by Dante
For here the graves were strewn with flames
that made them glow with heat
120
hotter than iron is before it’s worked.
All their covers were propped open and from them
issued such dire lamentation it was clear
123
it came from wretches in despair and pain.
And I: ‘Master, who are these souls
entombed within these chests and who make known
126
their plight with sighs of sorrow?’
And he: ‘Here, with all their followers, →
are the arch-heretics of every sect.
129
The tombs are far more laden than you think.
‘Like is buried here with like,
though their graves burn with unlike heat.’
Then, once he had turned to his right, →
133
we passed between the torments and the lofty ramparts.
OUTLINE: INFERNO X
1–3
Dante & Virgil among the sepulchres
4–9
Dante curious about their uncovered inhabitants
10–12
Virgil: the tombs will be closed after Judgment Day
13–18
Virgil: here you will see the Epicureans, and Farinata
19–21
Dante was silent about this wish only to please Virgil
22–51
Dante’s first exchange with Farinata:
22–27
Farinata’s recognition of a fellow Tuscan
28–33
Dante’s fear and Virgil’s rebuke
34–39
Farinata’s scornful air and Virgil’s encouragement
40–42
Farinata: from whom are you descended?
43–48
Dante’s answer and Farinata’s rejoinder
49–51
Dante’s similar thrust
52–72
interruption: Dante’s exchange with Cavalcante:
52–60
Cavalcante’s abject appearance: where is his son?
61–63
Dante comes not by his own powers; he is led
64–66
he knows Cavalcante from his words and situation
67–72
the father assumes his son is dead and falls back
73–93
Dante’s second exchange with Farinata:
73–81
Farinata now turns Dante’s thrust back on him
82–84
why are the Florentines merciless to his family?
85–87
Dante: they do not forget the battle of Montaperti
88–93
Farinata’s plea: it was he who preserved the city
94–99
Dante: what do the damned know of future and present?
100–108
Farinata explains their condition in these respects
109–114
Dante’s apology to Cavalcante addressed to Farinata
115–120
Frederick II and Ottaviano degli Ubaldini punished here
121–132
Virgil reassures Dante about his future
133–136
coda: resumption of leftward direction in descent
INFERNO X
Now my master takes a hidden path →
between the city’s ramparts and the torments,
3
and I come close behind him.
‘O lofty virtue,’ I began, ‘who lead me
as you will around these impious circles, →
6
speak to me and satisfy my wishes.
‘The souls that lie within the sepulchres,
may they be seen? For all the lids are raised →
9
and there is no one standing guard.’
And he to me: ‘All will be shut and sealed
when the souls return from Jehosaphat →
12
with the bodies they have left above.
‘Here Epicurus and all his followers,
who hold the soul dies with the body, →
15
have their burial place.
‘But soon your need to have an answer
will be satisfied right here,
18
as will the wish you hide from me.’ →
And I: ‘Good leader, from you I do not keep
my heart concealed except to speak few words—
21
as you’ve from time to time advised.’
‘O Tuscan, passing through the city of fire, →
alive, and with such courtesy of speech,
24
if it would please you, stay your steps awhile.
‘Your way of speaking makes it clear →
that you are native to that noble city
27
to which I was perhaps too cruel.’ →
This voice came suddenly
from one sarcophagus, so that, startled,
30
I drew closer to my leader.
And he to me: ‘Turn back! What are you doing?
Look, there Farinata stands erect— →
33
you can see all of him from the waist up.’ →
Already I had fixed my gaze on his.
And he was rising, lifting chest and brow →
36
as though he held all Hell in utter scorn.
At which my leader: ‘Choose your words with care,’
and his hands, ready, encouraging,
39
thrust me toward him among the tombs.
