XIV
Alecto left them, and her person dight
Like one that came some tidings new to tell:
It was the time, when first the rising night
Her sparkling diamonds poureth forth to sell,
When, into Sion come, she marched right
Where Juda’s aged tyrant used to dwell,
To whom of Solyman’s designment bold,
The place, the manner, and the time she told.
XIV.
Alecto led, then left the army, dressed
A courier like in aspect and array,
And at the time when Nature seems to rest,
Divided dubious between night and day,
Entered Jerusalem, and passing thro’
The sad crowds, told the king, to his delight,
Of the camp’s coming; told their purpose, too,
And the hour and signal of the assault by night.
XV.
Ma già distendon l’ombre orrido velo
Che di rossi vapor si sparge e tigne.
La terra, in vece del notturno gelo,
116 Bagnan rugiade tepide e sanguigne.
S’empie di mostri, e di prodigj il Cielo:
S’odon fremendo errar larve maligne:
Votò Pluton gli abissi, e la sua notte
120 Tutta versò dalle Tartaree grotte.
XV
Their mantle dark, the grisly shadows spread,
Stained with spots of deepest sanguine hue,
Warm drops of blood, on earth’s black visage shed,
Supplied the place of pure and precious dew,
The moon and stars for fear of sprites were fled,
The shrieking goblins eachwhere howling flew,
The furies roar, the ghosts and fairies yell,
The earth was filled with devils, and empty hell.
XV.
The shadows now a veil of horror spread,
Besprent and tinted of a blood-red hue;
The earth, in place of white hoar-frost, was red
With reeking vapours of ensanguined dew;
In heaven strange prodigies and monsters soared,
Yelled fiends malign in their exultant flight;
Grim Pluto emptied hell’s abyss, and poured
From gloomy Tartarus his blackest night.
XVI.
Per sì profondo orror verso le tende
Degl’inimici il fier Soldan cammina.
Ma quando a mezzo dal suo corso ascende
124 La notte, onde poi rapida dechina;
A men d’un miglio, ove riposo prende
Il sicuro Francese, ei s’avvicina.
Quì fè cibar le genti, e poscia, d’alto
128 Parlando, confortolle al crudo assalto.
XVI
The Soldan fierce, through all this horror, went
Toward the camp of his redoubted foes,
The night was more than half consumed and spent;
Now headlong down the western hill she goes,
When distant scant a mile from Godfrey’s tent
He let his people there awhile repose,
And victualled them, and then he boldly spoke
These words which rage and courage might provoke:
XVI.
Thro’ such deep horrors the fierce soldan bent
His venturous progress toward the hostile lines;
But when the night had reached her mid ascent,
From which she after rapidly declines,
He arrived within a mile, where in their tents
Secure the Christians slept — there made a halt,
Refreshed his troops, and from an eminence
Addressed and cheered them on to the assault.
XVII.
Vedete là di mille furti pieno
Un campo più famoso assai che forte:
Che quasi un mar nel suo vorace seno
132 Tutte dell’Asia ha le ricchezze assorte.
Questo ora a voi (nè già potria con meno
Vostro periglio) espon benigna sorte.
L’arme, e i destrier d’ostro guerniti e d’oro
136 Preda fian vostra, e non difesa loro.
XVII
“See there a camp, full stuffed of spoils and preys,
Not half so strong as false report recordeth;
See there the storehouse, where their captain lays
Our treasures stolen, where Asia’s wealth he hoardeth;
Now chance the ball unto our racket plays,
Take then the vantage which good luck affordeth;
For all their arms, their horses, gold and treasure
Are ours, ours without loss, harm or displeasure.
XVII.
‘Behold, my friends, a camp more famed than strong,
With spoil surcharged, and surfeited with stealth,
Which, as a ravening sea has swept along,
And in its maw absorbed all Asia’s wealth:
This the kind fates at your disposal hold
(Nor could the risk be from less peril free);
Armour, and steeds with crimson pranked, and gold,
Not their defence, but shall your plunder be.
XVIII.
Nè questa è già quell’oste, onde la Persa
Gente, e la gente di Nicea fu vinta;
Perchè, in guerra sì lunga e sì diversa,
140 Rimasa n’è la maggior parte estinta:
E s’anco integra fosse, or tutta immersa
In profonda quiete, e d’arme è scinta.
Tosto s’opprime chi di sonno è carco:
144 Chè dal sonno alla morte è un picciol varco.
XVIII
“Nor is this camp that great victorious host
That slew the Persian lords, and Nice hath won:
For those in this long war are spent and lost,
These are the dregs, the wine is all outrun,
And these few left, are drowned and dead almost
In heavy sleep, the labor half is done
To send them headlong to Avernus deep,
For little differs death and heavy sleep.
XVIII.
‘Not this the host that, formerly so strong,
O’erthrew the Persians and Nicæa won;
Since most in war, so varied and so long,
Stretched on the field, their earthly race have run.
