Inferno: Canto XXXII
If I had rhymes
both rough and stridulous,
As
were appropriate to the dismal hole
Down upon which thrust all the other rocks,
I would press out
the juice of my conception
More
fully; but because I have them not,
Not without fear I bring myself to speak;
For 'tis no
enterprise to take in jest,
To
sketch the bottom of all the universe,
Nor for a tongue that cries Mamma and Babbo.
But may those
Ladies help this verse of mine,
Who
helped Amphion in enclosing Thebes,
That from the fact the word be not diverse.
O rabble
ill-begotten above all,
Who're
in the place to speak of which is hard,
'Twere better ye had here been sheep or goats!
When we were down
within the darksome well,
Beneath
the giant's feet, but lower far,
And I was scanning still the lofty wall,
I heard it said to
me: "Look how thou steppest!
Take
heed thou do not trample with thy feet
The heads of the tired, miserable brothers!"
Whereat I turned me
round, and saw before me
And
underfoot a lake, that from the frost
The semblance had of glass, and not of water.
So thick a veil
ne'er made upon its current
In
winter-time Danube in Austria,
Nor there beneath the frigid sky the Don,
As there was here;
so that if Tambernich
Had
fallen upon it, or Pietrapana,
E'en at the edge 'twould not have given a creak.
And as to croak the
frog doth place himself
With
muzzle out of water,--when is dreaming
Of gleaning oftentimes the peasant-girl,--
Livid, as far down
as where shame appears,
Were
the disconsolate shades within the ice,
Setting their teeth unto the note of storks.
Each one his
countenance held downward bent;
From
mouth the cold, from eyes the doleful heart
Among them witness of itself procures.
When round about me
somewhat I had looked,
I
downward turned me, and saw two so close,
The hair upon their heads together mingled.
"Ye who so strain
your breasts together, tell me,"
I
said, "who are you;" and they bent their necks,
And when to me their faces they had lifted,
Their eyes, which
first were only moist within,
Gushed
o'er the eyelids, and the frost congealed
The tears between, and locked them up again.
Clamp never bound
together wood with wood
So
strongly; whereat they, like two he-goats,
Butted together, so much wrath o'ercame them.
And one, who had by
reason of the cold
Lost
both his ears, still with his visage downward,
Said: "Why dost thou so mirror thyself in us?
If thou desire to
know who these two are,
The
valley whence Bisenzio descends
Belonged to them and to their father Albert.
They from one body
came, and all Caina
Thou
shalt search through, and shalt not find a shade
More worthy to be fixed in gelatine;
Not he in whom were
broken breast and shadow
At
one and the same blow by Arthur's hand;
Focaccia not; not he who me encumbers
So with his head I
see no farther forward,
And
bore the name of Sassol Mascheroni;
Well knowest thou who he was, if thou art Tuscan.
And that thou put
me not to further speech,
Know
that I Camicion de' Pazzi was,
And wait Carlino to exonerate me."
Then I beheld a
thousand faces, made
Purple
with cold; whence o'er me comes a shudder,
And evermore will come, at frozen ponds.
And while we were
advancing tow'rds the middle,
Where
everything of weight unites together,
And I was shivering in the eternal shade,
Whether 'twere
will, or destiny, or chance,
I
know not; but in walking 'mong the heads
I struck my foot hard in the face of one.
Weeping he growled:
"Why dost thou trample me?
Unless
thou comest to increase the vengeance
of Montaperti, why dost thou molest me?"
And I: "My Master,
now wait here for me,
That
I through him may issue from a doubt;
Then thou mayst hurry me, as thou shalt wish."
The Leader stopped;
and to that one I said
Who
was blaspheming vehemently still:
"Who art thou, that thus reprehendest others?"
"Now who art thou,
that goest through Antenora
Smiting,"
replied he, "other people's cheeks,
So that, if thou wert living, 'twere too much?"
"Living I am, and
dear to thee it may be,"
Was
my response, "if thou demandest fame,
That 'mid the other notes thy name I place."
And he to me: "For
the reverse I long;
Take
thyself hence, and give me no more trouble;
For ill thou knowest to flatter in this hollow."
Then by the scalp
behind I seized upon him,
And
said: "It must needs be thou name thyself,
Or not a hair remain upon thee here."
Whence he to me:
"Though thou strip off my hair,
I
will not tell thee who I am, nor show thee,
If on my head a thousand times thou fall."
I had his hair in
hand already twisted,
And
more than one shock of it had pulled out,
He barking, with his eyes held firmly down,
When cried another:
"What doth ail thee, Bocca?
Is't
not enough to clatter with thy jaws,
But thou must bark? what devil touches thee?"
"Now," said I, "I
care not to have thee speak,
Accursed
traitor; for unto thy shame
I will report of thee veracious news."
"Begone," replied
he, "and tell what thou wilt,
But
be not silent, if thou issue hence,
Of him who had just now his tongue so prompt;
He weepeth here the
silver of the French;
'I
saw,' thus canst thou phrase it, 'him of Duera
There where the sinners stand out in the cold.'
If thou shouldst
questioned be who else was there,
Thou
hast beside thee him of Beccaria,
Of whom the gorget Florence slit asunder;
Gianni del
Soldanier, I think, may be
Yonder
with Ganellon, and Tebaldello
Who oped Faenza when the people slep."
Already we had gone
away from him,
When
I beheld two frozen in one hole,
So that one head a hood was to the other;
And even as bread
through hunger is devoured,
The
uppermost on the other set his teeth,
There where the brain is to the nape united.
Not in another
fashion Tydeus gnawed
The
temples of Menalippus in disdain,
Than that one did the skull and the other things.
"O thou, who
showest by such bestial sign
Thy
hatred against him whom thou art eating,
Tell me the wherefore," said I, "with this compact,
That if thou
rightfully of him complain,
In
knowing who ye are, and his transgression,
I in the world above repay thee for it,
If that wherewith I
speak be not dried up."
This document (last modifiedJanuary 08, 1998) from Believerscafe.com
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