ABANDON EVERY HOPE, WHO ENTER HERE!
Divine Comedy: Inferno
To illustrate Inferno Fáy Dezső chooses to use a square-framed structure, so as to emphasize the "cage" in which sinners and monsters are placed.
For the latest, however, the artist does not literally follow the descriptions in the text, but rather prefers to represent them from his point of view: imaginary and deformed.
The artist makes triangular compositions by placing them at the beginning and end of each canticle (six in total). In each of these, Dezső illustrates some of the characters present within the three different spiritual worlds.
The English translation of the text of The Divine Comedy is by U.S. professor, poet and literary critic Allen Mandelbaum.
And almost where the hillside starts to rise—
look there!—a leopard, very quick and lithe,
a leopard covered with a spotted hide.
He did not disappear from sight, but stayed;
indeed, he so impeded my ascent
that I had often to turn back again.
The time was the beginning of the morning;
the sun was rising now in fellowship
with the same stars that had escorted it
when Divine Love first moved those things of beauty;
so that the hour and the gentle season
gave me good cause for hopefulness on seeing
that beast before me with his speckled skin;
but hope was hardly able to prevent
the fear I felt when I beheld a lion.
His head held high and ravenous with hunger—
even the air around him seemed to shudder—
this lion seemed to make his way against me.
And then a she—wolf showed herself; she seemed
to carry every craving in her leanness;
she had already brought despair to many.
(Inferno, I, 31-51)
When I saw him in that vast wilderness,
“Have pity on me,” were the words I cried,
“whatever you may be—a shade, a man.”
He answered me: “Not man; I once was man.
Both of my parents came from Lombardy,
and both claimed Mantua as native city.
And I was born, though late, sub Julio,
and lived in Rome under the good Augustus—
the season of the false and lying gods.
I was a poet, and I sang the righteous
son of Anchises who had come from Troy
when flames destroyed the pride of Ilium.
(Inferno, I, 64-75)
You are my master and my author, you—
the only one from whom my writing drew
the noble style for which I have been honored.
You see the beast that made me turn aside;
help me, o famous sage, to stand against her,
for she has made my blood and pulses shudder,”
(Inferno, I, 85-90)
But why should I go there? Who sanctions it?
For I am not Aeneas, am not Paul;
nor I nor others think myself so worthy.
(Inferno, II, 31-33)
What is it then? Why, why do you resist?
Why does your heart host so much cowardice?
Where are your daring and your openness
as long as there are three such blessed women
concerned for you within the court of Heaven
and my words promise you so great a good?”
(Inferno, II, 121-126)
look there!—a leopard, very quick and lithe,
a leopard covered with a spotted hide.
He did not disappear from sight, but stayed;
indeed, he so impeded my ascent
that I had often to turn back again.
The time was the beginning of the morning;
the sun was rising now in fellowship
with the same stars that had escorted it
when Divine Love first moved those things of beauty;
so that the hour and the gentle season
gave me good cause for hopefulness on seeing
that beast before me with his speckled skin;
but hope was hardly able to prevent
the fear I felt when I beheld a lion.
His head held high and ravenous with hunger—
even the air around him seemed to shudder—
this lion seemed to make his way against me.
And then a she—wolf showed herself; she seemed
to carry every craving in her leanness;
she had already brought despair to many.
(Inferno, I, 31-51)
When I saw him in that vast wilderness,
“Have pity on me,” were the words I cried,
“whatever you may be—a shade, a man.”
He answered me: “Not man; I once was man.
Both of my parents came from Lombardy,
and both claimed Mantua as native city.
And I was born, though late, sub Julio,
and lived in Rome under the good Augustus—
the season of the false and lying gods.
I was a poet, and I sang the righteous
son of Anchises who had come from Troy
when flames destroyed the pride of Ilium.
(Inferno, I, 64-75)
You are my master and my author, you—
the only one from whom my writing drew
the noble style for which I have been honored.
You see the beast that made me turn aside;
help me, o famous sage, to stand against her,
for she has made my blood and pulses shudder,”
(Inferno, I, 85-90)
But why should I go there? Who sanctions it?
For I am not Aeneas, am not Paul;
nor I nor others think myself so worthy.
(Inferno, II, 31-33)
What is it then? Why, why do you resist?
Why does your heart host so much cowardice?
Where are your daring and your openness
as long as there are three such blessed women
concerned for you within the court of Heaven
and my words promise you so great a good?”
(Inferno, II, 121-126)
Inferno, Canto I-II
PIM- PKL'2014.3.2.
After I had identified a few,
I saw and recognized the shade of him
who made, through cowardice, the great refusal.
At once I understood with certainty:
this company contained the cowardly,
hateful to God and to His enemies.
(Canto III- 58-63)
And here, advancing toward us, in a boat,
an aged man—his hair was white with years —
was shouting: “Woe to you, corrupted souls!
Forget your hope of ever seeing Heaven:
I come to lead you to the other shore,
to the eternal dark, to fire and frost.
And you approaching there, you living soul,
keep well away from these—they are the dead.”
But when he saw I made no move to go,
he said: “Another way and other harbors—
not here—will bring you passage to your shore:
a lighter craft will have to carry you.”
My guide then: “Charon, don’t torment yourself:
our passage has been willed above, where One
can do what He has willed; and ask no more.”
(Canto III- 82-96)
But all those spirits, naked and exhausted,
had lost their color, and they gnashed their teeth
as soon as they heard Charon’s cruel words;
they execrated God and their own parents
and humankind, and then the place and time
of their conception’s seed and of their birth.
Then they forgathered, huddled in one throng,
weeping aloud along that wretched shore
which waits for all who have no fear of God.
(Canto III, 100-108)
The kindly master said: “Do you not ask
who are these spirits whom you see before you?
I’d have you know, before you go ahead,
they did not sin; and yet, though they have merits,
that’s not enough, because they lacked baptism,
the portal of the faith that you embrace.
