Part 12

He saw Timbreus, he saw Pallas and Mars, still armed, around their father, gazing on the limbs of the Giants scattered.

He saw Nimrod at the foot of the great work well-nigh bewildered, and beholding the people who in Shinar were proud with him.

O Niobe, with what dolorous eyes did I see thee depicted on the road, amid seven and seven of thy children slain!

O Saul, how upon thine own sword there seemedst thou dead in Gilboa, which afterwards felt neither rain nor dew!

O mad Arachne, even thus saw I thee already half spider, wretched upon the rags of the work ill wrought for thee.

O Rehoboam, thy sign seems there no longer to threaten; but full of dread a chariot bears it, none other driving it.

The hard pavement showed yet how Amphiaraus made dear to his mother seem the hapless ornament.

It showed how the sons threw themselves upon Sennacherib within the temple, and how, he being dead, there they left him.

It showed the ruin and the cruel slaughter that Tomyris wrought, when she said to Cyrus: "Thou didst thirst for blood, and I with blood fill thee."

It showed how in rout fled the Assyrians, after Holofernes was dead, and likewise the relics of the martyrdom.

He saw Troy in ashes and in caverns; O Ilión, how low and vile did the sign there discerned show thee!

What master of the brush or of the style could have portrayed the shadows and the lineaments which there would make a subtle intellect marvel?

The dead seemed dead and the living living: he who saw the truth saw not better than I, as far as I trod, while I went bent down.

Now be ye proud, and go with altered brow, children of Eve, and bow not your faces so that ye may behold your evil estate!

More of the mountain was already turned by us, and much more of the sun's course spent, than the unliberated mind accounted for,

when he who ever went before, began: "Raise thy head; it is no longer time to go thus cast down.

See there an angel who makes ready to come toward us; see how returns the sixth handmaid from the service of the day.

Adorn thy face and thy bearing with reverence, so that she may invite us upward; think that this day never more dawneth!"

I was well wont to his admonishment not to lose time, so that in that matter he could not speak to me obscurely.

Toward us came the beautiful creature, white-robed and in the face such as trembles the morning star.

She opened her arms, and then her wings; she said: "Come: here are the steps near at hand, and easily now one ascends.

To this invitation come very few: o human race, born to fly upward, why fall ye thus at a little wind?"

She brought us where the rock was hewn; there she smote my brow with her wings; then promised me sure the going.

As on the right, to mount to the hill where sits the church that o'ercomes the well-guided beneath Rubaconte,

the bold impulse to climb is broken by the stairs which were made in the age when the record and the cask were sure;

so is relaxed the bank which falls here right steeply from the other circle; but on this side and that the high rock grazes.

We turning there our persons, "Beati pauperes spiritu!" voices sang, so that speech could not tell it.

Ah, how different are those mouths from the infernal! for here by songs one enters, and there below by fierce laments.

Already we were mounting up the holy steps, and it seemed to me I was far lighter than on the plain I had seemed before.

Wherefore I: "Master, say, what heavy thing is taken from me, that almost none fatigue, as I go, is received by me?"

He answered: "When the P's that still remain upon thy face well-nigh effaced, shall be, like the one, wholly erased,

then shall thy feet be so vanquished by good will, that not only shall they feel no fatigue, but it shall be their delight to be urged upward."

Then did I as they who go with something on their head not known to them, save that the signs of others breed suspicion;

wherefore the hand aids to ascertain, and seeks and finds, and performs that office which cannot be accomplished by sight;

and with the fingers of my right hand I found just six the letters which were graven by him of the keys upon my brows:

at which my leader smiled.

Purgatory Canto XIII

We were at the top of the stair, where for a second time is cut the mountain which, as one climbs, dismals him.

There in such wise a cornice binds around the hill, as the first did; save that its arc bends more sharply.

No shadow is there nor sign that appears: the bank shows and the way shows bare with the livid colour of the stone.

"If here folk are awaited to ask," the poet reasoned, "I fear perchance our choice will have too long delay."

