tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40168980626373439072024-03-13T07:56:42.556-04:00Dante's Divine ComedyA translation in progressR. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.comBlogger37125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-30878562083652538982017-01-11T00:00:00.000-05:002017-01-11T07:26:19.102-05:00Purgatorio, Song II<i>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters the soul of Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After descending through the myriad levels of Hell, they climb up to the shores of Purgatory, on the other side of the center of the Earth. They meet the spirit of Cato the Younger, who oversees the landing. Cato orders Virgil to clean the residue of Hell's filth from Dante's face, and to gird him with a reed from the island's coast. </i> <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qloL9z_eqAI/WHWdIuQTofI/AAAAAAAAGMM/9VcVP2wXJ7kyJznQNUzSxCirYkGni_HsACLcB/s1600/051129c_003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qloL9z_eqAI/WHWdIuQTofI/AAAAAAAAGMM/9VcVP2wXJ7kyJznQNUzSxCirYkGni_HsACLcB/s400/051129c_003.jpg" width="317" height="400" /></a></div><div align="center"><i>The souls of the redeemable arrive on Purgatory's shores.</i></div><br />
<div align="center">The sun already rested at the horizon<br />
Whose meridian circle covers<br />
Jerusalem at its highest point.<br />
<br />
And the night, opposite to that circle,<br />
Emerged from the Ganges with Libra’s scales,<br />
Which fall from her hand as night overflows the day.<br />
<br />
The white and rosy cheeks<br />
Of the lovely Aurora, from where I stood, <br />
Were becoming orange as time passed.<br />
<br />
We were still walking along the seaside<br />
Like those considering their path,<br />
Going in heart but staying behind in body.<br />
<br />
And so, as with the approach of the morning,<br />
Mars glows red through the thick mists<br />
Low in the west above the ocean’s floor,<br />
<br />
So appeared to me--may I see it again!--<br />
A light coming so quickly across the sea<br />
That no flight could match its speed.<br />
<br />
I had for a moment looked<br />
Away to ask a question of my leader,<br />
When I saw it again, now larger and brighter.<br />
<br />
On each side of it, I saw<br />
A whiteness, and I did not know what it was. Below it,<br />
Another whiteness came forth, little by little. <br />
<br />
My master did not say a word<br />
Until it was clear that the first whiteness were wings.<br />
He then recognized the vessel’s pilot.<br />
<br />
“Kneel, kneel!” he cried out.<br />
“This is God’s angel! Clasp your hands!<br />
From now on, you will encounter ministers such as this.<br />
<br />
See his disdain for humanity’s tools.<br />
He needs no oar, nor any sail other<br />
Than his wings while traveling between such distant shores.<br />
<br />
See how they point towards Heaven,<br />
The immortal feathers that traverse the air.<br />
They do not age like mortal plumage.”<br />
<br />
Then, as he came closer and closer,<br />
The divine bird appeared even brighter.<br />
My eyes could not bear him so near.<br />
<br />
I lowered my head, and he came upon the shore<br />
With a ship whose lightness and speed<br />
Were such that it took in no water.<br />
<br />
The heavenly pilot stood upon the stern.<br />
Blessedness seemed inscribed upon him.<br />
More than a hundred spirits sat within.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20114">“In exitu Israel de Aegypto,”</a><br />
They sang in unison,<br />
Followed by the other verses in the psalm.<br />
<br />
The angel then made the sign of the cross,<br />
And they all cast themselves upon the beach.<br />
He then left as swiftly as he had come.<br />
<br />
To these that had been left, the place<br />
Seemed strange. They repeatedly looked around<br />
Like those trying to make sense of new things.<br />
<br />
On all sides of the day shot the arrows of<br />
The sun, and with its cutting shafts<br />
It chased Capricorn from the height of the sky.<br />
<br />
When the arrivals lifted their eyes<br />
To us, they said, “If you know,<br />
Show us the way by which to climb the mountain.”<br />
<br />
Virgil replied, “You all believe,<br />
Perhaps, that we are familiar with this place.<br />
But we, like you, are pilgrims.<br />
<br />
We came here a short while ago, just a little before you,<br />
By another road that was so hard and tiring<br />
That the climb now will seem like sport.”<br />
<br />
The souls, who realized<br />
From my breathing that I was still alive,<br />
Marveled at me and turned pale as death.<br />
<br />
It was as with a messenger who bears an olive branch,<br />
Around whom people crowd to hear the news,<br />
And none moves to avoid the crush.<br />
<br />
And so they stared at my face,<br />
All these fortunate souls,<br />
Almost as if they had forgotten the journey to achieve their grace.<br />
<br />
I saw one of them come forward<br />
To embrace me. There was such great affection<br />
That it moved me to do the same.<br />
<br />
O shades, ethereal despite appearances!<br />
Three times I clasped my hands behind him<br />
And as many times brought them through him back to my breast.<br />
<br />
I believe I looked astonished,<br />
For the shade smiled and drew away.<br />
I, following his lead, pressed forward.<br />
<br />
He gently told me to stay put.<br />
I then knew who he was, and implored him<br />
To speak to me and stay a while.<br />
<br />
He replied, “As I loved you<br />
In my mortal form, so do I, now liberated from that state, love you still.<br />
As such, I remain. But you, why do you go this way?”<br />
<br />
“My dear <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casella_(Divine_Comedy)">Casella</a>, it is so I may return another time<br />
To this place, that I take this journey,”<br />
I said. “But why has so much time been taken from you?”<br />
<br />
He said, “No wrong has been done to me<br />
If the one who lifts whom he pleases--and chooses when--<br />
Has many times denied me this passage.<br />
<br />
It is from a just will that his own derives.<br />
Indeed, for the last three months, he has taken <br />
All who have wished to embark, and with complete peace.<br />
<br />
As such, I, who had just turned to the shore<br />
Where the water of the Tiber becomes salt,<br />
Was gathered by him in good will.<br />
<br />
His wings now take him straight to that river’s mouth,<br />
For there are always those gathering<br />
Who are not falling to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acheron">Acheron</a>.”<br />
<br />
I said, “If no new law has taken from you <br />
The ability or memory of the love songs<br />
That used to quiet all my longings,<br />
<br />
May it please you to soothe my soul<br />
With them, since, in coming here<br />
With my body, I am so spent.”<br />
<br />
<a href="https://youtu.be/jtTFl9SnAsY">“Love, who reasons with my reason,”</a><br />
He began, and so sweetly<br />
That the sweetness still sounds within me.<br />
<br />
My Master and I and the people<br />
With the singer seemed so content,<br />
As if nothing else could concern us.<br />
<br />
We were all still and attentive<br />
To his notes, and then <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_the_Younger">the honest elder</a><br />
Cried out, “What is this, dawdling spirits?<br />
<br />
What neglect, what loitering is this?<br />
Correct yourself--to the mountain to divest yourself of the slough<br />
That does not allow God to show Himself to you!”<br />
<br />
Like when, gathering grain or weeds,<br />
Doves assemble at their fodder<br />
Quietly, and without showing their usual pride,<br />
<br />
Something appears that frightens them.<br />
They suddenly leave, their food left behind,<br />
Because they are overwhelmed with a greater care.<br />
<br />
It was like this that I saw this newly arrived group<br />
Leave the song and head towards the slope<br />
Like those who go without a doubt over where.<br />
<br />
Our departure was in no less haste.<br />
<br />
</div><br />
R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-34698172184716585142016-07-02T00:00:00.000-04:002017-01-11T07:30:03.282-05:00Purgatorio, Song I<i>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters the soul of Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After descending through the myriad levels of Hell, they come to the other side of the center of the Earth. From there, they make their way back to the world above.</i> <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FSeg8t_36dw/V3AalDnscCI/AAAAAAAAFiU/-MxxozJ8-CguIoH37CpcbgXU96DIvlx0wCLcB/s1600/051129c_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FSeg8t_36dw/V3AalDnscCI/AAAAAAAAFiU/-MxxozJ8-CguIoH37CpcbgXU96DIvlx0wCLcB/s400/051129c_001.jpg" width="328" /></a></div><div align="center"><i>Dante and Virgil look out upon the morning sky</i></div><br />
<div align="center">My sails lift to cross better waters<br />
Now. The skiff of my talent<br />
Leaves behind the sea so cruel.<br />
<br />
And I will sing of that second kingdom<br />
Where the human spirit is purged of sin<br />
And becomes worthy of ascent to Heaven.<br />
<br />
But let my poetry here rise again from the dead,<br />
O holy Muses, since I am yours.<br />
And here let <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calliope">Calliope</a> rise for a time,<br />
<br />
Accompanying my song with the melody<br />
That made the wretched <a href="http://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/trans/Metamorph5.htm#479128838">Pierides</a> feel<br />
Such guilt they despaired of forgiveness.<br />
<br />
The lovely color of the eastern sapphire,<br />
Gathering in the serene face of the sky<br />
From its unsullied heights to the horizon,<br />
<br />
Once again delighted my eyes<br />
As I exited from the dead air<br />
That had afflicted my eyes and breast.<br />
<br />
The beautiful planet who comforts with love<br />
Made all the eastern skies laugh.<br />
Pisces was veiled in her wake.<br />
<br />
I turned to my right, and set my attention<br />
On the other pole. I saw four stars<br />
Not seen by humanity since the earliest people.<br />
<br />
Heaven seemed to rejoice in their glow.<br />
O northern hemisphere, bereft<br />
Because you are denied that sight!<br />
<br />
After I shifted my gaze from them,<br />
I turned a little towards the other pole,<br />
Where the Big Dipper had already disappeared.<br />
<br />
Near me I saw an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_the_Younger">elderly man alone</a>,<br />
His bearing worthy of such reverence<br />
That more could not be owed to a father by a son.<br />
<br />
His beard was long, with white streaks.<br />
His hair was the same,<br />
And fell on his breast in two tresses.<br />
<br />
The rays of the four holy stars<br />
So brightened his face with light<br />
That I saw him as if he had been preceded by the sun.<br />
<br />
“Who are you that rising against the hidden river<br />
You have escaped the eternal prison?”<br />
He said, shaking those honorable braids.<br />
<br />
“Who led your way? Who was your light<br />
In escaping from the deepest night<br />
That keeps the valleys of Hell in constant dark?<br />
<br />
Are the laws of the abyss now broken?<br />
Or has a new decree in Heaven changed things<br />
So, being damned, you come to my rocky bluffs?”<br />
<br />
My master then took hold of me,<br />
And with words and hands and gestures<br />
Made me reverent in knees and brow.<br />
<br />
He then replied, “I do not come on my own behalf.<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrice_Portinari">A lady descended from Heaven</a>, and her prayers led to<br />
My guiding this man through my companionship.<br />
<br />
But since your wish is for a fuller account<br />
Of our condition and the truth of it,<br />
Mine cannot be refusing you.<br />
<br />
This man has yet to see his final evening,<br />
But through his folly he was so near<br />
That little time was left to turn things around.<br />
<br />
As I said, I was sent to him<br />
For his salvation, and there was no other way<br />
But this one I have set out on.<br />
<br />
I have shown him the people of sin.<br />
I now intend to show him those spirits<br />
Who purify themselves under your rule.<br />
<br />
How I have brought him along would take too long to tell.<br />
Virtue from on high has aided me<br />
In guiding him to this place to see and hear you.<br />
<br />
May it please you to welcome him now.<br />
He seeks deliverance, which is so dear,<br />
As he knows of the one through whom life was given for it.<br />
<br />
You know this, since bitterness did not attend<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_the_Younger#Death">Your death in Utica</a>, where you left<br />
The trappings that on the great day shall be so bright.<br />
<br />
The eternal edicts are not undone for us.<br />
This man is of the living, and I am not bound by Minos.<br />
But I am of the circle where resides the chaste eyes <br />
<br />
Of your <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcia_(wife_of_Cato_the_Younger)">Marcia</a>, who in her looks still prays for you,<br />
O holy breast, to hold her as your own.<br />
For her love, then, yield to us.<br />
<br />
Allow us to go through your seven kingdoms.<br />
I will report your kindness to her<br />
If you deign to be mentioned in the place below.”<br />
<br />
“Marcia so pleased my eyes<br />
While I was on the other side,” he then said,<br />
“That whatever kindness she wished of me, I did.<br />
<br />
Now that she dwells beyond the river of evil,<br />
She can no longer move me, by the law<br />
That was made when I crossed over.<br />
<br />
But if a lady from Heaven moves you, reigning<br />
As you say, then flattery is unnecessary.<br />
It is enough for you to ask me on her behalf.<br />
<br />
Go then. Gird him<br />
With a pure green reed, and wash his face<br />
So all filth is removed.<br />
<br />
It would not be appropriate for one’s eye to be dimmed<br />
By any fog when one goes before the first<br />
Custodian angel among those in Paradise.<br />
<br />
This small island, round about its base,<br />
Down where the waves break,<br />
Has reeds upon the soft mud.<br />
<br />
No other plant that makes leaves<br />
Or becomes wood can live there,<br />
Since they cannot withstand the buffeting of the water.<br />
<br />
Afterwards, do not make your return by this way.<br />
The sun, which is now rising, will show you where<br />
To climb the mountain more easily.”<br />
<br />
With that, he vanished. I rose<br />
Without speaking, and retraced my steps back<br />
To my leader, upon whom I then set my eyes.<br />
<br />
He began, “Follow my steps.<br />
Let us turn back. From this point there is a slope along<br />
The plain down to its lower end.”<br />
<br />
The dawn was overtaking the morning hour<br />
That fled before it, so that from far away<br />
I could recognize the trembling of the sea.<br />
<br />
We made our way across the lonely plain<br />
Like a man who turns back to a road he has lost,<br />
And, until he finds it, seems to be walking about in futility.<br />
<br />
When we reached the time when the dew<br />
Battles the sun, and the place where, being in the <br />
Shade, little evaporates,<br />
<br />
My Master gently spread out<br />
Both his hands upon the grass. <br />
Then I, knowing what he was up to,<br />
<br />
Presented my tear-stained cheeks to him.<br />
There he uncovered all <br />
The color that Hell and its residue had concealed. <br />
<br />
We then came to the desert shore<br />
That had never seen its waters navigated by<br />
A man whom afterwards had returned from whence he came.<br />
<br />
There my master girded me as the other had wanted.<br />
O what a marvel! After he had plucked<br />
The humble plant, another sprung up<br />
<br />
Immediately from where he had taken it.<br />
<br />
</div><i><a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2017/01/purgatorio-song-ii.html">Go to Song II</a></i><br />
R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-13535473332335793792016-06-01T00:00:00.000-04:002016-07-02T06:27:53.828-04:00Inferno, Song XXXIV<em>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After passing through the gates of Hell, they encounter the souls of the cowards who took no stand in conflicts between good and evil, and then proceed to Limbo, the realm of the noble or innocent souls who were not baptized or otherwise not believers in the Christian faith. Dante and Virgil then travel through the first circles of damnation and the city of Dis, which punish those who embrace earthly appetites and goods at God's expense. Upon leaving the city, Virgil explains the plan of Hell to Dante. The circles that follow hold, in descending order of heinousness, those who commit violence, fraud, and betrayal. In the circle of the Violent, they encounter murderers, merciless conquerors, suicides, and those who squandered or destroyed their belongings. From there, they walk alongside a desert where fire rains down. It is the prison for those who were violent against God and nature, including blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers. Dante and Virgil then descend to the circle of the fraudulent, where they encounter the panderers, seducers, flatterers, corrupt clergy, fortune-tellers, diviners, and grafters. The last are overseen by a gaggle of demons, from whom Dante and Virgil must escape. They then encounter the religious hypocrites and the thieves. Next are the false counselors, including Odysseus, who tells Virgil of his final voyage, and Guido da Montefeltro, who was damned by his sinister military advice to Pope Boniface VIII. Those who sowed division are next. After them are the falsifiers, whose numbers include the alchemists, impersonators, counterfeiters, and false witnesses. With the help of the giant Nimrod, who built the Tower of Babel, Virgil and Dante reach the lowest level of Hell. There they find, embedded in a frozen lake, those guilty of treachery. They stop at the sight of Count Ugolino of Donoratico gnawing on the head of the Archbishop Ruggiero. Ugolino relates the story of how he and his four sons were betrayed by Ruggiero. They were sealed in a tower and starved to death. Virgil and Dante proceed to Ptolomea, which holds the souls of those treacherous in the face of hospitality. There they discover Branca d'Oria, whose damned soul is captive in Hell although his body still lives on Earth.</em><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6CeNJT7XCpo/V08_McR8qjI/AAAAAAAAE_c/G7jZ-o59XBoT5DhB7myHlHEZM-TVZyMqwCLcB/s1600/DVinfernoLuciferKingOfHell_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="313" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6CeNJT7XCpo/V08_McR8qjI/AAAAAAAAE_c/G7jZ-o59XBoT5DhB7myHlHEZM-TVZyMqwCLcB/s400/DVinfernoLuciferKingOfHell_m.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p align="center">Satan</p><br />
<p align="center">“The banners of the King of Hell <br />
March towards us, so look ahead,”<br />
My Master said, “and see if you can make him out.”<br />
<br />
As when a thick fog develops,<br />
Or when night falls on our hemisphere, <br />
There in the distance appeared a mill turning the wind.<br />
<br />
I thought I saw a structure of that sort,<br />
Then, because of the wind, I drew behind<br />
My Master, as there was no other shelter.<br />
<br />
I was already--and with fear I set this down in verse--<br />
Down in the place where the shades were entirely encased in ice,<br />
Showing through like straws in glass.<br />
<br />
Some lay prostrate, and some stood erect.<br />
There were those on their head, and those on their feet.<br />
Another was bent face to feet like a bow.<br />
<br />
When we had gone far enough ahead<br />
That my Master thought it good to show me<br />
The creature that had once been so beautiful,<br />
<br />
He stopped walking in front of me, and made me stop as well.<br />
“This is Dis,” he said. “And here is the place<br />
Where you must arm yourself with fortitude.”<br />
<br />
The chill and faintness I then felt,<br />
Reader, do not ask. I do not write of it<br />
Because words will not suffice.<br />
<br />
I did not die, and I did not remain alive.<br />
Think for yourself now, if you have any wit,<br />
What I became, deprived of one and the other.<br />
<br />
The emperor of the kingdom of sorrow<br />
Jutted out from the ice at mid-breast,<br />
And I compare better to a giant<br />
<br />
Than giants would with his arms.<br />
Now envision the size the whole must be<br />
Relative to such comparisons.<br />
<br />
If he was once as beautiful as he is ugly now,<br />
And raised his head in defiance of his Creator,<br />
All sorrow may very well come from him.<br />
<br />
Oh, what an astonishing sight it seemed to me<br />
When I saw on his head three faces!<br />
The one in front—that was a vermilion red.<br />
<br />
The other two were joined to it<br />
Above the middle of each shoulder,<br />
And they were all joined at the crown.<br />
<br />
The coloring of the one on the right appeared between white and yellow.<br />
The one on the left had the look of those who<br />
Come from where the Nile descends.<br />
<br />
Under these emerged two great wings,<br />
Their size befitting such a bird;<br />
I never saw sails at sea like these.<br />
<br />
They did not have feathers. Rather, like a bat’s<br />
They were in their form. And he was beating them<br />
So that three winds came forth from him.<br />
<br />
They were what kept all of Cocytus frozen.<br />
He was weeping from each of his six eyes, and over his three chins<br />
Ran tears and bloody drool.<br />
<br />
With each mouth he shredded a sinner<br />
With his teeth the way a rake does with flax.<br />
And so the three were kept in agony.<br />
<br />
To the one in front the biting was nothing<br />
Compared to the clawing, for sometimes that one’s back<br />
Was left completely flayed of skin.<br />
<br />
“That soul up there who suffers the most,”<br />
My Master said, “is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judas_Iscariot">Judas Iscariot</a>,<br />
Who inside has his head and outside kicks his legs.<br />
<br />
Of the other two, who have their heads facing down,<br />
The one that hangs from the black mouth is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Junius_Brutus_the_Younger">Brutus</a>.<br />
See how he writhes, but makes not a word!<br />
<br />
The other is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_Cassius_Longinus">Cassius</a>, who looks so brawny.<br />
But night is again upon us, and it is now time<br />
For us to leave, for we have seen everything.”<br />
<br />
At his request, I put my arms around his neck.<br />
He waited for an opportunity,<br />
And when the wings had opened wide,<br />
<br />
He grabbed hold of the shag on the ribs,<br />
And then descended from tuft to tuft<br />
Through the matted fur and crusts of ice.<br />
<br />
When we were where the thigh<br />
Meets the pelvis, at the point where the haunch is thickest,<br />
My Master, with labor and strain,<br />
<br />
Brought his head around to where he’d had his legs,<br />
And grabbed hold of the hair like one climbing.<br />
And so I thought we were returning to Hell.<br />
<br />
“Hold on tight, for it is by such stairs,”<br />
My Master said, panting like one exhausted,<br />
“That we must go to depart from so much evil.”<br />
<br />
He then came up through an opening in the rock,<br />
And put me on the edge to sit.<br />
His ingenious footwork brought him up to me.<br />
<br />
I looked up thinking I would see<br />
Lucifer as I had left him,<br />
But I saw his legs suspended above me.<br />
<br />
And if I then became perplexed,<br />
As the dullards may think, keep in mind they did not see<br />
What point it was that I had passed.<br />
<br />
“Get up,” my Master said. “On your feet. <br />
The way is long, and the road is hard.<br />
The sun has already returned to the time just after dawn.”<br />
<br />
It was not a palace hall<br />
Where we were, but a natural dungeon--<br />
One with a broken floor and poor light.<br />
<br />
“Before I lift myself from the abyss,<br />
My Master,” I said when I had risen, <br />
“Pull me from the error that is vexing me a bit:<br />
<br />
Where is the ice? And this one here, how is he suspended<br />
Like this--upside-down? And how, in such a short time,<br />
Has the sun journeyed from evening to morning?”<br />
<br />
He replied, “You imagine you still<br />
Are still on the other side of the center, where I took hold<br />
Of the pelt of the evil worm who pierces the world.<br />
<br />
You were on the other side while I descended.<br />
When I turned myself, you passed the point<br />
Where weights from everywhere are drawn.<br />
<br />
You are now beneath the other hemisphere,<br />
The one opposite the one that the great dry land <br />
Covers, and beneath whose zenith<br />
<br />
The Man who was born and lived without sin was done.<br />
You have your feet upon a small sphere<br />
That forms the other face of Judecca.<br />
<br />
It is morning here when it is evening there.<br />
And this one, who made a ladder for us with his pelt,<br />
He is still ensnared as he was before.<br />
<br />
He fell from Heaven on this side.<br />
And the land, which before had stood out here,<br />
Made a veil from the sea out of fear,<br />
<br />
And came to our side of the planet. Perhaps<br />
To escape from him, it left empty <br />
That which appears on this side, and fled upwards.”<br />
<br />
Down there, as far from Beelzebub<br />
As one can be within his tomb,<br />
There is a place not known by sight, but by the sound<br />
<br />
Of a little stream that descends there<br />
Through the hollow of a rock, one tunneled<br />
By its winding course and soft incline.<br />
<br />
Onto that hidden road my Master and I <br />
Entered to return to the shining world.<br />
And without care to having any rest,<br />
<br />
We climbed up, he first and I second,<br />
So far along that I saw some of the beautiful things<br />
Heaven holds, all through a round hole.<br />
<br />
And through there we exited to once again see the stars.</p><p></p><p>Next: <a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2016/07/purgatorio-song-i.html"><i>Purgatorio</i>, Song I</a></p>R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-56326390330020584272014-11-30T17:43:00.000-05:002016-06-02T07:57:08.381-04:00Inferno, Song XXXIII<p></p><em>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After passing through the gates of Hell, they encounter the souls of the cowards who took no stand in conflicts between good and evil, and then proceed to Limbo, the realm of the noble or innocent souls who were not baptized or otherwise not believers in the Christian faith. Dante and Virgil then travel through the first circles of damnation and the city of Dis, which punish those who embrace earthly appetites and goods at God's expense. Upon leaving the city, Virgil explains the plan of Hell to Dante. The circles that follow hold, in descending order of heinousness, those who commit violence, fraud, and betrayal. In the circle of the Violent, they encounter murderers, merciless conquerors, suicides, and those who squandered or destroyed their belongings. From there, they walk alongside a desert where fire rains down. It is the prison for those who were violent against God and nature, including blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers. Dante and Virgil then descend to the circle of the fraudulent, where they encounter the panderers, seducers, flatterers, corrupt clergy, fortune-tellers, diviners, and grafters. The last are overseen by a gaggle of demons, from whom Dante and Virgil must escape. They then encounter the religious hypocrites and the thieves. Next are the false counselors, including Odysseus, who tells Virgil of his final voyage, and Guido da Montefeltro, who was damned by his sinister military advice to Pope Boniface VIII. Those who sowed division are next. Among their number are Bertan de Born, Ali, and Mohammed. After them are the falsifiers, whose numbers include the alchemists, impersonators, counterfeiters, and false witnesses. With the help of the giant Nimrod, who built the Tower of Babel, Virgil and Dante reach the lowest level of Hell. There they find, embedded in a frozen lake, those guilty of treachery. They stop at the sight of one sinner gnawing on the head of another.</em><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_5c6D83zsqI/VHub64RuVkI/AAAAAAAACmY/Rfom_OHpxxs/s1600/InfernoXXXIII.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_5c6D83zsqI/VHub64RuVkI/AAAAAAAACmY/Rfom_OHpxxs/s400/InfernoXXXIII.jpg"></a></div><div align="center"><em>The imprisonment in life of Count Ugolino and his sons.</em></div><p></p><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">His mouth lifted from the beastly meal.<br />
That sinner wiped it on the hair<br />
Of the head that he had torn into on the back side.<br />
<br />
He then began: “You want me to relive<br />
The desperate sorrow that wrings my heart<br />
Already--just thinking about it before I speak is enough.<br />
<br />
But if my words would be seeds that bear<br />
The fruits of infamy for the traitor at whom I gnaw,<br />
You shall see me speak and weep at the same time.<br />
<br />
I don’t know who you are, or how<br />
You have descended here, but a Florentine<br />
You definitely seem when I hear you.<br />
<br />
You must know I was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugolino_della_Gherardesca">Count Ugolino</a>,<br />
And this is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruggieri_degli_Ubaldini">Archbishop Ruggieri</a>.<br />
Now I shall tell you how we came to be so close.<br />
<br />
Of how, through his evil conniving,<br />
That I, trusting him, was captured<br />
And then killed, there is no need to say.<br />
<br />
But of that which you cannot be aware--<br />
That is, how cruel my death was--<br />
You shall hear, and you shall know if he has wronged me.<br />
<br />
A small opening in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_dei_Gualandi">Mew Tower</a>--<br />
Now called the Tower of Hunger because of me,<br />
And in which others shall yet be shut inside--<br />
<br />
