Canto XVI
CANTO XVI
The acrid smoke blinds Dante so that he must be led, eyes closed, with his hand on Virgil’s shoulder (1–15). Soon he hears harmonious voices chanting the Agnus Dei and learns that he is listening to the songs of the wrathful. Someone asks the Pilgrim who he is and receives an invitation to accompany Dante, who identifies himself in terms of his journey. For his part, the spirit reveals himself as Marco Lombardo, once a man of the world, who nevertheless cultivated the moral virtues, at which men no longer aim their bow (16–51). This remark sets the Poet wondering about the causes of human depravity. Conceding that the celestial spheres may move the sensitive appetite, Marco denies that moral turpitude is due to stellar influence since the light of reason and free choice remain intact (52–84). Rather, the soul naturally desires the good but has need of law to instruct it as to which goods truly merit pursuit. Ecclesiastical authorities, however, have usurped the temporal power in their greed, while the flock too readily follows its shepherds’ example. Thus, wrongful guidance bears the responsibility for social decline, not the corruption of human nature. If the Church and Empire do not shine like two separate but equal suns, they will both come to ill (85–129). As the two continue talking, they emerge at last from the smoke, now pierced by the rays of sunset. Marco must turn back, leaving Dante to meet the angel of gentleness (130–145).
1 The gloom of Hell or of a night set free
From every planet under a poor sky,
Obscured by clouds as much as it can be,
4 Had never yet so thickly veiled my eye,
Nor had so harsh a stuff yet stung my sense
As did the smoke we there were covered by.
7 Since open eyes could not bear such offense,
My Escort, wise and true, approached my side
That he might offer me his shoulder, whence
10 —Just as a blind man goes behind his guide
In order that he may not wander where
He might have hit on harm or even died—
13 I too went through that foul and bitter air
And listened to my Leader often say:
“See that you’re not cut off from me. Beware!”
16 I then heard voices; each appeared to pray
To find both peace and mercy in that Man,
The Lamb of God, who takes our sins away.
19 With “Agnus Dei” all their songs began;[255]
So one were all in measure and in word
That full accord appeared among that clan.
22 I asked: “O Master, were those souls I heard?”
“You apprehend most truly,” so he spoke,
“They go dissolving knots that wrath incurred.”
25 “And who are you whose body cleaves our smoke,
Who, in the way of those dividing time
With calendars, speak thus about our folk?”[256]
28 Such words as these a voice was heard to chime;
On hearing it, my Master said: “Reply,
And ask if from this place we are to climb.”
31 “O creature, you who cleanse yourself,” said I,
“To turn back fair to Him who fashioned you,
You shall hear marvels if you follow by.”
34 “I’ll come as far as I’m permitted to,
And if the fumes don’t let us see so well,
Our ears will join us then,” he said anew.
37 “With just the swathings,” I began to tell,
“That death dissolves I take the upward road,
And here I’ve come through all the pains of Hell.
40 Since such a grace of God has been bestowed
On me that He would have me see His court
By methods quite outside the modern mode,[257]
43 Say who you were before death cut you short,
And say if to the pass I rightly go;
Your words will be our escort.” In retort,
46 “A Lombard, once called Marco there below,[258]
I knew the world and loved that valor’s might
Towards which all men have now unbent the bow;
49 For mounting up the hill you go aright,”
He answered me, then added: “And, I plead,
Do pray for me above when you alight.”[259]
52 I said: “I pledge my faith; I shall indeed
Do all you ask. But yet the doubt I bear
Will make me burst if soon I am not freed.
55 What first was simple now is doubled there
By what you’ve said, which makes me sure about
What I have coupled here and otherwhere.[260]
58 Deserted fully is the world, no doubt,
By every virtue’s grace, as you make clear,
Its malice borne within and spread without.
61 I beg you, though, to make the cause appear,
That what I see I may show forth to men;
Some place the cause in heaven, some down here.”[261]
64 Through grief deep sighs became “Alas!” and then
—When these were heaved—“My brother,” started he,
“The world is blind! And you are from its den!
67 For you refer each cause to the decree
Of heaven’s spheres alone, you living still,
As if their motions brought necessity;
70 But were it so, it would destroy free will
In all of you, and it would not be right
To garner joy for good and grief for ill.
73 The heavens do first move your appetite,
I don’t say each, but if I did say so,
To know both right and wrong you’re given light[262]
76 And your free will; though first it strains below
In battles with the spheres, should it withstand,
It, nurtured well, will conquer every foe.
79 You’re free beneath a greater Power and
A nobler nature that creates your mind,
And this the heavens do not have in hand.
82 Thus, if the present world should stray and wind,
Then seek the cause within you, where it lies;
I’ll be a faithful scout in this, you’ll find.
85 The soul that leaves the hands of Him whose eyes
Saw it with love before it first arose
Is like a child at play who laughs and cries.
88 A simple soul, there’s nothing that it knows
Save that, moved by a Maker wholly glad,
To what delights it willingly it goes.
91 When first a taste of trifling goods is had,
It chases after them, now quite beguiled,
If guide and curb don’t turn its love from bad.
94 And thus you need the rein of laws compiled
And kings whose vision will at least admit
The tower of that city truly styled.
97 The law is there, but who puts hand to it?
No man! because the pastor in the lead
May chew the cud but has his hooves unsplit.[263]
100 The people, who behold their shepherd’s greed
In snatching goods for which they’re greedy too,
Feed but on those and seek no further need.
103 Ill-government has been, as you can view,
The reason thanks to which the world now runs
To ill—not nature found corrupt in you.
106 The world was good when Rome still had two suns,[264]
Which made the one and other roadway show:
The road of God and that of earthly ones.
109 The first of them has quenched the other, though;
And since the sword is joined to crosier here,
How ill, together, they are forced to go!
112 For coupled, neither fears the other peer.
If you do not believe me, since we know
Each plant by what it seeds, just mark the ear.
115 On lands made moist by Ádige and Po,[265]
Before King Frederick first saw strife appear,
Both courtesy and valor used to grow.
118 Now anyone at all may safely steer
Through there, if he’d avoid—for shameful ways—
All talking with the good or drawing near.
121 There three old men still live in whom past days
Rebuke the new; they’ll find the time long due
When God brings them to life’s much better phase:
124 I mean Currado, good Gherardo too,
And Guido da Castel, whom we’d best call[266]
‘The simple Lombard’ as the Frenchmen do.
127 Henceforward, say the Church of Rome will fall
In mud because two reigns in her combine;
She thus befouls herself, her load, and all.”[267]
130 “Your reasoning, good Marco, has been fine;
I now discern,” I said to him, “why they
Denied inheritance to Levi’s line.[268]
133 But what Gherardo is this who, you say,
Remains a sample of a race that’s died
And brings reproach to this, our savage day?”
136 “Oh, by your speech I’m either tricked or tried;
It seems, though speaking Tuscan, you know not
A thing of good Gherardo,” he replied;
139 “I know no other added name he’s got,
Unless his daughter Gaia’s name be right;[269]
God go with you, I cannot pass this spot.
142 You see the rays already turning white
—They pierce the smoke—and I must leave before
I have appeared in yonder angel’s sight.”[270]
145 So he turned back and would not hear me more.