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

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       I look'd upon her; and as sunshine cheers

       Limbs numb'd by nightly cold, e'en thus my look

       Unloos'd her tongue, next in brief space her form

       Decrepit rais'd erect, and faded face

       With love's own hue illum'd. Recov'ring speech

       She forthwith warbling such a strain began,

       That I, how loth soe'er, could scarce have held

       Attention from the song. "I," thus she sang,

       "I am the Siren, she, whom mariners

       On the wide sea are wilder'd when they hear:

       Such fulness of delight the list'ner feels.

       I from his course Ulysses by my lay

       Enchanted drew. Whoe'er frequents me once

       Parts seldom; so I charm him, and his heart

       Contented knows no void." Or ere her mouth

       Was clos'd, to shame her at her side appear'd

       A dame of semblance holy. With stern voice

       She utter'd; "Say, O Virgil, who is this?"

       Which hearing, he approach'd, with eyes still bent

       Toward that goodly presence: th' other seiz'd her,

       And, her robes tearing, open'd her before,

       And show'd the belly to me, whence a smell,

       Exhaling loathsome, wak'd me. Round I turn'd

       Mine eyes, and thus the teacher: "At the least

       Three times my voice hath call'd thee. Rise, begone.

       Let us the opening find where thou mayst pass."