And if they lived before Christianity,
they did not worship God in fitting ways;
and of such spirits I myself am one.
(Canto IV, 31-39)
I saw and recognized the shade of him
who made, through cowardice, the great refusal.
At once I understood with certainty:
this company contained the cowardly,
hateful to God and to His enemies.
(Canto III- 58-63)
And here, advancing toward us, in a boat,
an aged man—his hair was white with years —
was shouting: “Woe to you, corrupted souls!
Forget your hope of ever seeing Heaven:
I come to lead you to the other shore,
to the eternal dark, to fire and frost.
And you approaching there, you living soul,
keep well away from these—they are the dead.”
But when he saw I made no move to go,
he said: “Another way and other harbors—
not here—will bring you passage to your shore:
a lighter craft will have to carry you.”
My guide then: “Charon, don’t torment yourself:
our passage has been willed above, where One
can do what He has willed; and ask no more.”
(Canto III- 82-96)
But all those spirits, naked and exhausted,
had lost their color, and they gnashed their teeth
as soon as they heard Charon’s cruel words;
they execrated God and their own parents
and humankind, and then the place and time
of their conception’s seed and of their birth.
Then they forgathered, huddled in one throng,
weeping aloud along that wretched shore
which waits for all who have no fear of God.
(Canto III, 100-108)
The kindly master said: “Do you not ask
who are these spirits whom you see before you?
I’d have you know, before you go ahead,
they did not sin; and yet, though they have merits,
that’s not enough, because they lacked baptism,
the portal of the faith that you embrace.
And if they lived before Christianity,
they did not worship God in fitting ways;
and of such spirits I myself am one.
(Canto IV, 31-39)
Inferno, Canto III-IV
PIM- PKL'2014.3.3.
I descended from the first enclosure
down to the second circle, that which girdles
less space but grief more great, that goads to weeping.
There dreadful Minos stands, gnashing his teeth:
examining the sins of those who enter,
he judges and assigns as his tail twines.
I mean that when the spirit born to evil
appears before him, it confesses all;
and he, the connoisseur of sin, can tell
the depth in Hell appropriate to it;
as many times as Minos wraps his tail
around himself, that marks the sinner’s level.
(Canto V, 1-12)
I reached a place where every light is muted,
which bellows like the sea beneath a tempest,
when it is battered by opposing winds.
The hellish hurricane, which never rests,
drives on the spirits with its violence:
wheeling and pounding, it harasses them.
(Canto V, 28-33)
Over the souls of those submerged beneath
that mess, is an outlandish, vicious beast,
his three throats barking, doglike: Cerberus.
His eyes are bloodred; greasy, black, his beard;
his belly bulges, and his hands are claws;
his talons tear and flay and rend the shades.
(Canto VI, 13-18)
so that it seems that I have never seen you.
But tell me who you are, you who are set
in such a dismal place, such punishment—
if other pains are more, none’s more disgusting.”
And he to me: “Your city—one so full
of envy that its sack has always spilled—
that city held me in the sunlit life.
The name you citizens gave me was Ciacco;
and for the damning sin of gluttony,
as you can see, I languish in the rain.
(Canto VI, 45-54)
And my guide said to me: “He’ll rise no more
until the blast of the angelic trumpet
upon the coming of the hostile Judge:
each one shall see his sorry tomb again
and once again take on his flesh and form,
and hear what shall resound eternally.”
(Canto VI, 94-99)
down to the second circle, that which girdles
less space but grief more great, that goads to weeping.
There dreadful Minos stands, gnashing his teeth:
examining the sins of those who enter,
he judges and assigns as his tail twines.
I mean that when the spirit born to evil
appears before him, it confesses all;
and he, the connoisseur of sin, can tell
the depth in Hell appropriate to it;
as many times as Minos wraps his tail
around himself, that marks the sinner’s level.
(Canto V, 1-12)
I reached a place where every light is muted,
which bellows like the sea beneath a tempest,
when it is battered by opposing winds.
The hellish hurricane, which never rests,
drives on the spirits with its violence:
wheeling and pounding, it harasses them.
(Canto V, 28-33)
Over the souls of those submerged beneath
that mess, is an outlandish, vicious beast,
his three throats barking, doglike: Cerberus.
His eyes are bloodred; greasy, black, his beard;
his belly bulges, and his hands are claws;
his talons tear and flay and rend the shades.
(Canto VI, 13-18)
so that it seems that I have never seen you.
But tell me who you are, you who are set
in such a dismal place, such punishment—
if other pains are more, none’s more disgusting.”
And he to me: “Your city—one so full
of envy that its sack has always spilled—
that city held me in the sunlit life.
The name you citizens gave me was Ciacco;
and for the damning sin of gluttony,
as you can see, I languish in the rain.
(Canto VI, 45-54)
And my guide said to me: “He’ll rise no more
until the blast of the angelic trumpet
upon the coming of the hostile Judge:
each one shall see his sorry tomb again
and once again take on his flesh and form,
and hear what shall resound eternally.”
(Canto VI, 94-99)
Inferno, Canto V-VI
PIM- PKL'2014.3.4.
Even as waves that break above Charybdis,
each shattering the other when they meet,
so must the spirits here dance their round dance.
Here, more than elsewhere, I saw multitudes
to every side of me; their howls were loud
while, wheeling weights, they used their chests to push.
They struck against each other; at that point,
each turned around and, wheeling back those weights,
cried out: “Why do you hoard?” “Why do you squander?”
So did they move around the sorry circle
from left and right to the opposing point;
again, again they cried their chant of scorn;
(Canto VII, 22-33)
Bowstring has not thrust from itself an arrow
that ever rushed as swiftly through the air
as did the little bark that at that moment
I saw as it skimmed toward us on the water,
a solitary boatman at its helm.
I heard him howl: “Now you are caught, foul soul!”
