Harvard Classics Volume 20. Golden Deer Classics

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СКАЧАТЬ Filippo Argenti!”^[50] cried they all:

      And on himself the moody Florentine

      Turn’d his avenging fangs. Him here we left,

      Nor speak I of him more. But on mine ear

      Sudden a sound of lamentation smote,

      Whereat mine eye unbarr’d I sent abroad.

      And thus the good instructor: “Now, my son

      Draws near the city, that of Dis is named,

      With its grave denizens, a mighty throng.”

      I thus: “The minarets already, Sir!

      There, certes, in the valley I descry,

      Gleaming vermilion, as if they from fire

      Had issued.” He replied: “Eternal fire,

      That inward burns, shows them with ruddy flame

      Illumed; as in this nether Hell thou seest.”

      We came within the fosses deep, that moat

      This region comfortless. The walls appear’d

      As they were framed of iron. We had made

      Wide circuit, ere a place we reach’d, where loud

      The mariner cried vehement: “Go forth:

      The entrance is here.” Upon the gates I spied

      More than a thousand, who of old from Heaven

      Were shower’d. With ireful gestures, “Who is this,”

      They cried, “that, without death first felt, goes through

      The regions of the dead?” My sapient guide

      Made sign that he for secret parley wish’d;

      Whereat their angry scorn abating, thus

      They spake: “Come thou alone; and let him go,

      Who hath so hardily enter’d this realm.

      Alone return he by his witless way;

      If well he knew it, let him prove. For thee,

      Here shalt thou tarry, who through clime so dark

      Hast been his escort.” Now bethink thee, reader!

      What cheer was mine at sound of those curst words.

      I did believe I never should return.

      “O my loved guide! who more than seven times^[51]

      Security hast render’d me, and drawn

      From peril deep, whereto I stood exposed,

      Desert me not,” I cried, “in this extreme.

      And, if our onward going be denied,

      Together trace we back our steps with speed.”

      My liege, who thither had conducted me,

      Replied: “Fear not: for of our passage none

      Hath power to disappoint us, by such high

      Authority permitted. But do thou

      Expect me here; meanwhile, thy wearied spirit

      Comfort, and feed with kindly hope, assured

      I will not leave thee in this lower world.”

      This said, departs the sire benevolent,

      And quits me. Hesitating I remain

      At war, ’twixt will and will not, in my thoughts.

      I could not hear what terms he offer’d them,

      But they conferr’d not long, for all at once

      Pellmell rush’d back within. Closed were the gates,

      By those our adversaries, on the breast

      Of my liege lord: excluded, he return’d

      To me with tardy steps. Upon the ground

      His eyes were bent, and from his brow erased

      All confidence, while thus in sighs he spake:

      “Who hath denied me these abodes of woe?”

      Then thus to me: “That I am anger’d, think

      No ground of terror: in this trial I

      Shall vanquish, use what arts they may within

      For hindrance. This their insolence, not new,^[52]

      Erewhile at gate less secret they display’d,

      Which still is without bolt; upon its arch

      Thou saw’st the deadly scroll: and even now,

      On this side of its entrance, down the steep,

      Passing the circles, unescorted, comes

      One whose strong might can open us this land.”

Canto IX

      Argument.—After some hindrances, and having seen the hellish furies and other monsters, the Poet, by the help of an angel, enters the city of Dis, wherein he discovers that the heretics are punished in tombs burning with intense fire; and he, together with Virgil, passes onward between the sepulchres and the walls of the city.

      The hue,^[53] which coward dread on my pale cheeks

      Imprinted when I saw my guide turn back,

      Chased that from his which newly they had worn,

      And inwardly restrain’d it. He, as one

      Who listens, stood attentive: for his eye

      Not far could lead him through the sable air,

      And the thick-gathering cloud. “It yet behoves

      We win this fight;” thus he began: “if not,

      Such aid to us is offer’d—Oh! how long

      Me seems it, ere the promised help arrive.”

      I noted, how the sequel of his words

      Cloked СКАЧАТЬ