Bản tiếng Anh

There is but one God. True is His Name, creative His personality and immortal His form. He is without fear sans enmity, unborn and self-illumined. By the Guru's grace He is obtained.

Alone am I and alone I wish to be,
Alone my gentle friend has left me,
Alone am I, with neither master nor companion,
Alone am I, in bitterness and in pain,
Alone am I in tormented lamentation,
Alone am I much more than any wandering soul,
Alone am I and without a friend remain.

Alone am I at door or at the window,
Alone am I when huddled in the corner,
Alone am I and have shed my fill of tears,
Alone am I, whether mourning or consoled,
Alone am I,--and nothing suits me so--
Alone am I shut up inside my chamber,
Alone am I and without a friend remain.

Alone am I in every place and state,
Alone am I, where e'er I go or sit,
Alone am I much more than any earthly thing,
Alone am I, by one and all forsaken,
Alone am I and deeply down am sunk,
Alone am I and so often drowned in tears,
Alone am I and without a friend remain.

Prince, now is my pain begun.
Alone am I, as every grief afflicts me,
Alone am I, by darkness overtaken,
Alone am I and without a friend remain.

Long from now, if you should seek me,
I would tell you I have forgotten.
If you should blame me in your heart,
I would say “Missing you so, I have forgotten.”
And if you should still reprove me,
“I couldn’t believe you, so I have forgotten.”
Unable to forget you today, or yesterday,
but long from now “I have forgotten”

The same tongue which had first so stung me
         That it made the blood rush to both my cheeks
         Then delivered the antidote to me.
 
         So I have heard the lance that Achilles
5        Had from his father used to be the cause
         First of a hurtful, then of a healing, stroke.
 
         We turned our backs upon the woeful pit,
         Climbing up the bank that rings it round
         And crossing it without a word between us.
 
10       Here it was less than night and less than day,
         So that my sight could scarcely press ahead —
         But then I heard so loud a bugle blast
 
         It would have made a thunderclap sound faint.
         At this, my eyes, following their way backward,
15       Drew their full focus straight to a single spot.
 
         After the heartbreaking debacle, when
         Charlemagne had lost his sacred rearguard,
         The horn of Roland sounded less foreboding.
 
         To that spot I had briefly turned my head
20       When I seemed to see high serried towers.
         "Tell me, master," I asked, "what city is this?"
 
         And he replied, "Because you penetrate
         Into the darkness from too far away,
         Your imagination strays into confusion.
 
25       "When you reach there, then you shall clearly see
         How much the distance has deceived your senses:
         For that reason, spur yourself on faster,"
 
         Then lovingly he took me by the hand
        And said, "Before we move any farther forward,
30      That the reality may seem less strange,
 
         "Know this: they are not towers, they are giants!
         And all of them around the steep embankment
         Are plunged up to their navels in the well."
 
         Just as, when foggy mist is blowing off,
35       The staring eyes bit by bit figure out
         What it is the airy vapors hide,
 
         So, while I pierced the thick dark atmosphere
         And came up closer and closer to the brink,
         Error fled from me and fear grew stronger.
 
40       For, as upon its rounded rampart wall
         Montereggion is crowned with towers,
         So here these huge horrendous giants, whom Jove
 
         Still threatens from heaven when he thunders,
         With half their bodies towered high above
45       The bank that winds around the sunken hole.
 
         And by now I’d made out the face of one,
         His shoulders and chest, much of his stomach,
         And, down along his sides, both of his arms.
 
         Nature surely, when she quit the art
50       Of shaping brutes like these, did the right thing
         To rob Mars of such executioners.
 
         And even though she has not yet repented
         Of elephants and whales, he who looks wisely
         Will hold that here she is more just and prudent,
 
55       Since where the reasoning faculty of the mind
         Is joined to evil will and naked power,
         Then people can find no defense against it.
 
         His face appeared to me as long and broad
         As is the pine cone at Saint Peter’s in Rome,
60       And all his other bones were in proportion,
 
         So that the bank, which acted as an apron
         From the middle downward, revealed in full
         So much of him above that three Frieslanders
 
         Would boast in vain of reaching to his hair,
65       For I viewed thirty spans of him down from
         The place a person buckles up his cloak.
 
         "Raphel mai amecche zabi almi!"
         He began babbling with his beastly mouth
         For which no sweeter psalm was better suited.
 
70       And my guide turned toward him, "You stupid soul,
         Stick to your horn and vent yourself with that
         Whenever rage or other passions grip you!
 
         "Grope at your neck and you will find the strap
         That holds your horn on tight, you scatterbrain,
75       And look at where it rests on your large chest!"
 
         Then he told me, "He stands there self-accused:
         This is Nimrod, by whose bad idea
         The world no longer uses just one language.
 
         "Leave him there and we won’t lose time in talk,
80       For every language is the same to him
         As is his to others: all are unknown tongues."
 
         After that we took up our long journey,
         Turning leftward, and at a bowshot’s distance,
         We found one more far fiercer, larger giant.
 
85       Who might the master be who tied him up
         I cannot say, but someone there had pinned
         His left arm to his back, his right in front,
 
         Both shackled by a chain which held him bound
         From the neck down, and on the part exposed
90       It looped five times down around his torso.
 
         "This proud giant wished to test his prowess
         Against the power of the most high Jove,"
         My guide told me; "this is the prize he won!
 
         "His name is Ephialtes. He proved his huge
95       Strength when the giants struck fear in the gods.
         The arms he used, he shall not move again."
 
         And I told him, "If possible, I’d like
         My own eyes to have the experience
         Of that prodigious hulk Briareus."
 