“O Phlegyas, Phlegyas, such a shout is useless
this time,” my master said; “we’re yours no longer
than it will take to cross the muddy sluice.”
(Canto VIII, 13-21)
And while we steered across the stagnant channel,
before me stood a sinner thick with mud,
saying: “Who are you, come before your time?”
And I to him: “I’ve come, but I don’t stay;
but who are you, who have become so ugly?”
He answered: “You can see—I’m one who weeps.”
And I to him: “In weeping and in grieving,
accursed spirit, may you long remain;
though you’re disguised by filth, I know your name.”
Then he stretched both his hands out toward the boat,
at which my master quickly shoved him back,
saying: “Be off there with the other dogs!”
(Canto VIII, 31-42)
Soon after I had heard these words, I saw
the muddy sinners so dismember him
that even now I praise and thank God for it.
They all were shouting: “At Filippo Argenti!”
At this, the Florentine, gone wild with spleen,
began to turn his teeth against himself.
(Canto VIII, 58-63)
And he said more, but I cannot remember
because my eyes had wholly taken me
to that high tower with the glowing summit
where, at one single point, there suddenly
stood three infernal Furies flecked with blood,
who had the limbs of women and their ways
but wore, as girdles, snakes of deepest green;
small serpents and horned vipers formed their hairs,
and these were used to bind their bestial temples.
And he, who knew these handmaids well—they served
the Queen of never-ending lamentation—
said: “Look at the ferocious Erinyes!
(Canto IX, 34-45)
Just as at Arles, where Rhone becomes a marsh,
just as at Pola, near Quarnero’s gulf,
that closes Italy and bathes its borders,
the sepulchers make all the plain uneven,
so they did here on every side, except
that here the sepulchers were much more harsh;
for flames were scattered through the tombs, and these
had kindled all of them to glowing heat;
no artisan could ask for hotter iron.
(Canto IX, 112-120)
each shattering the other when they meet,
so must the spirits here dance their round dance.
Here, more than elsewhere, I saw multitudes
to every side of me; their howls were loud
while, wheeling weights, they used their chests to push.
They struck against each other; at that point,
each turned around and, wheeling back those weights,
cried out: “Why do you hoard?” “Why do you squander?”
So did they move around the sorry circle
from left and right to the opposing point;
again, again they cried their chant of scorn;
(Canto VII, 22-33)
Bowstring has not thrust from itself an arrow
that ever rushed as swiftly through the air
as did the little bark that at that moment
I saw as it skimmed toward us on the water,
a solitary boatman at its helm.
I heard him howl: “Now you are caught, foul soul!”
“O Phlegyas, Phlegyas, such a shout is useless
this time,” my master said; “we’re yours no longer
than it will take to cross the muddy sluice.”
(Canto VIII, 13-21)
And while we steered across the stagnant channel,
before me stood a sinner thick with mud,
saying: “Who are you, come before your time?”
And I to him: “I’ve come, but I don’t stay;
but who are you, who have become so ugly?”
He answered: “You can see—I’m one who weeps.”
And I to him: “In weeping and in grieving,
accursed spirit, may you long remain;
though you’re disguised by filth, I know your name.”
Then he stretched both his hands out toward the boat,
at which my master quickly shoved him back,
saying: “Be off there with the other dogs!”
(Canto VIII, 31-42)
Soon after I had heard these words, I saw
the muddy sinners so dismember him
that even now I praise and thank God for it.
They all were shouting: “At Filippo Argenti!”
At this, the Florentine, gone wild with spleen,
began to turn his teeth against himself.
(Canto VIII, 58-63)
And he said more, but I cannot remember
because my eyes had wholly taken me
to that high tower with the glowing summit
where, at one single point, there suddenly
stood three infernal Furies flecked with blood,
who had the limbs of women and their ways
but wore, as girdles, snakes of deepest green;
small serpents and horned vipers formed their hairs,
and these were used to bind their bestial temples.
And he, who knew these handmaids well—they served
the Queen of never-ending lamentation—
said: “Look at the ferocious Erinyes!
(Canto IX, 34-45)
Just as at Arles, where Rhone becomes a marsh,
just as at Pola, near Quarnero’s gulf,
that closes Italy and bathes its borders,
the sepulchers make all the plain uneven,
so they did here on every side, except
that here the sepulchers were much more harsh;
for flames were scattered through the tombs, and these
had kindled all of them to glowing heat;
no artisan could ask for hotter iron.
(Canto IX, 112-120)
Inferno, Canto VII-VIII-IX
PIM- PKL'2014.3.5.
Just as the bull that breaks loose from its halter
the moment it receives the fatal stroke,
and cannot run but plunges back and forth,
so did I see the Minotaur respond;
and my alert guide cried: “Run toward the pass;
it’s better to descend while he’s berserk.”
(Canto XII, 22-27)
But fix your eyes below, upon the valley,
for now we near the stream of blood, where those
who injure others violently, boil.”
O blind cupidity and insane anger,
which goad us on so much in our short life,
then steep us in such grief eternally!
I saw a broad ditch bent into an arc
so that it could embrace all of that plain,
precisely as my guide had said before;
between it and the base of the embankment
raced files of Centaurs who were armed with arrows,
as, in the world above, they used to hunt.
On seeing us descend, they all reined in;
and, after they had chosen bows and shafts,
three of their number moved out from their ranks;
and still far off, one cried: “What punishment
do you approach as you descend the slope?
But speak from there; if not, I draw my bow.”
(Canto XII, 46-63)
Now, with our faithful escort, we advanced
along the bloodred, boiling ditch’s banks,
beside the piercing cries of those who boiled.
I saw some who were sunk up to their brows,
and that huge Centaur said: “These are the tyrants
who plunged their hands in blood and plundering.
(Canto XII, 100-105)
the moment it receives the fatal stroke,
and cannot run but plunges back and forth,
so did I see the Minotaur respond;
and my alert guide cried: “Run toward the pass;
it’s better to descend while he’s berserk.”
