Inferno: Canto IV

There came to break that deep sleep of the brain
A peal of thunder loud, that startled me
As one whom force doth to awake constrain.

And with mine eyes thus rested, I to see
Turned me, stood up, and steadfast gazed around,"
To know the region where I chanced to be.

In very deed upon the brink I found
Myself, of that abyss of direst woe,
Where thunders roar, of groans that know no bound.

Dark was it, deep, o'erclouded so below,
That though I sought its depths to penetrate,
Nought to mine eyes its form did clearly show.

"Now pass we down to that world desolate,"
Began the poet, pale with sore affright:
"I will go first; thou shalt as second wait."

And I, who had that change of hue in sight,
Said, " How shall I go, if e'en thou dost fear.
Whose wont it is my doubting to set right?"

And he to me: " Their anguish who dwell there
My face with pity's pallor overspread,
Which to thy thought as terror did appear.

Onward, for long the way we have to tread."
And so he passed, and made me enter in
Where the first circle girds the abyss of dread.

And here, so far as hearing truth might win,
No other plaint rose up than that of sighs,
That made the air all tremulous within.

This from the sorrow without pain did rise.
Endured by those vast multitudes and great.
Which infants, men, and women did comprise.

Spake my good Master: "Ask'st thou not their fate,
Who are these spirits that thus meet thy view?
Ere thou pass on I will thou know their state.

That they sinned not; if they have merits too.
These, baptism lacking, nothing help alone,
The portal this of Faith thou holdest true.

And if they lived ere Christian creed was known,
They did not in due measure God adore;
And of this number I myself am one:

Through these defects, not other guilt or more,
We are among the lost, but so far pained,
That without hope we live in yearning sore."

When I heard this, great grief my heart constrained
Because some persons good and brave I knew.
Who in that outer limbus were detained.

"Tell me, O Lord and Master, tell me true,"
So I begin in eager wish to know
The faith which every error doth subdue,

"Did ever any by his merits go.
Or by another's, hence, and then was blest?"
And he, who knew what lay my speech below.

Made answer: " I was but a new-come guest,
When here I saw a Mighty One descend,
And on His brow the conqueror's crown did rest;

He bade our first sire's spirit with him wend,"
Abel, his son, and Noah too did bring,
Moses, lawgiver, loyal to the end,

Abraham the Patriarch, David, too, the king,
Israel, with all his children, and his sire,
Rachel, for whom he bore such suffering,"

And others, whom He placed in Heaven's blest choir;
And thou shouldst know that human spirits none
Gained before these salvation's joy entire."

Not for his speaking ceased we to pass on,
But tracked the pathway through the forest dense, —
Forest, I say, of thick trees, souls each one.

Not long had we our journey made from thence,
This side the pit's mouth, when I saw a flame.
Which girt a hemisphere of gloom intense.

Some distance were we still when that sight came,
Yet not so far but I discerned in part
That those who dwelt there were of honoured fame.

"Thou, who dost honour knowledge and each art.
Say who are these that in such honour dwell.
It sets them from the others' ways apart?"

And he to me: " That fair fame, honoured well,
Which in thy life above there thou dost know,
Wins grace in Heaven which makes them thus excel."

Meantime a voice I heard which sounded so:
"Give honour to the poet loftiest;
His shade returns, that left short while ago."

After the voice was silent and at rest.
Four mighty shades I saw towards me move,
With looks that showed as neither pained nor blest.

Then spake to me the Master whom I love:
"Look thou on him who walks with sword in hand,
Whose place before the three his rank doth prove:

See Homer, sovran poet of our band:
Horace comes next, for biting satire known;
Ovid the third, and Lucan last doth stand."

Because with me they all are so far one,
Sharing the name that one voice uttered clear.
They do me honour; well that deed is done."

Thus saw I round that lord whom all revere,
Lord of high song, that goodly company,
While he o'er others soared like eagle there.

And when in converse some short time passed by.
They to me turned with sign of greeting kind,
And he, my Master, smiled as pleased thereby.

And yet more honour they to me assigned,
For they with me their lofty rank did share,
And I was sixth amid that might of mind.

So did we onward to the bright light fare,
Speaking of things it is as good to keep
In silence, as to speak was then and there.

We came where nobly rose a fortress steep.
Which seven high walls encircled as a screen,
Guarded by streamlet flowing fair and deep.

O'er this we passed as it firm ground had been,
And with these sages I through seven gates went."
We reached a field where all was fresh and green;

A tribe was there with eyes sad, grave, down-bent.
And power to rule was on their faces traced;
Seldom they spoke, grave voice with sweetness blent.

So moving on one side, our feet we placed"
On open ground, high, full of light and clear.
And all were seen who that fair region graced.

There straight before me, lo! the forms appear,
On the enamelled green, of spirits wise.
Whom to have seen makes me myself revere.

I saw Electra with her brave allies;
Hector and brave -neas there I knew;
Caesar, all armed, with clear and falcon eyes;

Penthesilea and Camilla too
I saw, and with them Latium's ancient king,
Who with his child Lavinia sat in view.

Brutus I saw, who Tarquin low did bring,
Cornelia, Marcia, Julia, Lucrece, nigh,
And, all alone, Saladin wandering.

When I to gaze a little raised mine eye,
The Master I beheld of those that know,
Sit 'midst his wisdom-loving family;

All gaze admiring, all due honour show.
There Socrates and Plato saw I pass,
Who near him stand while others further go;

He who to chance assigned the world's great mass,
Thales and Zeno and Empedocles,
Diogenes and Anaxagoras,

And Heraclite and Dioscorides,
Explorer true of every quality,
Orpheus and Linus, Tully joined with these.

Sage Seneca and Euclid's science high,
Averrhoes, who the far-famed Comment wrote,
Hippocrates and Galen, Ptolemy

And Avicen, — the rest I cannot note;
For my full theme bids me so quick pursue.
That far beneath the fact my poor words float.

That group of six divideth into two.
My wise Guide leads me by another way.
Out of the calm to where winds trembling blew;

And I pass on where no light sheds its ray.