It had shown me through its tiny window<br />
Many moons' passing already when I had the nightmare<br />
That slashed open the future’s veil.<br />
<br />
This one appeared to me as master and lord,<br />
Hunting the wolf and its pups on the mountain<br />
That blocks the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pisa">Pisans</a> from seeing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucca">Lucca</a>.<br />
<br />
Along with lean, trained, and eager hounds,<br />
The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gualandi">Gualandi</a>, <a href="http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sismondi">Sismondi</a>, and <a href="http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanfranchi">Lanfranchi</a><br />
Had been sent by him as his advance.<br />
<br />
After a short run, they seemed spent to me,<br />
The father and sons, and from the sharp fangs<br />
I believe I saw their flanks ripped open.<br />
<br />
I woke before morning, when<br />
I heard my sons crying in their sleep.<br />
They were with me, and pleading for bread.<br />
<br />
You are truly cruel if you are not already feeling sorrow<br />
At the thought of what my heart dreaded.<br />
And if it does not bring you to tears, what would?<br />
<br />
They were now awake, and the hour came near<br />
When our food was brought to us.<br />
Each one was anxious due to his dream.<br />
<br />
I then heard them nailing shut the door below<br />
Of that horrible tower. At this, I looked<br />
Into the faces of my sons without a word.<br />
<br />
I did not cry; I had turned to stone inside.<br />
They cried, though, and my little Anselm<br />
Said, “The way you look, Father! What is the matter?”<br />
<br />
At that I did not weep nor respond<br />
All that day nor the following night,<br />
Until another sun came out upon the world.<br />
<br />
When a small ray made its way<br />
Into our woeful prison, and I saw<br />
My countenance in those four faces,<br />
<br />
I bit both my hands in grief.<br />
And they, thinking that I did so from a longing<br />
To eat, suddenly rose up<br />
<br />
And said: ‘Father, we shall know far less pain<br />
If you eat us. You dressed us in<br />
This miserable flesh, and you should strip us of it.’ <br />
<br />
I then calmed myself, so I would not make them sadder.<br />
That day and the next we stayed completely silent.<br />
Oh, hard earth, why did you not open yourself?<br />
<br />
When the fourth day had come,<br />
Gaddo threw himself at my feet. Laying outstretched,<br />
He said, “My father, why don’t you help me?”<br />
<br />
There he died, and as you see me<br />
I saw the other three drop, one by one,<br />
On the fifth and sixth days. At this, I gave myself,<br />
<br />
Already blind, to running my hands over each one.<br />
For two days I called them, although they were dead.<br />
And then hunger overpowered my sorrow.”<br />
<br />
Upon saying this, his eyes became crazed.<br />
He again gripped the wretched skull with his teeth<br />
And ground hard against it, like a dog.<br />
<br />
Ah, Pisa! Shame of the peoples<br />
Of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuscany">the fair land where <em>sì</em> is sounded</a>!<br />
Since your neighbors are slow to punish you,<br />
<br />
May <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capraia">Capraia</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgona,_Italy">Gorgona</a> shift their ground,<br />
And create a dam at the mouth of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arno">Arno</a>--<br />
So that it drowns all who reside within you!<br />
<br />
Even though Count Ugolino was to blame<br />
For the treason towards your castles,<br />
You should not have subjected his children to such torment.<br />
<br />
Their youthful years made them innocent,<br />
You latter-day <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thebes,_Greece#Mythic_record">Thebes</a>--Uguccione, and Brigata,<br />
And the other two I have spoken of in my song.<br />
<br />
We went on further, to where the ice<br />
Harshly binds another group.<br />
Their heads were not turned downward; they were all face up.<br />
<br />
There, the very act of weeping is what does not allow them to weep,<br />
And the sorrow that finds a barrier in the eyes<br />
Turns inward to create even greater anguish.<br />
<br />
For the first tears create a cluster,<br />
And like a crystal visor,<br />
Fill the hollows below the brow.<br />
<br />
Although, like a callus,<br />
The cold made all sensation<br />
Fade from my face,<br />
<br />
I now seemed to feel some wind.<br />
At which I said, “Master, who sets this forth?<br />
Are not all breezes stilled down here?”<br />
<br />
He said to me, “You will soon be where<br />
Your eyes shall give you the answer,<br />
Upon seeing the cause of this squall.”<br />
<br />
Then one of the sad ones from the frozen crust<br />
Cried out to us, “O cruel souls,<br />
So cruel that you have been deposited in this final appointed place,<br />
<br />
Lift the hard veils from my face<br />
So that I may vent the sorrow that has suffused my heart,<br />
If only a little, before the tears freeze again.”<br />
<br />
At this I replied, “If you want me to help you,<br />
Tell me who you are, and if I do not follow through,<br />
May I be sent to the bottom of the ice.”<br />
<br />
He then answered, “I am <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fra_Alberigo">Fra Alberigo</a>.<br />
I am he of the evil garden’s fruit,<br />
Who here is paid with dates for figs.”<br />
<br />
“Oh,” I said to him, “are you already dead?”<br />
And he replied, “How my body fares<br />
In the world above I do not know.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocytus">Ptolomea</a> here has such a privilege<br />
That on many occasions a soul falls to the place<br />
Before <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atropos">Atropos of the Fates</a> sends it along.<br />
<br />
And so that you may more willingly clear<br />
The glaze of tears from my face,<br />
Know this: As soon as the soul betrays another<br />
<br />
Like I did, its body is taken over<br />
By a demon, which from that point rules it<br />
Until its time is finished.<br />
<br />
The soul falls headlong into this cistern,<br />
And perhaps still appearing above is the body<br />
Of this soul that winters behind me here.<br />
<br />
You must know him, if you have only just descended.<br />
He is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doria_(family)#Notable_members">Ser Branca d’Oria</a>, and many years have <br />
Passed since he was imprisoned so.”<br />
<br />
“I believe,” I said to him, “That you are trying to deceive me,<br />
For Branca d’Oria has not by any means died,<br />
And he eats and drinks and sleeps and puts on clothes.”<br />
<br />
“In the ditch above,” he said, “of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malebranche_(Divine_Comedy)">Malebranche</a>,<br />
Where the sticky tar boils,<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_Divine_Comedy#Zanche">Michel Zanche</a> had not yet joined them.<br />
<br />
When this one left a devil instead of himself<br />
In his body, as also happened with the kinsman<br />
Who engaged in the treachery with him,<br />
<br />
But now extend your hand here.<br />
Open my eyes.” And I did not open them for him.<br />
It was a courtesy to him to be rude.<br />
<br />
Ah, you <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genoa">Genoese</a>, a people divorced<br />
From every good custom and full of every corruption,<br />
Why are you not driven from the world?<br />
<br />
For with the most evil spirit from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romagna">Romagna</a>,<br />
I have found one of you whom for his deeds<br />
Already has his soul immersed in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocytus">Cocytus</a><br />
<br />
While in body he still appears alive above.<br />
</div><p><b><i><a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2016/06/inferno-song-xxxiv.html">Continue to Song XXXIV</a></i></b><br />
</p>R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-353167884180280812014-01-01T00:00:00.000-05:002014-11-30T17:44:26.124-05:00Inferno, Song XXXII<p></p>
<em>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After passing through the gates of Hell, they encounter the souls of the cowards who took no stand in conflicts between good and evil, and then proceed to Limbo, the realm of the noble or innocent souls who were not baptized or otherwise not believers in the Christian faith. Dante and Virgil then travel through the first circles of damnation and the city of Dis, which punish those who embrace earthly appetites and goods at God's expense. Upon leaving the city, Virgil explains the plan of Hell to Dante. The circles that follow hold, in descending order of heinousness, those who commit violence, fraud, and betrayal. In the circle of the Violent, they encounter murderers, merciless conquerors, suicides, and those who squandered or destroyed their belongings. From there, they walk alongside a desert where fire rains down. It is the prison for those who were violent against God and nature, including blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers. Dante and Virgil then descend to the circle of the fraudulent, where they encounter the panderers, seducers, flatterers, corrupt clergy, fortune-tellers, diviners, and grafters. The last are overseen by a gaggle of demons, from whom Dante and Virgil must escape. They then encounter the religious hypocrites and the thieves. Next are the false counselors, including Odysseus, who tells Virgil of his final voyage, and Guido da Montefeltro, who was damned by his sinister military advice to Pope Boniface VIII. Those who sowed division are next. Among their number are Bertan de Born, Ali, and Mohammed. After them are the falsifiers, whose numbers include the alchemists, impersonators, counterfeiters, and false witnesses. The giant Nimrod, who built the Tower of Babel, lowers Virgil and Dante, to the lowest level of Hell.</em><br />
<br />
<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-miyrLv-r2fs/Uqng5cAcoTI/AAAAAAAACf4/hSXeOUMr-1g/s1600/inf.32.97.dore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-miyrLv-r2fs/Uqng5cAcoTI/AAAAAAAACf4/hSXeOUMr-1g/s400/inf.32.97.dore.jpg" /></a></div>
<div align="center"><em>Dante confronts Bocca degli Abbati.</em></div><p></p><br /><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">If I had the harsh and brooding rhymes<br />
That would suit the sad hole<br />
Upon which all the other rocks are supported,<br />
<br />
I would express the nature of what I remember<br />
More fully. But as I do not have these,<br />
It is not without trepidation that I bring myself to speak.<br />
<br />
For it is not an undertaking to take lightly,<br />
Describing the bottom of the entire universe.<br />
Nor is it for a tongue that calls out “mama” or “dada.”<br />
<br />
But may <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muses">those ladies</a> help my verse<br />
Who helped <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphion_and_Zethus">Amphion</a> wall in the city of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Thebes_(Boeotia)">Thebes</a>.<br />
This is so the facts do not differ from what is said.<br />
<br />
Oh, more than all others, ill-begotten horde<br />
Who are in the place for which words are difficult,<br />
It would have been better for you here if you had been sheep or goats!<br />
<br />
When we were down in that dark shaft,<br />
Far below the giants’ feet,<br />
And I was still looking at the high wall,<br />
<br />
I heard someone say to me, “Watch where you step.<br />
Go so that your feet do not tread upon<br />
The heads of the spent and miserable brethren.”<br />
<br />
At that I turned, and I saw before me <br />
And beneath my feet a lake that from cold<br />
Appeared to be glass instead of water.<br />
<br />
Such a thick veil has not covered<br />
The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danube">Danube</a> in Austria during winter.<br />
Nor has it in Don under the cold sky<br />
<br />
As it did here. If Mount Tambernic <br />
Had fallen on it, or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pania_della_Croce">Pania della Croce</a>,<br />
It would not have made a creak even at the edge.<br />
<br />
And like the frog lies croaking<br />
With its muzzle out of the water, in the season when thoughts<br />
Of the harvest are on the peasant woman’s mind.<br />
<br />
So were these, looking bruised up to the place their shame appeared.<br />
These were the sorrowful shades in the ice,<br />
Their teeth making the sounds a stork does with its beak.<br />
<br />
Each one held his face turned down.<br />
From the mouth the cold, and from the eyes the heart’s sadness<br />
Declare themselves.<br />
<br />
After I had looked all around me,<br />
I turned to my feet, and I saw two pressed together so tightly<br />
That the hair on their heads had become intertwined.<br />
<br />
“Tell me, you whose breasts are pressed together,”<br />
I said, “who are you?” At which point they bent back their necks,<br />
And then, upon raising their faces to me,<br />
<br />
Their eyes, which before had been moist,<br />
Gushed over at the lids. The ice then bound<br />
Their eyes between the tears, shutting them again.<br />
<br />
A clamp never held two beams together with<br />
Such force. The spirits were like two goats,<br />
Butting their heads together after rage had taken them over.<br />
<br />
And one who had lost both ears<br />
To the cold, with his face still down,<br />
Said, “Why do you stare at us so long?<br />
<br />
If you would like to know who <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://www.mediasystemnet.it/CORSI-VIDEOCORSI%2520FORMAZIONE/DIVINA%2520COMMEDIA%2520RECITATA/inferno/person/mangona.htm&prev=/search?q%3Dalessandro%2Bnapoleone%2Bmangona%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1277%26bih%3D617">these two</a> are,<br />
The valley where <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisenzio">the Bisenzio</a> flows<br />
Belonged to them and their father <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://www.mediasystemnet.it/CORSI-VIDEOCORSI%2520FORMAZIONE/DIVINA%2520COMMEDIA%2520RECITATA/inferno/person/mangona.htm&prev=/search?q%3Dalessandro%2Bnapoleone%2Bmangona%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1277%26bih%3D617">Alberto</a>.<br />
<br />
They came from one womb, and in all of <a href="http://dantesinferno.wikia.com/wiki/Caina">Caina</a><br />
You can search and not find a shade<br />
More worthy of being trapped in ice.<br />
<br />
Not <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordred">him whose breast and shadow were pierced</a>
With a single thrust from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Arthur">Arthur</a>’s hand.<br />
Nor <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanni_de'_Cancellieri&prev=/search?q%3Dfocaccia%2Bdei%2B%2527%2Bcancellieri%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1277%26bih%3D617">Focaccia</a>. <br />
Nor this one who obstructs me<br />
<br />
So with his head that I do not see beyond him--<br />
His name was <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sassolo_Mascheroni&prev=/search?q%3DSassolo%2BMascheroni%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1277%26bih%3D617">Sassolo Mascheroni</a>.<br />
If you are Tuscan, you know well who he was.<br />
<br />
And so you put me to no further talk,<br />
Know that I was <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camicione_de'_Pazzi&prev=/search?q%3Dcamiscion%2Bpazzi%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1277%26bih%3D617">Camicione de’ Pazzi</a>,<br />
And I wait for <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlino_de'_Pazzi&prev=/search?q%3Dcarlino%2Bpazzi%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1277%26bih%3D617">Carlino</a>, who will make me seem innocent by comparison.”<br />
<br />
After that I saw a thousand faces that the cold had made<br />
Look like dogs. Ever since then I start shuddering,<br />
And always will, at the sight of frozen puddles.<br />
<br />
And while we were headed towards the center<br />
Where all gravity converges,<br />
And I was shivering in the eternal chill--<br />
<br />
If it was will or fate or chance<br />
I do not know--but passing between the heads,<br />
My foot struck one hard in the face.<br />
<br />
Weeping, he cried out, “Why do you trample me?<br />
If you have not come to take further revenge<br />
For <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Montaperti">Montaperti</a>, why do you abuse me?”<br />
<br />
I said, “My Master, now wait for me here<br />
So I can rid myself of a doubt through this one.<br />
Then you can make me make haste however much you like.”<br />
<br />
My leader stopped, and I said to this one<br />
Who still cursed furiously:<br />
“Who are you who so reprimands others?”<br />
<br />
“Now who are you who goes through <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocytus">Antenora</a>,”<br />
He replied, “striking others in the cheeks<br />
Such that, if you were alive, it could not be harder?”<br />
<br />
“I am alive, and it could be valuable for you,”<br />
I replied, “if you ask for fame,<br />
And I include your name among the others I note.”<br />
<br />
He replied, “I long for the opposite.<br />
Leave here and do not aggravate me further,<br />
For your knowledge of flattery in this pit is sorely lacking.”<br />
<br />
I then grabbed him by the nape of his neck<br />
And said, “It behooves you to name yourself,<br />
Or not a hair here will remain on you.”<br />
<br />
And he replied, “Though you may pluck me bald,<br />
I will not tell you who I am, nor will I show you<br />
Even if you fall a thousand times upon my head.”<br />
<br />
I already had his hair wound around my hand,<br />
And had torn out more than one lock,<br />
With him barking and his eyes drawn down,<br />
<br />
When another cried, “What is with you, <a href="http://www.worldofdante.org/pop_up_query.php?dbid=P047">Bocca</a>?<br />
Are you so unhappy with the sound of your teeth chattering<br />
That you must bark? What devil has touched you?”<br />
<br />
“Now,” I said, “I do not want you to speak,<br />
Evil traitor. Because of your disgrace,<br />
I shall bring an accurate report of you.”<br />
<br />
“Go away,” he said. “And tell the story you wish.<br />
But don’t be silent, if you do get out from here, <br />
Of that one who spoke so quickly just now.<br />
<br />
He is here to lament <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_of_Anjou">the Frenchman</a>’s silver.<br />
You can report, ‘I saw <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buoso_da_Duera&prev=/search?q%3Dbuoso%2Bda%2Bduera%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1277%26bih%3D617">that one of Duera</a>,<br />
There where the sinners are put on ice.’<br />
<br />
If you are asked about others who are here,<br />
You have beside you <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesauro_Beccaria&prev=/search?q%3Dtesauro%2Bbeccheria%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1277%26bih%3D617">that one of Beccheria</a><br />
Whose throat was slit by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence">Florence</a>.<br />
<br />
I believe <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gianni_de'_Soldanieri&prev=/search?q%3Dgianni%2Bsoldanieri%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1277%26bih%3D617">Gianni de’ Soldanieri</a> is<br />
Farther along with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganelon">Ganelon</a> and with <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tebaldello_Zambrasi&prev=/search?q%3Dtebaldello%2Bzambrasi%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1277%26bih%3D617">Tebaldello</a>,</br>
Who opened the gates to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faenza">Faenza</a> while it slept.”<br />
<br />
We had already left him behind<br />
When I saw two frozen ones in a single hole.<br />
The head of one served as a cap for the other.<br />
<br />
And like bread devoured through hunger,<br />
So the one on top set his teeth into the other<br />
Where the brain joins with the nape of the neck.<br />
<br />
It was no different than <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tydeus">Tydeus</a> gnawing at<br />
The temples of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanippus">Melanippus</a> in rage,<br />
As this one was doing with the skull and other parts.<br />
<br />
“O you who through such a bestial manner shows<br />
Hatred for the one at whom you gnaw away,<br />
Tell me why,” I said, “on this condition:<br />
<br />
That if you have reason in your grievance with him,<br />
I, knowing, who you are and his sin as well,<br />
Shall yet do you justice in the world above<br />
<br />
If that with which I speak does not wither.”<br /></div><p></p>
<em><a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2014/11/inferno-song-xxxiii.html">Continue to Song XXXIII.</a></em><p></p><br />R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-14672276222758961662013-07-01T00:00:00.000-04:002014-01-01T08:44:26.497-05:00Inferno, Song XXXI<p></p>
<em>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After passing through the gates of Hell, they encounter the souls of the cowards who took no stand in conflicts between good and evil, and then proceed to Limbo, the realm of the noble or innocent souls who were not baptized or otherwise not believers in the Christian faith. Dante and Virgil then travel through the first circles of damnation and the city of Dis, which punish those who embrace earthly appetites and goods at God's expense. Upon leaving the city, Virgil explains the plan of Hell to Dante. The circles that follow hold, in descending order of heinousness, those who commit violence, fraud, and betrayal. In the circle of the Violent, they encounter murderers, merciless conquerors, suicides, and who squandered or destroyed their belongings. From there, they walk alongside a desert where fire rains down. It is the prison for those who were violent against God and nature, including blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers. Dante and Virgil then descend to next level of Hell on the back of Geryon, a flying monster. It is the circle of the fraudulent, and along the way, they encounter the panderers, seducers, flatterers, corrupt clergy, fortune-tellers, diviners, and grafters. The last are overseen a gaggle of demons, from whom Dante and Virgil must escape before encountering the religious hypocrites and the thieves. Next are the false counselors, including Odysseus, who tells Virgil of his final voyage, and Guido da Montefeltro, who was damned by his sinister military advice to Pope Boniface VIII. Those who sowed division are next. Among their number are Bertan de Born, Ali, and Mohammed. After them are the falsifiers, whose numbers include the alchemists, impersonators, counterfeiters, and false witnesses.</em><br />
<br />
<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s_08nwKkJJc/UdDCbnXV5dI/AAAAAAAACa8/YR3UKhYU5pI/s420/nimrod.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s_08nwKkJJc/UdDCbnXV5dI/AAAAAAAACa8/YR3UKhYU5pI/s420/nimrod.jpg" /></a></div>
<div align="center">
<em>Nimrod</em></div><p></p><br /><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
The very same tongue first stung me,<br />
Flushing my cheeks,<br />
That then provided remedy,<br />
<br />
Just as I have heard that the lance<br />
Of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achilles">Achilles</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peleus">his father</a> brought to bear<br />
First pain and then healing.<br />
<br />
We turned our back on that miserable valley,<br />
And up through the circling bank,<br />
We crossed over without speaking.<br />
<br />
Here it was less than night and less than day,<br />
And I could not see very far ahead,<br />
But I heard a horn sounding<br />
<br />
So loud that any thunder would seem distant.<br />
I tried to figure where it came from,<br />
And my eyes were prompted to one place and one place only.<br />
<br />
Even after <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Roncevaux_Pass">the devastating rout</a>, when<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne">Charlemagne</a> lost the holy army,<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland">Roland</a>’s horn blast was not as terrible.<br />
<br />
I had not kept my head turned that way for long<br />
When I saw what appeared to be many high towers.<br />
And I said, "Master, tell me, what city is this?"<br />
<br />
He said to me, "It is because you scan<br />
The dark from too far away<br />
That you arrive at such flights of imagination.<br />
<br />
You shall well see, if you reach there,<br />
How much the sense is deceived by distance.<br />
Therefore, push yourself onward somewhat harder."<br />
<br />
He then kindly took me by the hand<br />
And said, "Before we go further,<br />
So that the reality shall prove less strange,<br />
<br />
Know that they are not towers, but giants.<br />
They are in the pit round its banks,<br />
All of them held from the navel down."<br />
<br />
It was like when the fog clears:<br />
One’s sight little by little makes out<br />
That which the mist in the air hides.<br />
<br />
So, as I cut through the thick and dark air,<br />
Coming nearer and nearer towards the bank,<br />
Error fled, and fear grew within me.<br />
<br />
So, just as the circling walls around<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montereggioni">Montereggione</a> is crowned with towers,<br />
The bank’s walls were also circling the pit.<br />
<br />
Towering with their bodies half above and half below were<br />
Horrible giants, who are threatened<br />
Still by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jove">Jove</a> when he thunders from the heavens.<br />
<br />
And with one of them, I had already discerned the face,<br />
The shoulders, the breast, and a great part of the belly,<br />
As well as the arms down along his sides.<br />
<br />
Certainly Nature, when she left behind the art<br />
Of making such creatures, did quite well<br />
In keeping these agents from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_(mythology)">Mars</a>.<br />
<br />
And if of elephants and whales she<br />
Does not repent, one who looks thoughtfully<br />
Will view her as more just and prudent for it.<br />
<br />
For where the devices of the mind<br />
Are joined to evil will and to power,<br />
People cannot defend themselves against it.<br />
<br />
To me his face appeared to be as long and as large<br />
As <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigna_(rione_of_Rome)">the pinecone of St. Peter’s</a> in Rome,<br />
And his other bones had the same proportions,<br />
<br />
So that the bank, which was an apron to him<br />
From the midsection down, still showed so much<br />
Above that coming up to his hair was something<br />
<br />
That three <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friesland#Anthropometry">Frieslanders</a> would have boasted of in vain.<br />
For I saw thirty hand spans of him<br />
Above where a man buckles his cloak.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphèl_ma%C3%AD_amèche_zab%C3%AD_almi">"Raphèl maì amècche zabì almi,"</a><br />
The beastly mouth began crying.<br />
He was one for whom no sweeter psalms were fit.<br />
<br />
My Leader said to him, "Foolish soul,<br />
Stick to your horn, and vent yourself with that<br />
When rage or other passions take you!"<br />
<br />
Search around your neck, and you will find the cord<br />
That keeps it tied, O confused soul.<br />
See how it lies on your great chest." <br />
<br />
He then said to me, "He accuses himself.<br />
This is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimrod">Nimrod</a>. It is because of his evil that<br />
The world does not use just one language.<br />
<br />
Let us leave him and not speak in vain.<br />
For every language is to him<br />
As his is to others, and that is known to none."<br />
<br />
We then made our way further along, <br />
Turning left, and a shot from a crossbow away<br />
We found another even more savage and huge.<br />
<br />
The master who bound him so<br />
I cannot say, but he had pinned<br />
In front of him his right arm and the other behind<br />
<br />
With a chain that held him fast <br />
From the neck down, so that on the uncovered part of him<br />
It was wound five coils round.<br />
<br />
"This haughty spirit chose to test<br />
His strength against supreme Jove,"<br />
My leader said, “and he is thus rewarded.<br />
<br />
His name is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aloadae">Ephialtes</a>, and he made the great challenge<br />
When the giants brought fear to the gods.<br />
He will never again raise the arms with which he led."<br />
<br />
I said to him, “If it is possible, I would like<br />
If, with the immense <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Briareus">Briareus</a>,<br />
I might experience the sight with my own eyes.”<br />
<br />
And he responded, "You shall see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antaeus">Antaeus</a><br />
Near here. He speaks and is not chained,<br />
And he will set us down at the lowest level of all guilt.<br />
<br />
He whom you wish to see is much farther out,<br />
And he is bound and set like this one.<br />
The difference is he appears much fiercer."<br />
<br />
A powerful earthquake never<br />
Shook a tower more furiously<br />
Than Ephialtes suddenly shook himself.<br />
<br />
At that moment I was never more afraid of dying,<br />
And I would not have needed more than that terror<br />
If I had not seen his chains.<br />
<br />
We then went on farther ahead<br />
And came to Antaeus--a good five <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ell">ells</a><br />
He stood above the rock, not counting his head.<br />
<br />
"O you--who in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zama_Regia">the fateful valley</a><br />
Where <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scipio_Africanus">Scipio</a> was made glory’s heir<br />
