THE DIVINE COMEDY: Inferno, Purgatorio & Paradiso (3 Classic Translations in One Edition). Dante Alighieri

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       So on she pass'd; and had not set, I ween,

       Her tenth step to the ground, when with mine eyes

       Her eyes encounter'd; and, with visage mild,

       "So mend thy pace," she cried, "that if my words

       Address thee, thou mayst still be aptly plac'd

       To hear them." Soon as duly to her side

       I now had hasten'd: "Brother!" she began,

       "Why mak'st thou no attempt at questioning,

       As thus we walk together?" Like to those

       Who, speaking with too reverent an awe

       Before their betters, draw not forth the voice

       Alive unto their lips, befell me shell

       That I in sounds imperfect thus began:

       "Lady! what I have need of, that thou know'st,

       And what will suit my need." She answering thus:

       "Of fearfulness and shame, I will, that thou

       Henceforth do rid thee: that thou speak no more,

       As one who dreams. Thus far be taught of me:

       The vessel, which thou saw'st the serpent break,

       Was and is not: let him, who hath the blame,

       Hope not to scare God's vengeance with a sop.

       Without an heir for ever shall not be

       That eagle, he, who left the chariot plum'd,

       Which monster made it first and next a prey.

       Plainly I view, and therefore speak, the stars

       E'en now approaching, whose conjunction, free

       From all impediment and bar, brings on

       A season, in the which, one sent from God,

       (Five hundred, five, and ten, do mark him out)

       That foul one, and th' accomplice of her guilt,

       The giant, both shall slay. And if perchance

       My saying, dark as Themis or as Sphinx,

       Fail to persuade thee, (since like them it foils

       The intellect with blindness) yet ere long

       Events shall be the Naiads, that will solve

       This knotty riddle, and no damage light

       On flock or field. Take heed; and as these words

       By me are utter'd, teach them even so

       To those who live that life, which is a race

       To death: and when thou writ'st them, keep in mind

       Not to conceal how thou hast seen the plant,

       That twice hath now been spoil'd. This whoso robs,

       This whoso plucks, with blasphemy of deed

       Sins against God, who for his use alone

       Creating hallow'd it. For taste of this,

       In pain and in desire, five thousand years

       And upward, the first soul did yearn for him,

       Who punish'd in himself the fatal gust.