Inferno: Canto XXXIV

" Vexilla Regis prodeunt, those of Hell
Now meet us; wherefore look in front of thee,"
My Master said, "if thou canst see him well."

As when a thick cloud floats on heavily,
Or when our hemisphere is wrapt in night,
A mill with wind-tossed sails far off we see,

So now methought like structure came to light.
Then from the gale I shelter sought behind
My Guide, for other screen was none in sight.

Now I was there — with fear my rhymes I find —
Where every spirit lies all covered o'er.
And shows like straw in crystal vase confined;

Some prostrate lie, some stand up evermore.
Some on their feet, and others on their head,
Some, like an arch, with head to feet turned o'er.

When just so far our steps did onward tread.
It pleased my Master unto me to show
Him who once all created beauty led.

He from before me moved, and left me so.
"Look thou on Dis,"he said; "lo! here thou'rt come,
Where thou well armed with boldness needs must go."

How icy cold I then became and numb,
Ask it not. Reader, for I cannot write;
All language would be weak that dread to sum.

Death was not mine, yet life had failed me quite;
Bethink thee now, if that thy wit be keen.
What I became of both bereaved outright.

The Emperor of that dolorous realm was seen.
From his breast upwards issuing from the ice;
And nearer I to giant's bulk, I ween,

Than giants to his arms' great stature rise.
Now what the whole thou canst imagine well,
Which to the part is fashioned in like guise.

Were he as fair once as he now is fell,
And then against his Maker raised his head,
Well might from him proceed all woes of Hell.

O how it seemed to me a marvel dread
When on one head I saw a threefold face!
One looked in front, and that was fiery red;

The other twain close by it held their place,
Above the middle of each shoulder-blade,
And rose and joined beneath the crest's embrace.

The right a tint of yellowish-white displayed;
The left was such to look on as are those
There where Nile's waters have an outlet made.

Beneath each head two outspread wings arose,
Large, as befitted such a bird as that;
No ship at sea such monstrous canvas shows;

No feathers had they, but like those of bat
Their fashion was, and so the pinions tossed,
That three strong blasts went forth from where he sat;

By them Cocytus was all bound in frost.
With his six eyes he weeps; o'er threefold chin
The rain of tears and bloody drivel crossed.

And with the teeth each misshaped mouth within,
In flax-mill wise, he crunched a sinner's frame,
So that three souls he tortured for their sin.

To him in front the bite as nought became
To the fierce clawing, which oft left the spine
Stripped bare of all the skin that from it came.

"That soul up there who pays the heaviest fine
Is Judas," spake my Guide, " Iscariot,
Whose legs without with head inside combine.

Of the other two, whose heads have downward got,
Brutus is he who in the black mouth lies —
See how he writhes, yet speaketh not a jot —

That other Cassius is, so gross in size.
But the night climbs, and now to take our way
The hour hath come, for all hath met our eyes."

Then, as he pleased, upon his neck I lay,
And he the vantage seized of time and place.
And when the wings with room enough did play.

He laid fast hold where shaggy sides gave space.
From rock to rock descended downward then,
And 'twixt the ice and thick hair moved apace."

When we had reached the point where legs of men
Turn round upon the thickness of the thighs.
My Guide, with toil and eager-breathing strain.

Where his legs had been made his head uprise,
And as a climber grasped the hairy skin;
So deemed I Hell once more would meet mine eyes.

"Keep fast thy hold, for by such stairs we win
Our way up," said my Master wearily;
"Thus, and not else, from this vast world of sin."

Then through a rock's wide hole he passed on high,"
And made me sit upon a margin there,
Then straightway took his cautious steps to me.

I raised mine eyes, and thought to see full clear,
As I had left him, Lucifer upright;
And lo! I saw him now his legs uprear;

And if I then was startled at the sight,
Let the coarse herd conceive who do not see
What the point was I passed with step so light.

"Rise on thy feet," then said my Guide to me;
"Long is the way and evil is the road,
And soon the sun in middle tierce will be."

It was no stately hall of king's abode,
There where we went, but like a natural cave,
Where rough the floor, and scanty light is showed.

"Before I tear myself from this drear grave,
My Master," said I, as I stood erect,
"Speak a few words from error me to save.

Where is the ice? and what works this effect.
That he there's upside down? How hath the sun
So quick from eve to morn made course direct?"

And he to me: " Thou still art dreaming on.
As on the centre's other side, where I
My way o'er that world-piercing serpent won.

While I came down, on that side thou didst lie;
Then, when I turned, thou didst the point pass through
To which all weights from every quarter fly.

And 'neath the hemisphere dost now pursue
Thy way, which is of that the opposite,
Which the dry land o'erhangs, 'neath whose vault slew

They Him whose birth and life were sinless quite."
Thou hast thy feet upon the little sphere
Which brings Giudecca's other face to sight;

Here it is morning when 'tis evening there.
And he whose hair as ladder served us well
Is fast fixed still as he did then appear.

On this side 'twas that he from high Heaven fell,
And all the land that here was prominent
Through fear of him beneath the ocean's swell

Took refuge, and beneath our half-sphere went;
And that which here is seen perchance forsook
Its place to flee, upgathering its extent."

There is, from Belzebub as far, a nook.
As is the deep of that vast tomb below.
Known by a streamlet's sound — 'twere vain to look —

Which in a hollow rock doth downward go
Through channel it has made in lapse of age,
Which slopes down gently as its waters flow.

My Guide and I then made our pilgrimage.
On that dark road the world of light to find,
And, with no care to halt at any stage,

We upward clomb, he first and I behind,
So that I saw the things that beauteous are.
By high Heaven borne, in opening round defined;

Thence passed once more to rebehold each star.