When <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal">Hannibal</a> and his men turned tail,<br />
<br />
Did once take a thousand lions for prey,<br />
And who, if you had been at the great war<br />
With your brothers, it seems one can still believe<br />
<br />
That the sons of the earth would have been conquered--<br />
Do not be disdainful, and set us down below, <br />
Where the cold holds <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocytus">Cocytus</a>.<br />
<br />
Do not make us go to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tityos">Tityos</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhon">Typhon</a>.<br />
This one can give you that which is desired here.<br />
Therefore bend down, and do not turn up your nose.<br />
<br />
He can still give back your fame to the world,<br />
As he lives, and expects to live long still<br />
If Grace does not call him early to itself."<br />
<br />
So my master said, and the other hastily<br />
Reached out his hands and took hold of my leader--the hands<br />
Whose great grip had once been felt by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules">Hercules</a>.<br />
<br />
Virgil, when he felt himself being taken,<br />
Said to me, "Come here, so that I may take you."<br />
He then made one bundle of himself and me.<br />
<br />
The way <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garisenda">Garisenda</a> seems to appear<br />
Under the leaning side when a cloud goes by<br />
Over it opposite the hanging side,<br />
<br />
That was how Antaeus appeared to me as I stood watching<br />
To see him bend. And it was such a moment<br />
That I would have wished to go by another road.<br />
<br />
But gently upon the bottom that has swallowed up<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer">Lucifer</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judas_Iscariot">Judas</a>, there he set us down.<br />
He did not stay bent like that.<br />
<br />
He raised himself up like a mast on a ship.<br /></div><p></p>
<em><a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2014/01/inferno-song-xxxii.html">Continue to Song XXXII.</a></em><p></p><br />R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-86172244712977880082013-01-28T03:00:00.000-05:002013-06-30T19:42:10.073-04:00Inferno, Song XXX<em>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After passing through the gates of Hell, they encounter the souls of the cowards who took no stand in conflicts between good and evil, and then proceed to Limbo, the realm of the noble or innocent souls who were not baptized or otherwise not believers in the Christian faith. Dante and Virgil then travel through the first circles of damnation and the city of Dis, which punish those who embrace earthly appetites and goods at God's expense. Upon leaving the city, Virgil explains the plan of Hell to Dante. The circles that follow hold, in descending order of heinousness, those who commit violence, fraud, and betrayal. In the circle of the Violent, they encounter murderers, merciless conquerors, suicides, and who squandered or destroyed their belongings. From there, they walk alongside a desert where fire rains down. It is the prison for those who were violent against God and nature, including blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers. Dante and Virgil then descend to next level of Hell on the back of Geryon, a flying monster. It is the circle of the fraudulent, and along the way, they encounter the panderers, seducers, flatterers, corrupt clergy, fortune-tellers, diviners, and grafters. The last are overseen a gaggle of demons, from whom Dante and Virgil must escape before encountering the religious hypocrites and the thieves. Next are the false counselors, including Odysseus, who tells Virgil of his final voyage, and Guido da Montefeltro, who was damned by his sinister military advice to Pope Boniface VIII. Those who sowed division are next. Among their number are Bertan de Born, Ali, and Mohammed. After them are the falsifiers. The first of that number Dante and Virgil encounter are the alchemists.</em><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m8qmbb14GgM/UQXVtpXYExI/AAAAAAAACD8/nvnzs_wl-qM/s1600/Dante0062.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="317" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m8qmbb14GgM/UQXVtpXYExI/AAAAAAAACD8/nvnzs_wl-qM/s400/Dante0062.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div align="center">
<em>Among the impersonators, Gianni Schichi attacks Capocchio</em></div>
<br />
In the time when <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_(mythology)">Juno</a> directed her wrath<br />
Against the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Thebes_(Boeotia)">Theban</a> blood due to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semele">Semele</a>,<br />
As she showed them time and again--<br />
<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athamas">Athamas'</a> madness became such<br />
That, seeing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ino_(Greek_mythology)">his wife</a> with their two children,<br />
Going with one in each arm,<br />
<br />
He cried, "Let us cast our nets, so I can catch<br />
The lioness and her cubs as they pass."<br />
And then he extended his pitiless claws<br />
<br />
Taking the one named <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learches">Learchus</a>,<br />
Whirling him around and crashing him against a rock.<br />
She then drowned herself with the other one.<br />
<br />
And when <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Fortune">Fortune</a> brought down<br />
The glory of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy">Trojans</a> who dared all,<br />
So that together their <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priam">king</a> and kingdom were wiped out;<br />
<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hecuba">Hecuba</a>, sad, miserable, and enslaved,<br />
And after that seeing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyxena">Polyxena</a> dead<br />
Along with her <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polydorus_(son_of_Priam)">Polydorus</a> upon the shore<br />
<br />
Of the sea, she came to truly know sorrow<br />
And began barking like a dog.<br />
Her grief was so great it drove her mad.<br />
<br />
But no <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furies">Fury</a> of Thebes or Troy<br />
Was ever seen so cruel to anyone,<br />
Not attacking beasts nor butchering people,<br />
<br />
As the two pale and naked shades I saw<br />
That ran snapping in the manner<br />
Of a hog when let out from the sty.<br />
<br />
One went to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_Divine_Comedy#Capocchio">Capocchio</a>, and into the nape<br />
Of his neck it bit its fangs. It then dragged him,<br />
And made his belly scrape along the hard bottom of the ditch.<br />
<br />
And the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_Divine_Comedy#Griffolino">Aretine</a>. who, trembling, remained,<br />
He said to me, "That demon is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_Divine_Comedy#Schicchi">Gianni Schicchi</a>,<br />
And rabidly he goes, attacking the others here."<br />
<br />
"Oh," I said to him, "so the other one does not fix<br />
Its teeth on your back. If it does not trouble you,<br />
Tell me who it is before it goes away."<br />
<br />
He replied, "That is the ancient soul<br />
Of wicked <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrrha">Myrrha</a>, who became<br />
Close to her father with love beyond what’s right.<br />
<br />
As such, she brought herself to sin with him,<br />
Disguising herself as another,<br />
Just as the other one who goes yonder did the same.<br />
In order to gain the highest lady of the herd, <br />
Disguised himself as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_Divine_Comedy#Buoso">Buoso Donati</a>, <br />
Dictating and finalizing an official will."<br />
<br />
And then when the two rabid ones had left--<br />
The two upon whom I kept my eyes--<br />
I turned to look at the other misbegotten ones.<br />
<br />
I saw one, made to look like a lute,<br />
As his groin was<br />
Cut off at the part where a man is forked.<br />
<br />
The heavy <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropsy">dropsy</a>, which so distorts the size of<br />
The limbs through poor metabolism of the humors,<br />
So that the face does not respond to the belly,<br />
<br />
Made him hold his lips open<br />
Like the hectic ones who, because of thirst,<br />
Curls one toward the chin, and the other upward.<br />
<br />
"O you who are exempt from any punishment--<br />
And I do not know why--in this grim world,"<br />
He said to us. “Look and pay attention<br />
<br />
To the misery of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_Divine_Comedy#Master">Master Adam</a>.<br />
I had, when alive, enough of everything I wanted.<br />
And now, alas, I thirst for even one drop of water.<br />
<br />
The small streams that from the green hills<br />
Of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casentino">Casentino</a> descend to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arno">Arno</a>,<br />
Making their channels cool and moist,<br />
<br />
Are always before me, and not in vain,<br />
For my memory of them parches me far more<br />
Than the disease that ravages my face.<br />
<br />
The unyielding justice that searches me<br />
Draws reason from the place where I sinned<br />
To make my sighs fly downward.<br />
<br />
There is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romena">Romena</a>, where I counterfeited<br />
The coin stamped with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_the_baptist">Baptist</a>’s face.<br />
For that I left the world above with my body in flames.<br />
<br />
But if I saw here the miserable soul<br />
Of <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guido_Guidi_II_di_Romena&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dguido%2Bguidi%2Binferno%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26tbo%3Dd%26biw%3D1261%26bih%3D598&sa=X&ei=3usFUcTXD9H7yAHI-4GoCw&sqi=2&ved=0CDcQ7gEwAQ">Guido</a>, or <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guido_Guidi_II_di_Romena&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dguido%2Bguidi%2Binferno%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26tbo%3Dd%26biw%3D1261%26bih%3D598&sa=X&ei=3usFUcTXD9H7yAHI-4GoCw&sqi=2&ved=0CDcQ7gEwAQ">Alessandro</a>, or <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guido_Guidi_II_di_Romena&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dguido%2Bguidi%2Binferno%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26tbo%3Dd%26biw%3D1261%26bih%3D598&sa=X&ei=3usFUcTXD9H7yAHI-4GoCw&sqi=2&ved=0CDcQ7gEwAQ">their brother</a>,<br />
I would not give it up for <a href="http://www.italyguides.it/us/siena_italy/fontebranda/fountain_of_fontebranda.htm">Fonte Branda</a>.<br />
<br />
One is already in here, if the raging<br />
Shades that go round speak the truth.<br />
But what good is it to me, since my limbs are bound?<br />
<br />
If I were still of such lightness<br />
That I could move an inch within a hundred years,<br />
I would have already put myself on the path<br />
<br />
Searching for him among these disfigured people,<br />
Even with it being all of eleven miles round,<br />
And half of one across its track.<br />
<br />
It is because of them that I am among such brethren.<br />
They induced me to stamp the florins<br />
That had three carats of dross."<br />
<br />
And I said to him, "Who are the two wretches<br />
Who smoke like hands in winter after washing--<br />
Those lying close on your right-hand boundary?"<br />
<br />
"I found them here--and they have not moved since--<br />
When I fell like rain into this gully,” he replied.<br />
“And I do not believe they shall for all of eternity."<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potiphar">woman</a> is the deceiver who accused <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_(Hebrew_Bible)">Joseph</a>;<br />
The other is the deceitful <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinon">Sinon</a>, the Greek from Troy.<br />
A burning fever makes them reek so badly."<br />
<br />
And one of them, aggravated<br />
Perhaps from being named in such dark terms,<br />
Struck him with a fist in his swollen belly.<br />
<br />
The blow sounded as if it had hit a drum.<br />
And Master Adam struck him in the face<br />
With his arm—a blow that seemed just as hard.<br />
<br />
He said to the other, "Although I am kept from<br />
Moving by the weight of my limbs,<br />
I have a free arm for such instances."<br />
<br />
To which the other replied, "When you went<br />
To the flames, you didn’t have it that ready.<br />
But you had it so and more when you were coining."<br />
<br />
And the one with dropsy said, "You speak the truth with this.<br />
But you were not so true a witness<br />
At Troy, where the truth was requested."<br />
<br />
While I spoke falsely, you also falsified the coin,"<br />
Sinon said. “And I am here for one failing,<br />
While you are for more than any other fiend."<br />
<br />
"Remember, perjurer, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4016898062637343907">the Horse</a>,"<br />
Replied the one with the bloated belly.<br />
"And may it torment you that the entire world knows!"<br />
<br />
"And may you be tormented by the thirst that cracks <br />
Your tongue," said the Greek, “as well as by the putrid water<br />
That makes your belly crowd in front of your eyes."<br />
<br />
The counterfeiter then said, "And so erupts<br />
Your mouth, as usual, with your evil.<br />
For if I thirst and bile bloats me,<br />
<br />
You burn with fever, and your head aches.<br />
And to lick the mirror of <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4016898062637343907">Narcissus</a>,<br />
You would not need many words inviting you."<br />
<br />
I was entirely focused on listening to them<br />
When my master said to me, "Now, if you watch<br />
Much longer, you and I will quarrel!"<br />
<br />
When I heard him speaking to me in anger<br />
I turned to him with such shame<br />
That it still turns in my memory.<br />
<br />
Like one who dreams of harm to himself,<br />
Who dreaming, longs for it to be a dream,<br />
So that he covets what actually is as if it had not happened, <br />
<br />
This is what I became, not able to speak.
I wished to redeem myself--and I did redeem<br />
Myself completely, although I did not think that I did.<br />
<br />
"Greater faults are washed away by lesser shame<br />
Than yours have been," my master said.<br />
"So unburden yourself of all sadness.<br />
<br />
Keep in mind that I am always at your side<br />
If, in the future, fortune brings you down to <br />
Where people are in a similar argument.<br />
<br />
For wanting to hear such is a low desire."</div>
<br />
<em><a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2013/06/inferno-song-xxxi.html">Continue to Song XXXI</a></em>R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-35319013060951183552012-08-25T08:55:00.002-04:002013-01-27T22:28:30.741-05:00Inferno, Song XXIX<em>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After passing through the gates of Hell, they encounter the souls of the cowards who took no stand in conflicts between good and evil, and then proceed to Limbo, the realm of the noble or innocent souls who were not baptized or otherwise not believers in the Christian faith. Dante and Virgil then travel through the first circles of damnation and the city of Dis, which punish those who embrace earthly appetites and goods at God's expense. Upon leaving the city, Virgil explains the plan of Hell to Dante. The circles that follow hold, in descending order of heinousness, those who commit violence, fraud, and betrayal. In the circle of the Violent, they encounter murderers, merciless conquerors, suicides, and who squandered or destroyed their belongings. From there, they walk alongside a desert where fire rains down. It is the prison for those who were violent against God and nature, including blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers. Dante and Virgil then descend to next level of Hell on the back of Geryon, a flying monster. It is the circle of the fraudulent, and along the way, they encounter the panderers, seducers, flatterers, corrupt clergy, fortune-tellers, diviners, and grafters. The last are overseen a gaggle of demons, from whom Dante and Virgil must escape before encountering the religious hypocrites and the thieves. Next are the false counselors, including Odysseus, who tells Virgil of his final voyage, and Guido da Montefeltro, who was damned by his sinister military advice to Pope Boniface VIII. Those who sowed division are next. Among their number are Bertan de Born, Ali, and Mohammed.</em><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fWyWodvZrtY/UDgQmAbrDkI/AAAAAAAABvk/lJvJr1S0d2Y/s1600/inf.29.82.dore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="314" width="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fWyWodvZrtY/UDgQmAbrDkI/AAAAAAAABvk/lJvJr1S0d2Y/s400/inf.29.82.dore.jpg" /></a></div><div align="center">
<em>Virgil and Dante among the alchemists and counterfeiters</em></div>
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
The many people and the various mutilations<br />
Left my eyes so besotted<br />
That they felt compelled to linger and weep.<br />
<br />
But Virgil said to me, “What are you still watching?<br />
Why does your gaze still linger<br />
Down there among those sad and maimed shades?<br />
<br />
You have not done this at the other pits.<br />
If you are thinking of counting them, consider this:<br />
The valley is twenty-two miles round.<br />
<br />
Also, the moon is already underneath our feet.<br />
The time allotted us is now short,<br />
And there are other things to see that you have not seen.”<br />
<br />
I then replied, “If you had<br />
Waited for my reason for watching,<br />
Perhaps you would have allowed me to stay longer.”<br />
<br />
Meanwhile he went on, and I went behind him--<br />
Him being my lord--at which point I had already made my reply,<br />
Adding, “Inside that cave<br />
<br />
Where I just now held my eyes so intently,<br />
I believe a spirit of my own blood weeps over<br />
The guilt that exacts such a price down there.”<br />
<br />
My master then said, “Do not be distracted by<br />
Your thoughts of him from this point on.<br />
Attend to other things, as he will remain there.<br />
<br />
For I saw him at the foot of the bridge<br />
Pointing at you and threatening forcefully with his finger,<br />
And I heard him called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_Divine_Comedy#G">Geri del Bello</a>.<br />
<br />
You were so completely captivated at that point<br />
By <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertran_de_born">the one who once ruled Hautefort</a><br />
That you did not look that way. So he left.”<br />
<br />
“O my lord, the violent death,”<br />
I said, “that has not yet been avenged<br />
By any who share his blood, and with it his shame--<br />
<br />
This has made him indignant. Because of it, he went on<br />
Without speaking to me, or so I'm guessing.<br />
And in doing so he has made me feel more charitable toward him.”<br />
<br />
And so we talked as far as the closest point<br />
Where the next valley may be seen from the ridge--<br />
All the way to the bottom, if there had been more light.<br />
<br />
When we were above the final region<br />
Of Malebolge--so that its lay brothers<br />
Could be seen by us--<br />
<br />
I was beset upon by strange lamentations.<br />
These arrows were barbed with pity,<br />
And I covered my ears with my hands in response.<br />
<br />
This is what the misery would be, such as for the hospitals<br />
Of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valdichiana">Valdichiana</a> between July and September, <br />
As well as those of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maremma">Maremma</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sardinia">Sardinia</a>--the diseased ones<br />
<br />
Were all together in one ditch,<br />
Such as it was, and such a stench came from it--<br />
One that only comes from rotting limbs.<br />
<br />
We descended to the final bank<br />
Of the long cliff, still holding to the left,<br />
And then my sight became clearer looking<br />
<br />
Down to the bottom, where the lady minister<br />
Of the High Lord--<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Justice">unerring Justice</a>--<br />
Punishes the falsifiers whose names she records.<br />
<br />
I do not believe a sadder sight<br />
Was all the people sick in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegina">Aegina</a><br />
When the air was so full of malice<br />
<br />
That the animals, down to the tiny worm,<br />
All fell dead, and then the ancient people,<br />
As the poets hold firm,<br />
<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegina_(mythology)#Myrmidons">Were restored from the seed of ants</a>,<br />
As it was to see along that dark valley<br />
Spirits languishing in scattered heaps.<br />
<br />
One on his belly, and one on the shoulders<br />
Of another--this was how they were laying. And one on all fours<br />
Moved himself along the woeful path.<br />
<br />
Step by step we went without speaking,<br />
Watching and listening to the afflicted,<br />
Who could not lift up their bodies.<br />
<br />
I saw two sitting propped up against each other,<br />
Like a pan is propped against a pan for heating.<br />
They were pocked with scabs from head to foot.<br />
<br />
And I have never seen a currycomb used<br />
By a stableboy whose master waits for him,<br />
Nor one kept awake against one’s will,<br />
<br />
Like each continually brought the bite<br />
Of his nails upon himself from the great rage<br />
Of the itching that has no other relief.<br />
<br />
And so their nails were pulling off scabs<br />
Like the knife with the scales of a carp<br />
Or other fish that have larger ones.<br />
<br />
“O you who scrape off your hide with your fingers,”<br />
My Leader began saying to one of them,<br />
“And sometimes use them as pincers,<br />
<br />
Tell us if any Italian is among those<br />
Who are within here, so may your nails serve you<br />
Eternally in your labor.”<br />
<br />
“We are Italian, whom you see so disfigured<br />
here--both of us,” one replied while weeping.<br />
“But who are you that enquires of us?”<br />
<br />
And my leader said, “I am one who descends<br />
With this living man down through level to level,<br />
And I intend to show him Hell.”<br />
<br />
At that their support of each other was broken,<br />
And each one turned to me trembling<br />
Along with others who overheard him.<br />
<br />
The good master drew close to me,<br />
Saying, “Speak what you will to them.”<br />
And after turning to them, I began.<br />
<br />
So your memory may not fade<br />
From the minds of men in the living world,<br />
But live on under many suns,<br />
<br />
Tell me who you are, and of what people.<br />
Your horrid and nauseating punishment<br />
Should not frighten you into not revealing yourself.”<br />
<br />
I was from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arezzo">Arezzo</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_Divine_Comedy#Griffolino">Alberto of Siena</a><br />
Put me to death by fire,” one responded.<br />
“But what I died for is not what brings me here.<br />
<br />
It is true that I said to him, speaking in jest,<br />
‘I know how to rise through the air in flight.’<br />
And he, being eager and having little sense,<br />
<br />
Wanted me to show him the art. And only<br />
Because I did not make him into <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daedalus">Daedalus</a>, he had me<br />
Burned by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishop_of_Siena">the one who held him as a son</a>.<br />
<br />
But to the last bolgia of the ten with<br />
Me, for the alchemy I practiced in the world.<br />
That’s where I was delivered by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minos">Minos</a>, who does not err.”<br />
<br />
And I said to the poet, “Now was there ever<br />
A people as vain as the Sienese?<br />
Certainly not the French--by far!”<br />
<br />
The other leper, upon hearing this,<br />
Responded to my words: “Except for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_Divine_Comedy#Spendthrift">Stricca</a>,<br />
Who knew how to spend in moderation,<br />
<br />
And <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_Divine_Comedy#Spendthrift">Niccolò</a>--the expensive custom<br />
Of the clove was first discovered by him<br />
In the garden where such seeds take root<br />
<br />
And except that group who squandered, such as<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_Divine_Comedy#Spendthrift">Caccia d’Asciano</a> did with his vineyard and his great forest.<br />
It also included <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_Divine_Comedy#Spendthrift">the Blunderer</a>, who displayed his wisdom.<br />
<br />
But so you know who seconds you<br />
Against the Sienese, focus your eyes upon me,<br />
So that my face answers you well.<br />
<br />
You shall then see that I am the shade of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_Divine_Comedy#Capocchio">Capocchio</a>,<br />
Who counterfeited metals with alchemy.<br />
And you must remember, if I rightly make you out,<br />
<br />
How good a mimic I was of nature.”</div><p></p><br />
<em><a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2013/01/inferno-song-xxx.html">Continue to Song XXX</a></em><p></p>
R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-3833769116991393122012-06-25T18:57:00.000-04:002012-08-25T09:05:44.277-04:00Inferno, Song XXVIII<em>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After passing through the gates of Hell, they encounter the souls of the cowards who took no stand in conflicts between good and evil, and then proceed to Limbo, the realm of the noble or innocent souls who were not baptized or otherwise not believers in the Christian faith. Dante and Virgil then travel through the first circles of damnation and the city of Dis, which punish those who embrace earthly appetites and goods at God's expense. Upon leaving the city, Virgil explains the plan of Hell to Dante. The circles that follow hold, in descending order of heinousness, those who commit violence, fraud, and betrayal. In the circle of the Violent, they encounter murderers, merciless conquerors, suicides, and who squandered or destroyed their belongings. From there, they walk alongside a desert where fire rains down. It is the prison for those who were violent against God and nature, including blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers. Dante and Virgil then descend to next level of Hell on the back of Geryon, a flying monster. It is the circle of the fraudulent, and along the way, they encounter the panderers, seducers, flatterers, corrupt clergy, fortune-tellers, diviners, and grafters. The last are overseen a gaggle of demons, from whom Dante and Virgil must escape before encountering the religious hypocrites and the thieves. Next are the false counselors, whose punishment entails their transformation into moving pillars of fire. Their number includes Odysseus, who tells Virgil of his final voyage, and Guido da Montefeltro, who was damned by his sinister military advice to Pope Boniface VIII.</em><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FWCNlN8VJLQ/T-jsjemI7JI/AAAAAAAABKk/aRNHmKIugak/s1600/inf.28.119.dore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FWCNlN8VJLQ/T-jsjemI7JI/AAAAAAAABKk/aRNHmKIugak/s400/inf.28.119.dore.jpg" width="327" /></a><br />
<div align="center">
<em>Virgil and Dante encounter Bertran de Born</em></div>
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Who, even with unrestrained words, could ever</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Tell of the blood and wounds of punishment</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
That I saw--even if it had been described many times before?</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Every voice would certainly come up short,</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
For our speech and memory</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Lack the ability to entirely comprehend this.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
If all the people gathered again</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Who once, in the fateful land</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apulia">Apulia</a>, mourned <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samnite_Wars">the shedding of their blood</a><br />
<br />
By <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_of_Rome#Aeneas">those who were the Trojans</a>, and in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punic_wars">the long war</a><br />
That made such a high pile of rings--<br />
As <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livy">Livy</a> wrote, who does not err--<br />
<br />
Along with those who felt the piercing blows<br />
In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_conquest_of_southern_Italy">the struggle</a> with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Guiscard">Robert Guiscard</a>,<br />
As well as those whose bones are still heaped<br />
<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Benevento">At Ceperano, where treachery defined<br />
Every Pugliese</a>, and there by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tagliacozzo">Tagliacozzo</a>,<br />
Where <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erard_de_Vallery&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522erard%2Bde%2Bvallery%2522%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1275%26bih%3D617%26prmd%3Dimvnsb&sa=X&ei=htToT_SeAeOy2wX3o9mXCw&ved=0CEUQ7gEwAA">old Alardo</a> conquered without weapons.<br />
<br />
And if one’s wounded limb and another’s decapitated one<br />
Were shown, it would be nothing like<br />
It is in the foul ninth pit.<br />
<br />
A wine barrel that has lost its end and side<br />
Could never gape like that one whom I saw<br />
Torn from the chin to where one farts.<br />
.