Then fixedly he turned his eyes to the sun; made of his right side the moving centre, and turned the left part of himself.

"O sweet light, in whom I trust for the new path, do thou conduct us," he said, "as conduct one needs within here.

Thou warmest the world, thou shinest over it; if other reason oppose not, thy rays ought ever to be our guides."

As far as is counted a thousand paces on this side, so far on that side were we already gone, with little time, through ready will;

and toward us to fly were felt, though not seen, spirits uttering courteous invitations to the table of love.

The first voice which passed flying "Vinum non habent" loudly said, and behind us went reiterating it.

And ere it was wholly unheard through drawing off, another "I am Orestes" passed crying, and stayed not fixed.

"Ah!" said I, "father, what voices are these?" And as I asked, lo, the third saying: "Amate da cui male aveste."

And the good master: "This ring scourges the fault of envy, and therefore are drawn from love the cords of the scourge.

The curb must be of contrary sound; thou shalt hear it, I deem, ere thou reach the pass of pardon.

But fix thine eyes firmly through the air, and thou shalt see folk sitting before us, and each is seated along the cliff."

Then more than before I opened my eyes; I looked before me, and saw shades with mantles of colour not diverse from the stone.

And when we were a little farther forward, I heard cry: "Mary, pray for us": cry "Michael" and "Peter" and "All saints."

I believe that on earth to-day walks not a man so hard, who would not be pierced by compassion for what I then saw;

for when I was so come close to them that their acts came certain to me, through the eyes I was drained of heavy grief.

With vile haircloth they seemed covered, and one supported the other with the shoulder, and all were supported by the bank.

Thus the blind, to whom wealth fails, stand at the pardons begging their need, and one bows his head above the other,

that pity in others may soon be placed, not only by the sound of the words, but by the sight which yearns no less.

And as to the blind the sun comes not near, so to the shades here, of whom I now speak, light of heaven would not lavish itself;

for a thread of iron bores through all their eyelids and sews them thus, as to a wild hawk is done, that it may not rest quiet.

It seemed to me, going, to do offence, seeing others, and not being seen: wherefore I turned to my wise counsel.

Well he knew what the mute would say; and therefore he heeded not my question, but said: "Speak, and be brief and shrewd."

Virgil came to me on that side of the cornice whence one may fall, for with no parapet is it girt;

on the other side were the devout shades, who through the horrible stitching pressed so that they bathed their cheeks.

I turned to them and: "O certain folk," began I, "of seeing the high light which alone hath your desire in its care,

if soon grace resolve the froths of your conscience, so that clearly through it descend the river of the mind,

tell me, for it will be grateful and dear to me, if there be here among you any soul that is Latin; and perchance it will be well for me if I learn it."

"O brother mine, each one is a citizen of one true city; but thou wouldst say that lived in Italy a pilgrim."

This seemed to me, by way of answer, to be heard a little farther on than where I stood, wherefore I made myself heard still farther.

Among the others I saw a shade who waited in aspect; and if any would say 'How?' he lifted his chin upward like a blind man.

"Spirit," said I, "who for ascending tamest thee, if thou art he who answered me, make thyself known to me by place or name."

"I was a Sienese," he answered, "and with these others I amend here the evil life, weeping to Him who lent Himself thereto.

Wise was I not, albeit Sapia I was called, and was in others' harms far gladder than in my own fortune.

And that thou mayst not think I deceive thee, hear if I was, as I tell thee, foolish, already descending the arch of my years.

My fellow-citizens were near Colle joined in the field with their adversaries, and I prayed God for what He willed.

Routed were they there and turned to the bitter steps of flight; and seeing the chase, I took a joy unlike all others,

so that I turned up my bold face, crying to God: 'Now fear thee no more!' as did the merle for a little calm.

Peace I wished with God at the extreme of my life; and yet not would my debt be diminished by penitence,

if it were not that Pier Pettinaio had me in his holy orisons, to whom for me through charity it grieved.

