Inferno: Canto XXXI
One and the selfsame tongue first wounded me, So that it tinged the one cheek and the other, And then held out to me the medicine;
Thus do I hear that once Achilles’ spear, His and his father’s, used to be the cause First of a sad and then a gracious boon.
We turned our backs upon the wretched valley, Upon the bank that girds it round about, Going across it without any speech.
There it was less than night, and less than day, So that my sight went little in advance; But I could hear the blare of a loud horn,
So loud it would have made each thunder faint, Which, counter to it following its way, Mine eyes directed wholly to one place.
After the dolorous discomfiture When Charlemagne the holy emprise lost, So terribly Orlando sounded not.
Short while my head turned thitherward I held When many lofty towers I seemed to see, Whereat I: “Master, say, what town is this?”
And he to me: “Because thou peerest forth Athwart the darkness at too great a distance, It happens that thou errest in thy fancy.
Well shalt thou see, if thou arrivest there, How much the sense deceives itself by distance; Therefore a little faster spur thee on.”
Then tenderly he took me by the hand, And said: “Before we farther have advanced, That the reality may seem to thee
Less strange, know that these are not towers, but giants, And they are in the well, around the bank, From navel downward, one and all of them.”
As, when the fog is vanishing away, Little by little doth the sight refigure Whate’er the mist that crowds the air conceals,
So, piercing through the dense and darksome air, More and more near approaching tow’rd the verge, My error fled, and fear came over me;
Because as on its circular parapets Montereggione crowns itself with towers, E’en thus the margin which surrounds the well
With one half of their bodies turreted The horrible giants, whom Jove menaces E’en now from out the heavens when he thunders.
And I of one already saw the face, Shoulders, and breast, and great part of the belly, And down along his sides both of the arms.
Certainly Nature, when she left the making Of animals like these, did well indeed, By taking such executors from Mars;
And if of elephants and whales she doth not Repent her, whosoever looketh subtly More just and more discreet will hold her for it;
For where the argument of intellect Is added unto evil will and power, No rampart can the people make against it.
His face appeared to me as long and large As is at Rome the pine-cone of Saint Peter’s, And in proportion were the other bones;
So that the margin, which an apron was Down from the middle, showed so much of him Above it, that to reach up to his hair
Three Frieslanders in vain had vaunted them; For I beheld thirty great palms of him Down from the place where man his mantle buckles.
“Raphael mai amech izabi almi,” Began to clamour the ferocious mouth, To which were not befitting sweeter psalms.
And unto him my Guide: “Soul idiotic, Keep to thy horn, and vent thyself with that, When wrath or other passion touches thee.
Search round thy neck, and thou wilt find the belt Which keeps it fastened, O bewildered soul, And see it, where it bars thy mighty breast.”
Then said to me: “He doth himself accuse; This one is Nimrod, by whose evil thought One language in the world is not still used.
Here let us leave him and not speak in vain; For even such to him is every language As his to others, which to none is known.”
Therefore a longer journey did we make, Turned to the left, and a crossbow-shot oft We found another far more fierce and large.
In binding him, who might the master be I cannot say; but he had pinioned close Behind the right arm, and in front the other,
With chains, that held him so begirt about From the neck down, that on the part uncovered It wound itself as far as the fifth gyre.
“This proud one wished to make experiment Of his own power against the Supreme Jove,” My Leader said, “whence he has such a guerdon.
Ephialtes is his name; he showed great prowess. What time the giants terrified the gods; The arms he wielded never more he moves.”
And I to him: “If possible, I should wish That of the measureless Briareus These eyes of mine might have experience.”
Whence he replied: “Thou shalt behold Antaeus Close by here, who can speak and is unbound, Who at the bottom of all crime shall place us.
Much farther yon is he whom thou wouldst see, And he is bound, and fashioned like to this one, Save that he seems in aspect more ferocious.”
There never was an earthquake of such might That it could shake a tower so violently, As Ephialtes suddenly shook himself.
Then was I more afraid of death than ever, For nothing more was needful than the fear, If I had not beheld the manacles.
Then we proceeded farther in advance, And to Antaeus came, who, full five ells Without the head, forth issued from the cavern.
“O thou, who in the valley fortunate, Which Scipio the heir of glory made, When Hannibal turned back with all his hosts,
Once brought’st a thousand lions for thy prey, And who, hadst thou been at the mighty war Among thy brothers, some it seems still think
The sons of Earth the victory would have gained: Place us below, nor be disdainful of it, There where the cold doth lock Cocytus up.
Make us not go to Tityus nor Typhoeus; This one can give of that which here is longed for; Therefore stoop down, and do not curl thy lip.
Still in the world can he restore thy fame; Because he lives, and still expects long life, If to itself Grace call him not untimely.”
So said the Master; and in haste the other His hands extended and took up my Guide,— Hands whose great pressure Hercules once felt.
Virgilius, when he felt himself embraced, Said unto me: “Draw nigh, that I may take thee;” Then of himself and me one bundle made.
As seems the Carisenda, to behold Beneath the leaning side, when goes a cloud Above it so that opposite it hangs;
Such did Antaeus seem to me, who stood Watching to see him stoop, and then it was I could have wished to go some other way.
But lightly in the abyss, which swallows up Judas with Lucifer, he put us down; Nor thus bowed downward made he there delay,
But, as a mast does in a ship, uprose.
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?