Inferno: Canto XXXI

One and the same tongue first wounded me so that it tinged with blushes both my cheeks, and then held forth the medicine to me.

Thus I have heard that the lance of Achilles, and of his father, used to be occasion first of sad and then of healing gift.

We turned our back to the wretched valley, up by the bank that girds it round, crossing without any speech.

Here was less than night and less than day, so that my sight went little way before me; but I heard a high horn sound

so loudly, that it would have made any thunder weak; which directed my eyes, [that followed its course against itself], all to one place:

after the dolorous rout, when Charlemain had lost the holy emprise, [Roland] did not sound with his so terribly.

Short while had I kept [my head turned] in that direction, when I seemed to see many lofty towers; whereat I: “Master! say, what town is this?”

And he to me: “Because thou traversest the darkness too far off, it follows that thou errest in thy imagining.

Thou shalt see right well, [if] thou arrivest there, how much the sense at distance is deceived: therefore spur thee somewhat more.”

Then lovingly he took me by the hand, and said: “Ere we go farther, that the reality may seem less strange to thee,

know, they are not towers, but Giants; and are in the well, around its bank, from the navel downwards all of them,”

As when a mist is vanishing, the eye by little and little reshapes that which the air-crowding vapour hides;

so whilst piercing through that gross and darksome air, more and more approaching towards the brink, error [fled] from me, and [my] fear [increased].

For as on its round wall Montereggione crowns itself with towers: so with half their bodies, the horrible giants,

whom Jove from heaven still threatens when he thunders, turreted the [bank] which compasses the pit.

And already I discerned the face of one, the shoulders and the breast, and great part of the belly, and down along his sides both arms.

Nature certainly, when she left off the art of making animals like these, did very well, in taking away such executioners from Mars;

and if she repents her not of Elephants and Whales, whoso subtly looks, therein regards her as more just and prudent:

for where [the instrument] of [the] mind is joined to evil will and potency, men can make no defence against it.

His face seemed to me as long and large as the pine of St Peter’s at Rome, and his other bones were in proportion to it;

so that the bank, which was an apron from his middle downwards, shewed us certainly so much of him above, that three Friezelanders had vainly boasted

to have reached his hair: for downwards from the place where a man buckles on his mantle, I saw thirty large spans of him.

“Rafel mai amech zabi almi,” began to shout the savage mouth, for which no sweeter psalmody [was] fit.

And towards him my Guide: “Stupid soul! keep to thy horn; and vent thyself with that, when rage or other passion touches thee.

Search on thy neck, and thou wilt find the belt that holds it tied, O soul confused, and see [the horn] itself that girdles thy huge breast.”

Then he said to me: “He accuses himself; this is Nimrod, through whose ill [thought] one language is not still used in the world.

Let us leave him standing, and not speak in vain: for every language is to him, as to others his which no one understands.”

We therefore journeyed on, turning to the left; and, a crossbow-shot off, we found [the next] far more fierce and large.

Who and what the master could be that girt him thus, I cannot tell; but he had his right arm pinioned down behind, and the other before,

with a chain which held him clasped from the neck downwards, and on the uncovered part went round to the fifth turn.

“This proud spirit willed to try his power against high Jove,” saith my Guide, “whence he has such reward.

Ephialtes is his name; and he made the great endeavours, when the giants made the Gods afraid; the arms he agitated then he never moves.”

And I to him: “If it were possible, I should wish my eyes might have experience of the immense Briareus.”

Whereat he answered: “Thou shalt see near at hand, who speaks, and is unfettered, who will put us into the bottom of all guilt.

He whom thou desirest to see is far beyond; and is tied and shaped like this one, save that he seems in aspect more ferocious.”

No mighty earthquake ever shook a tower so violently, as Ephialtes forthwith shook himself.

Then more than ever I dreaded death; and nothing else was wanted for it but the fear, had I not seen his bands.

We then proceeded farther on, and reached Antaeus, who full five ells, besides the head, forth issued from the cavern.

“O thou! who in the fateful valley, which made Scipio heir of glory when Hannibal retreated with his hosts,

didst take of old a thousand lions for thy prey; and through whom, hadst thou been at the high war of thy brethren, it seems yet to be believed

that the sons of earth had conquered; set us down—and be not shy to do it—where the cold locks up Cocytus.

Do not make us go to Tityos nor Typhon; this man can give of that which here is longed for: therefore bend thee, and curl not thy lip in scorn.

He can [yet] restore thy fame on earth: for he lives, and still awaits long life, so Grace before the time call him not unto herself.”

Thus spake the Master; and he in haste stretched forth the hands, whence Hercules of old did feel great stress, and took my Guide.

Virgil, when he felt their grasp, said to me: “Come here, that I may take thee”; then of himself and me he made one bundle.

Such as the Carisenda seems to one’s view, beneath the leaning side, when a cloud is going over it so, that it hangs [in the contrary direction]:

such Antaeus seemed to me who stood watching to see him bend; and [it was so terrible a moment, that] I should have wished to go by other road;

but gently on the deep, which swallows Lucifer with Judas, he [set] us [down]; nor lingered there thus bent, but raised himself as in a ship the mast.