Inferno: Canto XXVI
Rejoice, O
Florence, since thou art so great,
That
over sea and land thou beatest thy wings,
And throughout Hell thy name is spread abroad!
Among the thieves
five citizens of thine
Like
these I found, whence shame comes unto me,
And thou thereby to no great honour risest.
But if when morn is
near our dreams are true,
Feel
shalt thou in a little time from now
What Prato, if none other, craves for thee.
And if it now were,
it were not too soon;
Would
that it were, seeing it needs must be,
For 'twill aggrieve me more the more I age.
We went our way,
and up along the stairs
The
bourns had made us to descend before,
Remounted my Conductor and drew me.
And following the
solitary path
Among
the rocks and ridges of the crag,
The foot without the hand sped not at all.
Then sorrowed I,
and sorrow now again,
When
I direct my mind to what I saw,
And more my genius curb than I am wont,
That it may run not
unless virtue guide it;
So
that if some good star, or better thing,
Have given me good, I may myself not grudge it.
As many as the hind
(who on the hill
Rests
at the time when he who lights the world
His countenance keeps least concealed from us,
While as the fly
gives place unto the gnat)
Seeth
the glow-worms down along the valley,
Perchance there where he ploughs and makes his vintage;
With flames as
manifold resplendent all
Was
the eighth Bolgia, as I grew aware
As soon as I was where the depth appeared.
And such as he who
with the bears avenged him
Beheld
Elijah's chariot at departing,
What time the steeds to heaven erect uprose,
For with his eye he
could not follow it
So
as to see aught else than flame alone,
Even as a little cloud ascending upward,
Thus each along the
gorge of the intrenchment
Was
moving; for not one reveals the theft,
And every flame a sinner steals away.
I stood upon the
bridge uprisen to see,
So
that, if I had seized not on a rock,
Down had I fallen without being pushed.
And the Leader, who
beheld me so attent,
Exclaimed:
"Within the fires the spirits are;
Each swathes himself with that wherewith he burns."
"My Master," I
replied, "by hearing thee
I
am more sure; but I surmised already
It might be so, and already wished to ask thee
Who is within that
fire, which comes so cleft
At
top, it seems uprising from the pyre
Where was Eteocles with his brother placed."
He answered me:
"Within there are tormented
Ulysses
and Diomed, and thus together
They unto vengeance run as unto wrath.
And there within
their flame do they lament
The
ambush of the horse, which made the door
Whence issued forth the Romans' gentle seed;
Therein is wept the
craft, for which being dead
Deidamia
still deplores Achilles,
And pain for the Palladium there is borne."
"If they within
those sparks possess the power
To
speak," I said, "thee, Master, much I pray,
And re-pray, that the prayer be worth a thousand,
That thou make no
denial of awaiting
Until
the horned flame shall hither come;
Thou seest that with desire I lean towards it."
And he to me:
"Worthy is thy entreaty
Of
much applause, and therefore I accept it;
But take heed that thy tongue restrain itself.
Leave me to speak,
because I have conceived
That
which thou wishest; for they might disdain
Perchance, since they were Greeks, discourse of thine."
When now the flame
had come unto that point,
Where
to my Leader it seemed time and place,
After this fashion did I hear him speak:
"O ye, who are
twofold within one fire,
If
I deserved of you, while I was living,
If I deserved of you or much or little
When in the world I
wrote the lofty verses,
Do
not move on, but one of you declare
Whither, being lost, he went away to die."
Then of the antique
flame the greater horn,
Murmuring,
began to wave itself about
Even as a flame doth which the wind fatigues.
Thereafterward, the
summit to and fro
Moving
as if it were the tongue that spake,
It uttered forth a voice, and said: "When I
From Circe had
departed, who concealed me
More
than a year there near unto Gaeta,
Or ever yet Aeneas named it so,
Nor fondness for my
son, nor reverence
For
my old father, nor the due affection
Which joyous should have made Penelope,
Could overcome
within me the desire
I
had to be experienced of the world,
And of the vice and virtue of mankind;
But I put forth on
the high open sea
With
one sole ship, and that small company
By which I never had deserted been.
Both of the shores
I saw as far as Spain,
Far
as Morocco, and the isle of Sardes,
And the others which that sea bathes round about.
I and my company
were old and slow
When
at that narrow passage we arrived
Where Hercules his landmarks set as signals,
That man no farther
onward should adventure.
On
the right hand behind me left I Seville,
And on the other already had left Ceuta.
'O brothers, who
amid a hundred thousand
Perils,'
I said, 'have come unto the West,
To this so inconsiderable vigil
Which is remaining
of your senses still
Be
ye unwilling to deny the knowledge,
Following the sun, of the unpeopled world.
Consider ye the
seed from which ye sprang;
Ye
were not made to live like unto brutes,
But for pursuit of virtue and of knowledge.'
So eager did I
render my companions,
With
this brief exhortation, for the voyage,
That then I hardly could have held them back.
And having turned
our stern unto the morning,
We
of the oars made wings for our mad flight,
Evermore gaining on the larboard side.
Already all the
stars of the other pole
The
night beheld, and ours so very low
It did not rise above the ocean floor.
Five times
rekindled and as many quenched
Had
been the splendour underneath the moon,
Since we had entered into the deep pass,
When there appeared
to us a mountain, dim
From
distance, and it seemed to me so high
As I had never any one beheld.
Joyful were we, and
soon it turned to weeping;
For
out of the new land a whirlwind rose,
And smote upon the fore part of the ship.
Three times it made
her whirl with all the waters,
At
the fourth time it made the stern uplift,
And the prow downward go, as pleased Another,
Until the sea above
us closed again."
This document (last modifiedJanuary 08, 1998) from Believerscafe.com
Home | Bible versions | Bible Dictionary | Christian Classics | Christian Articles | Daily Devotions
Sister Projects: Wikichristian | WikiMD
BelieversCafe is a large collection of christian articles with over 40,000 pages
Our sponsors: 
