Canto IX

English Edition, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1	THAT hue which cowardice brought out on me,
2	Beholding my Conductor backward turn,
3	Sooner repressed within him his new colour.

4	He stopped attentive, like a man who listens,
5	Because the eye could not conduct him far
6	Through the black air, and through the heavy fog.

7	Still it behoveth us to win the fight,
8	Began he; Else . . . Such offered us herself . . .
9	O how I long that some one here arrive !

10	Well I perceived, as soon as the beginning
11	He covered up with what came afterward,
12	That they were words quite different from the first;

13	But none the less his saying gave me fear,
14	Because I carried out the broken phrase,
15	Perhaps to a worse meaning than he had.

16	Into this bottom of the doleful conch
17	Doth any e'er descend from the first grade,
18	Which for its pain has only hope cut off?

19	This question put I; and he answered me:
20	Seldom it comes to pass that one of us
21	Maketh the journey upon which I go.

22	True is it, once before I here below
23	Was conjured by that pitiless Erictho,
24	Who summoned back the shades unto their bodies.

25	Naked of me short while the flesh had been,
26	Before within that wall she made me enter,
27	To bring a spirit from the circle of Judas;

28	That is the lowest region and the darkest,
29	And farthest from the heaven which circles all.
30	Well know I the way; therefore be reassured.

31	This fen, which a prodigious stench exhales,
32	Encompasses about the city dolent,
33	Where now we cannot enter without anger.

34	And more he said, but not in mind I have it;
35	Because mine eye had altogether drawn me
36	Tow'rds the high tower with the red-flaming summit,

37	Where in a moment saw I swift uprisen
38	The three infernal Furies stained with blood,
39	Who had the limbs of women and their mien,

40	And with the greenest hydras were begirt;
41	Small serpents and cerastes were their tresses,
42	Wherewith their horrid temples were entwined.

43	And he who well the handmaids of the Queen
44	Of everlasting lamentation knew,
45	Said unto me: Behold the fierce Erinnys.

46	This is Megaera, on the left-hand side;
47	She who is weeping on the right, Alecto;
48	Tisiphone is between; and then was silent.

49	Each one her breast was rending with her nails;
50	They beat them with their palms, and cried so loud,
51	That I for dread pressed close unto the Poet.

52	Medusa come, so we to stone will change him!
53	All shouted looking down; in evil hour
54	Avenged we not on Theseus his assault!

55	Turn thyself round, and keep thine eyes close shut,
56	For if the Gorgon appear, and thou shouldst see it,
57	No more returning upward would there be.

58	Thus said the Master; and he turned me round
59	Himself, and trusted not unto my hands
60	So far as not to blind me with his own.

61	O ye who have undistempered intellects,
62	Observe the doctrine that conceals itself
63	Beneath the veil of the mysterious verses!

64	And now there came across the turbid waves
65	The clangour of a sound with terror fraught,
66	Because of which both of the margins trembled;

67	Not otherwise it was than of a wind
68	Impetuous on account of adverse heats,
69	That smites the forest, and, without restraint,

70	The branches rends, beats down, and bears away;
71	Right onward, laden with dust, it goes superb,
72	And puts to flight the wild beasts and the shepherds.

73	Mine eyes he loosed, and said: Direct the nerve
74	Of vision now along that ancient foam,
75	There yonder where that smoke is most intense.

76	Even as the frogs before the hostile serpent
77	Across the water scatter all abroad,
78	Until each one is huddled in the earth.

79	More than a thousand ruined souls I saw,
80	Thus fleeing from before one who on foot
81	Was passing o'er the Styx with soles unwet

82	From off his face he fanned that unctuous air,
83	Waving his left hand oft in front of him,
84	And only with that anguish seemed he weary.

85	Well I perceived one sent from Heaven was he,
86	And to the Master turned; and he made sign
87	That I should quiet stand, and bow before him.

88	Ah I how disdainful he appeared to me!
89	He reached the gate, and with a little rod
90	He opened it, for there was no resistance.

91	O banished out of Heaven, people despised!
92	Thus he began upon the horrid threshold;
93	Whence is this arrogance within you couched?

94	Wherefore recalcitrate against that will,
95	From which the end can never be cut off,
96	And which has many times increased your pain?

97	What helpeth it to butt against the fates?
98	Your Cerberus, if you remember well,
99	For that still bears his chin and gullet peeled.

100	Then he returned along the miry road,
101	And spake no word to us, but had the look
102	Of one whom other care constrains and goads

103	Than that of him who in his presence is;
104	And we our feet directed tow'rds the city,
105	After those holy words all confident.

106	Within we entered without any contest;
107	And I, who inclination had to see
108	What the condition such a fortress holds,

109	Soon as I was within, cast round mine eye,
110	And see on every hand an ample plain,
111	Full of distress and torment terrible.

112	Even as at Arles, where stagnant grows the Rhone,
113	Even as at Pola near to the Quarnaro,
114	That shuts in Italy and bathes its borders,

115	The sepulchres make all the place uneven;
116	So likewise did they there on every side,
117	Saving that there the manner was more bitter;

118	For flames between the sepulchres were scattered,
119	By which they so intensely heated were,
120	That iron more so asks not any art.

121	All of their coverings uplifted were,
122	And from them issued forth such dire laments,
123	Sooth seemed they of the wretched and tormented.

124	And I: My Master, what are all those people
125	Who, having sepulture within those tombs,
126	Make themselves audible by doleful sighs?

127	And he to me: Here are the Heresiarchs,
128	With their disciples of all sects, and much
129	More than thou thinkest laden are the tombs.

130	Here like together with its like is buried;
131	And more and less the monuments are heated.
132	And when he to the right had turned, we passed

133	Between the torments and high parapets.

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Canto IX