Part 2

I cannot depict them all in full, for so the lengthy theme drives me, that oft the word falls short of the deed.

The sixth company is halved in two: by another path the wise guide leads me, out of the quiet, into the trembling air.

And I come to a place where nothing shines.

Inferno Canto V

Thus I descended from the first circle down to the second, which less space encircles and so much more pain, that stings to wailing.

There stands Minos, horribly, and snarls: he examines the sins at the entrance; he judges and sends according to how he coils.

I say that when the ill-born soul comes before him, it confesses all; and that knower of sins

sees which place of hell is for it; he girds himself with his tail as many times as the degrees he wills it cast below.

Always before him many stand: they go in turn each to the judgment, they speak and hear, and then are cast down.

"O you who come to the sorrowful hostel," Minos said to me when he saw me, leaving the act of such great office,

"see how you enter and in whom you trust; let not the breadth of the entrance deceive you!" And my guide to him: "Why do you cry out?

Do not hinder his fated going: it is willed there where power is given to do what is willed, and ask no more."

Now the doleful notes begin to make themselves heard by me; now have I come to where much weeping strikes me.

I came into a place mute of all light, that bellows like the sea in tempest, if beaten by contrary winds.

The infernal whirlwind, that never rests, drives the spirits with its ravine; turning and beating, it torments them.

When they come before the ruin, there are shrieks, lament, complaint; there they blaspheme the divine virtue.

I understood that to such torment are damned the carnal sinners, who subject reason to desire.

And as the starlings bear their wings in cold weather, in wide and full flock, so that blast the evil spirits

hence, thence, below, above, it leads them; no hope ever comforts them, not of rest, but of lesser pain.

And as the cranes go singing their lays, making in the air a long line of themselves, so I saw come, drawing wails,

shadows borne by the said strife; wherefore I said: "Master, who are those people whom the black air so chastises?"

"The first of those of whom you would know," said he to me then, "was empress of many tongues.

She was so broken by the vice of lust, that she made license lawful in her law, to take away the blame she had been brought to.

She is Semiramis, of whom is read that she succeeded Ninus and was his wife: she held the land the Soldan rules.

The other is she who slew herself for love, and broke faith with the ashes of Sychaeus; then Cleopatra the lustful.

You see Helen, for whom so evil a time turned, and you see the great Achilles, who fought with love at the end.

You see Paris, Tristan"; and more than a thousand shades he showed me and named to me with his finger, whom love parted from our life.

After I had heard my teacher name the ancient women and the knights, pity came to me, and I was well-nigh lost.

I began: "Poet, willingly would I speak to those two who go together, and seem so light upon the wind."

And he to me: "You shall see when they are nearer to us; and then do you pray them by that love that leads them, and they will come."

As soon as the wind bends them to us, I moved my voice: "O weary souls, come speak with us, if another forbids not!"

As doves called by desire with wings raised and steady to the sweet nest come through the air, borne by the will;

such came they from the flock where Dido is, to us coming through the malignant air, so strong was the affectionate cry.

"O gracious and benign creature who go visiting through the darkened air us who stained the world with blood,

if the King of the universe were a friend, we would pray him for your peace, since you have pity on our perverse ill.

Of what to hear and what to speak pleases you, we shall hear and speak to you, while the wind, as it does, is silent to us.

The land where I was born lies on the shore where the Po descends to have peace with its followers.

Love, that is quickly seized on by the gentle heart, took this one of the fair person that was taken from me; and the mode still offends me.

Love, that to no loved one denies loving, took me of this one's pleasure so strongly, that, as you see, it still does not abandon me.

Love led us to one death. Caina awaits who quenched our life." These words were borne to us from them.

When I heard those offended souls, I bowed my face, and held it so low, until the poet said to me: "What think you?"

When I answered, I began: "O wretched, how many sweet thoughts, how much desire led these to the sorrowful pass!"

Then I turned to them and spoke, and began: "Francesca, your torments make me weep, sad and pious.

But tell me: at the time of the sweet sighs, how and when did love grant that you knew the doubtful desires?"

And she to me: "There is no greater sorrow than to remember happy time in misery; and this your teacher knows.

But if to know the first root of our love you have such longing, I shall tell as one who weeps and speaks.

We read one day for delight of Lancelot, how love constrained him; we were alone and without any suspicion.

More than once that reading drew our eyes together, and paled our faces; but one moment alone was that which vanquished us.

When we read of the desired smile being kissed by such a lover, this one, who never shall be parted from me,

kissed my mouth all trembling. Galeotto was the book and he who wrote it: that day we read no further in it."

While one spirit said this, the other wept; so that for pity I swooned as if I died.

And I fell as a dead body falls.

