{"id":213,"date":"2018-12-28T18:37:46","date_gmt":"2018-12-28T22:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/hell-spring2019\/?page_id=213"},"modified":"2019-01-04T07:16:19","modified_gmt":"2019-01-04T11:16:19","slug":"dantes-inferno-cantos-1-and-10","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/hell-spring2019\/dantes-inferno-cantos-1-and-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Dante’s Inferno: Cantos 1, 10, and 28"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

Inferno: Canto I<\/h2>\n

Midway upon the journey of our life
\nI found myself within a forest dark,
\nFor the straightforward pathway had been lost.<\/h3>\n

Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
\nWhat was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
\nWhich in the very thought renews the fear.<\/h3>\n

So bitter is it, death is little more;
\nBut of the good to treat, which there I found,
\nSpeak will I of the other things I saw there.<\/h3>\n

I cannot well repeat how there I entered,
\nSo full was I of slumber at the moment
\nIn which I had abandoned the true way.<\/h3>\n

But after I had reached a mountain’s foot,
\nAt that point where the valley terminated,
\nWhich had with consternation pierced my heart,<\/h3>\n

Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders,
\nVested already with that planet’s rays
\nWhich leadeth others right by every road.<\/h3>\n

Then was the fear a little quieted
\nThat in my heart’s lake had endured throughout
\nThe night, which I had passed so piteously.<\/h3>\n

And even as he, who, with distressful breath,
\nForth issued from the sea upon the shore,
\nTurns to the water perilous and gazes;<\/h3>\n

So did my soul, that still was fleeing onward,
\nTurn itself back to re-behold the pass
\nWhich never yet a living person left.<\/h3>\n

After my weary body I had rested,
\nThe way resumed I on the desert slope,
\nSo that the firm foot ever was the lower.<\/h3>\n

And lo! almost where the ascent began,
\nA panther light and swift exceedingly,
\nWhich with a spotted skin was covered o’er!<\/h3>\n

And never moved she from before my face,
\nNay, rather did impede so much my way,
\nThat many times I to return had turned.<\/h3>\n

The time was the beginning of the morning,
\nAnd up the sun was mounting with those stars
\nThat with him were, what time the Love Divine<\/h3>\n

At first in motion set those beauteous things;
\nSo were to me occasion of good hope,
\nThe variegated skin of that wild beast,<\/h3>\n

The hour of time, and the delicious season;
\nBut not so much, that did not give me fear
\nA lion’s aspect which appeared to me.<\/h3>\n

He seemed as if against me he were coming
\nWith head uplifted, and with ravenous hunger,
\nSo that it seemed the air was afraid of him;<\/h3>\n

And a she-wolf, that with all hungerings
\nSeemed to be laden in her meagreness,
\nAnd many folk has caused to live forlorn!<\/h3>\n

She brought upon me so much heaviness,
\nWith the affright that from her aspect came,
\nThat I the hope relinquished of the height.<\/h3>\n

And as he is who willingly acquires,
\nAnd the time comes that causes him to lose,
\nWho weeps in all his thoughts and is despondent,<\/h3>\n

E’en such made me that beast withouten peace,
\nWhich, coming on against me by degrees
\nThrust me back thither where the sun is silent.<\/h3>\n

While I was rushing downward to the lowland,
\nBefore mine eyes did one present himself,
\nWho seemed from long-continued silence hoarse.<\/h3>\n

When I beheld him in the desert vast,
\n“Have pity on me,” unto him I cried,
\n“Whiche’er thou art, or shade or real man!”<\/h3>\n

He answered me: “Not man; man once I was,
\nAnd both my parents were of Lombardy,
\nAnd Mantuans by country both of them.<\/h3>\n

‘Sub Julio’ was I born, though it was late,
\nAnd lived at Rome under the good Augustus,
\nDuring the time of false and lying gods.<\/h3>\n

A poet was I, and I sang that just
\nSon of Anchises, who came forth from Troy,
\nAfter that Ilion the superb was burned.<\/h3>\n

