The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Inferno — Dante Alighieri — John Shaqi
The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Inferno
Dante Alighieri · en
[734] _Pain for pain_: In the City of Dis we found the heresiarchs,
those who lead others to think falsely. The lower depth of the Malebolge
is reserved for such as needlessly rend any Divinely-constituted order
of society, civil or religious. Conduct counts more with Dante than
opinion--in this case.
CANTO XXIX.
The many folk and wounds of divers kind
Had flushed mine eyes and set them on the flow,
Till I to weep and linger had a mind;
But Virgil said to me: 'Why gazing so?
Why still thy vision fastening on the crew
Of dismal shades dismembered there below?
Thou didst not[735] thus the other Bolgias view:
Think, if to count them be thine enterprise,
The valley circles twenty miles and two.[736]
Beneath our feet the moon[737] already lies; 10
The time[738] wears fast away to us decreed;
And greater things than these await thine eyes.'
I answered swift: 'Hadst thou but given heed
To why it was my looks were downward bent,
To yet more stay thou mightest have agreed.'
My Guide meanwhile was moving, and I went
Behind him and continued to reply,
Adding: 'Within the moat on which intent
I now was gazing with such eager eye
I trow a spirit weeps, one of my kin, 20
The crime whose guilt is rated there so high.'
Then said the Master: 'Henceforth hold thou in
Thy thoughts from wandering to him: new things claim
Attention now, so leave him with his sin.
Him saw I at thee from the bridge-foot aim
A threatening finger, while he made thee known;
Geri del Bello[739] heard I named his name.
But, at the time, thou wast with him alone
Engrossed who once held Hautefort,[740] nor the place
Didst look at where he was; so passed he on.' 30
'O Leader mine! death violent and base,
And not avenged as yet,' I made reply,
'By any of his partners in disgrace,
Made him disdainful; therefore went he by
And spake not with me, if I judge aright;
Which does the more my ruth[741] intensify.'
So we conversed till from the cliff we might
Of the next valley have had prospect good
Down to the bottom, with but clearer light.[742]
When we above the inmost Cloister stood 40
Of Malebolge, and discerned the crew
Of such as there compose the Brotherhood,[743]
So many lamentations pierced me through--
And barbed with pity all the shafts were sped--
My open palms across my ears I drew.
From Valdichiana's[744] every spital bed
All ailments to September from July,
With all in Maremma and Sardinia[745] bred,
Heaped in one pit a sickness might supply
Like what was here; and from it rose a stink 50
Like that which comes from limbs that putrefy.
Then we descended by the utmost brink
Of the long ridge[746]--leftward once more we fell--
Until my vision, quickened now, could sink