The Inferno (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

by Dante Alighieri

  “0 power supreme, that through these impious circles Turnest me,” I began, “as pleases thee, Speak to me, and my longings satisfy;

  The people who are lying in these tombs, Might they be seen? already are uplifted The covers all, and no one keepeth guard.“

  And he to me: “They all will be closed up When from Jehosaphat1 they shall return Here with the bodies they have left above.

  Their cemetery have upon this side With Epicurus2 all his followers, Who with the body mortal make the soul;

  But in the question thou dost put to me, Within here shalt thou soon be satisfied, And likewise in the wish thou keepest silent.“

  And I: “Good Leader, I but keep concealed From thee my heart, that I may speak the less, Nor only now hast thou thereto disposed me.”

  “0 Tuscan,3 thou who through the city of fire Goest alive, thus speaking modestly, Be pleased to stay thy footsteps in this place.

  Thy mode of speaking makes thee manifest A native of that noble fatherland, To which perhaps I too molestfulaw was.“

  Canto X Farmala degh Ubert addresses Dante

  Upon a sudden issued forth this sound From out one of the tombs: wherefore I pressed, Fearing, a little nearer to my Leader.

  And unto me he said: “Turn thee; what dost thou? Behold there Farinata who has risen; From the waist upwards wholly shalt thou see him.“

  I had already fixed mine eyes on his, And he uprose erect with breast and front E‘en as if Hell he had in great despite.ax

  And with courageous hands and prompt my Leader Thrust me between the sepulchres towards him, Exclaiming, “Let thy words explicit be.”

  As soon as I was at the foot of his tomb, Somewhat he eyed me, and, as if disdainful, Then asked of me, “Who were thine ancestors?”

  I, who desirous of obeying was, Concealed it not, but all revealed to him; Whereat he raised his brows a little upward.

  Then said he: “Fiercely adverse have they been To me, and to my fathers, and my party; So that two several times I scattered them.”4

  “If they were banished, they returned on all sides,” I answered him, “the first time and the second;5 But yours have not acquired that art aright.”

  Then there uprose upon the sight, uncovered Down to the chin, a shadow at his side; I think that he had risen on his knees.

  Round me he gazed, as if solicitude He had to see if some one else were with me; But after his suspicion was all spent,

  Weeping, he said to me: “If through this blind Prison thou goest by loftiness of genius, Where is my son? and why is he not with thee?”

  And I to him: “I come not of myself; He who is waiting yonder leads me here, Whom in disdain perhaps your Guido had.”6

  His language and the mode of punishment Already unto me had read his name; On that account my answer was so full.

  Up starting suddenly, he cried out: “How Saidst thou,—he had? Is he not still alive? Does not the sweet light strike upon his eyes?”

  When he became aware of some delay, Which I before my answer made, supine He fell again, and forth appeared no more.

  But the other, magnanimous, at whose desire I had remained, did not his aspect change, Neither his neck he moved, nor bent his side.

  “And if,” continuing his first discourse, “They have that art,” he said, “not learned aright, That more tormenteth me, than doth this bed.

  But fifty times shall not rekindled be The countenance of the Lady who reigns here,7 Ere thou shalt know how heavy is that art;

  And as thou wouldst to the sweet world return, Say why that people is so pitiless Against my race in each one of its laws?“

  Whence I to him: “The slaughter and great carnage Which have with crimson stained the Arbia,8 cause Such orisonsay in our temple to be made.”

  After his head he with a sigh had shaken, “There I was not alone,” he said, “nor surely Without a cause had with the others moved.

  But there I was alone, where every one Consented to the laying waste of Florence, He who defended her with open face.“

  “Ah! so hereafter may your seed repose,” I him entreated, “solve for me that knot,9 Which has entangled my conceptions here.

  It seems that you can see, if I hear rightly, Beforehand whatsoe‘er brings with it, And in the present have another mode.“

  “We see, like those who have imperfect sight, The things,” he said, “that distant are from us; So much still shines on us the Sovereign Ruler.