<br />
The entrails hung between his legs.<br />
The organs could be seen, as well as the dismal sack<br />
That turns what is swallowed into shit.<br />
<br />
While I was staring at him,<br />
He looked at me and pulled his breast open with his hands,<br />
Saying, “Now look at how I rend myself!<br />
<br />
See how mangled <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed">Mohammed</a> is!<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali">Ali</a> walks crying ahead of me,<br />
His face split from chin to forelock.<br />
<br />
And all the others you see here,<br />
Sowers of scandal and schism<br />
They were in life, and therefore are so split open.<br />
<br />
Behind here is a devil who cuts us<br />
Most cruelly. The edge of his sword<br />
Is taken to each of our sort<br />
<br />
When we have made our round of the woeful path.<br />
For our wounds have again closed up<br />
Before any goes before him again.<br />
<br />
But who are you lingering on the ridge?<br />
Perhaps you are putting off going to the punishment<br />
You were sentenced to for your perjuries?<br />
<br />
“Death has not yet reached him, nor has guilt brought him<br />
To be tormented,” my master replied. <br />
“But in order to give him the breadth of experience,<br />
<br />
I, who am dead, must bring him down here<br />
From circle to circle through Hell.<br />
This is as true as my speaking to you now.<br />
<br />
There were more than a hundred who, upon hearing this,<br />
Stopped in the pit to look at me,<br />
Forgetting their torment as they marveled.<br />
<br />
“Then tell <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fra_Dolcino">Fra Dolcino</a> to arm himself,<br />
You who may shortly see the sun,<br />
If he does not want to follow me here soon.<br />
<br />
He should do so with food, so winter’s hardship<br />
Does not bring victory to the Novarese.<br />
For otherwise conquest would not be easy.”<br />
<br />
His foot was raised to continue onward when<br />
Mohammed said these words to me.<br />
He then extended it to the ground to leave.<br />
<br />
Another, whose throat was slit,<br />
His nose cut off just below his eyebrows,<br />
And who had only one ear left,<br />
<br />
Stopped to look and marvel<br />
With the others, and standing in front of them, he opened his windpipe,<br />
Leaving it all bloody on the outside.<br />
<br />
He said, “O you whom guilt has not condemned,<br />
And whom I saw above in the Italian land--<br />
If too great a similarity does not deceive me--<br />
<br />
Remember <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_Divine_Comedy#Pier">Pier da Medecina</a><br />
If you ever return to see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pianura_padana">the sweet plain</a><br />
That slopes from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vercelli">Vercelli</a> to <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercab%25C3%25B2&prev=/search%3Fq%3DSiccome%2Bfu%2Bconquistato%2Be%2Braso%2Bal%2Bsuolo%2Bdai%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1275%26bih%3D617%26prmd%3Dimvns&sa=X&ei=3t_oT8ayB8OC2AXxr-DvDQ&ved=0CFMQ7gEwAA">Mercabò</a>.<br />
<br />
And make it known to the two best men of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fano">Fano</a>--<br />
<a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guido_I_del_Cassero&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dguido%2Bdel%2Bcassero%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1275%26bih%3D617%26prmd%3Dimvnsb&sa=X&ei=o-HoT9C5PIiq2gWxn_D3DQ&ved=0CEgQ7gEwAA">Sir Guido</a> and <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angiolello_da_Carignano&prev=/search%3Fq%3DAngiolello%2Bdi%2BCarignano%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1275%26bih%3D617%26prmd%3Dimvnsb&sa=X&ei=9eHoT86YDZP02wX6vsHbDQ&ved=0CE8Q7gEwAA">Angiolello</a>, too--<br />
That, unless our foresight here is for naught,<br />
<br />
They shall be thrown from their ship<br />
And drowned near <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattolica">La Cattolica</a><br />
Through the treachery of an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malatestino_Malatesta">evil tyrant</a>.<br />
<br />
From the islands of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyprus">Cyprus</a> to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majorca">Majorca</a>,<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neptune_(mythology)">Neptune</a> never saw so great a crime,<br />
Not from pirates, nor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achaeans_(Homer)">the men of Greece</a>.<br />
<br />
That <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malatestino_Malatesta">traitor who sees with only one eye</a><br />
And rules the land this one with me<br />
Would just as soon not seen,<br />
<br />
Will bring them to a meeting with him.<br />
And then deal with them so that, when it comes to the wind of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesaro">Focara</a>,<br />
They will not have need of vow or prayer.”<br />
<br />
And I to him: “Show him to me and explain,<br />
If you want me to carry news of you above,<br />
Who is the one to whom the sight was bitter.”<br />
<br />
He then placed his hand on the jaw<br />
Of one of his companions and opened the mouth,<br />
Crying, “This is the man, and he does not speak.<br />
<br />
This one, exiled, quelled doubts<br />
In Caesar, asserting that one prepared<br />
Always suffers by waiting so.”<br />
<br />
Oh, how terrifying he appeared to me,<br />
With his tongue cut out at the throat--<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_Scribonius_Curio#Junior">Curio</a>, whose words were <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar%27s_Civil_War">so bold</a>!<br />
<br />
And one who had both hands cut off,<br />
Lifting the stumps through the murky air<br />
So that the blood befouled his face,<br />
<br />
He cried out, “Remember <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosca_dei_Lamberti&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dmosca%2Blamberti%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1275%26bih%3D617%26prmd%3Dimvns&sa=X&ei=1-foT63xBoOY2AXatMzlDQ&ved=0CFUQ7gEwAA">Mosca</a>, too,<br />
Who said, alas, ‘Actions have consequences!,’<br />
Which <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosca_dei_Lamberti&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dmosca%2Blamberti%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1275%26bih%3D617%26prmd%3Dimvns&sa=X&ei=1-foT63xBoOY2AXatMzlDQ&ved=0CFUQ7gEwAA">sowed a terrible seed</a> for the Tuscan people.”<br />
<br />
But I stayed to watch the throng,<br />
And I saw something I should fear,<br />
Without more proof, to describe by myself.<br />
<br />
However, I am reassured by my conscience,<br />
That good companion that emboldens a man<br />
Beneath the armor of the honesty he feels.<br />
<br />
I certainly saw it, and I feel I see it still--<br />
A trunk without a head making its way along with<br />
The others who went with that sad herd.<br />
<br />
And it held the decapitated head by the hair,<br />
Swinging from its hand like a lantern.<br />
And it looked at us and said, “Oh, me!”<br />
<br />
Of itself it made for itself a lamp,<br />
And they were two in one and one in two.<br />
How it can be, He who commanded it knows.<br />
<br />
When this one was directly below the bridge,<br />
It raised the arm holding the head high<br />
In order for its words to be better heard.<br />
<br />
Those were: “Now gaze upon my terrible punishment,<br />
You who, breathing, go gazing upon the dead.<br />
See if any other is as great as this.<br />
<br />
And so you may carry news of me,<br />
Know that I am <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertran_de_born">Bertran de Born</a>, he<br />
Who <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertran_de_born#Later_literary_image">gave evil encouragement</a> to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_the_Young_King">the young king</a>.<br />
<br />
I set <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_II_of_England">father</a> and son against each other.<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahitophel">Achitophel</a> did not do worse to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absalom">Absalom</a><br />
And <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_(biblical_king)">David</a> with his evil incitements.<br />
<br />
Because I parted those joined souls,<br />
I carry my head parted, alas,<br />
From its roots in my trunk.<br />
<br />
And so the counterpenalty is seen in me.</div><br/ >
<br />
<em><a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2012/08/inferno-song-xxix.html">Continue to Song XXIX</a></em>R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-92092141685731141902012-02-13T21:33:00.000-05:002012-06-25T19:00:35.467-04:00Inferno, Song XXVII<p></p><em>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After passing through the gates of Hell, they encounter the souls of the cowards who took no stand in conflicts between good and evil, and then proceed to Limbo, the realm of the noble or innocent souls who were not baptized or otherwise not believers in the Christian faith. Dante and Virgil then travel through the first circles of damnation and the city of Dis, which punish those who embrace earthly appetites and goods at God's expense. Upon leaving the city, Virgil explains the plan of Hell to Dante. The circles that follow hold, in descending order of heinousness, those who commit violence, fraud, and betrayal. In the circle of the Violent, they encounter murderers, merciless conquerors, suicides, and who squandered or destroyed their belongings. From there, they walk alongside a desert where fire rains down. It is the prison for those who were violent against God and nature, including blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers. Dante and Virgil then descend to next level of Hell on the back of Geryon, a flying monster. It is the circle of the fraudulent, and along the way, they encounter the panderers, seducers, flatterers, corrupt clergy, fortune-tellers, diviners, and grafters. The last are overseen a gaggle of demons, from whom Dante and Virgil must escape before encountering the religious hypocrites and the thieves. Next are the false counselors, whose punishment entails their transformation into moving pillars of fire. Their number includes Odysseus, who tells Virgil of his final voyage.</em></p><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l88gFHZiaVY/TznYZEOl1SI/AAAAAAAABD4/a_FhfHbpQOs/s1600/inferno_27_lutero.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 325px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l88gFHZiaVY/TznYZEOl1SI/AAAAAAAABD4/a_FhfHbpQOs/s400/inferno_27_lutero.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708831927812085026" /></a><p align="center"><em>Guido da Montefeltro in flames</em></p> <br /><p align="center">Now calm and standing tall, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odysseus">the flame</a><br />Spoke no more. It then left us<br />With the consent of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgil">the kind poet</a>.<br /><br />Then, another coming along behind<br />Made us turn our eyes toward its tip<br />By a confused sound that came out of it.<br /><br />The sound was like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_Bull">the Sicilian bull</a>--which first bellowed<br />Justly with the cries of him<br />Who sculpted it with his file-- <br /><br />Bellowed with the voice of its victim<br />In a way that, despite being made entirely of brass,<br />It still seemed impaled by sorrow.<br /><br />And so, since there was no path or exit<br />From their origin within the fire, it was into the fire’s language that<br />The pathetic words were converted.<br /><br />But after they had made their journey<br />Up through the point, giving it that vibration<br />The tongue had once given with the passage of words,<br /><br />We heard it say, “O you to whom I direct<br />My voice, and who was speaking in Lombard,<br />Saying, ‘Go your way, I am not asking more,’<br /><br />While I perhaps have joined you somewhat late,<br />Don’t let it irk you to stay and speak with me.<br />You see it doesn’t irk me, and I burn!<br /><br />If now, into this blind world, you<br />Have fallen from that sweet land<br />Of Italy from where I bring all my guilt,<br /><br />Tell me if <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romagna#Papal_rule">the Romagnoles</a> are at peace or war,<br />As I was from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apennine_Mountains">the hills</a> there between <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbino">Urbino</a><br />And the pass from which <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiber">the Tiber</a> pours.”<br /><br />I was still crouched down and listening<br />When my leader tapped me on the side and<br />Said, “You speak. This one is Italian.”<br /><br />And I, who was already prepared to answer,<br />Began to speak without hesitation: <br />“O soul who is hidden down there,<br /><br />Your Romagna is not, and never was,<br />Without war in the hearts of its tyrants.<br />But none was showing itself when I left just now.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravenna">Ravenna</a> stands as it has for many years.<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamberto_I_da_Polenta">The eagle of Polenta</a> broods over it,<br />And covers <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cervia">Cervia</a> with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernardino_da_Polenta">its pinions</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forlì">The land</a> that once endured the long siege<br />And left the French in a bloody heap,<br />Again finds itself underneath <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Ordelaffi">the green claws</a>.<br /><br />The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malatesta_da_Verucchio">Old</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malatestino_Malatesta">Young Mastiff</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verucchio">Verrucchio</a>,<br />Who treated <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montagna">Montagna</a> with evil,<br />Sunk their teeth in the way they always do.<br /><br />The cities along the <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamone_(fiume)&ei=XtA5T-HQMoT2ggfg582aCw&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCQQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dlamone%2Bfiume%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D620%26prmd%3Dimvnso">Lamone</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santerno">Santerno</a><br />Are ruled by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maghinardo_Pagani">the Young Lion of the White Lair</a>,<br />Who shifts sides from summer to winter.<br /><br />And <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesena">that one</a> whose flank is bathed by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savio_(river)">the Savio</a>,<br />As it lies between the plain and the mountain,<br />So it lives between tyranny and freedom.<br /><br />Now who are you? I pray you tell us.<br />Do not be more unyielding than another has been.<br />Have your name maintain its fame in the world.”<br /><br />After the fire had roared some<br />In its manner, it moved its sharp point<br />From here, from there, and then breathed like so:<br /><br />If I believed my answer would be<br />To one who might ever return to the world,<br />This flame would stand without further movement.<br /><br />But since never from this depth,<br />If I have heard the truth, has one returned alive,<br />I reply without fear of infamy.<br /><br />I was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guido_da_Montefeltro">a man of arms</a>, and then I was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franciscan">a corded friar</a>.<br />I thought, being so belted, I would make amends.<br />And indeed, my belief should have come to be<br /><br />If it had not been for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boniface_VIII">the great priest</a>--may evil take him!--<br />Who set me back to my earlier sins.<br />And how and why, I want you to hear from me.<br /><br />While I was still made of the flesh and bone<br />My mother gave me, my deeds<br />Were not of the lion, but of the fox.<br /><br />The tricks and the covert ways--<br />I knew them all, and practiced their arts in such a way<br />That it resounded to the ends of the earth.<br /><br />When I saw myself reach that part<br />Of my life when one should<br />Lower the sails and gather the ropes,<br /><br />That which I had enjoyed before then grieved me,<br />And penitent and confessed I gave over.<br />Oh, woe is me--how I would have been rewarded!<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boniface_VIII">The prince of the new Pharisees</a>,<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonna_family#Early_history">Making war near the Lateran</a>,<br />And not with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saracen">Saracens</a> nor the Jews.<br /><br />For all of his enemies were Christian.<br />None had been at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acre,_Israel#Arab_and_Crusader_periods">conquest of Acre</a>,<br />Nor traded in the land of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan">the Sultan</a>.<br /><br />Neither the supreme office nor the sacred orders<br />Did he consider when it came to himself, nor with me that cord<br />That once made its wearers leaner.<br /><br />But as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_I">Constantine</a> sought out <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Sylvester_I">Sylvester</a><br />In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soracte">Soracte</a> to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donation_of_Constantine">cure his leprosy</a>,<br />So this one sought out me to be the doctor<br /><br />To cure his pride’s fever.<br />He asked for my counsel, and I was silent,<br />For his words seemed drunken.<br /><br />And then he again spoke, ‘Do not allow your heart to be suspicious.<br />I absolve you in advance, so instruct me in<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestrina#Later_history">How to drive Palestrina into the ground</a>.<br /><br />I can lock and unlock Heaven<br />As you know, for there are two keys<br />That <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestine_V">my predecessor</a> did not value.’<br /><br />Then his weighty arguments drove me<br />To where silence seemed the worse advice,<br />So I said, “Father, since you cleanse me<br /><br />Of that sin into which I now must fall,<br />Broad promises briefly honored<br />Will reap you triumph on your throne.’<br /><br />Then, when I was dead, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_Assisi">Francis</a> came<br />For me. But one of the black cherubim<br />Said to him, 'Do not take him; do not cheat me.<br /><br />He must come down among my minions<br />Because he counseled fraud.<br />From then till now I have been by his scalp's fringe.<br /><br />One who does not repent cannot be absolved.<br />Nor can one decide to do something and repent at the same time.<br />The contradiction is not permitted.’<br /><br />O wretched me! How I shuddered<br />When I was taken. He said to me, “Perhaps<br />It did not occur to you that I was a logician!”<br /><br />He carried me off to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minos#In_poetry">Minos</a>. That one coiled<br />His tail eight times around his scaly back,<br />And after biting it in a great rage,<br /><br />He said, ‘This is one of the wicked of the thieves’ fire.’<br />As such, I am lost where you see me,<br />And so draped, I walk in bitterness.”<br /><br />When he had finished his words,<br />The sorrowful flame left,<br />The pointed horn twisting and writhing.<br /><br />We passed onward, my leader and I,<br />Over through the ridge to the next arch,<br />Which spanned the ditch where the price is paid <br /><br />By those who earned imprisonment by sowing discord.</p>
<br/ >
<br />
<em><a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2012/06/inferno-song-xxviii.html">Continue to Song XXVIII</a></em>R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-78895709131040474822011-12-06T17:27:00.000-05:002012-02-13T22:51:05.174-05:00Inferno, Song XXVI<p></p><em>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After passing through the gates of Hell, they encounter the souls of the cowards who took no stand in conflicts between good and evil, and then proceed to Limbo, the realm of the noble or innocent souls who were not baptized or otherwise not believers in the Christian faith. Dante and Virgil then travel through the first circles of damnation and the city of Dis, which punish those who embrace earthly appetites and goods at God's expense. Upon leaving the city, Virgil explains the plan of Hell to Dante. The circles that follow hold, in descending order of heinousness, those who commit violence, fraud, and betrayal. In the circle of the Violent, they encounter murderers, merciless conquerors, suicides, and who squandered or destroyed their belongings. From there, they walk alongside a desert where fire rains down. It is the prison for those who were violent against God and nature, including blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers. Dante and Virgil then descend to next level of Hell on the back of Geryon, a flying monster. It is the circle of the fraudulent, and along the way, they encounter the panderers, seducers, flatterers, corrupt clergy, fortune-tellers, diviners, and grafters. The last are overseen a gaggle of demons, from whom Dante and Virgil must escape before encountering the religious hypocrites. The poets then move on to encounter the thieves, who are beset upon by snakes whose bite transforms them.</em></p><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-deb_xiSfdUw/Tt6Z9EIlvVI/AAAAAAAAA5Q/WCrUwX5JMdQ/s1600/inf_26.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 364px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-deb_xiSfdUw/Tt6Z9EIlvVI/AAAAAAAAA5Q/WCrUwX5JMdQ/s400/inf_26.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5683149054148984146" /></a><p align="center"><em>Dante and Virgil look down at Odysseus and the other evil counselors</em></p> <br /><br /><p align="center">Rejoice, Florence, as you are so great<br />That you beat your wings over sea and land,<br />And through Hell itself your name spreads far and wide!<br /><br />Among the thieves, I found five such<br />Citizens of yours, making me ashamed.<br />And you do not ascend to great honor.<br /><br />But if we dream the truth near morning,<br />You shall soon feel <br />What Prato, not to mention others, wishes for you.<br /><br />And if it had already happened, it would not be too soon.<br />So let it happen, since it must!<br />For it will weigh upon me as I grow older.<br /><br />We left the place, and by the stairway<br />Made by the jutting rocks by which we descended before,<br />My Leader again climbed up and pulled me after him.<br /><br />And, proceeding along the lonely way<br />Between the ridge’s crags and rocks,<br />The foot did not move forward without the hand.<br /><br />I grieved then, and now I grieve again<br />When I turn my mind to what I saw,<br />And I bridle my talent more than I am accustomed.<br /><br />This is so I do not let it run where virtue does not guide it.<br />So if a gracious star or something better<br />Has given me this gift, I do not begrudge it to myself.<br /><br />As many fireflies as the peasant, resting himself upon <br />the hillside sees below throughout <br />The valley—perhaps there where he harvests grapes and tills<br /><br />The land—at the time when the one who lights <br />The world keeps his face least hidden<br />To us, at that time when the fly gives way to the mosquito,<br /><br />In this way all was resplendent with the many flames in<br />The eighth pit, which I perceived as<br />Soon as I made it to the place where the bottom was visible.<br /><br />And like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisha#Biblical_biography">the one avenged by bears</a><br />Saw the chariot of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah">Elijah</a> departing<br />When the horses reared and climbed to heaven,<br /><br />And who could not follow it with his eyes<br />Beyond seeing anything but the flame alone—<br />It was like a small cloud climbing upward—<br /><br />So each moves through the mouth<br />Of the ditch. For none shows its theft,<br />And every flame steals a sinner.<br /><br />I was standing on the bridge to see from above.<br />As it was, if I had not held fast to a jutting rock,<br />I would have fallen below without being pushed.<br /><br />And my Leader, who saw me so intent,<br />Said, “The spirits are inside the flames;<br />Each is bound in that which burns him.”<br /><br />“My Master,” I replied, “Hearing your words <br />Makes me more certain, but I already thought<br />That was so, and I still want to ask you:<br /><br />Who is in the flame that becomes so split<br />At the top that it seems to rise from the pyre<br />Where <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eteocles">Eteocles</a> was laid with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynices">his brother</a>?”<br /><br />He responded, “Tormented inside there are<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odysseus">Odysseus</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diomedes">Diomedes</a>, and so together<br />They submit to vengeance as they once did to wrath.<br /><br />And inside their flame they lament<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_horse">The ruse of the horse</a> that created the door<br />Through which <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy#Homeric_Troy">the noble seed of the Romans</a> came.<br /><br />Inside it they mourn the guile that causes, even in death,<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deidamia_(mythology)">Deidamia</a> to still grieve for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achilles">Achilles</a>.<br />And it is the way they are punished for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palladium_(mythology)">Palladium</a>.”<br /><br />“If, from within those flames, they are able<br />To speak,” I said, “Master, I so pray to you,<br />And pray again that my prayer becomes a thousand,<br /><br />That you forbid my waiting<br />Until the horned flame comes here.<br />You see how my yearning draws me towards it!”<br /><br />And he replied, “Your prayer is deserving<br />Of much praise, and therefore I accede to it.<br />But hold your tongue.<br /><br />Leave speaking to me, for I understand<br />What you want. Since they were Greeks,<br />They might be put off by your saying it.”<br /><br />When the flame had come to<br />Where it appeared to my leader the proper time and place,<br />I heard him speak with these words:<br /><br />“O you who are two within one flame,<br />If I was worthy of you while I lived,<br />If I was worthy of you a great deal or a little<br /><br />When in the world I wrote my high verses,<br />Do not move along. Rather, let one of you say<br />Where he, being lost, went to die.”<br /><br />The greater horn of the ancient flame<br />Began to shake and murmur—<br />Just like it was being set upon by the wind.<br /><br />Then, moving the tip back and forth<br />Like a tongue speaking,<br />It sent forth a voice and said, “When<br /><br />I parted from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circe#Homer.27s_Odyssey">Circe</a>, who detained<br />Me more than a year there near <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaeta">Gaeta</a><br />Before <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeneas">Aeneas</a> named the place that,<br /><br />Not fondness for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telemachus">my son</a>, not duty<br />To <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laertes">my elderly father</a>, not the love I owed<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penelope">Penelope</a> to make her content,<br /><br />Could conquer within me the passion<br />I had to gain knowledge of the world<br />And the vices and value of humanity.<br /><br />But I set out on the high, open sea<br />With only one ship and that small<br />Crew who had not deserted me.<br /><br />I saw one shore after another all the way to Spain,<br />As far as Morocco, including the island of Sardinia <br />And the others the sea bathed all around.<br /><br />My crew and I were old and slow<br />When we came to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straits_of_gibraltar">that narrow strait</a><br />Where <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules">Hercules</a> set up his landmarks<br /><br />Indicating where men should not venture beyond.<br />On my right hand I left <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seville">Seville</a> behind,<br />And on the other I had already left <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceuta">Ceuta</a>.<br /><br />‘O brothers,’ I said, ‘who through a hundred thousand<br />Perils have reached the West,<br />To this so brief vigil<br /><br />Of our remaining senses.<br />Do not wish to deny experience<br />Behind the sun, in the world without people.<br /><br />Consider your heritage.<br />You were not born to live like brutes, <br />But to pursue virtue and knowledge.’<br /><br />I made my crew so eager<br />For the journey with this little speech<br />That I hardly could have restrained them.<br /><br />We then turned our stern toward the dawn,<br />Making wings of our oars in this mad flight,<br />Always gaining on the left-hand side.<br /><br />All the stars of the other pole were now<br />Seen by the night, and our own was so low<br />That it did not rise from the ocean floor.<br /><br />Five times rekindled and as often put out<br />Had the light been beneath the moon<br />Since we had entered the great passage,<br /><br />When <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purgatory#Purgatory_as_a_physical_place">a mountain</a> appeared before us, dark<br />In the distance, and it seemed so tall—<br />Higher than I had ever seen before.<br /><br />We cheered, and soon turned to tears.<br />For a storm rose from the newfound land<br />And struck the front of the ship.<br /><br />Three times it whirled us around with all the waters.<br />The fourth time it raised the stern upward,<br />And moved the prow below, as it pleased the Other,<br /><br />Until the sea again closed over us.</p><br /><br /><em><a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2012/02/inferno-song-xxvii.html">Continue to Song XXVII</a></em><p></p>R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-52223726332839607022011-09-11T17:27:00.000-04:002011-12-06T18:20:20.563-05:00Inferno, Song XXV<p></p><em>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After passing through the gates of Hell, they encounter the souls of the cowards who took no stand in conflicts between good and evil, and then proceed to Limbo, the realm of the noble or innocent souls who were not baptized or otherwise not believers in the Christian faith. Dante and Virgil then travel through the first circles of damnation and the city of Dis, which punish those who embrace earthly appetites and goods at God's expense. Upon leaving the city, Virgil explains the plan of Hell to Dante. The circles that follow hold, in descending order of heinousness, those who commit violence, fraud, and betrayal. In the circle of the Violent, they encounter murderers, merciless conquerors, suicides, and who squandered or destroyed their belongings. From there, they walk alongside a desert where fire rains down. It is the prison for those who were violent against God and nature, including blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers. Dante and Virgil then descend to next level of Hell on the back of Geryon, a flying monster. It is the circle of the fraudulent, and along the way, they encounter the panderers, seducers, flatterers, corrupt clergy, fortune-tellers, diviners, and grafters. The last are overseen a gaggle of demons, from whom Dante and Virgil must escape before encountering the religious hypocrites. The poets then move on to encounter the thieves, who are beset upon by snakes whose bite transforms them. One thief, Vanni Fucci, tells Dante a dark prophecy about Florence.</em></p><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uvAHQBc9gHE/Tm0o1itvnCI/AAAAAAAAA20/RWIWzlUpal0/s1600/inf_25.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 297px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uvAHQBc9gHE/Tm0o1itvnCI/AAAAAAAAA20/RWIWzlUpal0/s400/inf_25.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5651218007736687650" /></a><p align="center"><em>The transformation of Agnello Brunelleschi</em></p> <br /><br /><p align="center">At the end of his words, the thief<br />Raised his hands--both of them <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fig_sign#International_nomenclature">figs</a>--<br />And cried, “Take that, God, for they’re aimed directly at you!<br /><br />From that point forward, the serpents were my friends,<br />For one wound itself around his neck, <br />As if to say, “You shall speak no more.”<br /><br />And another went around his arms, and bound him again,<br />Clinching itself the same in front <br />So he could not move them.<br /><br />Oh <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistoia#History">Pistoia</a>, Pistoia! Why do you not condemn<br />Yourself to burning and continue no longer,<br />Since you have gone beyond <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catiline">your seed</a> in evildoing?<br /><br />Throughout all the dark circles of Hell<br />I did not see a spirit so arrogant towards God,<br />Not even <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capaneus">the one who fell from the walls of Thebes</a>.<br /><br />He fled without saying another word,<br />And I saw a centaur full of rage<br />Come, calling out, “Where is he, where is the bitter one?”<br /><br />I do not believe <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maremma">Maremma</a> has as many<br />Snakes as he had upon his back<br />Up to where our human form begins.<br /><br />Upon his shoulders, behind the back of his neck,<br />Lay a dragon with open wings,<br />And it set fire to any who got in the way.<br /><br />My master said, “This is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cacus">Cacus</a>,<br />Who beneath the rock of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aventine">Mount Aventine</a><br />Often made a lake of blood.