English Edition, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
| 1 | BECAUSE the charity of my native place |
| 2 | Constrained me, gathered I the scattered leaves, |
| 3 | And gave them back to him, who now was hoarse. |
| 4 | Then came we to the confine, where disparted |
| 5 | The second round is from the third, and where |
| 6 | A horrible form of Justice is beheld. |
| 7 | Clearly to manifest these novel things, |
| 8 | I say that we arrived upon a plain, |
| 9 | Which from its bed rejecteth every plant; |
| 10 | The dolorous forest is a garland to it |
| 11 | All round about, as the sad moat to that; |
| 12 | There close upon the edge we stayed our feet. |
| 13 | The soil was of an arid and thick sand, |
| 14 | Not of another fashion made than that |
| 15 | Which by the feet of Cato once was pressed. |
| 16 | Vengeance of God, O how much oughtest thou |
| 17 | By each one to be dreaded, who doth read |
| 18 | That which was manifest unto mine eyes! |
| 19 | Of naked souls beheld I many herds, |
| 20 | Who all were weeping very miserably, |
| 21 | And over them seemed set a law diverse. |
| 22 | Supine upon the ground some folk were lying; |
| 23 | And some were sitting all drawn up together, |
| 24 | And others went about continually. |
| 25 | Those who were going round were far the more, |
| 26 | And those were less who lay down to their torment, |
| 27 | But had their tongues more loosed to lamentation. |
| 28 | O’er all the sand-waste, with a gradual fall, |
| 29 | Were raining down dilated flakes of fire, |
| 30 | As of the snow on Alp without a wind. |
| 31 | As Alexander, in those torrid parts |
| 32 | Of India, beheld upon his host |
| 33 | Flames fall unbroken till they reached the ground, |
| 34 | Whence he provided with his phalanxes |
| 35 | To trample down the soil, because the vapour |
| 36 | Better extinguished was while it was single; |
| 37 | Thus was descending the eternal heat, |
| 38 | Whereby the sand was set on fire, like tinder |
| 39 | Beneath the steel, for doubling of the dole. |
| 40 | Without repose forever was the dance |
| 41 | Of miserable hands, now there, now here, |
| 42 | Shaking away from off them the fresh gleeds. |
| 43 | Master, began I, thou who overcomest |
| 44 | All things except the demons dire, that issued |
| 45 | Against us at the entrance of the gate, |
| 46 | Who is that mighty one who seems to heed not |
| 47 | The fire, and lieth lowering and disdainful, |
| 48 | So that the rain seems not to ripen him? |
| 49 | And he himself, who had become aware |
| 50 | That I was questioning my Guide about him, |
| 51 | Cried: Such as I was living, am I, dead |
| 52 | If Jove should weary out his smith, from whom |
| 53 | He seized in anger the sharp thunderbolt, |
| 54 | Wherewith upon the last day I was smitten, |
| 55 | And if he wearied out by turns the others |
| 56 | In Mongibello at the swarthy forge, |
| 57 | Vociferating, ‘Help, good Vulcan, help!’ |
| 58 | Even as he did there at the fight of Phlegra, |
| 59 | And shot his bolts at me with all his might, |
| 60 | He would not have thereby a joyous vengeance. |
| 61 | Then did my Leader speak with such great force, |
| 62 | That I had never heard him speak so loud: |
| 63 | O Capaneus, in that is not extinguished |
| 64 | Thine arrogance, thou punished art the more; |
| 65 | Not any torment, saving thine own rage, |
| 66 | Would be unto thy fury pain complete. |
| 67 | Then he turned round to me with better lip, |
| 68 | Saying: One of the Seven Kings was he |
| 69 | Who Thebes besieged, and held, and seems to hold |
| 70 | God in disdain, and little seems to prize him; |
| 71 | But, as I said to him, his own despites |
| 72 | Are for his breast the fittest ornaments. |
| 73 | Now follow me, and mind thou do not place |
| 74 | As yet thy feet upon the burning sand, |
| 75 | But always keep them close unto the wood. |
| 76 | Speaking no word, we came to where there gushes |
| 77 | Forth from the wood a little rivulet, |
| 78 | Whose redness makes my hair still stand on end. |
| 79 | As from the Bulicame springs the brooklet, |
| 80 | The sinful women later share among them, |
| 81 | So downward through the sand it went its way. |
| 82 | The bottom of it, and both sloping banks, |
| 83 | Were made of stone, and the margins at the side; |
| 84 | Whence I perceived that there the passage was. |
| 85 | In all the rest which I have shown to thee |
| 86 | Since we have entered in within the gate |
| 87 | Whose threshold unto no one is denied, |
| 88 | Nothing has been discovered by thine eyes |
| 89 | So notable as is the present river, |
| 90 | Which all the little ‘dames above it quenches. |
| 91 | These words were of my Leader; whence I prayed him |
| 92 | That he would give me largess of the food, |
| 93 | For which he had given me largess of desire. |
| 94 | In the mid-sea there sits a wasted land, |
| 95 | Said he thereafterward, whose name is Crete, |
| 96 | Under whose king the world of old was chaste. |
| 97 | There is a mountain there, that once was glad |
| 98 | With waters and with leaves, which was called Ida; |
| 99 | Now ’tis deserted, as a thing worn out. |
| 100 | Rhea once chose it for the faithful cradle |
| 101 | Of her own son; and to conceal him better, |
| 102 | Whene’er he cried, she there had clamours made. |
| 103 | A grand old man stands in the mount erect, |
| 104 | Who holds his shoulders turned tow’rds Damietta, |
| 105 | And looks at Rome as if it were his mirror. |
| 106 | His head is fashioned of refined gold, |
| 107 | And of pure silver are the arms and breast; |
| 108 | Then he is brass as far down as the fork. |
| 109 | From that point downward all is chosen iron, |
| 110 | Save that the right foot is of kiln-baked clay, |
| 111 | And more he stands on that than on the other. |
| 112 | Each part, except the gold, is by a fissure |
| 113 | Asunder cleft, that dripping is with tears, |
| 114 | Which gathered together perforate that cavern |
| 115 | From rock to rock they fall into this valley; |
| 116 | Acheron, Styx, and Phlegethon they form; |
| 117 | Then downward go along this narrow sluice |
| 118 | Unto that point where is no more descending. |
| 119 | They form Cocytus; what that pool may be |
| 120 | Thou shalt behold, so here ’tis not narrated. |
| 121 | And I to him: If so the present runnel |
| 122 | Doth take its rise in this way from our world, |
| 123 | Why only on this verge appears it to us? |
| 124 | And he to me: Thou knowest the place is round |
| 125 | And notwithstanding thou hast journeyed far, |
| 126 | Still to the left descending to the bottom, |
| 127 | Thou hast not yet through all the circle turned. |
| 128 | Therefore if something new appear to us, |
| 129 | It should not bring amazement to thy face. |
| 130 | And I again: Master, where shall be found |
| 131 | Lethe and Phlegethon, for of one thou’rt silent, |
| 132 | And sayest the other of this rain is made? |
| 133 | In all thy questions truly thou dost please me, |
| 134 | Replied he; but the boiling of the red |
| 135 | Water might well solve one of them thou makest. |
| 136 | Thou shalt see Lethe, but outside this moat, |
| 137 | There where the souls repair to lave themselves, |
| 138 | When sin repented of has been removed. |
| 139 | Then said he: It is time now to abandon |
| 140 | The wood; take heed that thou come after me; |
| 141 | A way the margins make that are not burning, |
| 142 | And over them all vapours are extinguished. |