Inferno: Canto Xxiv
INFERNO: CANTO XXIV
In the early part of the year
When the sun rises in Aquarius,
And the nights are almost as long as the days,
When the morning frost on the ground
Looks like newly fallen snow,
But only lasts for a little while,
The Sheppard, who has no food for his animals,
Rises, and looks, and sees the fields
Gleaming white, raises his fists in anger,
Returns indoors, and paces back and forth,
Like a poor wretch, who does not know what to do;
But when he returns, his hope revives again.
Seeing that the world has changed in the blink of an eye
He takes his shepherd's crook,
And drives the young lambs to pasture.
This sense of alarm filled me as well,
When I saw that my Master was so disturbed,
But the treatment came almost as fast as the ailment.
Because, as we came up to the ruined bridge,
The Leader turned to me with that sweet look
Which I first saw at the mountain's foot.
His took a long look, assessed the ruins,
And after thinking for a moment,
His arms opened and he picked me up.
And as someone who thinks first and then acts,
Always prepared for what he is going to do next,
So he carried me upward towards the summit of a huge rock.
He looked around at the other rocks, saying:
"We will climb to that next one,
But first, make sure it will hold you."
This was no way to travel for someone wearing a cloak;
Even though he was light, and I had his help,
We were barely able to climb from rock to rock.
And had it not been, that this bank was
Shorter than the one we came down,
I don't know about him, but I would have failed.
But because Malebolge slope down,
Pointing always to the well in the center,
The structure of each valley is such that
As the outer bank rises, the inner bank sinks.
After great effort, we finally reached
The top of the broken pathway of stone.
The breath had completely vanished from my lungs, so that,
When I got to the top of the broken rock, I could go no more.
I sat down on the ground and did not move.
"Now is not the time for rest,"
My Master said; "No one ever gained fame,
By staying under a quilt,
And without fame, a man must try to leave his mark
In whatever vestige of himself he can put on earth, but
That is like leaving smoke in the air, or foam on the water.
So, come on, get up, overcome your pain
With the spirit that overcomes every battle,
So long as the body still supports it.
You will be climbing an even longer stairway later;
And we still have more sinners to see;
You know what I am talking about. Come on, let's go."
Then I got up, seeing that I could now catch my breath
Better that I thought I would be able to,
And said: "Let's go. I am ready now, and much stronger."
Upward we climbed along the edge,
Which was jagged, and narrow, and difficult,
And far more precipitous than the part we just climbed.
I kept talking, not wanting to appear exhausted;
When I heard a voice coming from the next moat.
A voice that had trouble speaking the words.
I do not know what it said, though I was at the top
Of the arch that passes there;
But whoever was speaking, seemed angry.
I was bent down, but my eyes
Could not see the bottom, because it was so dark;
I said: "Master, let's go to the next round,
And we will descend that wall;
For I am hearing something and do not understand it,
And when I look down, I can see nothing."
"I can give you no answer," He said,
"Except by doing what you ask; because such a request
Is best followed by action rather than answer."
We walked down to the foot of the bridge,
Where it connects with the eighth bank,
And before me was the next circle;
There I saw a terrible throng
Of serpents, and they were so monstrous,
That just remembering them still chills my blood
Libya can no longer boast of her mass expanse of sand;
For though she carries Chelydri, Jaculi, and Phareae
And Cenchres with Amphisbaena,
She never had plagues so numerous nor so horrible,
Even combined with those that appeared in all of Ethiopia,
And around the Red Sea, as what I saw below.
Among this cruel and dismal throng
People were running naked and afraid.
Without the hope of refuge or cover.
They had their hands bound behind them with serpents;
These serpents girdled their chest and loins
And coiled around their bodies from head to tail.
Suddenly, a sinner ran past us on the bank and immediately
A serpent shot forth and grabbed him with his fangs,
Right where the neck is connected to the shoulders.
Never was a word put to paper as fast this duo
Burst into flames and burned;
The ashes fell to the ground in a crumpled heap.
And when the group was destroyed, and laying on the ground,
The ashes drew together, and by themselves
Instantly returned to their prior form.
Even as the great sages have said that
The phoenix dies, and then is born again from its ashes,
When it approaches its five-hundredth year;
During its life, it does not feed on herb or grain,
But only on tears of incense and spice,
And finally wrapping itself in nard and myrrh.
As he who falls, but knows not how,
By the force of demons who drag them down to earth,
Or by other obstructions that will bind man,
When he gets up and looks around, he is completely
Bewildered by the mighty anguish which he has suffered,
Sometimes moaning and rubbing his pains;
This is how the sinner was after he had risen.
Oh how severe is the justice of God,
That blows like these pour down in vengeance!
The Guide asked him who he was;
And he replied: "I was from Tuscany
A short time before falling into this cruel gorge.
Just like the mule that I was; I loved the life of a beast,
And not of a human; I am Vanni Fucci, the Savage Beast,
And Pistoia was a den worthy of my kind."
And I said to the Guide: "Tell him not to move,
And ask what crime has put him down here,
For I once knew him as a man of wrath and of blood."
And the sinner did not try to hide that he had heard me,
But turned and looked me directly in the face,
And his face reddened with his melancholy shame.
Then he said: "It pains me more that you have caught me
Amid this misery where you now see me,
Than when I was taken from the other life.
What you have said, I cannot deny;
I was put here, so far down, because I robbed
The church of its treasures,
And the crime was falsely laid upon another;
But do not rejoice in seeing me here,
If you ever get out of these dark places,
Open your ears and listen to what I have to say:
Pistoia will first throw out the members of the Black party;
Then Florence will rebuild both her men and laws;
Mars will draw a mist up from Val di Magra,
Which will be enveloped all around with horrible clouds,
And with a savage and bitter storm.
Over Piceno's fields there be a great battle;
When lightning will suddenly rip through the mist,
So that each member of the White party will be wounded.
Know that I have told you this in order to hurt you."