Inferno: Canto Xvi
INFERNO: CANTO XVI
I could hear the reverberation
Of water falling into the next circle,
Like the humming of bee hives,
When three spirits came towards us,
Running, from out of a company that passed
Beneath the flaming rain of bitter suffering.
As they came near us, each one cried out:
"Stop, you; we can tell from your garments
That you are from our depraved city."
Ah me! I saw multiple wounds upon their limbs,
Recent and ancient that the flames had burnt in!
It pains me still to remember it.
My Teacher paused attentive to their cries;
He turned his face towards me, and said
"Now wait," he said; "We should be courteous to these.
And if it were not for the fire that darts
The ground of this region, I should say
That you would be running to greet them."
As soon as we stood still, they repeated
Their refrain, and when they overtook us,
All three of them circled around us.
As champions stripped and oiled will sometimes do,
Watching for their advantage and their hold,
Before they come to blows and thrusts between them,
Thus, wheeling round, every one of them
Directed his gaze to me, so that in the opposite
Direction his neck and feet made a continual journey.
And one said, "If the misery of this soft place
Brings disdain to ourselves and our requests,"
He began, "With our bodies black and blistered,
Let the renown we had when we were alive guide you
To tell us who you are, that you can safely,
With living feet, move along through Hell.
He in whose footprints you see me treading,
Naked and skinless though he may be now,
Was of a greater rank than you think;
He was the grandson of the good Gualdrada;
His name was Guidoguerra, and in life
He did much with his wisdom and his sword.
The other, who stands close by me in the sand,
Is Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, whose fame
Should be well known there in the world above.
And I, who has crossed with them,
Was known as Jacopo Rusticucci; and truly
My savage wife, more than anything else, drove me here."
If I could have been protected from the fire,
I would have thrown myself among them,
And I think my Teacher would have allowed it;
But as I would have burned and baked myself,
My terror was greater than my desire,
Though I wanted to embrace them.
I began: "Sorrow and not disdain
For your condition has fixed me in this position,
And I will remember it for many years,
The moment that my Lord said to me
Words that lead me to believe
That people such as you were approaching.
I am from your city; and for evermore
Your labors and your honorable names
I have heard and repeated with affection.
I leave the bitter, and go for the sweet fruits
Promised to me by my veracious Leader;
But first, I must plunge to the center."
"May your soul live for a long time to conduct
Those limbs of yours," He answered,
"And may your renown shine after you,
So valor and courtesy, still dwell
Within our city, as they used to do,
Or are they wholly gone out of it;
For Guglielmo Borsier, who is in torment
With us, and goes there with his comrades,
Does mortify us with his words."
"The new inhabitants and the sudden wealth,
Have engendered the city with Pride and extravagance,
So you may weep for Florence very soon!"
I exclaimed with my head facing up;
And the three, thinking that was my reply,
Looked at each other, as if it were the truth.
"If you always answer so easily," they all replied,
"To satisfy another,
You are happy indeed, thus speaking as you will!
Therefore, if you escape from these dark places,
And come to see the beauteous stars again,
When it should please you to say, 'I was there,'
See that you speak of us kindly to the people."
Then they separated, and in their flight
It seemed as if their agile legs were wings.
Not an Amen could possibly have been said
As rapidly as they had disappeared;
Then the Master deemed it best to depart.
I followed him, and we had not gone very far,
Before the sound of water was near us,
So that if we spoke, we would hardly have been heard.
Even as that stream which holds its own course
First from Monte Veso towards the East,
Upon the left-hand slope of Apennine,
Which is above called Acquacheta, before
It descends down into its low bed,
And at Forli no longer has that name,
It reverberates there above San Benedetto
From the Alps, by falling at a single leap,
Where there is room enough for a thousand;
Thus falling from a precipitate bank,
We found that dark-tinted water resounding,
So that it soon was deafening to hear.
I had a belt around about my waist,
And with it, I had hoped
To take the panther with the painted skin.
After I had unloosed it from around me,
As my Conductor had commanded,
I passed it to him, gathered up and coiled,
He turned himself to the right,
And very close to the edge,
He cast it down into that deep abyss.
"I know something strange is about to happen,"
I said to myself, "For this new signal
The Master is following with his eyes."
Ah my! How very cautious men should be
With those who do not behold the act alone,
But with their wisdom look into the thoughts of others!
He said to me: "Soon there will come
What I am waiting for; and what your thought is dreaming
Will soon reveal itself to you."
That truth which has the face of falsehood,
A man should close his lips as tight as he can,
Because it causes shame through no fault of his own;
But here I cannot; and, Reader, by the notes
That I have taken to you I swear,
So that they may be received with lasting favor,
Through that dense and darksome atmosphere
I saw a figure swimming upward through the air,
A thing that would shake the most steadfast heart,
Even as one returns who goes down
Sometimes to clear an anchor, which has grappled
A reef, or something else in the sea that is hidden,
Reaching with his arms, and pushing with his legs.