Canto XIX

English Edition, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1	O SIMON MAGUS, O forlorn disciples,
2	Ye who the things of God, which ought to be
3	The brides of holiness, rapaciously

4	For silver and for gold do prostitute,
5	Now it behoves for you the trumpet sound,
6	Because in this third Bolgia ye abide.

7	We had already on the following tomb
8	Ascended to that portion of the crag
9	Which o er the middle of the moat hangs plumb.

10	Wisdom supreme, O how great art thou showest
11	In heaven, in earth, and in the evil world,
12	And with what justice doth thy power distribute !

13	I saw upon the sides and on the bottom
14	The livid stone with perforations filled,
15	All of one size, and every one was round.

16	To me less ample seemed they not, nor greater
17	Than those that in my beautiful Saint John
18	Are fashioned for the place of the baptisers,

19	And one of which, not many years ago,
20	I broke for some one, who was drowning in it;
21	Be this a sea! all men to undeceive.

22	Out of the mouth of each one there protruded
23	The feet of a transgressor, and the legs
24	Up to the calf, the rest within remained.

25	In all of them the soles were both on fire;
26	Wherefore the joints so violently quivered,
27	They would have snapped asunder withes and bands.

28	Even as the flame of unctuous things is wont
29	To move upon the outer surface only,
30	So likewise was it there from heel to point.

31	Master, who is that one who writhes himself,
32	More than his other comrades quivering,
33	I said. and whom a redder flame is sucking?

34	And he to me: If thou wilt have me bear thee
35	Down there along that bank which lowest lies,
36	From him thou'lt know his errors and himself.

37	And I: What pleases thee, to me is pleasing;
38	Thou art my Lord, and knowest that I depart not
39	From thy desire, and knowest what is not spoken.

40	Straightway upon the fourth dike we arrived;
41	We turned, and on the left-hand side descended
42	Down to the bottom full of holes and narrow.

43	And the good Master yet from off his haunch
44	Deposed me not, till to the hole he brought me
45	Of him who so lamented with his shanks.

46	Whoe'er thou art, that standest upside down,
47	O doleful soul, implanted like a stake,
48	To say began I, if thou canst, speak out.

49	I stood even as the friar who is confessing
50	The false assassin, who, when he is fixed,
51	Recalls him, so that death may be delayed.

52	And he cried out: Dost thou stand there already,
53	Dost thou stand there already, Boniface?
54	By many years the record lied to me.

55	Art thou so early satiate with that wealth,
56	For which thou didst not fear to take by fraud
57	The beautiful Lady, and then work her woe?

58	Such I became, as people are who stand,
59	Not comprehending what is answered them,
60	As if bemocked, and know not how to answer.

61	Then said Virgilius: Say to him straightway,
62	'I am not he, I am not he thou thinkest.
63	And I replied as was imposed on me.

64	Whereat the spirit writhed with both his feet,
65	Then, sighing, with a voice of lamentation
66	Said to me: Then what wantest thou of me?

67	If who I am thou carest so much to know,
68	That thou on that account hast crossed the bank,
69	now that I vested was with the great mantle;

70	And truly was I son of the She-bear,
71	So eager to advance the cubs, that wealth
72	Above, and here myself,I pocketed.

73	Beneath my head the others are dragged down
74	Who have preceded me in simony,
75	Flattened along the fissure of the rock.

76	Below there I shall likewise fall, whenever
77	That one shall come who I believed thou wast,
78	What time the sudden question I proposed.

79	But lon er I my feet already toast,
80	And here have been in this way upside down.
81	Than he will planted stay with reddened feet;

82	For after him shall come of fouler deed
83	From tow'rds the west a Pastor without law,
84	Such as befits to cover him and me.

85	New Jason will he be, of whom we read
86	In Maccabees j and as his king was pliant,
87	So he who governs France shall be to this one.

88	I do not know if I were here too bold,
89	That him I answered only in this metre:
90	I pray thee tell me now how great a treasure

91	Our Lord demanded of Saint Peter first,
92	Before he put the keys into his keeping?
93	Truly he nothing asked but 'Follow me.'

94	Nor Peter nor the rest asked of Matthias
95	Silver or gold, when he by lot was chosen
96	Unto the place the guilty soul had lost.

97	Therefore stay here, for thou art justly punished,
98	And keep safe guard o'er the ill-gotten money,
99	Which caused thee to be valiant against Charles.

100	And were it not that still forbids it me
101	The reverence for the keys superlative
102	Thou hadst in keeping in the gladsome life,

103	I would make use of words more grievous still;
104	Because your avarice afflicts the world,
105	Trampling the good and lifting the depraved.

106	The Evangelist you Pastors had in mind,
107	When she who sitteth upon many waters
108	To fornicate with kings by him was seen;

109	The same who with the seven heads was born,
110	And power and strength from the ten horns received,
111	So long as virtue to her spouse was pleasing.

112	Ye have made yourselves a god of gold and silver;
113	And from the idolater how differ ye,
114	Save that he one, and ye a hundred worship?

115	Ah, Constantine ! of how much ill was mother,
116	Not thy conversion, but that marriage dower
117	Which the first wealthy Father took from thee!

118	And while I sang to him such notes as these.
119	Either that anger or that conscience stung him,
120	He struggled violently with both his feet.

121	I think in sooth that it my Leader pleased,
122	With such contented lip he listened ever
123	Unto the sound of the true words expressed.

124	Therefore with both his arms he took me up,
125	And when he had me all upon his breast,
126	Remounted by the way where he descended.

127	Nor did he tire to have me clasped to him;
128	Rut bore me to the summit of the arch
129	Which from the fourth dike to the fifth is passage.

130	There tenderly he laid his burden down,
131	Tenderly on the crag uneven and steep,
132	That would have been hard passage for the goats:

133	Thence was unveiled to me another valley.

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Canto XIX