Inferno: Canto VII

“Pape Satan! pape Satan, aleppe!” began Plutus, with clucking voice; and that gentle Sage, who knew all,

said, comforting me: “Let not thy fear hurt thee: for, whatever power he have, he shall not hinder [thee] from descending this rock.”

Then he turned himself to that inflated visage, and said: “Peace, cursed Wolf! consume thyself internally with thy greedy rage.

Not without cause is our journey to the deep: it is willed on high, [there] where Michael took vengeance of the proud adultery.”

As sails, swelled by the wind, fall entangled when the mast breaks: so fell that cruel monster to the ground.

[Thus] we descended into the fourth concavity, taking in more of the dismal bank, which shuts up all the evil of the universe.

Ah, Justice Divine! who shall tell in few the many fresh pains and travails that I saw? and why does guilt of ours thus waste us?

As does the surge, there above Charybdis, that breaks itself against the surge wherewith it meets: so have the people here to counter-dance.

Here saw I too many more than elsewhere, both on the one side and on the other, with loud howlings, rolling weights by force of chests;

they smote against each other, and then each wheeled round just there, rolling aback, shouting, “Why holdest thou?” and “Why throwest thou away?”

Thus they returned along the gloomy circle, on either hand, to the opposite point, [again] shouting [at each other] their reproachful measure.

Then every one, when he had reached it, turned through his half-circle towards the other joust. And I, who felt my heart as it were stung,

said: “My Master, now shew me what people these are; and whether all those tonsured on our left were of the clergy.”

And he to me: “In their first life, all were so squint-eyed in mind, that they made no expenditure in it with moderation.

Most clearly do their voices bark out this, when they come to the two points of the circle, where contrary guilt divides them.

These were Priests, that have not hairy covering on their heads, and Popes and Cardinals, in whom avarice does its utmost,”

And I: “Master, among this set, I surely ought to recognise some that were defiled by these evils.”

And he to me: “Vain thoughts combinest thou: their undiscerning life, which made them sordid, now makes them too obscure for any recognition.

To all eternity they shall continue butting one another; these shall arise from their graves with closed fists; and these with hair shorn off.

Ill-giving, and ill-keeping, has deprived them of the bright world, and put them to this conflict; what a conflict it is, I adorn no words to tell.

But thou, my Son, mayest [now] see the brief mockery of the goods that are committed unto Fortune, for which the human kind contend with one another.

For all the gold that is beneath the moon, or ever was, could not give rest to a single one of these weary souls.”

“Master,” I said to him, “now tell me also: this Fortune, of which thou hintest to me; what is she, that has the good things of the world thus within her clutches?”

And he to me: “O foolish creatures, how great is this ignorance that falls upon ye! Now I wish thee to receive my judgment of her.

He whose wisdom is transcendent over all, made the heavens and gave them guides, so that every part shines to every part,

equally distributing the light; in like manner, for worldly splendours, he ordained a general minister and guide,

to change betimes the vain possessions, from people to people, and from one kindred to another, beyond the hindrance of human wisdom:

hence one people commands, another languishes; obeying her sentence, which is hidden like the serpent in the grass.

Your knowledge cannot understand her: she provides, judges, and maintains her kingdom, as the other Gods do theirs.

Her permutations have no truce; necessity makes her be swift; [thus he comes] oft [who doth a] change [obtain].

This is she, who is so much reviled, even by those who ought to praise her, when blaming her wrongfully, and with evil words.

But she is in bliss, and hears it not: with the other Primal Creatures joyful, she wheels her sphere, and tastes her blessedness.

But let us now descend to greater misery; already every star is falling, that was ascending when [I set out] and to stay too long is not permitted.”

We crossed the circle, to the other bank, near a fount, that boils and pours down through a cleft, which it has formed.

The water was darker far than perse; and we, accompanying the dusky waves, entered down by a strange path.

This dreary streamlet makes a Marsh, that is named Styx, when it has descended to the foot of the grey malignant shores.

And I, who stood intent on looking, saw muddy people in that bog, all naked and with a look of anger.

They were smiting each other, not with hands only, but with head, and with chest, and with feet; maiming one another with their teeth, piece by piece.

The kind Master said: “Son, now see the souls of those whom anger overcame; and also I would have thee to believe for certain,

that there are people underneath the water, who sob, and make it bubble at the surface; as thy eye may tell thee, whichever way it turns.

Fixed in the slime, they say: ‘Sullen were we in the sweet air, that is gladdened by the Sun, carrying lazy smoke within our hearts;

now lie we sullen here in the black mire.’ This hymn they gurgle in their throats, for they cannot speak it in full words.”

Thus, between the dry bank and the putrid fen, we compassed a large arc of that loathly slough, with eyes turned towards those that swallow of its filth; we came to the foot of a tower at last.