But thou, why goest thou back to such annoyance?
\nWhy climb’st thou not the Mount Delectable,
\nWhich is the source and cause of every joy?”<\/h3>\n

“Now, art thou that Virgilius and that fountain
\nWhich spreads abroad so wide a river of speech?”
\nI made response to him with bashful forehead.<\/h3>\n

“O, of the other poets honour and light,
\nAvail me the long study and great love
\nThat have impelled me to explore thy volume!<\/h3>\n

Thou art my master, and my author thou,
\nThou art alone the one from whom I took
\nThe beautiful style that has done honour to me.<\/h3>\n

Behold the beast, for which I have turned back;
\nDo thou protect me from her, famous Sage,
\nFor she doth make my veins and pulses tremble.”<\/h3>\n

“Thee it behoves to take another road,”
\nResponded he, when he beheld me weeping,
\n“If from this savage place thou wouldst escape;<\/h3>\n

Because this beast, at which thou criest out,
\nSuffers not any one to pass her way,
\nBut so doth harass him, that she destroys him;<\/h3>\n

And has a nature so malign and ruthless,
\nThat never doth she glut her greedy will,
\nAnd after food is hungrier than before.<\/h3>\n

Many the animals with whom she weds,
\nAnd more they shall be still, until the Greyhound
\nComes, who shall make her perish in her pain.<\/h3>\n

He shall not feed on either earth or pelf,
\nBut upon wisdom, and on love and virtue;
\n‘Twixt Feltro and Feltro shall his nation be;<\/h3>\n

Of that low Italy shall he be the saviour,
\nOn whose account the maid Camilla died,
\nEuryalus, Turnus, Nisus, of their wounds;<\/h3>\n

Through every city shall he hunt her down,
\nUntil he shall have driven her back to Hell,
\nThere from whence envy first did let her loose.<\/h3>\n

Therefore I think and judge it for thy best
\nThou follow me, and I will be thy guide,
\nAnd lead thee hence through the eternal place,<\/h3>\n

Where thou shalt hear the desperate lamentations,
\nShalt see the ancient spirits disconsolate,
\nWho cry out each one for the second death;<\/h3>\n

And thou shalt see those who contented are
\nWithin the fire, because they hope to come,
\nWhene’er it may be, to the blessed people;<\/h3>\n

To whom, then, if thou wishest to ascend,
\nA soul shall be for that than I more worthy;
\nWith her at my departure I will leave thee;<\/h3>\n

Because that Emperor, who reigns above,
\nIn that I was rebellious to his law,
\nWills that through me none come into his city.<\/h3>\n

He governs everywhere, and there he reigns;
\nThere is his city and his lofty throne;
\nO happy he whom thereto he elects!”<\/h3>\n

And I to him: “Poet, I thee entreat,
\nBy that same God whom thou didst never know,
\nSo that I may escape this woe and worse,<\/h3>\n

Thou wouldst conduct me there where thou hast said,
\nThat I may see the portal of Saint Peter,
\nAnd those thou makest so disconsolate.”<\/h3>\n

Then he moved on, and I behind him followed.<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n

Inferno: Canto X<\/h2>\n

Now onward goes, along a narrow path
\nBetween the torments and the city wall,
\nMy Master, and I follow at his back.<\/h3>\n

“O power supreme, that through these impious circles
\nTurnest me,” I began, “as pleases thee,
\nSpeak to me, and my longings satisfy;<\/h3>\n

The people who are lying in these tombs,
\nMight they be seen? already are uplifted
\nThe covers all, and no one keepeth guard.”<\/h3>\n

And he to me: “They all will be closed up
\nWhen from Jehoshaphat they shall return
\nHere with the bodies they have left above.<\/h3>\n

Their cemetery have upon this side
\nWith Epicurus all his followers,
\nWho with the body mortal make the soul;<\/h3>\n

But in the question thou dost put to me,
\nWithin here shalt thou soon be satisfied,
\nAnd likewise in the wish thou keepest silent.”<\/h3>\n

And I: “Good Leader, I but keep concealed
\nFrom thee my heart, that I may speak the less,
\nNor only now hast thou thereto disposed me.”<\/h3>\n

