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Dante Alighieri - Purgatorio (English)
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  I could not say how much it did me good.

And the wise Leader: "Now I see the net
  That snares you here, and how ye are set free,
  Why the earth quakes, and wherefore ye rejoice.

Now who thou wast be pleased that I may know;
  And why so many centuries thou hast here
  Been lying, let me gather from thy words."

"In days when the good Titus, with the aid
  Of the supremest King, avenged the wounds
  Whence issued forth the blood by Judas sold,

Under the name that most endures and honours,
  Was I on earth," that spirit made reply,
  "Greatly renowned, but not with faith as yet.

My vocal spirit was so sweet, that Rome
  Me, a Thoulousian, drew unto herself,
  Where I deserved to deck my brows with myrtle.

Statius the people name me still on earth;
  I sang of Thebes, and then of great Achilles;
  But on the way fell with my second burden.

The seeds unto my ardour were the sparks
  Of that celestial flame which heated me,
  Whereby more than a thousand have been fired;

Of the Aeneid speak I, which to me
  A mother was, and was my nurse in song;
  Without this weighed I not a drachma`s weight.

And to have lived upon the earth what time
  Virgilius lived, I would accept one sun
  More than I must ere issuing from my ban."

These words towards me made Virgilius turn
  With looks that in their silence said, "Be silent!"
  But yet the power that wills cannot do all things;

For tears and laughter are such pursuivants
  Unto the passion from which each springs forth,
  In the most truthful least the will they follow.

I only smiled, as one who gives the wink;
  Whereat the shade was silent, and it gazed
  Into mine eyes, where most expression dwells;

And, "As thou well mayst consummate a labour
  So great," it said, "why did thy face just now
  Display to me the lightning of a smile?"

Now am I caught on this side and on that;
  One keeps me silent, one to speak conjures me,
  Wherefore I sigh, and I am understood.

"Speak," said my Master, "and be not afraid
  Of speaking, but speak out, and say to him
  What he demands with such solicitude."

Whence I: "Thou peradventure marvellest,
  O antique spirit, at the smile I gave;
  But I will have more wonder seize upon thee.

This one, who guides on high these eyes of mine,
  Is that Virgilius, from whom thou didst learn
  To sing aloud of men and of the Gods.

If other cause thou to my smile imputedst,
  Abandon it as false, and trust it was
  Those words which thou hast spoken concerning him."

Already he was stooping to embrace
  My Teacher`s feet; but he said to him: "Brother,
  Do not; for shade thou art, and shade beholdest."

And he uprising: "Now canst thou the sum
  Of love which warms me to thee comprehend,
  When this our vanity I disremember,

Treating a shadow as substantial thing."


Purgatorio: Canto XXII


Already was the Angel left behind us,
  The Angel who to the sixth round had turned us,
  Having erased one mark from off my face;

And those who have in justice their desire
  Had said to us, "Beati," in their voices,
  With "sitio," and without more ended it.

And I, more light than through the other passes,
  Went onward so, that without any labour
  I followed upward the swift-footed spirits;

When thus Virgilius began: "The love
  Kindled by virtue aye another kindles,
  Provided outwardly its flame appear.

Hence from the hour that Juvenal descended
  Among us into the infernal Limbo,
  Who made apparent to me thy affection,

My kindliness towards thee was as great
  As ever bound one to an unseen person,
  So that these stairs will now seem short to me.

But tell me, and forgive me as a friend,
  If too great confidence let loose the rein,
  And as a friend now hold discourse with me;

How was it possible within thy breast
  For avarice to find place, `mid so much wisdom
  As thou wast filled with by thy diligence?"

These words excited Statius at first
  Somewhat to laughter; afterward he answered:
  "Each word of thine is love`s dear sign to me.

Verily oftentimes do things appear
  Which give fallacious matter to our doubts,
  Instead of the true causes which are hidden!

Thy question shows me thy belief to be
  That I was niggard in the other life,
  It may be from the circle where I was;

Therefore know thou, that avarice was removed
  Too far from me; and this extravagance
  Thousands of lunar periods have punished.

And were it not that I my thoughts uplifted,
  When I the passage heard where thou exclaimest,
  As if indignant, unto human nature,

`To what impellest thou not, O cursed hunger
  Of gold, the appetite of mortal men?`
  Revolving I should feel the dismal joustings.

