The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Inferno

Rejoice, O Florence, in thy widening fame! Thy wings thou beatest over land and sea, And even through Inferno spreads thy name. Burghers of thine, five such were found by me Among the thieves; whence I ashamed[668] grew, Nor shall great glory thence redound to thee. But if ’tis toward the morning[669] dreams are true, Thou shalt experience ere long time be gone The doom even Prato[670] prays for as thy due. And came it now, it would not come too soon.10 Would it were come as come it must with time: ’Twill crush me more the older I am grown. Departing thence, my Guide began to climb The jutting rocks by which we made descent Some while ago,[671] and pulled me after him. And as upon our lonely way we went ’Mong splinters[672] of the cliff, the feet in vain, Without the hand to help, had labour spent. I sorrowed, and am sorrow-smit again, Recalling what before mine eyes there lay,20 And, more than I am wont, my genius rein From running save where virtue leads the way; So that if happy star[673] or holier might Have gifted me I never mourn it may. At time of year when he who gives earth light His face shows to us longest visible, When gnats replace the fly at fall of night, Not by the

peasant resting on the hill Are seen more fire-flies in the vale below, Where he perchance doth field and vineyard[674] till,30 Than flamelets I beheld resplendent glow Throughout the whole Eighth Bolgia, when at last I stood whence I the bottom plain could know. And as he whom the bears avenged, when passed From the earth Elijah, saw the chariot rise With horses heavenward reared and mounting fast, And no long time had traced it with his eyes Till but a flash of light it all became, Which like a rack of cloud swept to the skies: Deep in the valley’s gorge, in mode the same,40 These flitted; what it held by none was shown, And yet a sinner[675] lurked in every flame. To see them well I from the bridge peered down, And if a jutting crag I had not caught I must have fallen, though neither thrust nor thrown. My Leader me beholding lost in thought: ‘In all the fires are spirits,’ said to me; ‘His flame round each is for a garment wrought.’ ‘O Master!’ I replied, ‘by hearing thee I grow assured, but yet I knew before50 That thus indeed it was, and longed to be Told who is in the flame which there doth soar, Cloven, as if ascending from the pyre Where with Eteocles[676] there burned of

yore His brother.’ He: ‘Ulysses in that fire And Diomedes[677] burn; in punishment Thus held together, as they held in ire. And, wrapped within their flame, they now repent The ambush of the horse, which oped the door Through which the Romans’ noble seed[678] forth went.60 For guile Deïdamia[679] makes deplore In death her lost Achilles, tears they shed, And bear for the Palladium[680] vengeance sore.’ ‘Master, I pray thee fervently,’ I said, ‘If from those flames they still can utter speech— Give ear as if a thousand times I pled! Refuse not here to linger, I beseech, Until the cloven fire shall hither gain: Thou seest how toward it eagerly I reach.’ And he: ‘Thy prayers are worthy to obtain70 Exceeding praise; thou hast what thou dost seek: But see that thou from speech thy tongue refrain. I know what thou wouldst have; leave me to speak, For they perchance would hear contemptuously Shouldst thou address them, seeing they were Greek.’[681] Soon as the flame toward us had come so nigh That to my Leader time and place seemed met, I heard him thus adjure it to reply: ‘O ye who twain within one fire are set, If what I did your guerdon meriteth,80 If much or little ye are in my debt

For the great verse I built while I had breath, By one of you be openly confessed Where, lost to men, at last he met with death.’ Of the ancient flame the more conspicuous crest Murmuring began to waver up and down Like flame that flickers, by the wind distressed. At length by it was measured motion shown, Like tongue that moves in speech; and by the flame Was language uttered thus: ‘When I had gone90 From Circe[682] who a long year kept me tame Beside her, ere the near Gaeta had Receivèd from Æneas that new name; No softness for my son, nor reverence sad For my old father, nor the love I owed Penelope with which to make her glad, Could quench the ardour that within me glowed A full experience of the world to gain— Of human vice and worth. But I abroad Launched out upon the high and open main[683]100 With but one bark and but the little band Which ne’er deserted me.[684] As far as Spain I saw the sea-shore upon either hand, And as Morocco; saw Sardinia’s isle, And all of which those waters wash the strand. I and my comrades were grown old the while And sluggish, ere we to the narrows came Where Hercules of old did landmarks pile For sign to men they should no further aim; And

Seville lay behind me on the right,110 As on the left lay Ceuta. Then to them I spake: “O Brothers, who through such a fight Of hundred thousand dangers West have won, In this short watch that ushers in the night Of all your senses, ere your day be done, Refuse not to obtain experience new Of worlds unpeopled, yonder, past the sun. Consider whence the seed of life ye drew; Ye were not born to live like brutish herd, But righteousness and wisdom to ensue.”120 My comrades to such eagerness were stirred By this short speech the course to enter on, They had no longer brooked restraining word. Turning our poop to where the morning shone We of the oars made wings for our mad flight, Still tending left the further we had gone. And of the other pole I saw at night Now all the stars; and ’neath the watery plain Our own familiar heavens were lost to sight. Five times afresh had kindled, and again130 The moon’s face earthward was illumed no more, Since out we sailed upon the mighty main;[685] Then we beheld a lofty mountain[686] soar, Dim in the distance; higher, as I thought, By far than any I had seen before. We joyed; but with despair were soon distraught When burst a whirlwind from the

new-found world And the forequarter of the vessel caught. With all the waters thrice it round was swirled; At the fourth time the poop, heaved upward, rose,140 The prow, as pleased Another,[687] down was hurled; And then above us did the ocean close.’