(Canto XII, 22-27)
But fix your eyes below, upon the valley,
for now we near the stream of blood, where those
who injure others violently, boil.”
O blind cupidity and insane anger,
which goad us on so much in our short life,
then steep us in such grief eternally!
I saw a broad ditch bent into an arc
so that it could embrace all of that plain,
precisely as my guide had said before;
between it and the base of the embankment
raced files of Centaurs who were armed with arrows,
as, in the world above, they used to hunt.
On seeing us descend, they all reined in;
and, after they had chosen bows and shafts,
three of their number moved out from their ranks;
and still far off, one cried: “What punishment
do you approach as you descend the slope?
But speak from there; if not, I draw my bow.”
(Canto XII, 46-63)
Now, with our faithful escort, we advanced
along the bloodred, boiling ditch’s banks,
beside the piercing cries of those who boiled.
I saw some who were sunk up to their brows,
and that huge Centaur said: “These are the tyrants
who plunged their hands in blood and plundering.
(Canto XII, 100-105)
Inferno, Canto XII
PIM- PKL'2014.3.6.
“Behold the beast who bears the pointed tail,
who crosses mountains, shatters weapons, walls!
Behold the one whose stench fills all the world!”
So did my guide begin to speak to me,
and then he signaled him to come ashore
close to the end of those stone passageways.
And he came on, that filthy effigy
of fraud, and landed with his head and torso
but did not draw his tail onto the bank.
The face he wore was that of a just man,
so gracious was his features’ outer semblance;
and all his trunk, the body of a serpent;
he had two paws, with hair up to the armpits;
his back and chest as well as both his flanks
had been adorned with twining knots and circlets.
(Canto XVII, 1-15)
that had a special color and an emblem,
and their eyes seemed to feast upon these pouches.
Looking about—when I had come among them—
I saw a yellow purse with azure on it
that had the face and manner of a lion.
Then, as I let my eyes move farther on,
I saw another purse that was bloodred,
and it displayed a goose more white than butter.
(Canto XVII, 56-63)
I settled down on those enormous shoulders;
I wished to say (and yet my voice did not
come as I thought): “See that you hold me tight.”
But he who—other times, in other dangers—
sustained me, just as soon as I had mounted,
clasped me within his arms and propped me up,
(Canto XVII, 91-96)
filling the first of Malebolge’s moats.
Along its bottom, naked sinners moved,
to our side of the middle, facing us;
beyond that, they moved with us, but more quickly—
as, in the year of Jubilee, the Romans,
confronted by great crowds, contrived a plan
that let the people pass across the bridge,
for to one side went all who had their eyes
upon the Castle, heading toward St. Peter’s,
and to the other, those who faced the Mount.
(Canto XVIII, 24-33)
Along the sides and down along the bottom,
I saw that livid rock was perforated:
the openings were all one width and round.
They did not seem to me less broad or more
than those that in my handsome San Giovanni
were made to serve as basins for baptizing;
(Canto XIX, 13-18)
Below my head there is the place of those
who took the way of simony before me;
and they are stuffed within the clefts of stone.
(Canto XIX; 73-75)
who crosses mountains, shatters weapons, walls!
Behold the one whose stench fills all the world!”
So did my guide begin to speak to me,
and then he signaled him to come ashore
close to the end of those stone passageways.
And he came on, that filthy effigy
of fraud, and landed with his head and torso
but did not draw his tail onto the bank.
The face he wore was that of a just man,
so gracious was his features’ outer semblance;
and all his trunk, the body of a serpent;
he had two paws, with hair up to the armpits;
his back and chest as well as both his flanks
had been adorned with twining knots and circlets.
(Canto XVII, 1-15)
that had a special color and an emblem,
and their eyes seemed to feast upon these pouches.
Looking about—when I had come among them—
I saw a yellow purse with azure on it
that had the face and manner of a lion.
Then, as I let my eyes move farther on,
I saw another purse that was bloodred,
and it displayed a goose more white than butter.
(Canto XVII, 56-63)
I settled down on those enormous shoulders;
I wished to say (and yet my voice did not
come as I thought): “See that you hold me tight.”
But he who—other times, in other dangers—
sustained me, just as soon as I had mounted,
clasped me within his arms and propped me up,
(Canto XVII, 91-96)
filling the first of Malebolge’s moats.
Along its bottom, naked sinners moved,
to our side of the middle, facing us;
beyond that, they moved with us, but more quickly—
as, in the year of Jubilee, the Romans,
confronted by great crowds, contrived a plan
that let the people pass across the bridge,
for to one side went all who had their eyes
upon the Castle, heading toward St. Peter’s,
and to the other, those who faced the Mount.
(Canto XVIII, 24-33)
Along the sides and down along the bottom,
I saw that livid rock was perforated:
the openings were all one width and round.
They did not seem to me less broad or more
than those that in my handsome San Giovanni
were made to serve as basins for baptizing;
(Canto XIX, 13-18)
Below my head there is the place of those
who took the way of simony before me;
and they are stuffed within the clefts of stone.
(Canto XIX; 73-75)
Inferno, Canto XVII-XVIII- XIX
PIM- PKL'2014.3.7.
be soft to this one.” And I do not know
if I was too rash here—I answered so:
“Then tell me now, how much gold did our Lord
ask that Saint Peter give to him before
he placed the keys within his care? Surely
the only thing he said was: ‘Follow me.’
And Peter and the others never asked
for gold or silver when they chose Matthias
to take the place of the transgressing soul.
Stay as you are, for you are rightly punished;
and guard with care the money got by evil
that made you so audacious against Charles.
And were it not that I am still prevented
by reverence for those exalted keys
that you had held within the happy life,
I’d utter words much heavier than these,
because your avarice afflicts the world:
it tramples on the good, lifts up the wicked.
(Canto XIX, 88-105)
and in the valley’s circle I saw souls
advancing, mute and weeping, at the pace
that, in our world, holy processions take.