100     To this he answered, "Near here you shall see
         Antaeus, who can talk and goes unfettered:
         He’ll place us on the bottom pit of sin.
 
         "The one you want to see lies farther off,
         And he is chained and shaped like this one here
105      Except his looks are even more ferocious."
 
         No shock of earthquake ever shook a tower
         With greater violence than did Ephialtes
         All of a sudden shake himself with rage.
 
         Then more than ever did I fear to die,
110     And the fear might have been enough to do it
         If I had not already spied his shackles.
 
         We left him to continue on our way,
         And came to Antaeus, who rose five ells,
         Not reckoning his head, above the rockbed.
 
115     "O you — who, in that fortunate valley
         Where Scipio became the heir of glory
         When Hannibal withdrew with all his men,
 
         "Took once a thousand lions as your prey
         And, if you had been with your brothers there
120      In their high war, as seems some still believe,
 
         "The sons of earth would have won victory —
         Set us down below, where cold locks in
         Cocytus, and do not disdain to do it!
 
         "Force us not to go to Tityus or Typhon:
125     This man can grant you what they long for here;
         And so bend down and do not curl your lip.
 
         "He still can make you famous in the world,
         For he lives, and looks forward to long life,
         Unless grace calls him back before his time."
 
130      So spoke my master, and in haste the giant
         Stretched out his hands, whose tremendous grip
         Hercules once felt, and clasped my guide.
 
         Virgil, when he felt hands grasping him,
         Called to me, "Come here, so I can hold you!"
135     And then he made himself and me one bundle.
 
         As the Garisenda tower appears to look
         From under its leaning side when clouds pass over
         On the opposite direction it hangs in,
 
         So Antaeus looked to me while I watched
140     Him bending over, and at such a moment
         I wished that I had gone some other way.
 
         But gently at that bottom which swallows
         Lucifer with Judas, he put us down
         And did not stay bent over us for long,
 
145     But rose up like the mainmast of a ship.

At the time when Juno waxed so wrathful
         Over Semele, against the Theban bloodline,
         That again and again she showed her fury,
 
         She drove Athamas to such a fit of madness
5         That, on seeing his wife with their two sons
         Whom she carried one on each arm, he cried,
 
         "Let’s spread the nets out so that we can catch
         The lioness and cubs as they pass by!"
         And then he stretched out his clawed ruthless hands
 
10       And, snatching up the son named Learchus,
         Swung him around and dashed him on a rock.
         She, with her other child, drowned herself.
 
         And after Fortune wheeled down to the ground
15       The all-daring pride of Troy, so that the king,
         Along with his kingdom, was devastated,
 
         Hecuba, depressed, bereft, and captive,
         After she had seen Polyxena slain
         And, to her grief, her Polydorus cast up
 
20       On the shore of the sea, out of her senses,
         Barked like a dog, so profoundly had
         Her sorrow twisted this poor mother’s mind.
 
         But neither the Theban nor the Trojan wrath
         In ripping animals and human limbs
         Was ever seen so cruel against another
 
25       As the two shadows I saw, stripped and pallid,
         Biting and running in the selfsame way
         A hog behaves when let out of the sty.
 
         One came straight at Capocchio and sank
         His tusks into his scruff and, dragging him,
30       Scraped his stomach against the stony floor.
 
         And the one left behind, the Aretine,
         Shivering said, "That ghoul is Gianni Schicchi,
         And he goes rabid, like that, mauling others."
 
         "Oh," I said to him, "so may the other shade
35       Never sink teeth in you, kindly tell me
         Who that one is before it rushes off."
 
         And he told me, "That is the ancient spirit
         Of Myrrha, the debased soul, who became,
         Outside of rightful love, her father’s friend.
 
40       "In this fashion she came to sin with him,
         Pretending that her body was someone else’s,
         Just as the other ghoul who runs off there,
 
         "That he might win the lady of the herd,
         Disguised himself as Buoso Donati,
45       Writing a will to make the whole sham legal."
 
         And when that raging pair had scurried off —
         I’d kept my eyes glued on them long enough —
         I turned to watch the rest of the ill-bred crew.
 
         I saw one sinner there shaped like a lute
50       If only he’d been cut off below the belt
         At the groin where the body forks in two.
 
         The bloating dropsy which can so mismatch
         The limbs with its ill-digested fluids
         That face and paunch are all out of proportion
 
55       Forced him to hold his lips out far apart,
         Like the feverish man who in his thirst
         Curls one lip down and curls the other up.
 
         "O you who are free of all punishment
         In this harsh wretched world — I don’t know why—"
60       He called out to us, "look and pay attention
 
         "To the miserableness of Master Adam.
         I had in life all that I ever wanted
         And now, poor wretch, I long for a drop of water.
 
         "The streamlets flowing from the greening hills
65       Of Casentino down into the Arno,
         Creating cool and moistening currents,
 
         "Forever rise before me — I have no rest —
         The image of the streams makes me thirst more
         Than the malady that thins out my face.
 
70       "The stern Justice which torments me here
         Uses the landscape in which my sins occurred
         To hasten the swift flight of my deep sighs.
 
         "There is Romena, where I counterfeited
         The currency stamped with the Baptist’s head.
75       For this I left my body up there, burned.
 
         "But if I here could see the stricken souls
         Of Guido, Alexander, or their brother,
         I would not change the view for Branda’s fountain.
 
         "One’s here inside already, if what the raging
80       Shades who race around report is true.
         But what good does that do me: my limbs are tied.
 
