Purgatorio: Canto XXV
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Dante Alighieri and Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
“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.