As I inclined my head still more, I saw
that each, amazingly, appeared contorted
between the chin and where the chest begins;
they had their faces twisted toward their haunches
and found it necessary to walk backward,
because they could not see ahead of them.
(Canto XX, 7-15)
And she who covers up her breasts—which you
can’t see—with her disheveled locks, who keeps
all of her hairy parts to the far side,
was Manto, who had searched through many lands,
then settled in the place where I was born;
on this, I’d have you hear me now a while.
(Canto XX, 52-57)
if I was too rash here—I answered so:
“Then tell me now, how much gold did our Lord
ask that Saint Peter give to him before
he placed the keys within his care? Surely
the only thing he said was: ‘Follow me.’
And Peter and the others never asked
for gold or silver when they chose Matthias
to take the place of the transgressing soul.
Stay as you are, for you are rightly punished;
and guard with care the money got by evil
that made you so audacious against Charles.
And were it not that I am still prevented
by reverence for those exalted keys
that you had held within the happy life,
I’d utter words much heavier than these,
because your avarice afflicts the world:
it tramples on the good, lifts up the wicked.
(Canto XIX, 88-105)
and in the valley’s circle I saw souls
advancing, mute and weeping, at the pace
that, in our world, holy processions take.
As I inclined my head still more, I saw
that each, amazingly, appeared contorted
between the chin and where the chest begins;
they had their faces twisted toward their haunches
and found it necessary to walk backward,
because they could not see ahead of them.
(Canto XX, 7-15)
And she who covers up her breasts—which you
can’t see—with her disheveled locks, who keeps
all of her hairy parts to the far side,
was Manto, who had searched through many lands,
then settled in the place where I was born;
on this, I’d have you hear me now a while.
(Canto XX, 52-57)
Inferno, Canto XIX- XX
PIM- PKL'2014.3.8.
who does not stop his flight and yet would look.
And then in back of us I saw a black
demon as he came racing up the crags.
Ah, he was surely barbarous to see!
And how relentless seemed to me his acts!
His wings were open and his feet were lithe;
across his shoulder, which was sharp and high,
he had slung a sinner, upward from the thighs;
in front, the demon gripped him by the ankles.
Then from our bridge, he called: “O Malebranche,
I’ve got an elder of Saint Zita for you!
Shove this one under—I’ll go back for more—
his city is well furnished with such stores;
there, everyone’s a grafter but Bonturo;
and there—for cash—they’ll change a no to yes.”
He threw the sinner down, then wheeled along
The stony cliff: no mastiff’s ever been
unleashed with so much haste to chase a thief.
(Canto XXI, 28-45)
is still to be observed around Gardingo.”
I then began, “O Friars, your misdeeds . . . ”
but said no more, because my eyes had caught
one crucified by three stakes on the ground.
When he saw me, that sinner writhed all over,
and he breathed hard into his beard with sighs;
observing that, Fra Catalano said
to me: “That one impaled there, whom you see,
counseled the Pharisees that it was prudent
to let one man—and not one nation—suffer.
Naked, he has been stretched across the path,
as you can see, and he must feel the weight
of anyone who passes over him.
(Canto XXIII, 108-120)
Let Libya boast no more about her sands;
for if she breeds chelydri, jaculi,
cenchres with amphisbaena, pareae,
she never showed—with all of Ethiopia
or all the land that borders the Red Sea—
so many, such malignant, pestilences.
Among this cruel and depressing swarm,
ran people who were naked, terrified,
with no hope of a hole or heliotrope.
Their hands were tied behind by serpents; these
had thrust their head and tail right through the loins,
and then were knotted on the other side.
(Canto XXIV, 85-96)
And then in back of us I saw a black
demon as he came racing up the crags.
Ah, he was surely barbarous to see!
And how relentless seemed to me his acts!
His wings were open and his feet were lithe;
across his shoulder, which was sharp and high,
he had slung a sinner, upward from the thighs;
in front, the demon gripped him by the ankles.
Then from our bridge, he called: “O Malebranche,
I’ve got an elder of Saint Zita for you!
Shove this one under—I’ll go back for more—
his city is well furnished with such stores;
there, everyone’s a grafter but Bonturo;
and there—for cash—they’ll change a no to yes.”
He threw the sinner down, then wheeled along
The stony cliff: no mastiff’s ever been
unleashed with so much haste to chase a thief.
(Canto XXI, 28-45)
is still to be observed around Gardingo.”
I then began, “O Friars, your misdeeds . . . ”
but said no more, because my eyes had caught
one crucified by three stakes on the ground.
When he saw me, that sinner writhed all over,
and he breathed hard into his beard with sighs;
observing that, Fra Catalano said
to me: “That one impaled there, whom you see,
counseled the Pharisees that it was prudent
to let one man—and not one nation—suffer.
Naked, he has been stretched across the path,
as you can see, and he must feel the weight
of anyone who passes over him.
(Canto XXIII, 108-120)
Let Libya boast no more about her sands;
for if she breeds chelydri, jaculi,
cenchres with amphisbaena, pareae,
she never showed—with all of Ethiopia
or all the land that borders the Red Sea—
so many, such malignant, pestilences.
Among this cruel and depressing swarm,
ran people who were naked, terrified,
with no hope of a hole or heliotrope.
Their hands were tied behind by serpents; these
had thrust their head and tail right through the loins,
and then were knotted on the other side.
(Canto XXIV, 85-96)
Inferno, Canto XXI- XXIII- XXIV
PIM- PKL'2014.3.9.
He fled and could not say another word;
and then I saw a Centaur full of anger,
shouting: “Where is he, where’s that bitter one?”
I do not think Maremma has the number
of snakes that Centaur carried on his haunch
until the part that takes our human form.
Upon his shoulders and behind his nape
there lay a dragon with its wings outstretched;
it sets ablaze all those it intercepts.
