The Divine Comedy. Dante Alighieri

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СКАЧАТЬ eager to pass o'er, as I discern

      Through the blear light?" He thus to me in few:

      "This shalt thou know, soon as our steps arrive

      Beside the woeful tide of Acheron."

      Then with eyes downward cast and fill'd with shame,

      Fearing my words offensive to his ear,

      Till we had reach'd the river, I from speech

      Abstain'd. And lo! toward us in a bark

      Comes on an old man hoary white with eld,

      Crying, "Woe to you wicked spirits! hope not

      Ever to see the sky again. I come

      To take you to the other shore across,

      Into eternal darkness, there to dwell

      In fierce heat and in ice. And thou, who there

      Standest, live spirit! get thee hence, and leave

      These who are dead." But soon as he beheld

      I left them not, "By other way," said he,

      "By other haven shalt thou come to shore,

      Not by this passage; thee a nimbler boat

      Must carry." Then to him thus spake my guide:

      "Charon! thyself torment not: so 't is will'd,

      Where will and power are one: ask thou no more."

      Straightway in silence fell the shaggy cheeks

      Of him the boatman o'er the livid lake,

      Around whose eyes glar'd wheeling flames. Meanwhile

      Those spirits, faint and naked, color chang'd,

      And gnash'd their teeth, soon as the cruel words

      They heard. God and their parents they blasphem'd,

      The human kind, the place, the time, and seed

      That did engender them and give them birth.

      Then all together sorely wailing drew

      To the curs'd strand, that every man must pass

      Who fears not God. Charon, demoniac form,

      With eyes of burning coal, collects them all,

      Beck'ning, and each, that lingers, with his oar

      Strikes. As fall off the light autumnal leaves,

      One still another following, till the bough

      Strews all its honours on the earth beneath;

      E'en in like manner Adam's evil brood

      Cast themselves one by one down from the shore,

      Each at a beck, as falcon at his call.

      Thus go they over through the umber'd wave,

      And ever they on the opposing bank

      Be landed, on this side another throng

      Still gathers. "Son," thus spake the courteous guide,

      "Those, who die subject to the wrath of God,

      All here together come from every clime,

      And to o'erpass the river are not loth:

      For so heaven's justice goads them on, that fear

      Is turn'd into desire. Hence ne'er hath past

      Good spirit. If of thee Charon complain,

      Now mayst thou know the import of his words."

      This said, the gloomy region trembling shook

      So terribly, that yet with clammy dews

      Fear chills my brow. The sad earth gave a blast,

      That, lightening, shot forth a vermilion flame,

      Which all my senses conquer'd quite, and I

      Down dropp'd, as one with sudden slumber seiz'd.

      CANTO IV

      BROKE the deep slumber in my brain a crash

      Of heavy thunder, that I shook myself,

      As one by main force rous'd. Risen upright,

      My rested eyes I mov'd around, and search'd

      With fixed ken to know what place it was,

      Wherein I stood. For certain on the brink

      I found me of the lamentable vale,

      The dread abyss, that joins a thund'rous sound

      Of plaints innumerable. Dark and deep,

      And thick with clouds o'erspread, mine eye in vain

      Explor'd its bottom, nor could aught discern.

      "Now let us to the blind world there beneath

      Descend;" the bard began all pale of look:

      "I go the first, and thou shalt follow next."

      Then I his alter'd hue perceiving, thus:

      "How may I speed, if thou yieldest to dread,

      Who still art wont to comfort me in doubt?"

      He then: "The anguish of that race below

      With pity stains my cheek, which thou for fear

      Mistakest. Let us on. Our length of way

      Urges to haste." Onward, this said, he mov'd;

      And ent'ring led me with him on the bounds

      Of the first circle, that surrounds th' abyss.

      Here, as mine ear could note, no plaint was heard

      Except of sighs, that made th' eternal air

      Tremble, not caus'd by tortures, but from grief

      Felt by those multitudes, many and vast,

      Of men, women, СКАЧАТЬ