Canto XI

English Edition, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1	OUR Father, thou who dwellest in the heavens,
2	Not circumscribed, but from the greater love
3	Thou bearest to the first effects on high,

4	Praised be thy name and thine omnipotence
5	By every creature, as befitting is
6	To render thanks to thy sweet effluence.

7	Come unto us the peace of thy dominion,
8	For unto it we cannot of ourselves,
9	If it come not, with all our intellect.

10	Even as thine own Angels of their will
11	Make sacrifice to thee, Hosanna singing,
12	So may all men make sacrifice of theirs.

13	Give unto us this day our daily manna,
14	Withouten which in this rough wilderness
15	Backward goes he who toils most to advance.

16	And even as we the trespass we have suffered
17	Pardon in one another, pardon thou
18	Benignly, and regard not our desert.

19	Our virtue, which is easily o'ercome,
20	Put not to proof with the old Adversary,
21	But thou from him who spurs it so, deliver.

22	This last petition verily, dear Lord,
23	Not for ourselves is made, who need it not,
24	But for their sake who have remained behind us.

25	Thus for themselves and us good furtherance
26	Those shades imploring, went beneath a weight
27	Like unto that of which we sometimes dream,

28	Unequally in anguish round and round
29	And weary all, upon that foremost cornice,
30	Purging away the smoke-stains of the world

31	If there good words are always said for us,
32	What may not here be said and done for them,
33	By those who have a good root to their will?

34	Well may we help them wash away the marks
35	That hence they carried, so that clean and light
36	They may ascend unto the starry wheels!

37	Ah! so may pity and justice you disburden
38	Soon, that ye may have power to move the wing,
39	That shall uplift you after your desire,

40	Show us on which hand tow'rd the stairs the way
41	Is shortest, and if more than one the passes,
42	Point us out that which least abruptly falls;

43	For he who cometh with me, through the burden
44	Of Adam's flesh wherewith he is invested,
45	Against his will is chary of his climbing.

46	The words of theirs which they returned to those
47	That he whom I was following had spoken,
48	It was not manifest from whom they came,

49	But it was said: To the right hand come with us
50	Along the bank, and ye shall find a pass
51	Possible for living person to ascend.

52	And were I not impeded by the stone,
53	Which this proud neck of mine doth subjugate,
54	Whence I am forced to hold my visage down,

55	Him, who still lives and does not name himself,
56	Would I regard, to see if I may know him
57	And make him piteous unto this burden.

58	A Latian was I, and born of a great Tuscan;
59	Guglielmo Aldobrandeschi was my father;
60	I know not if his name were ever with you.

61	The ancient blood and deeds of gallantry
62	Of my progenitors so arrogant made me
63	That, thinking not upon the common mother,

64	All men I held in scorn to such extent
65	I died therefor, as know the Sienese,
66	And every child in Campagnatico.

67	I am Omberto; and not to me alone
68	Has pride done harm, but all my kith and kin
69	Has with it dragged into adversity.

70	And here must I this burden bear for it
71	Till God be satisfied, since I did not
72	Among the living, here among the dead.

73	Listening I downward bent my countenance;
74	And one of them, not this one who was speaking,
75	Twisted himself beneath the weight that cramps him,

76	And looked at me, and knew me, and called out,
77	Keeping his eyes laboriously fixed
78	On me, who all bowed down was going with them.

79	O,asked I him, art thou not Oderisi,
80	Agobbio s honour, and honour of that art
81	Which is in Paris called illuminating?

82	Brother,said he, more laughing are the leaves
83	Touched by the brush of Franco Bolognese;
84	All his the honour now, and mine in part.

85	In sooth I had not been so courteous
86	While I was living, for the great desire
87	Of excellence, on which my heart was bent.

88	Here of such pride is paid the forfeiture;
89	And yet I should not be here, were it not
90	That, having power to sin, I turned to God.

91	O thou vain glory of the human powers,
92	How little green upon thy summit lingers,
93	If 't be not followed by an age of grossness!

94	In painting Cimabue thought that he
95	Should hold the field, now Giotto has the cry,
96	So that the other's fame is growing dim.

97	So has one Guido from the other taken
98	The glory of our tongue, and he perchance
99	Is born, who from the nest shall chase them both.

100	Naught is this mundane rumour but a breath
101	Of wind, that comes now this way and now that,
102	And changes name, because it changes side.

103	What fame shalt thou have more, if old peel off
104	From thee thy flesh, than if thou hadst been dead
105	Before thou left the pappo and the dindi,

106	Ere pass a thousand years? which is a shorter
107	Space to the eterne, than twinkling of an eye
108	Unto the circle that in heaven wheels slowest.

109	With him, who takes so little of the road
110	In front of me, all Tuscany resounded;
111	And now he scarce is lisped of in Siena,

112	Where he was lord, what time was overthrown
113	The Florentine delirium, that superb
114	Was at that day as now 'tis prostitute.

115	Your reputation is the colour of grass
116	Which comes and goes, and that discolours it
117	By which it issues green from out the earth.

118	And I: Thy true speech fills my heart with good
119	Humility, and great tumour thou assuagest;
120	But who is he, of whom just now thou spakest?

121	That, he replied, is Provenzan Salvani,
122	And he is here because he had presumed
123	To bring Siena all into his hands.

124	He has gone thus, and goeth without rest
125	E'er since he died; such money renders back
126	In payment he who is on earth too daring.

127	And I: If every spirit who awaits
128	The verge of life before that he repent,
129	Remains below there and ascends not hither,

130	Unless good orison shall him bestead,
131	Until as much time as he lived be passed,
132	How was the coming granted him in largess?

133	When he in greatest splendour lived, said he,
134	Freely upon the Campo of Siena,
135	All shame being laid aside, he placed himself;

136	And there to draw his friend from the duress
137	Which in the prison-house of Charles he suffered,
138	He brought himself to tremble in each vein.

139	I say no more, and know that I speak darkly;
140	Yet little time shall pass before thy neighbours
141	Will so demean themselves that thou canst gloss it.

142	This action has released him from those confines.

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Canto XI