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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.
Ngôn ngữ: Chưa xác định
Gửi bởi demmuadong ngày 30/09/2006 10:32
Love of our native city touched my heart:
I bent and gathered up the scattered sprigs
And gave them back to him whose voice grew faint.
From there we reached the border that divided
5 The second from the third ring — and there
I witnessed the horrendous art of justice.
To make these unfamiliar sights quite clear,
I say that we had come out on a plain
Which banishes all verdure from its bed.
10 The grief-stricken wood enwreathed it all
Around, as the sad ditch surrounds the wood.
Here, right at the edge, we checked our steps.
Dry and dense sand covered the ground’s surface,
A sand no different in its texture from
15 That the feet of Cato once trampled on.
O vengeance of God, how much you ought to be
Held in fear by everyone who reads
The things that were revealed before my eyes!
I saw myriad flocks of naked souls,
20 All weeping wretchedly, and it appeared
That separate sentences were meted to them.
Flat on their backs, some spread out on the ground;
Some squatted down, all hunched up in a crouch;
And others walked about interminably.
25 More numerous were those who roamed around;
Fewer were those stretched out for the torture,
But looser were their tongues to tell their hurt.
Over all the sand, large flakes of flame,
Falling slowly, came floating down, wafted
30 Like snow without a wind up in the mountains.
Just like the flames which Alexander saw
In the torrid regions of India
Swarming to the ground upon his legions,
So that he had his troops tramp down the soil,
35 The better to put out the flaming flakes
And to prevent them spreading other fires,
So descended the everlasting blaze
By which the sand enkindled, just like tinder
Under sparks from flint — doubling the pain.
40 Restlessly the dance of wretched hands
Went on and on, on this side and on that,
Beating off the freshly falling flames.
I began, "Master, you can win out over
Everything — except the arrogant demons
45 That sortied against us at the entrance gate —
"Who is that giant who appears to ignore
The fire, lying so scornful and scowling
That the rain seems not to make him soften?"
And that same wraith, when he observed how I
50 Questioned my guide about him, shouted out,
"What I was alive, I am the same dead!
"Though Jupiter wear out the smith from whom
He seized in wrath the sharpened thunderbolt
Which on my last day was to strike me down,
55 "Though he wear out the others, one by one,
Serving at Mongibello’s soot-black forge —
As he bellows, ‘Good Vulcan, help me! help me!’
"The way he did on the battlefield at Phlegra —
Though with his whole force he flash out at me,
60 Yet he will never have his fond revenge."
My guide shot back at him so strongly that
I had not heard him use such force before,
"O Capaneus, since your insolent pride
"Is still unquenched, you are chastised the more:
65 No torture other than your own mad ravings
Can punish you enough for your grim rage."
Then with a gentler look he turned to me,
Saying, "That was one of the seven kings
Who laid siege to Thebes; he held and seems
70 "To hold God in disdain and prize him little;
But, as I told you, these affronts of his
Are the right decorations for his chest.
"Now follow me and watch you do not ever
Set your feet upon the scorching sand,
75 But always keep them back close to the trees."
In silence we next reached a spot where gushed
Out of the wood a small and narrow brook
Whose redness makes me still shudder with fear.
As from the Bulicame flows a stream
80 Which prostitutes then share for their own use,
So too these waters coursed across the sand.
Its bed and both its banks were made of stone,
As were the borders all along its sides,
So that I saw our passage lay that way.
85 "Of all the things that I have shown to you
From the time we entered through the gate
Whose threshold is prohibited to none,
"Nothing your eyes have looked on up to now
Is so worthy of note as the stream before you
90 That quenches all the flames above its path."
These were the words my guide addressed to me.
At this I begged him to give me the food
For which he had whetted my appetite.
"In the middle of the sea there lies a wasteland,"
95 He then declared to me; "it is called Crete,
Under whose king the world had once been chaste.
"A mountain rises there that long delighted
In plants and water: Ida is its name;
Now it is deserted like a withered thing.
100 "Rhea once chose it for the trusted cradle
Of her son and, the better to hide him,
When he would cry she made her servants shout.
"Within the mountain stands a huge Old Man
Straight up, his back turned to Damietta;
105 He gazes at Rome as if into a mirror.
"His head is molded out of refined gold;
His arms and breast are fashioned in pure silver;
Then he is made of brass down to his crotch.
