Canto XVI

English Edition, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1	DARKNESS of hell and of a night deprived
2	Of every planet under a poor sky,
3	As much as may be tenebrous with cloud,

4	Ne'er made unto my sight so thick a veil,
5	As did that smoke which there enveloped us,
6	Nor to the feeling of so rough a texture;

7	For not an eye it suffered to stay open;
8	Whereat mine escort, faithful and sagacious,
9	Drew near to me and offered me his shoulder.

10	E'en as a blind man goes behind his guide,
11	Lest he should wander, or should strike against
12	Aught that may harm or peradventure kill him,

13	So went I through the bitter and foul air,
14	Listening unto my Leader, who said only,
15	Look that from me thou be not separated.

16	Voices I heard, and every one appeared
17	To supplicate for peace and misericord
18	The Lamb of God who takes away our sins.

19	StillAgnus Dei their exordium was;
20	One word there was in all, and metre one,
21	So that all harmony appeared among them.

22	Master,I said, are spirits those I hear?
23	And he to me: Thou apprehendest truly,
24	And they the knot of anger go unloosing.

25	Now who art thou, that cleavest through our smoke
26	And art discoursing of us even as though
27	Thou didst by calends still divide the time?

28	After this manner by a voice was spoken;
29	Whereon my Master said: Do thou reply,
30	And I: O creature that dost cleanse thyself

31	To return beautiful to Him who made thee,
32	Thou shalt hear marvels if thou follow me.
33	Thee will I follow far as is allowed me,

34	He answered; and if smoke prevent our seeing,
35	Hearing shall keep us joined instead thereof.
36	Thereon began I: With that swathing band

37	Which death unwindeth am I going upward,
38	And hither came I through the infernal anguish.
39	And if God in his grace has me infolded,

40	So that he wills that I behold his court
41	By method wholly out of modern usage,
42	Conceal not from me who ere death thou wast,

43	But tell it me, and tell me if I go
44	Right for the pass, and be thy words our escort.
45	Lombard was I, and I was Marco called;

46	The world I knew, and loved that excellence,
47	At which has each one now unbent his bow.
48	For mounting upward, thou art going right.

49	Thus he made answer, and subjoined: I pray thee
50	To pray for me when thou shalt be above.
51	And I to him: My faith I pledge to thee

52	To do what thou dost ask me j but am bursting
53	Inly with doubt, unless I rid me of it.
54	First it was simple, and is now made double

55	By thy opinion, which makes certain to me,
56	Here and elsewhere, that which I couple with it.
57	The world forsooth is utterly deserted

58	By every virtue, as thou tellest me,
59	And with iniquity is big and covered;
60	But I beseech thee point me out the cause,

61	That I may see it, and to others show it;
62	For one in the heavens, and here below one puts it.
63	A sigh profound. that grief forced into Ai!

64	He first sent forth, and then began he: Brother,
65	The world is blind, and sooth thou comest from it!
66	Ye who are living every cause refer

67	Still upward to the heavens, as if all things
68	They of necessity moved with themselves.
69	lf this were so, in you would be destroyed

70	Free will, nor any justice would there be
71	In having joy for good, or grief for evil.
72	The heavens your movements do initiate,

73	I say not all; but granting that I say it,
74	Light has been given you for good and evil,
75	And free volition; which, if some fatigue

76	In the first battles with the heavens it suffers,
77	Afterwards conquers all, if well 'tis nurtured.
78	To greater force and to a better nature,

79	Though free, ye subject are, and that creates
80	The mind in you the heavens have not in charge.
81	Hence, if the present world doth go astray,

82	In you the cause is, be it sought in you;
83	And I therein will now be thy true spy.
84	Forth from the hand of Him, who fondles it

85	Before it is, like to a little girl
86	Weeping and laughing in her childish sport,
87	Issues the simple soul, that nothing knows,

88	Save that, proceeding from a joyous Maker,
89	Gladly it turns to that which gives it pleasure.
90	Of trivial good at first it tastes the savour;

91	Is cheated by it, and runs after it,
92	If guide or rein turn not aside its love.
93	Hence it behoved laws for a rein to place,

94	Behoved a king to have, who at the least
95	Of the true city should discern the tower.
96	The laws exist, but who sets hand to them?

97	No one; because the shepherd who precedes
98	Can ruminate, but cleaveth not the hoof;
99	Wherefore the people that perceives its guide

100	Strike only at the good for which it hankers,
101	Feeds upon that, and farther seeketh not.
102	Clearly canst thou perceive that evil guidance

103	The cause is that has made the world depraved,
104	And not that nature is corrupt in you.
105	Rome, that reformed the world, accustomed was

106	Two suns to have, which one road and the other,
107	Of God and of the world, made manifest.
108	One has the other quenched, and to the crosier

109	The sword is joined, and ill beseemeth it
110	That by main force one with the other go,
111	Because, being joined, one feareth not the other;

112	If thou believe not, think upon the grain,
113	For by its seed each herb is recognized.
114	In the land laved by Po and Adige,

115	Valour and courtesy used to be found,
116	Before that Frederick had his controversy;
117	Now in security can pass that way

118	Whoever will abstain, through sense of shame,
119	From speaking with the good, or drawing near them.
120	True, three old men are left, in whom upbraids

121	The ancient age the new, and late they deem it
122	That God restore them to the better life:
123	Currado da Palazzo, and good Gherardo,

124	And Guido da Castel, who better named is,
125	In fashion of the French, the simple Lombard:
126	Say thou henceforward that the Church of Rome,

127	Confounding in itself two governments,
128	Falls in the mire, and soils itself and burden.
129	'O Marco mine,I said, thou reasonest well;

130	And now discern I why the sons of Levi
131	Have been excluded from the heritage.
132	But what Gherardo is it, who, as sample

133	Of a lost race, thou sayest has remained
134	In reprobation of the barbarous age?
135	Either thy speech deceives me, or it tempts me,

136	He answered me,for speaking Tuscan to me,
137	It seems of good Gherardo naught thou knowest.
138	By other surname do I know him not,

139	Unless I take it from his daughter Gaia.
140	May God be with you, for I come no farther.
141	Behold the dawn, that through the smoke rays out,

142	Already whitening; and I must depart--
143	Yonder the Angel is--ere he appear.
144	Thus did he speak, and would no farther hear me.

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Canto XVI