Inferno: Canto XXIX

That numerous people and their diverse woes
So made mine eyes, as drunk with grief, o'er-wrought,
That they would fain have found in tears repose;

But Virgil said, "Why gaze in eager thought?
Why doth thy glance so fixedly abide
Down there among those maimed shades sorrow-

I' the other pits thus hast thou never pried, fraught?
Think, if thou deem'st thou canst the shadows count,
For miles a score and two the vale winds wide.

And now our feet above the moon do mount;"
Brief is the season now to as allowed.
And the unseen exceeds the seen's amount.''

"If thou hadst given," then answered I aloud,
"Due heed unto the cause that made me gaze,
Thou this my lingering hadst perchance allowed.""

My Leader then passed on, and in his ways
I followed, even as I answer made.
And added, " In that den whereon I gaze

With eager look, in durance sad is laid
A spirit of my blood, that weeps and wails
The guilt for which such heavy fine is paid."

Then said my Guide, " Take heed no thought assail
Thy mind to bend it there where he doth dwell;
Elsewhere look thou; let him to move thee fail;

For It the bridge's foot I saw him well,"
Pointing at thee with finger threatening.
And heard his name pronounced Geri del Bell'.

Then, so absorbed in seeking to descry
His fate who Altaforte once possessed,
Thou saw'st him not; so he away did fly.""

"O Leader mine," so him I then addressed,
"That bloody death, which hath no vengeance found
From any by the self-same wrong oppressed.

Made him thus wrathful: hence he turned him round,
So deem I, and would speak no word to me,
And this hath made my pity more abound."

So spake we, far as the first place whence we
Could from the crag look o'er the other vale,
And, had we more light, to its bottom see.

When we had gained the farthest cloister's pale
Of Malebolge, and its brotherhood
Before our gaze their aspect could unveil.

Laments pierced through mine ears of divers mood,
Like arrows with their sharp points tipt with woe;
So with my hands upon mine ears I stood.

What pain would be if to one pit did flow
The ills that in Valdicchian's spitals be.
As July and September come and go.

Or what Maremma and Sardinia see.
So was it there; such stench rose evermore
As comes from limbs that rot in misery.

We wound our way adown the farther shore
From the long crag, but on the left hand still,
And now with clearer vision looked I o'er,

Towards the pit where she who works the will"
Of our high Lord, unerring Righteousness,
Doth scourge the forgers who her record fill.

I cannot think that that was worse distress
Which touched the sick of all Ægina's race,
When all the air was filled with noisomeness,

So that all living creatures died apace,
E'en to the worm, and then each ancient clan
(So do the poets the old story trace)

From seed of ants a new-born brood began.
Than what we here beheld, in that dim vale,"
Where souls in diverse heaps, lie pale and wan.

This on the belly, that on back did trail,
Each of the other; some on all-fours crept,
And made their way along the gloomy dale.

Speechless and pacing slow we onwards stept,
Gazing, and listening to that suffering crew.
Who power to raise their forms no longer kept;

There leaning on each other I saw two,
As plate on plate doth lean when set to heat,
O'er whom from head to foot a foul scab grew,

And never saw I currycomb so fleet
Of stable-boy whose master for him stays,
Or one who fain would to his bed retreat.

As each of them his nails' sharp bite always
Passed o'er his limbs for that exceeding sore
Of leprous itch that nothing else allays;

And so their nails that scab rubbed evermore.
As doth the knife the scales of scarda scrape,
Or other fish, with largest covered o'er.

"O thou who with thy fingers peel'st thy shape,"
Began to one of them my Leader true,
"And, as with pincers, mak'st thy flesh to gape.

Tell me if any Latin with this crew
His dwelling hath? so may thy nails suffice
Through endless time their taskwork to renew! ""

Latins are we, whom, worn with agonies.
Thou see'st thus tortured," weeping answered one;
But who art thou who ask'st for our replies?"

Then spake my Guide: " My course doth onward run
With this man, yet alive, down steep rocks sheer;
Not till I've shown him Hell is my task done."

Then did they cease this one on that to bear.
And each one, all a-tremble, turned to me.
With others who the echoing sound did hear.

Then my good Master turned my face to see,
And said, " Tell them what thou dost care to say."
And I began, since he so bade it be:

So may your memory never steal away
From human minds in that first world up there,
But still in life through many a long year stay!

Say who ye are, and whence your race and where;
Let not your foul and miserable plight
Make you afraid before me to appear."

I of Arezzo am: Siena's knight,
Alberto," said one, " sent me to the stake;"
What brought me here is other matter quite.

Tis true to him, in mirthful jest I spake,
I knew the secret through the air to fly.
And he, o'er-curious, senses scarce awake.

Wished me to show the art; and when that I"
No Daedalus made him, he made me burn
By one who did as with a son comply;

But to this Bolgia in its tenth last turn
Minos condemned me, he who cannot err,
For all that I as alchemy did learn."

Then said I to the poet, " Was there e'er
Like to Siena's, race so vain and weak?
E'en from the French the palm they surely bear."

And when the other leper heard me speak
He answered, " Well, save Stricca; he is one
Whose moderate living ne'er its bounds did break,

And Niccol', who the inventor's honours won,
For his new skill in clove's luxurious use,
In that wide garden where such seed is grown;

Save, too, the band on whom, with hand profuse,"
Caccia d'Ascian squandered wood and vine.
And he, the dazed one, lavished e'en his Muse.

But that thou know who doth with thee combine
Against the Sienese, thy glance turn here.
So that my face may answer well to thine;

Then as Capocchio's shade shall I appear,
Who wrought false metals by my alchemy.
Thou must remember, if I see thee clear,

How I aped nature all too skilfully,"