Inferno: Canto XXVIII
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Dante Alighieri and Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
And by the hair it held the head dissevered, Hung from the hand in fashion of a lantern, And that upon us gazed and said: “O me!”
It of itself made to itself a lamp, And they were two in one, and one in two; How that can be, He knows who so ordains it.
When it was come close to the bridge’s foot, It lifted high its arm with all the head, To bring more closely unto us its words,
Which were: “Behold now the sore penalty, Thou, who dost breathing go the dead beholding; Behold if any be as great as this.
And so that thou may carry news of me, Know that Bertram de Born am I, the same Who gave to the Young King the evil comfort.
I made the father and the son rebellious; Achitophel not more with Absalom And David did with his accursed goadings.
Because I parted persons so united, Parted do I now bear my brain, alas! From its beginning, which is in this trunk.
Thus is observed in me the counterpoise.”