
"Briefly, you should know that all were clerics,
Great men of letters, men of wide repute,
Dirtied by the selfsame sin on earth.
"Priscian travels with that stricken crowd,
110 And Francesco d’Accorso too, and you may see,
If you have any appetite for such scurf,
"The one the Servant of Servants transferred
From the Arno to the Bacchiglione river
Where he left his organs stretched by sin.
115 "I would say more, but my walking and my talk
May last no longer, since I see over there
New smoke billowing upward from the sandbar.
"People are coming — I must not be with them.
Let me commend my Treasury to you:
120 In it I still live and no more I ask."
At that he turned and seemed like one of those
Who at Verona run through the countryside
For the green cloth, and among them he appeared
The winner of the race and not the loser.
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