The Divine Comedy ~ English Edition, translated by H.F. Cary - Inferno

Canto XXXIV
English Edition, translated by H.F. Cary

Circle Nine: Cocytus
Round Four: Judecca
The Center

Compound Fraud
The Treacherous to Their Masters
Satan

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1	THE banners of Hell's Monarch do come forth
2	Towards us; therefore look, so spake my guide,
3	If thou discern him. As, when breathes a cloud

4	Heavy and dense, or when the shades of night
5	Fall on our hemisphere, seems view'd from far
6	A windmill, which the blast stirs briskly round,

7	Such was the fabric then methought I saw,
8	To shield me from the wind, forthwith I drew
9	Behind my guide: no covert else was there.

10	Now came I (and with fear I bid my strain
11	Record the marvel) where the souls were all
12	Whelm'd underneath, transparent, as through glass

13	Pellucid the frail stem. Some prone were laid,
14	Others stood upright, this upon the soles,
15	That on his head, a third with face to feet

16	Arch'd like a bow. When to the point we came,
17	Whereat my guide was pleas'd that I should see
18	The creature eminent in beauty once,

19	He from before me stepp'd and made me pause.
20	Lo! he exclaim'd, lo Dis! and lo the place,
21	Where thou hast need to arm thy heart with strength.

22	How frozen and how faint I then became,
23	Ask me not, reader! for I write it not,
24	Since words would fail to tell thee of my state.

25	I was not dead nor living. Think thyself
26	If quick conception work in thee at all,
27	How I did feel. That emperor, who sways

28	The realm of sorrow, at mid breast from th' ice
29	Stood forth; and I in stature am more like
30	A giant, than the giants are in his arms.

31	Mark now how great that whole must be, which suits
32	With such a part. If he were beautiful
33	As he is hideous now, and yet did dare

34	To scowl upon his Maker, well from him
35	May all our mis'ry flow. Oh what a sight!
36	How passing strange it seem'd, when I did spy

37	Upon his head three faces: one in front
38	Of hue vermilion, th' other two with this
39	Midway each shoulder join'd and at the crest;

40	The right 'twixt wan and yellow seem'd: the left
41	To look on, such as come from whence old Nile
42	Stoops to the lowlands. Under each shot forth

43	Two mighty wings, enormous as became
44	A bird so vast. Sails never such I saw
45	Outstretch'd on the wide sea. No plumes had they,

46	But were in texture like a bat, and these
47	He flapp'd i' th' air, that from him issued still
48	Three winds, wherewith Cocytus to its depth

49	Was frozen. At six eyes he wept: the tears
50	Adown three chins distill'd with bloody foam.
51	At every mouth his teeth a sinner champ'd

52	Bruis'd as with pond'rous engine, so that three
53	Were in this guise tormented. But far more
54	Than from that gnawing, was the foremost pang'd

55	By the fierce rending, whence ofttimes the back
56	Was stript of all its skin. That upper spirit,
57	Who hath worse punishment, so spake my guide,

58	Is Judas, he that hath his head within
59	And plies the feet without. Of th' other two,
60	Whose heads are under, from the murky jaw

61	Who hangs, is Brutus: lo! how he doth writhe
62	And speaks not! Th' other Cassius, that appears
63	So large of limb. But night now re-ascends,

64	And it is time for parting. All is seen.
65	I clipp'd him round the neck, for so he bade;
66	And noting time and place, he, when the wings

67	Enough were op'd, caught fast the shaggy sides,
68	And down from pile to pile descending stepp'd
69	Between the thick fell and the jagged ice.

70	Soon as he reach'd the point, whereat the thigh
71	Upon the swelling of the haunches turns,
72	My leader there with pain and struggling hard

73	Turn'd round his head, where his feet stood before,
74	And grappled at the fell, as one who mounts,
75	That into hell methought we turn'd again.

76	Expect that by such stairs as these, thus spake
77	The teacher, panting like a man forespent,
78	We must depart from evil so extreme.

79	Then at a rocky opening issued forth,
80	And plac'd me on a brink to sit, next join'd
81	With wary step my side. I rais'd mine eyes,

82	Believing that I Lucifer should see
83	Where he was lately left, but saw him now
84	With legs held upward. Let the grosser sort,

85	Who see not what the point was I had pass'd,
86	Bethink them if sore toil oppress'd me then.
87	Arise, my master cried, upon thy feet.

88	The way is long, and much uncouth the road;
89	And now within one hour and half of noon
90	The sun returns. It was no palace-hall

91	Lofty and luminous wherein we stood,
92	But natural dungeon where ill footing was
93	And scant supply of light. Ere from th' abyss

94	I sep'rate, thus when risen I began,
95	My guide! vouchsafe few words to set me free
96	From error's thralldom. Where is now the ice?

97	How standeth he in posture thus revers'd?
98	And how from eve to morn in space so brief
99	Hath the sun made his transit? He in few

100	Thus answering spake: Thou deemest thou art still
101	On th' other side the centre, where I grasp'd
102	Th' abhorred worm, that boreth through the world.

103	Thou wast on th' other side, so long as I
104	Descended; when I turn'd, thou didst o'erpass
105	That point, to which from ev'ry part is dragg'd

106	All heavy substance. Thou art now arriv'd
107	Under the hemisphere opposed to that,
108	Which the great continent doth overspread,

109	And underneath whose canopy expir'd
110	The Man, that was born sinless, and so liv'd.
111	Thy feet are planted on the smallest sphere,

112	Whose other aspect is Judecca. Morn
113	Here rises, when there evening sets: and he,
114	Whose shaggy pile was scal'd, yet standeth fix'd,

115	As at the first. On this part he fell down
116	From heav'n; and th' earth, here prominent before,
117	Through fear of him did veil her with the sea,

118	And to our hemisphere retir'd. Perchance
119	To shun him was the vacant space left here
120	By what of firm land on this side appears,

121	That sprang aloof. There is a place beneath,
122	From Belzebub as distant, as extends
123	The vaulted tomb, discover'd not by sight,

124	But by the sound of brooklet, that descends
125	This way along the hollow of a rock,
126	Which, as it winds with no precipitous course,

127	The wave hath eaten. By that hidden way
128	My guide and I did enter, to return
129	To the fair world: and heedless of repose

130	We climbed, he first, I following his steps,
131	Till on our view the beautiful lights of heav'n
132	Dawn, through a circular opening in the cave:

133	Thus issuing we again beheld the stars.

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