Array Dante Alighieri - Harvard Classics Volume 20

Through perils without number now have reach’d;

To this the short remaining watch, that yet

Our senses have to wake, refuse not proof

Of the unpeopled world, following the track

Of Phœbus. Call to mind from whence ye sprang:

Ye were not form’d to live the life of brutes,

But virtue to pursue and knowledge high.’

With these few words I sharpen’d for the voyage

The mind of my associates, that I then

Could scarcely have withheld them. To the dawn

Our poop we turn’d, and for the witless flight

Made our oars wings, still gaining on the left.

Each star of the other pole night now beheld,

And ours so low, that from the ocean floor

It rose not. Five times reillumed, as oft

Vanish’d the light from underneath the moon,

Since the deep way we enter’d, when from far

Appear’d a mountain dim, [175]loftiest methought

Of all I e’er beheld. Joy seized us straight;

But soon to mourning changed. From the new land

A whirlwind sprung, and at her foremost side

Did strike the vessel. Thrice it whirl’d her round

With all the waves; the fourth time lifted up

The poop, and sank the prow: so fate decreed:

And over us the booming billow closed.” [176]

Argument.—The Poet, treating of the same punishment as in the last Canto, relates that he turned toward a flame in which was the Count Guido da Montefeltro, whose inquiries respecting the state of Romagna he answers; and Guido is thereby induced to declare who he is, and why condemned to that torment.

Now upward rose the flame, and still’d its light

To speak no more, and now pass’d on with leave

From the mild poet gain’d; when following came

Another, from whose top a sound confused,

Forth issuing, drew our eyes that way to look.

As the Sicilian bull, [177]that rightfully

His cries first echoed who had shaped its mould,

Did so rebellow, with the voice of him

Tormented, that the brazen monster seem’d

Pierced through with pain; thus, while no way they found,

Nor avenue immediate through the flame,

Into its language turn’d the dismal words:

But soon as they had won their passage forth,

Up from the point, which vibrating obey’d

Their motion at the tongue, these sounds were heard:

“O thou! to whom I now direct my voice,

That lately didst exclaim in Lombard phrase,

‘Depart thou; I solicit thee no more;’

Though somewhat tardy I perchance arrive,

Let it not irk thee here to pause awhile,

And with me parley: lo! it irks not me,

And yet I burn. If but e’en now thou fall

Into this blind world, from that pleasant land

Of Latium, whence I draw my sum of guilt,

Tell me if those who in Romagna dwell

Have peace or war. For of the mountains there [178]

Was I, betwixt Urbino and the height

Whence Tiber first unlocks his mighty flood.”

Leaning I listen’d yet with heedful ear,

When, as he touch’d my side, the leader thus:

“Speak thou: he is a Latian.” My reply

Was ready, and I spake without delay:

“O spirit! who art hidden here below,

Never was thy Romagna without war

In her proud tyrants’ bosoms, nor is now:

But open war there left I none. The state,

Ravenna hath maintain’d this many a year,

Is steadfast. There Polenta’s eagle [179]broods;

And in his broad circumference of plume

O’ershadows Cervia. The green talons grasp

The land, [180]that stood erewhile the proof so long

And piled in bloody heap the host of France.

“The old mastiff of Verrucchio and the young, [181]

That tore Montagna [182]in their wrath, still make,

Where they are wont, an augre of their fangs.

“Lamone’s city, and Santerno’s, [183]range

Under the lion of the snowy lair, [184]

Inconstant partisan, that changeth sides,

Or ever summer yields to winter’s frost.

And she, whose flank is wash’d of Savio’s wave, [185]

As ’twixt the level and the steep she lies,

Lives so ’twixt tyrant power and liberty.

“Now tell us, I entreat thee, who art thou:

Be not more hard than others. In the world,

So may thy name still rear its forehead high.”

Then roar’d awhile the fire, its sharpen’d point

On either side waved, and thus breathed at last:

“If I did think my answer were to one

Who ever could return unto the world,

This flame should rest unshaken. But since ne’er,

If true be told me, any from this depth

Has found his upward way, I answer thee,

Nor fear lest infamy record the words.

“A man of arms [186]at first, I clothed me then

In good Saint Francis’ girdle, hoping so

To have made amends. And certainly my hope

Had fail’d not, but that he, whom curses light on,

The high priest, [187]again seduced me into sin.

And how, and wherefore, listen while I tell.

Long as this spirit moved the bones and pulp

My mother gave me, less my deeds bespake

The nature of the lion than the fox.

All ways of winding subtlety I knew,

And with such art conducted, that the sound

Reach’d the world’s limit. Soon as to that part

Of life I found me come, and when each behoves

To lower sails and gather in the lines;

That, which before had pleased me, then I rued,

And to repentance and confession turn’d,

Wretch that I was; and well it had bestead me.

The chief of the new Pharisees [188]meantime,

Waging his warfare near the Lateran,

Not with the Saracens or Jews (his foes

All Christians were, nor against Acre one

Had fought, [189]nor traffick’d in the Soldan’s land),

He, his great charge nor sacred ministry,

In himself reverenced, nor in me that cord

Which used to mark with leanness whom it girded.

As in Soracte, Constantine besought,

To cure his leprosy, Sylvester’s aid;

So me, to cure the fever of his pride,

This man besought: my counsel to that end

He ask’d; and I was silent; for his words

Seem’d drunken: but forthwith he thus resumed:

‘From thy heart banish fear: of all offence

I hitherto absolve thee. In return,

Teach me my purpose so to execute,

That Penestrino cumber earth no more.

Heaven, as thou knowest, I have power to shut

And open: and the keys are therefore twain,

The which my predecessor [190]meanly prized.’

“Then, yielding to the forceful arguments,

Of silence, as more perilous I deem’d,

And answer’d: ‘Father! since thou washest me

Clear of that guilt wherein I now must fall,

Large promise with performance scant, be sure,

Shall make thee triumph in thy lofty seat.’

“When I was number’d with the dead, then came

Saint Francis for me; but a cherub dark

He met, who cried, ‘Wrong me not; he is mine,

And must below to join the wretched crew,

For the deceitful counsel which he gave.

E’er since I watch’d him, hovering at his hair.

No power can the impenitent absolve;

Nor to repent, and will, at once consist,

By contradiction absolute forbid.’

Oh misery! how I shook myself, when he

Seized me, and cried, “Thou haply thought’st me not

A disputant in logic so exact!’

To Minos down he bore me; and the judge

Twined eight times round his callous back the tail,

Which biting with excess of rage, he spake:

‘This is a guilty soul, that in the fire

Must vanish.’ Hence, perdition-doom’d, I rove

A prey to rankling sorrow, in this garb.”

When he had thus fulfill’d his words, the flame