Part 6

the sinners stood thus on every side; but as Barbariccia drew near, they withdrew beneath the boiling.

I saw—and even now my heart shrinks at it—one waiting thus, as happens when a frog remains and another leaps away; and Graffiacane, who was most opposite him, hooked his pitch-matted locks and drew him up, so that he seemed a otter.

I already knew the name of every one of them, for I noted them when they were chosen, and when they called themselves, I heeded how.

"O Rubicante, do thou set thy claws upon his back, so that thou mayst flay him!" cried all the accursed together.

And I: "My master, contrive, if thou canst, to know who is that wretch come into the hands of his adversaries."

My leader drew near him; asked him whence he was, and he answered: "I was born in the kingdom of Navarre.

My mother placed me, a servant to a lord, who had begotten me of a rogue, a destroyer of himself and his possessions.

Afterwards I was of the household of the good King Tebaldo; there I gave myself to barratry, for which I now render account in this heat."

And Cagnazzo, from whose mouth on every side came a tusk like a hog's, made him feel how one of them grated.

The hog had come among evil cats; but Barbariccia enclosed him with his arms and said: "Stand off, while I fork him."

And he turned his face to my master; "Ask," said he, "further, if thou wouldst know more from him, before the others undo him."

The leader then: "Then say: of the other guilty ones, knowest thou any that is a Latin under the pitch?" And he: "I parted,

a little since, from one who was a neighbour there. Would I were still covered with him, that I should not fear claw or hook!"

And Libicocco: "We have suffered too much," said he; and seized his arm with the grapnel, so that, tearing, he carried off a limb.

Draghignazzo too would have laid hold below at the legs; wherefore their decurion turned round with angry look.

When they were a little pacified, to him who still gazed at his wound, my leader asked without delay:

"Who was he from whom thou sayest thou didst make ill parting, to come to the shore?" And he answered: "It was Friar Gomita,

he of Gallura, vessel of every fraud, who had the enemies of his lord in hand, and dealt with them so that each praises him.

He took money and let them go quietly, as he says; and in the other offices also he was not a small, but a sovereign, barrator.

He consorts with Lord Michel Zanche of Logodoro; and to speak of Sardinia their tongues are never weary.

Alas, see the other who grins; I would say more, but I fear he is making ready to scratch my scurf."

And the great provost, turning to Farfarello, who was squinting his eyes to strike, said: "Begone, wicked bird!"

"If you wish to see or hear," resumed the terrified one, "Tuscans or Lombards, I will make them come;

but let the Malebranche keep a little back, so that they fear not their vengeance; and I, sitting in this same place,

for one that I am, will bring seven, when I whistle, as is our wont to do when any one puts himself forth."

Cagnazzo at such speech lifted his muzzle, shaking his head, and said: "Hear the malice he has thought of, to throw himself down!"

Whereon he, who had nooses in abundance, answered: "Too malicious am I, when I procure greater trouble for my superiors."

Alichin could not contain himself, and, in opposition to the others, said to him: "If thou descend, I will not come after thee at a gallop,

but will beat my wings above the pitch. Let the bank be shield for the neck, and see if thou alone art worth more than we."

O thou that readest, thou shalt hear a new jest: each turned his eyes to the other side, he first who was fiercest to do it.

The Navarrese well seized his time; set his feet firm on the ground, and in a moment jumped and freed himself from their provost.

Whereof each was stung with guilt, but he most who was cause of the fault; therefore he moved and cried: "Thou art caught!"

But little availed it: for the wings could not outstrip suspicion; the other went under, and he flew up, raising his breast:

not otherwise the duck, when the falcon approaches, suddenly dives down, and he returns up angry and baffled.

Irato Calcabrina at the jest, flying after him, held him in chase, enamoured that the other might escape to have the fight;

and as the barrator disappeared, so he turned his talons on his companion, and was grappled with him above the ditch.

But the other was a good griping sparhawk to claw him well, and both fell into the midst of the boiling pool.

The heat suddenly unclutched them; but nevertheless there was no rising, so had their wings become entangled.

Barbariccia, grieving with his others, made four fly from the other bank with all their hooks, and very quickly

they descended here and there to their posts; thrust the hooks toward the entangled ones, who were already cooked within by the crust.

And we left them thus entangled.

Inferno Canto XXIII

Silent, alone, without company, we went, one before and the other after, as Minor Friars go by the way.

My thought was turned upon the fable of Aesop, by the present strife, wherein he tells of the frog and the mouse;

for 'mo' and 'issa' are not more alike than this and that, if one couple well beginning and end with fixed mind.

And as one thought bursts from another, so from that was born another after, which doubled my first fear.

I thought thus: 'These are mocked by us with damage and with such scorn, that, I believe, much it irks them.

If anger be added to ill will, they will come after us more cruel than the hound on the hare he has seized.'

