The Battle of Darkness and Light . Джон Мильтон

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СКАЧАТЬ unto him my Guide: "Soul idiotic,

       Keep to thy horn, and vent thyself with that,

       When wrath or other passion touches thee.

      Search round thy neck, and thou wilt find the belt

       Which keeps it fastened, O bewildered soul,

       And see it, where it bars thy mighty breast."

      Then said to me: "He doth himself accuse;

       This one is Nimrod, by whose evil thought

       One language in the world is not still used.

      Here let us leave him and not speak in vain;

       For even such to him is every language

       As his to others, which to none is known."

      Therefore a longer journey did we make,

       Turned to the left, and a crossbow-shot oft

       We found another far more fierce and large.

      In binding him, who might the master be

       I cannot say; but he had pinioned close

       Behind the right arm, and in front the other,

      With chains, that held him so begirt about

       From the neck down, that on the part uncovered

       It wound itself as far as the fifth gyre.

      "This proud one wished to make experiment

       Of his own power against the Supreme Jove,"

       My Leader said, "whence he has such a guerdon.

      Ephialtes is his name; he showed great prowess.

       What time the giants terrified the gods;

       The arms he wielded never more he moves."

      And I to him: "If possible, I should wish

       That of the measureless Briareus

       These eyes of mine might have experience."

      Whence he replied: "Thou shalt behold Antaeus

       Close by here, who can speak and is unbound,

       Who at the bottom of all crime shall place us.

      Much farther yon is he whom thou wouldst see,

       And he is bound, and fashioned like to this one,

       Save that he seems in aspect more ferocious."

      There never was an earthquake of such might

       That it could shake a tower so violently,

       As Ephialtes suddenly shook himself.

      Then was I more afraid of death than ever,

       For nothing more was needful than the fear,

       If I had not beheld the manacles.

      Then we proceeded farther in advance,

       And to Antaeus came, who, full five ells

       Without the head, forth issued from the cavern.

      "O thou, who in the valley fortunate,

       Which Scipio the heir of glory made,

       When Hannibal turned back with all his hosts,

      Once brought'st a thousand lions for thy prey,

       And who, hadst thou been at the mighty war

       Among thy brothers, some it seems still think

      The sons of Earth the victory would have gained:

       Place us below, nor be disdainful of it,

       There where the cold doth lock Cocytus up.

      Make us not go to Tityus nor Typhoeus;

       This one can give of that which here is longed for;

       Therefore stoop down, and do not curl thy lip.

      Still in the world can he restore thy fame;

       Because he lives, and still expects long life,

       If to itself Grace call him not untimely."

      So said the Master; and in haste the other

       His hands extended and took up my Guide,—

       Hands whose great pressure Hercules once felt.

      Virgilius, when he felt himself embraced,

       Said unto me: "Draw nigh, that I may take thee;"

       Then of himself and me one bundle made.

      As seems the Carisenda, to behold

       Beneath the leaning side, when goes a cloud

       Above it so that opposite it hangs;

      Such did Antaeus seem to me, who stood

       Watching to see him stoop, and then it was

       I could have wished to go some other way.

      But lightly in the abyss, which swallows up

       Judas with Lucifer, he put us down;

       Nor thus bowed downward made he there delay,

      But, as a mast does in a ship, uprose.

      Canto XXXII. The Ninth Circle: Traitors. The Frozen Lake of Cocytus. First Division, Caina: Traitors to their Kindred. Camicion de' Pazzi. Second Division, Antenora: Traitors to their Country. Dante questions Bocca degli Abati. Buoso da Duera.

       Table of Contents

      If I had rhymes both rough and stridulous,

       As were appropriate to the dismal hole

       Down upon which thrust all the other rocks,

      I would press out the juice of my conception

       More fully; but because I have them not,

       Not without fear I bring myself to speak;

      For 'tis no enterprise to take in jest,

       To sketch the bottom of all the universe,

       Nor for a tongue СКАЧАТЬ