Then I perceived the hands could spread too wide
  Their wings in spending, and repented me
  As well of that as of my other sins;

How many with shorn hair shall rise again
  Because of ignorance, which from this sin
  Cuts off repentance living and in death!

And know that the transgression which rebuts
  By direct opposition any sin
  Together with it here its verdure dries.

Therefore if I have been among that folk
  Which mourns its avarice, to purify me,
  For its opposite has this befallen me."

"Now when thou sangest the relentless weapons
  Of the twofold affliction of Jocasta,"
  The singer of the Songs Bucolic said,

"From that which Clio there with thee preludes,
  It does not seem that yet had made thee faithful
  That faith without which no good works suffice.

If this be so, what candles or what sun
  Scattered thy darkness so that thou didst trim
  Thy sails behind the Fisherman thereafter?"

And he to him: "Thou first directedst me
  Towards Parnassus, in its grots to drink,
  And first concerning God didst me enlighten.

Thou didst as he who walketh in the night,
  Who bears his light behind, which helps him not,
  But wary makes the persons after him,

When thou didst say: `The age renews itself,
  Justice returns, and man`s primeval time,
  And a new progeny descends from heaven.`

Through thee I Poet was, through thee a Christian;
  But that thou better see what I design,
  To colour it will I extend my hand.

Already was the world in every part
  Pregnant with the true creed, disseminated
  By messengers of the eternal kingdom;

And thy assertion, spoken of above,
  With the new preachers was in unison;
  Whence I to visit them the custom took.

Then they became so holy in my sight,
  That, when Domitian persecuted them,
  Not without tears of mine were their laments;

And all the while that I on earth remained,
  Them I befriended, and their upright customs
  Made me disparage all the other sects.

And ere I led the Greeks unto the rivers
  Of Thebes, in poetry, I was baptized,
  But out of fear was covertly a Christian,

For a long time professing paganism;
  And this lukewarmness caused me the fourth circle
  To circuit round more than four centuries.

Thou, therefore, who hast raised the covering
  That hid from me whatever good I speak of,
  While in ascending we have time to spare,

Tell me, in what place is our friend Terentius,
  Caecilius, Plautus, Varro, if thou knowest;
  Tell me if they are damned, and in what alley."

"These, Persius and myself, and others many,"
  Replied my Leader, "with that Grecian are
  Whom more than all the rest the Muses suckled,

In the first circle of the prison blind;
  Ofttimes we of the mountain hold discourse
  Which has our nurses ever with itself.

Euripides is with us, Antiphon,
  Simonides, Agatho, and many other
  Greeks who of old their brows with laurel decked.

There some of thine own people may be seen,
  Antigone, Deiphile and Argia,
  And there Ismene mournful as of old.

There she is seen who pointed out Langia;
  There is Tiresias` daughter, and there Thetis,
  And there Deidamia with her sisters."

Silent already were the poets both,
  Attent once more in looking round about,
  From the ascent and from the walls released;

And four handmaidens of the day already
  Were left behind, and at the pole the fifth
  Was pointing upward still its burning horn,

What time my Guide: "I think that tow`rds the edge
  Our dexter shoulders it behoves us turn,
  Circling the mount as we are wont to do."

Thus in that region custom was our ensign;
  And we resumed our way with less suspicion
  For the assenting of that worthy soul

They in advance went on, and I alone
  Behind them, and I listened to their speech,
  Which gave me lessons in the art of song.

But soon their sweet discourses interrupted
  A tree which midway in the road we found,
  With apples sweet and grateful to the smell.

And even as a fir-tree tapers upward
  From bough to bough, so downwardly did that;
  I think in order that no one might climb it.

On that side where our pathway was enclosed
  Fell from the lofty rock a limpid water,
  And spread itself abroad upon the leaves.

The Poets twain unto the tree drew near,
  And from among the foliage a voice
  Cried: "Of this food ye shall have scarcity."

Then said: "More thoughtful Mary was of making
  The marriage feast complete and honourable,
  Than of her mouth which now for you responds;

And for their drink the ancient Roman women
  With water were content; and Daniel
  Disparaged food, and understanding won.