         "If only I were lighter, so I could
         Advance one inch in every hundred years,
         I should by now have set out on the road
 
85       "To search for him among these deformed people,
         Although the road runs some eleven miles
         Around and more than half a mile across.
 
         "It’s thanks to them that I am in this family:
         The three persuaded me to coin the florins
90      With gold which had three carats of alloy."
 
         And I inquired, "Who are those two drudges,
         Steaming like wet hands in wintertime?
         They lie close to you on your right-hand side."
 
         "I found them here when I rained into this gorge,"
95       He answered, "and they have not stirred since,
         And I believe that they will never budge.
 
         "She is the wife who falsely accused Joseph,
         The other is false Sinon, the Greek from Troy.
         Their burning fever makes their bodies reek."
 
100      And one of them, appearing to take offense,
         Perhaps at being named so negatively,
         Punched his fist at Adam’s stretched-out paunch.
 
         The paunch reverberated like a drum,
         And Master Adam smashed him in the face
105     With a hook just as hard, telling him,
 
         "I may be kept from moving by the weight
         Of these swollen limbs, but I have an arm
         Free and cocked to serve for such occasions!"
 
         To this the other answered, "When you marched
110     To the fire, it wasn’t so ready then:
         But it was plenty ready when you coined!"
 
         And the one with dropsy: "That’s telling the truth!
         But you were no such witness to the truth
         There, when asked to tell the truth at Troy!"
 
115     "If I spoke false, you falsified the coins,"
         Said Sinon, "And I am here for one crime,
         But you for more than any other devil."
 
         "Just recall the horse, you perjurer,"
         The one with the bloated belly replied,
120     "And suffer, since the whole world knows of it!"
 
         "And thirst that cracks your tongue torture you,"
         Cried back the Greek, "and the foul bilge swell up
         Your guts to hedge-size right before your eyes!"
 
         Then the coiner: "So your mouth pops wide,
125      Feverish with filth as usual;
         But if I’m thirsty and fluids bulge me out,
 
         "You’ve gotten burning heat and an aching head!
         For you to lap up the mirror of Narcissus
         You wouldn’t need a lot of words of coaxing!"
 
130     I was all involved in listening to them
         When my master said, "Now keep on looking
         A little longer and I’ll quarrel with you!"
 
         When I heard him speak to me in anger,
         I turned toward him with such a rush of shame
135     That still it churns round in my memory.
 
         Like someone dreaming that he is in danger
         And in his dream he wishes he were dreaming,
         Desiring what really is as though it were not,
 
140      So I acted, unable to say a word:
         I wanted to ask pardon and did ask
         Pardon meanwhile, not thinking that I did.
 
         "Less shame would wash away a graver fault
         Than yours has been," my master said to me;
145     "Therefore, rid yourself of all regret.
 
         "If ever again fortune should find you
         Where people loiter for such wrangling,
         Then realize that always I am with you:
 
         "To choose to hear such barbs is a base choice."

The swarms of people and the sweep of wounds
         Had left my eyes so blind drunk with their tears
         That still they ached to linger on and weep.
 
         But Virgil said to me, "Why do you stare?
5         Why does your vision wallow down there yet
         Among those dismal, mutilated shadows?
 
         "At the other pockets you did not do so:
         Consider, if you could count all of them,
         Twenty-two miles the valley loops around.
 
10       "The moon already is beneath our feet:
The time that’s now allotted us is short
And you have more to see than you see here."
 
         "Had you observed," I right away replied,
         "The reason why I have been staring so,
15        Perhaps you would have let me stay here longer."
 
         Meantime my guide had started off, and I
         Walked on behind him, answering as I went,
         And adding, "Deep within that cavern there
 
         "On which just now I held my eyes so fixed,
20       I think the spirit of my own blood relation
         Weeps for the guilt that down here costs so dear."
 
         At this my master said, "Do not distract
         Yourself with thoughts about him in the future;
         Attend to other things and leave him there:
 
25       "For I saw him at the foot of the small bridge
         Pointing a menacing finger at you, boldly,
         And heard his name called out, Geri del Bello.
 
         "You at the time were so all taken up
         With the headless one who once held Hautefort,
30       You did not look down there, and he departed."
 
         "Oh my leader, it was his violent death
         Which has yet to be avenged," I answered,
         "By anyone of us who share his shame
 
         "That stirred his indignation, for this he left
35       Without a word — such is my own opinion —
         And for this he made me pity him the more."
 
         So we conversed, up to the first spot on
         The ridge with open view to the next valley
         And, had there been more light, right to the bottom.
 
40      When we had come above the final cloister
         Of Malebolge so that we could observe
         Before our eyes the congregated brethren,
 
         I was assaulted by weird volleying cries,
         Their shafts tipped with pathos, and at the noise
45       I covered both my ears with my two hands.
 
         What the suffering would be if all the sick
         In hospitals at Valdichiana, Maremma,
         And Sardinia, from July to September,
 
         Were thrown down altogether in one ditch,
50       Such was it there and such a stench surged up
         As usually comes from putrefying limbs.
 
         We climbed on downward to the final bank
         Of the long ridge by always keeping left,
         And then my eyes descried a clearer vista
 
55       Toward the bottom, where the emissary
         Of the high Lord, unerring justice, chastens
         The falsifiers registered on earth.
 
         I do not think the grief could have been greater
         To see the people in Aegina all diseased —
60       When the air was so infested with the plague
 
         That every animal, down to the smallest worm,
         Sickened and died, and later the ancient peoples
         (Poets record it as a certainty)
 
         Were born again from the progeny of ants —
65       Than was my grief to see, through that dark valley,
         The spirits languishing in scattered stacks.
 
