Inferno: Canto XXV

His speech thus closed, the thief insultingly
Pointed his hands in scornful gesture vile.
Exclaiming: "Take them, God, they are for thee.

I from that instant was the serpent's friend;
For one about his throat enwreath'd its coil.
As though it said: "No more shalt thou offend."

Another clasp'd his arms; and with a chain
Of many a fold so tightly bound them down.
That all attempt to move them was in vain.

Pistoia! ah Pistoia! why forbear
To bow thee in the dust, since thou art grown
More rife in crime than e'en thy fathers were?

No soul throughout the murky rounds of hell
Tow rds God beheld I manifest such pride; —
Not he, from Thebes' high battlements who fell.

He fled — nor spoke again: — then did I see
A Centaur coming, full of rage, who cried:
"This impious, foul blasphemer — where is he?"

More snakes were hissing on his turgid hip
Than in Maremma's marsh may be survey'd.
E'en reaching upwards to his very lip.

Behind the neck, upon his shoulder, lay
A dragon fierce, with ample wings outspread.
Breathing forth fire on all who cross'd his way.

"Cacus is this," my faithful master said,
"Who in the cave of Aventine erewhile
A lake of blood full many times hath made.

Not with his brethren doth he onward hie.
Robber accurst, — since he with secret guile
Drove off the mighty herd which pastured nigh.

But ceased his deeds of evil, when were dealt
A hundred blows by the Herculean mace;
Though scarcely ten perhaps the robber felt."

While thus he spake, the Centaur fled; — and lo!
Three souls beneath us came at rapid pace.
Whom neither I nor Virgil saw till now;

When on a sudden, "Who are ye?" they cry;
Wherefore we ceased discoursing as we went,
And fix'd on them alone our eager eye.

I knew them not; but so it did befall,
(As often happens by some accident,)
That one had need another's name to call.

Exclaiming: "Where can Cianfa be conceal'd?"
Whereat, my guide's attention to engage.
Straightway my finger to my lip I held.

No wonder, reader, should'st thou disbelieve
What now will be unfolded in my page.
For I who saw it scarce can credit give.

Whilst upon them mine eyes attentive hung,
A serpent with six feet like lightning sped
Full in the front of one, and to him clung.

His middle feet he round his paunch did wreathe.
And o'er his arms his foremost feet outspread;
Then fix'd in either cheek his savage teeth.

Stretch'd o'er the thighs the hinder feet extend,
And 'twixt them both protruded he his tail.
Which, backwards turn'd, along the reins remain'd.

So closely ne'er did circling ivy bind
An aged tree, as round those members fell
The horrid beast his own dire form entwined.

Then were they mingled, e'en as they had been
Of melted wax, in selfsame hues array'd;
And which was which no longer could be seen:

Like as when paper burns, there glides before
The advancing flame a brown and dingy shade.
Which is not black, and yet is white no more.

In wonder lost the other two look'd on,
And cried: "Agnello, oh how altered thou!
Behold thou art not either two or one."

The twain already to a single head
Were changed; — one face appeared instead of two.
For no distinction could be now survey'd.

Two arms were visible where four had been;
The thighs, the legs, the belly, and the chest
Became such limbs as never yet were seen.

All vestige of the former shape was gone;
Nor one, nor two th' unsightly frame expressed;
And in such guise it moved full slowly on.

As underneath the dog-star's scorching ray,
The lizard, darting swift from hedge to hedge.
Appears like lightning if he cross the way; —

So, to the stomach of the other twain,
A viper came, with furious heat and rage.
Livid and black, like to a pepper grain:

And in that part whence first our nutriment
Is drawn, he sudden pierced one spirit vile.
Then prostrate fell in all his foul extent.

Him view'd the transfixt spirit, but was dumb.
And standing motionless, he yawn'd the while.
As if by sleep or fever overcome.

He on the serpent, it on him did look;
One from his wound, the other hard and strong
Breath'd from his mouth, and mingling met the smoke.

Now let Nasidius' and Sabellus' fate
No more be made a boast in Lucan's song,
But let him list the tale I here relate.

Silent be Ovid; — though his poetry
Changed Arethusa to a fount of yore.
And Cadmus to a snake, I have no jealousy.

For ne'er two natures changed he face to face.
So that they both were gifted with the power
Each other's form and substance to embrace.

Their limbs in such exact accordance meet,
That to a fork his tail the serpent cleft;
The wounded shade united both his feet.

Connected each with each, the legs and thighs
So closely clung, that soon, combined, they left
No trace of junction to our wondering eyes.

The cloven tail that shape did now assume
Lost by the other; soft one's skin was wrought.
Meanwhile the other's harden'd in its room.

Arms into armpits enter'd — strange to view;
And the two feet which of the beast were short,
Extended as the other's shorter grew.

His hinder feet, now twisted into one,
To undergo mysterious change were seen;
And to two feet the other's alter'd soon.

Meanwhile the smoke with its dense vapour veils
Both with fresh hues, and generates a skin
Upon one part, which from the other peals.

The serpent rose; — the man fell down below:
Still on each other all the while they gazed.
Their eyes alone unaltered: — to his brow

Backward the one his baleful visage drew.
And thence from the superfluous matter raised.
On either side, the ears spontaneous grew.

That superfluity which still remained
A nostril to the impious face was made;
And the two lips their proper size attain'd.

He who lay prostrate, now prolongs his face.
Contracting both his ears within his head.
E'en as a snail draws in his horns apace.

The tongue, which, undivided, freely spoke,
Divideth— while the forked tongue anon
Unites, and straightway vanisheth the smoke.

The soul, transform'd into a brute, now flies
Hissing along the vale; the other one
Foams at the mouth, as in the rear he hies.

Scornful he turn'd on him his shoulders new,
And to another spake; "As I have done.
Let Buoso crawling now his way pursue."

Such changes did the seventh round present;
And in the novelty excuse I find,
If here my tongue decline embellishment.

And though confusion overwhelm'd mine eye,
And much bewilder'd also was my mind.
These shades could not escape so secretly.

But well I marked that Puccio, he was one;
And of the three first comers, he alone
Among them all no change had undergone:

The other's death thou, Gaville, dost atone.