Canto XVI
CANTO XVI
Dante and his Guide have drawn near enough to the precipice to detect the murmur of a simmering brook spilling over into the eighth circle when another band of sodomites presents itself beneath the shower of flames. Recognizing the Florentine by his dress, three of them detach themselves from the troop and accost him. Virgil bids the Pilgrim, who is pained at their burns, to show them courtesy. So as not to suffer punishment for standing still, the three spirits lock arms like wrestlers to form a wheel, then spin around, constantly turning their heads back to speak to their visitor (1–27). Embarrassed by the desolation of the sands and their charred appearance, they appeal to the Poet by their earthly fame to identify himself as Jacopo Rusticucci gives his name and those of his two companions, Guido Guerra and Tegghiaio Aldobrandi. Dante, long desirous of meeting such Florentine worthies, would have thrown himself among them in open embrace had he not been unprotected from the flames (28–51). The Pilgrim expresses his pity for those whose honored names and deeds he often heard and repeated in Florence, then reveals the nature of his journey (52–63). After wishing the Poet long life and fame, Jacopo queries whether courtly honor and valor still reside in their city or have departed from it as Guglielmo Borsiere, a recent arrival, affirms (64–72). Lifting his head, Dante apostrophizes Florence for the pride and excess bred in her by sudden prosperity and a degenerate populace, and his interlocutors knowingly eye each other at his indirect response (73–78). They then ask to be remembered on earth, break their circle, and whisk off in less time than it takes to say “Amen” (79–90). Virgil’s charge now follows him right to the brink over which the river is cascading so that its roar nearly drowns out their speech. Taking a knotted cord from around his companion’s waist, Virgil flings it over the verge as a signal to a figure that comes swimming upwards so strangely that Dante almost fears to retell it (91–136).
1 I now was where I heard a murmur come
From water falling to another ring,[251]
Like that produced by beehives when they hum,
4 When next three spirits running in a string
Set out together from another band[252]
That passed beneath the rainfall’s bitter sting.
7 As they approached us, each one shouted: “Stand
Aside for us, O you who by your clothes
Appear as one from our perverted land!”[253]
10 Ah me, upon their limbs I saw such blows
Both old and recent, which the flames had made;
It pains me yet when I remember those.
13 My Teacher listened to their cries and prayed:
“Just wait a bit,” when he had turned his face
To me, “for courtesy must now be paid.
16 And were it not the nature of this place
To shoot its fiery arrows, I should feel
There suits you more than them a hurried pace.”
19 They started up again their ancient peal
As we stood still, and when they reached us two,
All three of them together made a wheel.
22 As wrestlers oiled and nude are wont to do,
Who spy their vantage and which hold to throw
Before their blows and thrusts begin anew,
25 Each turned his face to me while wheeling, though
In such a manner that their necks in flight
Ran counter to their feet in constant flow.
28 And “If the squalor of this sandy site,”
One started, “and our dark, burnt looks as well
Cause us and our requests to meet with spite,
31 Then let our fame incline your soul to tell
Us who you are, who in security
So move your living feet across this Hell.
34 He in whose steps I tread, as you can see,
Although he goes about both nude and flayed,
Was greater than you think him in degree.
37 The good Gualdrada’s grandson was this shade,
And Guido Guerra was his given name;[254]
His wits did much in life as did his blade.
40 And treading sand behind me is the frame
Of one Tegghiaío Aldobrandi too,[255]
Whose voice on earth should once have found acclaim.
43 I, who am placed in torment with this crew,
Was Jacop’ Rusticucci; certainly,[256]
My wife has hurt me most of all, that shrew!”
46 Had there been shelter from the fire for me,
I would have cast myself with them at last—
I think my Master would have let that be.
49 But since through burn and broil I would have passed,
My good intent was overcome by fear,
Though I was hungry first to hold them fast.
52 I then began: “Not scorn, but sorrow’s drear
At seeing your condition took such hold
In me that it will slowly disappear
55 The very moment that my Master told
Me things because of which the thought was nursed
That people might arrive from such a fold.
58 For I am of your land, and, from the first,
Your actions and the honored names of all
I heard with great affection and rehearsed.
61 I go for sapid fruits and leave the gall,
Which fruits were promised by my truthful Guide,
But first down to the center I must fall.”
64 “O may your spirit yet direct your stride
For years to come, and may your fame as well
Shine brightly after you,” he then replied;
67 “But whether courtesy and valor dwell
Within our city, where they once were chief,
Or if they are quite gone from it, please tell.
70 Guglielmo Borsier’, who shares our grief[257]
Of late and goes in that companion train,
Afflicts us much in voicing his belief.”
73 “By people newly come and sudden gain[258]
Such arrogance and excess have been bred
In you, O Florence, that you now complain,”
76 So I cried out, while lifting up my head.
And, taking this as my response, those three
Just eyed each other as when truth is said.
79 “If other times it costs so small a fee,”
They all replied, “to satisfy a prayer,
Then speak at will, for happy shall you be.
82 Thus, if you exit these dark sites from where
You’ll come to see the lovely stars anew,
When you’ll rejoice in saying: ‘I was there,’
85 See that you speak of us to others too.”
And after that, they broke their wheel and fled
With legs so fast they seemed like wings that flew.
88 “Amen” could not have been so quickly said
As, in their disappearing, off they whirred,
And so my Master pleased to go ahead.
91 I followed him, and scarcely had we stirred
When so close by there crashed a watercourse
That had we spoken we would not have heard.
94 And just the way that stream, which has its course[259]
From Monte Viso eastwards and its shore
Upon the Apennines’ left side (its source
97 Called Acquacheta up above before
Descending to the valley’s lower bed
And losing at Forlì the name it bore),
100 Booms forth above San Benedetto’s head
To tumble from its ledge with but one bound,
Where there should be a thousand shelves instead,[260]
103 So too we found dark waters to resound
So loudly from that craggy riverside
That ears would soon be deafened by its sound.
106 Around my waist I had some cording tied,
With which I thought one time I might have downed
And caught the leopard with the painted hide.
109 And when I’d gotten all the cord unbound
As I had been commanded by my Guide,
I passed it to him, knotted up and wound.
112 He turned about then to the right-hand side,
And somewhat from the edge he let it fly
To plummet through that chasm deep and wide.
115 “But surely something strange must make reply
To this new sign,” I said inside of me,
“So closely followed by my Master’s eye.”
118 Dear me! How cautious ought all men to be
Among those who not only see the deed,
But with their sense see inner thoughts! And he
121 Then said: “Quite soon above will there proceed
What I await and what your dreams embrace;
Your sight must soon discover it indeed.”
124 Before that truth which wears a falsehood’s face,
A man should close his lips, if but he may,
Because without one’s fault it brings disgrace.
127 But here I can’t—and by the notes I play
O Reader, in this comedy, I swear
(May it find favor in a lasting way!)
130 That I beheld through gross and darksome air
A figure swimming upwards wondrously,
A marvel for all steadfast hearts to bear,
133 Like one returning who has dived to free
An anchor that may snag a reef or meet
With something other hidden in the sea,
136 One stretching upwards, drawing in his feet.