"From there on downward he is all choice iron,
110 Except that his right foot is hard-baked clay,
And this foot he favors over the other.
"But for the gold, all the parts are cracked
By a fissure from which the tears drip out
That, when collected, penetrate the chasm.
115 "The tears run from the rocks into the valley,
Forming Acheron, Styx, and Phlegethon,
Then take their course through the narrow sluice,
"And, at the point where there is no way down,
They form Cocytus; and what that pool is like
120 You shall see — I will not describe it here."
And I responded, "If this rivulet
Pours down in this way from our upper world,
Why do we view it only at this fringe?"
And he replied, "You know this place is round,
125 And, although you have traveled a good distance
Bearing ever to the left toward the bottom,
"You have not even yet turned a full circle.
So then if something new appears to us,
It should not bring such wonder to your looks."
130 And I again: "Master, where shall we find
Phlegethon and Lethe? One you omit,
The other you say is formed by tears of rain."
"In all your questions truly you please me,"
He answered; "but the boiling blood-red water
135 Surely should have solved one you have asked.
"Lethe you will see — but beyond this chasm —
There where the souls alight to cleanse themselves
When their repented sins are wiped away."
Then he told me, "Now it is time to leave
140 This wood. See that you walk in back of me:
The margins form a path that does not burn,
"And all the flames above them are snuffed out."
Ngôn ngữ: Chưa xác định
Gửi bởi demmuadong ngày 25/09/2006 12:51
Nessus had not yet reached the other bank
When we on this side moved into a wood
That was not marked at all by any path:
No leaves of green but of a blackish color,
5 No branches smooth but gnarled and tangled up,
No fruits were growing, only thorns of poison.
No wild beasts, shunning the furrowed farmlands
Between Cecina and Corneto, burrow
Underbrush that is so thick and barbed.
10 Inside here nest the repugnant Harpies
Who chased the Trojans from the Strophades
With foul prophecies of coming losses.
They have wide wings, human necks and faces,
Feet with claws, and big feathered bellies;
15 They shriek laments from up in the strange trees.
"Before you enter farther," my kind master
Began saying to me, "know you are here
Within the second circle and will remain
"Until you come out to the dreadful sand.
20 Look carefully, then, and you shall witness things
That would destroy your faith in words of mine."
I heard deep wailings rising from all sides,
Without discerning anyone who made them,
So that, completely baffled, I stopped short.
25 I think he thought that I was thinking that
All of the voices from among the trunks
Rose up from people who were hiding from us.
My master said to me, "If you tear off
A tiny twig from one of the growths here,
30 Your thoughts will also be nipped in the bud."
Then reaching out my hand a bit ahead,
I snapped a shoot off from a massive thornbush,
And the trunk of it cried, "Why do you break me?"
And after it had darkened with its blood,
35 It started up again, "Why do you rip me?
Do you possess no pity in your soul?
"Men we were and now we are mere stumps.
Surely your hand ought to have been kinder
Even if we had been the souls of serpents."
40 Just as a green log blazing at one end
Oozes sap out of the other, all the while
Hissing with the air that it blows out,
So from that broken bough issued together
Words and blood: at that I let the tip
45 Fall, standing like a man stricken with fear.
To him my sage responded, "Wounded spirit,
Had he been able to believe before
What he had witnessed only in my verses,
"He would not have raised his hand against you.
50 But so incredible a thing caused me
To urge him to an act I now regret.
"But tell him who you were, to make amends
By refreshing your fame in the world above
To which he is permitted to return."
55 And the trunk: "Your sweet words so attract me
I cannot remain still, and be not loath
If I become caught up in conversation.
"I am the one who held both of the keys
To Frederick's heart, and I turned them so,
60 Locking and unlocking, with such smoothness
"That I kept his secrets almost from all men.
I stayed so faithful to my glorious office
That for its sake I lost both sleep and strength.
"The jealous whore who never turns away
65 Her sluttish eyes from Caesar's palaces,
The deadly plague and common vice of courts,
"Inflamed the minds of all the rest against me,
And those inflamed then so inflamed Augustus,
That happy honors turned to tristful woes.
70 "My mind, because of its disdainful bent
Believing it would flee disdain by dying,
Made me unjust against my own just self.
"By the fresh roots of this tree here I swear
To you that never once did I break faith
75 With my lord who was worthy of such honor.
"And should one of you return to the world,
Bolster up my memory which still lies
Flattened by the blow that envy gave it."
