Inferno: Canto VII

" Pape Satan, Aleppe, pap' Satan !"
So Plutus spake with accents rough and hoarse,
And then that gentle Sage, who all could scan,

Said for my help, " Let not thy fear of worse
Now do thee harm; whate'er may be his power,
It may not down the rock's face bar thy course."

Then turning to those swollen lips and sour,
He said, " Thou wolf accursed, silence keep;
Thyself, within, with that thy rage devour.

Not without cause but journey to the deep;
So is it willed where Michael once on high
Made vengeance on the o'erproud rebels sweep."

As the full sails before the wind that fly,
Fall all entangled when it snaps the mast,
So on the earth the fallen fiend did lie:

Thus to the fourth great pit we downward passed,
Advancing further on the dolorous shore,
Which all the evil of the world holds fast.

Ah! God's great justice, heaping evermore
New toils and torments that I then did see!
Why doth our guilt of sorrow work such store?

As by Charybdis rolls the vexed sea.
And breaking, this on that, the billows fall,
So must that folk in strange dance ever be.

Then I beheld a crowd more dense than all,
And on this side and that, with howling cries,
Each rolling with his chest a ponderous ball.

They clashed together; then as in a trice
Each one turned round and back his way did find,
Crying, "Why grasp ye?" "Why let slip your prize?"

So through the circle sad their way they wind
On either hand to point just opposite,
And ever shout that verse of basest kind.

Then each one wheeled, when that point came in sight,
Through his half-circle, still that game to play."
And I, whose heart was pierced with their ill plight.

Said, " O my Master, tell me now, I pray.
What tribe are these, and were they clerks, that crew
Of tonsured ones who on our left hand stay?"

Then he to me: "All these their mental view
Had so distorted in their primal life
That nothing spent they then in measure due.

Those yelping cries with meaning clear are rife,
When they the circle's furthest limits reach.
Where faults opposed part them in ceaseless strife.

Clerks were all these, with crown left bare on each;
Yea, popes and cardinals thou here may'st see,
Whom avarice did its utmost mischief teach."

And I: " O Master, in such company
Needs must be some that I should recognise,
Who tainted were with this foul malady."

And he to me: " Vain thought thou dost surmise;
The undiscerning life which won them scorn
Now makes them dim to keenest searching eyes.

For ever to these buttings shall they turn,
These from their tombs again their forms shall rear
With fast-closed fist, and those with tresses shorn.

Ill giving and ill keeping of that fair
Bright world have robbed them, and at this game set;
For what it is I use no phrases rare.

Now canst thou, O my son, full vision get
Of that brief farce we know as Fortune's boon,
For which mankind in scuffle fierce are met.

Not all the gold that lies beneath the moon,
Or ever lay, of all these souls in pain
Could give a moment's rest to even one."

Then said I: " Master, tell me yet again;
Who is this Fortune of whom thou dost speak,
Who the world's wealth doth in her clutch retain?"

And he to me: " O creatures frail and weak,
What blindness this that leads you to offend!
With open mouth do thou my doctrine seek:

He whose high wisdom doth all else transcend
Made all the heavens and gave to each its guide,
So that each part to each its light might send,

Distributing its radiance far and wide;
So likewise for the splendours of the world
He did one ministress and queen provide.

By whom vain wealth in chance and change is whirled
From race to race, from this to that entail,
Beyond the power of human counsels hurled;

Wherefore this people reigns and that doth fail.
After her judgment who in secret still.
Like snake in grass, makes her intent prevail.

Your wisdom cannot stand against her will;"
With forethought, counsel, might, she orders all
Her realm, as other gods the realms they fill.

Her wheel revolves as ceaseless changes call;
Necessity constrains her to be swift.
So oft comes one to whom strange changes fall.

She, she it is on whom men's curses drift,
Pilloried in shame by those who owe her praise,
And yet their voice in wrongful blame uplift.

She hears it not, but ever blessed stays;
Joyous, with all that primal company,
She turns her wheel and blest are all her ways."

Now pass we down to greater misery;
Already sinks each star which then arose
When I set out; to halt we are not free.

We crossed the circle to the shore where flows
A stream that bubbling pours its boiling flood
Adown a gully opening as it goes.

The water was than perse more sombre-hued.
And we, with escort of that stream dark-grey.
By path of fashion strange our way pursued.

There, Styx its name, a marsh before us lay,
By that sad river made, as it doth gain
The shore in dreary dimness wrapt alway.

And I, who stood, to gaze around me fain.
Saw people mire-besprent in that foul pit,"
All naked and with looks of angry pain.

These smote each other; not with hands they hit
Alone, but with their heads and breasts and feet.
Gnawing each other's bodies bit by bit.

Said my good Master, " Son, the souls now meet"'
Thine eyes, of those whom anger hath overthrown;
And I would have thee this as certain treat,

That 'neath the pool are those that sigh and groan.
And make the water bubble, as we see.
Where'er the surface to thy glance is shown.

Fixed in the mire they say, ' Full sad were we,
Where the sun gladdens all the pleasant clime,
Bearing within dull mists of melancholy;

Now are we sadder in this black foul slime.'
This hymn those spirits gurgle in their throat,
For words full formed are wanting in their rhyme."

So wound we where those filthy waters float,
A great arc 'twixt the dry bank and the wet,
With our eyes turned those mire-gorged souls to note:

At a tower's foot at last our steps were set.