Purgatorio: Canto XXIV
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Nor speech the going, nor the going that
Slackened; but talking we went bravely on,
Even as a
vessel urged by a good wind.
And shadows, that appeared things doubly
dead,
From out the
sepulchres of their eyes betrayed
Wonder at me, aware that I was living.
And I, continuing my
colloquy,
Said: "Peradventure he goes up more slowly
Than he would do, for other people's sake.
But tell me, if thou knowest, where is
Piccarda;
Tell me if any one of note I see
Among this folk that gazes at me so."
"My sister, who, 'twixt beautiful and good,
I know not which was more, triumphs rejoicing
Already in her crown on high
Olympus."
So said he first, and then: "'Tis not
forbidden
To name each other here, so milked away
Is our resemblance by our dieting.
This," pointing with his finger, "is
Buonagiunta,
Buonagiunta, of Lucca; and that face
Beyond him there, more peaked than the others,
Has held the
holy Church within his arms;
From Tours was he, and purges by his fasting
Bolsena's eels and the
Vernaccia wine."
He named me many others one by one;
And all contented seemed at being named,
So that for this I saw not one dark look.
I saw for hunger bite the empty air
Ubaldin dalla Pila, and
Boniface,
Who with his crook had pastured many people.
I saw
Messer Marchese, who had
leisure
Once at
Forli for
drinking with less dryness,
And he was one who ne'er felt satisfied.
But as he does who scans, and then doth prize
One more than others, did I him of
Lucca,
Who seemed to take most cognizance of me.
He murmured, and I know not what
Gentucca
From that place heard I, where he felt the wound
Of justice, that doth macerate them so.
"O soul," I said, "that seemest so desirous
To speak with me, do so that I may hear thee,
And with thy speech appease thyself and me."
"A maid is born, and wears not yet the veil,"
Began he, "who to thee shall pleasant make
My city, howsoever men may blame it.
Thou shalt go on thy way with this prevision;
If by my murmuring thou hast been deceived,
True things hereafter will declare it to thee.
But say if him I here behold, who forth
Evoked the new-invented
rhymes, beginning,
'Ladies, that have
intelligence of love?'"
And I to him: "One am I, who, whenever
Love doth
inspire me, note, and in that measure
Which he within me
dictates, singing go."
"O brother, now I see," he said, "the knot
Which me, the
Notary, and
Guittone held
Short of the sweet new style that now I hear.
I do perceive full clearly how your pens
Go closely following after him who dictates,
Which with our own forsooth came not to pass;
And he who sets himself to go beyond,
No difference sees from one style to another;"
And as if satisfied, he held his peace.
Even as the birds, that winter tow'rds the
Nile,
Sometimes into a
phalanx form themselves,
Then fly in greater haste, and go in file;
In such wise all the people who were there,
Turning their faces, hurried on their steps,
Both by their
leanness and their wishes light.
And as a man, who weary is with trotting,
Lets his
companions onward go, and walks,
Until he
vents the panting of his chest;
So did
Forese let the holy flock
Pass by, and came with me behind it, saying,
"When will it be that I again shall see thee?"
"How long," I answered, "I may live, I know not;
Yet my return will not so speedy be,
But I shall sooner in desire arrive;
Because the place where I was set to live
From day to day of good is more depleted,
And unto dismal ruin seems ordained."
"Now go," he said, "for him most
guilty of it
At a beast's tail behold I dragged along
Towards the valley where is
no repentance.
Faster at every step the beast is going,
Increasing evermore until it smites him,
And leaves the body vilely mutilated.
Not long those wheels shall turn," and he uplifted
His eyes to heaven, "ere shall be clear to thee
That which my speech no farther can declare.
Now stay behind; because the time so precious
Is in this
kingdom, that I lose too much
By coming onward thus abreast with thee."
As sometimes issues forth upon a gallop
A
cavalier from out a troop that ride,
And seeks the honour of the first encounter,
So he with greater strides departed from us;
And on the road remained I with those two,
Who were such mighty marshals of the world.
And when before us he had gone so far
Mine eyes became to him such pursuivants
As was my
understanding to his words,
Appeared to me with
laden and living boughs
Another apple-tree, and not far distant,
From having but just then turned thitherward.
People I saw beneath it lift their hands,
And cry I know not what towards the leaves,
Like little children eager and deluded,
Who pray, and he they
pray to doth not answer,
But, to make very keen their appetite,
Holds their desire aloft, and hides it not.
Then they departed as if undeceived;
And now we came unto the mighty tree
Which prayers and tears so manifold refuses.
"Pass farther onward without drawing near;
The tree of which
Eve ate is higher up,
And out of that one has this tree been raised."
Thus said I know not who among the branches;
Whereat
Virgilius,
Statius, and
myself
Went crowding forward on the side that rises.
"Be mindful," said he, "of the accursed ones
Formed of the cloud-rack, who inebriate
Combated
Theseus with their double breasts;
And of the
Jews who showed them soft in drinking,
Whence
Gideon would not have them for companions
When he tow'rds
Midian the hills descended."
Thus, closely pressed to one of the two borders,
On passed we, hearing sins of gluttony,
Followed forsooth by miserable gains;
Then set at large upon the lonely road,
A thousand steps and more we onward went,
In contemplation, each without a word.
"What go ye thinking thus, ye three alone?"
Said suddenly a
voice, whereat I started
As terrified and timid beasts are wont.
I raised my head to see who this might be,
And never in a furnace was there seen
Metals or
glass so
lucent and so
red
As one I saw who said: "If it may please you
To mount aloft, here it behoves you turn;
This way goes he who goeth after peace."
His aspect had bereft me of my sight,
So that I turned me back unto my
Teachers,
Like one who goeth as his hearing guides him.
And as, the
harbinger of early dawn,
The air of May doth move and breathe out fragrance,
Impregnate all with
herbage and with flowers,
So did I feel a breeze strike in the midst
My front, and felt the moving of the
plumes
That breathed around an
odour of
ambrosia;
And heard it said: "
Blessed are they whom grace
So much
illumines, that the love of taste
Excites not in their
breasts too great desire,
Hungering at all times so far as is just."
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