Inferno: Canto Xxv
INFERNO: CANTO XXV
When he was done speaking, the thief
Shook his fists at the heavens and cried:
"Take that, God, these words are for you!"
After that, the serpents were my friends;
For one entwined itself around his neck
As if to say: "You have said enough;"
And another went around his arms, and pinned him,
Clinching themselves together in front,
So that he could no longer move.
Pistoia, oh, Pistoia! Why not just
Burn yourself to ashes and die,
Since your children are worse than you were?
Through all of the horrid circles of this Hell,
I had never seen a Spirit so proud to be against God,
Not even the one who fell from the walls at Thebes!
He fled away, and did not speak again;
And I saw a Centaur full of rage
Come crying out: "Where is he? Where is the scoffer?"
I do not think Maremma has as many
Serpents as he had all along his back,
Right up to where his human form begins.
On his shoulders, just behind the nape,
With wings wide open, was a dragon,
And he blew fire at anything that he saw.
My Master said: "That one is Cacus, who, many times,
Has created a lake of blood
Beneath the rock on Mount Aventine
He does not go on the same road with his brothers,
Because of the cunning way that he stole
The great herd of cattle, which was near his land;
His tortuous actions ended beneath
The mace of Hercules, who probably
Gave him a hundred blows, though he felt only ten."
While he was speaking, Cacas had moved on,
And three spirits appeared underneath us,
That neither I, nor my leader, were aware of,
Until they shouted: "Who are you two?"
At which point our talking ended,
And we began watching them.
I did not know them; but soon,
As happens sometimes,
One was compelled to call the other by name,
Exclaiming: "Where is Cianfa?"
So that my Leader would notice,
I pressed my finger against my lips to remain silent.
If you are, dear Reader, slow to believe
What I am telling you, I completely understand,
Because even though I saw it, I can hardly believe it.
As I was watching them,
A lizard, with six feet, shot up
In front of one, and fastened on to him.
The middle feet latched on to his stomach
And the front ones grabbed his arms;
It thrust its teeth through one cheek and then the other;
The back feet were stretched around his thighs,
Then slid its tail between his legs,
And up along his back.
Ivy was never fastened
Onto a tree so tightly, as this horrible reptile
Entwined its own limbs upon the other's.
They were pressed close together, as if made of heated wax
So that even their color was mixed together;
And neither one seemed to be what he was before;
Just as flame moving along paper
Proceeds up, pushing a brown color,
Which is not yet black, but the white has died.
The other two looked on, and each of them cried out:
"O my, Agnello, how you have changed!
You are no longer two, but not yet one."
Already the two heads had become one,
And there appeared to be two figures mingled
Into one face, their individual features lost.
The four arms were mingled into two arms,
The thighs and legs, the belly and the chest
Each merging into parts never before seen.
Every original feature was merged or cancelled;
Two creatures merged, but neither looked like the original,
And then it turned and slowly walked away.
Like a lizard, under the massive heat
Of a Summer's day, runs from hedge to hedge,
Shoots across a road like a bolt of lightning;
Suddenly there appeared, aiming at the bellies
Of the other two, a small fiery lizard,
Full of rage and black as pepper.
It leaped up, without notice,
And bit into the stomach of one of the ghosts;
Then fell to the ground again.
The one who had been bitten stood still, saying nothing;
He stood perfectly still and then yawned,
As if sleep or fever had suddenly overcome him.
He looked at the lizard, and the lizard looked at him;
Violent smoke came from both of them, one through the stomach,
The other through the mouth, and the smoke commingled.
Lucan once tried to explain this, where he mentions
Wretched Sabellus and Nassidius,
But wait until you hear what I saw.
And also Ovid, telling of the change of Cadmus and Arethusa;
For he changed into a snake, her into a fountain,
As each underwent their conversion, I do not envy him;
Because two creatures never, facing each other,
Transformed, so that both of the beings
Would somehow change into the other.
This is what these two were doing,
The lizards tail split into two,
And the wounded man's feet grew together.
Then the legs and thighs became one,
So that soon, they were merged
Leaving no sign that they were ever separated.
The lizard began his transformation into a man.
His skin was becoming elastic
While the other one was growing scales.
I saw the arms of one draw in at the armpits,
And on the reptile, the feet were beginning to form,
Lengthening as much as the other's contracted.
Then, the lizard's hind feet came forward and merged,
To become the man's private parts,
And the man's part split in two and became legs.
The smoke barely concealed them,
Changing colors, and bringing out hair on one
And removing it from the other,
Finally, one rose up, and the other fell,
But they continued to look at each other,
And under their eyes, their faces changed.
He who was now standing, his face grew narrow,
And from the extra skin that he had,
Ears were formed;
And from the extra that was not used,
A nose began to grow on his face,
And his lips thickened.
The one who was laying down also was changing,
His ears drew back into his head,
Just like the horns of a snail;
And his tongue, which was used for speech before,
Was split down the center, while in the other one,
It merged into one. Then the smoke cleared.
The soul, which had been changed into a reptile,
Scampered along the valley in flight,
The other one began speaking in sputters.
Then he turned his head, and said to the other:
"Now it is time for Buoso to run,
Crawhng as I have done, along this road."
This is how things shifted in the seventh circle,
And I apologize if I did not explain it well, it is because
It was new to me, and words fall short on such things.
And though my eyes might be somewhat bewildered,
And my mind dismayed,
They could not hide from me
That I plainly saw Puccio Sciancato;
The sole survivor of the three companions,
Which came to us in the beginning, and was not changed;
Was also the one that made Gaville weep.