The Divine Comedy | Page 9

reading
Our eyes were drawn
together, and the hue

Fled from our alter'd cheek. But at one point

Alone we fell. When of that smile we read,
The wished smile,
rapturously kiss'd
By one so deep in love, then he, who ne'er
From

me shall separate, at once my lips
All trembling kiss'd. The book and
writer both
Were love's purveyors. In its leaves that day
We read no
more." While thus one spirit spake,
The other wail'd so sorely, that
heartstruck
I through compassion fainting, seem'd not far
From
death, and like a corpse fell to the ground.
CANTO VI
MY sense reviving, that erewhile had droop'd
With pity for the
kindred shades, whence grief
O'ercame me wholly, straight around I
see
New torments, new tormented souls, which way
Soe'er I move,
or turn, or bend my sight.
In the third circle I arrive, of show'rs

Ceaseless, accursed, heavy, and cold, unchang'd
For ever, both in
kind and in degree.
Large hail, discolour'd water, sleety flaw

Through the dun midnight air stream'd down amain:
Stank all the
land whereon that tempest fell.
Cerberus, cruel monster, fierce and strange,
Through his wide
threefold throat barks as a dog
Over the multitude immers'd beneath.

His eyes glare crimson, black his unctuous beard,
His belly large,
and claw'd the hands, with which
He tears the spirits, flays them, and
their limbs
Piecemeal disparts. Howling there spread, as curs,

Under the rainy deluge, with one side
The other screening, oft they
roll them round,
A wretched, godless crew. When that great worm

Descried us, savage Cerberus, he op'd
His jaws, and the fangs show'd
us; not a limb
Of him but trembled. Then my guide, his palms

Expanding on the ground, thence filled with earth
Rais'd them, and
cast it in his ravenous maw.
E'en as a dog, that yelling bays for food

His keeper, when the morsel comes, lets fall
His fury, bent alone
with eager haste
To swallow it; so dropp'd the loathsome cheeks
Of
demon Cerberus, who thund'ring stuns
The spirits, that they for
deafness wish in vain.
We, o'er the shades thrown prostrate by the brunt
Of the heavy

tempest passing, set our feet
Upon their emptiness, that substance
seem'd.
They all along the earth extended lay
Save one, that sudden rais'd
himself to sit,
Soon as that way he saw us pass. "O thou!"
He cried,
"who through the infernal shades art led,
Own, if again thou know'st
me. Thou wast fram'd
Or ere my frame was broken." I replied:
"The
anguish thou endur'st perchance so takes
Thy form from my
remembrance, that it seems
As if I saw thee never. But inform
Me
who thou art, that in a place so sad
Art set, and in such torment, that
although
Other be greater, more disgustful none
Can be imagin'd."
He in answer thus:
"Thy city heap'd with envy to the brim,
Ay that
the measure overflows its bounds,
Held me in brighter days. Ye
citizens
Were wont to name me Ciacco. For the sin
Of glutt'ny,
damned vice, beneath this rain,
E'en as thou see'st, I with fatigue am
worn;
Nor I sole spirit in this woe: all these
Have by like crime
incurr'd like punishment."
No more he said, and I my speech resum'd:
"Ciacco! thy dire
affliction grieves me much,
Even to tears. But tell me, if thou know'st,

What shall at length befall the citizens
Of the divided city; whether
any just one
Inhabit there: and tell me of the cause,
Whence jarring
discord hath assail'd it thus?"
He then: "After long striving they will come
To blood; and the wild
party from the woods
Will chase the other with much injury forth.

Then it behoves, that this must fall, within
Three solar circles; and the
other rise
By borrow'd force of one, who under shore
Now rests. It
shall a long space hold aloof
Its forehead, keeping under heavy
weight
The other oppress'd, indignant at the load,
And grieving sore.
The just are two in number,
But they neglected. Av'rice, envy, pride,


Three fatal sparks, have set the hearts of all
On fire." Here ceas'd
the lamentable sound;
And I continu'd thus: "Still would I learn

More from thee, farther parley still entreat.
Of Farinata and Tegghiaio

say,
They who so well deserv'd, of Giacopo,
Arrigo, Mosca, and the
rest, who bent
Their minds on working good. Oh! tell me where

They bide, and to their knowledge let me come.
For I am press'd with
keen desire to hear,
If heaven's sweet cup or poisonous drug of hell

Be to their lip assign'd." He answer'd straight:
"These are yet blacker
spirits. Various crimes
Have sunk them deeper in the dark abyss.
If
thou so far descendest, thou mayst see them.
But to the pleasant
world when thou return'st,
Of me make mention, I entreat thee, there.

No more I tell thee, answer thee no more."
This said, his fixed eyes he turn'd askance,
A little ey'd me, then bent
down his head,
And 'midst his blind companions with it fell.
When thus my guide: "No more his bed he leaves,
Ere the last
angel-trumpet blow. The Power
Adverse to these shall then in glory
come,
Each one forthwith to his sad tomb repair,
Resume his
fleshly vesture and his form,
And hear the eternal doom re-echoing
rend
The vault." So pass'd we through that mixture foul
Of spirits
and rain, with tardy steps;