Inferno: Canto XIV

The love of my native place constraining me, I gathered up the scattered leaves; and gave them back to him, who was already hoarse.

Then we came to the limit, where the second round is separated from the third, and where is seen [a] fearful [device] of justice.

To make the new things clear, I say we reached a plain which from its bed repels all plants.

The dolorous wood is a garland to it round about, as to the wood the dismal fosse; here we stayed our [steps] close to its very edge.

The ground was a sand, dry and thick, not different in its fashion from that which once was trodden by the feet of Cato.

O vengeance of God! how shouldst thou be feared by every one who reads what was revealed to my eyes!

I saw many herds of naked souls, who were all lamenting very miserably; and there seemed imposed upon them a diverse law.

Some were lying supine upon the ground; some sitting all crouched up; and others roaming incessantly.

Those that moved about were much more numerous; and those that were lying in the torment were fewer, but uttered louder cries of pain.

Over all the great sand, falling slowly, rained dilated flakes of fire, like those of snow in Alps without a wind.

As the flames which Alexander, in those hot regions of India, saw fall upon his host, entire to the ground;

whereat he with his legions took care to tramp the soil, for the fire was more easily extinguished while alone:

so fell the eternal heat, by which the sand was kindled, like tinder under flint and steel, redoubling the pain.

Ever restless was the dance of miserable hands, now here, now there, shaking off the fresh burning.

I began: “Master, thou who conquerest all things, save the hard Demons, that came forth against us at the entrance of the gate,

who is that great spirit, who seems to care not for the fire, and lies disdainful and contorted, so that the rain seems not to ripen him?”

And he himself, remarking that I asked my Guide concerning him, exclaimed: “What I was living, that am I dead.

Though Jove weary out his smith, from whom in anger he took the sharp bolt with which on my last day I was transfixed;

and though he weary out the others, one by one, at the black forge in Mongibello, crying:

‘Help, help, good Vulcan!’ as he did at the strife of Phlegra; and hurl at me with all his might, yet should he not thereby have joyful vengeance.”

Then my Guide spake with a force such as I had not heard before: “O Capaneus! in that thy pride remains unquenched,

thou art punished more: no torture, except thy own raving, would be pain proportioned to thy fury.”

Then to me he turned with gentler lip, saying: “That was the one of the seven kings who laid siege to Thebes; and he held, and seems to hold,

God in defiance and prize him lightly; but, as I told him, his revilings are ornaments that well befit his breast.

Now follow me, and see thou place not yet thy feet upon the burning sand; but always keep them back close to the wood.”

In silence we came to where there gushes forth from the wood a little rivulet, the redness of which still makes me shudder.

As from the Bulicame issues [a] streamlet, which the sinful women share amongst themselves: so this ran down across the sand.

Its bottom and both its shelving banks were petrified, and also the margins near it: whereby I discerned that our passage lay there.

“Amidst all the rest that I have shown thee, since we entered by the gate whose threshold is denied to none,

thy eyes have discerned nothing so notable as the present stream, which quenches all the flames above it.”

These were words of my Guide: wherefore I prayed him to bestow on me the food, for which he had bestowed the appetite.

“In the middle of the sea lies a waste country,” he then said, “which is named Crete, under whose King the world once was chaste.

A mountain is there, called Ida, which once was glad with waters and with foliage; now it is deserted like an antiquated thing.

Rhea of old chose it for the faithful cradle of her son; and the better to conceal him, when he wept, caused cries to be made on it.

Within the mountain stands erect a great Old Man, who keeps his shoulders turned towards Damietta, and looks at Rome as if it were his mirror.

His head is shapen of fine gold, his arms and his breast are pure silver; then he is of brass to the cleft;

from thence downwards he is all of chosen iron, save that the right foot is of baked clay; and he rests more on this than on the other.

Every part, except the gold, is broken with a fissure that drops tears, which collected perforate that grotto.

Their course descends from rock to rock into this valley; they form Acheron, Styx, and Phlegethon, then, by this narrow conduit, go down

to where there is no more descent; they form Cocytus, and thou shalt see what kind of lake that is: here therefore I describe it not.”

And I to him: “If the present rill thus flows down from our world, why does it appear to us only on this bank?”

And he to me: “Thou knowest that the place is round; and though thou hast come far, always to the left, descending towards the bottom,

thou hast not yet turned through the entire circle: wherefore if aught new appears to us, it ought not to bring wonder on thy countenance.”

And I again: “Master, where is Phlegethon and Lethe found: for thou speakest not of the one, and sayest the other is formed by this rain?”

“In all thy questions truly thou pleasest me,” he answered; “but the boiling of the red water might well resolve one of those thou askest.

Lethe thou shalt see, but out of this abyss, there where the spirits go to wash themselves, when their guilt is taken off by penitence.”

Then he said: “Now it is time to quit the wood; see that thou follow me; the margins which are not burning, form a path and over them all fire is quenched.”