Canto XXVI
CANTO XXVI
Having witnessed five Florentine thieves in the previous canto, the Poet bursts into a bitter invective against the city where their vice had flourished and cries out his longing for a new dawn to deliver Florence from her ills (1–12). When Virgil and Dante have struggled up the next reef to the eighth ditch, the Pilgrim grieves at the sight of false counselors, who employed their superior intelligence to lead others astray. In narrating what he beheld, the Poet curbs his genius so that its exercise may be guided by virtue, not vice, as theirs was. Below he sees flames flickering in the trench, like summer glow-worms in a valley, though, resembling the fiery chariot of Elijah, each of them steals away a false counselor (13–48). The Greek heroes Ulysses and Diomedes blaze forth in a cleft flame reminiscent of the funeral pyre of Eteocles and Polynices, bearing this punishment for the deceit of the Trojan Horse, their persuasion of Achilles to abandon Deidamia, and the theft of the Palladium (49–63). Dante prays fervently that they may await the approach of the flaming horns, and Virgil agrees, provided that his modern and “barbarian” companion hold his tongue and allow the ancient Bard of the Trojan War to address them (64–75). When they draw near, Virgil appeals to them in the name of their indebtedness to him for having immortalized them in verse (76–84). The flame of Ulysses then recounts how, on taking leave of the siren Circe on the island of Gaeta, his desire for knowledge of the world and of men overcame the ties of parental affection, filial duty, and conjugal love, so that he led his faithful shipmates between the Pillars of Hercules, beyond which no man should pass, and into the open, uncharted sea (85–111). After he had enticed his crew with knowledge of the unpeopled world beyond the sun, they madly plied their oars and rowed so far as to gaze on the stars of the South Pole and a lone mountain in the hemisphere of water. The joy of discovery, however, soon turned to grief, as a cyclone from the newly-spied landmass struck their ship, whirled it around three times, and capsized it on the fourth (112–142).
1 Rejoice, O Florence, since you are so great;
You beat your wings across both sea and ground
And spread your name through all of Hell’s estate.
4 Among these thieves five citizens are found
Of yours—and such as bring me shame anew,
Nor to your honor does it much redound.
7 If what we dream near morning, though, is true,
So little time will pass before you see
What Prato and the others crave for you.[388]
10 Had it already come, it would not be
Too soon—and may that come which you must bear!
The more I age, the more it weighs on me.
13 Departing from that place, we climbed the stair
Which jags had spread before for our descent;
My Leader drew me on, remounting there.
16 And as we took our lonely way, we went
Among the crags and boulders of the brae,
Where feet could not proceed, were hands not lent.
19 It grieved me then and grieves me still today
When I direct my mind to what I spied.
More than my wont, I make my genius stay
22 Lest it should run where virtue does not guide,
So that if kindly star or better grace
Should grant that gift, I shall not be denied.
25 The swain who rests upon the hill a space
(In months when he who lights the worldly sky
The least of all will hide from us his face),
28 Just when mosquitoes follow on the fly,[389]
May see a lot of glow-worms in the glen,
Down where his vineyard or his furrows lie—
31 The eighth abyss was all resplendent then,[390]
As I perceived, with just so many flares,
When there appeared the bottom of the den.
34 As he who had his vengeance by the bears[391]
Could see Elijah’s chariot arise
When horses reared and climbed the heavens’ stairs
37 Till he no more could follow with his eyes,
Except to see the flame alone and note
Its rising like a small cloud to the skies,
40 So too each flame moves through the ditch’s throat,
For not a one will show its theft although
They all will steal a sinner in the moat.
43 I stretched upon the bridge to see below,
And if I had not clutched a boulder tight,
I would have fallen down without a blow.
46 My Guide saw how intent I held my sight
And said: “Within the flames those spirits go;
Each one is swathed with what sets it alight.”
49 “My Master, by my hearing you, I know
More surely,” I replied; “for I believed
That’s how it was, but meant to ask you, though:
52 Who comes within that flame whose tip is cleaved
And seems to rise from where, upon the pyre,
Etéocles was—with his brother—heaved?”[392]
55 He answered me: “In that tormenting fire
Are Diomedes and Ulysses known;[393]
Both go to vengeance as they went to ire.
58 And so, together in their flame, they groan
Because the horse’s ambush made the gate[394]
Through which the noble Roman seed has flown.
61 They there lament the art by which the late
Deïdamía mourns Achilles bold[395]
And bear, for the Palladium, their fate.”[396]
64 “If in those sparks their tale can still be told,
I pray you, Master, and repray,” I said,
“That my request avail a thousandfold.
67 Do not deny my waiting overhead
Until the flaming horns approach; you see
How out of my desire I lean ahead!”
70 “Your prayer is worthy of much praise,” said he
And therefore I accept what you beseech,
But see that you refrain your tongue for me.
73 Just let me talk; I’ve comprehended each
Of your desires, but since they both were Greek,
Perhaps they’d be disdainful of your speech.”
76 And after, when the flame had come to seek
The place and time that to my Guide seemed due,
This was the form in which I heard him speak:
79 “O you who in a single fire are two,
If I deserved of you in life, if I
Deserved a little or a lot from you,
82 When in the world I wrote high verse, reply,
And don’t move on; let one of you now name
Where, having lost himself, he went to die.”
85 The greater horn within the ancient flame[397]
Began to tremble and to murmur then,
As if it struggled with a wind that came;
88 And waving back and forth its tip again,
As though it were the tongue that spoke aglow,
It outwards flung a voice that answered: “When
91 I first took leave of Circe long ago,[398]
Who held me near Gaëta for a year
Or more, before Aeneas named it so,[399]
94 Not fondness for my son, nor pious fear
For agèd father, nor the love I owed,
Which should have brought Penelope much cheer,[400]
97 Could quench the ardor that within me glowed
To gain some knowledge of the world and see
The vices and the virtues men have showed.
100 I set out on the high and open sea
With but one vessel and the tiny band
Of those who never once deserted me.
103 Till Spain I saw the one and other strand,[401]
Far as Morroco and Sardegna’s isle,
And others where that water bathes the sand.
106 My mates and I grew old and slow the while,
As we attained that narrow outlet where[402]
Great Hercules set boundaries to its aisle
109 In order that no man would ever dare
Beyond; I left Seville upon the right,[403]
And on the left had passed Ceüta there.[404]
112 ‘O brothers,’ I addressed them, ‘who despite
A hundred thousand perils reach the West,
Do not deny to this brief vigil-light
115 Left to our senses what may be the blest
Experience of the unpeopled earth
That lies beyond the sun. For you had best
118 Consider well the seed that gave you birth:
You were not made to live as does a herd,
But in pursuit of knowledge and of worth.’
121 My comrades, whom this brief address had spurred,
Felt such a keenness for our journey’s ride
That hardly could they then have been deterred.
124 We, having turned our stern towards morning, plied[405]
Our rowing oars like wings in maddened flight,
While always gaining on the left-hand side.[406]
127 I now could see the other pole by night
With all its stars, while ours remained so low
It did not rise from ocean floor to sight.[407]
130 Since we first entered that deep pass to row,
We’d seen beneath the moon the lunar light
Relit five times, but spent as often, though,[408]
133 When there appeared a mountain at the site,
Which distance rendered dark; it seemed so tall
That I had never seen one of such height.[409]
136 But soon our joy was turned to sorrow’s gall
Because a whirlwind rose from that new ground
And buffeted our vessel’s frontal wall.
139 Three times with all the waves it whirled her round,
And at the fourth it made the poop upsoar;
The prow, as pleased Another, thus was downed,[410]
142 Till over us the sea had closed once more.”