Canto XXXIV
Canto XXXIV
English Edition, translated by Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow
| 1 | Vexilla Regis prodeunt Inferni |
| 2 | Towards us; therefore look in front of thee, |
| 3 | My Master said,if thou discernest him. |
| 4 | As, when there breathes a heavy fog, or when |
| 5 | Our hemisphere is darkening into night, |
| 6 | Appears far off a mill the wind is turning, |
| 7 | Methought that such a building then I saw; |
| 8 | And, for the wind, I drew myself behind |
| 9 | My Guide, because there was no other shelter. |
| 10 | Now was I, and with fear in verse I put it, |
| 11 | There where the shades were wholly covered up, |
| 12 | And glimmered through like unto straws in glass. |
| 13 | Some prone are Iying, others stand erect, |
| 14 | This with the head, and that one with the soles; |
| 15 | Another, bow-like, face to feet inverts. |
| 16 | When in advance so far we had proceeded, |
| 17 | That it my Master pleased to show to me |
| 18 | The creature who once had the beauteous semblance- |
| 19 | He from before me moved and made me stop, |
| 20 | Saying: Behold Dis, and behold the place |
| 21 | Where thou with fortitude must arm thyself |
| 22 | How frozen I became and powerless then, |
| 23 | Ask it not, Reader, for I write it not, |
| 24 | Because all language would be insufficient. |
| 25 | I did not die, and I alive remained not; |
| 26 | Think for thyself now, hast thou aught of wit, |
| 27 | What I became, being of both deprived. |
| 28 | The Emperor of the kingdom dolorous |
| 29 | From his mid-breast forth issued from the ice, |
| 30 | And better with a giant I compare |
| 31 | Than do the giants with those arms of his; |
| 32 | Consider now how great must be that whole, |
| 33 | Which unto such a part conforms itself. |
| 34 | Were he as fair once, as he now is foul, |
| 35 | And lifted up his brow against his Maker, |
| 36 | Well may proceed from him all tribulation. |
| 37 | O, what a marvel it appeared to me, |
| 38 | When I beheld three faces on his head! |
| 39 | The one in front, and that vermilion was; |
| 40 | Two were the others, that were joined with this |
| 41 | Above the middle part of either shoulder, |
| 42 | And they were joined together at the crest; |
| 43 | And the right-hand one seemed 'twixt white and yellow |
| 44 | The left was such to look upon as those |
| 45 | Who come from where the Nile falls valley-ward. |
| 46 | Underneath each came forth two mighty wings, |
| 47 | Such as befitting were so great a bird; |
| 48 | Sails of the sea I never saw so large. |
| 49 | No feathers had they, but as of a bat |
| 50 | Their fashion was; and he was waving them, |
| 51 | So that three winds proceeded forth therefrom. |
| 52 | Thereby Cocytus wholly was congealed. |
| 53 | With six eyes did he weep, and down three chins |
| 54 | Trickled the tear-drops and the bloody drivel. |
| 55 | At every mouth he with his teeth was crunching |
| 56 | A sinner, in the manner of a brake, |
| 57 | So that he three of them tormented thus. |
| 58 | To him in front the biting was as naught |
| 59 | Unto the clawing, for sometimes the spine |
| 60 | Utterly stripped of all the skin remained. |
| 61 | That soul up there which has the greatest pain, |
| 62 | The Master said, is Judas Iscariot; |
| 63 | With head inside, he plies his legs without. |
| 64 | Of the two others, who head downward are, |
| 65 | The one who hangs from the black jowl is Brutus; |
| 66 | See how he writhes himself, and speaks no word. |
| 67 | And the other, who so stalwart seems, is Cassius. |
| 68 | But night is reascending, and 'tis time |
| 69 | That we depart, for we have seen the whole. |
| 70 | As seemed him good, I clasped him round the neck, |
| 71 | And he the vantage seized of time and place, |
| 72 | And when the wings were opened wide apart, |
| 73 | He laid fast hold upon the shaggy sides; |
| 74 | From fell to fell descended downward then |
| 75 | Between the thick hair and the frozen crust. |
| 76 | When we were come to where the thigh revolves |
| 77 | Exactly on the thickness of the haunch, |
| 78 | The Guide. with labour and with hard-drawn breath. |
| 79 | Turned round his head where he had had his legs, |
| 80 | And grappled to the hair, as one who mounts, |
| 81 | So that to Hell I thought we were returning. |
| 82 | Keep fast thy hold, for by such stairs as these, |
| 83 | The Master said, panting as one fatigued, |
| 84 | Must we perforce depart from so much evil. |
| 85 | Then through the opening of a rock he issued, |
| 86 | And down upon the margin seated me; |
| 87 | Then tow'rds me he outstretched his wary step. |
| 88 | I lifted up mine eyes and thought to see |
| 89 | Lucifer in the same way I had left him; |
| 90 | And I beheld him upward hold his legs. |
| 91 | And if I then became disquieted, |
| 92 | Let stolid people think who do not see |
| 93 | What the point is beyond which I had passed. |
| 94 | Rise up,the Master said,upon thy feet; |
| 95 | The way is long, and difficult the road, |
| 96 | And now the sun to middle-tierce returns. |
| 97 | It was not any palace corridor |
| 98 | l here where we were, but dungeon natural, |
| 99 | With floor uneven and unease of light. |
| 100 | Ere from the abyss I tear myself away, |
| 101 | My Master, said I when I had arisen? |
| 102 | To draw me from an error speak a little; |
| 103 | Where is the ice ?and how is this one fixed |
| 104 | Thus upside down? and how in such short time |
| 105 | From eve to morn has the sun made his transit? |
| 106 | And he to me: Thou still imaginest |
| 107 | Thou art beyond the centre, where I grasped |
| 108 | The hair of the fell worm, who mines the world. |
| 109 | That side thou wast, so long as I descended; |
| 110 | When round I turned me, thou didst pass the point |
| 111 | To which things heavy draw from every side, |
| 112 | And now beneath the hemisphere art come |
| 113 | Opposite that which overhangs the vast |
| 114 | Dry-land, and 'neath whose cope was put to death |
| 115 | The Man who without sin was born and lived. |
| 116 | Thou hast thy feet upon the little sphere |
| 117 | Which makes the other face of the Judecca |
| 118 | Here it is morn when it is evening there; |
| 119 | And he who with his hair a stairway made us |
| 120 | Still fixed remaineth as he was before. |
| 121 | Upon this side he fell down out of heaven; |
| 122 | And all the land, that whilom here emerged, |
| 123 | For fear of him made of the sea a veil, |
| 124 | And came to our hemisphere; and peradventure |
| 125 | To flee from him, what on this side appears |
| 126 | Left the place vacant here, and back recoiled |
| 127 | A place there is below, from Beelzebub |
| 128 | As far receding as the tomb extends, |
| 129 | Which not by sight is known, but by the sound |
| 130 | Of a small rivulet, that there descendeth |
| 131 | Through chasm within the stone, which it has gnawed |
| 132 | With course that winds about and slightly falls. |
| 133 | The Guide and I into that hidden road |
| 134 | Now entered, to return to the bright world; |
| 135 | And without care of having any rest |
| 136 | We mounted up, the first and I the second, |
| 137 | Till I beheld through a round aperture |
| 138 | Some of the beauteous things that Heaven doth bear; |
| 139 | Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars. |