Harvard Classics Volume 20. Golden Deer Classics

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СКАЧАТЬ not with the first. But not the less

      My fear was at his saying; sith I drew

      To import worse, perchance, than that he held,

      His mutilated speech. “Doth ever any

      Into this rueful concave’s extreme depth

      Descend, out of the first degree, whose pain

      Is deprivation merely of sweet hope?”

      Thus I inquiring. “Rarely,” he replied,

      “It chances, that among us any makes

      This journey, which I wend. Erewhile, ’tis true,

      Once came I here beneath, conjured by fell

      Erichtho,^[54] sorceress, who compell’d the shades

      Back to their bodies. No long space my flesh

      Was naked of me, when within these walls

      She made me enter, to draw forth a spirit

      From out of Judas’ circle. Lowest place

      Is that of all, obscurest, and removed

      Farthest from Heaven’s all-circling orb. The road

      Full well I know: thou therefore rest secure.

      That lake, the noisome stench exhaling, round

      The city of grief encompasses, which now

      We may not enter without rage, “Yet more

      He added: but I hold it not in mind,

      For that mine eye toward the lofty tower

      Had drawn me wholly, to its burning top;

      Where, in an instant, I beheld uprisen

      At once three hellish furies stain’d with blood.

      In limb and motion feminine they seem’d;

      Around them greenest hydras twisting roll’d

      Their volumes; adders and cerastes crept

      Instead of hair, and their fierce temples bound.

      He, knowing well the miserable hags

      Who tend the queen of endless owe, thus spake:

      “Mark thou each dire Erynnis. To the left,

      This is Megæra; on the right hand, she

      Who wails, Alecto; and Tisiphone

      I’ th’ midst.” This said, in silence he remain’d.

      Their breast they each one clawing tore; themselves

      Smote with their palms, and such thrill clamour raised,

      That to the bard I clung, suspicion-bound.

      “Hasten Medusa: so to adamant

      Him shall we change;” all looking down exclaim’d:

      “E’en when by Theseus’ might assail’d, we took

      No ill revenge.” “Turn thyself round and keep

      Thy countenance hid; for if the Gorgon dire

      Be shown, and thou shouldst view it, thy return

      Upwards would be forever lost.” This said,

      Himself, my gentle master, turn’d me round;

      Nor trusted he my hands, but with his own

      He also hid me. Ye of intellect

      Sound and entire, mark well the lore^[55] conceal’d

      Under close texture of the mystic strain.

      And now there came o’er the perturbed waves

      Loud-crashing, terrible, a sound that made

      Either shore tremble, as if of a wind

      Impetuous, from conflicting vapors sprung,

      That ’gainst some forest driving all his might,

      Plucks off the branches, beats them down, and hurls

      Afar; then, onward passing, proudly sweeps

      His whirlwind rage, while beasts and shepherds fly.

      Mine eyes he loosed, and spake: “And now direct

      Thy visual nerve along that ancient foam,

      There, thickest where the smoke ascends.” As frogs

      Before their foe the serpent, through the wave

      Ply swiftly all, till at the ground each one

      Lies on a heap; more than a thousand spirits

      Destroy’d, so saw I fleeing before one

      Who pass’d with unwet feet the Stygian sound.

      He, from his face removing the gross air,

      Oft his left hand forth stretch’d, and seem’d alone

      By that annoyance wearied. I perceived

      That he was sent from Heaven; and to my guide

      Turn’d me, who signal made, that I should stand

      Quiet, and bend to him. Ah me! how full

      Of noble anger seem’d he. To the gate

      He came, and with his wand touch’d it, whereat

      Open without impediment it flew.

      “Outcasts of heaven! O abject race, scorn’d!”

      Began he, on the horrid grunsel standing,

      “Whence doth this wild excess of insolence

      Lodge in you? wherefore kick you ’gainst that will

      Ne’er frustrate of its end, and which so oft

      Hath laid on you enforcement of your pangs?

      What profits at the Fates to butt the horn?

      Your Cerberus,^[56] if ye remember, hence

      Bears СКАЧАТЬ