Inferno Canto VI

At the return of the mind, which closed before the pity of the two kinsfolk, that confounded me all with sadness,

new torments and new tormented I see around me, however I move and however I turn, and however I gaze.

I am in the third circle, of the rain eternal, accursed, cold and heavy; its rule and quality are never new.

Huge hail, dark water and snow pour through the shadowed air; the earth that receives this stinks.

Cerberus, cruel and strange beast, with three dog-throats barks over the people who are submerged there.

His eyes are vermilion, his beard greasy and black, his belly broad, and his hands clawed; he scratches the spirits and flays and quarters them.

The rain makes them howl like dogs; they make shelter for each other on the sides; the wretched profane often turn.

When Cerberus, the great worm, espied us, he opened his mouths and showed us his fangs; no member of his stayed still.

And my guide spread his palms, took the earth, and with fists full cast it into the greedy gullets.

As that dog that barks with longing, and then grows quiet when it bites the food, for it intends and strives only to devour it,

such became those filthy faces of the demon Cerberus, who so deafens the souls that they would be deaf.

We passed above the shades whom the heavy rain subdues, and set our feet upon their vanity that seems a person.

They all lay upon the ground, except one who rose to sit, quickly, when he saw us pass before him.

"O you who are led through this hell," he said to me, "recognize me, if you know: you were made before I was undone."

And I to him: "The anguish you have perhaps draws you from my mind, so that it seems I never saw you.

But tell me who you are, who in so dolorous a place are put, and have such a penalty, that, if another is greater, none is so displeasing."

And he to me: "Your city, which is full of envy so that the sack already overflows, held me in the serene life.

You citizens called me Ciacco: for the hurtful fault of the gullet, as you see, I sink in the rain.

And I, a sad soul, am not alone, for all these lie under like pain for like fault." And he spoke no more.

I answered him: "Ciacco, your affliction weighs on me so, it invites me to weep; but tell me, if you know, what shall befall

the citizens of the divided city; if any there is just; and tell me the cause why so much discord has assailed it."

And he to me: "After long contention they shall come to blood, and the savage part shall drive out the other with much offense.

Then soon after this must fall within three suns, and the other rise with the force of one who now leans.

High shall it hold its brow a long time, keeping the other under heavy weights, however it weeps or is shamed thereby.

Just are two, and not heeded; pride, envy and avarice are the three sparks that have kindled the hearts."

Here he ended the lamentable sound. And I to him: "Still I wish you would teach me and make me gift of more speech.

Farinata and Tegghiaio, who were so worthy, Iacopo Rusticucci, Arrigo and Mosca and the others who set their wits to doing good,

tell me where they are and make me know them; for great desire constrains me to know if heaven sweetens them or hell embitters them."

And he: "They are among the blacker souls; diverse faults weigh them down to the bottom: if you descend so far, there you may see them.

But when you are in the sweet world, I pray you bring me back to the mind of others: I say no more to you and answer no more."

Then he turned his straight eyes askew; he looked at me a little and then bowed his head: he fell with it level with the other blind.

And the guide said to me: "He wakes no more this side the sound of the angelic trumpet, when the hostile power shall come:

each shall see again the sad tomb, resume his flesh and his figure, hear that which eternally resounds."

Thus we passed through the foul mixture of shades and rain, with slow steps, touching a little on the future life;

wherefore I said: "Master, shall these torments increase after the great sentence, or be lesser, or be so burning?"

And he to me: "Return to your knowledge, which wills that, as a thing is more perfect, it feels the good more, and thus the pain.

Although this accursed people may never come to true perfection, expect to be more thence than hence."

We went round that road, speaking much more than I recount; we came to the point where one descends:

there we found Pluto, the great enemy.

Inferno Canto VII

"Pape Satan, pape Satan aleppe!" Pluto began with his wheezy voice; and that gentle sage, who knew all,

said to comfort me: "Let not your fear harm you; for, whatever power he has, he shall not take from us the descending of this rock."

Then he turned to that inflated lip, and said: "Be silent, accursed wolf! consume yourself within with your rage.

Not without cause is the going to the deep: it is willed on high, where Michael made the vengeance of the proud rape."

As from the wind the swollen sails fall enwrapped, when the mast cracks, so fell to earth the cruel beast.

Thus we descended into the fourth pouch, taking more of the doleful bank that sacks all the evil of the universe.

Ah God's justice! who heaps up such travails and pains as I saw? and why does our fault so destroy us?

As the wave there above Charybdis, that breaks with that it clashes in, so must the people here revolve.

Here I saw a people more than elsewhere too many, on one side and the other, with great howls, turning weights by force of buttocks.