         Some lay on their stomachs, some on the shoulders
         Of another sinner, some hauled themselves
         On hands and knees along the careworn roadway.
 
70       Step by step we tread on without talking,
         Watching and listening to the infirm souls
         Too weak to raise their bodies from the ground.
 
         I saw two seated, propped against each other,
         As pan on pan is propped to keep them hot,
75       And pocked, each one, from head to foot with scabs.
 
         And I have never seen a stableboy
         Comb a horse more quickly when his master
         Awaits him or he reluctantly stays up
 
         Than I saw these two scratch themselves with nails
80       Over and over because of the burning rage
         Of the fierce itching which nothing could relieve.
 
         The way their nails scraped down upon the scabs
         Was like a knife scraping off scales from carp
         Or some other sort of fish with larger scales.
 
85       "O you there tearing at your mail of scabs
         And even turning your fingers into pincers,"
         My guide began addressing one of them,
 
         "Tell us are there Italians among the souls
         Down in this hole and I’ll pray that your nails
90       Will last you in this task eternally."
 
         "We are both Italians whom you see
         So disfigured here," one replied in tears,
         "But who are you who ask this question of us?"
 
         And my guide said, "I am one climbing down
95       From ledge to ledge with this living man
         Whom I intend to show the whole of hell."
 
         At this the support they gave one another
         Broke and, shaking, each turned himself to me,
         And others who had overheard turned also.
 
100      My kindly master drew all close to me,
         Saying, "Now tell them what you want to know."
         And just as he wished, I began to speak:
 
         "So that your memory may not fade away
         In the first world from among the minds of men
105     But that it may live on under countless suns,
 
         "Tell me who you are and who your people are:
         Don’t let your ugly and loathsome torture
         Frighten you from baring your souls to me."
 
         "I was from Arezzo," one of them answered,
110      "And Albero of Siena had me burned;
         But what I died for does not bring me here.
 
         "It’s true I told him — I said it as a joke —
         ‘I’m smart enough to fly up through the air,’
         And he, all hankering and little sense,
 
115      "Begged me to show the art to him and, just
         Because I didn’t make him Daedalus,
         Had his church-father put me to the stake.
 
         "But here to the tenth and final pocket
         For the alchemy I practiced in the world
120     Minos who can never err condemned me."
 
         And I said to the poet, "Now were there ever
         People so flighty as the Sienese?
         Certainly the French cannot come close!"
 
         At this the other leper, who had heard me,
125      Jibed in reply, "There are, of course, exceptions:
         Stricca, who knew so much of frugal spending,
 
         "And Niccol򬠴he one who first discovered
         Costly uses for the clove in those gardens
         Wherein such seeds can rapidly take root,
 
130      "And Caccia d’Asciano’s associates,
         With whom he squandered vineyards and vast lands,
         While Abbagliato flashed his brilliant wit!
 
         "But should you want to know who seconds you
         Against the Sienese, direct your eyes to me
135      So that my face can give you a clear answer:
 
         "See, I am the shade of Capocchio
         Who falsified base metals through alchemy
         And, if I read you rightly, you recall
 
         "How fine an ape of nature I have been."

Who could ever, even in straight prose
         And after much retelling, tell in full
         The bloodletting and wounds that I now saw?
 
         Each tongue that tried would certainly trip up
5         Because our speaking and remembering
         Cannot comprehend the scope of pain.
 
         Were all those men gathered again together
         Who once in the fateful land of Apulia
         Mourned the lifeblood spilled by the Trojans,
 
10       And those who shed their blood in the long war
         In which the spoils were a mound of golden rings,
         As Livy has unerringly informed us,
 
         And those also who felt the painful gashes
         In the onslaught against Robert Guiscard,
15       And those others whose bones are still stacked up
 
         At Ceperano where all the Apulians
         Turned traitors, and those too from Tagliacozzo
         Where old Alardo conquered without weapons,
 
         And those who show their limbs run through and those
20       With limbs hacked off — they all could not have matched
         The ninth pocket’s degraded state of grief.
 
         Even a cask with bottom or sides knocked out
         Never cracked so wide as one soul I saw
         Burst open from the chin to where one farts.
 
25       His guts were hanging out between his legs;
         His pluck gaped forth and that disgusting sack
         Which turns to shit what throats have gobbled down.
 
         While I was all agog with gazing at him,
         He stared at me and, as his two hands pulled
30       His chest apart, cried, "Look how I rip myself!
 
         "Look at how mangled is Mohammed here!
         In front of me, Ali treks onward, weeping,
         His face cleft from his chin to his forelock.
 
         "And all the others whom you see down here
35       Were sowers of scandal and schism while
         They lived, and for this they are rent in two.
 
         "A devil goes in back here who dresses us
         So cruelly by trimming each one of the pack
         With the fine cutting edge of his sharp sword
 
40       "Whenever we come round this forlorn road:
         Because by then our old wounds have closed up
         Before we pass once more for the next blow.
 
         "But who are you, moping upon that ridge
         Perhaps to put off facing the penalty
45       Pronounced on you by your own accusations?"
 
         "Death has not yet reached him, nor guilt led him
         To the torture here," — my master answered,
         "But, to offer him the full experience,
 
         "I who am dead am destined to guide him
50       From circle to circle down here into hell,
         And, as surely as I speak to you, it’s true."
 
         More than a hundred, when they heard him, halted
         Inside the ditch to peer at me in wonder,
         Forgetting their torments for the moment.
 
