The Battle of Darkness and Light . Джон Мильтон

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      XII. The Sculptures on the Pavement. Ascent to the Second Circle.

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      Abreast, like oxen going in a yoke,

       I with that heavy-laden soul went on,

       As long as the sweet pedagogue permitted;

      But when he said, "Leave him, and onward pass,

       For here 'tis good that with the sail and oars,

       As much as may be, each push on his barque;"

      Upright, as walking wills it, I redressed

       My person, notwithstanding that my thoughts

       Remained within me downcast and abashed.

      I had moved on, and followed willingly

       The footsteps of my Master, and we both

       Already showed how light of foot we were,

      When unto me he said: "Cast down thine eyes;

       'Twere well for thee, to alleviate the way,

       To look upon the bed beneath thy feet."

      As, that some memory may exist of them,

       Above the buried dead their tombs in earth

       Bear sculptured on them what they were before;

      Whence often there we weep for them afresh,

       From pricking of remembrance, which alone

       To the compassionate doth set its spur;

      So saw I there, but of a better semblance

       In point of artifice, with figures covered

       Whate'er as pathway from the mount projects.

      I saw that one who was created noble

       More than all other creatures, down from heaven

       Flaming with lightnings fall upon one side.

      I saw Briareus smitten by the dart

       Celestial, lying on the other side,

       Heavy upon the earth by mortal frost.

      I saw Thymbraeus, Pallas saw, and Mars,

       Still clad in armour round about their father,

       Gaze at the scattered members of the giants.

      I saw, at foot of his great labour, Nimrod,

       As if bewildered, looking at the people

       Who had been proud with him in Sennaar.

      O Niobe! with what afflicted eyes

       Thee I beheld upon the pathway traced,

       Between thy seven and seven children slain!

      O Saul! how fallen upon thy proper sword

       Didst thou appear there lifeless in Gilboa,

       That felt thereafter neither rain nor dew!

      O mad Arachne! so I thee beheld

       E'en then half spider, sad upon the shreds

       Of fabric wrought in evil hour for thee!

      O Rehoboam! no more seems to threaten

       Thine image there; but full of consternation

       A chariot bears it off, when none pursues!

      Displayed moreo'er the adamantine pavement

       How unto his own mother made Alcmaeon

       Costly appear the luckless ornament;

      Displayed how his own sons did throw themselves

       Upon Sennacherib within the temple,

       And how, he being dead, they left him there;

      Displayed the ruin and the cruel carnage

       That Tomyris wrought, when she to Cyrus said,

       "Blood didst thou thirst for, and with blood I glut thee!"

      Displayed how routed fled the Assyrians

       After that Holofernes had been slain,

       And likewise the remainder of that slaughter.

      I saw there Troy in ashes and in caverns;

       O Ilion! thee, how abject and debased,

       Displayed the image that is there discerned!