My master said: “That Centaur there is Cacus,
who often made a lake of blood within
a grotto underneath Mount Aventine.
He does not ride the same road as his brothers
because he stole—and most deceitfully—
from the great herd nearby; his crooked deeds
ended beneath the club of Hercules,
who may have given him a hundred blows—
but he was not alive to feel the tenth.”
(Canto XXV, 16-33)
My guide, who noted how intent I was,
told me: “Within those fires there are souls;
each one is swathed in that which scorches him.”
“My master,” I replied, “on hearing you,
I am more sure; but I’d already thought
that it was so, and I had meant to ask:
Who is within the flame that comes so twinned
above that it would seem to rise out of
the pyre Eteocles shared with his brother?”
He answered me: “Within that flame, Ulysses
and Diomedes suffer; they, who went
as one to rage, now share one punishment.
And there, together in their flame, they grieve
over the horse’s fraud that caused a breach—
the gate that let Rome’s noble seed escape.
There they regret the guile that makes the dead
Deidamia still lament Achilles;
and there, for the Palladium, they pay.”
(Canto XXVI, 46-63)
and then I saw a Centaur full of anger,
shouting: “Where is he, where’s that bitter one?”
I do not think Maremma has the number
of snakes that Centaur carried on his haunch
until the part that takes our human form.
Upon his shoulders and behind his nape
there lay a dragon with its wings outstretched;
it sets ablaze all those it intercepts.
My master said: “That Centaur there is Cacus,
who often made a lake of blood within
a grotto underneath Mount Aventine.
He does not ride the same road as his brothers
because he stole—and most deceitfully—
from the great herd nearby; his crooked deeds
ended beneath the club of Hercules,
who may have given him a hundred blows—
but he was not alive to feel the tenth.”
(Canto XXV, 16-33)
My guide, who noted how intent I was,
told me: “Within those fires there are souls;
each one is swathed in that which scorches him.”
“My master,” I replied, “on hearing you,
I am more sure; but I’d already thought
that it was so, and I had meant to ask:
Who is within the flame that comes so twinned
above that it would seem to rise out of
the pyre Eteocles shared with his brother?”
He answered me: “Within that flame, Ulysses
and Diomedes suffer; they, who went
as one to rage, now share one punishment.
And there, together in their flame, they grieve
over the horse’s fraud that caused a breach—
the gate that let Rome’s noble seed escape.
There they regret the guile that makes the dead
Deidamia still lament Achilles;
and there, for the Palladium, they pay.”
(Canto XXVI, 46-63)
Inferno, Canto XXV- XXVI
PIM- PKL'2014.3.10.
I was a man of arms, then wore the cord,
believing that, so girt, I made amends;
and surely what I thought would have been true
had not the Highest Priest-may he be damned!-
made me fall back into my former sins;
and how and why, I’d have you hear from me.
(Canto XXVII, 67-72)
Then Francis came, as soon as I was dead,
for me; but one of the black cherubim
told him: ‘Don’t bear him off; do not cheat me.
He must come down among my menials;
the counsel that he gave was fraudulent;
since then, I’ve kept close track, to snatch his scalp;
one can’t absolve a man who’s not repented,
and no one can repent and will at once;
the law of contradiction won’t allow it.’
(Canto XXVII, 112-120)
No barrel, even though it’s lost a hoop
or end— piece, ever gapes as one whom I
saw ripped right from his chin to where we fart:
his bowels hung between his legs, one saw
his vitals and the miserable sack
that makes of what we swallow excrement.
While I was all intent on watching him,
he looked at me, and with his hands he spread
his chest and said: “See how I split myself!
(Canto XXVIII, 22-30)
And all the others here whom you can see
were, when alive, the sowers of dissension
and scandal, and for this they now are split.
Behind us here, a devil decks us out
so cruelly, re—placing every one
of this throng underneath the sword edge when
we’ve made our way around the road of pain,
because our wounds have closed again before
we have returned to meet his blade once more.
(Canto XXVIII, 34-42)
Out of itself it made itself a lamp,
and they were two in one and one in two;
how that can be, He knows who so decrees.
When it was just below the bridge, it lifted
its arm together with its head, so that
its words might be more near us, words that said:
“Now you can see atrocious punishment,
you who, still breathing, go to view the dead:
see if there’s any pain as great as this.
And so that you may carry news of me,
know that I am Bertran de Born, the one
who gave bad counsel to the fledgling king.
I made the son and father enemies:
Achitophel with his malicious urgings
did not do worse with Absalom and David.
Because I severed those so joined, I carry—
alas—my brain dissevered from its source,
which is within my trunk. And thus, in me
one sees the law of counter—penalty.”
(Canto XXVIII, 124-142)
Some lay upon their bellies, some upon
the shoulders of another spirit, some
crawled on all fours along that squalid road.
We journeyed step by step without a word,
watching and listening to those sick souls,
who had not strength enough to lift themselves.
(Canto XXIX, 67-72)
believing that, so girt, I made amends;
and surely what I thought would have been true
had not the Highest Priest-may he be damned!-
made me fall back into my former sins;
and how and why, I’d have you hear from me.
(Canto XXVII, 67-72)
Then Francis came, as soon as I was dead,
for me; but one of the black cherubim
told him: ‘Don’t bear him off; do not cheat me.
He must come down among my menials;
the counsel that he gave was fraudulent;
since then, I’ve kept close track, to snatch his scalp;
one can’t absolve a man who’s not repented,
and no one can repent and will at once;
the law of contradiction won’t allow it.’
(Canto XXVII, 112-120)
No barrel, even though it’s lost a hoop
or end— piece, ever gapes as one whom I
saw ripped right from his chin to where we fart:
his bowels hung between his legs, one saw
his vitals and the miserable sack
that makes of what we swallow excrement.
While I was all intent on watching him,
he looked at me, and with his hands he spread
his chest and said: “See how I split myself!
