by Dante
63
this tongue of flame would cease to flicker.
‘But since, up from these depths, no one has yet
returned alive, if what I hear is true,
66
I answer without fear of being shamed.
‘A warrior was I, and then a corded friar, →
thinking, cinctured so, to make amends.
69
And surely would my hopes have come to pass
‘but for the Great Priest—the devil take him!— →
who drew me back to my old ways.
72
And I would like to tell you how and why.
‘While I still kept the form in flesh and bones
my mother gave me, my deeds were not
75
a lion’s but the actions of a fox. →
‘Cunning stratagems and covert schemes,
I knew them all, and was so skilled in them
78
my fame rang out to the far confines of the earth.
‘When I saw I had reached that stage of life →
when all men ought to think
81
of lowering sail and coiling up the ropes,
‘I grew displeased with what had pleased me once. →
Repentant and shriven, I became a friar.
84
And woe is me! it would have served.
‘But he, Prince of the latter-day Pharisees, →
engaged in battle near the Lateran
87
and not with either Saracen or Jew,
‘for all his enemies were Christian—
not one of them had gone to conquer Acre
90
or traffic in the Sultan’s lands—
‘paid no heed, for his part, to the highest office
or his holy orders, nor, for mine,
93
to the cord that used to keep its wearers lean.
‘As Constantine once had Sylvester summoned →
from Soracte to cure his leprous sores,
96
so this man called on me to be his doctor
‘and cure him of the fever of his pride.
He asked me for advice, but I kept silent
99
because his words were like a drunkard’s words.
‘And then he spoke again: “Let not your heart mistrust:
I absolve you here and now if you will teach me
102
how I can bring Praeneste to the ground. →
‘ “I have the power, as well you know, to lock →
and unlock Heaven, because the keys are two
105
for which the pope before me had no care.”
‘His threatening tactics brought me to the point →
at which the worse course seemed the one of silence.
108
And so I said: “Father, since you cleanse me
‘ “of the sin that I must even now commit:
Promising much with scant observance
111
will seal your triumph on the lofty throne.”
‘The moment I was dead, Francis came for me. →
But one of the dark Cherubim cried out:
114
“No, wrong me not by bearing that one off.
‘ “He must come down to serve among my minions
because he gave that fraudulent advice. →
117
From then till now I’ve dogged his footsteps.
‘ “One may not be absolved without repentance, →
nor repent and wish to sin concurrently—
120
a simple contradiction not allowed.”
‘Oh, wretch that I am, how I shuddered
when he seized me and said: “Perhaps
123
you didn’t reckon I’d be versed in logic.”
‘He carried me to Minos, who coiled his tail →
eight times around his scaly back
126
and, having gnawed it in his awful rage,
‘said: “Here comes a sinner for the thieving fire.”
And so, just as you see me, I am damned, →
129
cloaked as I am. And as I go, I grieve.’
Once he had brought his words to this conclusion,
the weeping flame departed,
132
twisting and tossing its pointed horn.
We continued on our way, my guide and I,
over the ridge and up the arch that spans
the ditch where those are paid their due
136
who, for disjoining, gather up their load.
OUTLINE: INFERNO XXVIII
1–6
a self-conscious (Virgilian) opening
7–21
simile: corpses on the fields of Puglia
22–24
simile: gaping cask and Mohammed
25–27
the physical appearance of Mohammed
28–33
Mohammed identifies himself and then Alì
34–36
the nature of their sin: schism
37–42
the nature of their punishment by a devil
43–45
Mohammed wants to know the reason Dante is damned
46–51
Virgil responds that he, dead, leads Dante, alive
52–54
wonderment of the other shades
55–60
Mohammed’s advice for Fra Dolcino
61–63
Mohammed’s foot had been suspended while he spoke
64–69
Pier da Medicina: his disfigurement
70–75
his salute of Dante and desire to be remembered
76–90
his warning to the “two best men of Fano”
91–93
Dante’s curiosity about another shade
94–102
Pier reveals Curio
103–111
Mosca reveals himself; Dante’s curses; his retreat
112–117
Dante’s good conscience in relating the incredible
118–126
the description of decapitated Bertran de Born
127–138
Bertran reveals himself as an instigator of discord
139–142
Bertran and the law of contrapasso
INFERNO XXVIII
Who, even in words not bound by meter, →
and having told the tale many times over,
3
could tell the blood and wounds that I saw now?