They struck against each other; and then there eath one turned back, turning to rear, crying: "Why do you hoard?" and "Why do you squander?"

Thus they returned through the gloomy circle from every hand to the opposite point, crying to each other their shameful meter;

then each turned, when he had reached, through his half-circle to the other joust. And I, who had the heart almost pierced,

said: "Master mine, now show me what people this is, and if all were clerics, these tonsured on our left."

And he to me: "All were squinters so of the mind in the first life, that with measure they made no expense.

Full well their voice barks it clear, when they come to the two points of the circle where contrary fault separates them.

These were clerics, who have no hairy covering on the head, and popes and cardinals, in whom avarice uses its excess."

And I: "Master, among these such I should well recognize some who were unclean of these evils."

And he to me: "Vain thought you gather: the unknowing life that made them foul, to every knowing now makes them dark.

Eternally they shall come to the two buttings: these shall rise from the sepulcher with closed fist, and these with shorn locks.

Ill-giving and ill-keeping the world's beauty has taken from them, and put them to this scuffle: whatsoever it be, we cloak it not in words.

Now can you, son, see the short jest of the goods committed to fortune, for which human kind quarrels;

for all the gold that is under the moon and that ever was, could not make one of these weary souls rest."

"Master mine," said I, "now tell me also: this fortune of which you touch to me, what is it, that holds the goods of the world in its claws?"

And he to me: "O foolish creatures, how great the ignorance that offends you! Now would I have my sentence be in you.

He whose knowing transcends all, made the heavens and gave them who conducts so, that every part to every part shines,

distributing the light equally. Likewise to the worldly splendors he ordained a general minister and guide

that should exchange in time the vain goods from people to people and from one blood to another, beyond the defense of human senses;

wherefore one people rules and the other languishes, following the judgment of her, who is hidden as the serpent in the grass.

Your knowing has no contest with her: she provides, judges, and pursues her kingdom as the others their gods.

Her exchanges have no truce: necessity makes her be swift; so often comes who succeeds in turn.

This is she who is so set on the cross even by those who should give her praise, giving her blame wrongly and evil voice;

but she is blessed and hears not: with the other primal creatures glad she turns her sphere and blessed enjoys.

Now let us descend hence to greater pity; already every star falls that was rising when I moved, and too long stay is forbidden."

We cut the circle to the other bank above a fountain that boils and pours through a ditch that from it derives.

The water was far darker than perse; and we, in company of the wan waves, entered down by a different way.

Into the marsh that has name Styx this sad rivulet goes, when descended to the foot of the malignant gray shores.

And I, who stood intent on gazing, saw muddy people in that swamp, all naked, with offended semblance.

These struck not only with hand, but with the head and with the breast and with the feet, biting each other piece by piece.

The good master said: "Son, now see the souls of those whom anger vanquished; and also would I have you surely believe

that under the water is a people that sighs, and makes this water bubble at the top, as the eye tells you, where it turns.

Fixed in the slime they say: 'We were sad in the sweet air that gladdens from the sun, bearing within us slothful smoke:

now we are sad in the black mire.' This hymn they gurgle in the throat, for they cannot say it with intact word."

Thus we went around the dirty pool great arc between the dry bank and the middle, with eyes turned to who gorges in the mud.

We came to the foot of a tower at the end.

Inferno Canto VIII

I say, continuing, that quite before we were at the foot of the high tower, our eyes went up to the top

for two small flames that we saw set, and another from afar gave signal, so that the eye could scarce take it.

And I turned to the sea of all wit; said: "What says this? and what answers that other fire? and who are those that made it?"

And he to me: "Upon the filthy waves already you can discern what is awaited, if the smoke of the marsh hide it not from you."

No cord ever shot from itself an arrow that ran so swift through the slender air, as I saw a little boat

come through the water toward us there, under the governance of a single ferryman, who cried: "Now are you come, foul soul!"

"Phlegyas, Phlegyas, you cry in vain," said my lord, "this once: you shall have us no more than passing the mire."

As one who hears a great deceit done to him, and then grieves at it, Phlegyas became collected in wrath.

My guide descended into the bark, and then made me enter after him; and only when I was within seemed it laden.

As soon as the guide and I were in the craft, cutting goes the ancient prow deep in the water more than with others.

While we ran the dead channel, before me appeared one full of mud, and said: "Who are you that come before time?"

And I to him: "If I come, I stay not; but you, who are you, that are so made foul?" He answered: "See that I am one who weeps."

And I to him: "With weeping and with mourning, accursed spirit, stay you; for I know you, though you are all befouled."

Then he stretched both hands to the boat; wherefore the wary master thrust him off, saying: "Away there with the other dogs!"

