Inferno: Canto XXXIV

"Lo, come the banners of the king of hell!"
My master said: "then forward stretch thine eye.
And, if thou canst — behold the monarch fell."

Like to a windmill, in the distance seen
Whirling about, when night enwraps the sky.
Or dense and murky vapours intervene; —

Such seem'd the structure that I gazed upon.
Whereat, to shun the cutting blast, I drew
Behind my guide, for shelter else was none.

Now came we — and I pen the verse with fear —
Where wholly covered were the shades; — seen through
The ice, e'en like to straws in crystal clear.

Some prostrate — others upright I observ'd,
One on his head, and one upon his feet;
Another's figure like a bow was curved.

When we had made such progress on our way.
That to my kind instructor it seem'd meet,
The creature, once so beauteous, to display; —

Standing aside, he bade me halt, — and cried:
"Now Dis behold! — be thine, in this dread spot
A heart of firmest courage to provide,"

How hoarse and icy cold I then became —
Demand not, reader, since I write it not;
For all description would be weak and tame.

I died not; — nor was life within me left;
Imagine then, if fancy thou possess.
What I became, of either state bereft.

Above the ice uprear'd his bust on high
The monarch of that region of distress;
And nearer to a giant's height am I,

Than to his arms are giants: — now compute,
How vast in magnitude the whole must be.
Which to a portion so immense could suit.

If he were beauteous once, as hideous now, —
Yet in his pride transgressed his Sire's decree.
Well may he be the source of every woe.

O what a prodigy he seem'd, to view!
For on his head three faces were uprear'd;
The one in front of a vermillion hue:

The other two, above each shoulder blade.
United closely to the first appeared;
And at the crest all three a junction made.

Somewhat 'twixt white and yellow was the right;
The left, to look at, was like those who dwell
Where Nile descends from Ethiopia's height.

Two mighty wings extended under each.
Which to a bird so monstrous suited well:
Nor e'er beheld I sails such distance reach.

Plumes had they none; but in their texture they
Were like a bat's; which; flexible and thin.
Produced three winds by their incessant play.

And froze Cocytus' lowest depths profound.
The six eyes wept; and o'er his triple chin
The tears and bloody foam pour'd fast around.

At every mouth, e'en like a grinding mill,
He crush'd a writhing sinner in his jaws;
Thus three at once were doom'd his wrath to feel.

To him in front, this crushing was but play.
Compared with what he suffer'd from the claws.
Which from his back oft tore the skin away.

"That one above, condemn'd to pangs more dread,
Is Judas 'Scariot," said my guide: — "without.
His feet he plies; within, sinks down his head.

Of the other two, whose heads are plunged below,
Brutus the one, who hangs from the black throat;
See how he writhes, yet speaks not in his woe! —

Cassius the other, with such strength endued.
But night returns; and from the abyss of hell
We must depart — for all hath now been viewed."

My master's neck I clasp'd, for so he bade;
Then, judging both his time and distance well,
He, when the monster's wings were fairly spread,

Attach'd him closely to the shaggy side,
And made from lock to lock his downward way.
Between the wall of ice, and rugged hide:

When we had reach'd a station, where the thigh
Doth on the swelling of the haunches play.
My guide with much fatigue and urgency

Moved round his head where late his feet had been,
And, like to one who mounts, clung to the hair: —
I thought to hell we were returning; — then

Panting — e'en as a man forespent with toil —
He said to me: "Take heed; for by such stair
Must we escape from this accursed soil."

Forth issuing through an opening in the rock,
He placed me on the brink, and cautiously
Guiding his steps, a seat beside me took.

I raised my eyes; — nor change did I expect
In Lucifer, since last beheld by me;
When lo! his feet were seen in air erect!

And how I then with trouble was opprest,
Let grosser minds imagine — not endued
With sense to mark the point that I had past.

Now spoke the master: "Rise, and let us on, —
Long is the way, and rugged is the road;
The sun is riding near his highest noon."

No royal path was that on which we were,
But wrought by nature, savage, rough, and rude;
Nor was there aught but troublous twilight there.

"Ere from the dark abyss we take our way.
Master," I said, when on my feet I stood,
"Some words bestow, lest I in error stray.

Where is the ice? — and wherefore is his head
Fix'd upside down? and tell the reason why
From west to east the sun so soon hath sped."

Then he: "Thou still imaginest we are
On the other side the central point, where I
Clung to the worm that pierceth earth: — so far

Indeed, as I continued to descend,
That side we kept; but when I turn'd, then we
Had pass'd the point to which all bodies tend.

Now art thou come the hemisphere beneath
Opposed to that which forms earth's canopy;
Under whose highest cope was led to death

The man who knew no sin. A little sphere
Is that thou standest on: its other face
Is on Giudecca's side. Morn rises here

When it is evening there: and he who erst
Made of his hide a stair unto this place.
Remains the same as when we saw him first.

Upon this spot, from heaven the traitor fell;
, And then the land, which once was dry, through fear
Of him took refuge under ocean's veil,

And reach'd our hemisphere: — so, haply fled
The earth which now is elevated there.
And sinking here, exalted there its head.

As far from Beelzebub as the profound
Abyss is deep, a place there is below.
Not known by sight, but only by the sound

Caused by a streamlet, here descending down
Along a bed, worn by its constant flow, —
Of easy slope, in gentle windings thrown."

My guide and I this secret pathway chose
To reconduct us to the world of light;
And up we journied, heedless of repose.

He mounting first, while I his steps pursued, —
Till, through an orifice, heav'n's splendours bright
Burst on mine eyes: — emerging thence, we viewed

The stars once more unfolded to our sight,