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CANTO XXV (109-end)

 

The Seventh Circle: The Wanton.

Discourse of Statius on Generation.

109	By now we'd reached the final turning we
110	would meet and took the pathway right, at which
111	we were preoccupied with other cares.
112	There, from the wall, the mountain hurls its flames;
113	but, from the terrace side, there whirls a wind
114	that pushes back the fire and limits it;
115	thus, on the open side, proceeding one
116	by one, we went; I feared the fire on
117	the left and, on the right, the precipice.
118	My guide said: On this terrace, it is best
119	to curb your eyes: the least distraction left
120	or right can mean a step you will regret.
121	Then, from the heart of that great conflagration,
122	I heard Summae Deus clementiae
123	sung and was not less keen to turn my eyes;
124	and I saw spirits walking in the flames,
125	so that I looked at them and at my steps,
126	sharing the time I had to look at each.
127	After they'd reached that hymn's end, Virum non
128	cognosco were the words they cried aloud;
129	then they began the hymn in a low voice
130	again, and, done again, they cried: Diana
131	kept to the woods and banished Helice
132	after she'd felt the force of Venus' poison.
133	Then they returned to singing; and they praised
134	aloud those wives and husbands who were chaste,
135	as virtue and as matrimony mandate.
136	This is I think the way these spirits act
137	as long as they are burned by fire: this is
138	the care and this the nourishment with which
139	one has to heal the final wound of all.

 

 

CANTO XXVI

The Seventh Circle: The Wanton.

Sodomites. Guido Guinicelli and Arnaldo Daniello.

1	While we moved at the edge, one first, one after,
2	and I could often hear my gentle master
3	saying: Take care and do not waste my warning,
4	the sun, its rays already altering
5	the coloring of all the west from azure
6	to white, was striking me on my right shoulder.
7	And where my shadow fell, it made the flames
8	seem more inflamed; and I saw many shades
9	walking, intent upon a sight so strange.
10	This was the reason that first prompted them
11	to speak to me. Among themselves they said:
12	He does not seem to have a fictive body.
13	Then certain of them came as close to me
14	as they were able to while, cautiously,
15	they never left the boundaries of their burning.
16	O you who move behind the others not
17	because of sloth but reverence perhaps,
18	give me who burn in thirst and fire your answer.
19	I'm not alone in needing your response;
20	for all these shades thirst so for it more than
21	an Indian or Ethiopian
22	thirsts for cool water. Tell us how you can
23	as if you're not yet caught within death's net
24	make of yourself a wall against the sun.
25	Thus one of them had spoken to me; I
26	should now have answered clearly, had I not
27	been fixed on something strangely evident;
28	for in the middle of the burning path,
29	came people moving opposite to these
30	and I, since they moved left, stared in suspense.
31	There, on all sides, I can see every shade
32	move quickly to embrace another shade,
33	content they did not pause with their brief greeting,
34	as ants, in their dark company, will touch
35	their muzzles, each to each, perhaps to seek
36	news of their fortunes and their journeyings.
37	No sooner is their friendly greeting done
38	than each shade tries to outcry all the rest
39	even before he starts to move ahead,
40	the new group shouting: Sodom and Gomorrah;
41	the other: That the bull may hurry toward
42	her lust, Pasiphae hides in the cow.
43	Then, just like cranes, of whom a part, to flee
44	the sun, fly north to Riphean mountains, while
45	the rest, to flee the frost, fly toward the sands,
46	one group moves with the other opposite us;
47	and they return with tears to their first chants
48	and to the shout appropriate to each.
49	And those who had entreated me came close
50	again, in the same way they'd done before;
51	their faces showed how keen they were to listen.
52	I, seeing their desire once again,
53	began: O souls who can be sure of gaining
54	the state of peace, whenever that may be,
55	my limbs mature or green have not been left
56	within the world beyond; they're here with me,