Already I felt all my hair bristle with fear, and stood intent behind, when I said: "Master, if thou hide not

thee and me quickly, I am afraid of the Malebranche. We have them already behind; I imagine them so, that I already feel them."

And he: "Were I of leaded glass, I should not draw thy outward image to me sooner than the inward one I imprint.

Even now thy thoughts came among mine, with like act and like aspect, so that from both I made one counsel.

If it be that the right bank so lies that we can descend into the other bolgia, we shall flee the imagined chase."

He had not yet done rendering such counsel, when I saw them come with outstretched wings, not far off, to take us.

My leader suddenly seized me, like the mother who is waked by the noise and sees the flames kindled near her,

who takes her child and flees and stays not, having more care of him than of herself, so that she is clad in only a single shift;

and down from the neck of the hard bank he gave himself supine upon the sloping rock which closes one side to the other bolgia.

Never ran water through a conduit so fast to turn the wheel of a land-mill, when it falls nearest the paddles,

as my master down that cliff, bearing me upon his breast, not as companion but as son.

Scarcely were his feet set at the bottom of the bed below, than they were upon the hill above us; but there was no fear;

for the high providence which willed to place them ministers of the fifth ditch, takes from all power to depart thence.

Below we found a people painted, who went round with very slow steps, weeping and in look weary and vanquished.

They had hoods with low cowls before the eyes, made of the cut that is made for monks at Cluny.

Outside they are gilded, so that they dazzle; but within all lead, and so heavy, that Frederick put them on of straw.

O everlasting weary mantle! We turned still to the left, together with them, intent on the doleful weeping;

but for the weight that weary people came so slow, that we were ever new of company at every move of the haunch.

Wherefore I to my leader: "See that thou find some one known by deed or name, and move thine eyes around as we go."

And one who understood the Tuscan word, cried behind us: "Hold your feet, ye who run so through the dark air!

Perhaps thou shalt have from me what thou askest." Whereon the leader turned and said: "Wait, and then proceed at his pace."

I stayed, and saw two show great haste in mind, by the face, to be with me; but the load and the narrow way delayed them.

When they were joined, they eyed me askance without speaking; then turned to themselves, and said:

"This one seems alive by the act of his throat; and if they are dead, by what privilege do they go uncovered of the heavy stole?"

Then they said to me: "O Tuscan, who art come to the college of the sorry hypocrites, disdain not to tell who thou art."

And I to them: "I was born and grew up on the fair river of Arno at the great city, and am with the body I always had.

But who are ye, from whom so much distils, as I see, of grief down the cheeks? and what penalty is on you that so sparkles?"

And one answered me: "The yellow hoods are of lead so heavy, that the weights make their balances creak so.

We were Joyous Friars, and Bolognese; I Catalano and this Loderingo named, and taken together by thy city

as a man alone is wont to be taken, to preserve its peace; and we were such, that still it appears around the Gardingo."

I began: "O friars, your evils..." but said no more, for to my eye there ran one crucified on the ground with three stakes.

When he saw me, he writhed all over, blowing into his beard with sighs; and the friar Catalano, who noticed it,

said to me: "That fixed one whom thou beholdest counselled the Pharisees that it was expedient to put a man to torture for the people.

He is stretched, naked, across the way, as thou seest, and must feel, whoever passes, first how much he weighs.

And in such wise his father-in-law is tormented in this ditch, and the others of the council which was for the Jews a evil seed."

Then I saw Virgil marvel at him who was stretched on the cross so vilely in the eternal exile.

Afterwards he addressed the friar thus: "Be it not displeasing to you, if it is allowed, to tell us

if on the right hand lies any opening whence we both may issue, without constraining the black angels who come from this depth to part us."

He answered: "More than thou hopest, there approaches a rock which from the great circle moves and crosses all the fierce valleys,

save that in this it is broken and covers it not; ye may mount up by the ruin which lies on the side and overhangs the bottom."

The leader stood a little with head bowed; then said: "He who hooks the sinners from here told the matter ill."

And the friar: "I heard say at Bologna of the vices of the devil many, among which I heard that he is a liar, and father of falsehood."

Thereafter the leader went on with great steps, somewhat troubled with anger in his look; wherefore I parted from the laden ones following the prints of the dear feet.

Inferno Canto XXIV

In that part of the youthful year when the sun tempers his locks under Aquarius, and now the nights are drawing to the middle of the day,

when the hoar-frost on the ground copies the image of her white sister, but little lasts with the pen of her temperature,

the little husbandman, to whom the means are lacking, rises, and looks, and sees the country all whitened; wherefore he smites his thigh,

returns into the house, and complains hither and thither, like the wretch who knows not what to do; then goes out again, and recovers hope,

seeing the world have changed face in a little hour, and takes his goad and drives out his little sheep to pasture.

