The Divine Comedy ~ English Edition, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - Inferno

Canto XXVI
English Edition, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Circle Eight: Bolgia Eight

The Evil Counselors

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1	REJOICE, 0 Florence, since thou art so great,
2	That over sea and land thou beatest thy wings,
3	And throughout Hell thy name is spread abroad !

4	Among the thieves five citizens of thine
5	Like these I found, whence shame comes unto me,
6	And thou thereby to no great honour risest.

7	But if when morn is near our dreams are true,
8	Feel shalt thou in a little time from now
9	What Prato, if none other, craves for thee.

10	And if it now were, it were not too soon;
11	Would that it were, seeing it needs must be,
12	For 'twill aggrieve me more the more I age.

13	We went our way, and up along the stairs
14	The bourns had made us to descend before,
15	Remounted my Conductor and drew me.

16	And following the solitary path
17	Among the rocks and ridges of the crag,
18	The foot without the hand sped not at all.

19	Then sorrowed I, and sorrow now again,
20	When I direct my mind to what I saw,
21	And more my genius curb than I am wont,

22	That it may run not unless virtue guide it;
23	So that if some good star, or better thing,
24	Have given me good, I may myself not grudge it.

25	As many as the hind (who on the hill
26	Rests at the time when he who lights the world
27	His countenance keeps least concealed from us,

28	While as the fly gives place unto the gnat)
29	Seeth the glow-worms down along the valley,
30	Perchance there where he ploughs and makes his

31	With flames as manifold resplendent all
32	Was the eighth Bolgia, as I grew aware
33	As soon as I was where the depth appeared.

34	And such as he who with the bears avenged him
35	Beheld Elijah's chariot at departing,
36	What time the steeds to heaven erect uprose

37	For with his eye he could not follow it
38	So as to see aught else than flame alone,
39	Even as a little cloud ascending upward,

40	Thus each along the gorge of the intrenchment
41	Was moving; for not one reveals the theft,
42	And every flame a sinner steals away.

43	I stood upon the bridge uprisen to see,
44	So that, if I had seized not on a rock,
45	Down had I fallen without being pushed.

46	And the Leader, who beheld me so attent
47	Exclaimed: Within the fires the spirits are;
48	Each swathes himself with that wherewith he burns.

49	'My Master, I replied,by hearing thee
50	I am more sure; but I surmised already
51	It might be so, and already wished to ask thee

52	Who is within that fire, which comes so cleft
53	At top, it seems uprising from the pyre
54	Where was Eteocles with his brother placed.

55	He answered me: Within there are tormented
56	Ulysses and Diomed, and thus together
57	They unto vengeance run as unto wrath.

58	And there within their flame do they lament
59	The ambush of the horse, which made the door
60	Whence issued forth the Romans' gentle seed;

61	Therein is wept the craft, for which being dead
62	Deidamia still deplores Achilles,
63	And pain for the Palladium there is borne.

64	If they within those sparks possess the power
65	To speak, I said, thee, Master, much I pray,
66	And re-pray, that the prayer be worth a thousand,

67	That thou make no denial of awaiting
68	Until the horned flame shall hither come;
69	Thou seest that with desire I lean towards it.

70	And he to me: Worthy is thy entreaty
71	Of much applause, and therefore I accept it;
72	But take heed that thy tongue restrain itself.

73	Leave me to speak,because I have conceived
74	That which thou wishest; for they might disdain
75	Perchance, since they were Greeks, discourse of thine.

76	When now the flame had come unto that point,
77	Where to my Leader it seemed time and place,
78	After this fashion did I hear him speak:

79	O ye, who are twofold within one fire,
80	If I deserved of you, while I was living,
81	If I deserved of you or much or little

82	When in the world I wrote the lofty verses,
83	Do not move on, but one of you declare
84	Whither, being lost, he went away to die.

85	Then of the antique flame the greater horn,
86	Murmuring, began to wave itself about
87	Even as a flame doth which the wind fatigues.

88	Thereafterward, the summit to and fro
89	Moving as if it were the tongue that spake
90	It uttered forth a voice, and said: When I

91	From Circe had departed, who concealed me
92	More than a year there near unto Gaeta,
93	Or ever yet Aenas named it so,

94	Nor fondness for my son, nor reverence
95	For my old father, nor the due affection
96	Which joyous should have made Penelope,

97	Could overcome within me the desire
98	I had to be experienced of the world,
99	And of the vice and virtue of mankind;

100	But I put forth on the high open sea
101	With one sole ship, and that small company
102	By which I never had deserted been.

103	Both of the shores I saw as far as Spain,
104	Far as Morocco. and the isle of Sardes,
105	And the others which that sea bathes round about.

106	I and my company were old and slow
107	When at that narrow passage we arrived
108	Where Hercules his landmarks set as signals,

109	That man no farther onward should adventure.
110	On the right hand behind me left I Seville,
111	And on the other already had left Ceuta.

112	'O brothers, who amid a hundred thousand
113	Perils,' I said, ' have come unto the West,
114	To this so inconsiderable vigil

115	Which is remaining of your senses still
116	Be ye unwilling to deny the knowledge,
117	Following the sun, of the unpeopled world.

118	Consider ye the seed from which ye sprang;
119	Ye were not made to live like unto brutes,
120	But for pursuit of virtue and of knowledge.'

121	So eager did I render my companions,
122	With this brief exhortation, for the voyage,
123	That then I hardly could have held them back.

124	And having turned our stern unto the morning,
125	We of the oars made wings for our mad flight,
126	Evermore gaining on the larboard side.

127	Already all the stars of the other pole
128	The night beheld, and ours so very low
129	It did not rise above the ocean floor.

130	Five times rekindled and as many quenched
131	Had been the splendour underneath the moon,
132	Since we had entered into the deep pass,

133	When there appeared to us a mountain, dim
134	From distance, and it seemed to me so high
135	As I had never any one beheld.

136	Joyful were we, and soon it turned to weeping;
137	For out of the new land a whirlwind rose,
138	And smote upon the fore part of the ship.

139	Three times it made her whirl with all the waters,
140	At the fourth time it made the stern uplift,
141	And the prow downward go, as pleased Another,

142	Until the sea above us closed again.

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