Inferno: Canto X

Now by a [secret] path, between the city-wall and the torments, my Master goes on, and I behind him.

“O Virtue supreme! who through the impious circles thus wheelest me, as it pleases thee,” I began; “speak to me, and satisfy my wishes.

Might those people, who lie within the sepulchres, be seen? the covers all are raised, and none keeps guard.”

And he to me: “All shall be closed up, when, from Jehosaphat, they return here with the bodies which they have left above.

In this part are entombed with Epicurus all his followers, who make the soul die with the body.

Therefore to the question, which thou asketh me, thou shalt soon have satisfaction here within; and also to the wish which thou holdest from me.”

And I: “Kind Guide, I do not keep my heart concealed from thee, except for brevity of speech, to which thou hast ere now disposed me.”

“O Tuscan! who through the city of fire goest alive, speaking thus decorously; may it please thee to stop in this place.

Thy speech clearly shews thee a native of that noble country, which perhaps I vexed too much.”

Suddenly this sound issued from one of the chests: whereat in fear I drew a little closer to my Guide.

And he said to me: “Turn thee round; what art thou doing? lo there Farinata! who has raised himself erect; from the girdle upwards thou shalt see him all.”

Already I had fixed my look on his; and he rose upright with breast and countenance, as if he entertained great scorn of Hell;

and the bold and ready hands of my Guide pushed me amongst the sepultures to him, saying: “Let thy words be numbered.”

[When] I was at the foot of his tomb, he looked at me a little; and then, almost contemptuously, he asked me: “Who were thy ancestors?”

I, being desirous to obey, concealed it not; but opened the whole to him: whereupon he raised his brows a little;

then he said: “Fiercely adverse were they to me, and to my progenitors, and to my party; so that twice I scattered them.”

“If they were driven forth, they returned from every quarter, both times,” I answered him; “but yours have not rightly learnt that art.”

Then, beside him, there rose a shadow, visible to the chin; it had raised itself, I think, upon its knees.

It looked around me, as if it had a wish to see whether some one were with me; but when all its expectation was quenched,

it said, weeping: “If through this blind prison thou goest by height of genius, where is my son and why is he not with thee?”

And I to him: “Of myself I come not: he, that waits yonder, leads me through this place; whom perhaps thy Guido held in disdain.”

Already his words and the manner of his punishment had read his name to me: hence my answer was so full.

Rising instantly erect, he cried: “How saidst thou: he had? lives he not still? does not the sweet light strike his eyes?”

When he perceived that I made some delay in answering, supine he fell again, and shewed himself no more.

But that other, magnanimous, at whose desire I had stopped, changed not his aspect, nor moved his neck, nor bent his side.

“And if,” continuing his former words, he said, “they have learnt that art badly, it more torments me than this bed.

But the face of the Queen, who reigns here, shall not be fifty times rekindled ere thou shalt know the hardness of that art.

And so mayest thou once return to the sweet world, tell me why that people is so fierce against my kindred in all its laws?”

Whereat I to him: “The havoc, and the great slaughter, which dyed the Arbia red, causes such orations in our temple.”

And sighing, he shook his head; then said: “In that I was not single; nor without cause, assuredly, should I have stirred with the others;

but I was single there, where all consented to extirpate Florence, I alone with open face defended her.”

“Ah! so may thy seed sometime have rest,” I prayed him, “solve the knot which has here involved my judgment.

It seems that you see beforehand what time brings with it, if I rightly hear; and have a different manner with the present.”

“Like one who has imperfect vision, we see the things,” he said, “which are remote from us; so much light the Supreme Ruler still gives to us;

when they draw nigh, or are, our intellect is altogether void; and except what others bring us, we know nothing of your human state.

Therefore thou mayest understand that all our knowledge shall be dead, from that moment when the portal of the Future shall be closed.”

Then, as compunctious for my fault, I said: “Now will you therefore tell that fallen one, that his child is still joined to the living.

And if I was mute before, at the response, let him know, it was because my thoughts already were in that error which you have resolved for me.”

And now my Master was recalling me: wherefore I, in more haste, besought the spirit to tell me who was with him.

He said to me: “With more than a thousand lie I here; the second Frederick is here within, and the Cardinal; and of the rest I speak not.”

Therewith he hid himself; and I towards the ancient Poet turned my steps, revolving that saying which seemed hostile to me.

He moved on; and then, as we were going, he said to me: “Why art thou so bewildered?” And I satisfied him in his question.

“Let thy memory retain what thou hast heard against thee,” that Sage exhorted me; “and now mark here”; and he raised his finger.

“When thou shalt stand before the sweet ray of that Lady, whose bright eye seeth all, from her shalt thou know the journey of thy life.”

Then to the sinister hand he turned his feet; we left the wall, and went towards the middle, by a path that strikes into a valley, which even up there annoyed us with its fetor.