Inferno: Canto Xxviii
INFERNO: CANTO XXVIII
No one would be able to describe,
In full, the wounds and the blood
That I saw now, no matter how long they tried.
Any description would certainty fall short
Because mere words and even memories,
Would not be able to comprehend so much pain.
If you could bring together all the people
That are now, or ever were in the land
Of Puglia who cried over their wounds and the blood
Shed by the Romans and the lingering war
Over the taking of the great rings,
As Livy has recorded without error,
And mingled those who felt the agony of the blows
Who stood against Robert Guiscard,
Plus all the rest, whose bones are still gathered
At Ceperano, where each man was a traitor,
And those who were at Tagliacozzo,
Where Alardo conquered without weapons,
And added everyone who had been stabbed or lost a limb,
It would be nothing compared
With the disgusting sites of the ninth circle.
A cask of wine, having lost its center support,
Was never shattered as much, as one person I saw
Who was split from his chin to his ass.
His entrails were hanging down between his legs;
His heart was flopping around, as were
His intestines and his bowels.
While I was staring at him,
He looked at me, pulled open his chest
With his hands and said: "See how I can pull myself apart;
See how mutilated I am;
In front of me, another goes weeping as well,
His face is split open from forehead to chin;
And all the others that you see here,
Were ones who spread scandal and divided the people
While they were living, and therefore are split like me.
A devil is behind us, who cruelly slices us
Like this, using the edge of his sword
Slashing us again and again,
Each time we walk down this miserable road;
As we walk, our wounds slowly and painfully close
And then we are split again as we pass him.
But who are you, watching from the bridge,
Maybe you are trying to postpone your own pain
That will be given to you because of how you were judged?"
"Death has not reached him yet,
And guilt does not bring him here to be tortured,"
My Master replied, "But only to allow him the experience,
I, who am dead, have been asked to conduct him
Down here through Hell, from circle to circle;
And this is the truth."
More than a hundred people heard him speak,
And they stooped in the moat to look at me in such wonder
That they were oblivious of their torture.
"Then you should warn Fra Dolcino,
When you return to the place of the sun,
That if he does not want to follow me down here,
That he should stock up on food, or else the snow
Will give the Novarese their victory,
A conquest that will not easily be won otherwise."
He said this to me,
And lifted his foot to leave,
Stepped forward and went on his way.
Another soul, who had his throat pierced through,
And nose cut off close underneath his brow,
And who only had one ear,
Stopped to look in wonder with the others,
Then he stepped forward and pulled open his throat,
Which was red on all sides, and he said:
"You, whose guilt has not condemned you,
And who I once saw up in Italy,
Unless I was deceived by someone who looked like you,
Please speak well of Pier da Medicina,
If ever you see that lovely place again
Where Vercelli slopes down to Marcabo,
And make it known to the best two people of Fano,
Messer Guido and Angiolello,
That if our seeing the future is not in vain,
That they will be tossed over from their ship,
And drowned near Cattolica,
By the betrayal of a fallen tyrant.
Between the isles of Cyprus and Majorca
Neptune has not yet beheld so great a crime,
Neither by pirates nor Argolic people.
That traitor, who has only one eye,
And holds the land, which someone here with me
Wishes he had never set eyes on,
Will make them come to talk to him;
Tell them not to waste their breath or prayers
For they will not escape from Focara's wind."
And I said to him: "Show me and tell me,
If you want me to spread your words,
Who is this person who will deceive them."
Then he laid his hand on the jaw
Of one of his companions, and his mouth
Opened, crying: "This is him, but he cannot speak.
This man, being banished, drowned every doubt
In Caesar by telling him that
Even a man who is prepared will lose if he hesitates."
How bewildered he appeared to me,
With his tongue hanging out of his split windpipe,
This was Curio, who once was so bold in his speaking!
And one, who had lost both of his hands,
Lifted his stumps in the murky air,
So that the blood spilled onto his face,
Cried out: "You should remember Mosca also,
Who once said 'A thing done has ended!'
Which became a dreadful phrase for the Tuscan people."
"Death to you and your entire family,"
I cried; Then he, accumulating woe upon woe,
Departed, like a person sad and crazed.
But I remained to look at the crowd;
And saw something which I would be afraid
Even to talk about, without more proof,
If it were not that I remembered it so well,
Because memory is the good companion which makes a man bold
When he is pure in his heart.
I saw, and still seem to see it,
A body without a head walking in similar fashion
As the others in the mournful herd walked.
And the body held the severed head by the hair,
Hung from his hand as someone would hold a lantern,
And then he looked at us and said:
"Oh my!" It carried its own head so casually,
And it was as if there were two people, a body and a head;
How this could happen, only God can know.
When it came close to the bridge,
It lifted the arm carrying the head high into the air,
To bring it closer to us so it could speak, and it said:
"You, who can still breath, but are watching the dead,
You can see now what our punishment.
Tell me if there is anything worse than this.
And so that you can tell others about me,
Know that I am Bertram de Born, the same person
Who gave evil comfort to the Young King.
I made the father and the son rebellious;
Achitophel not more than Absalom
As David did with his accursed goadings.
Because I split up two people who were united,
I too have been parted from my head!
Leaving me with just the body.
And this is how you see me now."