Inferno: Canto Iv
INFERNO: CANTO IV
A heavy clap of thunder resounded through the valley
And startled me from a deep, deep sleep,
Like a person who is forcefully shaken awake;
I looked around with barely rested eyes,
Stood up and surveyed my surroundings,
Trying hard to recognize where I was.
I slowly realized that I was standing on the ledge
Of the valley of great pain and suffering,
Which collects the sounds of the endless laments.
It was obscure, hazy, and limitless,
So that when I attempted to see the bottom
I was not able to make out the shape of anything.
"We will descend now into the blind world,"
Virgil said with uncertainty;
"I will go first, and you will follow me."
And when I saw the hesitation in his face, I said:
"How can I come, if you are afraid? Who will be my Comfort and settle my fears, if not you?"
And he said to me: "The anguish of the people
Who are down here fills my mind with pity
Which you have wrongly seen as fear.
We must get started now, for we have a long way to go."
Then he went in, and this made me enter as well.
We entered the first circle that surrounds the abyss.
Down there, using only my ears to guide me,
Were not lamentations, but only sighs,
That filled the endless and everlasting air.
And these arose from sorrow, not from torment,
From the massive crowds, that we encountered,
Of men and of women and even children and infants.
To me the Master said: "You have not asked
Who these spirits are, which you now see.
But I will tell you, before we go any farther.
These are the ones who have not sinned; and if they had merit,
It was not enough, because they were not baptized
Which is the gateway to heaven in the faith that you follow;
And those that were born before Christ,
And therefore did not know how to worship God;
It is among these that I too reside. I am from here.
It is this defect, and not from any other guilt,
That we are lost. And our only punishment,
Is that we live on desire alone, but without hope."
Grief seized my heart when I heard this,
Because I knew that some great and worthy people
Were also suspended in that Limbo.
"Tell me, Master, please, tell me,"
I began, wanting to know for certain
That Faith alone can overcome such an error,
"Has there ever been anyone, by his own merit, or by Another's, who was blessed and allowed to leave?"
And he, who understood my hidden question, replied:
"I had not been here very long,
When I saw Christ himself come down,
Wearing the signs of Heaven as his crown.
First he drew forth the ghost of Adam,
And that of his son Abel, and of Noah,
Of Moses the lawgiver, and the obedient
Patriarch Abraham, and King David,
Israel with his father and his children,
And Rachel, for whose sake he did so much,
And many others as well, and he blessed them;
But I will also tell you, that before these
No human spirits were ever saved."
We stopped moving forward as he spoke,
But the crowd continued passing onward like a forest;
A forest, not of trees, but of thickly-crowded ghosts.
We had not gone very far, and were still on
This side of the summit, when I saw a fire
That cast a bright light in the darkness.
We were still a little distant from it,
But not so far that I could not make out some of
The honorable people who were in that place.
"You, who know so many from every art and science,
Who are those, which appear to have such great honor,
That they stand apart from all the others?"
And he said to me: "The honorable names,
That you have spoken so highly of in your life,
Wins them grace in Heaven, that so favors them here."
In the meantime a voice was heard coming towards us:
"All honor be to the pre-eminent Poet;
His ghost, that was departed, has returned again."
After the voice had ceased and was quiet,
Four mighty ghosts approached us;
Their faces showing neither happiness nor sorrow.
Then my gracious Master said to me:
"He with that sword in his hand,
Who comes before the other three, is their leader.
That one is Homer, the sovereign Poet;
He who comes next is Horace, the satirist;
The third is Ovid, and the last is Lucan.
Because each of these shares the same honor
With me that you heard proclaimed,
They also honor me, as I honor each of them."
And I watched as they gathered together
Leaning towards their lord,
Whose voice, over the others, soars like an eagle.
After they had spoken among themselves,
They turned to me with signs of greeting,
And on seeing this, my Master smiled;
They granted me more than honor, much more,
In that they made me one of their own group;
So that I was the sixth, amid such great minds.
Then we continued walking to the light,
Saying things that were best left unsaid,
And yet saying them all the same.
We came to the foot of a noble castle,
Seven times surrounded with high walls,
And all encompassed by a flowing stream;
We passed over the water as though it were firm ground;
Then passed through seven doors with these Sages;
Finally, we came into a fresh green meadow.
People were there whose eyes were solemn and grave,
They had great authority in their bearing; they seldom spoke
But and when they did, it was with gentle voices.
Then we went through a wall
Into a lofty and luminous opening,
So that everyone around us was suddenly visible.
There opposite, upon the green meadow,
Were pointed out to me the mighty spirits,
Whom I feel exalted to have seen.
I saw Electra with many companions,
And with her were Hector and Aeneas,
Caesar in full armor with his large, dark eyes;
I saw Camilla and Penthesilea
On the other side, and saw King Latinus,
Who sat with Lavinia his daughter;
I saw Brutus who drove Tarquin forth,
Lucretia, Julia, Marcia, and Cornelia,
And saw standing alone, apart from the others, the Saladin.
When I lifted up my eyes a little,
I saw the great master Aristotle,
Sitting with his philosophic family.
Everyone gazed upon him, and all do him honor.
With him, I saw both Socrates and Plato,
Who stood nearer to him than the others;
Democritus, who said the world was chance,
Diogenes, Anaxagoras, and Thales,
Zeno, Empedocles, and Heraclitus;
I saw the good collector,
Dioscorides; and Orpheus,
Tully and Linus, and moral Seneca,
Euclid, geometrician, and Ptolemy,
Galen, Hippocrates, and Avicenna,
Averroes, who made the great Commentary.
I cannot fully describe all of them,
Because there were so many, that even listing them all
I am certain to miss a few.
Our group of six divides, and we again become two.
My guide leads me away from the others, out from the
Quiet, and to a place where the air seems to tremble;
And we again enter into a place where there is no light.