57	together with their blood and with their bones.
58	That I be blind no longer, through this place
59	I pass; above, a lady has gained grace
60	for me; therefore, I bear my mortal body
61	across your world. So may your deepest longing
62	soon be appeased and you be lodged within
63	the heaven that's most full of love, most spacious,
64	please tell me, so that I may yet transcribe it
65	upon my pages, who you are, and what
66	crowd moves in the direction opposite.
67	Each shade displayed no less astonishment
68	or less confusion than a mountaineer,
69	who, even as he stares about, falls silent
70	when, rough and rustic, he comes to the city;
71	but when they'd set aside astonishment
72	that's soon subdued in noble hearts he who
73	had questioned me before, began again:
74	Blessed are you who would, in order to
75	die better, store experience of our lands!
76	The people moving opposite us shared
77	the sin for which once, while in triumph, Caesar
78	heard 'Queen' called out against him; that is why,
79	as they move off from us, they cry out 'Sodom,'
80	reproaching their own selves, as you have heard,
81	and through their shame abet the fire's work.
82	Our sin was with the other sex; but since
83	we did not keep the bounds of human law,
84	but served our appetites like beasts, when we
85	part from the other ranks, we then repeat,
86	to our disgrace, the name of one who, in
87	the bestial planks, became herself a beast.
88	You now know why we act so, and you know
89	what our sins were; if you would know our names,
90	time is too short, and I don't know them all.
91	But with regard to me, I'll satisfy
92	your wish to know: I'm Guido Guinizzelli,
93	purged here because I grieved before my end.
94	As, after the sad raging of Lycurgus,
95	two sons, finding their mother, had embraced her,
96	so l desired to do but dared not to
97	when I heard him declare his name: the father
98	of me and of the others those, my betters
99	who ever used sweet, gracious rhymes of love.
100	And without hearing, speaking, pensive, I
101	walked on, still gazing at him, a long time,
102	prevented by the fire from drawing closer.
103	When I had fed my sight on him, I offered
104	myself with such a pledge that others must
105	believe completely ready for his service.
106	And he to me: Because of what I hear,
107	you leave a trace within me one so clear,
108	Lethe itself can't blur or cancel it.
109	But if your words have now sworn truthfully,
110	do tell me why it is that you have shown
111	in speech and gaze that I am dear to you.
112	And I to him: It's your sweet lines that, for
113	as long as modern usage lasts, will still
114	make dear their very inks. Brother, he said,
115	he there, whom I point out to you-he showed
116	us one who walked ahead he was a better
117	artisan of the mother tongue, surpassing
118	all those who wrote their poems of love or prose
119	romances let the stupid ones contend,
120	who think that from Limoges there came the best.
121	They credit rumor rather than the truth,
122	allowing their opinion to be set
123	before they hear what art or reason says.
124	So, many of our fathers once persisted,
125	voice after voice, in giving to Guittone
126	the prize but then, with most, the truth prevailed.
127	Now if you are so amply privileged
128	that you will be admitted to the cloister
129	where Christ is abbot of the college, then
130	pray say, for me, to Him, a Paternoster
131	that is, as much of it as those in this
132	place need, since we have lost the power to sin.
133	Then, to make place, perhaps, for those behind him,
134	he disappeared into the fire, just as
135	a fish, through water, plunges toward the bottom.
136	Saying that my desire was making ready
137	a place of welcome for his name, I moved
138	ahead a little, toward the one who had
139	been pointed out to me. And he spoke freely:
140	So does your courteous request please me
141	I neither could nor would conceal myself
142	from you. I am Arnaut, who, going, weep
143	and sing; with grief, I see my former folly;
144	with joy, I see the hoped-for day draw near.
145	Now, by the Power that conducts you to
146	the summit of the stairway, I pray you:
147	remember, at time opportune, my pain!
148	Then, in the fire that refines, he hid.