  When they draw near, or are, is wholly vain Our intellect, and if none brings it to us, Not anything know we of your human state.

  Hence thou canst understand, that wholly dead Will be our knowledge from the moment when The portal of the future shall be closed.“

  Then I, as if compunctious for my fault, Said: “Now, then, you will tell that fallen one, That still his son is with the living joined.

  And if just now, in answering, I was dumb, Tell him I did it because I was thinking Already of the error you have solved me.“

  And now my Master was recalling me, Wherefore more eagerly I prayed the spirit That he would tell me who was with him there.

  He said: “With more than a thousand here I lie; Within here is the second Frederick, And the Cardinal,10 and of the rest I speak not.”

  Thereon he hid himself; and I towards The ancient poet turned my steps, reflecting Upon that saying, which seemed hostile to me.

  He moved along; and afterward, thus going, He said to me, “Why are thou so bewildered?” And I in his inquiry satisfied him.

  “Let memory preserve what thou hast heard Against thyself,” that Sage commanded me, “And now attend here”; and he raised his finger.

  “When thou shalt be before the radiance sweet Of her whose beauteous eyes all things behold, From her11 thou‘lt know the journey of thy life.”

  Unto the left hand then he turned his feet; We left the wall, and went towards the middle, Along a path that strikes into a valley,

  Which even up there unpleasant made its stench.

  CANTO XI

  UPON the margin of a lofty bank Which great rocks brokenI in a circle made, We came upon a still more cruel throng;

  And there, by reason of the horrible Excess of stench the deep abyss throws out, We drew ourselves aside behind the cover

  Of a great tomb, whereon I saw a writing, Which said: “Pope Anastasius2 I hold, Whom out of the right way Photinus drew.”

  “Slow it behoveth our descent to be, So that the sense be first a little used To the sad blast, and then we shall not heed it.”

  The Master thus; and unto him I said, “Some compensation find, that the time pass not Idly”; and he: “Thou seest I think of that.

  My son, upon the inside of these rocks,“ Began he then to say, ”are three small circles,3 From grade to grade, like those which thou art leaving.

  They all are full of spirits maledict; But that hereafter sight alone suffice thee, Hear how and wherefore they are in constraint.

  Of every malice that wins hate in Heaven, Injury is the end; and all such end Either by force or fraud afflicteth others.4

  But because fraud is man’s peculiar vice, More it displeaseth God; and so stand lowest The fraudulent, and greater dole assails them.

  All the first circle of the Violent is; But since force may be used against three persons, In three rounds5 ‘tis divided and constructed.

  To God, to ourselves, and to our neighbor can we Use force; I say on them and on their things, As thou shalt hear with reason manifest.

  A death by violence, and painful wounds, Are to our neighbor given; and in his substance Ruin, and arson, and injurious levies;

  Whence homicides, and he who smites unjustly, Marauders, and freebooters, the first round Tormenteth all in diverse companies.

  Man may lay violent hands upon himself And his own goods; and therefore in the second Round must perforce without avail repent

  Whoever of your world deprives himself, Who games, and dissipates his property, And weepeth th
ere, where he should jocundaz be

  Violence can be done the Deity, In heart denying and blaspheming Him, And by disdaining Nature and her bounty.

  And for this reason doth the smallest round Seal with its signet Sodom and Cahors;6 And who, disdaining God, speaks from the heart.

  Fraud, wherewithal is every conscience stung, A man may practice upon him who trusts, And him who doth no confidence imburse.

  This latter mode, it would appear, dissevers Only the bond of love which Nature makes; Wherefore within the second circle nestle

  Hypocrisy, flattery, and who deals in magic, Falsification, theft, and simony, Panders, and barrators, and the like filth.7

  By the other mode, forgotten is that love Which Nature makes, and what is after added, From which there is a special faith engendered.

  Hence in the smallest circle,8 where the point is Of the Universe, upon which Dis is seated, Whoe‘er betrays forever is consumed.“

  And I: “My Master, clear enough proceeds Thy reasoning, and full well distinguishes This cavern and the people who possess it.

