Inferno: Canto Xi
INFERNO: CANTO XI
We reached the edge of a steep bank
Made by a circle of enormous broken rocks,
And came upon a throng suffering more cruel punishments;
Because of the strong and horrible
Stench being thrust out of the deep abyss,
We stepped back and slid behind the cover
Of a great tomb, where I saw an inscription,
Which said: "Here lies Pope Anastasius,
Whom Phontinus drew off the path of righteousness."
"We need to slow our descent,
So that we may become accustomed to this vile smell
And then we will be able to endure it."
The Master said; and to him I said,
"You will make certain that our time is not wasted;"
And he said: "That is what I was thinking.
My son, inside this circle of rocks," He began to say,
"Are three small circles, each on a different grade,
Like those which we are leaving.
They are packed full of cursed spirits;
You will soon see that for yourself,
But I will tell you why they are here.
Every malice that Heaven hates,
Ends in injury; and as such, gives injury to others,
Either by force or by fraud.
But because fraud is only committed by man,
It displeases God even more; Below us are the lowest of these,
The fraudulent, and greater suffering assails them.
Within the first circle are the Violent;
But since violence comes in three forms,
The punishment is divided into three circles.
Violence To God, to ourselves, and to our neighbors;
Both to them, and their belongings,
And I will explain the difference to you.
If you cause death by violence, and painful wounds,
To your neighbor; you may also destroy his belongings
By arson, or other means;
So homicides, and those who strike with malice,
And those who plunder and destroy, are all in
The first round, but divided into different groups.
Man may be violent to himself
And his own belongings; and therefore in the second
Circle, paying the debt that can never be repaid,
Are suicides and those who deprive themselves,
By gambling away all of their belongings,
And then weep when they should have been happy.
Violence can also be done to the Deity,
By denying him in your heart and blaspheming Him,
And by disdaining Nature and all she has to offer.
And for this reason the smallest round
Stamped with its seal of Sodom and Cahors,
Are those who hate God with all of their hearts.
Fraud, which stings every conscience,
A man may practice on those who trust him,
And on those who do not.
This latter case, it would appear, breaks
Only the bond of love which Nature makes;
Therefore within the second circle you will find
Hypocrisy, flattery, and those who deal in magic,
Falsification, theft, and simony,
Panderers, and seducers, and similar filth.
In the former case, they have forgotten about the love
That Nature gives, and the added bond of man,
Which holds a sacred trust.
Thus in the smallest circle, where the center
Of the Universe is, upon which Dis is seated,
Is where traitors are consumed." And I said:
"My Master, the reasoning is clear enough,
And distinguishes this cavern from the others,
And the people who are in it.
But tell me, those we have seen in the far lagoon,
And those who the wind drives, and those who the rain
Beats down upon, And those who met with bitter words,
Why are they not inside of the red city and
Not punished this way, if God has them in his wrath?
And if he doesn't, then why are they punished at all?"
And he said to me: "Why does your mind wander
To places that it should not?
Or, have I missed what you were trying to say?
Have you no recollection of the words
That are discussed in Ethics?
Of the three things, that Heaven will not abide,
Incontinence, and Malice, and Bestiality?
And how Incontinence offends God less,
And attracts less blame?
If you look at this conclusion,
And then recall those who we saw before, those
That are up above us who are also suffering,
Clearly you will understand why these felons
Are separated, and why Divine Justice
Smites them less forcefully with its hammer."
"Thank you for you have healed my distorted vision.
You have satisfied me, now that you have resolved this.
Because my doubt was worse than my not knowing!
But there is still one question that I have,"
I said, "When you said that usury offends
The Divine Goodness. I don't understand."
"Philosophy," He said, "To he who heeds it,
Notes, and repeats it several times,
That Nature takes her course
From the Divine Intellect, and from its art;
And if you look carefully at Physics,
After very few pages you will find,
That your art, as best it can, also follows
Divine Intellect, as the disciple follows the master;
So in reality, your art is, as it were, God's grandchild.
From these two, if you bring to mind
Genesis at the beginning, it behooves
Men to take control of their life and to advance;
And since the usurer takes a different path,
Nature herself and those who follow her,
Disdain him, for he puts his hope elsewhere.
Now follow, as we must go on,
For the sky is quivering on the horizon,
And the sun will be rising shortly,
And the passage down this bank is ahead of us still."