Thus did the master make me dismayed, when I saw him so trouble his brow, and thus quickly the salve came to the ill;

for, as we came to the broken bridge, the leader turned to me with that sweet aspect which I first saw at the foot of the mountain.

He opened his arms, after some counsel chosen with himself, looking first well at the ruin, and took hold of me.

And like one who works and estimates, who always seems to provide beforehand, so, lifting me up toward the top of a jagged rock, he eyed another splinter, saying: "Lay hold on that next, but try first if it be such as will bear thee."

It was no way for one clothed with a cloak, for we, he light and I pushed, could scarce mount up from shelf to shelf.

And if it were not that from that enclosure the bank was shorter than from the other, I know not of him, but I should have been surely vanquished.

But because Malebolge all slopes toward the gate of the lowest well, the site of each valley brings it that one bank rises and the other descends;

we came at last to the end on the point where the last stone breaks off.

My breath was so drained from my lungs when I was up, that I could no further, nay, I sat me down at the first reach.

"Now must thou thus shake off thy sluggishness," said the master; "for, sitting on down, or under coverlet,

one comes not to fame; and without which whoso consumes his life, leaves such vestige of himself on earth as smoke in air and foam on water.

And therefore rise; vanquish the breathlessness with the soul that conquers every battle, if its heavy body sink not under it.

A longer stair must be climbed; it is not enough to have parted from these. If thou understand me, now make it avail thee."

I rose then, showing myself better furnished with breath than I felt, and said: "Go, for I am strong and bold."

Up the cliff we took the way, which was jagged, narrow, and difficult, and steeper far than that before.

Speaking I went, so as not to seem faint; whereupon a voice came from the other ditch, ill-suited to form words.

I know not what it said, though I was already above the arch which crosses there; but he who spoke seemed moved to anger.

I was turned downward, but my living eyes could not reach the bottom for the dark; wherefore: "Master, see that thou arrive at the other girdle and let us descend the wall; for, as I hear hence and understand not, so I see down and figure nothing."

"No other answer," said he, "do I return thee than the deed; for the honest request should be followed by the work in silence."

We descended the bridge from the head where it joins the eighth bank, and then the bolgia was manifest to me:

and I saw therein a terrible throng of serpents, and of so diverse a kind that the memory still curdles my blood.

Let not Libya boast more with her sand; for if she produces chelydri, jaculi and phareae, and cenchri with amphisbaena,

nor so many pestilences nor so fell did she ever show with all Ethiopia, nor with that which is above the Red Sea.

Amid this cruel and most wretched crew ran naked and frightened people, without hope of hole or heliotrope:

they had their hands bound behind with serpents; these thrust the tail and head through the loins, and were knotted in front.

And behold, upon one who was near our bank, a serpent sprang that transfixed him where the neck is knit to the shoulders.

Nor O nor I was ever written so fast, as he kindled and burned, and behoved to become all ashes, falling;

and when he was thus destroyed on the ground, the dust gathered itself together and sprang back into the same shape at once.

Thus by the great sages it is confessed that the phoenix dies and then is reborn, when she approaches her five-hundredth year;

she feeds on no herb or grain in her life, but only on tears of incense and amomum, and nard and myrrh are her last swaddling-clothes.

And as is he who falls, and knows not how, by force of a demon that drags him to earth, or of other oppilation that binds a man,

when he rises, and looks around all bewildered at the great anguish he has suffered, and gazing sighs:

such was the sinner risen thereafter. O power of God, how severe it is, that showers such blows for vengeance!

The leader asked him then who he was; wherefore he answered: "I fell from Tuscany, a little while ago, into this fierce gullet.

A bestial life pleased me, not human, even as I was a mule; I am Vanni Fucci, beast, and Pistoia was my worthy den."

And I to the leader: "Tell him not to hide, and ask what sin thrust him down here; for I saw him a man of blood and of wrath."

And the sinner, who heard, dissembled not, but turned toward me his mind and face, and painted himself with sorry shame;

then said: "It grieves me more that thou hast caught me in the misery where thou seest me, than when I was taken from the other life.

I cannot deny what thou askest; I am put down here because I was a thief of the fair furnishings of the sacristy,

and the blame was falsely laid on another. But that thou mayst not joy in such sight, if ever thou be out from the dark places,

open thine ears to my announcement, and hear. Pistoia first grows lean of the Black; then Florence renews people and manners.

Mars draws vapour from the Val di Magra, wrapped in turbid clouds; and with impetuous and bitter tempest

above Campo Picen shall the combat be, whence he shall suddenly break the mist, so that every White shall be wounded.

And this have I said that it should grieve thee!"

Inferno Canto XXV

At the end of his words the thief raised his hands with both figs, crying: "Take, God, for I aim them at thee!"

