Classic Poem

CANTO XVI

Now was I in a place where the deep drum
Of water falling into the other ring
Was heard resounding like a bee-hive's hum,
When three shades parted, in their haste running
Together, from a troop that passed beside
Beneath the rain that scorched them with its sting.
Toward us they ran and each with one voice cried:
" Stop thou, who of our perverse city's brood
Appear'st, if by thy dress thou art not belied. "
Ah me, what scars I saw, both old and crude,
Upon their bodies burnt unto the bone!
Even at the thought of it is my pain renewed.
My Teacher lent a grave ear to their moan,
Turned his face to me, and then said, " Now give heed;
For unto these should courtesy be shown.
And were it not for the fire this place doth breed
To arrow its flames forth, I would say for thee
Rather than them 'twere fitting to make speed. "
They as we stood still wailed their ancient dree
Afresh, and when they had arrived quite close
Made of themselves a wheel there, all the three.
As champions used, when stript and oiled they chose
With the eye their hold and purchase, ere to get
At grips they came with thrusting and with blows,
So, as they wheeled, each one his visage set
Continually toward me, and in such wise
That the neck travelled counter to the feet.
" If that this crumbling region's miseries, "
One began, " and our burnt and blackened fell
Cause thee not our petitions to despise,
Let our renown incline thy heart to tell
What man thou art whose living feet tread so
Secure upon the thoroughfare of Hell.
He in whose steps thou seest me tread, although
All naked now he goes, and flayed and peeled,
Was higher in degree than thou canst know.
The grandson of the good Gualdrada, he held
The name of Guido Guerra, and in his days
Some service did with counsel and in the field.
The other who in the sand behind me stays
Is Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, whose fame
Should in the world above have earned him praise.
And I who with them to the torment came
Was Iacopo Rusticucci; and more than aught
It is my fierce wife who hath brought me blame. "
Could I a shelter from the fire have wrought
I would have flung me down among them there,
Nor think I that my Guide had blamed the thought,
But since I should have burnt from heel to hair,
Terror prevailed that good will to constrain
Which made me greedy their embrace to share.
Then I began: " Sorrow and not disdain
Of your condition did my heart imbrue
So deeply that not soon will fade the pain,
When this my lord spoke words wherefrom I drew
Such thought as expectation in me nursed
That there might be approaching such as you.
I am of your city; and always from the first
Your names with honour did my heart recall
And with affection heard your deeds rehearsed.
For the sweet apples, leaving soon the gall,
I go, as promised me my trusted Guide,
But to the centre needs that first I fall. "
" So may thy spirit long time, " he replied,
" Sustain thy members and their motions fill,
And so thy fame bright after thee abide,
Tell us if courtesy and valour still
Dwell in our city, once their old resort,
Or have they quite abandoned her to ill?
Guglielmo Borsiere, who time but short
Has suffered with us, and is yonder gone
With the others, grieves us sore by his report. "
" New men and sudden riches both have sown
In thee the seeds of luxury and pride,
Florence, that thou already hast cause to groan. "
Thus, lifting up my countenance, I cried.
The three, who knew they had their answer got,
As men when truth is told, each other eyed.
" If other times thou canst so free of scot, "
They all replied, " make answer in like case,
Thus as thou list, thou art lucky in thy lot.
Therefore if thou escape this dismal pass
And win to see the beauteous stars again,
When it shall comfort thee to say " I was,"
See that thou speak of us to living men. "
Then broke they up their wheel, and as they fled
Their nimble legs seemed wings upon the plain.
Truly an Amen could not have been said
So quickly as those spirits disappeared:
Wherefore it pleased my Master to be sped.
I followed him and after a little neared
So close the falling water with its din
That, speaking, we had scarce each other heard.
As that stream, which its own path doth begin
From Monte Veso with an eastward aim
Upon the left slope of the Apennine
And, Acquaqueta called, is still the same
Till it descends into its nether bed
And at Forli is emptied of that name,
Resoundeth from the mountain falling sprayed
In thunder above San Benedetto, there
Where for a thousand refuge might be made,
So, echoing from a bank and plunging sheer,
That tainted water on our senses smote
So that ere long it would have stunned the ear.
I had a cord that girdled me about,
And one time had I thought within its noose
To catch that leopard with the spotted coat.
When from my loins I had made it wholly loose,
I gave it to my Guide, upcoiled and wound,
Even as he commanded, for his use.
He bent him on the right side toward the ground,
And some few paces from the precipice
He flung it forth into the pit profound.
" Surely it must be something new shall rise, "
I inly said, " by this new signal brought
Which thus my Master follows with his eyes. "
Ah, well should men be circumspection taught
With those who see not only the deed done
But with their sense look through into the thought.
He said to me: " There will come up anon
What I expect, and what thou seest in dream
Must soon be plain for sight to look upon. "
Ever from truths which liker falsehood seem,
Far as man may, one should his lips refrain,
For, blameless, he yet hazards disesteem;
But speak I needs must here, and by the strain
Of this my Comedy, reader, I aver —
So may it some enduring favour gain —
That I saw through that gross and gloomy air
Come swimming up a shape, miraculous
To any mind, enfortressed howsoe'er;
Like as one reappears from where he goes
To undo the anchor which, far down, grapnels
A rock or aught else hid in the deep ooze;
Who spreads the arms and gathers up the heels.