Surely every tongue would fail,
for neither thought nor speech
6
has the capacity to hold so much.
Could all the wounded troops again assemble: →
first from Apulia, land laid low by war,
9
who grieved for their lost blood →
shed by the Trojans, then all those
of the long war, whose corpses were despoiled
12
of piles of rings—as Livy writes, who does not err— →
together with the ones who felt the agony of blows →
fighting in the fields against Guiscard,
15
and those whose bones still lie in heaps →
at Ceperano, where each Apulian played it false,
and those near Tagliacozzo, →
18
where old Alardo conquered without force of arms:
and should one show his limb pierced through, →
another his, where it has been cut off,
21
it would be nothing to the ninth pit’s filth.
No cask ever gapes so wide for loss →
of mid- or side-stave as the soul I saw
24
cleft from the chin right down to where men fart.
Between the legs the entrails dangled. I saw
the innards and the loathsome sack
27
that turns what one has swallowed into shit.
While I was caught up in the sight of him,
he looked at me and, with his hands, ripped apart
30
his chest, saying: ‘See how I rend myself,
‘see how mangled is Mohammed!
Ahead of me proceeds Alì, in tears, →
33
his face split open from his chin to forelock.
‘And all the others whom you see
sowed scandal and schism while they lived, →
36
and that is why they here are hacked asunder.
‘A devil’s posted there behind us →
who dresses us so cruelly,
39
putting each of this crew again to the sword
‘as soon as we have done our doleful round.
For all our wounds have closed
42
when we appear again before him.
‘But who are you to linger on the ridge?— →
perhaps you put off going to the torment
45
pronounced on your own accusation.’
‘Death does not have him yet nor does his guilt
lead him to torment,’ replied my master,
48
‘but to give him greater knowledge
‘I, who am dead indeed, must shepherd him
from circle to circle, through this Hell down here.
51
And this is as true as that I speak to you.’
On hearing this, more than a hundred souls
halted in the ditch to stare at me
54
in wonder, each forgetful of his pain.
‘You, who perhaps will shortly see the sun, →
warn Fra Dolcino to provide himself—
57
unless he’d like to join me here quite soon—
‘with stocks of victuals, lest the siege of snow
hand the Novarese the victory
60
not otherwise so easy to attain.’
One foot raised, halted in mid-stride, →
Mohammed spoke these words,
63
then setting down that foot, went on his way.
Another, with his throat pierced through
and nose hacked off just where the brows begin, →
66
and only one ear left upon his head,
stopped with the rest of them to gape in wonder
and, before the others did, opened his windpipe, →
69
scarlet on the skin side as it was,
to say: ‘O you whom guilt does not condemn →
and whom I saw above in Italy,
72
if in your likeness I am not deceived,
‘should you ever see that gentle plain again
that slopes from Vercelli down to Marcabò,
75
for Pier da Medicina spare a thought.
‘And let the two chief men of Fano know, →
both messer Guido and Angiolello,
78
that, unless our foresight here is vain,
‘through a brutal tyrant’s treachery
near La Cattolica they shall be heaved
81
out of their ship with weights to hold them down.
‘Between the islands of Cyprus and Majorca →
Neptune never witnessed so terrible a crime,
84
whether one committed by pirates or by Greeks.
‘That traitor, who sees through one eye only →
and rules the city that another down here with me
87
would take delight in never having seen,
‘will have the men of Fano come to parley
and he will so deal with them that, to ply →
90
Focara’s wind, they’ll need no vows or prayers.’