  But tell me, those within the fat lagoon, Whom the wind drives, and whom the rain doth beat, And who encounter with such bitter tongues,

  Wherefore are they inside of the red city Not punished, if God has them in his wrath, And if he has not, wherefore in such fashion?“9

  And unto me he said: “Why wanders so Thine intellect from that which it is wont? Or, sooth, thy mind where is it elsewhere looking?

  Hast thou no recollection of those words With which thine Ethics thoroughly discusses The dispositions three, that Heaven abides not,—

  Incontinence, and Malice, and insane Bestiality?10 and how Incontinence Less God offendeth, and less blame attracts?

  If thou regardest this conclusion well, And to they mind recallest who they are That up outside are undergoing penance,

  Clearly wilt thou perceive why from these felons They separated are, and why less wrothba Justice divine doth smite them with its hammer.“

  “O Sun, that healest all distempered vision, Thou dost content me so, when thou resolvest, That doubting pleases me no less than knowing!

  Once more a little backward turn thee,“ said I, ”There where thou sayest that usury offends Goodness divine, and disengage the knot.“II

  “Philosophy,” he said, “to him who heeds it, Noteth, not only in one place alone, After what manner Nature takes her course

  From Intellect Divine, and from its art; And if thy Physics carefully thou notest, After not many pages shalt thou find,

  That this your art as far as possible Follows, as the discipline doth the master; So that your art is, as it were, God’s grandchild.

  From these two, if thou bringest to thy mind Genesis at the beginning, it behoves Mankind to gain their life and to advance;

  And since the usurer takes another way, Nature herself and in her follower Disdains he, for elsewhere he puts his hope.12

  But follow, now, as I would fain go on, For quivering are the Fishes on the horizon, And the Wain wholly over Caurus lies,13

  And far beyond there we descend the crag.“

  CANTO XII

  THE place where to descend the bank we came Was alpine, and from what was there, moreover, Of such a kind that every eye would shun it.

  Such as that ruin is which in the flank Smote, on this side of Trent, the Adige,1 Either by earthquake or by failing stay,

  For from the mountain’s top, from which it moved, Unto the plain the cliff is shattered so, No path ‘twould give to him who was above;

  Even such was the descent of that ravine, And on the border of the broken chasm The infamy of Crete2 was stretched along,

  Who was conceived in the fictitious cow; And when he us beheld, he bit himself, Even as one whom anger racks within.

  My Sage towards him shouted: “Peradventure Thou think‘st that here may be the Duke of Athens, Who in the world above brought death to thee?

  Get thee gone, beast, for this one cometh not Instructed by thy sister, but he comes In order to behold your punishments.“

  As is that bull who breaks loose at the moment In which he has received the mortal blow, Who cannot walk, but staggers here and there,

  The Minotaur beheld I do the like; And he, the wary, cried: “Run to the passage; While he is wroth,bb ‘tis well thou shouldst descend.”

  Thus down we took our way o‘er that discharge Of stones, which oftentimes did move themselves Beneath my feet, from the unwonted burden.3

  Thoughtful I went; and he said: “Thou art thinking Perhaps upon this ruin, which is guarded By that brute anger which just now I quenched.

  Now will I have thee know, the other time4 I here descended to the nether Hell, This precipice had not yet fallen down.

  But truly, if I well discern, a little Before His coming who the mighty spoil Bore off from Dis, in the supernal circle,5

  Upon all sides the deep and loathsome valley Trembled so, that I thought the Universe Was thrilled with love, by which there are who think

  The world ofttimes converted into chaos;6 And at that moment this primeval crag Both here and elsewhere made such overthrow.

  But fix thine eyes below; for draweth near The river of blood,7 within which boiling is Whoe‘er by violence doth injure others.“

  O blind cupidity, O wrath insane, That spurs us onward so in our short life, And in the eternal then so badly steeps us!

  I saw an ample moat bent like a bow, As one which all the plain encompasseth, Conformable to what my Guide had said.

  And between this and the embankment’s foot Centaurs8 in file were running, armed with arrows, As in the world they used the chase to follow.