Waiting a while, the poet next said to me,
80 "Since he is silent, do not lose the chance,
But speak and ask him if you would hear more."
To this I answered, "Do you ask him further
Whatever you believe will satisfy me,
For I cannot, such pity rends my heart."
85 So he began again, "That this man should
Gladly perform what you request of him,
Imprisoned spirit, may it yet please you
"To tell us how the spirit is so bound
Into these knots; and tell us if you can,
90 Are any ever freed from limbs like these?"
At that the trunk puffed hard and afterward
That breath was transformed to this speaking voice:
"The answer I give you shall be concise.
"Whenever the violent soul forsakes the flesh
95 From which it tore itself by its own roots,
Minos assigns it to the seventh pit.
"It plummets to the wood — no place is picked —
But wherever fortune happens to have hurled it,
There it sprouts up like a grain of spelt;
100 "It springs into a sapling and wild tree;
The harpies, feeding on its foliage,
Cause pain and then an outlet for the pain.
"Like others we shall go to our shed bodies,
But not to dress ourselves in them once more,
105 For it is wrong to own what you tossed off.
"Here shall we haul them, and throughout the sad
Wood forevermore shall our bodies hang,
Each from the thornbush of its tortured shade."
We both continued listening for the trunk,
110 Thinking it still might want to tell us more,
When a loud uproar caught us by surprise,
Just as a hunter is suddenly alarmed
By the wild boar and chase — right at his post —
Hearing the dogs bark and the branches crack.
.
115 And look! there on the left-hand side two wraiths,
Naked and scratched, fleeing so frantically
That they smashed all the bushes in the wood.
The front one: "Now come quick, come quick, death!"
The other, knowing himself out of the race,
120 Shouted, "Lano, your legs were not so nimble
"When you jousted at the battle of Toppo!"
And then, perhaps, from shortness of his breath,
He crouched into a knot inside a thicket.
In back of them the wood at once ran wild
125 With black bitches, ravenous and swift,
Like greyhounds let loose from the leash.
On the crouching shade they gripped their teeth
And piece by piece they ripped him open-wide
And then they carried off his wretched limbs.
130 Immediately my escort took my hand
And led me forward to the bush that wept
In vain laments through its bloody cuts:
"O Jacopo da Sant' Andrea," it said,
"What have you gained by making me your covert?
135 What blame have I for your own sinful life?"
After my master had drawn up beside it,
He asked, "Who were you who through many wounds
Now breathe in blood your mournful speech to us?"
And he told us, "O souls that have arrived
140 In time to see the dishonorable mangling
Which here has torn my leaves away from me,
"Gather them up at the foot of this sad bush.
I was of the city that exchanged the Baptist
For its first patron, Mars, for which reason
145 "He'll always make her regret it, with his art,
And were it not that at the Arno's crossing
There still remains some vestige of his statue,
"Those citizens who later rebuilt the city
Upon the ashes Attila left behind
150 Would have performed their labors without profit.
"Of my own house I made myself a gallows."
Ngôn ngữ: Chưa xác định
Gửi bởi demmuadong ngày 23/09/2006 06:43
The place where we had come to clamber down
The bank was mountainous, and what was there
So grim all eyes would turn away from it.
Just like that rockslide on this side of Trent
5 That struck the flank of the Adige River —
Either by an earthquake or erosion —
Where, from the mountaintop it started down
To the plain below, the boulders shattered so,
For anyone above they formed a path,
10 Such was the downward course of that ravine;
And at the brink over the broken chasm
There lay outspread the infamy of Crete
That was conceived within the bogus cow;
And when he saw us, he bit into himself,
15 Like someone whom wrath tears up from inside.
My clever guide cried out to him, "Perhaps
You believe that this is the Duke of Athens
Who in the upper world contrived your death?
"Go off, you beast! this man does not approach
20 Instructed by your sister but comes here
In order to observe your punishments."
Just as the bull breaks loose right at that moment
When he has been dealt the fatal blow
And cannot run but jumps this way and that,
25 So I saw the Minotaur react —
And my quick guide called out, "Run for the pass!
While he's raging is our chance to get down!"
And so we made our way down through the pile
Of rocks which often slid beneath my feet
30 Because they were not used to holding weight.
I pushed on, thinking, and he said, "You wonder,
Perhaps, about that wreckage which is guarded
By that bestial rage I just now quelled.