<br /><br />He does not walk the same path as his brothers,<br />Due to the theft--achieved by fraud--<br />Of the great herd that neighbored him.<br /><br />This led to the end of his wicked doings<br />Under the club of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules">Hercules</a>, who struck<br />Him perhaps a hundred times, and he did not feel ten.”<br /><br />While he spoke, the centaur went past,<br />And three spirits showed up below us.<br />Neither me nor my leader noticed them<br /><br />Until they cried, “Who are you?”<br />At which our conversation broke off,<br />And we then gave all our attention to them.<br /><br />I did not know them. But it happened<br />As it often happens by some chance:<br />One proceeded to name another,<br /><br />Saying, “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_Divine_Comedy#Cianfa">Cianfa</a>--where has he left himself?”<br />At that, so my leader would continue paying attention,<br />I put my finger to my chin and nose.<br /><br />If, Reader, you are now slow to believe<br />What I shall tell, it will be no wonder,<br />For I who saw it can barely admit it to myself.<br /><br />While I kept my eyes fixed on them,<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_Divine_Comedy#Cianfa">A serpent with six feet</a> jumped<br />In front of one and gripped him all over.<br /><br />It clasped the belly with its middle feet,<br />And with the front ones held the arms.<br />It then bit into both cheeks.<br /><br />It extended the hind feet upon his thighs,<br />And thrust its tail between them,<br />And stretched it up behind over the loins.<br /><br />Ivy never clung<br />To a tree as tightly as the horrible beast<br />Entwined the other’s limbs with its own.<br /><br />They then melted together--they were<br />Like hot wax--and, mixing their colors,<br />Neither one nor the other now appeared as they had been.<br /><br />It was like, ahead of the flame burning<br />on a piece of paper, a dark color appearing<br />That is not yet black while the white perishes.<br /><br /><a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buoso_Donati&ei=dDBtTrvQDYKksQL2rZypBA&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCkQ7gEwAg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dbuoso%2Bdonati%2Bwikipedia%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1113%26bih%3D631%26prmd%3Divns">The other two</a> watched this, and <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puccio_Sciancato&ei=3C9tTp-1OeqqsQKf_MWlBA&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=7&sqi=2&ved=0CEcQ7gEwBg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dpuccio%2Bsciancato%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1113%26bih%3D631%26prmd%3Divnsb">each one</a><br />Cried out, “Oh my, <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnello_Brunelleschi&ei=2TBtTpGeOsO3sQKqj7W_BA&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBwQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dagnello%2Bbrunelleschi%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1113%26bih%3D631%26prmd%3Divnsb">Agnello</a>, how you are changing!<br />Look at how already you are neither two nor one.”<br /><br />The heads had now become one,<br />As the two shapes appeared to us blended<br />Into one face in which both were lost.<br /><br />The two arms were made of the four limbs;<br />The thighs with the legs, and the belly and the chest<br />Became members that had never before been seen.<br /><br />All their original features were erased:<br />Both and neither the perverted shape <br />Appeared. At that point, it slowly moved away.<br /><br />Like the lizard under the great scourge<br />Of summer’s dog days, jumping between hedges,<br />Seeming like lightning as it crosses the road,<br /><br />So appeared, heading toward the bellies<br />Of the other two, <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_de'_Cavalcanti&ei=FzFtTonYCfDD0AHZ3pmcBQ&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBwQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dfrancesco%2Bcavalcanti%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1113%26bih%3D631%26prmd%3Divnsob">a fiery snakeling</a>,<br />Black and as like a bruise as a peppercorn.<br /><br />And at that part from which we first take<br />Our nourishment, it bit one, leaving him transfixed.<br />It then dropped in front of him, laying sprawled out.<br /><br />The transfixed one stared at it, but said nothing.<br />He just stood still and yawned,<br />As if sleep or fever had seized him.<br /><br />The serpent stared at him, and he stared at the serpent.<br />From the wound of one and the mouth of the other,<br />Smoke poured out, and the plumes collided.<br /><br />Let <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucan">Lucan</a> be silent now with his stories<br />About poor <a href="http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/textpopup/inf2501.html">Sabellus and Nasidius</a>,<br />And let him wait to hear what comes now.<br /><br />Let <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovid">Ovid</a> be silent about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmus#Founder_of_Thebes">Cadmus</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arethusa_(mythology)">Arethusa</a>,<br />For if the former into a serpent and her into a fountain<br />They are transformed in his poetry, I do not envy him.<br /><br />For two natures never from face to face<br />Had he transformed so that both forms<br />Were ready to exchange their substance.<br /><br />They responded as one in this way:<br />The serpent split its tail into a fork,<br />And the wounded one brought his feet together.<br /><br />The legs became one at the thighs,<br />So adhering themselves that soon the juncture<br />Did not show a sign of itself.<br /><br />The cleft tail took the form<br />That was lost there so, and its skin<br />Became soft, and the other’s hard.<br /><br />I saw the arms recede into the armpits,<br />And the beast’s two paws, which were short,<br />Lengthen as much as the other one’s shortened.<br /><br />Then the hind feet, they twisted together.<br />They became the member that man conceals,<br />And the wretch from his own brought forth two.<br /><br />While the smoke veils each of them<br />With new color, and grows the hair out <br />On the one and strips it out from the other,<br /><br />The one rose and the other fell down.<br />However, neither turned away from the wicked beacon<br />Underneath which they exchanged faces.<br /><br />The one who was standing drew his toward the temples,<br />And from the excess matter that resulted,<br />The ears came out from the smooth cheeks.<br /><br />The matter that stayed and didn’t go back there,<br />A nose for the face was made from that excess,<br />And the lips thickened to their appropriate size.<br /><br />The one who was lying down thrust his face forward,<br />And his ears drew back into his head <br />Like the snail does with its horns.<br /><br />As for his tongue, which was whole and given over<br />‘til then to speech, it split, and the forked one<br />Of the other fused together. The smoke then stopped.<br /><br /><a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buoso_Donati&ei=dDBtTrvQDYKksQL2rZypBA&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCkQ7gEwAg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dbuoso%2Bdonati%2Bwikipedia%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1113%26bih%3D631%26prmd%3Divns">The soul that had become a beast</a><br />Fled hissing through the valley,<br />With <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_de'_Cavalcanti&ei=FzFtTonYCfDD0AHZ3pmcBQ&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBwQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dfrancesco%2Bcavalcanti%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1113%26bih%3D631%26prmd%3Divnsob">the other behind him</a> talking and spitting.<br /><br />He then turned his new shoulders<br />And said to the other: “I’ll have Buoso run,<br />As I have done, on all fours down this road.”<br /><br />Thus ended my seeing the seventh bottom feeder<br />Change and transform, and pardon<br />My pen if the strangeness has made it falter.<br /><br />And though my eyes were confused<br />To an extent, and my mind bewildered,<br />These ones could not flee without my notice.<br /><br />The one whom I did not clearly see was <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puccio_Sciancato&ei=3C9tTp-1OeqqsQKf_MWlBA&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=7&sqi=2&ved=0CEcQ7gEwBg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dpuccio%2Bsciancato%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1113%26bih%3D631%26prmd%3Divnsb">Puccio Sciancato</a>,<br />And he was the only one of the three companions<br />We first saw who had not changed.<br /><br />The other, <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Hqc5tXPUjI0C&pg=PA417&lpg=PA417&dq=gaville+cavalcanti&source=bl&ots=hi9EYI044u&sig=rf-0bHRs-KfLcSw54wxgc6ENi2w&hl=en&ei=0jRtTtGbAqbL0QGl9fn5CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=gaville&f=false">Gaville</a>, was <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_de'_Cavalcanti&ei=FzFtTonYCfDD0AHZ3pmcBQ&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBwQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dfrancesco%2Bcavalcanti%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1113%26bih%3D631%26prmd%3Divnsob">the one who made you mourn</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2011/12/inferno-song-xxvi.html"><em>Continue to Song XXVI</em></a><p></p>R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-64280004446847645902011-03-06T19:34:00.000-05:002011-09-11T17:36:34.153-04:00Inferno, Song XXIV<p></p><em>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After passing through the gates of Hell, they encounter the souls of the cowards who took no stand in conflicts between good and evil, and then proceed to Limbo, the realm of the noble or innocent souls who were not baptized or otherwise not believers in the Christian faith. Dante and Virgil then travel through the first circles of damnation and the city of Dis, which punish those who embrace earthly appetites and goods at God's expense. Upon leaving the city, Virgil explains the plan of Hell to Dante. The circles that follow hold, in descending order of heinousness, those who commit violence, fraud, and betrayal. In the circle of the Violent, they encounter murderers, merciless conquerors, suicides, and who squandered or destroyed their belongings. From there, they walk alongside a desert where fire rains down. It is the prison for those who were violent against God and nature, including blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers. Dante and Virgil then descend to next level of Hell on the back of Geryon, a flying monster. It is the circle of the fraudulent, and along the way, they encounter the panderers, seducers, flatterers, corrupt clergy, fortune-tellers, diviners, and grafters. The last are overseen a gaggle of demons, from whom Dante and Virgil must escape before they move on to encounter the religious hypocrites.</em></p><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NHN1S_sVsEw/TXQ7F-NL-kI/AAAAAAAAAyA/u8WMJvZcbJg/s1600/gustave_dore_dante_thieves.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 312px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NHN1S_sVsEw/TXQ7F-NL-kI/AAAAAAAAAyA/u8WMJvZcbJg/s400/gustave_dore_dante_thieves.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5581150812002581058" /></a><p align="center"><em>The pit of thieves, where they are tortured by serpents.</em></p><br /><br /><p align="center">In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_(month)">that part of the budding year</a><br />When the sun brightens its tresses under Aquarius<br />And the long nights are already heading south,<br /><br />When the frost on the ground copies<br />The image of her white sister,<br />Although her pen’s point only lasts a little while.<br /><br />The peasant who is lacking fodder<br />Rises and looks out and sees the countryside<br />Has turned all white, at which he smacks his thigh,<br /><br />Goes back into the house, and complains here and there<br />Like a wretch who doesn’t know what to do.<br />He then goes back and regains hope,<br /><br />Seeing the world has changed its face<br />In a short time, and takes his staff<br />To lead his lambs out to pasture.<br /><br />My master left me dismayed in this way<br />When I saw his lowered face,<br />And the plaster also came quickly to the sore.<br /><br />For when we came to the bridge’s ruins,<br />My leader turned to me with that look<br />Of sweetness that I first saw at the foot of the mountain.<br /><br />He opened his arms, after some plan<br />He had decided on after first looking at<br />The ruin for a good bit. He then took hold of me,<br /><br />Like one who works and evaluates,<br />And always seems prepared in advance.<br />So, lifting me up towards the top<br /><br />Of a great boulder, he was sizing up another rock <br />Saying, “Up there, grab hold of that one next,<br />But first check if it will support you.”<br /><br />It was not the way for one wearing a mantle,<br />For we--he weightless and I being pushed--hardly <br />Could climb upwards from jag to jag.<br /><br />And if on that bank it had not been that<br />The slope was lower than the other--<br />I do not know about him--but I would have been well defeated.<br /><br />But since all of Malebolge leans towards <br />The mouth of the lowest pit,<br />The site of each valley opens<br /><br />So that one side descends and the other ascends.<br />We only came to the end above the point<br />Where the last stone breaks off.<br /><br />The breath from my lungs was so spent<br />That when I reached the top I could go no further.<br />I sat down at the first opportunity.<br /><br />“So you must now cast off all sloth,”<br />My master said. “For one does not come to fame<br />While sitting on cushions, nor while under blankets.<br /><br />Without it, one uses up one’s life<br />Leaving on earth such traces of himself <br />As smoke in the air and foam on the water.<br /><br />Therefore rise. Conquer your panting<br />With the soul that wins every battle<br />If the heavy body does not weigh one down.<br /><br />There is a longer ladder that must be climbed.<br />It is not enough to leave these ones.<br />If you understand me, act now so it benefits you.<br /><br />I then rose, pretending I was furnished <br />Better with breath than I felt,<br />And I said, “Go, for I am strong and daring.”<br /><br />We made our way up through the ridge,<br />Which was craggy, narrow, and rough,<br />As well as steeper than the one before.<br /><br />I spoke as I went, so as not to appear weak,<br />When a voice came forth from the next ditch,<br />One not able to properly form words.<br /><br />I do not know what he said, though I was already at<br />The summit of the arch that crosses there.<br />However, he who spoke seemed moved to anger.<br /><br />I turned to lean downward, but my sharp eyes<br />Could not reach the bottom through the darkness.<br />So I said, “Master, let us go on<br /><br />To the next encirclement and descend the wall.<br />For at this point I not only hear but do not understand,<br />But I look down and make out nothing.”<br /><br />He said, “I do not reply other<br />Than to do it, for an honest request<br />Should be followed with action, not words.”<br /><br />We descended the bridge at the head<br />Where it connects with the eighth bank,<br />And the pit became clear to me.<br /><br />For inside I saw a terrible mass <br />Of serpents, and of such diverse intrigue<br />That the memory still chills my blood.<br /><br />Let <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libya">Libya</a> boast no more of her sands,<br />For if <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake">chelidrids, jaculi, and phareads</a><br />Are bred, as well as two-headed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake">cenchres</a>,<br /><br />Plagues were neither so many nor so malignant<br />Did she ever show with all of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia">Ethiopia</a>,<br />Nor with the lands that lie upon the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Sea">Red Sea</a>.<br /><br />Among this cruel and terribly grim throng,<br />People ran, naked and fearful,<br />Without hope of a hole to hide in, or a bloodstone to make one invisible.<br /><br />Their hands were tied behind them with serpents.<br />These were run through the loins by the tail<br />And the head, which were knotted together in front.<br /><br />And here, upon one who was by our bank,<br />Sprang a serpent that paralyzed him, striking<br />At the point where the neck and shoulders come together.<br /><br />Neither "O" nor "I" was ever written as quickly<br />As he caught fire and burned, and ash was all that<br />Was left when he of course collapsed upon the ground.<br /><br />And then, on the ground, thus disintegrated,<br />His dust gathered itself into the same form,<br />And in that shape returned from destruction.<br /><br />It is in this way, according to the great sages, it is acknowledged<br />That the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_(mythology)">phœnix</a> dies and then is reborn<br />When she approaches her five-hundredth year.<br /><br />She does not feed on herbs or grain in her lifetime,<br />Only on balsam and tears of incense,<br />And nard and myrrh are her final shroud.<br /><br />And as one who falls, not knowing how,<br />Pulled by force to the ground by a demon<br />Or by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epilepsy">another oppression</a> that binds him,<br /><br />When he rises he looks around,<br />All disoriented by the great trauma<br />He has suffered, and sighs while he looks;<br /><br />Such was the sinner when he got up.<br />Oh, the power of God, how severe it is,<br />Striking such blows for vengeance!<br /><br />My leader then asked him who he was,<br />To which he answered, “I rained down from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuscany">Tuscany</a><br />Into this wild gullet a short while ago.<br /><br />I was suited to a beast’s life, not a man’s,<br />Bastard that I was. I am <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_Divine_Comedy#Fucci">Vanni Fucci</a>,<br />Beast, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistoia">Pistoia</a> was my fitting den.”<br /><br />I said to my leader, “Tell him not to slink off,<br />And ask what the crime was that sent him here.<br />For I just recall him as a man of blood and anger.”<br /><br />And the sinner, who heard, did not dissemble.<br />Rather, he set his mind and gaze on me,<br />And a look of woeful shame appeared upon his face.<br /><br />He then said, “I suffer more from your having found me<br />In the misery you see me in here<br />Than when I was taken from the other life.<br /><br />I cannot refuse to answer what you ask.<br />I have been consigned to so low a place because I was<br />A thief in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistoia_Cathedral#Interior">the sacristy of the beautiful ornaments</a>,<br /><br />and it was falsely blamed on another.<br />But so you do not enjoy this sight--<br />If you ever get out of this dark place--<br /><br />Open your ears to what I say, and listen.<br />First, Pistoia all but empties herself of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Guelph#13th.E2.80.9314th_centuries">Blacks</a>,<br />Then Florence begins again with new leaders and laws.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_(mythology)">Mars</a> draws a vapor from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunigiana">Val di Magra</a><br />That is enveloped in thick clouds.<br />And with a violent and bitter storm,<br /><br />Battle will rage on Campo Piceno,<br />Where it will suddenly explode through the mist,<br />So that every <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Guelph#13th.E2.80.9314th_centuries">White</a> shall be struck by it.<br /><br />And I have told you this to bring you grief! </p><br /><br /><em><a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2011/09/inferno-song-xxv.html">Continue to Song XXV</a></em><p></p>R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-46220750350929609142011-01-15T18:07:00.000-05:002011-03-06T21:01:23.567-05:00Inferno, Song XXIII<p></p><em>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After passing through the gates of Hell, they encounter the souls of the cowards who took no stand in conflicts between good and evil, and then proceed to Limbo, the realm of the noble or innocent souls who were not baptized or otherwise not believers in the Christian faith. Dante and Virgil then travel through the first circles of damnation and the city of Dis, which punish those who embrace earthly appetites and goods at God's expense. Upon leaving the city, Virgil explains the plan of Hell to Dante. The circles that follow hold, in descending order of heinousness, those who commit violence, fraud, and betrayal. In the circle of the Violent, they encounter murderers, merciless conquerors, suicides, and who squandered or destroyed their belongings. From there, they walk alongside a desert where fire rains down. It is the prison for those who were violent against God and nature, including blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers. Dante and Virgil then descend to next level of Hell on the back of Geryon, a flying monster. It is the circle of the fraudulent, and along the way, they encounter the panderers, seducers, flatterers, corrupt clergy, fortune-tellers, diviners, and grafters. The last are overseen a gaggle of demons, who agree to lead Dante and Virgil to a ridge they can cross to continue their journey. The poets leave the demons after the latter are deceived by a sinner in their charge.</em></p><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/TTIqe8n19VI/AAAAAAAAAxI/kgj1YBJGQyQ/s1600/inferno23.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 317px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/TTIqe8n19VI/AAAAAAAAAxI/kgj1YBJGQyQ/s400/inferno23.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562555200913667410" /></a><p align="center"><em>Dante and Virgil look back at the demons after escaping them.</em></p><br /><p align="center">Silent, alone, unaccompanied-- <br />We went along, one in front and the other after,<br />Like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franciscan">Friars Minor</a> going their way.<br /><br />Turned towards a fable of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesop">Aesop</a>’s were<br />My thoughts by the present scuffle,<br /><a href="http://mythfolklore.net/aesopica/oxford/139.htm">The one where he spoke of the frog and the mouse</a>.<br /><br />The words “now” and “presently” are not more similar<br />Than one with the other, if one compares<br />The beginning and the end with careful attention.<br /><br />And as one thought springs from another,<br />So then from the other came this one <br />That doubled my initial fears.<br /><br />I thought this: “Because of us, those ones<br />Were played for fools, with pain and ridicule<br />To boot. I believe they are quite upset.<br /><br />If anger is piled on top of ill will,<br />They will come after us more viciously<br />Than a dog snaps after a hare.”<br /><br />Already I felt my hair standing up on end<br />From the fear, and I stood staring behind us<br />When I said, “Master, if you do not hide<br /><br />You and me quickly, I am afraid<br />Of the Evilclaws. We already have them after us.<br />They so fill my thoughts that I already hear them.”<br /><br />And he replied, “If I were a mirror,<br />I could not picture your outward appearance<br />More quickly than I see your inward state.<br /><br />At this moment, your thoughts entered into mine,<br />With like attitude and like action,<br />So that I have made one counsel from both.<br /><br />If it is so that the slope on the right lies so<br />That we can go down to the next pocket,<br />We shall escape the chase we imagine coming.”<br /><br />He had not yet finished laying out his plan<br />When I saw them coming with their wings spread,<br />Not far away, looking to nab us.<br /><br />My leader immediately pressed me to him,<br />Like a mother who is wakened by the noise<br />And sees flames burning beside her,<br /><br />Taking her son and fleeing without stopping,<br />Having more concern for him than for herself--<br />So much so that she does not pause to put on anything over her nightshirt.<br /><br />And down that ridge of the stony bank<br />He went, lying on his back, to the sloping rock<br />That on one side includes the next ditch.<br /><br />Water had never coursed so quickly through a sluice<br />To turn a land-mill’s wheel<br />When nearest to the approaching paddles<br /><br />As my master upon that cliff<br />Took me down with him, holding me to his breast<br />Like his son, not his companion.<br /><br />His feet had barely made it to the bed<br />Of the ground down there when they made it atop the hill<br />Above us. But there was nothing to fear:<br /><br />For the high providence that willed them<br />To serve as ministers of the fifth pit<br />Denied them any power to leave.<br /><br />There below we found a painted people<br />Who were going round with very slow steps,<br />Weeping and, in their appearance, tired and defeated.<br /><br />They had cloaks with hoods down<br />In front of their eyes, made to the size<br />That is made for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbey_of_Cluny">the monks in Cluny</a>.<br /><br />They were gilded on the outside--so dazzling and deceptive.<br />But on the inside they were all lead, and so heavy<br />That, by comparison, the ones <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_II,_Holy_Roman_Emperor">Frederick</a> made people wear were straw.<br /><br />What a burdening mantle for eternity!<br />We turned again, still to the left-hand side,<br />Together with them, focused on their tears of sadness.<br /><br />But because of that burden, these weary people<br />Came along so slowly that we were in new<br />Company with every stride we made.<br /><br />For then I asked my leader, “Pray find<br />One known by name or deed,<br />Looking around as we go.”<br /><br />And one who understood the Tuscan tongue<br />Cried after us, “Hold your feet,<br />You who race through the gloomy air!<br /><br />Perhaps you shall have from me that which you ask for.”<br />At this my leader turned and said, “Wait for him,<br />And then continue on at his pace.”<br /><br />I stopped, and I saw two looking quite <br />Anxious to join me.<br />However, their burden and the crowded way hampered them.<br /><br />When they reached us, looking askance for a while, <br />They stared at me without saying a word.<br />They then turned to each other and said,<br /><br />“This one appears to be alive, given the action of his throat.<br />And if they are dead, by what privilege<br />Do they go uncovered by the weighty robes?”<br /><br />They then said to me, “O Tuscan, who to the gathering<br />Of the woeful hypocrites has come,<br />Do not disdain to tell us who you are.”<br /><br />And I to them: “I was born and raised<br />Upon the good river of Arno in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence">the great town</a>,<br />And am in the body I have always had.<br /><br />But who are you to whom I see<br />So much sadness filtering down your cheeks?<br />And what punishment is this that glitters on you?<br /><br />And one of them answered me, “The orange cloaks<br />Are made of lead so thick that the weight<br />Makes we, their balances, creak thus.<br /><br />We were <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Blessed_Virgin_Mary">Jovial Friars</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna">Bolognese</a>.<br />I am <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_Divine_Comedy#Catalano">Catalano</a> and this is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_Divine_Comedy#Loderingo">Loderingo</a><br />By name, and your land chose us together.<br /><br />It had been customary to choose a single man<br />To keep the peace. What we brought<br />Is still apparent around the Gardingo.”<br /><br />I began, “O Friars, <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=xbB5PE9O9KEC&pg=PA401&lpg=PA401&dq=catalano+loderingo&source=bl&ots=Z5A86pawOU&sig=eAK-fdUGtZYNEeUcqbMDzy8RriM&hl=en&ei=PC0yTb-jL4OcgQf-oYmECw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CC8Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=catalano%20loderingo&f=false">your evil doings</a>…”,<br />But I said no more, for my eye was caught by<br />One crucified on the ground with three stakes.<br /><br />When he saw me, he writhed all over,<br />Exhaling sighs into his beard.<br />And Friar Catalano, taking this to account,<br /><br />Said to me, “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caiaphas">That one you see nailed there</a><br />Advised the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharisees">Pharisees</a> that it was expedient<br />To have <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus">one man</a> suffer for the people.<br /><br />He is stretched naked in the path,<br />As you see, and must bear<br />The weight of each who passes.<br /><br />And <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annas">his father-in-law</a> is racked in the same manner<br />In this ditch, as are the others of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanhedrin">that council</a><br />That was a seed of evil for the Jews.”<br /><br />I then saw Virgil marveling<br />Over the one who was crucified<br />So horribly in the eternal exile.<br /><br />He then directed his voice at the friar:<br />“If it does not displease you, and you are permitted, tell us<br />If, on the right-hand side, there lies a passage<br /><br />Where we two can leave<br />Without enlisting the black angels<br />To come and take us from this floor.”<br /><br />He then replied, “Nearer than you<br />Expect is a ridge of rock that goes from the great <br />Perimeter and spans all the savage valleys,<br /><br />Except that at this point it is broken and does not run across.<br />You will be able to get over through the debris<br />Where it slopes against the side and is piled up at the bottom.”<br /><br />My leader stood looking down for a moment.<br />He then said, “A bad account was given by<br />The one who hooks the sinners over there.”<br /><br />The friar replied, “I once heard talk in Bologna<br />Of the Devil’s many vices, among which I heard<br />That he is a liar and the father of lies.”<br /><br />My leader then went forward taking great strides,<br />His face a bit upset with anger.<br />So I left these prisoners,<br /><br />Following the trail of those beloved feet.</p><br /><br /><em><a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2011/03/inferno-song-xxiv.html">Continue to Song XXIV</a></em><p></p>R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-80874896699395026382010-09-26T10:22:00.000-04:002011-01-15T18:39:53.232-05:00Inferno, Song XXII<p></p><em>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After passing through the gates of Hell, they encounter the souls of the cowards who took no stand in conflicts between good and evil, and then proceed to Limbo, the realm of the noble or innocent souls who were not baptized or otherwise not believers in the Christian faith. Dante and Virgil then travel through the first circles of damnation and the city of Dis, which punish those who embrace earthly appetites and goods at God's expense. Upon leaving the city, Virgil explains the plan of Hell to Dante. The circles that follow hold, in descending order of heinousness, those who commit violence, fraud, and betrayal. In the circle of the Violent, they encounter murderers, merciless conquerors, suicides, and who squandered or destroyed their belongings. From there, they walk alongside a desert where fire rains down. It is the prison for those who were violent against God and nature, including blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers. Dante and Virgil then descend to next level of Hell on the back of Geryon, a flying monster. It is the circle of the fraudulent, and along the way, they encounter the panderers, seducers, flatterers, corrupt clergy, fortune-tellers, diviners, and grafters. The last are overseen a gaggle of demons, who agree to lead Dante and Virgil to a ridge they can cross to continue their journey.</em></p><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/TJ9faxb4cgI/AAAAAAAAAv0/r-TW1Ke8tn0/s1600/inf.22.125.dore.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 336px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/TJ9faxb4cgI/AAAAAAAAAv0/r-TW1Ke8tn0/s400/inf.22.125.dore.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521236581731037698" /></a><br /><p align="center"><em>The wily grafter escapes the clutches of the demons.</em></p><br /><p align="center">I have seen horsemen breaking camp before,<br />And commencing attack and assembling to present themselves,<br />As well as, at times, their fleeing to make their escape.<br /><br />I have seen scouts going through your land,<br />O <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arezzo">Aretines</a>. I have also seen the march of plunderers,<br />The clashes in tournaments, and the charges in jousts,<br /><br />At times with trumpets and at times with bells,<br />With drums and with signals from castles,<br />And with things of our own and those of foreigners.<br /><br />Never yet at such a peculiar bugling<br />Have I seen horsemen advance, nor foot soldiers,<br />Nor ship by signal of land or star.<br /><br />We went on with the ten demons--<br />oh, what a savage bunch--but, in church<br />With the saints and with boozers in the tavern.<br /><br />My attention was entirely upon the tar--<br />To see all aspects of the pit<br />And the people burning within it.<br /><br />It was like with dolphins when they make a sign<br />With the arch of their back, telling sailors<br />That they should take steps to save their ship.<br /><br />Occasionally, in order to relieve the pain,<br />One of the sinners would show his back<br />And then hide it faster than a flash of lightning.<br /><br />And like, at the edge of the water in a ditch,<br />Frogs linger with only their snout out,<br />So that they hide their feet and the rest of their bulk,<br /><br />The sinners were standing in every part,<br />But as Thornybeard approached,<br />They then returned below the boiling surface.<br /><br />I saw--and my heart still shudders at it--<br />One of them wait thus, in the way one finds<br />That one frog remains while the other dives.