55       "Tell Brother Dolcino then, you who perhaps
         Shortly shall see the sun, to arm himself
         With food — unless he wants to follow me
 
         "Here promptly — so that the weight of snow
         Does not bring victory to the Novarese
60       Who otherwise would not find winning easy."
 
         With one foot lifted in the air to go,
         Mohammed addressed these words to me,
         Then set the foot back on the ground and left.
 
         Another sinner with his throat lanced through
65       And with his nose carved off up to the eyebrows
         And with only a single ear remaining
 
         Stopped with the rest to stare in amazement,
         And, before they could, he opened wide his windpipe,
         Which on the outside looked bright red, and said,
 
70       "O you whom guilt does not condemn and whom
         I have seen in the land of Italy,
         Unless a strong resemblance now deceives me,
 
         "Remember Pier da Medicina should you
         Ever return to view the gentle plain
75       Which slopes from Vercelli to Marcabò,
 
         "And make known to the two best men of Fano,
         To Messers Guido and Angiolello,
         That, unless our foresight here be worthless,
 
         "They shall be thrown overboard from their ship
80       And sunk with stones near La Cattolica
         Through the treachery of a felon tyrant.
 
         "Between the islands of Cyprus and Majorca
         Neptune never saw a crime more heinous
         By raiding pirates or the ancient Argives.
 
85      "That one-eyed traitor — who rules over the city
         On which someone here with me would prefer
         That he had never fed his single sight —
 
         "Shall first arrange for them a parley with him,
         Then act to make sure that they will not need
90       Vows or prayers against Focara’s headwinds."
 
         And I told him, "If you want me to carry
         News of you above, point out and tell me
         Who is the one who rues sighting the city?"
 
         At that he gripped a hand upon the jaw
95       Of his companion and forced his mouth agape,
         Shouting, "Here’s the one, but he doesn’t talk!
 
         "This chap in exile submerged all the doubts
         Of Caesar, boasting that one well prepared
         Can only suffer loss by hesitation."
 
100      Oh how flabbergasted he appeared to me,
         With his tongue slashed in his throat — Curio,
         Who once had been so resolute in speaking!
 
         And one who had both of his hands chopped off,
         Raising up his stumps in the smut-filled air
105     So that the blood besmeared and soiled his face,
 
         Cried out, "You will also remember Mosca
         Who said, alas, ‘What’s done is dead and gone!’
         That sowed the seed of trouble for the Tuscans!"
 
         And I added, "— and for your kinsfolk, death!"
110     With that the sinner, sorrow heaped on sorrow,
         Scurried away like one gone mad with grief.
 
         But I stayed there to inspect that muster
         And spied something that I should be afraid
         To tell of on my own without more proof,
 
115      Had I not the assurance of my conscience,
         The good companion heartening a man
         Beneath the breastplate of its pure intention.
 
         I saw for sure — and still I seem to see it —
         A body without a head that walked along
120     Just as the others in that sad herd were walking,
 
         But it held the severed head by the hair,
         Swinging it like a lantern in its hand,
         And the head stared at us and said, "Ah me!"
 
         Itself had made a lamp of its own self,
125     And they were two in one and one in two:
         How can that be? He knows who so ordains it.
 
         When it was right at the base of the bridge,
         It raised up full length the arm with the head
         To carry closer to us words, which were:
 
130      "Now you see the galling punishment,
         You there, breathing, come visiting the dead:
         See if you find pain heavier than this!
 
         "And so that you may bring back news of me,
         Know that I am Bertran de Born, the one
135     Who offered the young king corrupt advice.
 
         "I made the son and father rebel foes.
         Achitophel with his pernicious promptings
         Did no worse harm to Absalom and David.
 
         "Because I severed persons bound so closely,
140      I carry my brain separate (what grief!)
         From its life-source which is within this trunk.
 
         "So see in me the counterstroke of justice."

By this time the flame stood straight and still
         With no more words and by now took its leave
         With the permission of the gentle poet
 
         When another, coming right behind it,
5         Forced us to turn our eyes toward its tip
         Because of the scrambled sound it sputtered out.
 
         As the Sicilian bull — that bellowed first
         With cries of the man (it served him right!)
         Who with his file had tuned the beast for torture —
 
10       Would bellow so loudly with its victim’s voice
         Within it that, though the whole was brass
         The thing seemed penetrated by the pain:
 
         So, without a way out or through the soul
         Burning inside the flame, the words of woe
15       Then became the language of the fire.
 
         But after the voices found their own way up
         Through the tip, giving it the tremble which
         The tongue had given to the fiery passage,
 
         We heard the flame: "O you to whom I turn
20       My voice and who, speaking in Lombard, said,
         ‘Now you may leave, I ask no more of you,’
 
         "Although, perhaps, I come a little late,
         Take the trouble to stop and speak to me:
         See, it shan't trouble me, and I am burning.
 
25       "If you just now fell down to this blind world
         Out of that sweet country of Italy
         From which I carry all my guilt, tell me,
 
         "Do the Romagnoles have peace or war?
         For I came from the mountains between Urbino
30       And the range where the Tiber fountains forth."
 
         I still leaned out, bent and listening,
         When my guide nudged me on my side and said,
         "You talk to him: this one is Italian."
 
         And I, already eager to respond,
35       Began to speak up without hesitation:
         "O soul, hidden below there in that fire,
 
         "Your Romagna is not now and never was
         Free of war in the hearts of her tyrants,
         But no war was waging when I left her.
 
40       "Ravenna, now many years, remains the same:
         The eagle of Polenta broods over her
         And also covers Cervia with his wings.
 