(Canto XXVIII, 22-30)
And all the others here whom you can see
were, when alive, the sowers of dissension
and scandal, and for this they now are split.
Behind us here, a devil decks us out
so cruelly, re—placing every one
of this throng underneath the sword edge when
we’ve made our way around the road of pain,
because our wounds have closed again before
we have returned to meet his blade once more.
(Canto XXVIII, 34-42)
Out of itself it made itself a lamp,
and they were two in one and one in two;
how that can be, He knows who so decrees.
When it was just below the bridge, it lifted
its arm together with its head, so that
its words might be more near us, words that said:
“Now you can see atrocious punishment,
you who, still breathing, go to view the dead:
see if there’s any pain as great as this.
And so that you may carry news of me,
know that I am Bertran de Born, the one
who gave bad counsel to the fledgling king.
I made the son and father enemies:
Achitophel with his malicious urgings
did not do worse with Absalom and David.
Because I severed those so joined, I carry—
alas—my brain dissevered from its source,
which is within my trunk. And thus, in me
one sees the law of counter—penalty.”
(Canto XXVIII, 124-142)
Some lay upon their bellies, some upon
the shoulders of another spirit, some
crawled on all fours along that squalid road.
We journeyed step by step without a word,
watching and listening to those sick souls,
who had not strength enough to lift themselves.
(Canto XXIX, 67-72)
Inferno, Canto XXVII- XXVIII- XXIX
PIM- PKL'2014.3.11.
And he to me: “That is the ancient soul
of the indecent Myrrha, she who loved
her father past the limits of just love.
She came to sin with him by falsely taking
another’s shape upon herself, just as
the other phantom who goes there had done,
(Canto XXX, 37-42)
I saw one who’d be fashioned like a lute
if he had only had his groin cut off
from that part of his body where it forks.
The heavy dropsy, which so disproportions
the limbs with unassimilated humors
that there’s no match between the face and belly,
had made him part his lips like a consumptive,
who will, because of thirst, let one lip drop
down to his chin and lift the other up.
“O you exempt from every punishment
in this grim world, and I do not know why,”
he said to us, “look now and pay attention
to this, the misery of Master Adam:
alive, I had enough of all I wanted;
alas, I now long for one drop of water.
The rivulets that fall into the Arno
down from the green hills of the Casentino
with channels cool and moist, are constantly
before me; I am racked by memory—
the image of their flow parches me more
than the disease that robs my face of flesh.
The rigid Justice that would torment me
uses, as most appropriate, the place
where I had sinned, to draw swift sighs from me.
(Canto XXX, , 49-72)
“I found them here,” he answered, “when I rained
down to this rocky slope; they’ve not stirred since
and will not move, I think, eternally.
One is the lying woman who blamed Joseph;
the other, lying Sinon, Greek from Troy:
because of raging fever they reek so.”
And one of them, who seemed to take offense,
perhaps at being named so squalidly,
struck with his fist at Adam’s rigid belly.
(Canto XXX, 94-102)
“If I spoke false, you falsified the coin,”
said Sinon; “I am here for just one crime—
but you’ve committed more than any demon.”
“Do not forget the horse, you perjurer,”
replied the one who had the bloated belly,
“may you be plagued because the whole world knows it.”
The Greek: “And you be plagued by thirst that cracks
your tongue, and putrid water that has made
your belly such a hedge before your eyes.”
And then the coiner: “So, as usual,
your mouth, because of racking fever, gapes;
for if I thirst and if my humor bloats me,
you have both dryness and a head that aches;
few words would be sufficient invitation
to have you lick the mirror of Narcissus.”
(Canto XXX, 115-129)
of the indecent Myrrha, she who loved
her father past the limits of just love.
She came to sin with him by falsely taking
another’s shape upon herself, just as
the other phantom who goes there had done,
(Canto XXX, 37-42)
I saw one who’d be fashioned like a lute
if he had only had his groin cut off
from that part of his body where it forks.
The heavy dropsy, which so disproportions
the limbs with unassimilated humors
that there’s no match between the face and belly,
had made him part his lips like a consumptive,
who will, because of thirst, let one lip drop
down to his chin and lift the other up.
“O you exempt from every punishment
in this grim world, and I do not know why,”
he said to us, “look now and pay attention
to this, the misery of Master Adam:
alive, I had enough of all I wanted;
alas, I now long for one drop of water.
The rivulets that fall into the Arno
down from the green hills of the Casentino
with channels cool and moist, are constantly
before me; I am racked by memory—
the image of their flow parches me more
than the disease that robs my face of flesh.
The rigid Justice that would torment me
uses, as most appropriate, the place
where I had sinned, to draw swift sighs from me.
(Canto XXX, , 49-72)
“I found them here,” he answered, “when I rained
down to this rocky slope; they’ve not stirred since
and will not move, I think, eternally.
One is the lying woman who blamed Joseph;
the other, lying Sinon, Greek from Troy:
because of raging fever they reek so.”
And one of them, who seemed to take offense,
perhaps at being named so squalidly,
struck with his fist at Adam’s rigid belly.
(Canto XXX, 94-102)
“If I spoke false, you falsified the coin,”
said Sinon; “I am here for just one crime—
but you’ve committed more than any demon.”
“Do not forget the horse, you perjurer,”
replied the one who had the bloated belly,
“may you be plagued because the whole world knows it.”
The Greek: “And you be plagued by thirst that cracks
your tongue, and putrid water that has made
your belly such a hedge before your eyes.”
And then the coiner: “So, as usual,
your mouth, because of racking fever, gapes;
for if I thirst and if my humor bloats me,
you have both dryness and a head that aches;
few words would be sufficient invitation
to have you lick the mirror of Narcissus.”
(Canto XXX, 115-129)
Inferno, Canto XXX
PIM- PKL'2014.3.12.
for as, on its round wall, Montereggioni
is crowned with towers, so there towered here,
above the bank that runs around the pit,
with half their bulk, the terrifying giants,
whom Jove still menaces from Heaven when
he sends his bolts of thunder down upon them.
