INFERNO XXII
INFERNO XXII
I have seen the cavalry break camp, →
prepare for an attack, make their muster
3 and at times fall back to save themselves.
I have seen outriders in your land,
O Aretines. I have seen raiding-parties,
6 tournaments of teams, hand-to-hand jousts
begun with bells, trumpets, or drums,
with signals from the castle,
9 with summons of our own and those from foreign lands,
but never to such outlandish fanfare
have I seen horsemen move, or infantry,
12 or ship set sail at sign from land or star.
On we went, escorted by ten demons. →
What savage company! But, as they say,
15 ‘in church with saints, with guzzlers in the tavern.’
My attention was fixed upon the pitch
to note each detail of this gulch
18 and of the people poaching in it.
Like dolphins, when they arch their backs →
above the water, giving sailors warning
21 to prepare to save their ship,
so from time to time, to ease his pain,
one of the sinners would show his back
24 and, quick as lightning, hide it once again.
And just as in a ditch at water’s edge
frogs squat with but their snouts in sight,
27 their bodies and their legs all hidden,
so were the sinners scattered everywhere.
But they, at the approach of Barbariccia,
30 withdrew back down beneath the boiling.
There I saw—and my heart still shudders at it—
one who lingered, as it can happen
33 that one frog stays while yet another plunges,
and Graffiacane, who was nearest him,
caught a billhook in his pitchy locks
36 and hauled him out, looking like an otter.
By now I knew their names, →
since I had noted these when they were chosen
39 and when they called to one another.
‘Set your claws to work, Rubicante,
see you rip his skin off,’
42 shouted all the accursèd crew together.
And I: ‘Master, if you can do it,
find out the name of this poor wretch
45 caught in the clutches of his enemies.’
My leader got up close beside him
and asked him where he came from. He replied:
48 ‘I was born in the kingdom of Navarre. →
‘My mother, who had conceived me by a wastrel—
destroyer of himself and all his goods—
51 put me in service with a man of rank.
‘Then I joined the retinue of worthy Thibaut:
there first I set myself to taking bribes,
54 for which I pay the reckoning in this heat.’
And Ciriatto, from whose jaw curved up
on either side a tusk, like the wild boar’s,
57 made him feel how one of these could rip.
The mouse had fallen in with wicked cats.
But Barbariccia blocked them with his arms →
60 and said: ‘Stand back and let me jab him,’
then turned to face my master:
‘Speak up, if you are eager to learn more,
63 before I let him have a mangling.’
And my leader: ‘Of the other sinners in the pitch, →
tell me, is anyone Italian?’
66 And he: ‘I just now came from one
‘who hailed from near those parts. I wish →
I still were with him in the pitch—
69 then I’d have no fear of hook or claw!’
Then Libicocco said: ‘This is just too much,’ →
caught him with his grapple by the arm
72 and, ripping, gouged out a hunk of flesh.
Draghignazzo, too, wanted to catch him up,
by the legs, at which their captain
75 wheeled round on them with an ugly look.
After their fury had subsided,
my leader seized this chance to ask
78 the one still staring at his wound:
‘Who is the one you mentioned, from whom
you parted so unwisely when you came ashore?’
81 And he replied: ‘It was Fra Gomìta →
‘of Gallura, a vessel full of fraud,
who had his master’s enemies in hand
84 but dealt with them so each one sings his praises.
‘He took their money and discreetly let them off,
as he himself admits. And in his other actions
87 he was no small-time swindler but a king.
’Don Michel Zanche of Logudoro →
keeps company with him and, when speaking
90 of Sardegna, their tongues are never weary.
‘Oh, look at that one there, gnashing his teeth!— →
I would say more, but I’m afraid that demon’s
93 getting set to give my mange a scratching.’
And the great marshal, turning to Farfarello,
who was rolling his eyes, ready to strike,
96 said: ‘Back off, you filthy bird!’
‘If you would care to see or hear,’ →
the emboldened spirit then began again,
99 ‘Tuscans or Lombards, I can make some come.
‘But let the Malebranche stand away →
so that the sinners have no fear of vengeance,
102 and, keeping to my place right here,
‘for one of me, I will make seven come
if I whistle, as is our custom
105 when one of us pulls free out of the pitch.’
At this Cagnazzo lifted up his snout and said,
shaking his head: ‘Hear the cunning stunt
108 he has contrived to throw himself back in!’
And he, with artifice in store, replied:
‘I must indeed be cunning if I procure
111 still greater anguish for my friends.’
Alichino couldn’t stand this any more and said,
in opposition to the others: ‘If you dive
114 back in I won’t pursue you on the run—
‘oh no! I’ll beat my wings above the pitch.
Let’s leave the ridge and hide behind the bank.
117 We’ll see if you alone can take us on.’
Now, reader, you shall hear strange sport.
All turned their backs to where the sinner stood,
120 he first who’d most opposed the plan.
The Navarrese chose his moment well,
planted his feet and in a second
123 leaped and escaped from their designs.
At this they all were angry at their blunder, →
but most of all the one whose fault it was,
126 so that he darted up and cried: ‘Now you are caught!’
It did him little good, for even wings
could not catch up with terror: the sinner dove
129 and the devil turned up his breast in flight,
just as the wild duck, when the falcon nears,
dives for the bottom, and the bird of prey
132 must fly back up, angry and outsmarted.
Calcabrina, furious at this trick,
was winging close behind him, eager for the sinner
135 to break away as an excuse to scuffle,
and, since the barrator had vanished,
he turned his claws against his fellow
138 and came to grips with him above the ditch.
But the other was indeed a full-fledged hawk,
fierce with his talons, and the pair of them
141 went tumbling down into the scalding pond.
The heat unclutched them in a moment,
but they had so beglued their wings
144 there was no way to rise above the pitch.
Barbariccia, lamenting with the rest, →
had four of them fly to the other bank,
147 each with his hook in hand, and in no time
on this side and on that they clambered down
to their posts, reaching out their grapples
to the pitch-trapped pair, already cooked to a crust.