Classic Poem

CANTO V

From the first circle I thus descended down
Into the second, which less space admits,
And so much more pain that it stings to groan.
There Minos, hideously grinning, sits,
Inspects the offences at the entering in,
Judges and, as he girds himself, commits.
I mean, that when the ill-born spirit comes in
Before his presence, it confesses all;
Thereon that scrutinizer of each sin
Sees what place Hell holds for its fittest stall;
Round him as many times his tail doth throw
As the degrees he wills that it should fall.
Always before him stand they, row on row;
To sentence comes each of the wretched train:
They tell, and hear; and straight are whirled below.
" O thou, who comest to the home of pain, "
Said Minos to me, when my face he spied,
Leaving his business of the great Arraign,
" Beware in whom thou, entering, dost confide.
Let not the broad approach thy feet ensnare. "
" Why criest thou out? " answered to him my Guide:
" Hinder thou not his destined steps. Forbear!
Thus is the thing willed there, where what is willed
Can be accomplished. Further question spare. "
Now begin wailing notes; the flesh is thrilled
To hear them and to feel them. I am come
Where thronging lamentations hold me chilled.
I came into a place of all light dumb
That bellows like a storm in the sea-deep
When the thwart winds that strike it roar and hum.
The abysmal tempest that can never sleep
Snatches the spirits and headlong hurries them,
Beats and besets them with its whirling sweep.
When they arrive before the ruin, stream
The cries up; there the wail is and the moan,
There the divine perfection they blaspheme.
I learnt that in such restless violence blown
This punishment the carnal sinners share
Who let Desire pull Reason from her throne.
And as their beating wings the starlings bear
At the cold season, in broad flocking flight,
So those corrupted spirits were rapt in air
To and fro, down, up, driven in helpless flight,
Comforted by no hope ever to lie
At rest, nor even to bear a pain more light.
And as the cranes in long line streak the sky
And in procession chant their mournful call,
So I saw come with sound of wailing by
The shadows fluttering in the tempest's brawl.
Whereat, " O Master, who are these, " I said,
" On whom the black winds with their scourges fall? "
" The first of those concerning whom thou hast prayed
To know, " he answered, " had dominion
Of many tongues, which she an empress swayed.
So wild a race of luxury did she run,
That she made lust a law by her decree,
To obliterate the shame that she had won.
She is Semiramis: we read that she
Came after Ninus, and had been his bride.
She ruled the land the Soldan holds in fee.
That other is she who by her own hand died
For love's sake, to Sichaeus' urn untrue.
Lascivious Cleopatra comes beside.
See Helen, for whose sake the long years drew
Ill after ill; see great Achilles there,
Who fought with love in the end, and whom love slew.
See Paris, Tristram! " More than a thousand pair
He with his finger pointing at shades of fame
Showed me, whom love had power from life to tear.
After that I had heard my Teacher name
Each lady of old, lost with her lovely knight,
My thoughts were mazed, such pity upon me came.
I began: " Poet, I fain would, if I might,
Speak with those two that hand in hand appear
And, as they move, seem to the wind so light. "
And he to me: " When they approach more near,
Thou shalt see. By the love which is their guide
Do thou entreat them then, and they will hear. "
Soon as the wind's whirl made them nearer glide,
I raised my voice up: " O tired spirits, come
And speak with us, if that be not denied. "
Eagerly as a pair of pigeons, whom
Desire calls, and their will bears, down the sky
On wide unfaltering wings to their sweet home,
So swerved those spirits from out the company
Where Dido is, flying toward us underneath
The ghast mirk; such a power had my fond cry.
" O kind and gracious creature that hast breath
And comest journeying through the black air
To us who made the earth bloody with our death,
Were but the world's Lord friend to us, a prayer
Should from us both implore Him for thy peace
Because thou hast taken pity on our despair.
Whether to speak or listen better please,
We will speak with you, and hear and understand,
Now while the lull'd wind spares a little ease.
The place where I was born sits on the strand
Where Po descends to his peace, and with him takes
All the other streams that follow him down the land.
Love, that in gentle heart so soon awakes,
Took him with this fair body, which from me
Was torn: the way and wound of it yet aches.
Love, that to no loved one remits his fee,
Took me with joy of him, so deep in-wrought,
Even now it hath not left me, as thou dost see.
Love led us both to one death. He that sought
And spilt our life — Cain's place awaits him now. "
These words to us upon the wind were brought.
When I had heard those wounded spirits, my brow
Sank downward, and I held it where it was,
Until the Poet spoke: " What musest thou? "
And when I answered, I began: " Alas!
How many sweet thoughts and what longings fain
Led them into the lamentable pass! "
I turned, and I began to speak again:
" Francesca, the tears prick into mine eyes
For sorrow, and for pity of thy pain.
But tell me: in the time of the sweet sighs
How did Love vouchsafe proof of what he is,
And of the obscure yearnings make you wise? "
And she to me: " No grief surpasses this
(And that thy Teacher also knows full well) —
In the midst of misery to remember bliss.
But if thou so desire to know how fell
The seed whose first root in our bosoms fed,
I'll tell, as one who can but weep and tell.
One day together, for pastime, we read
Of Launcelot, and how Love held him in thrall.
We were alone, and without any dread.
Sometimes our eyes, at the word's secret call,
Met, and our cheeks a changing colour wore.
But it was one page only that did all.
When we read how that smile, so thirsted for,
Was kissed by such a lover, he that may
Never from me be separated more
All trembling kissed my mouth. The book I say
Was a Galahalt to us, and he beside
That wrote the book. We read no more that day. "
While the one spirit spoke thus, the other cried
So lamentably, that the whole life fled
For pity out of me, as if I died;
And I fell, like a body falling dead.