Inferno: Canto XI

We at the margin of a lofty steep
Made of great shattered stones in circle bent,
Arrived where worser torments crowd the deep.

So horrible a stench and violent
Was upward wafted from the vast abyss,
Behind the cover we for shelter went

Of a great tomb where I saw written this:
'Pope Anastasius is within me thrust,
Whom the straight way Photinus made to miss.'

'Now on our course a while we linger must,'
The Master said, 'be but our sense resigned
A little to it, and the filthy gust

We shall not heed.' Then I: 'Do thou but find
Some compensation lest our time should run
Wasted.' And he: 'Behold, 'twas in my mind.

Girt by the rocks before us, O my son,
Lie three small circles,' he began to tell,
'Graded like those with which thou now hast done,

All of them filled with spirits miserable.
That sight of them may thee henceforth suffice.
Hear how and wherefore in these groups they dwell.

Whate'er in Heaven's abhorred as wickedness
Has injury for its end; in others' bane
By fraud resulting or in violent wise.

Since fraud to man alone doth appertain,
God hates it most; and hence the fraudulent band,
Set lowest down, endure a fiercer pain.

Of the violent is the circle next at hand
To us; and since three ways is violence shown,
'Tis in three several circuits built and planned.

To God, ourselves, or neighbours may be done
Violence, or on the things by them possessed;
As reasoning clear shall unto thee make known.

Our neighbour may by violence be distressed
With grievous wounds, or slain; his goods and lands
By havoc, fire, and plunder be oppressed.

Hence those who wound and slay with violent hands,
Robbers, and spoilers, in the nearest round
Are all tormented in their various bands.

Violent against himself may man be found,
And 'gainst his goods; therefore without avail
They in the next are in repentance drowned

Who on themselves loss of your world entail,
Who gamble and their substance madly spend,
And who when called to joy lament and wail.

And even to God may violence extend
By heart denial and by blasphemy,
Scorning what nature doth in bounty lend.

Sodom and Cahors hence are doomed to lie
Within the narrowest circlet surely sealed;
And such as God within their hearts defy.

Fraud, 'gainst whose bite no conscience findeth shield,
A man may use with one who in him lays
Trust, or with those who no such credence yield.

Beneath this latter kind of it decays
The bond of love which out of nature grew;
Hence, in the second circle herd the race

To feigning given and flattery, who pursue
Magic, false coining, theft, and simony,
Pimps, barrators, and suchlike residue.

The other form of fraud makes nullity
Of natural bonds; and, what is more than those,
The special trust whence men on men rely.

Hence in the place whereon all things repose,
The narrowest circle and the seat of Dis,
Each traitor's gulfed in everlasting woes.'

'Thy explanation, Master, as to this
Is clear,' I said, 'and thou hast plainly told
Who are the people stowed in the abyss.

But tell why those the muddy marshes hold,
The tempest-driven, those beaten by the rain,
And such as, meeting, virulently scold,

Are not within the crimson city ta'en
For punishment, if hateful unto God;
And, if not hateful, wherefore doomed to pain?'

And he to me: 'Why wander thus abroad,
More than is wont, thy wits? or how engrossed
Is now thy mind, and on what things bestowed?

Hast thou the memory of the passage lost
In which thy Ethics for their subject treat
Of the three moods by Heaven abhorred the most--

Malice and bestiality complete;
And how, compared with these, incontinence
Offends God less, and lesser blame doth meet?

If of this doctrine thou extract the sense,
And call to memory what people are
Above, outside, in endless penitence,

Why from these guilty they are sundered far
Thou shalt discern, and why on them alight
The strokes of justice in less angry war.'

'O Sun that clearest every troubled sight,
So charmed am I by thy resolving speech,
Doubt yields me joy no less than knowing right.

Therefore, I pray, a little backward reach,'
I asked, 'to where thou say'st that usury
Sins 'gainst God's bounty; and this mystery teach.'

He said: 'Who gives ear to Philosophy
Is taught by her, nor in one place alone,
What nature in her course is governed by,

Even Mind Divine, and art which thence hath grown;
And if thy Physics thou wilt search within,
Thou'lt find ere many leaves are open thrown,

This art by yours, far as your art can win,
Is followed close--the teacher by the taught;
As grandchild then to God your art is kin.

And from these two--do thou recall to thought
How Genesis begins--should come supplies
Of food for man, and other wealth be sought.

And, since another plan the usurer plies,
Nature and nature's child have his disdain;
Because on other ground his hope relies.

But come, for to advance I now am fain:
The Fishes over the horizon line
Quiver; o'er Caurus now stands all the Wain;

And further yonder does the cliff decline.'