Harvard Classics Volume 20. Golden Deer Classics

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      She hath made tremble.” He, soon as he saw

      That I was weeping, answer’d, “Thou must needs

      Another way pursue, if thou wouldst ’scape

      From out that savage wilderness. This beast,

      At whom thou criest, her way will suffer none

      To pass, and no less hinderance makes than death:

      So bad and so accursed in her kind,

      That never sated is her ravenous will,

      Still after food more craving than before.

      To many an animal in wedlock vile

      She fastens, and shall yet to many more,

      Until that greyhound^[6] come, who shall destroy

      Her with sharp pain. He will not life support

      By earth nor its base metals, but by love,

      Wisdom, and virtue; and his land shall be

      The land ’twixt either Feltro.^[7] In his might

      Shall safety to Italia’s plains arise,

      For whose fair realm, Camilla, virgin pure,

      Nisus, Euryalus, and Turnus fell.

      He, with incessant chase, through every town

      Shall worry, until he to hell at length

      Restore her, thence by envy first let loose.

      I, for thy profit pondering, now devise

      That thou mayst follow me; and I, thy guide,

      Will lead thee hence through an eternal space,

      Where thou shalt hear despairing shrieks, and see

      Spirits of old tormented, who invoke

      A second death;^[8] and those next view, who dwell

      Content in fire,^[9] for that they hope to come,

      Whene’er the time may be, among the blest,

      Into whose regions if thou then desire

      To ascend, a spirit worthier^[10] than I

      Must lead thee, in whose charge, when I depart,

      Thou shalt be left; for that Almighty King,

      Who reigns above, a rebel to His law

      Adjudges me; and therefore hath decreed

      That, to His city, none through me should come.

      He in all parts hath sway; there rules, there holds

      His citadel and throne. O happy those,

      Whom there He chuses!” I to him in few:

      “Bard! by that God, whom thou didst not adore,

      I do beseech thee (that this ill and worse

      I may escape) to lead me where thou said’st,

      That I Saint Peter’s gate^[11] may view, and those

      Who, as thou tell’st, are in such dismal plight.”

      Onward he moved, I close his steps pursued.

Canto II

      Argument.—After the invocation, which poets are used to prefix to their works, he shows that, on a consideration of his own strength, he doubted whether it sufficed for the journey proposed to him, but that, being comforted by Virgil, he at last took courage, and followed him as his guide and master.

      Now was the day departing, and the air,

      Imbrown’d with shadows, from their toils released

      All animals on earth; and I alone

      Prepared myself the conflict to sustain,

      Both of sad pity, and that perilous road,

      Which my unerring memory shall retrace.

      O Muses! O high genius! now vouchsafe

      Your aid. O mind! that all I saw hast kept

      Safe in a written record, here thy worth

      And eminent endowments come to proof.

      I thus began: “Bard! thou who art my guide,

      Consider well, if virtue be in me

      Sufficient, ere to this high enterprise

      Thou trust me. Thou hast told that Silvius’ sire,^[12]

      Yet clothed in corruptible flesh, among

      The immortal tribes had entrance, and was there

      Sensibly present. Yet if Heaven’s great Lord,

      Almighty foe to ill, such favor show’d

      In contemplation of the high effect,

      Both what and who from him should issue forth,

      It seems in reason’s judgment well deserved;

      Sith he of Rome and of Rome’s empire wide,

      In Heaven’s imperial height was chosen sire:

      Both which, if truth be spoken, were ordain’d

      And stablish’d for the holy place, where sits

      Who to great Peter’s sacred chair succeeds.

      He from this journey, in thy song renown’d,

      Learn’d things, that to his victory gave rise

      And to the papal robe. In after-times

      The Chosen Vessel^[13] also travel’d there,

      To bring us back assurance in that faith

      Which is the entrance to salvation’s way.

      But I, why should I there presume? or who

      Permits it? not Æneas I, nor Paul.

      Myself I deem not worthy, and none else

      Will deem me. СКАЧАТЬ