And I: ‘Point out to me and make him known, →
if you would have me carry news of you above,
93
the one to whom that city’s sight was bitter.’
Then he laid his hand upon the jaw
of one of his companions, pried his lips apart,
96
and cried: ‘Here he is, but he won’t speak. →
‘Banished, he quenched the doubt in Caesar,
affirming that, to a man prepared,
99
delay was always harmful.’
Ah, how distressed he seemed to me,
with his tongue sliced off so deep in his throat,
102
Curio, who had been so bold in speech!
And then another whose hands had been chopped off, →
raising his stumps up in the murky air
105
so that the blood from them befouled his face,
cried out: ‘Surely you’ll remember Mosca also,
who said, alas: “A done deed finds its purpose.”
108
For Tuscany, that was an evil seed.’
‘And death to your own stock,’ I added then. →
At that, one sorrow piled upon another,
111
he made off, like a man berserk with grief.
But I stayed on to watch the troop
and saw a thing I would be loath
114
to mention without further proof,
were I not comforted by conscience, →
the bosom friend that fortifies a man
117
beneath the armor of an honest heart.
I truly saw, and seem to see it still,
a headless body make its way
120
like all the others in that dismal flock.
And by its hair he held his severed head
swinging in his hand as if it were a lantern.
123
The head stared at us and said: ‘Oh, woe!’
Of himself he made himself a lamp,
and they were two in one and one in two.
126
How this can be He knows who so ordains it.
When he was just at the foot of the bridge
he raised his arm high and, with it, that head,
129
so as to make his words sound more distinct:
‘You, who view the dead with breath yet in your body, →
look upon my grievous punishment.
132
Is any other terrible as this?
‘So you may carry back the news of me,
know I am Bertran de Born, the one
135
who urged the young king on with bad advice.
‘Father and son I set to enmity.
Ahithophel stirred no worse ill between
138
Absalom and David with his wicked goading.
‘Because I severed persons thus conjoined,
severed, alas, I carry my own brain
from its starting-point here in my body.
142
In me you may observe fit punishment.’ →
OUTLINE: INFERNO XXIX
1–3
Dante longs to remain in order to weep
4–7
Virgil’s rebuke: why do you wish to stay on here?
8–12
Virgil on the space and time left for the journey
13–21
Dante: had you understood my motive, you might have let me stay longer—I was looking for a relative
22–30
Virgil: I saw him there threatening you while you were occupied with Bertran de Born
31–36
Dante: what you say makes me pity him the more
37–39
first dim view of the bolgia
40–45
Dante covers his ears so as not to feel pity
46–51
similes: hospitals (both eye and nose)
52–57
a closer view reveals the falsifiers
58–72
simile: plague in Aegina
73–84
comparisons:
they sit leaning on one another like pans;
they scratch as stableboys curry horses;
their nails are like knives scaling fish
85–90
Virgil addresses a sinner: Are there Italians here?
91–93
Griffolino of Arezzo: We both are; who are you?
94–96
Virgil: I lead this living man through hell
97–108
they are thunderstruck at such a presence; Virgil’s advice to Dante; Dante’s promise of fame
109–120
Griffolino: I died at the hands of Albero of Siena, not for alchemy, but for failed magicianship
121–123
Dante: the French are not as vain as the Sienese
124–135
Capocchio (ironically): Sienese exceptions
136–139
Capocchio’s own sins in alchemy
INFERNO XXIX
The many people and their ghastly wounds →
did so intoxicate my eyes
3
that I was moved to linger there and weep.
But Virgil said: ‘What are you staring at? →
Why is your gaze so fixed upon the depths
6
that hold those mournful, mutilated shades?
‘You have not done so at the other pits.
In case you plan to count the sinners one by one, →
9
think: this hollow circles twenty-two miles round.
‘The moon already lies beneath our feet. →
The time we are allotted soon expires →
12
and there is more to see than you see here.’
‘Had you understood,’ I was quick to answer, →
‘the reason for my close inspection,