The primal age was beautiful as gold;
  Acorns it made with hunger savorous,
  And nectar every rivulet with thirst.

Honey and locusts were the aliments
  That fed the Baptist in the wilderness;
  Whence he is glorious, and so magnified

As by the Evangel is revealed to you."


Purgatorio: Canto XXIII


The while among the verdant leaves mine eyes
  I riveted, as he is wont to do
  Who wastes his life pursuing little birds,

My more than Father said unto me: "Son,
  Come now; because the time that is ordained us
  More usefully should be apportioned out."

I turned my face and no less soon my steps
  Unto the Sages, who were speaking so
  They made the going of no cost to me;

And lo! were heard a song and a lament,
  "Labia mea, Domine," in fashion
  Such that delight and dolence it brought forth.

"O my sweet Father, what is this I hear?"
  Began I; and he answered: "Shades that go
  Perhaps the knot unloosing of their debt."

In the same way that thoughtful pilgrims do,
  Who, unknown people on the road o`ertaking,
  Turn themselves round to them, and do not stop,

Even thus, behind us with a swifter motion
  Coming and passing onward, gazed upon us
  A crowd of spirits silent and devout.

Each in his eyes was dark and cavernous,
  Pallid in face, and so emaciate
  That from the bones the skin did shape itself.

I do not think that so to merest rind
  Could Erisichthon have been withered up
  By famine, when most fear he had of it.

Thinking within myself I said: "Behold,
  This is the folk who lost Jerusalem,
  When Mary made a prey of her own son."

Their sockets were like rings without the gems;
  Whoever in the face of men reads `omo`
  Might well in these have recognised the `m.`

Who would believe the odour of an apple,
  Begetting longing, could consume them so,
  And that of water, without knowing how?

I still was wondering what so famished them,
  For the occasion not yet manifest
  Of their emaciation and sad squalor;

And lo! from out the hollow of his head
  His eyes a shade turned on me, and looked keenly;
  Then cried aloud: "What grace to me is this?"

Never should I have known him by his look;
  But in his voice was evident to me
  That which his aspect had suppressed within it.

This spark within me wholly re-enkindled
  My recognition of his altered face,
  And I recalled the features of Forese.

"Ah, do not look at this dry leprosy,"
  Entreated he, "which doth my skin discolour,
  Nor at default of flesh that I may have;

But tell me truth of thee, and who are those
  Two souls, that yonder make for thee an escort;
  Do not delay in speaking unto me."

"That face of thine, which dead I once bewept,
  Gives me for weeping now no lesser grief,"
  I answered him, "beholding it so changed!

But tell me, for God`s sake, what thus denudes you?
  Make me not speak while I am marvelling,
  For ill speaks he who`s full of other longings."

And he to me: "From the eternal council
  Falls power into the water and the tree
  Behind us left, whereby I grow so thin.

All of this people who lamenting sing,
  For following beyond measure appetite
  In hunger and thirst are here re-sanctified.

Desire to eat and drink enkindles in us
  The scent that issues from the apple-tree,
  And from the spray that sprinkles o`er the verdure;

And not a single time alone, this ground
  Encompassing, is refreshed our pain,--
  I say our pain, and ought to say our solace,--

For the same wish doth lead us to the tree
  Which led the Christ rejoicing to say `Eli,`
  When with his veins he liberated us."

And I to him: "Forese, from that day
  When for a better life thou changedst worlds,
  Up to this time five years have not rolled round.

If sooner were the power exhausted in thee
  Of sinning more, than thee the hour surprised
  Of that good sorrow which to God reweds us,

How hast thou come up hitherward already?
  I thought to find thee down there underneath,
  Where time for time doth restitution make."

And he to me: "Thus speedily has led me
  To drink of the sweet wormwood of these torments,
  My Nella with her overflowing tears;

She with her prayers devout and with her sighs
  Has drawn me from the coast where one where one awaits,
  And from the other circles set me free.

So much more dear and pleasing is to God
  My little widow, whom so much I loved,
  As in good works she is the more alone;

For the Barbagia of Sardinia
  By far more modest in its women is
  Than the Barbagia I have left her in.