         "Forlì, the city which once withstood the siege
         And reduced the French to a bloody rubble,
45       Finds herself again beneath green talons.
 
         "Both mastiffs, old and young, from Verrucchio,
         Who kept such a poor watchout for Montagna,
         Sink their teeth where they usually do.
 
         "The cities on Lamone and Santerno
50       Are ruled by the lion-cub on the white lair
         Who summer to winter shifts from side to side.
 
         "Cesena, whose shore the Savio bathes,
         Just as it lies between the plain and mountain,
         Lives in-between tyranny and freedom.
 
55       "Now I beg you to tell us who you are:
         Don’t be more stubborn than I’ve been with you
         If in the world you’d like your name to last."
 
         After the flame had roared on for some time
         In its unique way, the pointed tip swayed
60       Back and forth and then released this breath:
 
         "If I thought that my answer was to someone
         Who might one day return up to the world,
         This flame would never cease its flickering.
 
         "However, since no one ever turned back, alive,
65       From this abyss — should what I hear be true —
         Undaunted by infamy, I answer you.
 
         "I was a man of arms and then a friar,
         Thinking to atone, girt with the cincture,
         And surely my thought would have proven right
 
70       "Had not that high priest (evil overtake him!)
         Caused me to backslide into earlier crimes:
         And how and why, I would you heard from me.
 
         "While I was still bound by the bones and flesh
         My mother gave me, the things I accomplished
75       Were not those of the lion but the fox.
 
         "Its wiles and covert ways, I knew them all,
         And I conducted their art so cunningly
         My repute resounded to the ends of earth.
 
         "But when I saw that I had reached the point
80       In my life when each man takes on the duty
         To lower the sails and pull in the tackle,
 
         "Things that once brought pleasure now gave pain.
         Repentant and confessed, I joined the friars:
         What a pity! And it would have worked!
 
85      "The crowned prince of the new Pharisees —
         Going to war close to the Lateran
         And not against the Saracens or Jews
 
         "(Since every enemy of his was Christian
         And not one of them had gone to conquer Acre
90       Or been a trader in the Sultan’s country) —
 
         "Ignored the high office and holy orders
         Belonging to him and ignored the cincture
         Which once made men — like me — who wore it leaner:
 
         "But just as Constantine sought out Sylvester
95       On Mount Soracte to heal his leprosy,
         So he sought me to act as his physician
 
         "To help heal him of the fever of his pride.
         He asked me for my counsel — I kept quiet
         Because his words seemed from a drunken stupor.
 
100      "Then he said, ‘Your heart need not mistrust:
         I absolve you in advance and you instruct me
         How to knock Penestrino to the ground.
 
         " ‘I have the power to lock and unlock heaven,
         You know that, because I keep the two keys
105      For which my predecessor took no care.’
 
         "His weighty arguments so pressured me then
         That silence seemed the worse course, and I said,
         ‘Father, since you cleanse me of that sin
 
         " ‘Into which I now must fall — remember:
110     An ample promise with a small repayment
         Shall bring you triumph on the lofty throne.’
 
         "Francis — the moment that I died — came then
         For me, but one of the black cherubim
         Called to him, ‘Don’t take him! don’t cheat me!
 
115     " ‘He must come down to join my hirelings
         Because he offered counsel full of fraud,
         And ever since I’ve been after his scalp!
 
         " ‘For you can’t pardon one who won’t repent,
         And one cannot repent what one wills also:
120      The contradiction cannot be allowed.’
 
         "O miserable me! how shaken I was
         When he grabbed hold of me and cried, ‘Perhaps
         You didn’t realize I was a logician!’
 
         "He carried me off to Minos who twisted
125     His tail eight times around his hardened back,
         Then bit it in gigantic rage and blared,
 
         " ‘This is a sinner for the fire of thieves!’
         So I am lost here where you see me go
         Walking in this robe and in my rancor."
 
130      When he had finished speaking in this fashion,
         The lamenting flame went away in sorrow,
         Turning and tossing its sharp-pointed horn.
 
         We traveled on ahead, my guide and I,
         Along the ridge as far as the next bridgeway
135     Arching the ditch where they must pay the price
 
         Who earned such loads by sowing constant discord

Be glad, Florence, for you are so great
          That over sea and land you flap your wings
          And throughout all of hell they spread your name.
 
          Among the thieves I found five citizens
5          Of yours — I am ashamed of who they were —
          And you are not raised to any heights of honor.
 
          But if near dawn the dreams we have are true,
          Then you shall feel, a little while from now,
          What Prato and the others crave for you.
 
10        If it already happened it should not be
          Too soon; I would it had, since it must be so!
          The longer my wait, the heavier my burden.
 
          We left there, and up by the jutting rocks
          That served as stairs for our descent
15        My guide climbed once more and pulled me after.
 
          And we followed along our solitary way
          Among the crags and rockpiles of the ridge;
          Without our hands our footing would have failed.
 
          It grieved me then and now again it grieves me
20        When I direct my mind to what I saw
          And more than usually I curb my talent
 
          Lest it rush in where virtue fails to guide;
          So, if a friendly star or something better
          Has given me the gift, I don’t gainsay it.
 
25        As many fireflies as the peasant — who
          Rests on a hillside in the season when
          The one that lights the world hides his face least
 
          And when the flies make way for the mosquitos —
          Sees glittering below him in the valley
30        Where perhaps he harvests grapes and plows,
 
          So many flames everywhere enkindled
          The eighth pocket, as I myself perceived
          As soon as I was there where one sees bottom.
 
