THE DIVINE COMEDY: Inferno, Purgatorio & Paradiso (3 Classic Translations in One Edition). Dante Alighieri
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СКАЧАТЬ Who, risen from his trance, gazeth around,

       Bewilder'd with the monstrous agony

       He hath endur'd, and wildly staring sighs;

       So stood aghast the sinner when he rose.

       Oh! how severe God's judgment, that deals out

       Such blows in stormy vengeance! Who he was

       My teacher next inquir'd, and thus in few

       He answer'd: "Vanni Fucci am I call'd,

       Not long since rained down from Tuscany

       To this dire gullet. Me the beastial life

       And not the human pleas'd, mule that I was,

       Who in Pistoia found my worthy den."

       I then to Virgil: "Bid him stir not hence,

       And ask what crime did thrust him hither: once

       A man I knew him choleric and bloody."

       The sinner heard and feign'd not, but towards me

       His mind directing and his face, wherein

       Was dismal shame depictur'd, thus he spake:

       "It grieves me more to have been caught by thee

       In this sad plight, which thou beholdest, than

       When I was taken from the other life.

       I have no power permitted to deny

       What thou inquirest." I am doom'd thus low

       To dwell, for that the sacristy by me

       Was rifled of its goodly ornaments,

       And with the guilt another falsely charged.

       But that thou mayst not joy to see me thus,

       So as thou e'er shalt 'scape this darksome realm

       Open thine ears and hear what I forebode.

       Reft of the Neri first Pistoia pines,

       Then Florence changeth citizens and laws.

       From Valdimagra, drawn by wrathful Mars,

       A vapour rises, wrapt in turbid mists,

       And sharp and eager driveth on the storm

       With arrowy hurtling o'er Piceno's field,

       Whence suddenly the cloud shall burst, and strike

       Each helpless Bianco prostrate to the ground.

       This have I told, that grief may rend thy heart."

       WHEN he had spoke, the sinner rais'd his hands

       Pointed in mockery, and cried: "Take them, God!

       I level them at thee!" From that day forth

       The serpents were my friends; for round his neck

       One of then rolling twisted, as it said,

       "Be silent, tongue!" Another to his arms

       Upgliding, tied them, riveting itself

       So close, it took from them the power to move.

       Pistoia! Ah Pistoia! why dost doubt

       To turn thee into ashes, cumb'ring earth

       No longer, since in evil act so far

       Thou hast outdone thy seed? I did not mark,

       Through all the gloomy circles of the' abyss,

       Spirit, that swell'd so proudly 'gainst his God,

       Not him, who headlong fell from Thebes. He fled,

       Nor utter'd more; and after him there came

       A centaur full of fury, shouting, "Where

       Where is the caitiff?" On Maremma's marsh

       Swarm not the serpent tribe, as on his haunch

       They swarm'd, to where the human face begins.

       Behind his head upon the shoulders lay,

       With open wings, a dragon breathing fire

       On whomsoe'er he met. To me my guide:

       "Cacus is this, who underneath the rock

       Of Aventine spread oft a lake of blood.

       He, from his brethren parted, here must tread

       A different journey, for his fraudful theft

       Of the great herd, that near him stall'd; whence found

       His felon deeds their end, beneath the mace

       Of stout Alcides, that perchance laid on

       A hundred blows, and not the tenth was felt."

       While yet he spake, the centaur sped away:

       And under us three spirits came, of whom

       Nor I nor he was ware, till they exclaim'd;

       "Say who are ye?" We then brake off discourse,

       Intent on these alone. I knew them not;

       But, as it chanceth oft, befell, that one

       Had need to name another. "Where," said he,

       "Doth Cianfa lurk?" I, for a sign my guide

       Should stand attentive, plac'd against my lips

       The finger lifted. If, O reader! now

       Thou be not apt to credit what I tell,

       No marvel; for myself do scarce allow

       The witness of mine eyes. But as I looked

       Toward them, lo! a serpent with six feet

       Springs forth on one, and fastens full upon him:

       His midmost grasp'd the belly, a forefoot

       Seiz'd on each arm (while deep in either cheek

       He flesh'd his fangs); the hinder on the thighs

       Were spread, 'twixt which the tail inserted curl'd

       Upon the reins behind. Ivy ne'er clasp'd

       СКАЧАТЬ