But thou, who art thou, that our conditions goest asking, and bearest the eyes unbound, so as I deem, and breathing reasonest?"

"The eyes," said I, "shall be taken from me here yet, but little time, for small is the offence wrought by being turned with envy.

Too much greater is the fear wherewith is suspended my soul from the torment below, that already the load of there below weighs on me."

And she to me: "Who then hath brought thee up here among us, if thou thinkest to return below?" And I: "This one who is with me and speaks not.

And I am alive; and therefore ask me, elected spirit, if thou wilt that I move hence for thee yet my mortal feet."

"Oh, this is to hear so new a thing," she answered, "that great sign is it that God loves thee; wherefore with thy prayer sometimes aid me.

And I beg thee, by that which thou most cravest, if ever thou tread the land of Tuscany, that thou do well to renew my fame among my kin.

Thou shalt see them among that vain folk who hope in Talamone, and shall lose them more of hope than in finding the Diana;

but more shall lose there the admirals."

Purgatory Canto XIV

"Who is this one that circles our mountain ere death hath given him flight, and opens his eyes at his will and covers them?"

"I know not who he is, but know he is not alone; ask thou him who drawest nearer to him, and gently, so that he speak, accost him."

Thus two spirits, the one to the other bent, reasoned of me there on the right hand; then made their faces, to speak to me, upturned;

and said the one: "O soul that fixed still in the body toward heaven goest, for charity console us and tell us

whence thou comest and who thou art; for thou makest us marvel so at thy grace, as much as a thing that never was before."

And I: "Through mid Tuscany spreads a little river that is born at Falterona, and a hundred miles of course suffice it not.

Above it I bring this person: to tell you who I am would be to speak in vain, for my name as yet sounds not much."

"If I carve thy meaning with the intellect," then answered me he who spoke first, "thou speakest of the Arno."

And the other said to him: "Why hid this one the name of that shore, even as one does of horrible things?"

And the shade who was asked thereof discharged himself thus: "I know not; but worthy is it well that the name of such a valley perish;

for from its beginning, where is so pregnant the Alpine mountain whence Pelorus is cut, that in few places it passes beyond that mark,

even to where it renders for restore of that which the heaven dries from the sea, whence the rivers have what goes with them,

virtue thus as enemy flees from all, like a serpent, whether through ill fortune of the place, or through evil use that goods them:

wherefore so changed have they their nature, the inhabitants of the wretched vale, that it seems Circe had them in pasture.

Among ugly swine, more worthy of acorns than of other food made for human use, directs first its poor course.

Then mastiffs it finds, coming down, snarling more than their power demands, and from them disdainful turns its snout.

It goes falling; and as much as it grows, so much the more it finds of dogs becoming wolves the accursed and ill-fortuned ditch.

Descended then through more deep seas, it finds the foxes so full of fraud, that it fears not craft that may occupy them.

Nor will I leave to tell, that another may hear me; and it shall be well for this man, if still he remember what a true spirit unfolds to me.

I see thy nephew who becomes a hunter of those wolves upon the bank of the fierce river, and all puts them in dread.

He sells their flesh being alive; then slays them like an ancient beast; many of life and himself of worth deprives.

Bloody he issues from the dismal wood; leaves it such, that from here to a thousand years it shall not be rewooded in its primal state."

As at the announcement of doleful harms is troubled the face of him who listens, from whatever part the peril assail him,

so saw I the other soul, who turned had stood to listen, trouble and grow sad, after she had gathered the word to herself.

The speech of the one and the other's look made me desirous to know their names, and I made request with prayers mingled;

wherefore the spirit who first had spoken to me began again: "Thou wouldst have me descend to doing for thee what thou wilt not do for me.

But since God in thee wills that shine so much His grace, I will not be sparing to thee; wherefore know that I was Guido del Duca.

My blood was so burned with envy, that if I had seen a man become glad, thou wouldst have seen me suffused with spite.

