Inferno: Canto VI

On sense returning, which closed itself before the misery of the two kinsfolk that stunned me all with sadness,

I discern new torments, and new tormented souls, whithersoever I move, and turn, and gaze.

I am in the Third Circle, that of the eternal, accursed, cold, and heavy rain; its [law] and quality is never new.

Large hail, and turbid water, and snow, [pour down] through the darksome air; the ground, on which it falls, emits a putrid smell.

Cerberus, a monster fierce and strange, with three throats, barks dog-like over those that are immersed in it.

His eyes are red, his beard [greasy] and black, his belly wide, and clawed his hands; he clutches the spirits, flays, and piecemeal rends them.

The rain makes them howl like dogs; with one side they screen the other; they often turn themselves, the impious wretches.

When Cerberus, the great Worm, perceived us, he opened his mouths and shewed his tusks: no limb of him kept still.

My Guide, spreading his palms, took up earth; and, with full fists, cast it into his ravening gullets.

As the dog, that barking craves, and grows quiet when he bites his food, for he strains and battles only to devour it:

so did those squalid visages of Cerberus the Demon, who thunders on the spirits so, that they would fain be deaf.

We passed over the shadows whom the heavy rain subdues; and placed our soles upon their emptiness, which seems a body.

They all were lying on the ground save one, who sat up forthwith when he saw us pass before him.

“O thou, who through this Hell art led,” he said to me, “recognise me if thou mayest; thou wast made before I was unmade.”

And I to him: “The anguish which thou hast, perhaps withdraws thee from my memory, so that it seems not as if I ever saw thee.

But tell me who art thou, that art put in such a doleful place, and in such punishment; that, though other may be greater, none is so displeasing.”

And he to me: “Thy city, which is so full of envy that the sack already overflows, contained me in the clear life.

You, citizens, called me Ciacco: for the baneful crime of gluttony, as thou seest, I languish in the rain;

and I, wretched spirit, am not alone, since these for like crime are in like punishment”; and more he said not.

I answered him: “Ciacco, thy sore distress weighs upon me so, that it bids me weep; but tell me, if thou canst,

what the citizens of the divided city shall come to? if any one in it be just; and tell me the reason why such discord has assailed it.”

And he to me: “After long contention, they shall come to blood, and the party of the woods shall expel the other with much offence.

Then it behoves this to fall within three suns, and the other to prevail through the force of one who now keeps tacking.

It shall carry its front high for a long time, keeping the other under heavy burdens, however it may weep thereat and be ashamed.

Two are just; but are not listened to there; Pride, Envy, and Avarice are the three sparks which have set the hearts of all on fire.”

Here he ended the lamentable sound. And I to him: “Still I wish thee to instruct me, and to bestow a little farther speech on me.

Farinata and Tegghiaio, who were so worthy; Jacopo Rusticucci, Arrigo and Mosca, and the rest who set their minds on doing good;

tell me where they are, and give me to know them: for great desire urges me to learn whether Heaven soothes or Hell empoisons them.”

And he to me: “They are amongst the blackest spirits; a different crime weighs them downwards to the bottom; shouldst thou descend so far, thou mayest see them.

But [when thou shalt be in] the sweet world, I pray thee recall me to the memory of men; more I tell thee not, and more I answer not.”

Therewith he writhed his straight eyes asquint; looked at me a little; then bent his head, and fell down with it like his blind companions.

And my Guide said to me: “He wakes no more until the angel’s trumpet sounds; when the adverse Power shall come,

each shall revisit his sad grave; shall resume his flesh and form; shall hear that which resounds to all eternity.”

Thus passed we through the filthy mixture of the shadows and the rain, with paces slow, touching a little on the future life.

Wherefore I said: “Master, shall these torments increase after the great Sentence, or grow less, or remain as burning?”

And he to me: “Return to thy science, which has it, that the more a thing is perfect, the more it feels pleasure and likewise pain.

Though these accursed people never attain to true perfection, yet they [look to] be nearer it after than before.”

We went round along that road, speaking much more than I repeat; we reached the point where the descent begins; here found we Plutus, the great enemy.