Inferno: Canto XXVIII

Who with free speech unrhymed could utter well
And fully all the blood and many a wound
Which now I saw, though oft the tale he tell?

Each tongue, I trow, too feeble would be found.
By reason that our speech and mental sight
For such great themes have far too small a bound.

If all the host should once again unite
Which of old time upon the fateful land
Of Puglia mourned the bloodshed of the light,

Caused by long war and by the Roman's hand,
When of the rings were made such high-heaped spoil,
As Livy writes, whose words unerring stand.

With that which felt the pain of blows erewhile,
'Gainst Robert Guiscard in hot warfare set,
And that whose bones are gathered in the soil

Of Ceperan, where each Apulian met
A traitor proved; at Tagliacozzo too.
Where old Alardo, unarmed, conquered yet;

If some with limbs lopped off, and some pierced through,
Should show, they would no parallel provide
To that ninth Bolgia's fashion, foul to view.

A cask that loses centre board or side
Was never so pierced through as I saw one
Rent from chin down to where hind-parts divide;

Between his legs his entrails all hung down,
His heart's recess and that foul sack lay bare.
Where what we eat as excrement is thrown.

And while on him with fixed eyes I stare.
He looked at me, and with his hands his breast
Oped wide, and said, " See how myself I tear;

See how Mahomet maimed is manifest.
Before me AH goes and wails aloud.
Sharp cloven from the chin to forelock's crest.

And all the rest of whom thou see'st the crowd
Were sources in their lifetime of offence
And schism; therefore mangled are they bowed.

A devil stands behind, of cunning fence,
Who with sharp blows and stroke of sharpest sword
Tortures each soul of all this pack immense:

When we have travelled o'er that road abhorred,
Because our wounds are closed again, each one,
Ere pass before him any of our horde.

But who art thou who from the crag look'st on,
Seeking perchance thy torment to delay
Which is adjudged thee for thy ill deeds done?

"Not dead is he, nor guilt leads him this way,"
My Master said, " that he should tortured be;
But that he may experience full assay,

I, who am dead, must lead by Heaven's decree.
And guide him through all Hell from round to round;
And this is true just as I tell it thee."

More than a hundred, when they heard that sound.
Stopped in the fosse and turned to look on me.
Forgetting, in their wonder, each his wound.

To Fra Dolcino say thou this, that he
(Thou who perchance wilt soon see daylight's glow).
Unless to join me here he willing be,

Should store himself with food, lest piled-up snow
Should to the Novarese bring victory,
Which else to gain were no light task, I trow."

So, with one foot for turning lifted high,
Spake Mahomet to me the words I write;
Then on the ground he laid it to pass by.

Another, with his throat pierced through outright.
And his nose lopped from just below the eyes,
And but one ear remaining, at the sight

Stopped with the rest to gaze in sheer surprise,
And then before those others oped his throat.
Which all without was stained in blood-red guise.

And said, " O thou, who bear'st of guilt no note,
Whom I of old in Latin land have seen.
If too great likeness tend not to promote

Deceit, remember Pier of Medicine,
If e'er thou turn'st to see the pleasant plain
Which doth from Vercell' to Marcabo lean,

And say to Fano's best and worthiest twain,
As Guido and as Angiolello known.
That, if our gift of foresight be not vain,

They from their ship shall overboard be thrown,
Drowned near Cattolica, in no long while,
Through crime of one as fellest tyrant known.

Between Majolica and Cyprus isle
Neptune ne'er saw a crime so great as this
Wrought by fierce pirates or by Argive guile.

That traitor who one orb of sight doth miss,"
And holds the land which one who is with me
Would fain had never fed those eyes of his,

Will bid them come to speech of amity,
And then so act that 'gainst Focara's wind
They will not need or prayer or piteous cry.""

And I to him: " Speak out and tell thy mind.
If 'tis thy will that I of thee should speak.
Who is it would that sight so bitter find?"

Then did he lay his hand upon the check
Of one of those his mates and oped his jaw,
Crying, " This is he; he cannot silence break.

He, when in exile, crushed the doubting awe
Of Caesar, saying that it breeds but ill
When one forearmed delays the sword to draw."

Ah me! what terror seemed his soul to fill,
With tongue in throat thus slit and voiceless left,
That Curio, once so bold of speech and will.

And one of hands both left and right bereft,
Lifting the stumps up in the murky air.
So that the blood his face all filthy left,

Cried, " Mosca too thou shalt in memory bear,"
Who cried (Ah me!), 'A deed done, there's an end!'
Ill seed for all whom Tuscan land doth rear."

"And death to all thy race," did I append.
Then he, with sorrow heaped on sorrow high,"
Passed on, as one whose griefs to madness tend.

But I remained to watch that company.
And saw a thing which well might make me dread
To tell it without proof of verity.

But that my conscience stands me in good stead,"
Companion good, that makes a man full bold.
By breastplate of pure heart encompassed.

I then beheld, and still seem to behold,
A trunk without a head pass on before,
As passed the others of that mournful fold,

And by the locks its head, lopped off, it bore.
Hung in the hand, in fashion lantern-wise,
And "Ah me!" muttering, gazed with looks full sore,

And for itself itself a lamp supplies;
And they were two in one and one in two:
How it could be He knows who doth devise.

And when towards the bridge's foot it drew,
To bring its words more near, with head in hand.
His arms he lifted up, full in our view.

And said, " The pain thou now canst understand,
Who, breathing life, art come the dead to see;
See if aught great as this thou e'er hast scanned;

And that thou may'st true news report of me.
Know thou my name, Bertram dal Bornio,
Who John, the king, misled to treachery;"

The son and sire I made as foe to foe,
E'en as Ahithophel made Absalom
And David, by his counsels fraught with woe.

Because I severed ties of kin and home,
I bear, ah me! my own skull severed here
From its true stock, which doth in this trunk come:

Measure for measure is in me seen clear."