Of my seed such straw I reap; o human race, why settest thou the heart there where is need of forbidden fellowship?

This is Rinier; this is the pride and honour of the house of Calboli, where none since hath been made heir of his valour.

And not only his blood is made bare, between the Po and the mountain and the sea and the Reno, of the good required for truth and for sport;

for within these bounds is so full of poisonous thorns, that late for tilling would they now come short.

Where is the good Lizio and Arrigo Mainardi? Pier Traversaro and Guido di Carpigna? Oh Romagnuols returned to bastards!

When in Bologna doth a Fabbro take root? when in Faenza a Bernardin di Fosco, noble twig of little grass?

Marvel not, Tuscan, if I weep, when I remember, with Guido da Prata, Ugolin d'Azzo who lived with us,

Federigo Tignoso and his company, the house Traversara and the Anastagi (and the one people and the other is disinherited),

the ladies and the knights, the toils and the ease that love and courtesy enwove for us there where the hearts are made so wicked.

O Bertinoro, why fliest thou not away, since gone is thy family and many folk to be no longer wicked?

Well does Bagnacaval, that it begets not again; and ill does Castrocaro, and worse Conio, that more entangles itself in begetting such counts.

Well shall the Pagani do, when the demon shall go from them; but not therefore that ever remain pure of them testimony.

O Ugolin de' Fantolin, secure is thy name, since more is not expected who could make it, degenerating, dark.

But go thy way, Tuscan, now; for now it pleases me too much to weep rather than to speak, so hath our discourse straitened my mind."

We knew that those dear souls felt us going; therefore, silent, they made us of the path confident.

Then were we made alone proceeding, like lightning seemed when it cleaves the air, a voice that came from across saying:

'He shall slay me whosoever seizeth me'; and fled like thunder that withdraws, if suddenly the cloud rends down.

As from it our hearing had truce, and lo, the other with so great crash, that it resembled thunder following close:

"I am Aglauros who became stone"; and then, to draw close to the poet, I made the step on the right, and not forward.

Already was the air quiet on every side; and he said to me: "That was the hard curb that ought to keep man within his bound.

But ye take the bait, so that the hook of the ancient adversary draws you to him; and therefore little avail fence or recall.

The heaven calls you and circles around you, showing you its eternal beauties, and your eye still looks to the earth;

wherefore He smites you who discerneth all."

Purgatory Canto XV

As much as between the ending of the third hour and the beginning of the day seems of the sphere that ever like a child plays,

so much seemed already toward the evening the sun to have remained of his course; evening there, and here midnight.

And the rays smote us through the middle of the nose, because toward us was so turned the mountain, that already straight we went toward the west,

when I felt my brow weigh down to the splendour far more than before, and the uncounted things were marvel to me;

wherefore I raised my hands toward the top of my eyelids, and made me a sunshade, which files away the excess of the visible.

As when from water or from mirror the ray leaps to the opposite part, ascending by the like path

to that which descends, and so far departs from the falling of the stone in equal track, as show experience and art;

so seemed to me by refracted light to be smitten there before me; wherefore to flee my sight it was swift.

"What is that, sweet father, which I cannot shield my eyes from so as to avail me," said I, "and seems moved toward us?"

"Marvel not if still dazzles thee the family of heaven," he answered me: "messenger is he who comes to invite to ascend.

Soon shall it be that to see these things shall not be grievous to thee, but delight, as nature disposed thee to feel."

Then we were come to the blessed angel, with glad voice he said: "Enter here at a stair far less erect than the others."

We were mounting, already departed from there, and 'Beati misericordes!' was sung behind, and 'Rejoice thou that conquerest!'

My master and I alone, both, were going up; and I, thinking as I went, to gain profit in his words;

and directed me to him thus asking: "What meant the spirit of Romagna, 'forbidden' and 'fellowship' mentioning?"

Wherefore he to me: "Of his greater defect he knows the harm; and therefore marvel not if he reprove it that less be wept.

