Inferno: Canto V
INFERNO: CANTO V
Then I descended out of the first circle
Down to the second, which was smaller than the first,
But held greater suffering, and louder wailing.
There stood Minos, grotesque and snarling; He examines,
Then judges, the transgressions of each person who enters;
Dispatching the soul by coiling his tail.
I will say that when each evil spirit
Comes before him, it confesses everything to him.
This mighty judge of transgressions
Sees what level in Hell is best fitting for each soul;
And he wraps himself with his tail as many times as is equal
To the level he wishes the soul to be thrust down.
There are always many souls standing before him;
They go, one by one, into the judgment;
They speak, and hear, and then are hurled downward.
"You, there. Why have you come to this place of misery?"
Minos said to me when he saw me,
Stopping his judgments while he spoke,
"Be careful how you enter, and who you trust; Don't let the ease with which you entered deceive you."
And to him, my Guide said: "Why are you shouting?
Do not impede his journey which fate has ordained;
It was willed where there is the power to do
What is willed; and so ask no more questions."
And then the sorrowful voices began to grow more
Audible to me; and I found myself where
The cries were so powerful, they pounded against me.
I came into a place that was completely dark,
Bellowing as the sea does in a storm,
When opposing winds clash on each side.
This hurricane that never rests
Hurtles the spirits onward in its forceful gale;
Whirling them round, beating and smashing them.
When they arrive at the edge of the precipice,
Then come the shrieks, the cries, and the sorrowful wails,
There they blaspheme God and all his power.
I learned that this was the place of punishment
For those who were condemned for their lust, who followed their personal passions instead of reason.
And as the wings of birds drive them forward
In huge flocks in the winter months,
So does that blast always propel these evil spirits;
Left, right, downward, upward, it drives them;
They have no hope of comfort, forever,
Nor of rest, or sleep, or even of lesser pain.
And as the cranes in flight go forth chanting,
Making in the air a long line of themselves,
So I saw coming, uttering lamentations,
Shadows borne onward by the unending wind.
Whereupon said I: "Master, who are those
People, being punished in the black air?"
"The first of those, I believe you know,
Or at least have heard of,"
He said to me, "She is the empress of many languages.
She was so completely absorbed in her sensual vices,
That she made lust a part of her law,
In order to remove the blame from herself.
She is Semiramis, of whom you have read,
She succeeded Ninus, and was his spouse;
She held the land which now the Sultan rules.
Next is Dido, the queen of Carthage, who killed herself for love,
And broke faith with the ashes of Sichaeus;
Then Cleopatra the voluptuous."
Helen I saw, who caused great pain and suffering
For many years; and also the great Achilles,
Who in his last hours, fought for love.
I saw Paris, Tristan; and more than a thousand
Other ghosts he named and pointed out with his finger,
Who died because of their love.
After that, I listened as my Teacher
Named the women of old, and once bold knights.
Pity prevailed, and I was very confused.
And I began: "O Poet, please,
May I speak to those two, who go together,
Who seem so light upon the wind?"
And, he to me: "Wait a moment, when they come
Nearer to us; and then you can ask them yourself
How their love brought them here, and they will come."
As soon as the wind brought them in our direction,
I cried out to them: "Oh weary souls!
Come speak to us, if you can."
As turtle-doves, called onward by desire,
With open and steady wings to their sweet nest,
Fly through the air by their desire alone,
So the two came from the band where Dido is,
Approaching us through the whirling air,
So tender was my call to them.
"Oh living creature gracious and kind,
Who comes to visit us in the swirling air
Though we have stained the world with our blood.
If the King of the Universe was our friend,
We would pray to him to bring you peace,
Since you have had pity on our perverse woe.
Ask us what you would like to know,
And we will gladly tell you,
Since the wind around you is now is silent.
Rimini, the city where I was born, sits
Upon the sea-shore where the Po descends,
With all its streams, and comes to rest.
Love, that will swiftly seize a gentle heart,
Seized this man when he beheld my beauty, which has
Since been taken from me, the manner still offends me.
Love, that exempts no one from being loved,
Seized me with the pleasure of this man so strongly,
That, as you see, it has not left me;
Love has brought us to one death;
But the lowest part of hell, waits for the man who killed us!" They said these words to us.
As soon as I had heard those tormented souls,
I bowed my face, and held it down so long
Until the Poet said to me:
"What are you thinking?" When I could answer, I began:
"Alas! How many pleasant thoughts, how much desire,
Has brought these two to this sorrowful place!"
Then I turned back to them,
And I began: "Your agonies, Francesca,
Make me sad and drive me to weep.
But tell me, when you had those sweet sighs,
How did you fall victim to your own love?
When did you submit to your own desires?"
And she to me: "There is no greater sorrow
Than to remember a happy time when you are
In misery, and that, your Teacher knows.
But, in order to recognize the earliest root
Of love in us, as you so desire to know,
I will tell you, even as you weep.
One day we were reading for our own pleasure
Of Lancelot, and how Love enthralled him.
We were alone and without any fear of being seen.
So many times our eyes drew together during
That reading, and it made us blush and look away;
But only once did it overcome us.
When as we read of the much-longed-for smile
And being kissed by such a noble lover,
This one, who is now always at my side,
Kissed me full on the mouth, and trembled as he did.
The book, and the writer, brought us to that moment.
But on that day, no farther did we read."
And while the one spirit spoke,
The other one wept, knowing what he had caused,
I began to feel as if I was dying,
And fell, even as a dead body falls.