<br /><br />And Dogscratch, who was closest to him,<br />Hooked him by his tar-soaked hair<br />And hauled him in, so that he looked to me like an otter.<br /><br />I already knew all their names,<br />Noting them when they were picked,<br />And then what they called each other.<br /><br />“Oh, Redface, do that so you put to him<br />Your claws--on his back--so that you flay it!”,<br />The fiends all cried out together.<br /><br />I said, “My master, if you can, do<br />Find out who the wretched one is that<br />Has fallen into the hands of his enemies.”<br /><br />My leader went up beside him,<br />Asking him where he came from, and he replied,<br />“I was born in the kingdom of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Navarre">Navarre</a>.<br /><br />My mother placed me in the service of a lord,<br />As she had borne me to a good-for-nothing<br />Who brought an end to himself and his possessions.<br /><br />Then I was in the household of good <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thibaut_of_Navarre">King Thibault</a>.<br />There I showed myself the practice of graft,<br />For which I now pay into this burning’s account.”<br /><br />And then Pigface, from whose mouth protruded<br />A tusk on each side like a boar,<br />Had him feel how one of them could tear the flesh.<br /><br />The mouse had found himself between some vicious cats,<br />But Thornybeard locked him up in his arms,<br />And said, “Stay over there while I skewer him.”<br /><br />He then turned to face my master.<br />“Ask him questions,” he said, “if you still desire more<br />To learn from him, before the others tear him apart.”<br /><br />The one who leads me then said to the man: “Now tell me, of the other sinners,<br />Are there any Italians you know<br />Underneath the pitch?” And he replied, “I left<br /><br />One who was from nearby there just now.<br />Would that I were still down there with him,<br />So that I shouldn’t fear claw nor hook!”<br /><br />“We have suffered too much,” Lustykins <br />Said, and, with his hook, took the sinner by the arm,<br />Tearing it and pulling off a muscle.<br /><br />Viledragon also wanted to grab him,<br />Down there by the legs, at which point their captain<br />Turned round and round with an evil look.<br /><br />After they had quieted down a bit,<br />To him who was still looking at his wound<br />My leader asked without delay,<br /><br />“Who was the one from whom you unfortunately parted,<br />As you said, upon coming ashore?”<br />And he responded, “It was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_The_Divine_Comedy#Gomita">Fra Gomita</a>,<br /><br />He of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallura">Gallura</a>, vessel of every fraud,<br />Who had the enemies of his benefactor in hand,<br />And dealt with them so that they each lauded him.<br /><br />He took the money and let them off easy, <br />So he says, and in other affairs as well,<br />He was no small bribe-taker, but a majestic one.”<br /><br />Keeping company with him is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_The_Divine_Comedy#Zanche">Don Michel Zanche<br />Of Logodoro</a>, and when speaking of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sardinia">Sardinia</a>,<br />Their tongues never grow tired.<br /><br />Oh, my, look at that other one gritting his teeth.<br />I would tell you more, but I’m afraid that he<br />Is getting ready to flay my hide.”<br /><br />The great marshal then turned to Browbeater,<br />Who was rolling his eyes preparing to attack,<br />And said to him, “Make your way over there, wicked bird!”<br /><br />“If you would like to see or hear,”<br />The frightened one then began again,<br />“Tuscans or Lombards, I will make them come.<br /><br />But have the Evilclaws stand back a little<br />So that the ones I speak of do not fear their reprisals. <br />And I, sitting in this same place,<br /><br />Being the one that I am, I will make seven come<br />When I whistle, as is our custom<br />To do when one of us gets out.”<br /><br />Dirthound raised his snout at these words,<br />Shaking his head, and he said, “Hear the mischief<br />He has thought up so he can jump back down below!”<br /><br />Hearing that, he who had trickery in great supply<br />Replied, “I am exceedingly full of mischief<br />When it comes to getting my friends in more trouble.”<br /><br />Gnarlback did not hold himself in, and against the will<br />Of the others, said to him, “If you jump down,<br />I will not come after you at a gallop,<br /><br />But beating my wings over the pitch.<br />Let us leave the bank and hide behind the dike<br />Just to see if you alone are more than our match.”<br /><br />O you who are reading, you shall hear of a new sport:<br />Each of their eyes turned towards the other bank--<br />He who had been most against doing it was first.<br /><br />The Navarrese chose his time well.<br />He braced his feet against the ground and suddenly<br />Jumped, breaking free of their detention.<br /><br />At this, each was stricken with guilt,<br />But he who was the biggest cause of the mistake, <br />He moved forward and cried, “You are caught!”<br /><br />But it gained him little. Terror is a thing wings<br />Cannot outrace. That one went below,<br />And the other, flying upward, lifted his breast--<br /><br />Not unlike the duck that, all of sudden,<br />Plunges down when the falcon approaches,<br />The latter returning to the air thwarted and demoralized.<br /><br />Frostheel, angry at the trick,<br />Went flying after them, eager<br />For the sinner to escape so that he could start a fight.<br /><br />And once the grafter had disappeared,<br />He turned his claws upon his companion,<br />Grabbing hold of him above the ditch.<br /><br />The heat broke up the fight immediately,<br />But there was still no getting out, <br />As their wings had become so covered with tar.<br /><br />Thornybeard, as disheartened as the others,<br />Made four fly to the other bank,<br />All with their hooks, and very quickly<br /><br />On this side and that one, they descended to their posts,<br />Extending their hooks towards the trapped ones,<br />Who were already cooked inside their hides.<br /><br />And we left them in their embarrassment.</p><p><em><a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2011/01/inferno-song-xxiii.html">Continue to Song XXIII</a></em></p>R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-42111973813637909002010-06-21T10:16:00.000-04:002010-09-26T11:04:32.534-04:00Inferno, Song XXI<p></p><em>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After passing through the gates of Hell, they encounter the souls of the cowards who took no stand in conflicts between good and evil, and then proceed to Limbo, the realm of the noble or innocent souls who were not baptized or otherwise not believers in the Christian faith. Dante and Virgil then travel through the first circles of damnation and the city of Dis, which punish those who embrace earthly appetites and goods at God's expense. Upon leaving the city, Virgil explains the plan of Hell to Dante. The circles that follow hold, in descending order of heinousness, those who commit violence, fraud, and betrayal. In the circle of the Violent, they encounter murderers, merciless conquerors, suicides, and who squandered or destroyed their belongings. From there, they walk alongside a desert where fire rains down. It is the prison for those who were violent against God and nature, including blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers. Dante and Virgil then descend to next level of Hell on the back of Geryon, a flying monster. It is the circle of the fraudulent, and along the way, they encounter the panderers, seducers, flatterers, corrupt clergy, fortune-tellers, and diviners.</em></p><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/TB94YmL59lI/AAAAAAAAAvI/c95Y1_DzWPI/s1600/inf_21.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 257px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/TB94YmL59lI/AAAAAAAAAvI/c95Y1_DzWPI/s320/inf_21.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5485235235123230290" /></a><br /><p align="center"><em>The demon torturers of the grafters confront Virgil and Dante.</em></p><br /><p align="center">And so from bridge to bridge, talking about other things<br />That my Comedy does not choose to sing of,<br />We did go. And when we reached the summit,<br /><br />We stopped to see the next fissure<br />Of Malebolge and more tears cried in vain.<br />And I saw it was astonishingly dark.<br /><br />As with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice_Arsenal">Venetian Arsenal</a>:<br />In winter they boil the strong pitch<br />In order to caulk their unsound ships.<br /><br />Because then they cannot sail, and instead<br />One makes himself a new boat, and another patches<br />The frame that has made many voyages for him,<br /><br />One hammers at the prow and one at the stern.<br />Another makes oars and another twists ropes.<br />One patches the jib and mainsail.<br /><br />So, by divine art--not fire--<br />A thick tar boiled there below,<br />Sticking to the bank on every side.<br /><br />I saw it, but I saw in it<br />Nothing but the bubbles that the boiling raised,<br />And all the swelling and ebbing.<br /><br />While I was staring down there,<br />My Master said, “Look out, look out!”,<br />And pulled me to him from where I was standing.<br /><br />I then turned like one who is eager<br />To see that which he must flee,<br />And who is unnerved by sudden fear,<br /><br />Though by looking he does not delay his departure.<br />And behind us I saw a black devil<br />Come running up through the ridge.<br /><br />Ah, how savage his face was!<br />And how fierce his movements seemed to me,<br />With his wings open and so quick on his feet!<br /><br />His shoulder, which was sharp and high,<br />Carried a sinner by both haunches,<br />And he held the sinner by the tendons of his feet.<br /><br />At our bridge, he said, “Oh, Evil-claws,<br />Here is one of the elders of Santa Zita!<br />Put him below, while I go back for more<br /><br />In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucca">that land</a>, which is well supplied with them.<br />Every man there takes bribes, except for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonturo_Dati">Bonturo</a>.<br />For money, ‘No’ becomes ‘Yes’.”<br /><br />He threw the sinner down, and through the stony ridge<br />He turned back. And never had a released mastiff been <br />With such haste to pursue the thief.<br /><br />That sinner plunged in, and came up again backside first.<br />However, the demons that were underneath the bridge<br />Cried out, “Here is not the place for your <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Face_of_Lucca">Sacred Face</a>!<br /><br />Here swimming is different than that in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serchio">the Serchio</a>!<br />So, if you don’t want our hooks,<br />Do not break the surface of the overwhelming pitch.”<br /><br />Then they gouged him with more than a hundred hooks,<br />Saying, “You must dance covered up here,<br />So that, if you can, you pilfer covertly.<br /><br />It was not unlike how cooks have their helpers<br />Plunge to the center of the cauldrons<br />The meat with their hooks, all so it does not float.<br /><br />The good master said to me, “So that you<br />May not be seen to be here, crouch down<br />Behind a rock that gives you some protection.<br /><br />And whatever outrage may be done to me,<br />Don’t you fear, for I know about things here—<br />I was in such a situation another time.<br /><br />He then passed from there to the end of the bridge;<br />And upon reaching the sixth bank,<br />It was necessary for him to show a confident manner.<br /><br />With the fury and clamor<br />Of dogs that come out charging at a beggar,<br />Who then stops in his tracks pleading, <br /><br />These came out from under the bridge<br />And raised their pitchforks against my master.<br />But he yelled out, “Not one of you shall act against me!<br /><br />Before you nab me with your hooks,<br />Send one of your number to hear me out,<br />And then discuss whether to stick your forks in me.<br /><br />They all cried in return, “You go, Evil-Tail!”<br />So one motioned forward--the others stood still--<br />And came to my master saying, “What benefit this?”<br /><br />“Do you believe, Evil-Tail, that you see me here<br />Having come,” my master said,<br />“Still safe from all your defenses,<br /><br />Without Divine will and fate’s benevolence?<br />Let us go by, for in Heaven it is willed<br />That I show another this savage way.”<br /><br />His pride was then so sunken<br />That he let his hook drop to his feet<br />And said to the others, “He must not be harmed.”<br /><br />And my leader said to me, “Oh, you sitting<br />In a crouch between the jagged rocks of the bridge,<br />You may now return to me safely.”<br /><br />At that I moved and quickly came to him,<br />And the devils all pushed forward<br />In a way that made me afraid for their keeping of the pact.<br /><br />So I once saw the infantrymen’s fear<br />At coming out of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_The_Divine_Comedy#Caprona">Caprona</a> under treaty,<br />Seeing themselves among so many enemies.<br /><br />With all of my will, I drew myself<br />Closely to my leader, and did not take my eyes off<br />Their faces, which were not heartening.<br /><br />They lowered their hooks. “You want to give him a swipe<br />On the rump?” one said to another.<br />And they all responded, “Yes, give him a cut there.”<br /><br />But the demon who was holding forth<br />With my leader turned around quickly<br />And said, “Settle down, settle down, Clutterhead!”<br /><br />He then said to us, “To go further by this<br />Ridge is not something you can do, for lying<br />All broken at the bottom is the sixth arch.<br /><br />But if it still pleases you to go forward,<br />Go along through this grotto.<br />You can make your way through another nearby ridge.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_friday">Yesterday</a>, five hours later than now,<br />One thousand, two hundred, and sixty-six<br />Years have gone by since <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifixion_of_Jesus_Christ">the road here was ruined</a>.<br /><br />I am sending these of my men there<br />To see if any have come up for air.<br />Travel with them, for they know you are not among the guilty.” <br /><br />“To the front, Gnarlback and Frostheel,”<br />he began saying to them. “You too, Dirthound.<br />And let Thornybeard lead the squad.<br /><br />Lustykins comes, too, along with Viledragon,<br />Pigface with the tusks, and Dogscratch,<br />As well as Browbeater and crazy Redface.<br /><br />Search around the boiling tar.<br />Let these be safe up to the next ridge<br />That is all unbroken going over the pits.<br /><br />“Ah me, master, what is that I see?”,<br />I said. “Oh! Let us go alone without escort,<br />If you know the way. As for me, I want none of it.<br /><br />If you are as wary as has been your habit,<br />Do you not see them grinding their teeth<br />And threatening anguish to us with their brows?”<br /><br />And he to me, “I do not want you afraid.<br />Leave them to grind at their pleasure,<br />As they do it for the boiling wretched.”<br /><br />They wheeled around to the left-hand bank.<br />But first they each pressed their tongue<br />Between their teeth for a signal from their leader.<br /><br />He then made a trumpet of his ass.</p><p><em><a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2010/09/inferno-song-xxii.html">Continue to Song XXII</a></em></p>R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-228587446959793222010-04-01T19:10:00.000-04:002010-06-21T11:02:43.553-04:00Inferno, Song XX<p></p><em>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After passing through the gates of Hell, they encounter the souls of the cowards who took no stand in conflicts between good and evil, and then proceed to Limbo, the realm of the noble or innocent souls who were not baptized or otherwise not believers in the Christian faith. Dante and Virgil then travel through the first circles of damnation and the city of Dis, which punish those who embrace earthly appetites and goods at God's expense. Upon leaving the city, Virgil explains the plan of Hell to Dante. The circles that follow hold, in descending order of heinousness, those who commit violence, fraud, and betrayal. In the circle of the Violent, they encounter murderers, merciless conquerors, suicides, and who squandered or destroyed their belongings. From there, they walk alongside a desert where fire rains down. It is the prison for those who were violent against God and nature, including blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers. Dante and Virgil then descend to next level of Hell on the back of Geryon, a flying monster who is the personification of fraud. It is the circle of the fraudulent, and in the first three bolgias, they encounter the panderers, seducers, flatterers, and the corrupt clergy.</em><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/S7UqGnk8a7I/AAAAAAAAAuo/MYUrl-rjRcE/s1600/inf_20.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 242px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/S7UqGnk8a7I/AAAAAAAAAuo/MYUrl-rjRcE/s400/inf_20.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455312816820743090" /></a><p align="center"><em>Dante and Virgil look out upon the diviners and fortune-tellers.</em></p><br /><br /><p align="center">I must create verses of new agonies<br />And give form to the twentieth song<br />Of my first canticle, which is about those forsaken underground.<br /><br />I was now entirely preoccupied<br />With watching what was revealed there,<br />Which was bathed with anguished tears.<br /><br />And I saw people around the circular valley<br />Coming, silent and tearful, at the pace<br />Made by the litany processions in this world.<br /><br />As my eyes traveled down them,<br />Each appeared strangely twisted<br />Between the chin and collarbone.<br /><br />For the face was turned to the back,<br />And they walked in reverse,<br />As if looking forward had been taken from them.<br /><br />Perhaps palsy has<br />contorted one so completely,<br />But I have not seen it nor believe it to be so.<br /><br />So, reader, may God grant that you gather the fruit<br />Of your readings here. Now contemplate<br />How I could keep my eyes dry<br /><br />When nearby I saw our form<br />So twisted that the eyes’ tears<br />Bathed the buttocks at the cleft.<br /><br />I certainly cried, leaning against one of the rocks<br />On that hardy ridge. And so my escort<br />Said to me, “Are you still as foolish as the rest?<br /><br />Here lives pity when it is good and dead.<br />What is wickeder than the one<br />Who behaves so in the face of divine judgment?<br /><br />Raise your head, raise it, and see the one for whom<br />The ground opened itself before the eyes of the Thebans--<br />For whom they all cried, “Where are you rushing,<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphiaraus">Amphiaraus</a>? Why have you left the war?’<br />And he did not stop his fall into the depths<br />That end with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minos#In_Poetry">Minos</a>, who seizes everyone. <br /><br />Look at how he has made a breast of his shoulders.<br />Because he wished to see too far ahead,<br />He watches behind himself and makes his way backwards.<br /><br />See <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiresias">Tiresias</a>, who changed appearance<br />When from a male he became a female,<br />Transformed in every aspect of his body.<br /><br />And then, like the first time, he had to again strike <br />The two entwined serpents with his rod<br />In order to regain his manly features.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_The_Divine_Comedy">Aruns</a> is that one who backs up to the other’s belly.<br />He is the one who in the mountains of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_(Etruria)">Luni</a>, where tilling the ground are<br />The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrara">Carraresi</a> who live below them.<br /><br />He had a cave among the white marble<br />For his home, where watching the stars<br />And the sea made for a boundless sight.<br /><br />And she who cover her breasts--<br />Which you do not see--with her loose tresses,<br />And who has all her hairy parts there as well,<br /><br />She was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manto_(mythology)#Daughter_of_Tiresias">Manto</a>, who searched through many lands<br />And settled in the place where I was born.<br />Please listen to me about this for a bit.<br /><br />After her father had departed from life,<br />And the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Thebes_(Boeotia)">city of Bacchus</a> became enslaved,<br />She roamed the world for a long while.<br /><br />Above in beautiful Italy lies a lake<br />At the foot of the Alps that lock in Germany <br />Above <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirol,_Italy">Tyrol</a>. It is called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Garda">Benaco</a>.<br /><br />I believe a thousand springs or more wash down<br />Between <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Garda">Garda</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Val_Camonica">Val Camonica</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apennine_Mountains">Appennine</a><br />With the water that settles in that aforementioned lake.<br /><br />A place is there in the middle of it where the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trento">Trentian</a><br />Pastors, as well as those of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brescia">Brescia</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verona">Veronese</a>,<br />Might give their blessing if they took that way.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peschiera_del_Garda">Peschiera</a> sits there, a beautiful and strong fortress<br />That stands against the Brescians and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergamo">Bergamese</a><br />At the lowest point of the surrounding shore.<br /><br />All the waterfalls gather there<br />That cannot stay in the bosom of Benaco,<br />And which become a river down through the green pastures.<br /><br />As soon as the water begins to run,<br />It is no longer Benaco. It is called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mincio">Mincio</a><br />Until it reaches <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governolo">Governolo</a>, where it empties into the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Po_(river)">Po</a>.<br /><br />Its course is not long before it finds a level<br />In which it spreads and creates a marsh.<br />At times it becomes rank in the summer.<br /><br />Passing through there, the wild maiden<br />Saw land in the middle of the bog,<br />Uncultivated and empty of inhabitants.<br /><br />There, in order to avoid all human society,<br />She settled there with those who served her so she could practice her arts.<br />It was where she lived, and where she left her corpse.<br /><br />The people who were scattered around then<br />Gathered in that place, which was secure<br />Because of the bog that surrounded it on every side.<br /><br />They built the city over those dead bones.<br />And after her who first chose the place,<br />They, without further ado, named it <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantua">Mantua</a>.<br /><br />Once there were more people within its boundaries—<br />Before the madness of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_The_Divine_Comedy#Casalodi">Casalodi</a><br />Became the victim of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_The_Divine_Comedy#Pinamonte">Pinamonte</a>’s deceit.<br /><br />As such, I charge you, that if you ever hear<br />Another story of my city’s founding,<br />No lie shall distort the truth.”<br /><br />I replied, “Master, your account<br />Is for me so certain and so holds my confidence<br />That any other for me would be spent coals.<br /><br />Then he said to me, “That one who from his cheeks<br />Has grown a beard reaching to his dark shoulders<br />Was--<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_war">when Greece was bereft of men</a><br /><br />To the extent that few remained for the cradles--<br />The augur, and with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calchas">Calchas</a> gave the moment<br />In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avlida">Aulis</a> to cut the first cord.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurypylus#Son_of_Telephus">Eurypylus</a> was his name, and as such is sung by<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeneid">My high tragedy</a> in a certain place.<br />As you know well, knowing it in its entirety.<br /><br />That other one, who in the flanks is so small,<br />He is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Scot">Michael Scot</a>, who certainly<br />Knew the game of magic frauds.<br /><br />See <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guido_bonatti">Guido Bonatti</a>. See <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_The_Divine_Comedy#Benvenuto">Asdente</a>,<br />Who, having talent for the leather and the thread,<br />Now wishes for it, but he has repented too late.<br /><br />See the sad women who left behind the needle,<br />The shuttle, and the spindle and became fortune-tellers,<br />Casting spells with herbs and likenesses.<br /><br />But come now, for he already holds the confines<br />Of both hemispheres and touch the waves<br />Below <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seville">Seville</a>. That is, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cain#Literature">Cain</a> and his thorns.<br /><br />And last night the moon was already round.<br />Remember that well, for it helped you<br />At times in the depth of the wood.”<br /><br />So he said to me while we went onward.</p><em><a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2010/06/inferno-song-xxi.html">Continue to Song XXI</a></em><p></p>R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-48180912109648894082009-11-21T18:40:00.000-05:002010-04-01T20:12:11.695-04:00Inferno, Song XIX<p></p><em>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After passing through the gates of Hell, they encounter the souls of the cowards who took no stand in conflicts between good and evil, and then proceed to Limbo, the realm of the noble or innocent souls who were not baptized or otherwise not believers in the Christian faith. Dante and Virgil then travel through the first circles of damnation and the city of Dis, which punish those who embrace earthly appetites and goods at God's expense. Upon leaving the city, Virgil explains the plan of Hell to Dante. The circles that follow hold, in descending order of heinousness, those who commit violence, fraud, and betrayal. In the circle of the Violent, they encounter murderers, merciless conquerors, suicides, and who squandered or destroyed their belongings. From there, they walk alongside a desert where fire rains down. It is the prison for those who were violent against God and nature, including blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers. Dante and Virgil then descend to next level of Hell on the back of Geryon, a flying monster who is the personification of fraud. It is the circle of the fraudulent, and in the first two bolgias, they encounter the panderers, seducers, and flatterers.</em><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/Swh7o-2tWrI/AAAAAAAAAqk/tb3J9KDQ6KM/s1600/inf.19.49.dore.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 327px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/Swh7o-2tWrI/AAAAAAAAAqk/tb3J9KDQ6KM/s400/inf.19.49.dore.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406707296655727282" /></a><p align="center"><em>Virgil looks on while Dante speaks to the soul of Pope Nicholas II.</em></p><br /><br /><p align="center">O <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simony">Simon Magus</a>, O his miserable followers,<br />Who, of the things of God, and of the goodness<br />That should be His brides, in your rapacity<br /><br />For gold and silver you turned.<br />Now the trumpet must sound for you,<br />For your place is in the third bolgia.<br /><br />We were now at the next tomb,<br />Having gone up the rock to that part<br />Which hangs over the middle of the trench.<br /><br />O Highest Wisdom, how great is the art<br />You display in Heaven, on Earth, and in the world of the disgraced!<br />And how justly You wield Your power!<br /><br />I saw the sides and bottom were<br />Full of holes in the bruise-like stone.<br />All were of one width, and all were round.<br /><br />They did not seem of less or greater width<br />Than those that are in my beautiful <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battistero_di_San_Giovanni_(Florence)">San Giovanni</a>,<br />Created as places of baptism.<br /><br />One of which, not many years ago,<br />I broke open for one who was drowning inside.<br />And this matter I seal, clarifying it for everyone.<br /><br />Stuck outside the mouth of each were<br />The feet and legs of a sinner<br />Up to the calf, and the rest was inside.<br /><br />Their soles were all lit afire,<br />From which their joints writhed so strongly<br />That they would have snapped withes or tethers.<br /><br />As flame on oily things just<br />Moves along the outer surface,<br />So it did there from the heels to the toes.<br /><br />“Who is that one, Master, who in torment<br />Writhes more than his peers,”<br />I said, “and who is licked by a redder flame?”<br /><br />He said to me, “If you would like for me to carry you<br />Down there by way of that steeper bank,<br />You should learn of him and his crimes from him.”<br /><br />And I replied, “What pleases you is to my benefit.<br />You are my lord, and you know that I do not part<br />From your will. You also know what I am silent about.”<br /><br />Then we came onto the fourth dike.<br />We turned and descended on the left-hand side<br />There down to the pitted and narrow floor.<br /><br />The good master, from his side, still<br />Did not put me down until he brought me to the hole<br />Of the one whose feet lamented so for him.<br /><br />“Oh, whoever you are, held upside down,<br />Sad soul, like an embedded post,”<br />I began to say. “If you can, speak.”<br /><br />I stood like the friar who takes the confession of<br />The treacherous assassin, who, after being hung,<br />Calls him back in order to delay death.<br /><br />And he cried, “Are you standing there already,<br />Are you standing there already, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boniface_VIII">Boniface</a>?<br />The writing lied to me by quite a few years.<br /><br />Is it so soon that you are sated<br />By the things you were not afraid to take by guile from<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Church">The beautiful lady</a>, and then torture her?”<br /><br />And so I became like those who stand<br />Not understanding the reply made to them.<br />It was as if I had been mocked, and I did not know how to respond.<br /><br />Then Virgil said, “Tell him quickly:<br />‘I am not him, I am not him who you think.’”<br />And I replied as I was told.<br /><br />At that the spirit’s feet writhed hard.<br />Then, sighing and with a tearful voice,<br />He said, “So what are you asking of me?<br /><br />If to know who I am is so important to you<br />That you have descended the bank for the answer,<br />Know that I wore the great mantle;<br /><br />And <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_III">I was truly a son of the she-bear</a>,<br />So greedy to advance my cubs<br />That above I hoarded things in my purse, and here myself.<br /><br />Beneath my head are dragged the others<br />Who preceded me in simony--<br />Squeezed flat through the fissures of the rock.<br /><br />I shall sink down there when the other<br />Comes—him whom I believed you to be<br />When I asked my hasty question.<br /><br />But I have already spent more time with my feet aflame<br />And upside down<br />Than he shall stay planted with his feet burning.<br /><br />For after him will come <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Clement_V">one of fouler deeds</a><br />From the west, a lawless shepherd,<br />One fit to cover him and me.<br /><br />He shall be a new <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_(High_Priest)">Jason</a>, of whom one reads about<br />In the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_Maccabees"><em>Maccabees</em></a>, and as that one was appeased by<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiochus_Epiphanes">His king</a>, so shall this one be treated by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_IV_of_France">the one who rules France</a>.”<br /><br />I do not know if I was too reckless here,<br />In that I replied to him in this manner:<br />“Pray tell me now: how much treasure was required by<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_christ">Our Lord</a> before, to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_peter">Saint Peter</a>’s<br />Care, he put the keys.<br />He certainly did not ask anything but ‘Follow me.’<br /><br />Neither Peter nor the others took from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Matthias">Matthias</a><br />Gold or silver when he was chosen<br />For the place lost by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judas_Iscariot">the guilty soul</a>.<br /><br />So stay, for you are rightly punished,<br />And pay good mind to the ill-got wealth<br />That made you bold against <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_of_Anjou">Charles</a>.<br /><br />And were I not still forbidden by<br />My reverence for the supreme keys<br />That you held in the happy life,<br /><br />I should use even harsher language.<br />For your avarice afflicts the world,<br />Trampling the good and exalting the wicked.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._John_the_Evangelist">The Evangelist</a> had you shepherds in mind<br />When <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whore_of_Babylon">she</a> that sits upon the waters,<br />Fornicating with kings, was seen by him.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church">She</a> was born with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_sacraments">seven head</a>s,<br />And was compelled in her actions by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_commandments">the ten horns</a>,<br />As long as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_pope">her husband</a> took pleasure in her virtue.<br /><br />You have made yourself a god of gold and silver.