Because your desires are pointed where through companionship part is diminished, envy moves the bellows to sighs.

But if the love of the highest sphere turned upward your desire, you would not have that fear in the breast;

for, by how many more say there 'ours,' so much the more of good each possesses, and more of charity burns in that cloister."

"I am more fasting of being content," said I, "than if it had been hidden from me before, and more of doubt I gather in the mind.

How can it be that one good, distributed among more possessors, makes richer of itself than if possessed by few?"

And he to me: "Because thou fixest the mind still on earthly things, from true light thou makest darkness.

That infinite and ineffable good which is up there, runs to love as ray comes to a lucid body.

So much is given as it finds of ardour; so that, as far as charity extends, grows above it the eternal worth.

And as many folk more there understand, more is there to be well loved, and more is loved there, and as mirror the one to the other renders.

And if my reasoning fill thee not, thou shalt see Beatrice, and she fully shall take from thee this and every other craving.

Procure only that soon be quenched, as the two already are, the five wounds, which close again through being sorrowful."

As I would say 'Thou contentest me,' I saw myself arrived on the other circle, so that my wandering eyes made me silent.

There it seemed to me in a vision extatic of a sudden to be rapt, and to see in a temple more persons;

and a lady, at the entrance, with act sweet of mother saying: "My son, why hast thou thus dealt toward us?

Lo, sorrowful, thy father and I sought thee." And as here she was silent, what before appeared, vanished.

Then appeared to me another with those waters down the cheeks which grief distils when from great disdain in another it was born,

and saying: "If thou art lord of the city whose name among the gods was so disputed, and whence every science sparkles,

avenge thee of those bold arms that embraced our daughter, O Pisistratus." And the lord seemed to me, benign and mild,

answer her with tempered face: "What shall we do to him who ill desires us, if he who loves us is by us condemned?"

Then I saw folk enkindled in fire of wrath with stones a young man slay, crying strongly to themselves: "Martyr, martyr!"

And him I saw bow down, for the death that already weighed on him, toward the earth, but of the eyes made ever gates to heaven,

praying to the high Lord, in so great war, that He would pardon his persecutors, with that aspect which unlocks pity.

When my soul returned from without to the things that are truly outside it, I recognised my not false errors.

My leader, who could see me act as one who unwinds from sleep, said: "What hast thou that thou canst not contain,

but art come more than half a league veiling thine eyes and with legs entangled, like one whom wine or sleep bends?"

"O sweet father mine, if thou listen to me, I will tell thee," said I, "what appeared to me when my legs were thus taken from me."

And he: "If thou hadst a hundred masks upon thy face, not would be closed to me thy thoughts, howsoever they appeared.

What thou sawest was that thou excuse not to open the heart to the waters of peace which from the eternal fountain are diffused.

I asked not 'What hast thou?' for that which does he who looks only with the eye that sees not, when the body lies disanimated;

but I asked to give force to thy foot: thus must be spurred the sluggish, slow to use their vigil when it returns."

We were going through the vesper, intent beyond what the eyes could stretch against the serotine and shining rays.

And lo, little by little a smoke to make itself toward us like the night obscure; nor from that was place to escape.

This took from us the eyes and the pure air.

Purgatory Canto XVI

Dark of hell and of night deprived of every planet, under a poor sky, as much as can be clouded with cloud,

made not to my sight so gross a veil as that smoke which covered us there, nor to the feeling of so harsh a hair,

that the eye to stay open endured not; wherefore my knowing and faithful guide drew near to me and offered me his shoulder.

As a blind man goes behind his guide lest he lose himself and lest he strike on something that may molest him, or perchance kill,

I went through the bitter and foul air, listening to my leader who said still: "Look that from me thou be not cut."

I heard voices, and each seemed to pray for peace and for mercy the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins.

Still 'Agnus Dei' were their openings; one word in all was and one mode, so that among them all concord seemed.

“Stories of the world, in your language.”