Inferno: Canto XXIX

The numerous tribes and various gashes deep
Had to the brim with tears so fill'd mine eyes,
I gladly would have stood awhile to weep.

But Virgil said to me; "Why gazest thou?
Why fix thy looks in melancholy guise
On the disfigured shades that lie below? —

Not so thy wont in any former cell:
But, if to count them all, thy wish may be.
Think —two and twenty miles extends the vale.

The moon already lies beneath our feet;
To journey on but little time have we;
And things as yet unseen thine eye will meet."

"Did'st thou," I answer'd him, "the reason weigh,
Why such a close attention I bestow'd, '
Thou might'st perhaps have pardon'd my delay."

My guide mov'd on, as I this answer gave.
Behind him still continuing my road.
And adding this; "I deem within that cave.

Whereon my eyes were so intently bent,
Dwells a sad spirit, one to me allied.
Who rues his dear bought crimes with deep lament."

"Let not compassion for his woes detain
Thy pensive soul; but turn," exclaim'd my guide,
"To other objects; and let him remain.

Whom at the bridge's foot I chanced to see.
Pointing, and threat'ning thee with look enraged;
Geri del Bello, as I heard, was he.

With him, who er'st in Altafort bore sway.
Thy thoughts so wholly were the while engaged.
That Geri passed unnoticed on his way."

"His violent death, dear leader," I exclaim,
"Yet unavenged on earth by those who shared.
And still remain partakers of the shame.

Inspired his scorn; — so that in contumely
He silent pass'd, nor to accost me cared;
Hence for his fate I feel more sympathy."

Thus spake we till the next pit came in sight,
Which from the bridge's summit would be view'd
E'en to the bottom, were there stronger light.

O'er Malebolge's last sad cloister now
Arriving, on the highest arch we stood.
Whence its contents could all be seen below.

Here by discordant shrieks was I assail'd,
Whose shafts were barb'd with pity; whence my hand.
To close mine ears against them, I upheld.

As were the wailings, if— when autumn reigns,
Each lazar house in sad Sardinia's land.
In Valdichiana, and Maremma's plains

Forth in one trench could all their sufferers pour;
Such here was heard;— and thence came stench as rank.
As issues from foul wounds, and festerings sore.

The bridge now cross'd, we made our downward way.
Still bearing to the left along the bank:
Then more distinctly could mine eye survey

The deep abyss; where, rack'd by throes, appear
The forgers, whom the handmaid of the Lord —
Unerring Justice — dooms, and classes here.

With greater sorrow none could have beheld
Aegina's race weigh'd down by plagues abhorr'd,
(When with such pestilence the air was fill'd.

That every animal exhausted fell,
E'en to the little worm; and by the seed
Of emmets — so the fabling poets tell —

This ancient people was again renewed,)
Than was my grief — when in the valley dread
The shades I saw, in numerous parcels strew'd:

One on another's breast — one on the back '
Recumbent, — one all fours endured his pain.
Slow crawling forward o'er the mournful track.

Step after step we went, nor held debate.
But gazed upon the sick, who all in vain
Strove their enfeebled forms to elevate.

Seated were two, each other who sustained,
As pan props pan while heating on the fire.
From head to foot with leprous blotches stain'd.

No groom, who longs to hie him to his home.
Or hastens to fulfil his lord's desire.
E'er plied so rapidly the currycomb.

As each around him plied his nails amain;
So furious did the irritation seem;
And this the only aid they could obtain.

Thus the parch'd skin they drew off with the nail.
E'en as a knife scrapes off the coat from bream.
Or other fish that bears a larger scale.

My guide addressing one of them, began:
"O thou, who to relieve thee from annoy,
Usest thy nails like pincers now and then.

Tell me, — among the numbers here that lie.
Is any Latian soul? — to thy employ
So may thy nails suffice eternally."

"We, whom thou see'st thus mangled, from the land
Of Latium came," cried one in tones of grief;
"But who art thou who makest the demand?"

My escort said: "One am I, who descend
To guide this living soul from reef to reef;
And e'en through hell to lead him I intend."

Then started they asunder at the word,
And, in alarm, each trembling turn'd to me.
With others who the echoing voice had heard.

Now drew the gracious master to my side.
And whisper'd: "Say to them what pleaseth thee;"
I, thus beginning, with his wish complied;

"May your remembrance yet on earth survive,
Fresh in the thoughts of men, to your content.
Through many a year remaining still alive.

As ye may now your birth and race declare;
Nor let this foul disgusting punishment
Deter you from announcing who ye are."

"I from Arezzo hither came," one cried,
"By Albero of Sienna burnt; — though here
Not sent to expiate that for which I died.

'Tis true in joke I did to him profess
That I had learnt to wing my flight through air:
Vast were his wishes, but his wisdom less;

To learn my art was therefore his desire;
And since I made him not a Daedalus,
He had me burnt by his reputed sire.

But to the last dread chasm of all the ten
Unerring Minos doom'd me, for the use
I made of alchemy while living." — Then

I to the poet said: "Now half so vain
Was ever nation as these Siennese?
Not e'en the French so much so, I maintain."

Whereat the other leper made reply:
"Stricca indeed excepted — if you please.
Who used the goods of life so temperately;

And Nicholas— whose art first mix'd the fruit
Of cloves, prepared as a rich condiment,
Pluck'd from the garden where the plant took root.

Excepting also that illustrious crew,
'Mongst whom his woods and vineyards Caccia spent;
And — famed for wisdom — Abbagliato too.

But come; — towards me do thou direct thine eye,
To know who backs thee in thy argument;
And let my features grant thee a reply:

So shalt thou see I am Capocchio's shade,
Who metals could transmute by alchemy;
And thou, if well I have thy face survey'd.

Wilt know, that nature's practised ape was I."