The Divine Comedy (Illustrated Edition). Dante Alighieri

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СКАЧАТЬ that render I thanks to God and praise

“To Filippo Argenti:”2 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 nam’d,

      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 issu’d.” He replied: “Eternal fire,

      That inward burns, shows them with ruddy flame

      Illum’d; 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 fram’d 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 hurl’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 know 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 curs’d words.

      I did believe I never should return.

“O my lov’d guide! who more than seven times3

      Security hast render’d me, and drawn

      From peril deep, whereto I stood expos’d,

      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, assur’d

      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

      To trial fled within. Clos’d 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 eras’d

      All confidence, while thus with 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,4

      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.”

      Footnotes

1 Phlegyas, so incensed against Apollo for having violated his daughter Coronis, that he set fire to the temple of that deity, by whose vengeance he was cast into Tartarus. See Virgil, Æneas, 1. vi. 618.

2 Boccaccio tells us, “he was a man remarkable for the large proportions and extraordinary vigor of his bodily frame, and the extreme waywardness and irascibility of his temper.”—“Decameron,” G. ix. N. 8.

3 Seven times.” The commentators, says Venturi, perplex themselves with the inquiry what seven perils these were from which Dante had been delivered by Virgil. Reckoning the beasts in the first Canto as one of them, and adding Charon, Minos, Cerberus, СКАЧАТЬ