“O Tuscan, thou who through the city of fire
\nGoest alive, thus speaking modestly,
\nBe pleased to stay thy footsteps in this place.<\/h3>\n

Thy mode of speaking makes thee manifest
\nA native of that noble fatherland,
\nTo which perhaps I too molestful was.”<\/h3>\n

Upon a sudden issued forth this sound
\nFrom out one of the tombs; wherefore I pressed,
\nFearing, a little nearer to my Leader.<\/h3>\n

And unto me he said: “Turn thee; what dost thou?
\nBehold there Farinata who has risen;
\nFrom the waist upwards wholly shalt thou see him.”<\/h3>\n

I had already fixed mine eyes on his,
\nAnd he uprose erect with breast and front
\nE’en as if Hell he had in great despite.<\/h3>\n

And with courageous hands and prompt my Leader
\nThrust me between the sepulchres towards him,
\nExclaiming, “Let thy words explicit be.”<\/h3>\n

As soon as I was at the foot of his tomb
\nSomewhat he eyed me, and, as if disdainful,
\nThen asked of me, “Who were thine ancestors?”<\/h3>\n

I, who desirous of obeying was,
\nConcealed it not, but all revealed to him;
\nWhereat he raised his brows a little upward.<\/h3>\n

Then said he: “Fiercely adverse have they been
\nTo me, and to my fathers, and my party;
\nSo that two several times I scattered them.”<\/h3>\n

“If they were banished, they returned on all sides,”
\nI answered him, “the first time and the second;
\nBut yours have not acquired that art aright.”<\/h3>\n

Then there uprose upon the sight, uncovered
\nDown to the chin, a shadow at his side;
\nI think that he had risen on his knees.<\/h3>\n

Round me he gazed, as if solicitude
\nHe had to see if some one else were with me,
\nBut after his suspicion was all spent,<\/h3>\n

Weeping, he said to me: “If through this blind
\nPrison thou goest by loftiness of genius,
\nWhere is my son? and why is he not with thee?”<\/h3>\n

And I to him: “I come not of myself;
\nHe who is waiting yonder leads me here,
\nWhom in disdain perhaps your Guido had.”<\/h3>\n

His language and the mode of punishment
\nAlready unto me had read his name;
\nOn that account my answer was so full.<\/h3>\n

Up starting suddenly, he cried out: “How
\nSaidst thou,–he had?\u00a0\u00a0Is he not still alive?
\nDoes not the sweet light strike upon his eyes?”<\/h3>\n

When he became aware of some delay,
\nWhich I before my answer made, supine
\nHe fell again, and forth appeared no more.<\/h3>\n

But the other, magnanimous, at whose desire
\nI had remained, did not his aspect change,
\nNeither his neck he moved, nor bent his side.<\/h3>\n

“And if,” continuing his first discourse,
\n“They have that art,” he said, “not learned aright,
\nThat more tormenteth me, than doth this bed.<\/h3>\n

But fifty times shall not rekindled be
\nThe countenance of the Lady who reigns here,
\nEre thou shalt know how heavy is that art;<\/h3>\n

And as thou wouldst to the sweet world return,
\nSay why that people is so pitiless
\nAgainst my race in each one of its laws?”<\/h3>\n

Whence I to him: “The slaughter and great carnage
\nWhich have with crimson stained the Arbia, cause
\nSuch orisons in our temple to be made.”<\/h3>\n

After his head he with a sigh had shaken,
\n“There I was not alone,” he said, “nor surely
\nWithout a cause had with the others moved.<\/h3>\n

But there I was alone, where every one
\nConsented to the laying waste of Florence,
\nHe who defended her with open face.”<\/h3>\n

“Ah! so hereafter may your seed repose,”
\nI him entreated, “solve for me that knot,
\nWhich has entangled my conceptions here.<\/h3>\n

It seems that you can see, if I hear rightly,<\/h3>\n

Beforehand whatsoe’er time brings with it,<\/h3>\n

And in the present have another mode.”<\/h3>\n

“We see, like those who have imperfect sight,
\nThe things,” he said, “that distant are from us;
\nSo much still shines on us the Sovereign Ruler.<\/h3>\n

