INFERNO IV
INFERNO IV
A heavy thunderclap broke my deep sleep →
so that I started up like one
3 shaken awake by force.
With rested eyes, I stood
and looked about me, then fixed my gaze
6 to make out where I was.
I found myself upon the brink
of an abyss of suffering
9 filled with the roar of endless woe.
It was full of vapor, dark and deep.
Straining my eyes toward the bottom,
12 I could see nothing.
‘Now let us descend into the blind world →
down there,’ began the poet, gone pale.
15 ‘I will be first and you come after.’
And I, noting his pallor, said: →
‘How shall I come if you’re afraid,
18 you, who give me comfort when I falter?’ →
And he to me: ‘The anguish of the souls →
below us paints my face
21 with pity you mistake for fear.
‘Let us go, for the long road calls us.’
Thus he went first and had me enter
24 the first circle girding the abyss.
Here, as far as I could tell by listening, →
was no lamentation other than the sighs
27 that kept the air forever trembling.
These came from grief without torment
borne by vast crowds
30 of men, and women, and little children. →
My master began: ‘You do not ask about
the souls you see? I want you to know,
33 before you venture farther,
‘they did not sin. Though they have merit,
that is not enough, for they were unbaptized,
36 denied the gateway to the faith that you profess.
‘And if they lived before the Christians lived,
they did not worship God aright.
39 And among these I am one.
‘For such defects, and for no other fault,
we are lost, and afflicted but in this,
42 that without hope we live in longing.’ →
When I understood, great sadness seized my heart,
for then I knew that beings of great worth →
45 were here suspended in this Limbo. →
‘Tell me, master, tell me, sir,’ I began, →
seeking assurance in the faith
48 that conquers every doubt,
‘did ever anyone, either by his own
or by another’s merit, go forth from here
51 and rise to blessedness?’
And he, who understood my covert speech: →
‘I was new to this condition when I saw
54 a mighty one descend, crowned, with the sign of victory.
‘Out of our midst he plucked the shade →
of our first parent, of Abel his son, of Noah,
57 and of Moses, obedient in giving laws,
‘the patriarch Abraham, David the King,
Israel with his father and his sons,
60 and with Rachel, for whom he served so long,
‘as well as many others, and he made them blessed.
And, I would have you know, before these →
63 no human souls were saved.’
We did not halt our movement as he spoke,
but all the while were passing through a wood—
66 I mean a wood of thronging spirits.
We had not yet gone far from where I’d slept
when I beheld a blaze of light
69 that overcame a hemisphere of darkness,
though still a good way from it,
yet not so far but I discerned
72 an honorable company was gathered there. →
‘O you who honor art and knowledge, →
why are these so honored they are set
75 apart from the condition of the rest?’
And he answered: ‘Their honorable fame,
which echoes in your life above,
78 gains favor in Heaven, which thus advances them.’ →
Just then I heard a voice that said: →
‘Honor the loftiest of poets! →
81 His shade returns that had gone forth.’
When the voice had paused and there was silence,
I saw four worthy shades approach,
84 their countenances neither sad nor joyful.
The good master spoke: ‘Take note
of him who holds that sword in hand →
87 and comes as lord before the three:
‘He is Homer, sovereign poet. → →
Next comes Horace the satirist, →
90 Ovid is third, the last is Lucan. →
‘Since each is joined to me
in the name the one voice uttered,
93 they do me honor and, doing so, do well.’ →
There I saw assembled the fair school
of the lord of loftiest song, →
96 soaring like an eagle far above the rest.
After they conversed a while,
they turned to me with signs of greeting,
99 and my master smiled at this. →
And then they showed me greater honor still,
for they made me one of their company, →
102 so that I became the sixth amidst such wisdom. →
Thus we went onward to the light,
speaking of things that here are best unsaid, →
105 just as there it was fitting to express them.
We came to the foot of a noble castle, →
encircled seven times by towering walls,
108 defended round about by a fair stream.
Over this stream we moved as on dry land.
Through seven gates I entered with these sages
111 until we came to a fresh, green meadow.
People were there with grave, slow-moving eyes
and visages of great authority.
114 They seldom spoke, and then in gentle tones.
When we withdrew over to one side →
into an open space, high in the light,
117 we could observe them all.
There before me on the enameled green
the great spirits were revealed.
120 In my heart I exult at what I saw.
I saw Electra with many of her line, →
of whom I recognized Hector, Aeneas,
123 and Caesar, in arms, with his falcon eyes. →
I saw Camilla and Penthesilea. →
Seated apart I saw King Latinus,
126 and next to him Lavinia, his daughter.
I saw that Brutus who drove out Tarquinius, →
Lucretia, Julia, Marcia, and Cornelia.
129 And Saladin I saw, alone, apart. →
When I raised my eyes a little higher,
I saw the master of those who know, →
132 sitting among his philosophic kindred.
Eyes trained on him, all show him honor.
In front of all the rest and nearest him →
135 I saw Socrates and Plato.
I saw Democritus, who ascribes the world
to chance, Diogenes, Anaxagoras, and Thales,
138 Empedocles, Heraclitus, and Zeno.
I saw the skilled collector of the qualities →
of things—I mean Dioscorides—and I saw
141 Orpheus, Cicero, Linus, and moral Seneca,
Euclid the geometer, and Ptolemy, →
Hippocrates, Avicenna, Galen,
144 and Averroes, who wrote the weighty glosses.
I cannot give account of all of them, →
for the length of my theme so drives me on
147 that often the telling comes short of the fact.
The company of six falls off to two
and my wise leader brings me by another way
out of the still, into the trembling, air.
151 And I come to a place where nothing shines.