English Edition, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
| 1 | SILENT, alone, and without company |
| 2 | We went, the one in front, the other after, |
| 3 | As go the Minor Friars along their way |
| 4 | Upon the fable of Aesop was directed |
| 5 | My thought, by reason of the present quarrel, |
| 6 | Where he has spoken of the frog and mouse; |
| 7 | For mo and issa are not more alike |
| 8 | Than this one is to that, if well we couple |
| 9 | End and beginning with a steadfast mind. |
| 10 | And even as one thought from another springs, |
| 11 | So afterward from that was born another, |
| 12 | Which the first fear within me double made. |
| 13 | Thus did I ponder: These on our account |
| 14 | Are laughed to scorn, with injury and scoff |
| 15 | So great, that much I think it must annoy them. |
| 16 | If anger be engrafted on ill-will, |
| 17 | They will come after us more merciless |
| 18 | Than dog upon the leveret which he seizes, |
| 19 | I felt my hair stand all on end already |
| 20 | With terror, and stood backwardly intent, |
| 21 | When said I: Master, if thou hidest not |
| 22 | Thyself and me forthwith, of Malebranche |
| 23 | I am in dread; we have them now behind us; |
| 24 | I so. imagine them, I already feel them |
| 25 | And he: If I were made of leaded glass |
| 26 | Thine outward image I should not attract |
| 27 | Sooner to me than I imprint the inner. |
| 28 | Just now thy thoughts came in among my own, |
| 29 | With similar attitude and similar face, |
| 30 | So that of both one counsel sole I made. |
| 31 | If peradventure the right bank so slope |
| 32 | That we to the next Bolgia can descend. |
| 33 | We shall escape from the imagined chase. |
| 34 | Not yet he finished rendering such opinion. |
| 35 | When I beheld them come with outstretched wings, |
| 36 | Not far remote, with will to seize upon us. |
| 37 | My Leader on a sudden seized me up, |
| 38 | Even as a mother who by noise is wakened, |
| 39 | And close beside her sees the enkindled flames, |
| 40 | Who takes her son, and flies, and does not stop, |
| 41 | Having more care of him than of herself, |
| 42 | So that she clothes her only with a shift; |
| 43 | And downward from the top of the hard bank |
| 44 | Supine he gave him to the pendent rock, |
| 45 | That one side of the other Bolgia walls. |
| 46 | Ne’er ran so swiftly water through a sluice |
| 47 | To turn the water of any land-built mill, |
| 48 | When nearest to the paddles it approaches, |
| 49 | As did my Master down along that border, |
| 50 | Bearing me with him on his breast away, |
| 51 | As his own son, and not as a companion. |
| 52 | Hardly the bed of the ravine below |
| 53 | His feet had reached, ere they had reached the hill |
| 54 | Right over us; but he was not afraid; |
| 55 | For the high Providence, which had ordained |
| 56 | To place them ministers of the fifth moat, |
| 57 | The power of thence departing took from all. |
| 58 | A painted people there below we found, |
| 59 | Who went about with footsteps very slow, |
| 60 | Weeping and in their semblance tired and vanquished. |
| 61 | They had on mantles with the hoods low down |
| 62 | Before their eyes, and fashioned of the cut |
| 63 | That in Cologne they for the monks arc made. |
| 64 | Without, they gilded are so that it dazzles; |
| 65 | But inwardly all leaden and so heavy |
| 66 | That Frederick used to put them on of straw. |
| 67 | O everlastingly fatiguing mantle! |
| 68 | Again we turned us, still to the left hand |
| 69 | Along with them, intent on their sad plaint; |
| 70 | But owing to the weight, that weary folk |
| 71 | Came on so tardily, that we were new |
| 72 | In company at each motion of the haunch. |
| 73 | Whence I unto my Leader: See thou find |
| 74 | Some one who may by deed or name be known, |