O brother sweet, what wilt thou have me say?
  A future time is in my sight already,
  To which this hour will not be very old,

When from the pulpit shall be interdicted
  To the unblushing womankind of Florence
  To go about displaying breast and paps.

What savages were e`er, what Saracens,
  Who stood in need, to make them covered go,
  Of spiritual or other discipline?

But if the shameless women were assured
  Of what swift Heaven prepares for them, already
  Wide open would they have their mouths to howl;

For if my foresight here deceive me not,
  They shall be sad ere he has bearded cheeks
  Who now is hushed to sleep with lullaby.

O brother, now no longer hide thee from me;
  See that not only I, but all these people
  Are gazing there, where thou dost veil the sun."

Whence I to him: "If thou bring back to mind
  What thou with me hast been and I with thee,
  The present memory will be grievous still.

Out of that life he turned me back who goes
  In front of me, two days agone when round
  The sister of him yonder showed herself,"

And to the sun I pointed.  "Through the deep
  Night of the truly dead has this one led me,
  With this true flesh, that follows after him.

Thence his encouragements have led me up,
  Ascending and still circling round the mount
  That you doth straighten, whom the world made crooked.

He says that he will bear me company,
  Till I shall be where Beatrice will be;
  There it behoves me to remain without him.

This is Virgilius, who thus says to me,"
  And him I pointed at; "the other is
  That shade for whom just now shook every slope

Your realm, that from itself discharges him."


Purgatorio: Canto XXIV


Nor speech the going, nor the going that
  Slackened; but talking we went bravely on,
  Even as a vessel urged by a good wind.

And shadows, that appeared things doubly dead,
  From out the sepulchres of their eyes betrayed
  Wonder at me, aware that I was living.

And I, continuing my colloquy,
  Said: "Peradventure he goes up more slowly
  Than he would do, for other people`s sake.

But tell me, if thou knowest, where is Piccarda;
  Tell me if any one of note I see
  Among this folk that gazes at me so."

"My sister, who, `twixt beautiful and good,
  I know not which was more, triumphs rejoicing
  Already in her crown on high Olympus."

So said he first, and then: "`Tis not forbidden
  To name each other here, so milked away
  Is our resemblance by our dieting.

This," pointing with his finger, "is Buonagiunta,
  Buonagiunta, of Lucca; and that face
  Beyond him there, more peaked than the others,

Has held the holy Church within his arms;
  From Tours was he, and purges by his fasting
  Bolsena`s eels and the Vernaccia wine."

He named me many others one by one;
  And all contented seemed at being named,
  So that for this I saw not one dark look.

I saw for hunger bite the empty air
  Ubaldin dalla Pila, and Boniface,
  Who with his crook had pastured many people.

I saw Messer Marchese, who had leisure
  Once at Forli for drinking with less dryness,
  And he was one who ne`er felt satisfied.

But as he does who scans, and then doth prize
  One more than others, did I him of Lucca,
  Who seemed to take most cognizance of me.

He murmured, and I know not what Gentucca
  From that place heard I, where he felt the wound
  Of justice, that doth macerate them so.

"O soul," I said, "that seemest so desirous
  To speak with me, do so that I may hear thee,
  And with thy speech appease thyself and me."

"A maid is born, and wears not yet the veil,"
  Began he, "who to thee shall pleasant make
  My city, howsoever men may blame it.

Thou shalt go on thy way with this prevision;
  If by my murmuring thou hast been deceived,
  True things hereafter will declare it to thee.

But say if him I here behold, who forth
  Evoked the new-invented rhymes, beginning,
  `Ladies, that have intelligence of love?`"

And I to him: "One am I, who, whenever
  Love doth inspire me, note, and in that measure
  Which he within me dictates, singing go."

"O brother, now I see," he said, "the knot
  Which me, the Notary, and Guittone held
  Short of the sweet new style that now I hear.

I do perceive full clearly how your pens
  Go closely following after him who dictates,
  Which with our own forsooth came not to pass;

And he who sets himself to go beyond,
  No difference sees from one style to another;"
  And as if satisfied, he held his peace.

Even as the birds, that winter tow`rds the Nile,
  Sometimes into a phalanx form themselves,
  Then fly in greater haste, and go in file;

In such wise all the people who were there,
  Turning their faces, hurried on their steps,
  Both by their leanness and their wishes light.

