Inferno: Canto XII

The place where down the bank our way we took,
Was alp-like, and the view that met us there,
Such that for fear each eye away would look.

So doth that ruin beyond Trent appear,
Which on the flank into the Adige dashed,'
Through earthquake or through prop that failed to bear;

For from the mountain-top whence down it crashed
E'en to the plain the rock so falls away.
That one above might climb o'er stones detached.

Such down that steep abyss was then our way;
And on the border of that break i' th' earth
The infamy of Crete extended lay.

Who from the false cow drew his monstrous birth;
And when he saw us, straight himself he bit,
As one all racked within by fiercest wrath.

My Sage towards him shouted, " Seemeth it,
Perchance, that thou the Athenian Duke dost see,
Who sent thee from yon world to death's dark pit?

Avaunt, thou monster! not instructed he
By thy fair sister, now descends this way,
But comes to see your forms of penalty."

And as a bull, when comes the hour to slay.
Breaks loose as he receives the deadly wound.
And cannot walk, but wildly bounds away.

So in the Minotaur like act I found.
And he, when ware of it, cried, " On apace;
To the outlet, while he rages, get thee round."

So down the broken bank our way we trace,
Over the rocks that slipped at our advance
At the new load my feet did on them place.

I moved on, plunged in thought, and he: " Perchance,
Thou thinkest on this ruin where doth stand.
As guard, that brute whose wrath quailed at my glance:

Now 'tis my wish that thou shouldst understand.
That when I erst came down to this deep Hell,
This rock had not thus fallen o'er the land.

Yet but a little while, if I judge well.
Ere He came down who bore His spoil away
From Dis, where souls i' th' upper circle dwell:

On every side this deep foul vale that day
So shook, I thought the Universe had known
That Love by which — so there are some that say —

The world in chaos ofttimes hath been thrown;
And at that moment fell this ancient mass,
And here and there left many a heap of stone.

But fix thine eyes below; for now we pass
The stream of blood wherein both boiling lie
Each soul that others wronged by force. Alas!

O blind desire, O fierce insanity,
Which spurs us on in this life's little span,
And, in the eternal, steeps in misery!"

Wide fosse I saw, which like a crescent ran.
As one which doth the whole wide plain embrace,
Ev'n as my Guide had told me of its plan;

And 'twixt it and the bank's foot, each in trace
Of other, armed with arrows. Centaurs sped,
As in the world they used to go a-chase;

And seeing us descend, each stayed his tread.
And from the troop detached, each with his bow
And arrows, three of them came on ahead;

And one cried out from far, " What doom of woe
Awaits you who descend this dreary shore?
Speak where ye are, or else I draw the bow."

Then said my Master to them, " Answer more
We will to Chiron make, who standeth near;
Ill sped for thee thy will so rash of yore."

Then touched he me and said, "See Nessus here,
Who for the beauteous Deianira bled.
And for himself wrought vengeance dire and drear.

He in the midst, who breastward bends his head,"'
Is Chiron great, who did Achilles train;
The other Pholus, filled with anger dread.

Thousands the fosse skirt, thousands yet again.
Shooting at every soul that lifts its frame, stain."
More than his guilt fits, from that blood-stream's

We to those swift-paced monsters nearer came,
And Chiron took a dart, and then he drew
Behind his jaws his beard back with the same;

And when his great mouth bare appeared in view.
He said to his companions, " Do ye see"
That he behind, in touching, moveth too?

Not so a dead man's steps are wont to be."
And my good Guide, who now had reached the breast.
Where the two natures met in unity,

Answered, " He lives indeed; 'tis my behest"
To show to him alone this valley drear.
Not for delight, but by high fate imprest.

For One hath ceased her Alleluia clear
Who this new office hath to me assigned:
No robber he, nor felon stand I here;"

But, by that Power through whose protection kind
My footsteps move along this pathway fell.
Give us a guide, whom we may near us find.

To show us where the stream is fordable.
One on whose back this man may sit astride;
No spirit he, through air to travel well."

Then Chiron turned towards his right-hand side,
And said to Nessus, '' Take thou them, and lead:
If others check thee, bid them turn aside."

We then with trusty escort straight proceed
Along the edge of that red boiling stream.
Wherein those seething wailed each guilty deed.

Sunk to the eyebrows some of them did seem,
And the great Centaur said, " The tyrants these.
Who plunged in blood and rapine's worst extreme:

Their ruthless deeds they wail here, ill at ease.
See Alexander, Dionysius there,
Who vexed Sicilia with long cruelties.

That forehead there, o'erhung with swarthy hair,
Is Azzolino, and that other head
Is Obizzo of Esti's visage fair,

Whose blood on earth was by his stepson shed."
Then turned I to the Poet and he spake,
"Let him before thee, I behind thee, tread."

Soon as we walked, I saw the Centaur make"
A halt hard by a race that plunged were shown
To the throat, then rose from out that bubbling lake.

A shade he showed us, on one side, alone,
And said, " In God's own lap he pierced the heart
Which, held in honour, on the Thames is known."

Then I saw those who all their upper part
Above the river held, both chest and head;
Of many, memories in my mind did start.

So step by step the depth diminished
Of that blood-stream, till but the feet were wet,
And there from out the fosse our passage led.

'As on this side the stream thine eye hath met
Still lessening in its depth of seething blood,"
The Centaur said, "but thou must not forget

That on the other deepens still its flood
'Till its bed comes at last full round again,
Where in fit penance wails the tyrant brood.

There God's great justice smites with ceaseless pain
That Attila who was the earth's great scourge,
Pyrrhus and Sextus, and doth still constrain

The tears it draws forth with its seething surge
In Pazzo and Corneto, each Rinier,
Who on the roads war's havoc dread did urge."

Then turned he back and crossed the shallows near.