 

 

CANTO XXVII

The Seventh Circle: The Wanton.

The Wall of Fire and the Angel of God. Dante's Sleep upon the Stairway, and his Dream of Leah and Rachel. Arrival at the Terrestrial Paradise.

1	Just as, there where its Maker shed His blood,
2	the sun shed its first rays, and Ebro lay
3	beneath high Libra, and the ninth hour's rays
4	were scorching Ganges' waves; so here, the sun
5	stood at the point of day's departure when
6	God's angel happy showed himself to us.
7	He stood along the edge, beyond the flames,
8	singing Beati mundo corde in
9	a voice that had more life than ours can claim.
10	Then: Holy souls, you cannot move ahead
11	unless the fire has stung you first: enter
12	the flames, and don't be deaf to song you'll hear
13	beyond, he said when we were close to him;
14	and when I heard him say this, I became
15	like one who has been laid within the grave.
16	I joined my hands and stretched them out to fend
17	the flames, watching the fire, imagining
18	clearly the human bodies I'd once seen
19	burning. My gentle escorts turned to me,
20	and Virgil said: My son, though there may be
21	suffering here, there is no death. Remember,
22	remember! If I guided you to safety
23	even upon the back of Geryon,
24	then now, closer to God, what shall I do?
25	Be sure: although you were to spend a full
26	one thousand years within this fire's center,
27	your head would not be balder by one hair.
28	And if you think I am deceiving you,
29	draw closer to the flames, let your own hands
30	try out, within the fire, your clothing's hem
31	put down, by now put down, your every fear;
32	turn toward the fire, and enter, confident!
33	But I was stubborn, set against my conscience.
34	When he saw me still halting, obstinate,
35	he said, somewhat perplexed: Now see, son: this
36	wall stands between you and your Beatrice.
37	As, at the name of Thisbe, Pyramus,
38	about to die, opened his eyes, and saw her
39	(when then the mulberry became bloodred),
40	so, when my stubbornness had softened, 1,
41	hearing the name that's always flowering
42	within my mind, turned to my knowing guide.
43	At which he shook his head and said: And would43
44	you have us stay along this side? then smiled
45	as one smiles at a child fruit has beguiled.
46	Then he, ahead of me, entered the fire;
47	and he asked Statius, who had walked between us
48	before, dividing us, to go behind.
49	No sooner was I in that fire than I'd
50	have thrown myself in molten glass to find
51	coolness because those flames were so intense.
52	My gentle father, who would comfort me,
53	kept talking, as we walked, of Beatrice,
54	saying: I seem to see her eyes already.
55	A voice that sang beyond us was our guide;
56	and we, attentive to that voice, emerged
57	just at the point where it began to climb.
58	Venite, benedicti Patris mei,
59	it sang within a light that overcame me:
60	I could not look at such intensity.
61	The sun departs, it added; evening comes;
62	don't stay your steps, but hurry on before
63	the west grows dark. The path we took climbed straight
64	#NAME?
65	such that, in front of me, my body blocked
66	the rays of sun, already low behind us.
67	And we had only tried a few steps when
68	I and my sages sensed the sun had set
69	because the shadow I had cast was spent.
70	Before one color came to occupy
71	that sky in all of its immensity
72	and night was free to summon all its darkness,
73	each of us made one of those stairs his bed:
74	the nature of the mountain had so weakened
75	our power and desire to climb ahead.
76	Like goats that, when they grazed, were swift and tameless
77	along the mountain peaks, but now are sated,
78	and rest and ruminate while the sun blazes
79	untroubled, in the shadows, silently,
80	watched over by the herdsman as he leans
81	upon his staff and oversees their peace;
82	or like the herdsman in the open fields,
83	spending the night beside his quiet flock,
84	watching to see that no beast drives them off;
85	such were all three of us at that point
86	they were like the herdsmen, I was like the goat;
87	upon each side of us, high rock walls rose.
88	From there, one saw but little of the sky,
89	but in that little, I could see the stars
90	brighter and larger than they usually are.
91	But while I watched the stars, in reverie,
92	sleep overcame me sleep, which often sees,
93	before it happens, what is yet to be.
94	It was the hour, I think, when Cytherea,
95	who always seems aflame with fires of love,
96	first shines upon the mountains from the east,
97	that, in my dream, I seemed to see a woman
98	both young and fair; along a plain she gathered
99	flowers, and even as she sang, she said:
100	Whoever asks my name, know that I'm Leah,
101	and I apply my lovely hands to fashion
102	a garland of the flowers I have gathered.
103	To find delight within this mirror I
104	adorn myself; whereas my sister Rachel
105	never deserts her mirror; there she sits
106	all day; she longs to see her fair eyes gazing,
107	as I, to see my hands adorning, long:
108	she is content with seeing, I with labor.
109	And now, with the reflected lights that glow
110	before the dawn and, rising, are most welcome
111	to pilgrims as, returning, they near home,
112	the shadows fled upon all sides; my sleep
113	fled with them; and at this, I woke and saw
114	that the great teachers had already risen.
115	Today your hungerings will find their peace
116	through that sweet fruit the care of mortals seeks
117	among so many branches. This, the speech,
118	the solemn words, that Virgil spoke to me;
119	and there were never tidings to compare,
120	in offering delight to me, with these.
121	My will on will to climb above was such
122	that at each step I took I felt the force
123	within my wings was growing for the flight.
124	When all the staircase lay beneath us and
125	we'd reached the highest step, then Virgil set
126	his eyes insistently on me and said:
127	My son, you've seen the temporary fire
128	and the eternal fire; you have reached
129	the place past which my powers cannot see.
130	I've brought you here through intellect and art;
131	from now on, let your pleasure be your guide;
132	you're past the steep and past the narrow paths.
133	Look at the sun that shines upon your brow;
134	look at the grasses, flowers, and the shrubs
135	born here, spontaneously, of the earth.
136	Among them, you can rest or walk until
137	the coming of the glad and lovely eyes
138	those eyes that, weeping, sent me to your side.
139	Await no further word or sign from me:
140	your will is free, erect, and whole to act
141	against that will would be to err: therefore
142	I crown and miter you over yourself.