Canto Tertio
Per me si va nella citta dolente
Per me si va nelletherno dolore
Per me si va tra laperduta gente
Iustitia mosse el mio alto factore
Fecemi la divina potestate
La somma sapientia el primo amore
Dinanzi a me nonfur chose create
Se non etherne et io etherno duro
Lasciate ogni speranza voi chentrate
Queste parole di colore obscuro
Vidio scripte al sommo duna porta
Perchio maestro el senso lor me duro.
Et quegli a me chome persona accorta
Qui si convien lasciare ogni sospecto
Ogni vilta convien che qui sia morta
Non sian venuti alloco ovio tho decto
Che tu vedrai legenti dolorose
Channo perduto el ben dellontellecto
Et poi che lasua mano alla mia pose
Con lieto volto ondio mi confortai
Mi misse drento alle secrete chose.
Quivi sospir con pianti et alti guai
Risonavan per laer sanza stelle
Perchio al cominciar ne lagrimai
Diverse lingue. Horribili favelle.
Parole di dolor. Accenti dira.
Voci alte et fioche et suon di man conelle
Facevanun tumulto elqual saggira
Sempre in quellaria sanza tempo tinta
Chome lharena quando al turbo spira.
Et io chavea derrore la testa cinta
Dixi maestro che e/quel chiodo:
Et che gente e che par nelduol si vinta:
Et egli a me questo misero modo
Tengon lanime triste di coloro
Che vissor sanza fama et sanza lodo.
Mischiate sono aquel captivo choro
De glangeli/che non futon ribelli :
Ne fur fedeli adio: ma per se foro.
Cacciongl ecieli per non per non esser ben belli:
ne lo profondo inferno gli riceve
Chalchuna gloria erei harebbon delli.
Et io maestro che e tanto greve
Allor che lamentar gli fa si forte
Rispose dicerolti molto breve
Questi non hanno speranza di morte :
Et la lor cieca vita e/tantobassa
Che invidiosi son dognaltra sorte.
Fama di loro el mondo esser non lassa
Misericordia: et giustitia glisdegna :
Non ragionar dilor: ma guarda et passa
Et io che riguardai vidi una insegna
Che girando correva tanto rapta
Che dogni posa mi parea indegna :
Et drieto gli venia si lunga tracta
Di gente chio non harei mai creduto
Che morte tanta nhavessi disfacta
Poscia chio vhebbi alchuno riconosciuto
Vidi et conobbi lombra di colui
Che fece per vilta lo gran rifiuto
Incontinente intese et certo fui
Che questera la secta de captivi
A dio spiacenti et animici suoi:
Questi sciagurati che mai non fur vivi /
Erono ignudi et stimolati molto
Da mosconi et da vespe cheron ivi.
Elli rigavon lor di sangue el volto
Che mischiato di lachrime alor piedi
Da fastidiosi vermi era ricolto.
Poscia chariguardare oltre mi diedi
Vidi gentalla riva dun gran fiume
Perchio maestro dixi hor mi concedi
Chio sappi quali sono et qual costume :
Le fa di trapassar parer si prompte :
Chomio discerno per lo fiocho lume.
Et egli a me le chose ti fien conte :
Quando noi fermeren li nostri passi
Sulla trista riviera dacheronte.
Allhor chon gliocchi vergognosi et bassi
Temendo nel mio dir gli fussi grave /
Infino al fiume del parlar mi trassi.
Et ecco verso noi venir per nave
Un vecchio bianco per antico pelo
Gridando quai avoi anime prave :
Non isperate mai veder lo cielo
Io vengo per menarui allaltra riva
Nelle tenebre etherne in caldo engielo :
Et tu che se chosti anima viva?
Partiti da chotesti che son morti
Ma paiche vide chio non mi partiva :
Dixe per altre vie per altre porti
Verrai a piaggia non qui per passare
Piu lieve legno convien che ti porti.
El ducha alui Charon non ti crucciare :
Vuolsi chosi chola dove si puote
Cio che si vuole: et piu non domandare
Quinci fur chete le lanose gote
Al nocchier della livida palude
Chentorno agliocchi havea difiamme rote
Ma quellanime cheron lasse et nude
Changiar cholera et dibattero edenti
Tosto chenteson le parole crude
Bestemiavono dio elor parenti
Lhumanaspetie elluogo eltempo elseme
Di lor semenza de di lor nascimenti.
Poi si ritrasser tutte quante inseime
Forte piangendo alla riva malvagia /
Chattende ciascunhuom che dio non teme
Charon dimonio chon occhi di bragia
Loro accennanado tutti gli raccoglie
Batte chol remo qualunghe sadagia.
Chome dauctuno si lievon le foglie
Lu na appresso dellaltra infin chel ramo
Vede alla terra tutte le sue spoglie
Similemente el mal seme dadamo
Gittasi di quel lito aduna aduna
Percenni chrome augel per suo richiamo
Chosi senvanno su per londa bruna
Et avanti che sieno di la discese
Anche di qua nuova schiera saduna.
Figliuol mio dixe el maestro cortese
Quegli che muoion nellira di dio
Tutti convengon que dogni paese
Et prompti sono a trapassar lo rio
Che la divina giustitia gli sprona
Si che la tema si volve in disio :
Quici nonpasso mai anima buona
Et pero se Charone di te si lagna :
Ben puo sapere omai chel suo dir suona
Finito questo labuia campagna
Tremo si forte che dello spavento
La mente di sudore anchor mibagna :
La terra lachrimosa diede vento
Che baleno una luce vermiglia :
Laqual mi vinse ciaschun sentimento :
Et caddi chome lhuom chi sonno piglia.