Thenceforward the serpents were friendly to me, for one then twined about his neck, as if it said 'I will not that thou speak more';

and another to the arms, and bound him, pinning itself in front so that he could not give a shake with them.

Ah Pistoia, Pistoia, why dost thou not decree to consume thee with ashes, so that thou last no more, since thy seed excels in evil-doing?

Through all the dark circles of hell I saw not a spirit so proud against God, not that one who fell from the walls at Thebes.

He fled, nor spoke another word; and I saw a centaur full of rage come, crying: "Where is, where is the bitter one?"

I believe not that Maremma has so many as he had serpents on his crupper up to where our beard begins.

On the shoulders, behind from the nape, lay a dragon with open wings; and it sets on fire whomsoever it meets.

My master said: "This is Cacus, who beneath the stone of the Aventine hill made oftentimes a lake of blood.

He goes not with his brethren by one path, because of the thievish fraudulent deed of the great herd which he had near him;

wherefore his bieways ceased under the club of Hercules, who perchance gave him a hundred, and he felt not the ten."

While he thus spoke, and he ran across, three spirits came beneath us, of whom neither I nor my leader was aware,

save when they cried: "Who are you?" wherefore our story paused, and we hearkened only to them afterwards.

I knew them not; but as is wont to happen by some chance, one was constrained to name another, saying:

"Where shall Cianfa have remained?" wherefore, so that the leader might be attentive, I put my finger from the chin to the nose.

If thou art now, reader, slow to believe what I shall say, it will be no wonder, for I who saw it scarce allow it myself.

As I held my brows raised toward them, a serpent with six feet launches before one, and fastens all on him.

With the middle feet it bound his belly, and with the fore ones seized his arms; then it bit both one cheek and the other;

the hinder ones it stretched to the thighs, and put its tail between both and up the loins wound it behind.

Ivy never clung to a tree as the horrible beast entwined its limbs about the other's.

Then they stuck together, as if they had been of hot wax, and mingled their colour, nor one nor other seemed now that which he was:

as proceeds onward from the heat, upon the paper above, a brown colour which is not yet black and the white dies.

The other two looked on, and each cried: "Ah me, Agnello, how thou changest! see that now thou art neither two nor one."

The two heads were already become one, when there appeared to us two figures mingled in one face, where two were lost.

The arms became two of four lists; the thighs with the legs and the belly and the trunk became members that were never seen.

Every former aspect was cancelled there: two and none the perverse image seemed; and such it went with slow pace.

As the lizard under the great scourge of the dog-days, changing hedge, seems a flash of lightning if it cross the path,

so seemed, coming toward the belly of the other two, a little fiery serpent, livid and black as a grain of pepper;

and that part whence our nourishment is first taken, it transfixed in one of them; then fell down before him extended.

The transfixed one gazed on it, but said nothing; nay, with feet planted, yawned as if sleep or fever assailed him.

He the serpent and he him regarded; the one through the wound and the other through the mouth smoked strongly, and the smoke met.

Let Lucan now be silent where he touches of the wretched Sabellus and Nasidius, and attend to hear what now is shot forth.

Let Ovid be silent of Cadmus and Arethusa, for if he transforms that one into a serpent and that one into a fountain in his poetry, I envy him not;

because two natures never front to front did he transmute so that both forms were ready to change their matter.

Together they answered to such laws, that the serpent split its tail into a fork, and the wounded one drew his steps together.

The legs with the thighs stuck to themselves so, that in a little the junction showed no sign that appeared.

The cleft tail took the figure that was lost there, and its skin became soft, and that of the other side hard.

I saw the arms enter through the armpits, and the two feet of the beast, which were short, lengthen as much as those shrank.

Then the hinder feet, twisted together, became the member that man conceals, and the wretch of his had two.

While the smoke veils the one and the other with new colour, and generates the hair on the one part and strips it on the other,

the one rose and the other fell down, yet not turning the impious lamps, beneath which each was changing visage.

He who was upright, drew it toward the temples, and of the too much matter that came thither, the ears issued from the shorn cheeks;

what ran not back and kept of that excess, made nose for the face and thickened the lips as behoved.

He who lay, thrust his muzzle forward, and drew his ears back through the head as the snail does its horns;

and the tongue, which had been united and ready before to speak, splits, and the forked one closes in the other; and the smoke stays.

The soul which had become a beast, whistling flees through the vale, and the other behind him spits, speaking.

Then he turned his new back, and said to the other: "I will that Buoso run, as I have done, on all fours by this path."

Thus I saw the seventh ballast change and transmute; and here let the novelty excuse me if the pen shrink a little.

And albeit my eyes were somewhat confused and my mind dismayed, those could not flee so hidden

that I did not well discern Puccio Sciancato; and he was the one who alone, of three companions that came first, was not changed;

“Stories of the world, in your language.”