English Edition, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
| 1 | Already was the flame erect and quiet, |
| 2 | To speak no more, and now departed from us |
| 3 | With the permission of the gentle Poet; |
| 4 | When yet another, which behind it came, |
| 5 | Caused us to turn our eyes upon its top |
| 6 | By a confused sound that issued from it. |
| 7 | As the Sicilian bull (that bellowed first |
| 8 | With the lament of him, and that was right, |
| 9 | Who with his file had modulated it) |
| 10 | Bellowed so with the voice of the afflicted, |
| 11 | That, notwithstanding it was made of brass, |
| 12 | Still it appeared with agony transfixed; |
| 13 | Thus, by not having any way or issue |
| 14 | At first from out the fire, to its own language |
| 15 | Converted were the melancholy words. |
| 16 | But afterwards, when they had gathered way |
| 17 | Up through the point, giving it that vibration |
| 18 | The tongue had given them in their passage out, |
| 19 | We heard it said: O thou, at whom I aim |
| 20 | My voice, and who but now wast speaking Lombard, |
| 21 | Saying,’Now go thy way, no more I urge thee,’ |
| 22 | Because I come perchance a little late, |
| 23 | To stay and speak with me let it not irk thee; |
| 24 | Thou seest it irks not me, and I am burning. |
| 25 | If thou but lately into this blind world |
| 26 | Hast fallen down from that sweet Latian land, |
| 27 | Wherefrom I bring the whole of my transgression, |
| 28 | Say,if the Romagnuols have peace or war, |
| 29 | For I was from the mountains there between |
| 30 | Urbino and the yoke whence Tiber bursts. |
| 31 | I still was downward bent and listening, |
| 32 | When my Conductor touched me on the side, |
| 33 | Saying: Speak thou: this one a Latian is. |
| 34 | And I, who had beforehand my reply |
| 35 | In readiness, forthwith began to speak: |
| 36 | O soul, that down below there art concealed, |
| 37 | Romagna thine is not and never has been |
| 38 | Without war in the bosom of its tyrants; |
| 39 | But open war I none have left there now. |
| 40 | Ravenna stands as it long years has stood; |
| 41 | The Eagle of Polenta there is brooding, |
| 42 | So that she covers Cervia with her vans. |
| 43 | The city which once made the long resistance, |
| 44 | And of the French a sanguinary heap, |
| 45 | Beneath the Green Paws finds itself again; |
| 46 | Verrucchio’s ancient Mastiff and the new, |
| 47 | Who made such bad disposal of Montagna, |
| 48 | Where they are wont make wimbles of their teeth. |
| 49 | The cities of Lamone and Santerno |
| 50 | Governs the Lioncel of the white lair, |
| 51 | Who changes sides ‘twixt summer-time and winter; |
| 52 | And that of which the Savio bathes the flank, |
| 53 | Even as it lies between the plain and mountain, |
| 54 | Lives between tyranny and a free state. |
| 55 | Now I entreat thee tell us who thou art; |
| 56 | Be not more stubborn than the rest have been, |
| 57 | So may thy name hold front there in the world. |
| 58 | After the fire a little more had roared |
| 59 | In its own fashion, the sharp point it moved |
| 60 | This way and that, and then gave forth such breath: |
| 61 | If I believed that my reply were made |
| 62 | To one who to the world would e’er return, |
| 63 | This flame without more flickering would stand still; |
| 64 | But inasmuch as never from this depth |
| 65 | Did any one return, if I hear true, |
| 66 | Without the fear of infamy I answer, |
| 67 | I was a man of arms, then Cordelier, |
| 68 | Believing thus begirt to make amends; |
| 69 | And truly my belief had been fulfilled |
| 70 | But for the High Priest, whom may ill betide, |
| 71 | Who put me back into my former sins; |
| 72 | And how and wherefore I will have thee hear. |
| 73 | While I was still the form of bone and pulp |
| 74 | My mother gave to me, the deeds I did |
| 75 | Were not those of a lion, but a fox. |
| 76 | The machinations and the covert ways |
| 77 | I knew them all, and practised so their craft, |
| 78 | That to the ends of earth the sound went forth. |
| 79 | When now unto that portion of mine age |
| 80 | I saw myself arrived, when each one ought |
| 81 | To lower the sails, and coil away the ropes, |
| 82 | That which before had pleased me then displeased me; |
| 83 | And penitent and confessing I surrendered, |
| 84 | Ah woe is me ! and it would have bestead me; |
| 85 | The Leader of the modern Pharisees |
| 86 | Having a war near unto Lateran, |
| 87 | And not with Saracens nor with the Jews, |
| 88 | For each one of his enemies was Christian, |
| 89 | And none of them had been to conquer Acre, |
| 90 | Nor merchandising in the Sultan’s land, |
| 91 | Nor the high office, nor the sacred orders, |
| 92 | In him regarded, nor in me that cord |
| 93 | Which used to make those girt with it more meagre; |
| 94 | But even as Constantine sought out Sylvester |
| 95 | To cure his leprosy, within Soracte, |
| 96 | So this one sought me out as an adept |
| 97 | To cure him of the fever of his pride. |
| 98 | Counsel he asked of me, and I was silent, |
| 99 | Because his words appeared inebriate. |
| 100 | And then he said: ‘Be not thy heart afraid; |
| 101 | Henceforth I thee absolve; and thou instruct me |
| 102 | How to raze Palestrina to the ground. |
| 103 | Heaven have I power to lock and to unlock, |
| 104 | As thou dost know; therefore the keys are two, |
| 105 | The which my predecessor held not dear.’ |
| 106 | Then urged me on his weighty arguments |
| 107 | There, where my silence was the worst advice; |
| 108 | And said I:’Father, since thou washest me |
| 109 | Of that sin into which I now must fall, |
| 110 | The promise long with the fulfilment short |
| 111 | Will make thee triumph in thy lofty seat.’ |
| 112 | Francis came afterward, when I was dead, |
| 113 | For me; but one of the black Cherubim |
| 114 | Said to him:’Take him not; do me no wrong; |
| 115 | He must come down among my servitors, |
| 116 | Because he gave the fraudulent advice |
| 117 | From which time forth I have been at his hair; |
| 118 | For who repents not cannot be absolved, |
| 119 | Nor can one both repent and will at once, |
| 120 | Because of the contradiction which consents not. |
| 121 | O miserable me! how I did shudder |
| 122 | When he seized on me, saying: ‘Peradventure |
| 123 | Thou didst not think that I was a logician !’ |
| 124 | He bore me unto Minos, who entwined |
| 125 | Eight times his tail about his stubborn back, |
| 126 | And after he had bitten it in great rage, |
| 127 | Said: ‘Of the thievish fire a culprit this;’ |
| 128 | Wherefore, here where thou seest, am I lost, |
| 129 | And vested thus in going I bemoan me. |
| 130 | When it had thus completed its recital, |
| 131 | The flame departed uttering lamentations, |
| 132 | Writhing and flapping its sharp-pointed horn. |
| 133 | Onward we passed, both I and my Conductor, |
| 134 | Up o’er the crag above another arch, |
| 135 | Which the moat covers, where is paid the fee |
| 136 | By those who, sowing discord, win their burden. |