The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Inferno

From the First Circle thus I downward went Into the Second,[248] which girds narrower space, But greater woe compelling loud lament. Minos[249] waits awful there and snarls, the case Examining of all who enter in; And, as he girds him, dooms them to their place. I say, each ill-starred spirit must begin On reaching him its guilt in full to tell; And he, omniscient as concerning sin, Sees to what circle it belongs in Hell;10 Then round him is his tail as often curled As he would have it stages deep to dwell. And evermore before him stand a world Of shades; and all in turn to judgment come, Confess and hear, and then are downward hurled.[250] ‘O thou who comest to the very home Of woe,’ when he beheld me Minos cried, Ceasing a while from utterance of doom, ‘Enter not rashly nor in all confide; By ease of entering be not led astray.’20 ‘Why also[251] growling?’ answered him my Guide; ‘Seek not his course predestinate to stay; For thus ’tis willed[252] where nothing ever fails Of what is willed. No further speech essay.’ And now by me are agonising wails Distinguished plain; now am I come outright Where grievous lamentation me assails. Now had I reached a place devoid of light, Raging

as in a tempest howls the sea When with it winds, blown thwart each other, fight.30 The infernal storm is raging ceaselessly, Sweeping the shades along with it, and them It smites and whirls, nor lets them ever be. Arrived at the precipitous extreme,[253] In shrieks and lamentations they complain, And even the Power Divine itself blaspheme. I understood[254] that to this mode of pain Are doomed the sinners of the carnal kind, Who o’er their reason let their impulse reign. As starlings in the winter-time combined40 Float on the wing in crowded phalanx wide, So these bad spirits, driven by that wind, Float up and down and veer from side to side; Nor for their comfort any hope they spy Of rest, or even of suffering mollified. And as the cranes[255] in long-drawn company Pursue their flight while uttering their song, So I beheld approach with wailing cry Shades lifted onward by that whirlwind strong. ‘Master, what folk are these,’[256] I therefore said,50 ‘Who by the murky air are whipped along?’ ‘She, first of them,’ his answer thus was made, ‘Of whom thou wouldst a wider knowledge win, O’er many tongues and peoples, empire swayed. So ruined was she by licentious sin That she decreed

lust should be uncontrolled, To ease the shame that she herself was in. She is Semiramis, of whom ’tis told She followed Ninus, and his wife had been. Hers were the realms now by the Sultan ruled.60 The next[257] is she who, amorous and self-slain, Unto Sichæus’ dust did faithless show: Then lustful Cleopatra.’ Next was seen Helen, for whom so many years in woe Ran out; and I the great Achilles knew, Who at the last[258] encountered love for foe. Paris I saw and Tristram.[259] In review A thousand shades and more, he one by one Pointed and named, whom love from life withdrew. And after I had heard my Teacher run70 O’er many a dame of yore and many a knight, I, lost in pity, was wellnigh undone. Then I: ‘O Poet, if I only might Speak with the two that as companions hie, And on the wind appear to be so light!’[260] And he to me: ‘When they shall come more nigh Them shalt thou mark, and by the love shalt pray Which leads them onward, and they will comply.’ Soon as the wind bends them to where we stay I lift my voice: ‘O wearied souls and worn!80 Come speak with us if none[261] the boon gainsay.’ Then even as doves,[262] urged by desire, return On outspread wings and firm to their

sweet nest As through the air by mere volition borne, From Dido’s[263] band those spirits issuing pressed Towards where we were, athwart the air malign; My passionate prayer such influence possessed. ‘O living creature,[264] gracious and benign, Us visiting in this obscurèd air, Who did the earth with blood incarnadine;90 If in the favour of the King we were Who rules the world, we for thy peace[265] would pray, Since our misfortunes thy compassion stir. Whate’er now pleases thee to hear or say We listen to, or tell, at your demand;[266] While yet the wind, as now, doth silent stay. My native city[267] lies upon the strand Where to the sea descends the river Po For peace, with all his tributary band. Love, in a generous heart set soon aglow,100 Seized him for the fair form was mine above; And still it irks me to have lost it so.[268] Love, which absolves[269] no one beloved from love, So strong a passion for him in me wrought That, as thou seest, I still its mastery prove. Love led us where we in one death were caught. For him who slew us waits Caïna[270] now.’ Unto our ears these words from them were brought. When I had heard these troubled souls, my brow I downward bent, and

long while musing stayed,110 Until the Poet asked: ‘What thinkest thou?’ And when I answered him, ‘Alas!’ I said, ‘Sweet thoughts how many, and what strong desire, These to their sad catastrophe betrayed!’ Then, turned once more to them, I to inquire Began: ‘Francesca, these thine agonies Me with compassion unto tears inspire. But tell me, at the season of sweet sighs What sign made love, and what the means he chose To strip your dubious longings of disguise?’120 And she to me: ‘The bitterest of woes Is to remember in the midst of pain A happy past; as well thy teacher[271] knows. Yet none the less, and since thou art so fain The first occasion of our love to hear, Like one I speak that cannot tears restrain. As we for pastime one day reading were How Lancelot[272] by love was fettered fast— All by ourselves and without any fear— Moved by the tale our eyes we often cast130 On one another, and our colour fled; But one word was it, vanquished us at last. When how the smile, long wearied for, we read Was kissed by him who loved like none before, This one, who henceforth never leaves me, laid A kiss on my mouth, trembling the while all o’er. The book was Galahad,[273] and he as well