<br />And what is the difference between you and the idolaters,<br />Except that they worship one and you a hundred?<br /><br />Ah, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_I">Constantine</a>, to how much evil have you given birth?<br />Not your conversion, but <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donation_of_Constantine">that dowry</a><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Sylvester_I">The first rich Father</a> took from you!”<br /><br />And while I sang this song to him,<br />Either anger or conscience bit at him—<br />He kicked hard with both feet.<br /><br />I well believe that my leader was pleased.<br />He stood throughout with such a content look,<br />Listening to the words of truth I spoke.<br /><br />After that he held me to him with both his arms,<br />And then, while he held me to his chest,<br />He again set out upon the way he had come down.<br /><br />Nor did he tire of holding me close.<br />And so he carried me up to the top of the arch<br />That crosses from the fourth dike to the fifth.<br /><br />Here he gently set his burden down—<br />Gently for the steep rockiness of the slope,<br />Which would have been a difficult climb for a goat.<br /><br />From there another valley was revealed to me.</p><br /><em><a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2010/04/inferno-song-xx.html">Continue to Song XX</a></em><p></p>R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-48399583072793897272009-07-31T13:00:00.000-04:002009-11-21T19:31:38.106-05:00Inferno, Song XVIII<p></p><em>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After passing through the gates of Hell, they encounter the souls of the cowards who took no stand in conflicts between good and evil, and then proceed to Limbo, the realm of the noble or innocent souls who were not baptized or otherwise not believers in the Christian faith. Dante and Virgil then travel through the first circles of damnation and the city of Dis, which punish those who embrace earthly appetites and goods at God's expense. Upon leaving the city, Virgil explains the plan of Hell to Dante. The circles that follow hold, in descending order of heinousness, those who commit violence, fraud, and betrayal. In the circle of the Violent, they encounter murderers, merciless conquerors, suicides, and who squandered or destroyed their belongings. From there, they walk alongside a desert where fire rains down. It is the prison for those who were violent against God and nature, including blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers. Dante and Virgil then come to a precipice, where Virgil summons Geryon, a flying monster who is the personification of fraud. The two descend to the next level of Hell on its back.</em><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/SnMk9lgbjSI/AAAAAAAAAjA/aMIbBbR2sOs/s1600-h/inf_dore_18.001.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 313px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/SnMk9lgbjSI/AAAAAAAAAjA/aMIbBbR2sOs/s400/inf_dore_18.001.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364672221587148066" /></a><p align="center"><em>Virgil points out Thaïs among the flatterers.</em></p><br /><br /><p align="center">There is a place in Hell called Malebolge,<br />All made of stones the color of iron<br />Like the wall that goes around it.<br /><br />Right in the middle of the malign field<br />There yawns a very wide and deep pit,<br />The ordering of which I shall talk about here, in its place.<br /><br />That belt that remains hooked is round;<br />It is between the pit and the foot of the high stony bank,<br />And it is divided into ten valleys at the bottom.<br /><br />Like such places where, in order to guard the walls,<br />Increasing numbers of moats encircle the castles,<br />The site shaped into a pattern--<br /><br />Such was the design those made there.<br />As such, fortresses from their thresholds<br />Have small bridges leading to their outside bank.<br /><br />And so, from the base of the rock, ridges<br />Ran that cut across the dikes and embankments,<br />Ending at the pit where they are cut short and gathered in.<br /><br />In this place, shaken from the back<br />Of Geryon, we found ourselves. The Poet<br />Held to the left, and I followed.<br /><br />On my right side I saw new sorrows,<br />New torments, and new torturers.<br />The first ditch was full with them.<br /><br />Those at the bottom were naked and sinners.<br />If they were between us and the middle, they came toward us.<br />And if they were on the other side, they went as we did, although with greater strides.<br /><br />They were like those in Rome, because of the great numbers,<br />In the year of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Jubilee#The_first_Christian_jubilee">the Jubilee</a>. In order for<br />The people to cross the bridge,<br /><br />All on the one side were facing<br />Towards <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castel_Sant%27Angelo">the Castle</a> and went to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Saint_Peter%27s_Basilica">St. Peter’s</a>,<br />And on the other side they went towards <a href="http://www.artbooks.com/titles/058/Item58590.htm">the Mount</a>.<br /><br />On this side, on that side, all along the gloomy rock<br />I saw horned demons with heavy whips<br />Cruelly lashing them from behind.<br /><br />Oh, how they were made to pick up their pace<br />At the first blow! Indeed, no one<br />Waited for the second or the third.<br /><br />While I went on, my eyes by one of them<br />Were met, and I quickly said,<br />“Him I knew and would see more of.”<br /><br />I stopped walking to better make him out,<br />And my gracious Leader stopped with me,<br />Agreeing to let me turn back a little.<br /><br />And that one being tortured thought to conceal himself by<br />Hiding his face, but with little success,<br />As I said, “O you whose eyes are cast upon the ground,<br /><br />If the features you bear are not false,<br />You are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_The_Divine_Comedy#Venedico">Venedico Caccianemico</a>.<br />But what leads you to such a foul <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=ErkpAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA114&lpg=PA114&dq=salse+ravine+dante&source=bl&ots=qrcoF-hHWK&sig=6cBlr6x5t9ANkXZijzMnjNo_Eag&hl=en&ei=6DFzSvPcDZWwNv-6oLEM&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=salse%20ravine%20dante&f=false">Salse</a>?”<br /><br />And he replied, “I do not answer voluntarily.<br />I am compelled by your plain speech,<br />Which reminds me of the past world.<br /><br />I am the one who brought Ghisolabella<br />To do the will of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obizzo_II_d%27Este">the Marquis</a>,<br />However the scandalous story is told.<br /><br />And I am not the only one from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna#Middle_Ages">Bologna</a> grieving here.<br />On the contrary, this place is so full of them<br />That now many tongues have not learned<br /><br />To say <em>sipa</em> between <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna">the Savena</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reno_River">the Reno</a>.<br />And if you would like proof or confirmation of this,<br />Just remember our greedy natures.”<br /><br />While he was speaking a demon struck him<br />With his whip, saying, “Get going,<br />Pimp! There are no women here to sell.”<br /><br />I rejoined my escort.<br />A few steps later, we came<br />To where a rock jutted out of the bank.<br /><br />We climbed that quite easily,<br />And turning to the right on through its crags<br />We left those who were circling eternally.<br /><br />When we arrived at the place where it yawns<br />Below so those who have been whipped can pass,<br />My leader said, “ Stop, and let fall<br /><br />Upon you the sight of these other misbegotten ones,<br />Whose faces you have not yet seen<br />Because they were walking the same way we were.”<br /><br />From the ancient bridge we watched the procession<br />That came toward us from the other side,<br />And who, like the first, were chased by whips.<br /><br />And without my asking, the good master<br />Said to me, “Look at that great one who approaches.<br />Despite his pain he does not appear to shed tears.<br /><br />How he still retains his royal manner!<br />He is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason">Jason</a>, who through courage and savvy<br />Took <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Fleece">the Fleece</a> away from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colchis#Colchis_in_mythology">Colchians</a>.<br /><br />He passed by the island of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemnos#Mythic_Lemnos">Lemnos</a><br />When the bold and pitiless women<br />Had put all their males to death.<br /><br />There, with gifts and adorned words,<br />He beguiled <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypsipyle">Hypsipyle</a>, the young woman<br />Who before had beguiled all the others.<br /><br />There he left her: pregnant, shunned.<br />Such guilt condemns him to such torment,<br />And <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medea">Medea</a> is avenged as well.<br /><br />All who deceive in this way go with him.<br />And let this be enough of the first valley<br />As well as knowledge of those held in its grip.”<br /><br />Already we were there where the narrow path<br />Cuts across the second dike<br />And makes another arch of that shoulder.<br /><br />Here we heard people moaning<br />In the other ditch, blubbering<br />And hitting themselves with their palms.<br /><br />The banks were covered with mold.<br />It wafts up from below and sticks to them,<br />Assailing the eyes and nose.<br /><br />The bottom is so dark that there is no<br />Place to see without going up to the top<br />Of the arch, where the ridge overhangs the most.<br /><br />We went there, and then, below in the pit,<br />I saw people immersed in excrement<br />That appeared to come from men’s outhouses.<br /><br />And while searching down there with my eyes<br />I saw one whose head was so filthy with shit<br />That one could not tell if he was layman or cleric.<br /><br />“Why,” he scolded me, “do you so intently<br />Look at me more than the other filthy ones?”<br />And I replied, “Because, if I remember well,<br /><br />I saw you once with dry hair,<br />And you are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_The_Divine_Comedy#Icarus">Alessio Interminelli</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucca#Ancient_and_medieval_city">Lucca</a>.<br />That is why I eye you more than all the others.”<br /><br />And then, beating himself upon his crown, he replied,<br />“Down here I have been sunk by the flatteries<br />My tongue never grew weary of.”<br /><br />After that my leader said to me, “Make yourself<br />Look ahead a bit further,<br />So that you may get a good look at the face<br /><br />Of that filthy and disheveled wretch<br />Who is there scratching herself with shit-covered fingernails,<br />First squatting and now standing on her feet.<br /><br />It is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_The_Divine_Comedy#Tiresias">Thaïs</a>, the whore whose response<br />To her lover when he said, ‘Has the favor<br />I have found with you great?,’ was, “On the contrary, beyond what any would believe.’<br /><br />And with that let our sight be satisfied.</p><br /><a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2009/11/inferno-song-xix.html">Continue to Song XIX</a><p></p>R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-62731095698110531382009-05-25T06:43:00.000-04:002009-07-31T14:18:51.712-04:00Inferno, Song XVII<p></p><em>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After passing through the gates of Hell, they encounter the souls of the cowards who took no stand in conflicts between good and evil, and then proceed to Limbo, the realm of the noble or innocent souls who were not baptized or otherwise not believers in the Christian faith. Dante and Virgil then travel through the first circles of damnation and the city of Dis, which punish those who embrace earthly appetites and goods at God's expense. Upon leaving the city, Virgil explains the plan of Hell to Dante. The circles that follow hold, in descending order of heinousness, those who commit violence, fraud, and betrayal. In the circle of the Violent, they travel along a river of boiling blood, in which the spirits of murderers and savage conquerors are imprisoned. They then enter the wood of the suicides, which also imprisons those who squandered or destroyed their belongings. From there, they walk alongside a desert where fire rains down. It is the prison for those who were violent against God and nature. The blasphemers are the first Dante takes note of, but they are only one of the many kinds of sinners who reside here, such as the sodomites. Among the latter is Brunetto Latini, who was Dante's mentor and role model while growing up, as well as Jacopo Rusticucci, Guido Guerra, and Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, three great Florentine leaders. Dante and Virgil then come to a precipice, where Virgil summons a flying monster from the depths.</em><br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/Shp4aBd3nwI/AAAAAAAAAiI/swhtj7By32Q/s1600-h/inf_17.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 309px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/Shp4aBd3nwI/AAAAAAAAAiI/swhtj7By32Q/s400/inf_17.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5339712696666791682" /></a><p align="center"><em>Dante and Virgil descend further into Hell on Geryon's back</em></p><br /><br /><p align="center">“Here is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geryon#Dante.27s_Divine_Comedy">the beast with the pointed tail</a>,<br />That crosses mountains and breaks down walls and weapons!<br />Here is the one who infects the entire world!”<br /><br />So my leader began to say to me, <br />And signaled to it to come and land<br />Near the end of the stony passage.<br /><br />And that filthy image of fraud<br />Came and set down its head and breast,<br />But it did not bring its tail up to the cliff’s edge.<br /><br />Its face was the face of a just man,<br />So benign on the outside,<br />And all the rest was a serpent’s trunk.<br /><br />It had two paws, hairy to the armpits.<br />Its back and chest and sides<br />Were painted with knots and circlets.<br /><br />Fields and embroidery with more color<br />Were never made in Tartar or Turkish tapestries,<br />Nor was such cloth made by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachne">Arachne</a> at her loom.<br /><br />Like boats that sometimes are at the shore,<br />Partly in the water and partly on land,<br />Or like there, in the land of the German drunkards,<br /><br />The beaver sets itself to struggle,<br />So the awful beast was there<br />On the edge where the stone bounds the sand.<br /><br />Its entire tail was twitching in the void,<br />Twisting upward the venomous fork<br />That, like a scorpion’s, armed the tip.<br /><br />My leader said, “Now we must twist<br />Our way a little, as far as that<br />Wicked beast crouching over there.”<br /><br />So we descended on our right side,<br />And took ten steps along the edge<br />In order to keep well away from the sand and flame.<br /><br />And when we came beside it,<br />I saw on the sand a bit further on<br />People sitting where it drops off.<br /><br />Here my master said to me, “So that full<br />Experience of this round you may carry away,<br />Go and see the state of them.<br /><br />Keep your talk there short.<br />Until you return, I will talk with this one,<br />So it will grant us the use of its strong shoulders.”<br /><br />And so through still further along the outer edge <br />Of that seventh circle, all alone<br />I went, where the sad people were sitting.<br /><br />Their sorrow exploded from their eyes.<br />From here and from there their hands moved, shielding themselves,<br />Sometimes from the flames, and sometimes from the burning ground.<br /><br />What they were doing was no different than dogs in summer:<br />First with their snouts, then with their paws, when they are bitten<br />By fleas or flies or horseflies.<br /><br />Then, when I set my eyes on some of the faces of those<br />Upon whom the fire of sorrow was falling,<br />I did not recognize anyone. However, I observed<br /><br />That from around each one’s neck there hung a pouch<br />That had a certain color and insignia,<br />And upon these they feasted their eyes.<br /><br />And when I came among them, looking around,<br />I saw, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catello_di_Rosso_Gianfigliazzi">on a yellow purse, azure<br />In which a lion had its face and manner</a>.<br /><br />Then, proceeding with my looking about,<br />I saw <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciappo_Ubriachi">another, blood-red,<br />Showing a goose whiter than butter</a>.<br /><br />And <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginaldo_degli_Scrovegni">one, who had a large azure sow<br />Embossed on his white bag</a>,<br />Said to me, “What are you doing in this pit?”<br /><br />Go now, and because you are still alive,<br />Know that my neighbor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitaliano">Vitaliano</a><br />Will sit here on my left side.<br /><br />I am a Paduan among these Florentines.<br />In my ears, they often<br />Cry, ‘Let <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_di_Buiamonte">the sovereign knight</a> come<br /><br />Who will bring the pouch with three goats!’”<br />Upon this he twisted his mouth and stuck out<br />His tongue, like an ox licking its nose.<br /><br />And fearing that staying longer would irritate<br />Him who had warned me to stay just a bit,<br />I turned away from the spent souls.<br /><br />I found my leader had gotten<br />Upon the back of that savage beast already.<br />And he said to me, “Now be strong and brave.<br /><br />Now one descends by taking these stairs.<br />Mount in the front, as I wish to be in between<br />So the tail cannot harm you.”<br /><br />Like one so close to the shivering<br />Of quartan fever, whose nails are white,<br />And who trembles all over at the sight of shade,<br /><br />Such I became at his words.<br />But shame threatened me,<br />Which makes a servant strong before a good master.<br /><br />I settled myself upon those shoulders,<br />And I wanted to speak, but my voice did not come<br />As I thought, “Make sure you hold me tight!”<br /><br />But he, who at other times had saved me<br />From other perils, as soon as I mounted<br />He took me in his arms and supported me.<br /><br />And he said, “Geryon, let’s move now--<br />Wide circles, and let your descent be gradual.<br />Think of the new burden you bear.”<br /><br />Like a gondola leaving its place, moving<br />Back and back, so then did Geryon move out.<br />And then, when it felt itself all clear,<br /><br />It turned its tail around to where its breast was,<br />And, extending it, he moved like an eel,<br />Gathering in the air with his paws.<br /><br />I do not think that greater fear was had<br />When <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaethon">Phaethon</a> abandoned the reins,<br />Which led to the sky being scorched, like it still appears, <br /><br />Nor when poor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icarus">Icarus</a> felt his sides<br />Losing feathers from the melting wax,<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daedalus">His father</a> crying to him, “You are taking the wrong way!,”<br /><br />Than was my fear, when I saw that I was<br />In the air on all sides, and I saw lost<br />Sight of everything except the beast.<br /><br />Slowly, slowly, it goes swimming onward,<br />Turning and descending, but I am not aware of it<br />Beyond the wind blowing in my face and from below.<br /><br />On my right I already heard the whirlpool<br />Making a horrible roar below us, <br />At which I stretched out my head and looked down.<br /><br />I was then more afraid of dismounting,<br />For I saw fires and heard lamenting,<br />And I recoiled, trembling all over.<br /><br />And then I saw--for I had not seen it before--<br />Our descending and circling by the great torments<br />That pressed on us from so many sides.<br /><br />Like the falcon that has been too long on the wing<br />Without seeing lure or bird<br />Makes the falconer say, “Oh my, you’re falling!”<br /><br />Tired, it descends to where it swiftly set out from,<br />In a hundred spirals, and perches far<br />From its master, disdainful and sullen.<br /><br />This was how Geryon brought us down to the bottom<br />Nearby the foot of the jagged rock.<br />And, unburdened of our bodies,<br /><br />It vanished like an arrow from the string.</p><p></p><br /><br /><a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2009/07/inferno-song-xviii.html">Continue to Song XVIII</a><p></p>R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-54481893098960994592009-05-18T12:44:00.000-04:002009-05-25T07:18:35.888-04:00Inferno, Song XVI<p></p><em>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After passing through the gates of Hell, they encounter the souls of the cowards who took no stand in conflicts between good and evil, and then proceed to Limbo, the realm of the noble or innocent souls who were not baptized or otherwise not believers in the Christian faith. Dante and Virgil then travel through the first circles of damnation and the city of Dis, which punish those who embrace earthly appetites and goods at God's expense. Upon leaving the city, Virgil explains the plan of Hell to Dante. The circles that follow hold, in descending order of heinousness, those who commit violence, fraud, and betrayal. In the circle of the Violent, they travel along a river of boiling blood, in which the spirits of murderers and savage conquerors are imprisoned. They then enter the wood of the suicides, which also imprisons those who squandered or destroyed their belongings. From there, they walk alongside a desert where fire rains down. It is the prison for those who were violent against God and nature. The blasphemers are the first Dante takes note of, but they are only one of the many kinds of sinners who reside here, such as the sodomites. Among the latter is Brunetto Latini, who was Dante's mentor and role model while growing up.</em><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/ShGRf2DMmQI/AAAAAAAAAiA/TshDnBh6wto/s1600-h/gustave_dore_dante_geryon.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 317px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/ShGRf2DMmQI/AAAAAAAAAiA/TshDnBh6wto/s400/gustave_dore_dante_geryon.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337207009681643778" /></a><p align="center"><em>Dante and Virgil summon Geryon from the pit</em></p><br /><br /><p align="center">I was already at the place where I heard the sound<br />Of water falling into the next circle--<br />It was like the buzzing of beehives--<br /><br />When together three shades left, while<br />Running, a crowd that was passing<br />Beneath the rain of harsh torment.<br /><br />They came towards us, and each was crying,<br />“Stop, you, whose clothes appear<br />To be of one from our degenerate land.”<br /><br />Ah, me, what wounds I saw in their limbs,<br />Both new and old, from the burning flames!<br />The memory still makes me grieve when I recall it.<br /><br />My teacher held back upon hearing their cries,<br />And he turned his face to me. “Wait now,”<br />He said. “To these we should show courtesy.<br /><br />And if it weren’t for the strafing fire, borne from<br />The nature of the place, I would say<br />That haste is better for you than them.”<br /><br />As we came to a stop, they again began their<br />Ancient song, and when they reached us,<br />The three of them made a wheel of themselves<br /><br />Like only champions do, naked and oiled,<br />Watching for their grip and advantage<br />Before they trade thrusts and blows.<br /><br />And wheeling around so, each one’s face<br />Was directed towards me, so that counter to their necks<br />Their feet were continually moving.<br /><br />“If the misery of this sandy place<br />Treats us and our prayers with contempt,<br />As well as our darkened and hairless appearance,” one began,<br /><br />“May your soul submit to our renown<br />And tell us who you are that your living feet<br />Travel safely through Hell.<br /><br />This one, in whose tracks you see me tread,<br />Although he goes naked and peeling,<br />Was of a higher rank than you believe.<br /><br />He was the grandson of the good <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gualdrada">Gualdrada</a>.<br />His name was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_The_Divine_Comedy#Guerra">Guido Guerra</a>, and in his life<br />He accomplished much with his judgment and sword.<br /><br />The other, who treads the sand behind me,<br />Is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_The_Divine_Comedy#Tegghiaio">Tegghiaio Aldobrandi</a>, whose voice<br />Should have been welcomed in the world above.<br /><br />And I, who has been placed with them in torment,<br />Am <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iacopo_Rusticucci">Jacopo Rusticucci</a>, and certainly<br />More than anything my beast of a wife is what brought me low.”<br /><br />If I had been shielded from the fire,<br />I would have thrown myself down among them,<br />And I believe my teacher would have tolerated it.<br /><br />But because I would be burned and baked,<br />Fear conquered my goodwill,<br />Which had made me eager to embrace them.<br /><br />I then began, “It is not contempt, but grief<br />Over your condition that is fixed inside me,<br />So much so that it will be a long time before it is entirely gone.<br /><br />Because of this my lord said to me<br />Words that made me think<br />That men such as you were coming.<br /><br />I am of your land, and always<br />Your deeds and honored names<br />I have heard and recounted with affection.<br /><br />I am leaving the gall and heading towards the sweet fruit<br />Promised to me by my trustworthy leader.<br />However, I must first descend to the center.”<br /><br />“So, long may your soul guide<br />Your limbs,” he replied in turn,<br />“and your fame shine after you.<br /><br />Tell us if courtesy and valor live<br />In our city like they used to,<br />Or if they have entirely gone away.<br /><br />For <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_The_Divine_Comedy#Borsiere">Guglielmo Borsiere</a>, who has suffered<br />With us for a short time--he goes over there with our company--<br />Greatly torments us with his words.”<br /><br />“The new people and sudden gains<br />Have created such pride and excess<br />In you, Florence, that it already has you crying.”<br /><br />I cried this out with my face raised.<br />And the three, taking it for a reply,<br />Looked at one another as if they were hearing the truth.<br /><br />“If at other times it costs you so little,”<br />They all replied, “to satisfy others,<br />You must be a happy man to speak so at your pleasure!<br /><br />Therefore, if you escape from these dark places<br />And return to see the beautiful stars again,<br />When it will do you good to say, ‘I was there,’<br /><br />Speak of us as such to others.”<br />They then broke their wheel, and as they fled<br />Their legs resembled wings.<br /><br />An “Amen” could not have been said<br />As quickly as they had disappeared.<br />For my master, it appeared we should leave.<br /><br />I followed him, and we had only gone a little onward<br />When the sound of water was so near<br />That it was difficult to hear each other speak.<br /><br />Like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montone_River">that river</a> whose course is<br />First from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Viso">Mount Viso</a> to the east,<br />On the left side of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appenines">Apennines</a>--<br /><br />It is called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquacheta">Acquacheta</a> above, before<br />It pours into its lower bed<br />And loses that name at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forl%C3%AC">Forlì</a>.<br /><br />There it resounds over <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_The_Divine_Comedy#Phlegethon">San Benedetto<br />Dell’Alpe</a> by falling with one leap<br />Into a fissure where there might have been a thousand.<br /><br />And so, down a steep bank,<br />We found that dark water echoing<br />So that in a short time it would have injured our ears.<br /><br />I had a cord wrapped around me,<br />And with it I once thought<br />To take the leopard with the spotted fur.<br /><br />After I had loosened all of it from me,<br />As my leader had ordered,<br />I passed it to him coiled and knotted.<br /><br />Then he swung around to his right side,<br />And flung it some distance out from the edge<br />Into that deep abyss.<br /><br />“Certainly something strange will respond,”<br />I said to myself, “to the odd signal<br />That my Master so follows with his eye. <br /><br />Ah, how cautious men should be <br />Pressing those who not only look on our actions <br />With good judgment, but our thoughts as well!<br /><br />He said to me, “Soon will arise <br />That which I wait for and of which your thoughts dream.<br />Soon your eyes will discover it for themselves.”<br /><br />Always, to that truth that has the face of a lie,<br />A man should seal his lips as much as he can,<br />Since without guilt it makes one ashamed.<br /><br />But here I cannot be silent. And by the lines<br />Of this <em>Comedy</em>, reader, I swear to you,<br />So they may not fail to gain lasting favor,<br /><br />That through that heavy and murky air I saw<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geryon#Dante.27s_Divine_Comedy">A figure</a> come swimming up that would be<br />Astonishing to even the steadiest heart,<br /><br />It was like one who returns from going down<br />On occasion to loosen an anchor that is stuck<br />In a reef, or something else that is hidden in the sea,<br /><br />Stretching upward and drawing in his feet.</p><p></p><br /><br /><a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2009/05/inferno-song-xvii.html"><em>Continue to Song XVII</em></a>R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-72912131090379466222009-04-26T17:03:00.000-04:002009-05-18T13:36:58.207-04:00Inferno, Song XV<p></p><em>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After passing through the gates of Hell, they encounter the souls of the cowards who took no stand in conflicts between good and evil, and then proceed to Limbo, the realm of the noble or innocent souls who were not baptized or otherwise not believers in the Christian faith. Dante and Virgil then travel through the first circles of damnation and the city of Dis, which punish those who embrace earthly appetites and goods at God's expense. Upon leaving the city, Virgil explains the plan of Hell to Dante. The circles that follow hold, in descending order of heinousness, those who commit violence, fraud, and betrayal. In the circle of the Violent, they travel along a river of boiling blood, in which the spirits of murderers and savage conquerors are imprisoned. They then enter the wood of the suicides, which also imprisons those who squandered or destroyed their belongings. From there, they walk alongside a desert where fire rains down. It is the prison for those who were violent against God and nature. The blasphemers are the first Dante takes note of, but they are only one of the many kinds of sinners who reside here.</em><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/SfTWeB98u8I/AAAAAAAAAhg/l11SC0SeITo/s1600-h/inf_15.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 301px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/SfTWeB98u8I/AAAAAAAAAhg/l11SC0SeITo/s400/inf_15.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329120070498827202" /></a><p align="center"><em>Dante and Virgil encounter Brunetto Latini</em></p><br /><br /><p align="center">One of the stone margins bears us now,<br />And the steam from the flowing water gives shade above,<br />So that it protects the water and the banks from the fire.<br /><br />Like the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemish_people">Flemings</a> between <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wissant">Wissant</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruges">Bruges</a>,<br />Afraid of a flood rushing in on them,<br />Who build a dike to drive back the sea,<br /><br />And as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padua">Paduans</a> along the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenta_River">Brenta</a><br />Do to protect their towns and castles<br />Before <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carantania">Carentania</a> feels the heat,<br /><br />These were made in the same manner,<br />Although not so high nor wide<br />As that was made, whoever the builder was.<br /><br />We were already outside the wood<br />So far that I could not have seen where it was<br />Even if I had turned back,<br /><br />When we encountered a band of souls<br />Who were coming alongside the bank, and each<br />Looked at us like men at night<br /><br />Looking at one another under a new moon.<br />And they furrowed their brows while looking at us,<br />Like an old tailor does with the eye of a needle. <br /><br />Thus caught sight of by that group,<br />I was recognized by one, who took hold <br />Of my hem and cried, “How marvelous!”<br /><br />And I, when he extended his arm to me,<br />Fixed my eyes upon his baked appearance<br />So that his scorched face did not keep<br /><br />My mind from recognizing him,<br />And lowering my hand to his face<br />I replied, “Are you here, Ser Brunetto?”<br /><br />And he said, “O my son, may it not displease you<br />If <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunetto_Latini">Brunetto Latini</a> for a little while with you<br />Turns back and lets the train go on.<br /><br />I said to him, “As much as I can I beg it of you,<br />And if you would like to sit down with me,<br />I will, if it pleases him with whom I go.”<br /><br />“O son,” he said, “Of this flock, whoever<br />Stops for a moment then lies for a hundred years<br />Without shielding himself when the fire strikes him.<br /><br />Therefore, go on. I will walk at your hem,<br />And then rejoin my group,<br />Who go crying over their eternal damnation.”<br /><br />I did not dare to descend from the path<br />In order to walk at his level, but I bent my head,<br />Keeping it like a man who walks with reverence.<br /><br />He began, “What fortune or destiny<br />Brings you down here before your last day?