Harvard Classics Volume 20. Golden Deer Classics

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СКАЧАТЬ lately didst exclaim in Lombard phrase,

      ‘Depart thou; I solicit thee no more;’

      Though somewhat tardy I perchance arrive,

      Let it not irk thee here to pause awhile,

      And with me parley: lo! it irks not me,

      And yet I burn. If but e’en now thou fall

      Into this blind world, from that pleasant land

      Of Latium, whence I draw my sum of guilt,

      Tell me if those who in Romagna dwell

      Have peace or war. For of the mountains there^[178]

      Was I, betwixt Urbino and the height

      Whence Tiber first unlocks his mighty flood.”

      Leaning I listen’d yet with heedful ear,

      When, as he touch’d my side, the leader thus:

      “Speak thou: he is a Latian.” My reply

      Was ready, and I spake without delay:

      “O spirit! who art hidden here below,

      Never was thy Romagna without war

      In her proud tyrants’ bosoms, nor is now:

      But open war there left I none. The state,

      Ravenna hath maintain’d this many a year,

      Is steadfast. There Polenta’s eagle^[179] broods;

      And in his broad circumference of plume

      O’ershadows Cervia. The green talons grasp

      The land,^[180] that stood erewhile the proof so long

      And piled in bloody heap the host of France.

      “The old mastiff of Verrucchio and the young,^[181]

      That tore Montagna^[182] in their wrath, still make,

      Where they are wont, an augre of their fangs.

      “Lamone’s city, and Santerno’s,^[183] range

      Under the lion of the snowy lair,^[184]

      Inconstant partisan, that changeth sides,

      Or ever summer yields to winter’s frost.

      And she, whose flank is wash’d of Savio’s wave,^[185]

      As ’twixt the level and the steep she lies,

      Lives so ’twixt tyrant power and liberty.

      “Now tell us, I entreat thee, who art thou:

      Be not more hard than others. In the world,

      So may thy name still rear its forehead high.”

      Then roar’d awhile the fire, its sharpen’d point

      On either side waved, and thus breathed at last:

      “If I did think my answer were to one

      Who ever could return unto the world,

      This flame should rest unshaken. But since ne’er,

      If true be told me, any from this depth

      Has found his upward way, I answer thee,

      Nor fear lest infamy record the words.

      “A man of arms^[186] at first, I clothed me then

      In good Saint Francis’ girdle, hoping so

      To have made amends. And certainly my hope

      Had fail’d not, but that he, whom curses light on,

      The high priest,^[187] again seduced me into sin.

      And how, and wherefore, listen while I tell.

      Long as this spirit moved the bones and pulp

      My mother gave me, less my deeds bespake

      The nature of the lion than the fox.

      All ways of winding subtlety I knew,

      And with such art conducted, that the sound

      Reach’d the world’s limit. Soon as to that part

      Of life I found me come, and when each behoves

      To lower sails and gather in the lines;

      That, which before had pleased me, then I rued,

      And to repentance and confession turn’d,

      Wretch that I was; and well it had bestead me.

      The chief of the new Pharisees^[188] meantime,

      Waging his warfare near the Lateran,

      Not with the Saracens or Jews (his foes

      All Christians were, nor against Acre one

      Had fought,^[189] nor traffick’d in the Soldan’s land),

      He, his great charge nor sacred ministry,

      In himself reverenced, nor in me that cord

      Which used to mark with leanness whom it girded.

      As in Soracte, Constantine besought,

      To cure his leprosy, Sylvester’s aid;

      So me, to cure the fever of his pride,

      This man besought: my counsel to that end

      He ask’d; and I was silent; for his words

      Seem’d drunken: but forthwith he thus resumed:

      ‘From thy heart banish fear: of all offence

      I hitherto absolve thee. In return,

      Teach me my purpose so to execute,

      That Penestrino cumber earth no more.

      Heaven, as thou knowest, I have power to shut

      And open: and the keys are therefore twain,

      The which my predecessor^[190] meanly prized.’

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