Canto III
THROUGH ME,
GO TO
SORROW’S
CITY;
THROUGH ME,
GO TO
PAIN
ETERNAL;
THROUGH ME,
GO TO
THE GRIEF
PEOPLE.
JUSTICE
MOVED
MY HIGHEST
AUTHOR.
DIVINE POWER,
DIVINE WISDOM,
AND THE FIRST LOVE
MADE ME.
BEFORE ME
THERE IS
NO CAUSE
OUTSIDE
THE ETERNAL
AND
ETERNALLY
I ENDURE.
ENTER AND LEAVE
YOUR HOPE
BEHIND.
Like so I saw these words
etched dark above a gate
I said: Teacher, these words
are harsh to hear and know.
And him, more keen and shrewd—
Suspicion resigns here;
every cowardice dies.
We have come to the place
I told you about—
Here you’ll see those who’ve lost
the good of intellect.
They’re the most pained people.
With gladness in his face
he put his hand in mine. Comfort.
He put me like this
among things kept secret
from all us living.
At the gate, sighs and wails;
guttural groans sounded
in the starless air. I wept.
Tongues horrid and foreign—
Pained words and cries of war—
Incoherent voices—
Sounds of slapping torments
all made a tumult that permeated
the dim and timeless air. Grains of sand in the breath of a hurricane.
I spoke with my head still
and girded by horror:
Teacher, what do I hear?
Who are these, won by pain?
Him to me: This misery
is held by sad-tinted souls
who lived without note.
They are mixed in with
a choir held captive:
neutral angels who made
neither rebellion
nor kept fidelity.
They are the castoffs
of the heavens and deep Hell—
expelled from above
to protect its beauty;
rejected from below
to preserve its darkness.
And I: Teacher, what makes
their cries strike so strong?
His response: I’ll speak it
to you in brief. They have
no hope of death; their sense
is so base and so blind
that they envy
every other lot.
They are not missed.
They are disdained.
We can’t reason with them.
Look, and let’s go.
I turned. My eyes were
open and forward.
I saw a sign whipping
at such a running rate
that every pause seemed
an indignity.
Behind it came
a long parade.
I would not have believed
death unmade so many.
Some I recognized.
One I recognized.
I saw him—the shade who
made the Great Refusal. C e l e s t i n e V
True it was.
And so, I understood these
to be a gang of woe,
those displeasing to God;
those displeasing, too,
to his enemies.
Swarms of flies; stinging wasps—
all torment these scabs
who never really lived.
They are naked. They scratch
their faces. Their blood
cocktails their tears; it pools
at their feet where thrashing
thirsty worms suck upon it.
I had to look beyond
my ten. I saw others
at the shore of a river. A c h e r o n t e
And so I said: Teacher,
now tell me, who are they?
By what law do they cross
the river like so—
How can I discern them
in l’Inferno’s lack of light?
Him to me: These things
will come to your senses
when we hold our way
on the river of grief. A c h e r o n t e
Until we drew close to
the river we discussed A c h e r o n t e
I lowered my eyes
in humility.
Now look, behind us,
a boat is coming,
and in it, an elder
who is screaming like so:
Woe to you, depraved souls!
You who never hope
to see heaven! I’ve come
to port you all to shore
to the eternal hold
of fire and of ice.
And you over there,
you living soul—
Depart from the dead. I did not depart.
He saw me like so and said:
By another way
and by other ports—
You‘ll come to a beach, there
you’ll take a lighter craft.
Then, Virgil said: Charon,
don’t concern yourself—
from heaven it’s willed
like so. Do not ask for more.
And so, silence fell
to Charon’s bearded cheeks
even as the wheels of flame His eyes, his eyes.
continued to churn.
When the words reached them f r o m h e a v e n i t ’ s w i l l e d l i k e s o
the naked, weary souls
lost any color and
they rattled their teeth. Why?
These ones? They blasphemed God
They blasphemed their families.
They blasphemed the human
species and the place
and the time and the seed
of their conception.
They blasphemed
its fruition in their births.
With powerful cries
they all retraced their way
to the maligned bank
that awaits each man
who has no fear of God.
Charon the demon His eyes, his eyes
makes a signal; collects
them all inside his craft
then he beats with his oar
whichever one is slowest. It was like this:
As in autumn, when the leaves fall; each one
following more quickly the other, until the
Mother branch above looks below to see the
ground covered by her spoils, so too the Bad
Seeds of Adam throw themselves to the
shore one by one at Charon’s signal like the
falcon for his recall.
So they go on
Acheronte’s dark wave,
and even before they
come to the other side,
a new swarm has grown.
My teacher said: My son,
these that die in the wrath
of God all converge here
from all parts of the earth.
They are ready to cross
the river; because
divine justice spurs them
on, their fear transforms
into desire.
Good souls never pass—
so if Charon complains
you know clearly now
just what his words mean.
Finito. The dark
countryside shook.
A gust of wind—
A vermillion light—
As it comes to mind Yes, even now.
fear bathes me in sweat.
And so—
I lost my senses.
I fell as a man won by sleep.
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