Inferno: Canto V

Thus I descended from the first circle down into the second, which encompasses less space, and so much greater pain, that it stings to wailing.

There Minos sits horrific, and grins: examines the crimes upon the entrance; judges, and sends according as he girds himself.

I say, that when the ill-born spirit comes before him, it confesses all; and that sin-discerner sees what place in hell is for it, and with his

tail makes as many circles round himself as the degrees he will have it to descend.

Always before him stands a crowd of them; they go each in its turn to judgment; they tell, and hear; and then are whirled down.

“O thou who comest to the abode of pain!” said Minos to me, when he saw me leaving the act of that great office;

“look how thou enterest, and in whom thou trustest; let not the wideness of the entrancy deceive thee.” And my guide to him: “Why criest thou too?

Hinder not his fated going; thus it is willed there where what is willed can be done: and ask no more.”

Now begin the doleful notes to reach me; now am I come where much lamenting strikes me.

I came into a place void of all light, which bellows like the sea in tempest, when it is combated by warring winds.

The hellish storm, which never rests, leads the spirits with its sweep; whirling, and smiting it vexes them.

When they arrive before the ruin, there the shrieks, the moanings, and the lamentation; there they blaspheme the divine power.

I learnt that to such torment [are] doomed the carnal sinners, who subject reason to lust.

And as their wings bear along the starlings, at the cold season, in large and crowded troop: so that blast, the evil spirits;

hither, thither, down, up, it leads them. No hope ever comforts them, not of rest but even of less pain.

And as the cranes go chanting their lays, making a long streak of themselves in the air: so I saw the shadows come, uttering wails,

borne by that strife of winds; whereat I said: “Master who are those people, whom the black air thus lashes?”

“The first of these concerning whom thou seekest to know,” he then replied, “was Empress of many tongues.

With the vice of luxury she was so broken, that she made lust and law alike in her decree, to take away the blame she had incurred.

She is Semiramis, of whom we read that she succeeded Ninus, and was his spouse; she held the land which the Soldan rules.

That other is she who slew herself in love, and broke faith to the ashes of Sichæus; next comes luxurious Cleopatra.

Helena [see], for whom so long a time of ill revolved; and [see] the great Achilles, who fought at last with love;

[see] Paris, Tristan; and more than a thousand shades he shewed to me, and pointing with his finger, named [to me those] whom love had parted from our life.”

After I had heard my teacher name the olden dames and cavaliers, pity [came over] me, and I was as if bewildered.

I began: “Poet, willingly would I speak with those two that go together, and seem so light upon the wind.”

And he to me: “Thou shalt see when they are nearer to us; and do thou then entreat them by that love, which leads them; and they will come.”

Soon as the wind bends them to us, I raise[d] my voice: “O wearied souls! come to speak with us, if none denies it.”

As doves called by desire, with [raised] and steady wings [come] through the air to their loved nest, borne by their will:

so those spirits issued from the band where Dido is, coming to us through the malignant air; such was the force of my affectuous cry.

“O living creature, gracious and benign! that goest through the black air, visiting us who stained the earth with blood;

if the King of the Universe were our friend, we would pray him for thy peace; seeing that thou hast pity of our perverse misfortune.

Of that which it pleases thee to hear and to speak, we will hear and speak with you, whilst the wind, as now, is silent [for us].

The town, where I was born, sits on the shore, where Po descends to rest with his attendant streams.

Love, which is quickly caught in gentle heart, took him with the fair body of which I was bereft; and the manner still afflicts me.

Love, which to no loved one permits excuse for loving, took me so strongly with delight in him, that, as thou seest, even now it leaves me not.

Love led us to one death; Caina waits for him who quenched our life.” These words from them were offered to us.

After I had heard those wounded souls, I bowed my face, and held it low until the Poet said to me: “What art thou thinking of?”

When I answered, I began: “Ah me! what sweet thoughts, what longing led them to the woful pass!”

Then I turned again to them; and I spoke, and began: “Francesca, thy torments make me weep with grief and pity.

But tell me: in the time of the sweet sighs, by what and how love granted you to know the dubious desires?”

And she to me: “There is no greater pain than to recall a happy time in wretchedness; and this thy teacher knows.

But if thou hast such desire to learn the first root of our love, I will do like one who weeps and tells.

One day, for pastime, we read of Lancelot, how love constrained him; we were alone, and without all suspicion.

Several times that reading urged our eyes to meet, and changed the colour of our faces; but one moment alone it was that overcame us.

When we read how the fond smile was kissed by such a lover, he, who shall never be divided from me,

kissed my mouth all trembling: the book, and he who wrote it, was a Galeotto; that day we read in it no farther.”

Whilst the one spirit thus spake, the other wept so, that I fainted with pity, as if I had been dying; and fell, as a dead body falls.