And as a man, who weary is with trotting,
  Lets his companions onward go, and walks,
  Until he vents the panting of his chest;

So did Forese let the holy flock
  Pass by, and came with me behind it, saying,
  "When will it be that I again shall see thee?"

"How long," I answered, "I may live, I know not;
  Yet my return will not so speedy be,
  But I shall sooner in desire arrive;

Because the place where I was set to live
  From day to day of good is more depleted,
  And unto dismal ruin seems ordained."

"Now go," he said, "for him most guilty of it
  At a beast`s tail behold I dragged along
  Towards the valley where is no repentance.

Faster at every step the beast is going,
  Increasing evermore until it smites him,
  And leaves the body vilely mutilated.

Not long those wheels shall turn," and he uplifted
  His eyes to heaven, "ere shall be clear to thee
  That which my speech no farther can declare.

Now stay behind; because the time so precious
  Is in this kingdom, that I lose too much
  By coming onward thus abreast with thee."

As sometimes issues forth upon a gallop
  A cavalier from out a troop that ride,
  And seeks the honour of the first encounter,

So he with greater strides departed from us;
  And on the road remained I with those two,
  Who were such mighty marshals of the world.

And when before us he had gone so far
  Mine eyes became to him such pursuivants
  As was my understanding to his words,

Appeared to me with laden and living boughs
  Another apple-tree, and not far distant,
  From having but just then turned thitherward.

People I saw beneath it lift their hands,
  And cry I know not what towards the leaves,
  Like little children eager and deluded,

Who pray, and he they pray to doth not answer,
  But, to make very keen their appetite,
  Holds their desire aloft, and hides it not.

Then they departed as if undeceived;
  And now we came unto the mighty tree
  Which prayers and tears so manifold refuses.

"Pass farther onward without drawing near;
  The tree of which Eve ate is higher up,
  And out of that one has this tree been raised."

Thus said I know not who among the branches;
  Whereat Virgilius, Statius, and myself
  Went crowding forward on the side that rises.

"Be mindful," said he, "of the accursed ones
  Formed of the cloud-rack, who inebriate
  Combated Theseus with their double breasts;

And of the Jews who showed them soft in drinking,
  Whence Gideon would not have them for companions
  When he tow`rds Midian the hills descended."

Thus, closely pressed to one of the two borders,
  On passed we, hearing sins of gluttony,
  Followed forsooth by miserable gains;

Then set at large upon the lonely road,
  A thousand steps and more we onward went,
  In contemplation, each without a word.

"What go ye thinking thus, ye three alone?"
  Said suddenly a voice, whereat I started
  As terrified and timid beasts are wont.

I raised my head to see who this might be,
  And never in a furnace was there seen
  Metals or glass so lucent and so red

As one I saw who said: "If it may please you
  To mount aloft, here it behoves you turn;
  This way goes he who goeth after peace."

His aspect had bereft me of my sight,
  So that I turned me back unto my Teachers,
  Like one who goeth as his hearing guides him.

And as, the harbinger of early dawn,
  The air of May doth move and breathe out fragrance,
  Impregnate all with herbage and with flowers,

So did I feel a breeze strike in the midst
  My front, and felt the moving of the plumes
  That breathed around an odour of ambrosia;

And heard it said: "Blessed are they whom grace
  So much illumines, that the love of taste
  Excites not in their breasts too great desire,

Hungering at all times so far as is just."


Purgatorio: Canto XXV


Now was it the ascent no hindrance brooked,
  Because the sun had his meridian circle
  To Taurus left, and night to Scorpio;

Wherefore as doth a man who tarries not,
  But goes his way, whate`er to him appear,
  If of necessity the sting transfix him,

In this wise did we enter through the gap,
  Taking the stairway, one before the other,
  Which by its narrowness divides the climbers.

And as the little stork that lifts its wing
  With a desire to fly, and does not venture
  To leave the nest, and lets it downward droop,

Even such was I, with the desire of asking
  Kindled and quenched, unto the motion coming
  He makes who doth address himself to speak.