          And just as he who avenged himself with bears
35        Beheld Elijah’s chariot departing
          With the rearing horses rising up to heaven,
 
          But never could have followed it with his eyes
          Except for the one flame that he kept watching
          Just like a little cloud sailing skyward:
 
40        In this way each flame moved through the throat
          Of that deep ditch, none showing what it stole,
          Though every flame secreted its own sinner.
 
          I stood straight, then leaned out on the bridge
          To look — had I not grabbed a jutting rock
45        I would have toppled off without a push!
 
          And my guide, seeing me so attentive,
          Said, "Within those fires there are souls,
          Each one swathed in its self-scorching torment."
 
          "My master," I replied, "by hearing you
50        I’m even surer, but already I’d concluded
          It was so, and wanted to ask you this:
 
          "Who’s inside that approaching flame so split
          On top that it seems to rise out of the pyre
          Where Eteocles lay beside his brother?"
 
55        "Within that flame Ulysses and Diomede
          Suffer tortures," he told me; "they go together
          In punishment as once they went in wrath;
 
          "And there inside their flame they grieve the ruse
          By which the horse became the gate through which
60        The Roman’s noble seed has issued forth.
 
          "There they mourn the trick that makes the slain
          Deidamia still weep for Achilles,
          And there they pay for the Palladium."
 
          "If it is possible for them to talk
65        From within these flames," I said, "master, I pray
          And pray again (may my prayer count a thousand!)
 
          "That you will not deny my waiting here
          Until the flame with two horns comes this way:
          You see how I bend toward it with a passion!"
 
70        And he said to me, "Your request deserves
          High praise, and for that reason, it is granted.
          But you be certain to restrain your tongue.
 
          "Allow me to talk to them: I comprehended
          What is your wish, but they may show disdain,
75        Since they were Greeks, for your speaking to them."
 
          After the flame had come to us, my guide,
          Judging the time and place now to be ripe,
          Spoke, and these are the words I heard him say:
 
          "O you who here are two within one fire,
80        If I merited from you while I was living,
          If I merited from you much praise or little
 
          "When in the world I wrote my lofty lines,
          Do not leave, but let one of you tell where,
          By his own doing, he lost his way and died."
 
85        The greater of the horns of ancient flame
          Started so to tremble, murmuring,
          That it seemed like a flame breasting the wind.
 
          And then, shaking the tip this way and that,
          As if it were a tongue about to talk,
90        It launched outward a voice that uttered, "When
 
          "I set sail from Circe who had ensnared me
          For more than a year there near Gaëta —
          Before Aeneas had given it that name —
 
          "Not fondness for my son nor sense of duty
95        To my aged father nor the love I owed
          Penelope to bring her happiness
 
          "Could overmaster in me the deep longing
          Which I had to gain knowledge of the world
          And of the vices and virtues of mankind.
 
100       "I embarked on the vast and open sea
          With but one boat and that same scanty crew
          Of my men who had not deserted me.
 
          "On one shore and the other I saw as far
          As Spain, far as Morocco, Sardinia,
105       And the other islands the sea bathes about.
 
          "I and my shipmates by then were old and slow
          When we came at long last to the close narrows
          Where Hercules had set up his stone markers
 
          "That men should not put out beyond that point.
110      On the starboard I now had passed Seville
          And on the port I already passed Ceuta.
 
          " ‘Brothers,’ I said, ‘who through a hundred thousand
          Dangers have reached the channel to the west,
          To the short evening watch which your own senses
 
115       " ‘Still must keep, do not choose to deny
          The experience of what lies past the sun
          And of the world yet uninhabited.
 
          " ‘Consider the seed of your generation:
          You were not born to live like animals
120       But to pursue virtue and possess knowledge.’
 
          "I rallied my shipmates for the voyage
          So sharply with this brief exhortation
          That then I could have hardly held them back.
 
          "And turning our stern toward the morning,
125      Of oars we made wings for that madcap flight,
          Always gaining on the larboard side.
 
          "Night by now gazed out on all the stars
          At the other pole, and our stars sank so low
          That none rose up above the ocean floor.
 
130       "Five times the light that spread beneath the moon
          Again shone down and five times more it waned
          Since we had entered that deep passageway
 
          "When a lone mountain loomed ahead, dark
          In the dim distance, and it looked to me
135      The highest peak that I had ever seen.
 
          "We leaped for joy — it quickly turned to grief,
          For from the new land a whirlwind surging up
          Struck the foredeck of our ship head on.
 
          "Three times it spun us round in swirling waters;
140      The fourth round it raised the stern straight up
          And plunged the prow down deep, as Another pleased,
 
          "Until the sea once more closed over us."

At the end of this harangue of his the thief
         Raised high his fists forked into figs and cried,
         "Take that, God, I screwed them against you!"
 
         From then on the serpents were my friends
5         Because one of them coiled around his neck
         As though to say, "I’ll not have you say more!"
 
         And another whipped about his arms and tied him,
         Wrapping itself so tightly in front of him
         That with the knot he couldn’t jerk a muscle.
 
10       Pistoia, ah Pistoia! why not decree
         To turn yourself to ashes and end it all
         Since you outstrip your offspring in evil-doing?
 
         Throughout all the darkened circles of deep hell
         I saw no soul so insolent toward God,
15       Not even he who fell from the walls at Thebes.
 
         Without speaking another word, he fled,
         And then I saw a centaur, full of fury,
         Come shouting, "Where, where is that bitter beast?"
 
         I do not think Maremma has as many
20       Snakes as the centaur carried on his croup
         Right up to where our human shape begins.
 
