Inferno: Canto XIV

Love for my native country gaining force —
The scattered leaves I gather'd up again.
And render'd back to him, who now was hoarse.

Then came we to a boundary, which parts
The third and second circles, where are seen
The racks of justice, and her horrid arts.

These novel things more clearly now to show,
I first must mention that we reach'd a plain.
In whose ungenial bed no plant can grow:

(This plain is compass'd by the mournful wood.
Encircling which is thrown the foss profound:
And here upon the edge of both we stood.)

Before us lay a thick and arid sand,
Resembling in appearance that parch'd ground
Trodden by Cato and his martial band.

Vengeance divine! how dreaded shouldst thou be
By each who reads the horrors I relate.
And contemplates the torments view'd by me!

Of naked spirits many a flock I saw,
Who all most wretchedly bewail'd their fate;
And each seem'd governed by a different law.

Some lay supine upon the heated plain;
And some, their limbs all drawn together, sate;
While others never ceased to pace amain.

More numerous far were these who paced around;
And fewer those who lay tormented, — though
Their lamentations burst with louder sound.

O'er all the sandy desert, falling slow.
Were shower'd dilated flakes of fire, like snow
On Alpine summits, when the wind is low.

As Alexander in the glowing lands
Of Eastern Ind, saw solid flakes of fire
Descend in showers upon his warrior bands;

And order'd straight, with provident command.
That each should trample on the vapours dire.
Lest they unite and spread o'er all the sand; —

Fell thus eternally the fiery rain:
Whence, like to tinder under flint and steel.
The soil ignited to augment their pain.

In ceaseless motion and perpetual play
Their wretched hands on either side they wheel.
The still descending flames to drive away.

Then I: "O master, thou who vanquishest
All who oppose thee, save the fiends who came
Fierce at the gate our entrance to contest —

What mighty one is that — who stern and proud
Appears regardless of the blasting flame.
As by the tempest he were unsubdued?"

Lo, at my words he raised his voice on high,
(For straight perceived he that of him I spoke,)
"Such as I was in life, in death am I.

Though angry Jove his hardy workmen tire.
From whom the pointed thunderbolt he took.
The day I fell beneath the blasting fire;

Or though the rest he at the forge upbraid
In Mongibello, wearied all in turn, —
Exclaiming: 'Haste thee; — aid! good Vulcan, aid!'

As once he cried in the Phlegraean fight —
And though his fiercest shafts my bosom burn.
From sweet revenge he ne'er shall reap delight."

Then spake my guide with greater vehemence
Than hitherto had e'er been heard by me:
"O Capaneus, in that thou dost not quench

Thy impious pride, more pangs doth Heaven assign;
For, save thy rage, no punishment could be
Fit retribution for a wrath like thine."

Turning to me, a milder look he gave; —
"Lo one," he cried, "of those seven kings, who erst
Beleaguered Thebes; and had, and seems to have

Little regard or reverence for his God:
But, as I told him — his own rage accurst
Is to his bosom a deserved reward.

Now come behind me, and beware," he said,
"Thy feet thou set not on the burning sand.
But close along the forest ever tread."

Silent we came to where a little rill.
Gushing from out the wood, runs through the land.
So Fed — its waters make me shudder still:

E'en as the rivulet from Bulicame,
Shared by the sinners, doth its course pursue, —
So through the arid sand flow'd down this stream.

Its bed and sloping sides along the way
Were petrified, and both the margins too.
Whereon I straight perceived our passage lay.

"Mid all the wonders I to thee have shown,
Since at that gate we first an entrance made.
Whose gloomy threshold is denied to none —

Nothing within these regions hast thou found
So worth thy notice, as this river dread.
Whose vapours quench the flames that fall around."

These words concluded — I besought my guide
That as he had awaked an appetite.
My hunger might with food be satisfied.

"An isle there is encircled by the sea —
Ruin'd and waste," he said; "its name is Crete,
Under whose king once flourished chastity:

A mountain rises in that ancient land,
Named Ida, joyful erst with woods and streams; —
Deserted now — like some forbidden strand.

This for the secret cradle of her son
Chose Rhea, who, to drown the infant's screams,
Fill'd all the air with clamours of her own.

A huge old man stands in the mount upright;
To Damietta turn his shoulders vast,
Rome, as a mirror is before his sight.

His head is wrought of finely-temper'd gold;
Of purest silver are the arms and breast;
Down to the hips, of brass is form'd the mould:

Thence to the feet of polish'd steel 'tis made,
Save the right foot, on which his weight he bears;
And that alone of clay is fashioned.

All parts except the gold are sorely rent.
While from the fissure gush forth copious tears.
Which in the cave collected, find a vent.

These flowing hither, broken rocks among,
Form Acheron, and Styx, and Flegethon;
Whence in this straight canal they pass along.

Till, at the bottom of the infernal pit.
They form Cocytus' lake: but that anon
Thou shalt behold; — I need not speak of it."

Then I to him: "The present stream accurst —
If from our world above it floweth, say
Why at this nether ridge appears it first."

He answer'd me: "Thou know'st the place is round.
And though full long hath hither been thy way,
(Still on the left descending the profound) —

Not yet throughout the circle hast thou gone:
If aught of novelty thou witness then.
No need that wonder on thy looks be shown."

"O master, tell me where," again I said,
"Are Flegethon and Lethe; — this, of rain
Composed, — and that, of which no mention thou hast made?"

He answer'd me: "Thy questions please me well;
But as to one — the red and boiling wave
Might surely of itself thy doubts dispel:

Lethe thou shalt behold, far distant hence.
There, where the shades resort, their forms to lave.
When crime hath been removed by penitence.

Now is it fitting time to leave the wood:
In the same path with me direct thy feet.
The margins unconsumed afford a road.

For over them no flame retains its heat."