  Beholding us descend, each one stood still, And from the squadron three detached themselves, With bows and arrows in advance selected;

  And from afar one cried: “Unto what torment Come ye, who down the hillside are descending? Tell us from there; if not, I draw the bow.”

  My Master said: “Our answer will we make To Chiron, there near by; in evil hour, That will of thine was evermore so hasty.”

  Then touched he me, and said: “This one is Nessus, Who perished for the lovely Dejanira, And for himself, himself did vengeance take.

  And he in the midst, who at his breast is gazing, Is the great Chiron, who brought up Achilles; That other Pholus is,9 who was so wrathful.

  Thousands and thousands go about the moat Shooting with shafts whatever soul emerges Out of the blood, more than his crime allots.“

  Near we approached unto those monsters fleet; Chiron an arrow took, and with the notch Backward upon his jaws he put his beard.

  After he had uncovered his great mouth, He said to his companions: “Are you ware That he behind moveth whate‘er he touches?10

  Thus are not wont to do the feet of dead men.“ And my good Guide, who now was at his breast, Where the two natures are together joined,

  Replied; “Indeed he lives, and thus alone Me it behoves to show him the dark valley; Necessity, and not delight, impels us.

  Some onebc withdrew from singing Halleluja, Who unto me committed this new office; No thief is he, norIathievish spirit.

  But by that virtue through which I am moving My steps along this savage thoroughfare, Give us some one of thine, to be with us,

  Canto XII The Minotaur on the Shattered Cliff

  And who may show us where to pass the ford, And who may carry this man on his back; For ‘tis no spirit that can walk the air.“

  Upon his right breast Chiron wheeled about, And said to Nessus: “Turn and do thou guide them, And warn aside, if other band should meet you.”

  We with our faithful escort onward moved, Along the brink of the vermilion boiling, Wherein the boiled were uttering loud laments.

  People I saw within up to the eyebrows, And the great Centaur said: “Tyrants are these, Who dealt in bloodshed and in pillaging.

  Here they lament their pitiless mischiefs; here Is Alexander, and fierce Dionysius11 Who upon Sici
ly brought dolorous years.

  That forehead there which has the hair so black Is Azzolin; and the other who is blond, Obizzo is of Esti, who, in truth,

  Up in the world was by his step-son slain.“12 Then turned I to the Poet; and he said, ”Now he be first to thee, and second I.“13

  A little farther on the Centaur stopped Above a folk, who far down as the throat Seemed from that boiling stream to issue forth.

  A shade he showed us on one side alone, Saying: “He cleft asunder,14 in God’s bosom The heart that still upon the Thames is honored.”

  Then people saw I, who from out the river Lifted their heads and also all the chest; And many among these I recognized.

  Thus ever more and more grew shallower That blood, so that the feet alone it covered; And there across the moat our passage was.15

  “Even as thou here upon this side beholdest The boiling stream, that ayebd diminishes,” The Centaur said, “I wish thee to believe

  That on this other more and more declines Its bed, until it reunites itself Where it behoveth tyranny to groan.

  Justice divine, upon this side, is goading That Attila, who was a scourge on earth, And Pyrrhus, and Sextus; and forever milks

  The tears which with the boiling it unseals In Rinier da Corneto and Rinier Pazzo, Who made upon the highways so much war.“16

  Then back he turned, and passed again the ford.

  CANTO XIII

  NOT yet had Nessus reached the other side, When we had put ourselves within a wood, That was not marked by any path whatever.

  Not foliage green, but of a dusky color, Not branches smooth, but gnarled and intertangled, Not apple-trees were there, but thorns with poison.

  Such tangled thickets have not, nor so dense, Those savage wild-beasts, that in hatred hold ‘Twixt Cecina and Corneto1 the tilled places.

  There do the hideous Harpies make their nests, Who chased the Trojans from the Strophades,2 With sad announcement of impending doom;

  Broad wings have they, and necks and faces human, And feet with claws, and their great bellies fledged; They make laments upon the wondrous trees.