Innocence Once Lost - Religious Classics Collection. Джон Мильтон

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      But if towards the Mira I had fled,

       When I was overtaken at Oriaco,

       I still should be o'er yonder where men breathe.

      I ran to the lagoon, and reeds and mire

       Did so entangle me I fell, and saw there

       A lake made from my veins upon the ground."

      Then said another: "Ah, be that desire

       Fulfilled that draws thee to the lofty mountain,

       As thou with pious pity aidest mine.

      I was of Montefeltro, and am Buonconte;

       Giovanna, nor none other cares for me;

       Hence among these I go with downcast front."

      And I to him: "What violence or what chance

       Led thee astray so far from Campaldino,

       That never has thy sepulture been known?"

      "Oh," he replied, "at Casentino's foot

       A river crosses named Archiano, born

       Above the Hermitage in Apennine.

      There where the name thereof becometh void

       Did I arrive, pierced through and through the throat,

       Fleeing on foot, and bloodying the plain;

      There my sight lost I, and my utterance

       Ceased in the name of Mary, and thereat

       I fell, and tenantless my flesh remained.

      Truth will I speak, repeat it to the living;

       God's Angel took me up, and he of hell

       Shouted: 'O thou from heaven, why dost thou rob me?

      Thou bearest away the eternal part of him,

       For one poor little tear, that takes him from me;

       But with the rest I'll deal in other fashion!'

      Well knowest thou how in the air is gathered

       That humid vapour which to water turns,

       Soon as it rises where the cold doth grasp it.

      He joined that evil will, which aye seeks evil,

       To intellect, and moved the mist and wind

       By means of power, which his own nature gave;

      Thereafter, when the day was spent, the valley

       From Pratomagno to the great yoke covered

       With fog, and made the heaven above intent,

      So that the pregnant air to water changed;

       Down fell the rain, and to the gullies came

       Whate'er of it earth tolerated not;

      And as it mingled with the mighty torrents,

       Towards the royal river with such speed

       It headlong rushed, that nothing held it back.

      My frozen body near unto its outlet

       The robust Archian found, and into Arno

       Thrust it, and loosened from my breast the cross

      I made of me, when agony o'ercame me;

       It rolled me on the banks and on the bottom,

       Then with its booty covered and begirt me."

      "Ah, when thou hast returned unto the world,

       And rested thee from thy long journeying,"

       After the second followed the third spirit,

      "Do thou remember me who am the Pia;

       Siena made me, unmade me Maremma;

       He knoweth it, who had encircled first,

      Espousing me, my finger with his gem."

      VI. Dante's Inquiry on Prayers for the Dead. Sordello. Italy.

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      Whene'er is broken up the game of Zara,

       He who has lost remains behind despondent,

       The throws repeating, and in sadness learns;

      The people with the other all depart;

       One goes in front, and one behind doth pluck him,

       And at his side one brings himself to mind;

      He pauses not, and this and that one hears;

       They crowd no more to whom his hand he stretches,

       And from the throng he thus defends himself.

      Even such was I in that dense multitude,

       Turning to them this way and that my face,

       And, promising, I freed myself therefrom.

      There was the Aretine, who from the arms

       Untamed of Ghin di Tacco had his death,

       And he who fleeing from pursuit was drowned.

      There was imploring with his hands outstretched

       Frederick Novello, and that one of Pisa

       Who made the good Marzucco seem so strong.

      I saw Count Orso; and the soul divided

       By hatred and by envy from its body,

       As it declared, and not for crime committed,

      Pierre de la Brosse I say; and here provide

       While still on earth the Lady of Brabant,

       So that for this she be of no worse flock!

      As soon as I was free from all those shades

       Who only prayed that some one else may pray,

       So as to hasten their becoming holy,

      Began I: "It appears that thou deniest,

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