When I stood at the foot of his tomb
he looked at me a moment. Then he asked,
42
almost in disdain: ‘Who were your ancestors?’ →
And I, eager, held nothing back,
but told him who they were,
45
at which he barely raised his eyebrows →
and said: ‘They were most bitter enemies →
to me, my forebears, and my party—
48
not once, but twice, I had to drive them out.’
‘If they were banished,’ I responded, ‘they returned →
from every quarter both the first time and the second,
51
a skill that Yours have failed to learn as well.’
Then, beside him, in the open tomb, up came →
a shade, visible to the chin: I think
54
he had raised himself upon his knees.
He looked around me as though he wished to see
if someone else were with me,
57
and when his hesitant hopes were crushed,
weeping, he said: ‘If you pass through this dark →
prison by virtue of your lofty genius, →
60
where is my son and why is he not with you?’ →
And I to him: ‘I come not on my own: →
he who stands there waiting leads me through, →
63
perhaps to one Your Guido held in scorn.’
His words and the manner of his punishment
already had revealed his name to me,
66
and thus was my reply so to the point.
Suddenly erect, he cried: ‘What? →
Did you say “he held”? Lives he not still?
69
Does not the sweet light fall upon his eyes?’
When he perceived that I made some delay →
before I answered, he fell backward
72
and showed himself no more.
But the other, that great soul at whose wish →
I had stopped, did not change countenance,
75
nor bend his neck, nor move his chest.
And he, continuing from where he’d paused: →
‘That the
y have badly learned this skill
78
torments me more than does this bed.
‘But the face of the lady reigning here →
will be rekindled not fifty times before you too
81
shall know how difficult a skill that is to learn.
‘And, so may you return to the sweet world, →
tell me, why are your people,
84
in every edict, so pitiless against my kin?’
Then I to him: ‘The havoc and great slaughter →
that dyed the Arbia red caused them to raise
87
such prayers in our temple.’
He sighed and shook his head, then spoke:
‘I was not alone, nor surely without cause →
90
would I have acted with the rest.
‘But it was I alone, when all agreed
to make an end of Florence, I alone
93
who dared speak out in her defense.’
‘So may Your seed sometime find peace, →
pray untie for me this knot,’ I begged him,
96
‘which has entangled and confused my judgment.
‘From what I hear, it seems
you see beforehand that which time will bring,
99
but cannot know what happens in the present.’
‘We see, like those with faulty vision, →
things at a distance,’ he replied. ‘That much,
102
for us, the mighty Ruler’s light still shines.
‘When things draw near or happen now,
our minds are useless. Without the words of others
105
we can know nothing of your human state.
‘Thus it follows that all our knowledge
will perish at the very moment
108
the portals of the future close.’
Then, remorseful for my fault, I said: →
‘Will You tell him who fell back down
111
his son is still among the living?
‘And let him know, if I was slow to answer,
it was because I was preoccupied
114
with doubts You have resolved for me.’
And now my master summoned me,
so that I begged the spirit to reveal,
117
at once, who else was down there with him.
His answer was: ‘More than a thousand lie
here with me: both the second Frederick →
120
and the Cardinal. Of the rest I do not speak.’ →
With that he dropped from sight. I turned my steps
to the venerable poet, mulling
123
those words that seemed to augur ill. →
He started out, and then, as we were going,
asked: ‘Why are you so bewildered?’ →
126
And I answered fully what he asked.
‘Keep in mind what you have heard against you,
but also now give heed to this,’
129
the sage insisted—and he raised one finger.
‘When you shall stand before the radiance →
of her whose fair eyes see and understand,
132
from her you’ll learn the journey of your life.’
Then he turned his footsteps to the left. →
Leaving the wall, we headed toward the center
along a path that leads into a pit.
136
Its stench offended even at that height.
OUTLINE: INFERNO XI
1–9
a second group of heretics: Pope Anastasius
10–15
the stench of sin from lower hell
16–27
Virgil’s description of the sins of lower hell: malice resulting in use of violence or fraud
28–51
violence (Circle 7) vs. neighbor, self, or God
52–60
fraud (Circle 8) vs. others
61–66
treachery, a worse form of fraud (Circle 9)
67–75
Dante’s question: why are not the inhabitants of Circles 2–5 punished in Dis?