(Canto XXXI, 40-45)
And my guide turned to him: “O stupid soul,
keep to your horn and use that as an outlet
when rage or other passion touches you!
Look at your neck, and you will find the strap
that holds it fast; and see, bewildered spirit,
how it lies straight across your massive chest.”
And then to me: “He is his own accuser;
for this is Nimrod, through whose wicked thought
one single language cannot serve the world.
Leave him alone—let’s not waste time in talk;
for every language is to him the same
as his to others—no one knows his tongue.”
So, turning to the left, we journeyed on
and, at the distance of a bow—shot, found
another giant, far more huge and fierce.
Who was the master who had tied him so,
I cannot say, but his left arm was bent
behind him and his right was bent in front,
both pinioned by a chain that held him tight
down from the neck; and round the part of him
that was exposed, it had been wound five times.
(Canto XXXI, 70-90)
And as the croaking frog sits with its muzzle
above the water, in the season when
the peasant woman often dreams of gleaning,
so, livid in the ice, up to the place
where shame can show itself, were those sad shades,
whose teeth were chattering with notes like storks’.
(Canto XXXII, 31- 36)
I don’t know who you are or in what way
you’ve come down here; and yet you surely seem—
from what I hear—to be a Florentine.
You are to know I was Count Ugolino,
and this one here, Archbishop Ruggieri;
and now I’ll tell you why I am his neighbor.
(Canto XXXIII, 10-15)
To which I answered: “If you’d have me help you,
then tell me who you are; if I don’t free you,
may I go to the bottom of the ice.”
He answered then: “I am Fra Alberigo,
the one who tended fruits in a bad garden,
and here my figs have been repaid with dates.”
(Canto XXXIII, 115- 120)
is crowned with towers, so there towered here,
above the bank that runs around the pit,
with half their bulk, the terrifying giants,
whom Jove still menaces from Heaven when
he sends his bolts of thunder down upon them.
(Canto XXXI, 40-45)
And my guide turned to him: “O stupid soul,
keep to your horn and use that as an outlet
when rage or other passion touches you!
Look at your neck, and you will find the strap
that holds it fast; and see, bewildered spirit,
how it lies straight across your massive chest.”
And then to me: “He is his own accuser;
for this is Nimrod, through whose wicked thought
one single language cannot serve the world.
Leave him alone—let’s not waste time in talk;
for every language is to him the same
as his to others—no one knows his tongue.”
So, turning to the left, we journeyed on
and, at the distance of a bow—shot, found
another giant, far more huge and fierce.
Who was the master who had tied him so,
I cannot say, but his left arm was bent
behind him and his right was bent in front,
both pinioned by a chain that held him tight
down from the neck; and round the part of him
that was exposed, it had been wound five times.
(Canto XXXI, 70-90)
And as the croaking frog sits with its muzzle
above the water, in the season when
the peasant woman often dreams of gleaning,
so, livid in the ice, up to the place
where shame can show itself, were those sad shades,
whose teeth were chattering with notes like storks’.
(Canto XXXII, 31- 36)
I don’t know who you are or in what way
you’ve come down here; and yet you surely seem—
from what I hear—to be a Florentine.
You are to know I was Count Ugolino,
and this one here, Archbishop Ruggieri;
and now I’ll tell you why I am his neighbor.
(Canto XXXIII, 10-15)
To which I answered: “If you’d have me help you,
then tell me who you are; if I don’t free you,
may I go to the bottom of the ice.”
He answered then: “I am Fra Alberigo,
the one who tended fruits in a bad garden,
and here my figs have been repaid with dates.”
(Canto XXXIII, 115- 120)
Inferno, Canto XXXI- XXXII- XXXIII
PIM- PKL'2014.3.13.
how every sorrow has its source in him!
I marveled when I saw that, on his head,
he had three faces: one—in front-bloodred;
and then another two that, just above
the midpoint of each shoulder, joined the first;
and at the crown, all three were reattached;
the right looked somewhat yellow, somewhat white;
the left in its appearance was like those
who come from where the Nile, descending, flows.
(Canto XXXIV, 37-45)
“That soul up there who has to suffer most,”
my master said: “Judas Iscariot—
his head inside, he jerks his legs without.
Of those two others, with their heads beneath,
the one who hangs from that black snout is Brutus—
see how he writhes and does not say a word!
That other, who seems so robust, is Cassius.
But night is come again, and it is time
for us to leave; we have seen everything.”
(Canto XXXIV, 61-69)
My guide and I came on that hidden road
to make our way back into the bright world;
and with no care for any rest, we climbed—
he first, I following—until I saw,
through a round opening, some of those things
of beauty Heaven bears. It was from there
that we emerged, to see—once more—the stars.
(Canto XXXIV, 133-139)
I marveled when I saw that, on his head,
he had three faces: one—in front-bloodred;
and then another two that, just above
the midpoint of each shoulder, joined the first;
and at the crown, all three were reattached;
the right looked somewhat yellow, somewhat white;
the left in its appearance was like those
who come from where the Nile, descending, flows.
(Canto XXXIV, 37-45)
“That soul up there who has to suffer most,”
my master said: “Judas Iscariot—
his head inside, he jerks his legs without.
Of those two others, with their heads beneath,
the one who hangs from that black snout is Brutus—
see how he writhes and does not say a word!
That other, who seems so robust, is Cassius.
But night is come again, and it is time
for us to leave; we have seen everything.”
(Canto XXXIV, 61-69)
My guide and I came on that hidden road
to make our way back into the bright world;
and with no care for any rest, we climbed—
he first, I following—until I saw,
through a round opening, some of those things
of beauty Heaven bears. It was from there
that we emerged, to see—once more—the stars.
(Canto XXXIV, 133-139)
Inferno, Canto XX
PIM- PKL'2014.3.14
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