Inferno: Canto X

Then onward goes, by narrow path that wound
Between the city's wall and tortured race.
My Master first, and I behind him found.

"O highest Might, who through each godless space,"
I then began, " as thou wilt, turnest me;
Speak to me; grant my longings, of thy grace.

The race who in these vaults sepulchral be.
May they be known? already lifted high
Are all the lids, yet none on guard I see."

And he to me: "All of them closed shall lie"
When from Jehoshaphat's dread vale they come,
Each with the body left beneath the sky.

On this side see, there lie within the tomb
All those who Epicurus take as guide.
Who make the spirit share the body's doom.

But thy desire shall soon be satisfied,
Both this which thou to me hast thus revealed,
And that thy wish thou dost in silence hide."

And I: " Good Master, I but keep concealed
From thee my heart, lest I speak more than meet;
Not now alone hast thou my lips kept sealed.''

O Tuscan, who this city's fiery heat
Dost traverse with thy speech of courteous tone,
A little while stay with me, I entreat.

Thy speech and action have full plainly shown
Thou art a native of that noble land
To which perchance I was too troublous known."

All on a sudden came, as near at hand,
That voice from out a tomb, and so I turned
In dread, that I more near my Guide might stand.

Then he to me: "Turn back: why thus concerned?
'Tis Farinata whom thou see'st upraised;
From his waist up his form is now discerned."

Already had I on him closely gazed.
And he with breast and neck before me rose,"
As though in scorn Hell was by him appraised.

And then my Guide's hand, prompt and active, chose
To bid me to him 'mid the gravestones come,
Saying, " Let clear words now thy wish disclose."

Soon as I reached the foot of his high tomb,
He looked at me awhile with scornful eye,
And asked me, " Whom art thou descended from?"

And I, who was all eager to comply,
Kept nothing from him, but the whole truth told;
Whereat he arched his eyebrows somewhat high,

And said, " Fierce foes were they in days of old
To me, my fathers and my party too.
So that twice o'er I drove them from our fold."

"If they were banished, they the way back knew,"
I answered, " once and twice from every side:"
Thine have not learnt that art in measure due."

Then there arose a spectre just descried,
Uncovered downward only to the chin;
Kneeling, I trow, to lift himself he tried;

Round about me he looked, as if to win"
Assurance whether others were with me;
But when his anxious doubt all spent had been,

Then spake he weeping: " If 'tis thine to see
This prison dark, through loftiness of mind,
Where is my son? Why comes he not with thee?"

And I: " Not of myself the path I find;
He who waits yonder leads me on my way.
May be, your Guido to his worth was blind."

Those words of his and doom that on him lay
Had of that soul already told the name,
Therefore so full did I my answer say.

Then swiftly rising up, he 'gan exclaim,
'as ' didst thou say? And lives he then no more?
Are his eyes closed against the sun's sweet flame?"

And when he noticed that I lingered o'er
My answer, back he fell as stupefied.
And his face hid, as it was hid before.

But he, that other, lofty in his pride.
For whom I stayed there, did unchanged remain;
Neither his neck he moved, nor bent his side.

"And if," then taking up his former strain,
He said, " they have that art so ill applied,
That more torments me than this bed of pain.

But, ere is kindled for the fiftieth tide
The bright face of the Queen who ruleth here,
How hard that art is thou too shalt have tried.

And if in that sweet world thou would'st appear.
Tell me why still that people is so stern
In every law against my lineage there?"

And I: " The carnage fierce that made them turn,
And bade the Arbia flow with crimsoned tide,
Makes them such prayers in our temple learn."

And when he shook his head, and therewith sighed,
"In that I stood not by myself," he said,
"Nor without cause with others took my side;

But by myself I stood when all were led
To bid Firenza's name and history cease.
And I in her defence raised dauntless head."

"Ah," prayed I, " by thy children's hopes of peace.
Do thou that dim perplexity make clear,
Which wraps my halting judgment, ill at ease.

It seems that ye foresee, if right I hear,
What things, as time moves onward, shall arise,
And hold another course with things full near."

We see," he said, " as one who hath dim eyes,
The things which yet are in the distance far;
Such light the Sovran King to us supplies;

But their approach or presence straight doth mar
Perception, and, unless by others told,
We nothing know how human fortunes are:

So thou may'st comprehend how dead and cold
Will be our knowledge from the self-same hour
When close the doors that now the future hold."

Then I, as one who felt compunction's power,
Said, " Tell, I pray thee, him who there doth lie
That still with us his son shares life's sweet dower;

And if till now I mute was to reply.
Say it was only that my thoughts were still
Entangled in that knot thy words untie."

And now, called back by my dear Master's will,"
I prayed that spirit with more eager prayer
To tell me who with him that space did fill.

"More than a thousand," said he, "with me fare;
Within there Frederick, second of the name;
The Cardinal, and others whom I spare."

Then was he hid, and to that bard of fame
I turned my steps, revolving in my mind
That saying, which to me as hostile came.

He turned, and as he went, to me behind
He said, " Why art thou so disquieted?"
And I, as he had asked, the cause assigned.

"Let thy mind store what was against thee said,"
So spake my Master wise. " Now hear thou this,"
With lifted finger pointing on ahead,

"When thou shalt be before that light of bliss
Of her whose beauteous eye doth all survey,
Thy life's true journey then thou shalt not miss."

Then turned he to the left from that our way;
We left the wall, and to the middle wound.
By path that- to a valley down doth stray,

Whence spread a foul and sickening stench around.