[326] From Heaven: ‘Rained from Heaven.’ Fallen angels.
[327] Seven times: Given as a round number.
[328] Yes and No: He will return—He will not return. The demons have said that Virgil shall remain, and he has promised Dante not to desert him.
[329] Who dare, etc.: Virgil knows the hindrance is only temporary, but wonders what superior devilish power can have incited the demons to deny him entrance. The incident displays the fallen angels as being still rebellious, and is at the same time skilfully conceived to mark a pause before Dante enters on the lower Inferno.
[330] They showed it, etc.: At the gate of Inferno, on the occasion of Christ’s descent to Limbo. The reference is to the words in the Missal service for Easter Eve: ‘This is the night in which, having burst the bonds of death, Christ victoriously ascended from Hell.’
CANTO IX.
The hue which cowardice on my face did paint
When I beheld my guide return again,
Put his new colour[331] quicker ’neath restraint.
Like one who listens did he fixed remain;
For far to penetrate the air like night,
And heavy mist, the eye was bent in vain.
‘Yet surely we must vanquish in the fight;’
Thus he, ‘unless[332]—but with such proffered aid—
O how I weary till he come in sight!’
Well I remarked how he transition made,10
Covering his opening words with those behind,
Which contradicted what at first he said.
Nath’less his speech with terror charged my mind,
For, haply, to the word which broken fell
Worse meaning than he purposed, I assigned.
Down to this bottom[333] of the dismal shell
Comes ever any from the First Degree,[334]
Where all their pain is, stripped of hope to dwell?
To this my question thus responded he:
‘Seldom it haps to any to pursue20
The journey now embarked upon by me.
Yet I ere this descended, it is true,
Beneath a spell of dire Erichtho’s[335] laid,
Who could the corpse with soul inform anew.
Short while my flesh of me was empty made
When she required me to o’erpass that wall,
From Judas’ circle[336] to abstract a shade.
That is the deepest, darkest place of all,
And furthest from the heaven[337] which moves the skies;
I know the way; fear nought that can befall.30
These fens[338] from which vile exhalations rise
The doleful city all around invest,
Which now we reach not save in angry wise.’
Of more he spake nought in my mind doth rest,
For, with mine eyes, my every thought had been
Fixed on the lofty tower with flaming crest,
Where, in a moment and upright, were seen
Three hellish furies, all with blood defaced,
And woman-like in members and in mien.
Hydras of brilliant green begirt their waist;40
Snakes and cerastes for their tresses grew,
And these were round their dreadful temples braced.
That they the drudges were, full well he knew,
Of her who is the queen of endless woes,
And said to me: ‘The fierce Erynnyes[339] view!
Herself upon the left Megæra shows;
That is Alecto weeping on the right;
Tisiphone’s between.’ Here made he close.
Each with her nails her breast tore, and did smite
Herself with open palms. They screamed in tone50
So fierce, I to the Poet clove for fright.
‘Medusa,[340] come, that we may make him stone!’
All shouted as they downward gazed; ‘Alack!
Theseus[341] escaped us when he ventured down.’
‘Keep thine eyes closed and turn to them thy back,
For if the Gorgon chance to be displayed
And thou shouldst look, farewell the upward track!’
Thus spake the Master, and himself he swayed
Me round about; nor put he trust in mine
But his own hands upon mine eyelids laid.60
O ye with judgment gifted to divine
Look closely now, and mark what hidden lore
Lies ’neath the veil of my mysterious line![342]
Across the turbid waters came a roar
And crash of sound, which big with fear arose:
Because of it fell trembling either shore.
The fashion of it was as when there blows
A blast by cross heats made to rage amain,
Which smites the forest and without repose
The shattered branches sweeps in hurricane;70
In clouds of dust, majestic, onward flies,
Wild beasts and herdsmen driving o’er the plain.
‘Sharpen thy gaze,’ he bade—and freed mine eyes—
‘Across the foam-flecked immemorial lake,
Where sourest vapour most unbroken lies.’
And as the frogs before the hostile snake
Together of the water get them clear,
And on the dry ground, huddling, shelter take;
More than a thousand ruined souls in fear
Beheld I flee from one who, dry of feet,80
Was by the Stygian ferry drawing near.
Waving his left hand he the vapour beat
Swiftly from ’fore his face, nor seemed he spent
Save with fatigue at having this to meet.
Well I opined that he from Heaven[343] was sent,
And to my Master turned. His gesture taught
I should be dumb and in obeisance bent.
Ah me, how with disdain appeared he fraught!
He reached the gate, which, touching with a rod,[344]
He oped with ease, for it resisted not.90
‘People despised and banished far from God,’
Upon the awful threshold then he spoke,
‘How holds in you such insolence abode?
Why kick against that will which never broke
Short of its end, if ever it begin,
And often for you fiercer torments woke?
Butting ’gainst fate, what can ye hope to win?
Your Cerberus,[345] as is to you well known,
Still bears for this a well-peeled throat and chin.’
Then by the passage foul he back was gone,100
Nor spake to us, but like a man was he
By other cares[346] absorbed and driven on
Than that of those who may around him be.
And we, confiding in the sacred word,
Moved toward the town in all security.
We entered without hindrance, and I, spurred
By my desire the character to know
And style of place such strong defences gird,
Entering, begin mine eyes around to throw,
And see on every hand a vast champaign,110
The teeming seat of torments and of woe.
And as at Arles[347] where Rhone spreads o’er the plain,
Or Pola,[348] hard upon Quarnaro sound
Which bathes the boundaries Italian,
The sepulchres uneven make the ground;
So here on every side, but far more dire
And grievous was the fashion of them found.
For scattered ’mid the tombs blazed many a fire,
Because of which these with such fervour burned
No arts which work in iron more require.120
All of the lids were lifted. I discerned
By keen laments which from the tombs arose
That sad and suffering ones were there inurned.
I said: ‘O Master, tell me who are those
Buried within the tombs, of whom the sighs
Come to our ears thus eloquent of woes?’
And he to me: ‘The lords of heresies[349]
With followers of all sects, a greater band
Than thou wouldst think, these sepulchres comprise.
To lodge them like to like the tombs are planned.130
The sepulchres have more or less of heat.’[350]
Then passed we, turning to the dexter hand,[351]
’Tween torments and the lofty parapet.