Then he girt me with his arms; kissed my face and said: "O indignant soul, blessed be she who bore you in her womb!

He was a person proud in the world; no goodness is that graces his memory: thus is his shade here furious.

How many now hold themselves great kings up there who shall stay here like pigs in mire, leaving of themselves horrible despites!"

And I: "Master, much would I be eager to see him duck in this broth before we issued from the lake."

And he to me: "Before the shore lets itself be seen by you, you shall be sated: of such desire you must have joy."

After that shortly I saw that torment done to him by the muddy people, for which God I still praise and thank.

All cried: "At Filippo Argenti!"; and the Florentine bizarre spirit turned on himself with his teeth.

There we left him, I tell no more; but a woe struck in my ears, wherefore I fix my intent eye forward.

The good master said: "Now, son, approaches the city named Dis, with the grave citizens, with the great throng."

And I: "Master, already its mosques certain in the valley I discern, vermilion as if issued from fire

were they." And he said to me: "The eternal fire that afflicts them within shows them red, as you see in this low hell."

We just reached within the high moats that wall that disconsolate land: the walls seemed to me to be of iron.

Not without first making great circuit, we came to where the stout boatman "Get out," cried: "here is the entrance."

I saw more than a thousand upon the gates fallen from heaven, who angrily said: "Who is this that without death

goes through the kingdom of the dead people?" And my wise master made sign of wishing to speak with them secretly.

Then they closed a little their great disdain and said: "Come alone, and let him go who so bold entered through this kingdom.

Let him return by the foolish road: let him try, if he knows; for you shall stay here, who have escorted him through so dark a country."

Think, reader, if I was discomforted at the sound of the accursed words, for I believed never to return.

"O dear duke mine, who more than seven times have rendered me surety and drawn me from high peril that met me,

leave me not," said I, "so undone; and if passing further is denied us, let us find our tracks together swiftly."

And that lord who had led me there, said to me: "Fear not; for our passage no one can take from us: by such is given.

But await me here, and the weary spirit comfort and feed with good hope, for I shall not leave you in the low world."

Thus he goes, and there abandons me the sweet father, and I remain in doubt, that yea and nay contend in my head.

I could not hear what he offered them; but he stayed not there with them long, that each in proof ran back inside.

Those our adversaries closed the doors in the breast of my lord, who remained without and turned to me with slow steps.

His eyes on the ground and his brows were stripped of all boldness, and he said in sighs: "Who has denied me the doleful houses!"

And said to me: "You, lest I wax wroth, be not dismayed, for I shall win the proof, whatever may wind within the defense.

This their presumption is not new; for they already used it at a less secret gate, which without bolt is still found.

Above it you saw the dead inscription: and already from this side of it descends the slope, passing through the circles without escort,

such that by him the earth shall be opened."

Inferno Canto IX

That color which cowardice painted without on me seeing my guide turn back, more quickly within restrained its new.

Attentive he stopped as one who listens; for the eye could not lead him far through the black air and the thick mist.

"Yet must we win the fight," he began, "if not . . . Such offered itself to us. Oh how slow to me that another come here!"

I well saw how he covered the beginning with the other that then came, which were words different from the first;

but nonetheless fear his saying became, because I drew the truncated word perhaps to worse meaning than it held.

"Into this bottom of the sad hollow descends ever any of the first grade, who for penalty alone has hope cut?"

This question I made; and he "Rarely it happens," answered me, "that any of us makes the journey by which I go.

True is it that another time I was down here, conjured by that cruel Erichtho who recalled the shades to her bodies.

Little was the flesh bare of me, when she made me enter within that wall, to draw a spirit from the circle of Judas.

That is the lowest place and the most dark, and the farthest from the heaven that turns all: well I know the way; therefore be secure.

This marsh that breathes the great stench girds around the dolorous city, where we cannot enter now without ire."

And other said he, but I have it not in mind; for the eye had drawn me all toward the high tower with the glowing top,

where in one moment were straightway raised three infernal furies stained with blood, who had feminine limbs and bearing,

and with greenest hydras were girt; small serpents and cerastes they had for hair, wherewith their fierce temples were bound.

And he, who well knew the wretches of the queen of eternal lament, "Look," said he to me, "the fierce Erinyes.

This is Megaura on the left; she who weeps on the right is Alecto; Tisiphone is in the middle"; and he was silent so far.

With their nails each rent her breast; beat themselves with palms and cried so high, that I shrank to the poet for fear.

"Let Medusa come: so we shall make him of stone," they all said looking downward; "ill came we not in the assault on Theseus."

"Turn back and keep your sight closed; for if the Gorgon show itself and you see it, nothing would there be of returning ever up."

“Stories of the world, in your language.”