         Upon his shoulders, just behind the scruff,
         With its wings outstretched, there sat a dragon
         That set on fire all that cross its path.
 
25       My master stated, "That centaur is Cacus:
         In a rock-cave beneath Mount Aventine
         Many the time he spilled a lake of blood.
 
         "He does not go the same road with his brothers
         Because he fraudulently committed theft
30       Of his neighbor’s mighty herd of cattle.
 
         "The club of Hercules, who must have hit him
         A hundred blows, ended his crooked deals:
         But after the tenth clout he felt nothing."
 
         While he was saying this, Cacus ran past,
35       And three spirits came along below us,
         But neither I nor my guide observed them
 
         Until they shouted up, "Who are you?"
         That put an end to our discussion, and
         Then we turned our attention fully to them.
 
40       I did not recognize them, but it happened,
         As it so often happens by some chance,
         That one had to call out the other's name,
 
         Questioning, "Where has Cianfa gone off to?"
         At this, I — to keep my guide listening —
45       Placed my finger between chin and nose.
 
         If you are now, reader, slow to believe
         What I shall tell, that would be no wonder,
         For I who saw it can scarcely accept it.
 
         While I was staring down at the three sinners
50       I saw a serpent with six feet, from in front
         Leap up on one and entirely grip him.
 
         It wrapped his stomach with its middle feet
         And with its forefeet pinned him by the arms;
         Then sank its teeth in one cheek, then the other.
 
55       It spread its hind feet down about his thighs
         And thrust the tail out between his legs
         And at his back pulled it up straight again.
 
         Never did ivy cling to any tree
         So tightly as that horrendous beast
60       Twined its limbs around and through the sinner’s.
 
         Then the two stuck together as if made
         Of hot wax and mixed their colors so
         Neither one nor other seemed what once they were:
 
         Just as, in front of the flame, a brown color
65       Advances on the burning paper, so that
         It is not yet black but the white dies away.
 
         The other two glared at one another, each
         Crying out, "O Agnello, how you change!
         Look! already you are neither two nor one."
 
70       The two heads by now had become one
         When we saw the two features fuse together
         Into one face in which they both were lost.
 
         Two arms took shape out of the four remnants;
         The thighs with the legs, belly, and chest,
75       Changed into members never before seen.
 
         Then every former likeness was blotted out:
         That perverse image seemed both two and neither,
         And, such, at a slow pace, it moved away.
 
         Just as the lizard, that under the giant lash
80       Of the dog days darts from hedge to hedge,
         Looks like a lightning flash as it crosses the path,
 
         So seemed, heading straight out toward the gut
         Of the other two, a small blazing serpent,
         Black and livid like a peppercorn.
 
85       And in one sinner it bit right through that part
         From which we first take suck and nourishment;
         And down it fell full length in front of him.
 
         The bitten sinner stared but uttered nothing.
         Instead, he just stood rooted there and yawned
90       Exactly as though sleep or fever struck him.
 
         The serpent looked at him, he looked at it:
         One through the mouth, the other through his wound
         Billowed dense smoke and so the two smokes mingled.
 
95       Let Lucan now be silent, where he tells
         Of hapless Sabellus and Nasidius,
         And let him listen to what I now project.
 
         Let Ovid too be silent about Cadmus
         And Arethusa, where in verse he makes one
         A snake and one a fount: I do not envy him,
 
100      Since he never so transmuted two natures
         Face to face that their spiritual forms
         Were ready to exchange their bodily substance.
 
         Together they responded to such laws
         That the snake slit its tail into a fork
105     While the wounded sinner drew his feet together.
 
         The legs with the thighs locked so firmly,
         One to the other, that shortly one could find
         No sign whatever where the seam had joined.
 
         The slit tail then assumed the very shape
110      That had been lost there; and the hide of one
         Softened as the skin of the other hardened.
 
         I saw his arms returning to the armpits
         And the two feet of the reptile — they were short —
         Lengthen out while the two arms shortened.
 
115      Afterward, the hind feet, twisted up
         Together, became the member that men hide,
         While from his member the wretch grew two paws.
 
         While smoke veiled both the one and the other
         With new color and made the hair grow matted
120     On the one skin, and the other it made bald,
 
         The one rose upright and the other fell,
         Neither averting the lamps of evil eyes
         As, staring, they exchanged a nose and snout.
 
         The one standing drew back the face toward
125      The temples, and from the surplus stuff massed there
         Ears emerged above the once-smooth cheeks;
 
         The surplus not pulled back but still remaining
         In front, then formed a nose for the face
         And filled the lips out to their proper size.
 
130     The one lying down sprouted forth a muzzle
         And withdrew the ears back into the head
         In the same way a snail pulls in its horns.
 
         And the tongue, once single, whole, and suited
         For speech, split, while the other’s forked tongue
135     Sealed back up, and the smoke also stopped.
 
         The soul that had been turned into a beast,
         Hissing, filed off along the gully, fast,
         And the other, speaking, spat after its tracks.
 
         He turned his new-made shoulders then and told
140     The third soul left there, "I want Buoso to run,
         The way I did, on all fours down the road!"
 
         And so I saw the cargo shift and reshift
         In the seventh hold — and let me be forgiven
         Strangeness that may have led my pen astray.
 
145      And although my eyes were somewhat out of focus
         And my mind out of joint, the three sinners
         Could not have fled so furtively that I
 
         Did not observe Puccio Sciancato,
         The only one, of the three comrades that
150     Came at first, who then had not been changed;
 
         The other was he who made you, Gaville, grieve.