Not for our pace, though rapid it might be,
  My father sweet forbore, but said: "Let fly
  The bow of speech thou to the barb hast drawn."

With confidence I opened then my mouth,
  And I began: "How can one meagre grow
  There where the need of nutriment applies not?"

"If thou wouldst call to mind how Meleager
  Was wasted by the wasting of a brand,
  This would not," said he, "be to thee so sour;

And wouldst thou think how at each tremulous motion
  Trembles within a mirror your own image;
  That which seems hard would mellow seem to thee.

But that thou mayst content thee in thy wish
  Lo Statius here; and him I call and pray
  He now will be the healer of thy wounds."

"If I unfold to him the eternal vengeance,"
  Responded Statius, "where thou present art,
  Be my excuse that I can naught deny thee."

Then he began: "Son, if these words of mine
  Thy mind doth contemplate and doth receive,
  They`ll be thy light unto the How thou sayest.

The perfect blood, which never is drunk up
  Into the thirsty veins, and which remaineth
  Like food that from the table thou removest,

Takes in the heart for all the human members
  Virtue informative, as being that
  Which to be changed to them goes through the veins

Again digest, descends it where `tis better
  Silent to be than say; and then drops thence
  Upon another`s blood in natural vase.

There one together with the other mingles,
  One to be passive meant, the other active
  By reason of the perfect place it springs from;

And being conjoined, begins to operate,
  Coagulating first, then vivifying
  What for its matter it had made consistent.

The active virtue, being made a soul
  As of a plant, (in so far different,
  This on the way is, that arrived already,)

Then works so much, that now it moves and feels
  Like a sea-fungus, and then undertakes
  To organize the powers whose seed it is.

Now, Son, dilates and now distends itself
  The virtue from the generator`s heart,
  Where nature is intent on all the members.

But how from animal it man becomes
  Thou dost not see as yet; this is a point
  Which made a wiser man than thou once err

So far, that in his doctrine separate
  He made the soul from possible intellect,
  For he no organ saw by this assumed.

Open thy breast unto the truth that`s coming,
  And know that, just as soon as in the foetus
  The articulation of the brain is perfect,

The primal Motor turns to it well pleased
  At so great art of nature, and inspires
  A spirit new with virtue all replete,

Which what it finds there active doth attract
  Into its substance, and becomes one soul,
  Which lives, and feels, and on itself revolves.

And that thou less may wonder at my word,
  Behold the sun`s heat, which becometh wine,
  Joined to the juice that from the vine distils.

Whenever Lachesis has no more thread,
  It separates from the flesh, and virtually
  Bears with itself the human and divine;

The other faculties are voiceless all;
  The memory, the intelligence, and the will
  In action far more vigorous than before.

Without a pause it falleth of itself
  In marvellous way on one shore or the other;
  There of its roads it first is cognizant.

Soon as the place there circumscribeth it,
  The virtue informative rays round about,
  As, and as much as, in the living members.

And even as the air, when full of rain,
  By alien rays that are therein reflected,
  With divers colours shows itself adorned,

So there the neighbouring air doth shape itself
  Into that form which doth impress upon it
  Virtually the soul that has stood still.

And then in manner of the little flame,
  Which followeth the fire where`er it shifts,
  After the spirit followeth its new form.

Since afterwards it takes from this its semblance,
  It is called shade; and thence it organizes
  Thereafter every sense, even to the sight.

Thence is it that we speak, and thence we laugh;
  Thence is it that we form the tears and sighs,
  That on the mountain thou mayhap hast heard.

According as impress us our desires
  And other affections, so the shade is shaped,
  And this is cause of what thou wonderest at."

And now unto the last of all the circles
  Had we arrived, and to the right hand turned,
  And were attentive to another care.

There the embankment shoots forth flames of fire,
  And upward doth the cornice breathe a blast
  That drives them back, and from itself sequesters.

Hence we must needs go on the open side,
  And one by one; and I did fear the fire
  On this side, and on that the falling down.

My Leader said: "Along this place one ought
  To keep upon the eyes a tightened rein,
  Seeing that one so easily might err."

"Summae Deus clementiae," in the bosom
  Of the great burning chanted then I heard,
  Which made me no less eager to turn round;

And spirits saw I walking through the flame;
  Wherefore I looked, to my own steps and theirs
  Apportioning my sight from time to time.