| 75 | And thus in going move thine eye about. |
| 76 | And one,who understood the Tuscan speech |
| 77 | Cried to us from behind: Stay ye your feet |
| 78 | Ye, who so run athwart the dusky air |
| 79 | Perhaps thou’lt have from me what thou demandest. |
| 80 | Whereat the Leader turned him, and said: Wait, |
| 81 | And then according to his pace proceed. |
| 82 | I stopped, and two beheld I show great haste |
| 83 | Of spirit, in their faces, to be with me; |
| 84 | But the burden and the narrow way delayed them. |
| 85 | When they came up, long with an eye askance |
| 86 | They scanned me without uttering a word. |
| 87 | Then to each other turned, and said together: |
| 88 | He by the action of his throat seems living; |
| 89 | And if they dead are, by what privilege |
| 90 | Go they uncovered by the heavy stole? |
| 91 | Then said to me: Tuscan, who to the college |
| 92 | Of miserable hypocrites art come, |
| 93 | Do not disdain to tell us who thou art. |
| 94 | And I to them: Born was I, and grew up |
| 95 | In the great town on the fair river of Arno, |
| 96 | And with the body am I’ve always had. |
| 97 | But who are ye, in whom there trickles down |
| 98 | Along your cheeks such grief as I behold? |
| 99 | And what pain is upon you, that so sparkles? |
| 100 | And one replied to me: These orange cloaks |
| 101 | Are made of lead so heavy, that the weights |
| 102 | Cause in this way their balances to creak. |
| 103 | Frati Gaudenti were we, and Bolognese; |
| 104 | I Catalano, and he Loderingo |
| 105 | Named, and together taken by thy city, |
| 106 | As the wont is to take one man alone, |
| 107 | For maintenance of its peace; and we were such |
| 108 | That still it is apparent round Gardingo. |
| 109 | O Friars,began I,your iniquitous … |
| 110 | But said no more; for to mine eyes there rushed |
| 111 | One crucified with three stakes on the ground. |
| 112 | When me he saw, he writhed himself all over, |
| 113 | Blowing into his beard with suspirations; |
| 114 | And the Friar Catalan, who noticed this, |
| 115 | Said to me: This transfixed one, whom thou seest, |
| 116 | Counselled the Pharisees that it was meet |
| 117 | To put one man to torture for the people. |
| 118 | Crosswise and naked is he on the path, |
| 119 | As thou perceivest; and he needs must feel, |
| 120 | Whoever passes, first how much he weighs; |
| 121 | And in like mode his father-in-law is punished |
| 122 | Within this moat, and the others of the council, |
| 123 | Which for the Jews was a malignant seed. |
| 124 | And thereupon I saw Virgilius marvel |
| 125 | O’er him who was extended on the cross |
| 126 | So vilely in eternal banishment. |
| 127 | Then he directed to the Friar this voice: |
| 128 | Be not displeased, if granted thee, to tell us |
| 129 | If to the right hand any pass slope down |
| 130 | By which we two may issue forth from here, |
| 131 | Without constraining some of the black angels |
| 132 | To come and extricate us from this deep. |
| 133 | Then he made answer: Nearer than thou hopest |
| 134 | There is a rock, that forth from the great circle |
| 135 | Proceeds, and crosses all the cruel valleys, |
| 136 | Save that at this ’tis broken, and does not bridge it; |
| 137 | You will be able to mount up the ruin, |
| 138 | That sidelong slopes and at the bottom rises. |
| 139 | The Leader stood awhile with head bowed down; |
| 140 | Then said: The business badly he recounted |
| 141 | Who grapples with his hook the sinners yonder. |
| 142 | And the Friar: Many of the Devil’s vices |
| 143 | Once heard I at Bologna, and among them, |
| 144 | That he’s a liar and the father of lies. |
| 145 | Thereat my Leader with great strides went on, |
| 146 | Somewhat disturbed with anger in his looks; |
| 147 | Whence from the heavy-laden I departed |
| 148 | After the prints of his beloved feet. |