76–90
Virgil’s answer: incontinence less offensive to God than malice and mad brutishness
91–96
Dante still puzzled by Virgil’s words about usury
97–111
Virgil on the sin against art, “God’s grandchild”
112–115
coda: Virgil announces it is time to go (ca. 4 am)
INFERNO XI
At the brink of a high bank formed
by broken boulders in a circle
3
we stopped above a still more grievous throng. →
Here, the unbearable foul stench
belched from that bottomless abyss
6
made us draw back behind the slab →
of an imposing tomb, on which I saw inscribed
the words: ‘I hold Pope Anastasius: →
9
Photinus drew him from the right and proper path.’
‘We must delay descending so our sense, →
inured to that vile stench,
12
no longer heeds it.’
So spoke the master. I replied: ‘I know
you’ll find a useful way to pass this time.’
15
And he: ‘You’ll see that is my plan.’
‘My son,’ he then began, ‘beneath these rocks
there are three circles, smaller, one below the other,
18
but otherwise like those you leave behind.
‘All these are filled with souls condemned.
So that the sight alone may later be enough,
21
know how and why they are confined this way.
‘Every evil deed despised in Heaven →
has as its end injustice. Each such end
24
harms someone else through either force or fraud.
‘But since the vice of fraud is man’s alone,
it more displeases God, and thus the fraudulent
27
are lower down, assailed by greater pain.
‘The first circle holds the violent →
but is divided and constructed in three rings,
30
since violence takes three different forms.
‘Violence may be aimed at God, oneself,
or at one’s neighbor—thus against all three
33
or their possessions—as I shall now explain.
‘Violent death and grievous wounds may be inflicted →
upon a neighbor or, upon his goods,
36
pillage, arson, and violent theft.
‘And so murderers and everyone who wounds
unjustly, spoilers and plunderers—the first ring
39
punishes all these in separate groups.
‘A man may lay injurious hands upon himself →
or on his goods, and for that reason
42
in the second ring must he repent in vain
‘who robs himself of the world above
or gambles away and wastes his substance,
45
lamenting when he should rejoice.
‘Violence may be committed against God →
when we deny and curse Him in our hearts,
48
or when we scorn nature and her bounty.
‘And so the smallest ring stamps with its seal
both Sodom and Cahors and those
51
who scorn Him with their hearts and tongues.
‘Fraud gnaws at every conscience, →
whether used on him who trusted
54
or on one who
lacked such faith.
‘Fraud against the latter only severs
the bond of love that nature makes.
57
Thus in the second circle nest
‘hypocrisy, flatteries, and sorcerers;
lies, theft, and simony;
60
panders, barrators, and all such filth.
‘Fraud against the trusting fails to heed →
not only natural love but the added bond
63
of faith, which forms a special kind of trust.
‘Therefore, in the tightest circle,
the center of the universe and seat of Dis,
66
all traitors are consumed eternally.’
And I: ‘Master, your account is clear →
and clearly designates the nature
69
of this abyss and its inhabitants.
‘But tell me, those spirits in the viscous marsh,
those the wind drives, those the rain beats down on,
72
those clashing with such bitter tongues,
‘why are they not punished inside the fiery city
if God’s anger is upon them?
75
And if not, why are they so afflicted?’
And he: ‘Not often do your wits stray →
far afield, as they do now—or is your mind
78
bent on pursuing other thoughts?
‘Do you not recall the words
your Ethics uses to expound
81
the three dispositions Heaven opposes,
‘incontinence, malice, and mad brutishness,
and how incontinence offends God less
84
and incurs a lesser blame?
‘If you consider well this judgment
and consider who they are
87
that suffer punishment above, outside the wall,