| |
| MY sense reviving, that erewhile had droop’d | |
| With pity for the kindred shades, whence grief | |
| O’ercame me wholly, straight around I see | |
| New torments, new tormented souls, which way | |
| Soe’er I move, or turn, or bend my sight. | 5 |
| In the third circle I arrive, of showers | |
| Ceaseless, accursed, heavy and cold, unchanged | |
| For ever, both in kind and in degree. | |
| Large hail, discolor’d water, sleety flaw | |
| Through the dun midnight air stream’d down amain: | 10 |
| Stank all the land whereon that tempest fell. | |
| Cerberus, cruel monster, fierce and strange, | |
| Through his wide threefold throat, barks as a dog | |
| Over the multitude immersed beneath. | |
| His eyes glare crimson, black his unctuous beard, | 15 |
| His belly large, and claw’d the hands, with which | |
| He tears the spirits, flays them, and their limbs | |
| Piecemeal disparts. Howling there spread, as curs, | |
| Under the rainy deluge, with one side | |
| The other screening, oft they roll them round, | 20 |
| A wretched, godless crew. When that great worm 1 | |
| Descried us, savage Cerberus, he oped | |
| His jaws, and the fangs show’d us; not a limb | |
| Of him but trembled. Then my guide, his palms | |
| Expanding on the ground, thence fill’d with earth | 25 |
| Raised them, and cast it in his ravenous maw. | |
| E’en as a dog, that yelling bays for food | |
| His keeper, when the morsel comes, lets fall | |
| His fury, bent alone with eager haste | |
| To swallow it; so dropp’d the loathsome cheeks | 30 |
| Of demon Cerberus, who thundering stuns | |
| The spirits, that they for deafness wish in vain. | |
| We, o’er the shades thrown prostrate by the brunt | |
| Of the heavy tempest passing, set our feet | |
| Upon their emptiness, that substance seem’d. | 35 |
| They all along the earth extended lay, | |
| Save one, that sudden raised himself to sit, | |
| Soon as that way he saw us pass. “O thou!” | |
| He cried, “who through the infernal shades art led, | |
| Own, if again thou know’st me. Thou wast framed | 40 |
| Or ere my frame was broken.” I replied: | |
| “The anguish thou endurest perchance so takes | |
| Thy form from my remembrance, that it seems | |
| As if I saw thee never. But inform | |
| Me thou art, that in a place so sad | 45 |
| Art set, and in such torment, that although | |
| Other be greater, none disgusteth more.” | |
| He thus in answer to my words rejoin’d: | |
| “Thy city, heap’d with envy to the brim, | |
| Aye, that the measure overflows its bounds, | 50 |
| Held me in brighter days. Ye citizens | |
| Were wont to name me Ciacco. 2 For the sin | |
| Of gluttony, damned vice, beneath this rain, | |
| E’en as thou seest, I with fatigue am worn: | |
| Nor I sole spirit in this woe: all these | 55 |
| Have by like crime incurr’d like punishment.” | |
| No more he said, and I my speech resumed: | |
| “Ciacco! thy! dire affliction grieves me much, | |
| Even to tears. But tell me, if thou know’st, | |
| What shall at length befall the citizens | 60 |
| of the divided city; 3 whether any | |
| Just one inhabit there: and tell the cause, | |
| Whence jarring Discord hath assail’d it thus.” | |
| He then: “After long striving they will come | |
| To blood; and the wild party from the woods 4 | 65 |
| Will chase the other 5 with much injury forth. | |
| Then it behooves that this must fall, 6 within | |
| Three solar circles; 7 and the other rise | |
| By borrow’d force of one, who under shore | |
| Now rests. 8 It shall a long space hold aloof | 70 |
| Its forehead, keeping under heavy weight | |
| The other opprest, indignant at the load, | |
| And grieving sore. The just are two in number. 9 | |
| But they neglected. Avarice, envy, pride, | |
| Three fatal sparks, have set the hearts of all | 75 |
| On fire.” Here ceased the lamentable sound; | |
| And I continued thus: “Still would I learn | |
| More from thee, further parley still entreat. | |
| Of Farinata and Tegghiaio 10 say, | |
| They who so well deserved; of Giacopo, 11 | 80 |
| Arrigo, Mosca, 12 and the rest, who bent | |
| Their minds on working good. Oh! tell me where | |
| They bide, and to their knowledge let me come. | |
| For I am prest with keen desire to hear | |
| If Heaven’s sweet cup, or poisonous drug of Hell, | 85 |
| Be to their lip assign’d.” He answer’d straight: | |
| “These are yet blacker spirits. Various crimes | |
| Have sunk them deeper in the dark abyss. | |
| If thou so far descendest, thou mayst see them. | |
| But to the pleasant world, when thou return’st, | 90 |
| Of me make mention, I entreat thee, there. | |
| No more I tell thee, answer thee no more.” | |
| This said, his fixed eyes he turn’d askance, | |
| A little eyed me, then bent down his head, | |
| And ’midst his blind companions with it fell. | 95 |
| When thus my guide: “No more his bed he leaves, | |
| Ere the last angel-trumpet blow. The Power | |
| Adverse to these shall then in glory come, | |
| Each one forthwith to his sad tomb repair, | |
| Resume his fleshly vesture and his form, | 100 |
| And hear the eternal doom re-echoing rend | |
| The vault.” So pass’d we through that mixture foul | |
| Of spirits and rain, with tardy steps; meanwhile | |
| Touching, though slightly, on the life to come. | |
| For thus I question’d: “Shall these tortures, Sir! | 105 |
| When the great sentence passes, be increased, | |
| Or mitigated, or as now severe?” | |
| He then: “Consult thy knowledge; that decides, | |
| That, as each thing to more perfection grows, | |
| It feels more sensibly both good and pain. | 110 |
| Though ne’er to true perfection may arrive | |
| This race accurst, yet nearer then, than now, | |
| They shall approach it.” Compassing that path, | |
| Circuitous we journey’d; and discourse, | |
| Much more than I relate, between us pass’d: | 115 |
| Till at the point, whence the steps led below, | |
| Arrived, there Plutus, the great foe, we found. | |