"Now you should know that the other time
35 I journeyed here below to lower hell,
These boulders as yet had not tumbled down:
"But for certain, if I recall correctly,
It was shortly before He came who took
From Dis the great spoils of the topmost circle
40 "That this deep loathsome valley on all sides
Trembled so, I thought the universe
Felt love, because of which, as some believe,
"The world has often been turned back to chaos.
And at that instant this ancient rock split up,
45 Scattering like this, here and elsewhere.
"But fasten your eyes below — down to the plain
Where we approach a river of blood boiling
Those who harm their neighbors by violence."
O blind cupidity and rabid anger
50 Which so spur us ahead in our short life
Only to steep us forever in such pain!
I saw a broad ditch bent into a bow,
As though holding the whole plain in its embrace,
Just as my guide had explained it to me.
55 Between the ditch and the foot of the bank
Centaurs came running single-file, armed
With arrows as they hunted in the world.
Seeing us descend, they all pulled up,
And from their ranks three of them moved forward
60 With bows and with their newly selected shafts.
And from afar one shouted, "To what tortures
Do you approach as you climb down the slope?
Answer from there, or else I draw my bow."
My master said, "We will make our response
65 To Chiron there who hovers at your side —
To your own harm, your will was always rash."
Then he nudged me, and said, "That is Nessus,
Who died for the lovely Dejanira
By taking his own revenge upon himself;
70 "And in the middle, staring at his chest,
Is mighty Chiron, who tutored Achilles;
The last is Pholus, who was so full of frenzy."
Thousands on thousands march around the ditch,
Shooting at any soul that rises up
75 Above the blood more than its guilt allows.
When we drew near to these fleet-footed beasts,
Chiron took an arrow and with its notch
Parted his shaggy beard back from his jaws,
And when he had uncovered his huge mouth,
80 Said to his companions, "Have you noticed
How that one there behind stirs what he touches?
"A dead man's feet would not cause that to happen!"
And my good guide, now standing at the chest
Where the two natures fuse together, answered,
85 "He is indeed alive, and so alone
That I must show him all the somber valley.
Necessity not pleasure brings him here.
"A spirit came from singing alleluia
To commission me with this new office:
90 He is no robber nor I a thieving soul.
"But by the power by which I move my steps
Along this roadway through the wilderness,
Lend us one of your band to keep by us
"To lead us where we two can ford across
95 And there to carry this man on his back,
For he is not a spirit who flies through air."
Chiron pivoted around on his right breast,
Saying to Nessus, "Go back and guide them — if
Another troop challenges, drive them away!"
100 So with this trusted escort we moved on
Along the bank of the bubbling crimson river
Where boiling souls raised their piercing cries.
There I saw people buried to their eyebrows,
And the strong centaur said, "These are tyrants
105 Who wallowed in bloodshed and plundering.
"Here they bewail their heartless crimes: here lie
Both Alexander and fierce Dionysius
Who brought long years of woe to Sicily;
"And there with his head of jet-black hair
110 Is Azzolino; and that other blond one
Is Opizzo d'Este, who in the world
"Actually was slain by his own stepson."
With that I turned to the poet, who said,
"Now let him be your first guide, I your second."
115 A little farther on, the centaur halted
Above some people who appeared to rise
Out of the boiling stream up to their throats.
He pointed to one shade off by himself,
And said, "In God's own bosom, this one stabbed
120 The heart that still drips blood upon the Thames."
Then I saw others too who held their heads
And even their whole chests out of the stream,
And many of them there I recognized.
So the blood eventually thinned out
125 Until it scalded only their feet in it;
And here we found a place to ford the ditch.
"Just as you see, this side, the boiling brook
Grow gradually shallower," the centaur said,
"So I would also have you understand
130 "That on the other side the riverbed
Slopes deeper down from here until it reaches
Again the spot where tyranny must grieve.
"Heavenly justice there strikes with its goads
That Attila who was a scourge on earth
135 And Pyrrhus and Sextus, and forever milks
"The tears, released by boiling blood from both
Rinier of Corneto and Rinier Pazzo
Who waged such open warfare on the highways."
Then he turned back and once more crossed the ford.