And were it ev’n entire, in slumbers deep
Immersed profoundly, and unarmed, it bides;
And small resistance can they make who sleep,
Since short the pass that sleep from death divides.
XIX.
Su su venite: io primo aprir la strada
Vuò, su i corpi languenti, entro ai ripari:
Ferir, da questa mia, ciascuna spada
148 E l’arti usar di crudeltate impari.
Oggi fia che di Cristo il regno cada:
Oggi libera l’Asia: oggi voi chiari.
Così gl’infiamma alle vicine prove:
152 Indi tacitamente oltre lor move.
XIX
“Come, come, this sword the passage open shall
Into their camp, and on their bodies slain
We will pass o’er their rampire and their wall;
This blade, as scythes cut down the fields of grain,
Shall cut them so, Christ’s kingdom now shall fall,
Asia her freedom, you shall praise obtain.”
Thus he inflamed his soldiers to the fight,
And led them on through silence of the night.
XIX.
‘On, then! come on! I first the trench within,
Over their languid forms will clear the way;
Let every Paynim falchion strike like mine;
Let each unequalled cruelty display;
And this very day the reign of Christ will fall,
Become illustrious you, and Asia free.’
Thus to their trials near he fired them all,
And then advanced his
squadrons silently.
XX.
Ecco tra via le sentinelle ei vede
Per l’ombra mista d’una incerta luce:
Nè ritrovar, come sicura fede
156 Avea, puote improvviso il saggio Duce.
Volgon quelle, gridando, indietro il piede,
Scorto che sì gran turba egli conduce:,
Sicchè la prima guardia è da lor desta,
160 Che, com’ può meglio, a guerreggiar s’appresta.
XX
The sentinel by starlight, lo, descried
This mighty Soldan and his host draw near,
Who found not as he hoped the Christians’ guide
Unware, ne yet unready was his gear:
The scouts, when this huge army they descried,
Ran back, and gan with shouts the ‘larum rear;
The watch stert up and drew their weapons bright,
And busked them bold to battle and to fight.
XX.
When, lo! before him sentinels he spies,
Thro’ the thick shadows of uncertain light,
And finds he cannot, as he hoped, surprise
The prudent chief, tho’ coming in the night.
Back they retreated, shouting loud alarms,
By the vast numbers he conducted, scared;
So that, aroused, the outposts seized their arms,
And for the fight, as best they could, prepared.
XXI.
Dan fiato allora ai barbari metalli
Gli Arabi, certi omai d’essere sentiti.
Van gridi orrendi al Cielo, e de’ cavalli
164 Col suon del calpestio misti i nitriti.
Gli alti monti muggir, muggir le valli,
E risposer gli abissi ai lor muggiti:
E la face innalzò di Flegetonte
168 Aletto, e ‘l segno diede a quei del monte.
XXI
The Arabians wist they could not come unseen,
And therefore loud their jarring trumpets sound,
Their yelling cries to heaven upheaved been,
The horses thundered on the solid ground,
The mountains roared, and the valley green,
The echoes sighed from the caves around,
Alecto with her brand, kindled in hell,
Tokened to them in David’s tower that dwell.
XXI.
Sure of detection now, the Arabs blew
In their barbaric brass, whose horrent clang.
Blent with their yells, to heaven’s crystallin flew,
And with them neighs and tramp of destriers rang;
Roared the tall mountains, the deep valleys roared,
Re-echoing their roars the abyss replied;
Waving hell’s torch aloft Alecto soared,
And to the town the appointed sign supplied.
XXII.
Corre innanzi il Soldano, e giunge a quella
Confusa ancora e inordinata guarda,
Rapido sì, che torbida procella
172 Da’ cavernosi monti esce più tarda:
Fiume ch’alberi insieme, e case svella:
Folgore che le torri abbatta, ed arda:
Terremoto che ‘l mondo empia d’orrore,
176 Son picciole sembianze al suo furore.
XXII
Before the rest forth pricked the Soldan fast,
Against the watch, not yet in order just,
As swift as hideous Boreas’ hasty blast
From hollow rocks when first his storms outburst,
The raging floods, that trees and rocks down cast,
Thunders, that towns and towers drive to dust:
Earthquakes, to tear the world in twain that threat,
Are naught, compared to his fury great.
XXII.
On dashed the soldan now, and was the first
To reach the guard, confused, disordered still:
With less rapidity doth whirlwind burst,
From out the bowels of a caverned hill;
River, that tears up palaces and trees,
Lightning, that blasts with its consuming fire,
Earthquake, that fills the world with horror, — these
Are but faint types of his infuriate ire.
XXIII.
