Purgatorio: Canto XXVI

While on the margin onward thus we went
In single file, my Master often spake:
"Take heed; for good be this admonishment."

On my right shoulder then the sunbeams brake.
And with their rays changed all the western sky,
And bade the azure a new whiteness take;

And with my shadow ruddier yet did I
Make the flame glow; and then that portent new
Full many shades I saw, in passing, eye.

And this led them fresh converse to pursue,"
Speaking of me, and thus their words did frame
To say: " In this no body false we view."

Then, towards me turning, certain of them came
Far as they could, yet ever with due care
Lest they should pass beyond the burning flame:

O thou who, not, perchance, through sloth, dost fare
Behind the others, but through reverence,
Answer to me who thirst in this fire's glare;

Nor to me only must thou speech dispense.
For all thou see'st thirst more thy words to hear
Than for cool stream doth Æthiop's parched sense.

Tell us how 'tis thou dost thyself uprear
As wall against the sun, as though not yet
Thou didst within the net of death appear?"

So one then spake, and I had straightway set
Myself to show it, had I not been led
To gaze on wonder new that mine eyes met;

For through the mid-path, glowing fiery red,
A troop took, face to face with them, their way.
Which made me gaze yet more astonished.

Then on each side I saw each shade display
Much haste, and each to kiss the other sped.
Nor made, content with greeting brief, delay.

So oft, within their dusk-brown host, proceed
This ant and that, till muzzle muzzle meet,"
Spying their way, or how affairs succeed.

Soon as they cease each other thus to greet.
Ere the first step they take in separate way,
Each to outcry the other's voice is fleet.

"Lo! Sodom and Gomorrah," these did say;
The other, " In the cow went Pasiph',
That so the bull might do its wanton play."

And then as cranes which this and that way flee.
Or to Riphaean hills or parched sand,
From frost these, sun those, seeking to be free,

One troop departs, comes on the other band.
And turn in bitter tears to their first song,
And to the cry their several sins demand;

And, as before, they did around me throng,
The very same who came with their request,
With looks that told how they to hear did long.

And I, who twice had seen their eager quest,
Began to speak: "O happy souls, secure,
Whene'er it come, of state of peaceful rest,

Nor as a timely fruit nor premature,
My limbs are yonder left, but here with me
They with their blood and jointed frame endure.

From hence I climb, no longer blind to be;
A gracious Lady gives that grace on high;
Thus through your world I bear mortality.

So may your greatest longing satisfy
Itself full soon, and may ye that Heaven gain
Which, filled with love, expands through widest sky.

Tell me, that I on paper write it plain.
Who ye may be, and who that multitude
Which, to your back turned, turns its back again?"

Not otherwise the mountaineer, subdued
By wonder, dazed and silent, looks around,
If, rough and rustic, he in towns intrude.

Than every spirit then in mien was found;
But when they were from that amazement freed.
Which in high hearts soon ceases to astound,

O blest art thou who in our coasts dost read,"
Resumed he then who first had made request,
"Full proof how men to better life proceed!

The troop that comes not with us have transgressed
In that which brought of old on Caesar's ear
The cry of ' Queen! ' his triumph to molest;

Therefore their cry of 'Sodom! ' thou dost hear,
As they depart, in words of self-despite,
And by their shame the fire make more severe.

The sin that stains us was hermaphrodite;
But because we broke through all human law,
Following, like beasts, each passing appetite,

In very scorn of self, as we withdraw,
We speak her name whom bestial lust did call
Within the wooden monster's bestial maw.

Now knowest thou our acts and whence our fall;
If thou our names wouldst know and who we are
There is not time, nor do I know them all.

But if thou wish I will myself declare:
I Guido Guinicelli am, and so
Am cleansed, because I mourned while death was far."

E'en as they were who in Lycurgus' woe
Rushed, those two sons, their mother to behold,
So did I, — but so far I did not go,

When I thus heard his name who was of old
My sire and theirs, my country's nobler men,
Skilled to use love-rhymes sweet and manifold.

Nor hearing aught nor speaking, sorrowing then,
Long time I walked with gaze upon him bent,
The fire still hindering near approach, and when

My look had fed on him with fall content,
I gave myself to render service due,
With that assurance which commands assent.

And he to me: " Thou leav'st such traces true
In me from what I hear, and all so clear.
That Lethe cannot blot nor dim their hue;

But if thy words the very truth did swear,
Tell me the reason why thou now dost show
By look and word thou holdest me so dear?

And I to him: " Thy songs, that sweetly flow.
Which, long as this our modern use shall last,
Shall still endear the ink that made them grow

"O brother," said he, pointing as one passed,"
'He, whom with finger I mark out to thee.
Me in the craft of mother speech surpassed;

In songs of love and prose romances he
Surpassed them all; let then the babblers say
They give the Limousin the victory;

To clamour more than truth they homage pay.
And thus it is they form their estimate
Ere art and reason find to them their way.

So many did of old Guittone rate;
Now this voice and now that praised him alone,
Till truth had with the many greater weight.

Now, if to thee such special grace be shown
That thou hast leave that cloister-home to gain
Where Christ as abbot of the house is known,

Say for me there one Paternoster plain,
So far as in this world of ours we need,
Where power to sin no longer doth remain."

And then, as if perchance his place to cede
To one behind, he vanished in the flame.
Like fish that to the water's depth recede.

Nigh unto him he pointed at I came,
And said my heart was longing to enfold,
In home that gave it welcome, that his name.

Then he began free speech with me to hold:
'So pleases me thy courteous request,
I neither can nor will leave that untold.

Arnauld am I, who sing, with grief opprest,
All my past folly, as now meets thine eye,
And joyous see before me hope's day blest.

And now I pray thee, by the Virtue high
That leads thee to the summit of the stairs,
In due time think thou of my agony."

Then to the cleansing fire his form repairs.