Purgatorio: Canto XIX

It was the hour at which day's heat doth fail
Longer to warm the coldness of the moon,
When o'er it Earth's or Saturn's chills prevail.

When geomancers see their Great Fortune
In the far East before the break of day,
Rise by a path still dim, to brighten soon;

I saw in dreams a woman pass that way.
Stammering, cross-eyed, and with misshapen form.
Who did maimed hands and pallid face display.

I looked on her, and as the sunbeams warm
The stiff cold limbs which were benumbed by night,
So then my gaze her tongue to speak did charm.

And made her soon stand up with form upright,
As in a moment, and her pallid face.
As Love would wish it, rosy grew and bright."

And when her speech, thus loosened, flowed apace.
She poured out song so sweet, that I with pain
Had turned my thoughts from dwelling on her grace.

I the sweet Siren am," so ran her strain,
"Whose spells bewilder sailors in mid-sea;
So sweet to him who hears is my refrain.

Ulysses changed his course to look on me.
Lured by my song, and who by it is won
Is slow to leave, so full content is he."

Her lips were not yet closed, her song not done,
Before a saintly lady fair drew near.
On her to pour extreme confusion.

"O Virgil, Virgil I whom behold I here?"
Sternly she said; and then he nearer came
With eyes full fixed upon the nobler fair.

That other one he seized and put to shame.
Laid bare her body, stripping every shred; —
The stench woke me that issued from the same.

I turned mine eyes, and my good Virgil said,
"Thrice have I called thee: rise and come this way;"
Find we the door by which thy path to tread."

I rose, and now irradiate with full day
Were all the circles of the sacred Mount,
And the new sun behind us poured its ray.

And following him I went with bended front,
As one who is by care's sore burden bound.
And bends, as half-arch of a bridge is wont.

When I heard: "Come; lo! here the pass is found,"
Spoken in tone so sweet and so benign,
As doth not in our mortal country sound.

With open wings, which like a swan's did shine,
Upward he led us who to us thus spake.
Where the two granite walls the path confine.

He moved his wings, and fresh breeze on us brake,
Affirming those qui lugent to be blest,
For now their souls shall sovran comfort take.

"What ails thee, with thy looks to earth deprest?"
Began my Guide to say to me, when we
Had somewhat passed the Angel there at rest;

And I: " Such dark misgivings come on me"
From the new vision which absorbs me so,
I cannot from its contemplation flee."

"Thou hast beheld," said he, " that old witch foe,
Whose work alone above us causes pain:
How man escapes her, this thou too dost know.

Let this suffice; now tramp along amain;
Look upwards to the lure the Eternal King
Whirls in the great sphere of His mighty reign."

Like falcon that its glance below doth fling.
Then turns him to the call, and forward darts,
Through strong desire for food, with eager wing.

So acted I, and where the hard rock parts,
To open path for him who mounts above,
I went to where it for its circuit starts.

In the fifth circle where I now did move,
I saw a people weeping very sore;
Prostrate, with face that ne'er from earth did rove.

"Adhaesit pavimento" evermore
I heard them say with such oppressive sighs,
Scarce knew I what the words they muttered o'er.

"O chosen ones of God, whose miseries
Justice and hope both render less severe,
Direct us where the high steps upward rise."

If ye as free from bowing down come here,
And wish to find the quickest onward way,"
Let your right hands still outward turned appear."

So questioned them the Poet, and so they
Made answer in advance of us, and I
Marked, as they spoke, the one who hidden lay.

And to my Lord and Master turned mine eye.
And then he granted with glad look and mien
That which my glances asked for wistfully.

And I, when power to act had granted been,
Drew myself on, above that creature there,
Whose words had made me note him yet unseen,

And said: " O soul in whom thy tears prepare
That without which we cannot turn to God,
Stay for my sake awhile thy greater care.

Who wast thou, and why thus your backs are showed
Tell me, I pray, and if thou wilt that I
Thither bear aught whence living late I strode."

And he to me: " Why thus towards the sky
Our backs are turned, thou'lt learn; but I disclose
First that successor Petri once was I.

Between Siestri, and Chiaveri flows
A river fair to look on, and its name
Upon my lineage highest lustre throws.

For one short month the knowledge to me came,
How the great robe loads him who keeps it white,
So that all else as light as down became.

Full late, ah me! my turning to the light!
But when they made me Shepherd of great Rome,
Life's falsehood then came clearly into sight.

I saw that thence no rest of heart could come.
Nor could it in that life mount up more high,"
So Love burnt in me here to seek my home.

Up to that point full wretched soul was I,
And severed from my God, the prey of greed:
Now as thou see'st, I pay the penalty.

What Avarice works is here made clear indeed"
In this purgation of souls penitent:
No sin in all the Mount reaps sharper meed.

E'en as our eye was never upwards sent,
But ever fixed upon the things of earth.
So justice here our forms to earth hath bent.

As Avarice quenched our love for all true worth
Of goodness, whence our labour all was waste.
So Justice keeps us bound in tightest girth,

Fetters our feet and hands, by chains embraced;
And long as it shall please the righteous Sire,
Shall we our pain, unmoved and stretched out, taste."

I knelt to him as one who would inquire.
But e'en as I began, and he was 'ware,
Through listening, of that homage of desire:

"What cause," said he, " hath bent thee downward there? ""
And I to him: " For that thy dignity,
My conscience did correction sharp prepare."

Straighten thy legs and rise," he made reply.
"O brother, err not; to one mightier Power
With thee and others, fellow servant I.

If thou those words hast heard at any hour.
Which Neque nubent in the Gospel sound.
Thou well may'st see how thus my thoughts I pour.

Now go thy way; I would not stay thy round;
Thy tarrying here my weeping doth delay,
Wherewith I ripen what thy words expound.

My niece Alagia yet on earth doth stay,
Good in herself, unless our heritage
By bad example led her too astray;

She only lives of all my lineage."