We crossed the circle to the other bank, Near to a fount that boils, and pours itself Along a gully that runs out of it.
The water was more sombre far than perse; And we, in company with the dusky waves, Made entrance downward by a path uncouth.
A marsh it makes, which has the name of Styx, This tristful brooklet, when it has descended Down to the foot of the malign gray shores.
And I, who stood intent upon beholding, Saw people mud-besprent in that lagoon, All of them naked and with angry look.
They smote each other not alone with hands, But with the head and with the breast and feet, Tearing each other piecemeal with their teeth.
Said the good Master: “Son, thou now beholdest The souls of those whom anger overcame; And likewise I would have thee know for certain
Beneath the water people are who sigh And make this water bubble at the surface, As the eye tells thee wheresoe’er it turns.
Fixed in the mire they say, ‘We sullen were In the sweet air, which by the sun is gladdened, Bearing within ourselves the sluggish reek;
Now we are sullen in this sable mire.’ This hymn do they keep gurgling in their throats, For with unbroken words they cannot say it.”
Thus we went circling round the filthy fen A great arc ’twixt the dry bank and the swamp, With eyes turned unto those who gorge the mire;
Unto the foot of a tower we came at last.
Inferno: Canto VIII
I say, continuing, that long before We to the foot of that high tower had come, Our eyes went upward to the summit of it,
By reason of two flamelets we saw placed there, And from afar another answer them, So far, that hardly could the eye attain it.
And, to the sea of all discernment turned, I said: “What sayeth this, and what respondeth That other fire? and who are they that made it?”
And he to me: “Across the turbid waves What is expected thou canst now discern, If reek of the morass conceal it not.”
Cord never shot an arrow from itself That sped away athwart the air so swift, As I beheld a very little boat
Come o’er the water tow’rds us at that moment, Under the guidance of a single pilot, Who shouted, “Now art thou arrived, fell soul?”
“Phlegyas, Phlegyas, thou criest out in vain For this once,” said my Lord; “thou shalt not have us Longer than in the passing of the slough.”
As he who listens to some great deceit That has been done to him, and then resents it, Such became Phlegyas, in his gathered wrath.
My Guide descended down into the boat, And then he made me enter after him, And only when I entered seemed it laden.
Soon as the Guide and I were in the boat, The antique prow goes on its way, dividing More of the water than ’tis wont with others.
While we were running through the dead canal, Uprose in front of me one full of mire, And said, “Who ’rt thou that comest ere the hour?”
And I to him: “Although I come, I stay not; But who art thou that hast become so squalid?” “Thou seest that I am one who weeps,” he answered.
And I to him: “With weeping and with wailing, Thou spirit maledict, do thou remain; For thee I know, though thou art all defiled.”
Then stretched he both his hands unto the boat; Whereat my wary Master thrust him back, Saying, “Away there with the other dogs!”
Thereafter with his arms he clasped my neck; He kissed my face, and said: “Disdainful soul, Blessed be she who bore thee in her bosom.
That was an arrogant person in the world; Goodness is none, that decks his memory; So likewise here his shade is furious.
How many are esteemed great kings up there, Who here shall be like unto swine in mire, Leaving behind them horrible dispraises!”
And I: “My Master, much should I be pleased, If I could see him soused into this broth, Before we issue forth out of the lake.”
And he to me: “Ere unto thee the shore Reveal itself, thou shalt be satisfied; Such a desire ’tis meet thou shouldst enjoy.”
A little after that, I saw such havoc Made of him by the people of the mire, That still I praise and thank my God for it.
They all were shouting, “At Philippo Argenti!” And that exasperate spirit Florentine Turned round upon himself with his own teeth.
We left him there, and more of him I tell not; But on mine ears there smote a lamentation, Whence forward I intent unbar mine eyes.
And the good Master said: “Even now, my Son, The city draweth near whose name is Dis, With the grave citizens, with the great throng.”
And I: “Its mosques already, Master, clearly Within there in the valley I discern Vermilion, as if issuing from the fire
They were.” And he to me: “The fire eternal That kindles them within makes them look red, As thou beholdest in this nether Hell.”
Then we arrived within the moats profound, That circumvallate that disconsolate city; The walls appeared to me to be of iron.
Not without making first a circuit wide, We came unto a place where loud the pilot Cried out to us, “Debark, here is the entrance.”
More than a thousand at the gates I saw Out of the Heavens rained down, who angrily Were saying, “Who is this that without death
Goes through the kingdom of the people dead?” And my sagacious Master made a sign Of wishing secretly to speak with them.
A little then they quelled their great disdain, And said: “Come thou alone, and he begone Who has so boldly entered these dominions.
Let him return alone by his mad road; Try, if he can; for thou shalt here remain, Who hast escorted him through such dark regions.”
Think, Reader, if I was discomforted At utterance of the accursed words; For never to return here I believed.
“O my dear Guide, who more than seven times Hast rendered me security, and drawn me From imminent peril that before me stood,
Do not desert me,” said I, “thus undone; And if the going farther be denied us, Let us retrace our steps together swiftly.”
And that Lord, who had led me thitherward, Said unto me: “Fear not; because our passage None can take from us, it by Such is given.
But here await me, and thy weary spirit Comfort and nourish with a better hope; For in this nether world I will not leave thee.”
So onward goes and there abandons me My Father sweet, and I remain in doubt, For No and Yes within my head contend.
I could not hear what he proposed to them; But with them there he did not linger long, Ere each within in rivalry ran back.
They closed the portals, those our adversaries, On my Lord’s breast, who had remained without And turned to me with footsteps far between.
His eyes cast down, his forehead shorn had he Of all its boldness, and he said, with sighs, “Who has denied to me the dolesome houses?”
And unto me: “Thou, because I am angry, Fear not, for I will conquer in the trial, Whatever for defence within be planned.
This arrogance of theirs is nothing new; For once they used it at less secret gate, Which finds itself without a fastening still.
O’er it didst thou behold the dead inscription; And now this side of it descends the steep, Passing across the circles without escort,
One by whose means the city shall be opened.”
Inferno: Canto IX
That hue which cowardice brought out on me, Beholding my Conductor backward turn, Sooner repressed within him his new colour.
He stopped attentive, like a man who listens, Because the eye could not conduct him far Through the black air, and through the heavy fog.
“Still it behoveth us to win the fight,” Began he; “Else. . .Such offered us herself. . . O how I long that some one here arrive!”
Well I perceived, as soon as the beginning He covered up with what came afterward, That they were words quite different from the first;
But none the less his saying gave me fear, Because I carried out the broken phrase, Perhaps to a worse meaning than he had.
“Into this bottom of the doleful conch Doth any e’er descend from the first grade, Which for its pain has only hope cut off?”
This question put I; and he answered me: “Seldom it comes to pass that one of us Maketh the journey upon which I go.
True is it, once before I here below Was conjured by that pitiless Erictho, Who summoned back the shades unto their bodies.
Naked of me short while the flesh had been, Before within that wall she made me enter, To bring a spirit from the circle of Judas;
That is the lowest region and the darkest, And farthest from the heaven which circles all. Well know I the way; therefore be reassured.
This fen, which a prodigious stench exhales, Encompasses about the city dolent, Where now we cannot enter without anger.”
And more he said, but not in mind I have it; Because mine eye had altogether drawn me Tow’rds the high tower with the red-flaming summit,
Where in a moment saw I swift uprisen The three infernal Furies stained with blood, Who had the limbs of women and their mien,