Inferno:
Canto XXXII
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If I had rhymes both rough and
stridulous,
As were appropriate to the
Dismal hole
Down upon which thrust all the other rocks,
I would press out the
juice of my conception
More fully; but because I have them not,
Not without
fear I bring myself to speak;
For 'tis no
enterprise to take in jest,
To sketch the bottom of all the universe,
Nor for a
tongue that cries
Mamma and
Babbo.
But may those
Ladies help this verse of mine,
Who helped
Amphion in enclosing
Thebes,
That from the fact the word be not diverse.
O rabble ill-begotten above all,
Who're in the place to speak of which is hard,
'Twere better ye had here been sheep or goats!
When we were down within the darksome well,
Beneath the
giant's feet, but lower far,
And I was scanning still the lofty wall,
I heard it said to me: "Look how thou steppest!
Take heed thou do not trample with thy feet
The heads of the tired, miserable brothers!"
Whereat I turned me round, and saw before me
And
underfoot a
lake, that from the frost
The semblance had of glass, and not of water.
So thick a veil ne'er made upon its current
In
winter-time Danube in
Austria,
Nor there beneath the
frigid sky the
Don,
As there was here; so that if
Tambernich
Had fallen upon it, or
Pietrapana,
E'en at the edge 'twould not have given a creak.
And as to
croak the
frog doth place himself
With
muzzle out of water,--when is dreaming
Of gleaning oftentimes the peasant-girl,--
Livid, as far down as where shame appears,
Were the
Disconsolate shades within the
ice,
Setting their teeth unto the note of
storks.
Each one his
countenance held downward bent;
From mouth the cold, from eyes the doleful
heart
Among them witness of itself
procures.
When round about me somewhat I had looked,
I downward turned me, and saw two so close,
The
hair upon their heads together mingled.
"Ye who so
strain your
breasts together, tell me,"
I said, "who are you;" and they bent their
necks,
And when to me their faces they had lifted,
Their eyes, which first were only
moist within,
Gushed o'er the eyelids, and the frost
congealed
The tears between, and locked them up again.
Clamp never bound together wood with wood
So strongly; whereat they, like two he-goats,
Butted together, so much wrath o'ercame them.
And one, who had by
reason of the cold
Lost both his ears, still with his visage downward,
Said: "Why dost thou so mirror thyself in us?
If thou desire to know who these two are,
The valley whence
Bisenzio descends
Belonged to them and to their
father Albert.
They from one
body came, and all
Caina
Thou
shalt search through, and
shalt not find a shade
More worthy to be fixed in
gelatine;
Not he in whom were broken
breast and shadow
At one and the same blow by
Arthur's hand;
Focaccia not; not he who me encumbers
So with his head I see no farther forward,
And bore the name of
Sassol Mascheroni;
Well knowest thou who he was, if thou
art Tuscan.
And that thou put me not to further speech,
Know that I
Camicion de' Pazzi was,
And wait
Carlino to exonerate me."
Then I beheld a thousand faces, made
Purple with cold; whence o'er me comes a shudder,
And evermore will come, at
frozen ponds.
And while we were advancing tow'rds the middle,
Where everything of weight unites together,
And I was shivering in the eternal shade,
Whether 'twere will, or destiny, or chance,
I know not; but in walking 'mong the heads
I struck my
foot hard in the face of one.
Weeping he growled: "
Why dost thou trample me?
Unless thou comest to increase the
vengeance
of
Montaperti, why dost thou
molest me?"
And I: "My
Master, now wait here for me,
That I through him may issue from a doubt;
Then thou mayst hurry me, as thou
shalt wish."
The Leader stopped; and to that one I said
Who was
blaspheming vehemently still:
"Who
art thou, that thus reprehendest others?"
"Now who
art thou, that goest through
Antenora
Smiting," replied he, "other people's cheeks,
So that, if thou wert living, 'twere too much?"
"Living I am, and dear to thee it may be,"
Was my response, "if thou demandest
fame,
That 'mid the other notes thy name I place."
And he to me: "For the reverse I long;
Take thyself hence, and give me no more trouble;
For ill thou knowest to flatter in this hollow."
Then by the scalp behind I seized upon him,
And said: "It must needs be thou name thyself,
Or not a
hair remain upon thee here."
Whence he to me: "Though thou strip off my hair,
I will not tell thee who I am, nor show thee,
If on my head a thousand times thou fall."
I had his
hair in hand already twisted,
And more than one shock of it had pulled out,
He
barking, with his eyes held firmly down,
When cried another: "What doth ail thee,
Bocca?
Is't not enough to clatter with thy jaws,
But thou must
bark? what
devil touches thee?"
"Now," said I, "I care not to have thee speak,
Accursed
Traitor; for unto thy shame
I will report of thee veracious news."
"Begone," replied he, "and tell what thou wilt,
But be not silent, if thou issue hence,
Of him who had just now his
tongue so prompt;
He
weepeth here the
silver of the
French;
'I saw,' thus canst thou phrase it, 'him of
Duera
There where the
sinners stand out in the cold.'
If thou shouldst questioned be who else was there,
Thou hast beside thee him of
Beccaria,
Of whom the
gorget Florence slit asunder;
Gianni del Soldanier, I think, may be
Yonder with
Ganellon, and
Tebaldello
Who
oped Faenza when the people
slep."
Already we had gone away from him,
When I beheld two
frozen in one hole,
So that one head a
hood was to the other;
And even as bread through hunger is devoured,
The uppermost on the other set his teeth,
There where the
brain is to the nape united.
Not in another fashion
Tydeus gnawed
The temples of
Menalippus in
Disdain,
Than that one did the
skull and the other things.
"O thou, who showest by such
bestial sign
Thy hatred against him whom thou
art eating,
Tell me the wherefore," said I, "with this
compact,
That if thou rightfully of him
complain,
In knowing who ye are, and his
transgression,
I in the
world above
repay thee for it,
If that wherewith I speak be not
dried up."
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