THE DIVINE COMEDY: Inferno, Purgatorio & Paradiso (3 Classic Translations in One Edition). Dante Alighieri
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       Then thus to me: "Tuscan, who visitest

       The college of the mourning hypocrites,

       Disdain not to instruct us who thou art."

       "By Arno's pleasant stream," I thus replied,

       "In the great city I was bred and grew,

       And wear the body I have ever worn.

       but who are ye, from whom such mighty grief,

       As now I witness, courseth down your cheeks?

       What torment breaks forth in this bitter woe?"

       "Our bonnets gleaming bright with orange hue,"

       One of them answer'd, "are so leaden gross,

       That with their weight they make the balances

       To crack beneath them. Joyous friars we were,

       Bologna's natives, Catalano I,

       He Loderingo nam'd, and by thy land

       Together taken, as men used to take

       A single and indifferent arbiter,

       To reconcile their strifes. How there we sped,

       Gardingo's vicinage can best declare."

       "O friars!" I began, "your miseries—"

       But there brake off, for one had caught my eye,

       Fix'd to a cross with three stakes on the ground:

       He, when he saw me, writh'd himself, throughout

       Distorted, ruffling with deep sighs his beard.

       And Catalano, who thereof was 'ware,

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       Thus spake: "That pierced spirit, whom intent

       Thou view'st, was he who gave the Pharisees

       Counsel, that it were fitting for one man

       To suffer for the people. He doth lie

       Transverse; nor any passes, but him first

       Behoves make feeling trial how each weighs.

       In straits like this along the foss are plac'd

       The father of his consort, and the rest

       Partakers in that council, seed of ill

       And sorrow to the Jews." I noted then,

       How Virgil gaz'd with wonder upon him,

       Thus abjectly extended on the cross

       In banishment eternal. To the friar

       He next his words address'd: "We pray ye tell,

       If so be lawful, whether on our right

       Lies any opening in the rock, whereby

       We both may issue hence, without constraint

       On the dark angels, that compell'd they come

       To lead us from this depth." He thus replied:

       "Nearer than thou dost hope, there is a rock

       From the next circle moving, which o'ersteps

       Each vale of horror, save that here his cope

       Is shatter'd. By the ruin ye may mount:

       For on the side it slants, and most the height

       Rises below." With head bent down awhile

       My leader stood, then spake: "He warn'd us ill,

       Who yonder hangs the sinners on his hook."

       To whom the friar: "At Bologna erst

       I many vices of the devil heard,

       Among the rest was said, 'He is a liar,

       And the father of lies!'" When he had spoke,

       My leader with large strides proceeded on,

       Somewhat disturb'd with anger in his look.

       I therefore left the spirits heavy laden,

       And following, his beloved footsteps mark'd.

       IN the year's early nonage, when the sun

       Tempers his tresses in Aquarius' urn,

       And now towards equal day the nights recede,

       When as the rime upon the earth puts on

       Her dazzling sister's image, but not long

       Her milder sway endures, then riseth up

       The village hind, whom fails his wintry store,

       And looking out beholds the plain around

       All whiten'd, whence impatiently he smites

       His thighs, and to his hut returning in,

       There paces to and fro, wailing his lot,

       As a discomfited and helpless man;

       Then comes he forth again, and feels new hope

       Spring in his bosom, finding e'en thus soon

       The world hath chang'd its count'nance, grasps his crook,

       And forth to pasture drives his little flock:

       So me my guide dishearten'd when I saw

       His troubled forehead, and so speedily

       That ill was cur'd; for at the fallen bridge

       Arriving, towards me with a look as sweet,

       He turn'd him back, as that I first beheld

       At the steep mountain's foot. Regarding well

       The ruin, and some counsel first maintain'd

       With his own thought, he open'd wide his arm

       And took me up. СКАЧАТЬ