Ngôn ngữ: Chưa xác định
Gửi bởi demmuadong ngày 22/09/2006 13:14
On the ridgetop of a high embankment
Shaped in a circle by huge broken rockfalls,
We came above an even crueler fold:
And here, because of the overwhelming stench
5 Which that bottomless abyss throws up,
We recoiled — back behind the covering lid
Of a large tomb where I saw inscribed
These words: "I hold Pope Anastasius
Whom Photinus lured from the straight path."
10 "We must delay our downward journey here
So that our sense may gradually grow used
To the foul gas-fumes; then we will not mind it."
This my master said, and I replied,
"Offset it somehow, so we may not lose
15 Our time." And he: "That is my thought exactly."
"My son, within the boundary of these boulders,"
He then began, — "are three smaller circles,
From tier to tier, like those you leave behind.
"All are crammed full of ill-stricken spirits —
20 But, that sheer sight later may suffice you,
Listen to how and why they are held bound.
"The aim of all malicious acts that merit
Hatred in heaven is injustice: all such actions,
By violence or by fraud, harm someone else.
25 "Since fraud, however, is man’s peculiar vice,
It gives God more displeasure; the fraudulent, then,
Lie lower down and more pain harries them.
"The whole first circle is for the violent;
But, as force is turned against three persons,
30 This first is fashioned in three separate rings.
"On God, on self, and on one’s neighbor force
Can turn: I mean, on them and on their goods,
As you shall now hear logically set forth.
"By violence come death and painful wounds
35 To one’s neighbor; and to his possessions
Come hurtful wrecking, arson, and extortion.
"So murderers, robbers, plunderers,
And all who wrongly do bodily injury
The first ring tortures in assorted ranks.
40 "A man may lay violent hands on himself
And on his property: so in the second
Ring each one must fruitlessly repent
"Who wills to rob himself of your bright world,
Gambles away or wastes his own belongings,
45 And grieves up there where he should rejoice.
"Violence may be done against the Godhead
By denial in the heart and blasphemy
And by despising nature and her bounty.
"And so the smallest ring has set its seal
50 On both Sodom and Cahors and all those
Whose words betray their hearts’ contempt of God.
"Fraud, that chews away at every conscience,
A man may practice on one who trusts him
Or on one who has no confidence in him.
55 "For those who trust not, only the link of love
Which nature forges appears to be cut;
Therefore, in the second circle nest
"Hypocrites, flatterers, and sorcerers,
Falsifiers, thieves, and simoniacs,
60 Panders, graft-takers, and all that trash.
"For those who trust, both the love nature
Forges is forgotten and the love
Added to it that creates a special bond.
"So, in the smallest circle, at the center
65 Of the universe and the seat of Dis,
All traitors are eternally consumed."
And I: "Master, the logic of your words
Is crystal clear and well delineates
The chasm and the people it contains.
70 "But tell me, those mired in the slimy marsh,
Those the wind blasts and those the rain beats on
And those that clash with such savage tongues,
"Why aren’t they punished in the red-hot city
If God holds them as well in his great wrath?
75 And if he does not, why are they in torment?"
He said to me, "Why does your mind drift off
So distantly from its accustomed pathway?
Or do your thoughts now turn to other things?
80 "Do you not remember those passages
In which your Ethics treats in full detail
The three perversities opposed by heaven:
"Incontinence, maliciousness, and raving
Bestiality — and how incontinence,
Offending God the least, incurs least blame?
85 "If you will study this teaching carefully
And call to mind the people up above
Who outside the city endure penances,
"You’ll plainly see why they are set apart
From these felons and why divine vengeance
90 Hammers at them there with lesser anger."
"O sun that clears up every troubled vision,
You so content me when you solve my doubts
That doubting pleases me no less than knowing.
"Once more go back a little to the point,"
95 I said, "where you state usury offends
The divine goodness, and untie the knot."
"Philosophy, to one who understands,
Points out — and on more than one occasion —
How nature gathers her entire course
100 "From divine intellect and divine art.
And if you pore over your Physics closely,
You’ll find, not many pages from the start,
"That, when possible, your art follows nature
As a pupil does his master; in effect,
105 Your art is like the grandchild of our God.
"From art and nature, if you will recall
The opening of Genesis, man is meant
To earn his way and further humankind.
"But still the usurer takes another way:
110 He scorns nature and her follower, art,
Because he puts his hope in something else.
"But follow me now since I want to go:
For the Fish shimmer low on the horizon
And all the Wain stretches over Caurus,
115 "And there, beyond, the road runs off the cliff."
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