Non cala il ferro mai ch’appien non colga:
Nè coglie appien che piaga anco non faccia:
Nè piaga fa che l’alma altrui non tolga:
180 E più direi; ma il ver di falso ha faccia.
E par ch’egli o s’infinga, o non sen dolga,
O non senta il ferir dell’altrui braccia;
Sebben l’elmo percosso, in suon di squilla
184 Rimbomba, e orribilmente arde e sfavilla.
XXIII
He struck no blow, but that his foe he hit;
And never hit, but made a grievous wound:
And never wounded, but death followed it;
And yet no peril, hurt or harm he found,
No weapon on his hardened helmet bit,
No puissant stroke his senses once astound,
Yet like a bell his tinkling helmet rung,
And thence flew flames of fire and sparks among.
XXIII.
Ne’er falls his sword, but doth its object hit;
Nor fully hits, but that it woundeth too;
Nor wounds, but kills. More I might say of it,
But that the simple truth might seem untrue.
He either heeds not, or dissembles well,
Or the dire strokes of others does not feel;
Tho’ clangs his stricken helmet like a bell,
And flashes horribly the smitten steel.
XXIV.
Or quando ei solo ha quasi in fuga volto
Quel primo stuol delle Francesche genti;
Giungono, in guisa d’un diluvio accolto
188 Di mille rivi, gli Arabi correnti.
Fuggono i Franchi allora a freno sciolto,
E misto il vincitor va tra’ fuggenti:
E con lor entra ne’ ripari, e ‘l tutto
192 Di ruine e d’orror s’empie, e di lutto.
XXIV
Himself well nigh had put the watch to flight,
A jolly troop of Frenchmen strong and stout,
When his Arabians came by heaps to fight,
Covering, like raging floods, the fields about;
The beaten Christians run away full light,
The Pagans, mingled with the flying rout,
Entered their camp, and filled, as they stood,
Their tents with ruin, slaughter, death and blood.
XXIV.
When as alone he had nigh put to flight
The Christian outposts; to support his schemes,
The Arabs rushing forwards join the fight,
Like the swoln torrent of a thousand streams.
At this, the Franks retreat with slackened rein,
Victor and vanquished mixed together go,
And in disorder the entrenchments gain,
Where all is filled with ruin, blood, and woe.
XXV.
Porta il Soldan su l’elmo orrido e grande
Serpe che si dilunga, e ‘l collo snoda:
Su le zampe s’innalza, e l’ali spande,
196 E piega in arco la forcuta coda:
Par che tre lingue vibri, e che fuor mande
Livida spuma, e che ‘l suo fischio s’oda:
Ed or ch’arde la pugna, anch’ei s’infiamma
200 Nel moto, e fumo versa insieme e fiamma.
XXV
High on the Soldan’s helm enamelled laid
An hideous dragon, armed with many a scale,
With iron paws, and leathern wings displayed,
Which twisted on a knot her forked tail,
With triple tongue it seemed she hissed and brayed,
About her jaws the froth and venom trail,
And as he stirred, and as his foes him hit,
So flames to cast and fire she seemed to sp
it.
XXV.
The soldan’s casque a frightful dragon decked,
That outstretched did its scaly neck unfold;
With wings extended, and on claws erect,
It in a circle had its forked tail rolled:
Three tongues the monster darts; a livid froth
It vomits forth, and seems to hiss with ire;
And as the combat glows, it burns with wrath,
And belches forth black smoke and lurid fire.
XXVI.
E si mostra in quel lume a’ riguardanti
Formidabil così l’empio Soldano,
Come veggion nell’ombra i naviganti
204 Fra mille lampi il torbido Oceano.
Altri danno a la fuga i piè tremanti:
Danno altri al ferro intrepida la mano:
E la notte i tumulti ognor più mesce,
208 Ed occultando i rischj, i rischj accresce.
XXVI
With this strange light, the Soldan fierce appeared
Dreadful to those that round about him been,
As to poor sailors, when huge storms are reared,
With lightning flash the rafting seas are seen;
Some fled away, because his strength they feared,
Some bolder gainst him bent their weapons keen,
And forward night, in evils and mischiefs pleased,
Their dangers hid, and dangers still increased.
XXVI.
As, ‘mid the flashes of a thunder-storm,
Looks the vexed ocean in the sailor’s sight,
So dreadful shone the impious soldan’s form
To all beholders, ‘mid that blaze of light
Some seize with dauntless hands the sword; to flight,
Others, base cowards, give their trembling heels;
Confusion is confounded by the night,
Which multiplies the danger it conceals.
XXVII.
Fra color che mostraro il cor più franco,
Latin, sul Tebro nato, allor si mosse:
A cui nè le fatiche il corpo stanco,
212 Nè gli anni dome aveano ancor le posse.
Cinque suoi figlj quasi eguali al fianco
Gli erano sempre, ovunque in guerra ei fosse,
D’arme gravando, anzi il lor tempo molto,
216 Le membra ancor crescenti, e ‘l molle volto.
XXVII
Among the rest that strove to merit praise,
Was old Latinus, born by Tiber’s bank,
To whose stout heart in fights and bloody frays,
Jerusalem Delivered Page 214
