Inferno: Canto XII

The place of our descent before us lay
Precipitous, and there was something more
From sight of which all eyes had turned away.

As at the ruin which upon the shore
Of Adige fell upon this side of Trent--
Through earthquake or by slip of what before

Upheld it--from the summit whence it went
Far as the plain, the shattered rocks supply
Some sort of foothold to who makes descent;

Such was the passage down the precipice high.
And on the riven gully's very brow
Lay spread at large the Cretan Infamy

Which was conceived in the pretended cow.
Us when he saw, he bit himself for rage
Like one whose anger gnaws him through and through.

'Perhaps thou deemest,' called to him the Sage,
'This is the Duke of Athens drawing nigh,
Who war to the death with thee on earth did wage.

Begone, thou brute, for this one passing by
Untutored by thy sister has thee found,
And only comes thy sufferings to spy,'

And as the bull which snaps what held it bound
On being smitten by the fatal blow,
Halts in its course, and reels upon the ground,

The Minotaur I saw reel to and fro;
And he, the alert, cried: 'To the passage haste;
While yet he chafes 'twere well thou down shouldst go.'

So we descended by the slippery waste
Of shivered stones which many a time gave way
'Neath the new weight my feet upon them placed.

I musing went; and he began to say:
'Perchance this ruined slope thou thinkest on,
Watched by the brute rage I did now allay.

But I would have thee know, when I came down
The former time into this lower Hell,
The cliff had not this ruin undergone.

It was not long, if I distinguish well,
Ere He appeared who wrenched great prey from Dis
From out the upmost circle. Trembling fell

Through all its parts the nauseous abyss
With such a violence, the world, I thought,
Was stirred by love; for, as they say, by this

She back to Chaos has been often brought.
And then it was this ancient rampart strong
Was shattered here and at another spot.

But toward the valley look. We come ere long
Down to the river of blood where boiling lie
All who by violence work others wrong.'

O insane rage! O blind cupidity!
By which in our brief life we are so spurred,
Ere downward plunged in evil case for aye!

An ample ditch I now beheld engird
And sweep in circle all around the plain,
As from my Escort I had lately heard.

Between this and the rock in single train
Centaurs were running who were armed with bows,
As if they hunted on the earth again.

Observing us descend they all stood close,
Save three of them who parted from the band
With bow, and arrows they in coming chose.

'What torment,' from afar one made demand,
'Come ye to share, who now descend the hill?
I shoot unless ye answer whence ye stand.'

My Master said: 'We yield no answer till
We come to Chiron standing at thy side;
But thy quick temper always served thee ill.'

Then touching me: ''Tis Nessus; he who died
With love for beauteous Dejanire possessed,
And who himself his own vendetta plied.

He in the middle, staring on his breast,
Is mighty Chiron, who Achilles bred;
And next the wrathful Pholus. They invest

The fosse and in their thousands round it tread,
Shooting whoever from the blood shall lift,
More than his crime allows, his guilty head.'

As we moved nearer to those creatures swift
Chiron drew forth a shaft and dressed his beard
Back on his jaws, using the arrow's cleft.

And when his ample mouth of hair was cleared,
He said to his companions: 'Have ye seen
The things the second touches straight are stirred,

As they by feet of shades could ne'er have been?'
And my good Guide, who to his breast had gone--
The part where join the natures, 'Well I ween

He lives,' made answer; 'and if, thus alone,
He seeks the valley dim 'neath my control,
Necessity, not pleasure, leads him on.

One came from where the alleluiahs roll,
Who charged me with this office strange and new:
No robber he, nor mine a felon soul.

But, by that Power which makes me to pursue
The rugged journey whereupon I fare,
Accord us one of thine to keep in view,

That he may show where lies the ford, and bear
This other on his back to yonder strand;
No spirit he, that he should cleave the air.'

Wheeled to the right then Chiron gave command
To Nessus: 'Turn, and lead them, and take tent
They be not touched by any other band.'

We with our trusty Escort forward went,
Threading the margin of the boiling blood
Where they who seethed were raising loud lament.

People I saw up to the chin imbrued,
'These all are tyrants,' the great Centaur said,
'Who blood and plunder for their trade pursued.

Here for their pitiless deeds tears now are shed
By Alexander, and Dionysius fell,
Through whom in Sicily dolorous years were led.

The forehead with black hair so terrible
Is Ezzelino; that one blond of hue,
Obizzo d'Este, whom, as rumours tell,

His stepson murdered, and report speaks true.'
I to the Poet turned, who gave command:
'Regard thou chiefly him. I follow you.'

Ere long the Centaur halted on the strand,
Close to a people who, far as the throat,
Forth of that bulicamë seemed to stand.

Thence a lone shade to us he pointed out
Saying: 'In God's house ran he weapon through
The heart which still on Thames wins cult devout.'

Then I saw people, some with heads in view,
And some their chests above the river bore;
And many of them I, beholding, knew.

And thus the blood went dwindling more and more,
Until at last it covered but the feet:
Here took we passage to the other shore.

'As on this hand thou seest still abate
In depth the volume of the boiling stream,'
The Centaur said, 'so grows its depth more great,

Believe me, towards the opposite extreme,
Until again its circling course attains
The place where tyrants must lament. Supreme

Justice upon that side involves in pains,
With Attila, once of the world the pest,
Pyrrhus and Sextus: and for ever drains

Tears out of Rinier of Corneto pressed
And Rinier Pazzo in that boiling mass,
Whose brigandage did so the roads infest.'

Then turned he back alone, the ford to pass.