<br />And who is this that shows the way?”<br /><br />“Up there in the bright light above,”<br />I answered him, “I lost my way in a valley<br />Before my age had reached its fullness. <br /><br />Just yesterday morning I turned my back on it.<br />This one appeared to me as I was returning there,<br />And he is leading me home by this road.”<br /><br />And he said to me, “If you follow your star<br />You cannot fall short of a glorious destination,<br />If I judged you well in the beautiful life.<br /><br />And if I had not died at such a time,<br />Seeing Heaven so favorable to you,<br />I would have applauded you in your work.<br /><br />But those ungrateful and malicious people<br />Who came down from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiesole">Fiesole</a> long ago,<br />And who still retain something of the mountain and the rock about them.<br /><br />They shall become your enemy due to your good deeds.<br />And with reason, for among the sorb trees<br />It is all but impossible for the sweet fig to come to fruit.<br /><br />An old saying in the world calls them blind:<br />An avaricious, envious, and proud people.<br />See that you purge yourself of their ways.<br /><br />Your fortune holds so much honor for you<br />That one party and the other will be hungry<br />For you, but the grass shall be kept far from the goat.<br /><br />Let the Fiesolan beasts feed<br />Upon themselves, and not touch the plant,<br />If any should yet grow from their manure<br /><br />In whom the holy seed lives again--that <br />Of those Romans who remained there when<br />It was made the nest of so much wickedness.”<br /><br />“If all I wished for was granted,”<br />I replied, “You would not yet have been<br />Banished from humanity,<br /><br />For it is fixed in my memory, and now my heart,<br />The good, dear, fatherly image<br />Of you when, in the world, hour by hour,<br /><br />You taught me how man makes himself immortal.<br />And I am so grateful that, while I live,<br />My voice shall declare it for all to hear.<br /><br />That which you tell me of my course I write<br />And keep with another text for commentary <br />By a lady who will know, if I reach her.<br /><br />I would like you to be aware of this much:<br />So that my conscience does not trouble me,<br />I am ready for Fortune to do as she will.<br /><br />What you say is nothing new to my ears.<br />Let Fortune turn her wheel<br />As she pleases, and the peasant his spade.”<br /><br />My master then turned his head<br />Backward and to the right and looked at me.<br />He then said, “He who takes note listens well.”<br /><br />Nonetheless, I continued talking<br />With Ser Brunetto, and I asked who is<br />Highest and most noteworthy in his present company.<br /><br />He replied, “It is good to know of some,<br />But of the others it is best to be silent,<br />For time is too short for so much talk.<br /><br />Know in sum that all were clerks<br />And great and famous scholars<br />Who were stained by the same sin in the world.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priscian">Priscian</a> goes along with that troubled crowd,<br />And <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franciscus_Accursius">Franciscus Accursius</a>, too. And look there,<br />If you have a hankering for such slime,<br /><br />You can see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_de'_Mozzi">him</a> whom <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Boniface_VIII">the Servant of Servants</a><br />Transferred from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence">the Arno</a> to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicenza">the Bacchiglione</a>,<br />Where he left his senses ruined by sin.<br /><br />I would say more, but to speak and walk with you<br />I can do no longer, as I see<br />A new cloud of smoke rising from the sand.<br /><br />People come with whom I must not be.<br />Let my <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunetto_Latini#Works">Tesoro</a> be recommended to you,<br />In which I still live, and I ask no more.”<br /><br />He then turned, and he seemed like one of those<br />Who run for the green cloth in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verona">Verona</a><br />At the field. And among them he seemed like<br /><br />One of those who wins, not one who loses.</p><br /><em><a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2009/05/inferno-song-xvi.html">Continue to Song XVI</a></em><br /><p></p>R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-2759729020644900402009-03-24T03:54:00.000-04:002009-04-26T18:39:15.813-04:00Inferno, Song XIV<p></p><em>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After passing through the gates of Hell, they encounter the souls of the cowards who took no stand in conflicts between good and evil, and then proceed to Limbo, the realm of the noble or innocent souls who were not baptized or otherwise not believers in the Christian faith. Dante and Virgil then travel through the first circles of damnation and the city of Dis, which punish those who embrace earthly appetites and goods at God's expense. Upon leaving the city, Virgil explains the plan of Hell to Dante. The circles that follow hold, in descending order of heinousness, those who commit violence, fraud, and betrayal. In the circle of the Violent, they travel along a river of boiling blood, in which the spirits of murderers and savage conquerors are imprisoned. They then enter the wood of the suicides, which also imprisons those who squandered or destroyed their belongings. The suicides are transformed into trees upon their imprisonment, and one has had its leaves painfully torn away in an encounter with one who wasted his property while alive.</em><br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/SciUh3R2P8I/AAAAAAAAAgw/zHkuFp32TZY/s1600-h/inf_14.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 325px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/SciUh3R2P8I/AAAAAAAAAgw/zHkuFp32TZY/s400/inf_14.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316662669606272962" /></a><p align="center"><em>Dante and Virgil watch the fire raining down on the Violent against God and Nature</em></p><br /><br /><p align="center">Then, as the love of my native land<br />Compelled me, I gathered the scattered leaves<br />And returned them to he who was already hoarse.<br /><br />Then we came to the point that divides<br />The second round from the third, and where<br />One sees a terrifying method of justice.<br /><br />To make these new things clear,<br />I must say that we arrived at a plain<br />That rejects all plants from its bed.<br /><br />The woods of sorrow are garlanded around it<br />Like the sad moat around themselves.<br />There we halted our steps at the edge.<br /><br />The ground was a dry and deep sand,<br />Not different from the kind <br />That the feet of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_the_Elder">Cato</a> had once walked upon.<br /><br />O vengeance of God, how much you should<br />Be feared by those who read<br />That which appeared before my eyes!<br /><br />I saw many herds of naked souls,<br />All weeping most miserably,<br />And they seemed subject to different laws. <br /><br />Some of them were lying supine upon the ground,<br />Some were sitting all crouched,<br />And others were continually walking. <br /><br />The ones moving around were the most numerous,<br />And the fewest those lying in torment,<br />Although their tongues were the most loosened by pain.<br /><br />All over the sand, falling slowly,<br />Large flakes of fire rained down,<br />Like snow in mountains without wind.<br /><br />Like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great">Alexander</a> in those hot regions<br />Of India saw--upon his army--<br />Flames fall unbroken to the ground,<br /><br />For which he oversaw the trampling of the soil<br />By his troops, so that the fires<br />Were extinguished before they joined into one,<br /><br />This was how the eternal fire fell.<br />It ignited the sands there like tinder<br />Under flint, doubling the pain.<br /><br />There was the incessant action<br />Of their wretched hands--now here, now there,<br />Brushing the fresh flames off themselves.<br /><br />I began, “Master, you who conquer<br />All things, except the obstinate demons<br />Who came out against us at the entrance of the gate,<br /><br />Who is that great one who doesn’t seem to care about<br />The burning, and lies scornful and scowling,<br />As if the rain doesn’t seem to affect him?”<br /><br />And that one himself, who realized<br />That I was asking my lord about him,<br />Cried out, “That which I was alive, such am I dead,<br /><br />Though <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeus">Jove</a> exhausts his smith from whom,<br />In anger, he took the sharp-edged bolt<br />With which I was struck on my last day.<br /><br />Although he wears out the others by turns<br />In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Etna">Mongibello</a> at the black forge,<br />Calling out, ‘Good <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_(mythology)">Vulcan</a>, help, help!,’<br /><br />As he did at the battle of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phlegra">Phlegra</a>,<br />And hurl thunderbolts at me with all his might,<br />He shall not have the joy of vengeance.”<br /><br />And then my lord spoke forcefully--<br />So much so that I had not heard such intensity from him before:<br />“O <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capaneus">Capaneus</a>, insofar as you have not quelled <br /><br />Your pride, you are punished the more:<br />No torment except your raving<br />Would be sorrow compared to your fury.”<br /><br />Then he turned to me with a gentler look,<br />Saying, “That was one of the seven kings<br />Who laid siege to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thebes,_Greece">Thebes</a>, and held--and still seems to hold--<br /><br />God in disdain, appearing to hold Him in little regard.<br />But, like I said to him, his own spitefulness<br />He bears most fittingly upon his chest.<br /><br />Now come behind me, and watch that you do not put <br />Your feet in the burning sand even now.<br />Always keep your feet close to the woods.”<br /><br />We came silently to the place where gushing<br />Forth from the forest is a little stream<br />Whose redness still makes me shudder.<br /><br />Like the stream that comes from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_geological_features_on_Io#Regiones">the Bulicame</a><br />That the sinful women divide between them,<br />So this made its way across the sand.<br /><br />Its bed and both its banks<br />Were made of stone, as were the margins alongside.<br />I realized from this that our passage was there.<br /><br />“Among all the things I have shown you<br />Since we entered through the gate<br />Whose doorway is denied to no one,<br /><br />Nothing has been shown to your eyes<br />As noteworthy as the river before you,<br />Which extinguishes all the flames above it.”<br /><br />These words were my lord’s,<br />And I begged him to give me the food<br />For which he had given me the appetite.<br /><br />“In the middle of the sea lies a wasteland,”<br />He then said to me, “that is called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crete">Crete</a>,<br />Under <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minos">whose king the world was once pure</a>.<br /><br />A mountain is there that once was bright<br />With water and greenery, that was called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Ida,_Crete">Ida</a>.<br />Now it is deserted as a depleted, cast-off thing.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhea_(mythology)">Rhea</a> once chose it to be the faithful cradle<br />For <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeus">her son</a>, and, in order to best conceal him<br />When he cried, she made those there create a wailing.<br /><br />A large old man stands inside the mountain.<br />He has his back turned to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damietta">Damietta</a>,<br />And he looks on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome">Rome</a> like he would his mirror.<br /><br />His head is made of fine gold,<br />And his arms and breast are pure silver,<br />And then he is of solid brass to where the torso meets the legs.<br /><br />From there on down, he is entirely of the choicest iron,<br />Except for the right foot being terra cotta,<br />And he stands upright on this foot more than on his other.<br /><br />Each part, except for the gold, is split<br />By a fissure that drips tears,<br />Which gather and force their way down that cavern.<br /><br />Their course in this valley is from rock to rock.<br />They form <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acheron">Acheron</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styx">Styx</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phlegethon">Phlegethon</a>.<br />Then, going down through this narrow channel,<br /><br />Ultimately to where there is no further to descend,<br />They form <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocytus">Cocytus</a>, and what kind of pond that is<br />You shall see, but here I will not discuss it.”<br /><br />And I replied, “If the stream before us<br />Flows down from our world as you say,<br />Why does it only appear at this border?”<br /><br />He said to me, “You know that the place is round,<br />And although you have come far,<br />Only going by the left in descending to the bottom,<br /><br />You still have not gone around the entire circle.<br />So if anything new appears to us,<br />It should not bring amazement to your face.”<br /><br />So I then replied, “Master, where shall one find<br />Phlegethon and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lethe">Lethe</a>? For you are silent about one,<br />And of the other you say it is made from this rain of tears.”<br /><br />I am certainly pleased with all you have asked me,”<br />He responded, “but the boiling of the red water<br />Might well have answered the one of which you ask.<br /><br />You shall see Lethe, but outside this abyss--<br />There where souls go to bathe themselves<br />When their guilt is removed by penance.”<br /><br />He then said, “Now is the time to leave<br />The woods. See that you follow behind me.<br />The margins are the way, as they are not on fire,<br /><br />And above them all, the flames are quenched.”</p><em><a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2009/04/inferno-song-xv.html">Continue to Song XV</a></em><p></p>R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-40391218336547643932009-03-09T20:53:00.000-04:002009-03-24T04:35:01.500-04:00Inferno, Song XIII<p></p><em>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After passing through the gates of Hell, they encounter the souls of the cowards who took no stand in conflicts between good and evil, and then proceed to Limbo, the realm of the noble or innocent souls who were not baptized or otherwise not believers in the Christian faith. Dante and Virgil then travel through the first circles of damnation and the city of Dis, which punish those who embrace earthly appetites and goods at God's expense. Upon leaving the city, Virgil explains the plan of Hell to Dante. The circles that follow hold, in descending order of heinousness, those who commit violence, fraud, and betrayal.In the circle of the Violent, the two poets encounters the Centaurs. Guided by Nessus, one of the man-beasts, they travel along a river of boiling blood, in which the spirits of murderers and savage conquerors are imprisoned.</em><br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/SbW65QutVtI/AAAAAAAAAfI/SwGkNs-2Xbc/s1600-h/inf_13.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 303px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/SbW65QutVtI/AAAAAAAAAfI/SwGkNs-2Xbc/s400/inf_13.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311356828459554514" /></a><br /><p align="center"><em>Virgil and Dante enter the Forest of Suicides, the home of the Harpies</em></p><br /><br /><p align="center"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nessus_(mythology)">Nessus</a> had not yet arrived at the other side<br />When we started on through a wood<br />Of which no path was marked.<br /><br />No green leaves, just ones of gloomy color.<br />No smooth branches, just ones knotted and twisted.<br />No fruit was there, just poisonous thorns.<br /><br />Among these branches so rough and dense there are<br />None of the savage beasts that shun<br />The fields tended between <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecina_(LI)">Cecina</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarquinia">Corneto</a>.<br /><br />Here the terrible <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpy">Harpies</a> make their nests,<br />They who drove the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy">Trojans</a> from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strofades">the Strophades</a><br />With prophecies they told of woe.<br /><br />They have wide wings, human necks and faces,<br />Feet with talons, and large, feathered bellies.<br />They wail atop the strange trees.<br /><br />And the good master--“Before you enter further,<br />Know that you are in the second round,” <br />He began to say to me. “And you shall be until<br /><br />You come to the horrible sand.<br />Therefore, look well, and you will see<br />Things that shall shake faith in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeneid">my epic</a>.”<br /><br />I think he thought that I was thinking<br />That many of the voices came from among the branches<br />From people who were hiding from us.<br /><br />And so the master said, “If you break off<br />Any small branch from one of these bushes,<br />The thoughts you are thinking shall be brought short.”<br /><br />So I put my hand out a little before me<br />And plucked a twig from a large thorny bush.<br />And its trunk cried out, “Why do you break me?”<br /><br />And once it had turned dark with blood,<br />It began again, saying, “Why do you tear me?<br />Does your spirit have no pity?<br /><br />We were men, and have now become twigs.<br />Your hand might have shown more pity<br />If we had been the souls of serpents.”<br /><br />As a green branch made into a torch burns<br />At one end, and at the other drips sap<br />And hisses from the escaping air,<br /><br />So together from the broken splinter came<br />Words and blood, at which I let the end of the branch<br />Fall, and stood like one who is afraid.<br /><br />“If he could have believed before,<br />Wounded soul,” my sage replied,<br />“That which he had only seen in my verse, <br /><br />He would not have extended his hand against you.<br />But this is so incredible that I was compelled to <br />Prompt him to do this thing that weighs upon me.<br /><br />But tell him who you were, so that in order<br />To make some amends, he may refresh your fame<br />In the world above, where he is allowed to return.”<br /><br />And the trunk: “The sweetness of what you say so coaxes me<br />That I cannot be silent. May it not burden you<br />Because I feel compelled to talk with you a little.<br /><br />I am <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_Della_Vigna">he</a> who held both keys<br />To the heart of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Frederick_II">Frederick</a>, and who turned them,<br />Locking and unlocking, so softly<br /><br />That I kept almost all men from his secrets.<br />I brought faithfulness to the glorious office,<br />So much so that I lost both sleep and vigor.<br /><br />The harlot that never from the home<br />Of Caesar turns her whore’s eyes,<br />The common death and vice of courts, <br /><br />Inflamed all minds against me.<br />And those inflamed so inflamed Augustus<br />That happy honors turned to woeful mourning.<br /><br />My mind, in its disdainful temper,<br />Thought to escape disdain by dying, and,<br />Contrary to my just self, did myself injustice. <br /><br />By the new roots of this tree<br />I swear to you that I never broke faith<br />With my lord, who was so worthy of honor.<br /><br />And if either of you returns to the world,<br />Offer sympathy to my memory, which lies felled<br />To this day by the blow envy dealt it.”<br /><br />He waited a little, and then: “Since he is silent,”<br />The poet said to me, “do not lose time,<br />But speak. Ask him more if you wish.”<br /><br />I answered him: “Continue to question him<br />About that which you believe will satisfy me,<br />As I cannot; so much pity fills my heart.” <br /><br />So my master began again, “So the man may do for you<br />What you ask of him freely,<br />Imprisoned spirit, may it please you<br /><br />To say more of how the soul is bound<br />In these knots, and say more, if you can,<br />If any of your kind is ever set free.”<br /><br />Then the trunk blew strongly, and<br />That blowing turned into a voice:<br />“Briefly shall I respond to you.<br /><br />When the fierce soul leaves<br />The body from which it has torn itself,<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minos">Minos</a> sends it to the seventh ring.<br /><br />It falls into the woods, and not in a place chosen,<br />But a place where fortune casts it.<br />There it sprouts like a grain of spelt wheat.<br /><br />It grows to a sapling and to a wild plant.<br />The Harpies then graze upon the leaves,<br />Creating pain and pain’s outlet.<br /><br />Like the others we shall come for our discarded forms,<br />But not so that any of us shall again wear them,<br />As it is not just to have that which one takes from oneself.<br /><br />We shall drag them here, and through the gloomy <br />Woods shall our bodies be hung,<br />Each on the thorns of the shade that abused it.”<br /><br />We were still at the trunk, waiting,<br />Thinking that it had other things it wanted to say,<br />When we were surprised by a noise,<br /><br />Like one who first<br />Senses the boars and the chase where he stands,<br />Hearing the beasts and the rustling branches.<br /><br />And there were two on the left,<br />Naked and scarred, running so quickly<br />They broke through every tangle in the wood.<br /><br />The one in front said, “Now come on, come on, death!”<br />And the other, who appeared to be falling behind,<br />Cried, “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_The_Divine_Comedy#Lano">Lano</a>, not so nimble were<br /><br />Your legs at the jousts of the Toppo!”<br />And then, perhaps because his breath failed him,<br />He crouched down beside a bush.<br /><br />Behind them the wood was full<br />Of black bitches, eager and running<br />Like hounds cut loose from the leash.<br /><br />They set their teeth on the cowering one,<br />And tore him apart piece by piece.<br />They then carried off his wretched limbs.<br /><br />My escort then took me by the hand<br />And led me to the bush, which was crying<br />In vain through bleeding wounds.<br /><br />“<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_The_Divine_Comedy#Jacomo">Jacopo of Santa Andrea</a>,” it said,<br />“How has it served you to use me for cover?<br />What blame do I have for your sinful life?”<br /><br />When my master stopped and stood over it,<br />He said, “Who were you, who through so many wounds<br />Blows blood with words of sorrow?”<br /><br />And it said to us, “O souls who have come<br />Here to see the shameful torture<br />That has taken my leaves from me,<br /><br />Collect them at the foot of the bush.<br />I was of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence">the city</a> that, in favor of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_the_Baptist">the Baptist</a>,<br />Changed its first patron--where he, for this,<br /><br />Will always make it full of sorrow with his art.<br />And if there was not, at the passage of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arno">Arno</a>,<br />Some vestige of him still remaining,<br /><br />Those citizens who then rebuilt it<br />On the ashes left by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attila_the_Hun">Attila</a>,<br />Would have labored in vain.<br /><br />As for me, I made a gallows for myself from my house.</p><br /><em><a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2009/03/inferno-song-xiv.html">Continue to Song XIV</a></em><p></p>R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016898062637343907.post-87344856528493972009-02-22T17:42:00.000-05:002009-03-09T21:30:47.486-04:00Inferno, Song XII<p></p><em>The story thus far: Dante, a poet and town prior in Florence, finds himself on a dark road of the soul. Before his spirit can fall to its ruin, he encounters Virgil, the greatest poet of classical Rome. Virgil, at the behest of Beatrice, a woman who was Dante's inspiration in life, offers Dante a journey through the realms of the afterworld, through which Dante may find his soul's salvation. He shall travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with Virgil as his guide through the first two. Dante accepts Virgil's offer, and they embark. After passing through the gates of Hell, they encounter the souls of the cowards who took no stand in conflicts between good and evil, and then proceed to Limbo, the realm of the noble or innocent souls who were not baptized or otherwise not believers in the Christian faith. Dante and Virgil then travel through the first circles of damnation and the city of Dis, which punish those who embrace earthly appetites and goods at God's expense. Upon leaving the city, Virgil explains the plan of Hell to Dante. The circles that follow hold, in descending order of heinousness, those who commit violence, fraud, and betrayal.</em><br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/SaHVnPGaxKI/AAAAAAAAAe4/jxullE9jVzM/s1600-h/inf_12.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 302px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_518Uje0IWsc/SaHVnPGaxKI/AAAAAAAAAe4/jxullE9jVzM/s400/inf_12.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305756706064221346" /></a><br /><p align="center"><em>Virgil and Dante encounter the Minotaur</em></p><br /><br /><p align="center">It was the place where one descends the ridge<br />To which we came. It was alpine steep, and because of what was there,<br />It was such that every eye would shun it.<br /><br />Like that landslide that, on the side<br />Of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trento">Trent</a>, struck the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adige">Adige</a>,<br />Due to either earthquake or the land’s weak foundation--<br /><br />From atop the mountain, where it began,<br />To the plain where the rock is so shattered.<br />That it would offer a path to one above--<br /><br />Such was the descent down that ravine.<br />And at the edge of the broken chasm<br />Lay <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minotaur">the infamy of Crete</a>,<br /><br />Who was conceived inside the false cow.<br />And when he saw us he bit himself<br />Like one whose rage blazes within.<br /><br />My mentor cried out to him, “Perhaps<br />You think that this here is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theseus">the Duke of Athens</a>,<br />Who in the world above brought you to your death?<br /><br />Leave, beast, for this one does not come<br />Instructed by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariadne">your sister</a>,<br />But goes here in order to see the sufferings of you all.”<br /><br />Like the bull that breaks free the moment<br />It has received the killing blow,<br />And cannot turn and run, instead jumping this way and that--<br /><br />This I saw the Minotaur do.<br />And the wise one yelled, “Run to the pass.<br />It is best to descend while he is enraged.”<br /><br />And so we made our way down through the scattering<br />Of those rocks, which often moved<br />Underneath my feet thanks to the weight none before me brought to bear.<br /><br />I was then thinking, and he said, “You are musing,<br />Perhaps, about this ruin that is watched over<br />By that bestial anger I quelled just now.<br /><br />Know then that the other time<br />I descended into the lower Hell,<br />Those rocks had not yet fallen.<br /><br />But certainly it was a bit before, if I figure rightly,<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrowing_of_hell">When He came</a>, so that the great bounty<br />Of Dis be taken from the highest circle.<br /><br />The deep, stinking valley in all parts<br />Trembled so, and I thought the universe<br />Had felt love, by which, some believe,<br /><br />The world has many times been transformed into chaos.<br />And at that moment this ancient stone<br />Was therefore brought down, here and elsewhere.<br /><br />But fix your eyes down yonder, for approaching is<br />The river of blood where those are boiled<br />Who through violence injure others.”<br /><br />O blind greed and mad anger,<br />That so spur us on in our brief life,<br />And then, in the eternal, plunge us into such woe!<br /><br />I saw a wide moat twisted into an arc<br />So that it encircled the entire plain<br />In accordance with what my escort had said.<br /><br />And between it and the foot of the cliff, in file<br />Ran <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaurs">centaurs</a>, armed with arrows,<br />As they did while hunting in our world.<br /><br />Seeing us descend, they all stopped,<br />And from the group, three came forward,<br />With the bows and shafts they had just pulled out.<br /><br />And one cried from a distance, “To what torment<br />Do you all come, you who descend the bank?<br />Tell us from there; if not, I draw my bow.”<br /><br />My master said, “The reply<br />We make shall be to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiron">Chiron</a> by your side.<br />Your sin was always to act too quickly upon your will.”<br /><br />Then he nudged me, and said, “That is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nessus_(mythology)">Nessus</a>,<br />Who died for the beautiful <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deianeira">Deianira</a>,<br />And through himself had his revenge.<br /><br />And the one in the middle, looking down upon his chest,<br />Is the great Chiron, he who raised <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achilles">Achilles</a>.<br />That other is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pholus_(mythology)">Pholus</a>, who was so full of anger.<br /><br />Around the moat they go by the thousands,<br />Shooting arrows at any soul that raises itself<br />From the blood more than its guilt allows.”<br /><br />We came nearer to these swift beasts.<br />Chiron took an arrow, and with the notch<br />Pushed his beard back to his jaw.<br /><br />When he had uncovered his great mouth,<br />He said to his companions, “Have you also noted<br />That the one behind moves what he touches?<br /><br />The feet of the dead are not supposed to do so.”<br />And my good leader, who stood already at his breast,<br />Where the two natures were joined,<br /><br />Replied, “He is indeed alive, and so alone.<br />I must show him the dark valley.<br />Necessity brings him here, not pleasure.<br /><br />It was one who left singing Hallelujah<br />Who assigned me this unprecedented duty.<br />He is not a thief; nor am I such a soul.<br /><br />But by that Power by whom I take<br />My steps through such a savage road,<br />Give us one of your own, whom we may follow,<br /><br />And that he may show us where the ford is,<br />And that he may carry this one upon his back,<br />For he is not a spirit who may go through the air.”<br /><br />Chiron turned round upon his right breast<br />And said to Nessus, “Go, and so guide them,<br />And turn back other posses if they prove an obstacle.”<br /><br />We then moved along with our faithful guide<br />Along the banks of the boiling crimson,<br />Where the ones boiled made high-pitched shrieks.<br /><br />I saw people immersed to the eyebrows,<br />And the great centaur said, “They are tyrants<br />Who gave themselves over to blood and plunder.<br /><br />Here they weep to themselves over their ruthless crimes.<br />Here is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_(general)">Alexander</a>, and savage <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysius_I_of_Syracuse">Dionysius</a>,<br />Who brought years of woe to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicily">Sicily</a>.<br /><br />And that forehead with such black hair<br />Is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezzelino_III_da_Romano">Ezzelino</a>, and that other, who is blond,<br />He is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obizzo_II_d%27Este">Obizzo da Esti</a>, who indeed<br /><br />Was slain by his stepson in the world above.”<br />I then turned to the poet, and he said, <br />“In this he shall be first to you, and I second.”<br /><br />A little farther on, the centaur stopped in his tracks<br />Above a group that were up to the throat,<br />It appeared, in where they came out of the boiling steam.<br /><br />He pointed out to us a shade alone on one side,<br />Saying, “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_de_Montfort,_Count_of_Nola">That one</a> cut in the lap of God<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_of_Almain">The heart that still drips upon the Thames</a>.”<br /><br />Then I saw people who, above the river’s surface,<br />Held their head and even their whole chest,<br />And of these I recognized many.<br /><br />And so it became more and more shallow--<br />That blood--until it only cooked the feet.<br />And here was our passage through the moat.<br /><br />“So, as you see on this side<br />The boiling stream grows continually more shallow,”<br />The centaur said. “I would have you know<br /><br />That, on the other side, the deeper and deeper<br />The bottom, until it again reaches<br />Where tyranny gathers to groan.<br /><br />There divine justice stabs at<br />That <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attila">Attila</a> who was a scourge on Earth,<br />As well as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoptolemus">Pyrrhus</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sextus_Pompeius">Sextus</a>. And it eternally milks<br /><br />The tears, unlocked by the boiling,<br />From <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cultural_references_in_The_Divine_Comedy#R">Rinier da Corneto to Rinier Pazzo</a>,<br />Who on the highways caused so much strife.”<br /><br />Then he turned around and again crossed the ford.</p><p><em><a href="http://dantescomedy.blogspot.com/2009/03/inferno-song-xiii.html">Continue to Song XIII</a></em></p>R. S. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13044341905789599207noreply@blogger.com0