After the close which to that hymn is made,
  Aloud they shouted, "Virum non cognosco;"
  Then recommenced the hymn with voices low.

This also ended, cried they: "To the wood
  Diana ran, and drove forth Helice
  Therefrom, who had of Venus felt the poison."

Then to their song returned they; then the wives
  They shouted, and the husbands who were chaste.
  As virtue and the marriage vow imposes.

And I believe that them this mode suffices,
  For all the time the fire is burning them;
  With such care is it needful, and such food,

That the last wound of all should be closed up.


Purgatorio: Canto XXVI


While on the brink thus one before the other
  We went upon our way, oft the good Master
  Said: "Take thou heed! suffice it that I warn thee."

On the right shoulder smote me now the sun,
  That, raying out, already the whole west
  Changed from its azure aspect into white.

And with my shadow did I make the flame
  Appear more red; and even to such a sign
  Shades saw I many, as they went, give heed.

This was the cause that gave them a beginning
  To speak of me; and to themselves began they
  To say: "That seems not a factitious body!"

Then towards me, as far as they could come,
  Came certain of them, always with regard
  Not to step forth where they would not be burned.

"O thou who goest, not from being slower
  But reverent perhaps, behind the others,
  Answer me, who in thirst and fire am burning.

Nor to me only is thine answer needful;
  For all of these have greater thirst for it
  Than for cold water Ethiop or Indian.

Tell us how is it that thou makest thyself
  A wall unto the sun, as if thou hadst not
  Entered as yet into the net of death."

Thus one of them addressed me, and I straight
  Should have revealed myself, were I not bent
  On other novelty that then appeared.

For through the middle of the burning road
  There came a people face to face with these,
  Which held me in suspense with gazing at them.

There see I hastening upon either side
  Each of the shades, and kissing one another
  Without a pause, content with brief salute.

Thus in the middle of their brown battalions
  Muzzle to muzzle one ant meets another
  Perchance to spy their journey or their fortune.

No sooner is the friendly greeting ended,
  Or ever the first footstep passes onward,
  Each one endeavours to outcry the other;

The new-come people: "Sodom and Gomorrah!"
  The rest: "Into the cow Pasiphae enters,
  So that the bull unto her lust may run!"

Then as the cranes, that to Riphaean mountains
  Might fly in part, and part towards the sands,
  These of the frost, those of the sun avoidant,

One folk is going, and the other coming,
  And weeping they return to their first songs,
  And to the cry that most befitteth them;

And close to me approached, even as before,
  The very same who had entreated me,
  Attent to listen in their countenance.

I, who their inclination twice had seen,
  Began: "O souls secure in the possession,
  Whene`er it may be, of a state of peace,

Neither unripe nor ripened have remained
  My members upon earth, but here are with me
  With their own blood and their articulations.

I go up here to be no longer blind;
  A Lady is above, who wins this grace,
  Whereby the mortal through your world I bring.

But as your greatest longing satisfied
  May soon become, so that the Heaven may house you
  Which full of love is, and most amply spreads,

Tell me, that I again in books may write it,
  Who are you, and what is that multitude
  Which goes upon its way behind your backs?"

Not otherwise with wonder is bewildered
  The mountaineer, and staring round is dumb,
  When rough and rustic to the town he goes,

Than every shade became in its appearance;
  But when they of their stupor were disburdened,
  Which in high hearts is quickly quieted,

"Blessed be thou, who of our border-lands,"
  He recommenced who first had questioned us,
  "Experience freightest for a better life.

The folk that comes not with us have offended
  In that for which once Caesar, triumphing,
  Heard himself called in contumely, `Queen.`

Therefore they separate, exclaiming, `Sodom!`
  Themselves reproving, even as thou hast heard,
  And add unto their burning by their shame.

Our own transgression was hermaphrodite;
  But because we observed not human law,
  Following like unto beasts our appetite,

In our opprobrium by us is read,
  When we part company, the name of her
  Who bestialized herself in bestial wood.

Now knowest thou our acts, and what our crime was;
  Wouldst thou perchance by name know who we are,
  There is not time to tell, nor could I do it.

Source
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