When they draw near, or are, is wholly vain
\nOur intellect, and if none brings it to us,
\nNot anything know we of your human state.<\/h3>\n

Hence thou canst understand, that wholly dead
\nWill be our knowledge from the moment when
\nThe portal of the future shall be closed.”<\/h3>\n

Then I, as if compunctious for my fault,
\nSaid: “Now, then, you will tell that fallen one,
\nThat still his son is with the living joined.<\/h3>\n

And if just now, in answering, I was dumb,
\nTell him I did it because I was thinking
\nAlready of the error you have solved me.”<\/h3>\n

And now my Master was recalling me,
\nWherefore more eagerly I prayed the spirit
\nThat he would tell me who was with him there.<\/h3>\n

He said: “With more than a thousand here I lie;
\nWithin here is the second Frederick,
\nAnd the Cardinal, and of the rest I speak not.”<\/h3>\n

Thereon he hid himself; and I towards
\nThe ancient poet turned my steps, reflecting
\nUpon that saying, which seemed hostile to me.<\/h3>\n

He moved along; and afterward thus going,
\nHe said to me, “Why art thou so bewildered?”
\nAnd I in his inquiry satisfied him.<\/h3>\n

“Let memory preserve what thou hast heard
\nAgainst thyself,” that Sage commanded me,
\n“And now attend here;” and he raised his finger.<\/h3>\n

“When thou shalt be before the radiance sweet
\nOf her whose beauteous eyes all things behold,
\nFrom her thou’lt know the journey of thy life.”<\/h3>\n

Unto the left hand then he turned his feet;
\nWe left the wall, and went towards the middle,
\nAlong a path that strikes into a valley,<\/h3>\n

Which even up there unpleasant made its stench.<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/h3>\n

Inferno: Canto XXVIII<\/h2>\n

Who ever could, e’en with untrammelled words,
\nTell of the blood and of the wounds in full
\nWhich now I saw, by many times narrating?<\/h3>\n

Each tongue would for a certainty fall short
\nBy reason of our speech and memory,
\nThat have small room to comprehend so much.<\/h3>\n

If were again assembled all the people
\nWhich formerly upon the fateful land
\nOf Puglia were lamenting for their blood<\/h3>\n

Shed by the Romans and the lingering war
\nThat of the rings made such illustrious spoils,
\nAs Livy has recorded, who errs not,<\/h3>\n

With those who felt the agony of blows
\nBy making counterstand to Robert Guiscard,
\nAnd all the rest, whose bones are gathered still<\/h3>\n

At Ceperano, where a renegade
\nWas each Apulian, and at Tagliacozzo,
\nWhere without arms the old Alardo conquered,<\/h3>\n

And one his limb transpierced, and one lopped off,
\nShould show, it would be nothing to compare
\nWith the disgusting mode of the ninth Bolgia.<\/h3>\n

A cask by losing centre-piece or cant
\nWas never shattered so, as I saw one
\nRent from the chin to where one breaketh wind.<\/h3>\n

Between his legs were hanging down his entrails;
\nHis heart was visible, and the dismal sack
\nThat maketh excrement of what is eaten.<\/h3>\n

While I was all absorbed in seeing him,
\nHe looked at me, and opened with his hands
\nHis bosom, saying: “See now how I rend me;<\/h3>\n

How mutilated, see, is Mahomet;
\nIn front of me doth Ali weeping go,
\nCleft in the face from forelock unto chin;<\/h3>\n

And all the others whom thou here beholdest,
\nDisseminators of scandal and of schism
\nWhile living were, and therefore are cleft thus.<\/h3>\n

A devil is behind here, who doth cleave us
\nThus cruelly, unto the falchion’s edge
\nPutting again each one of all this ream,<\/h3>\n

When we have gone around the doleful road;
\nBy reason that our wounds are closed again
\nEre any one in front of him repass.<\/h3>\n

But who art thou, that musest on the crag,
\nPerchance to postpone going to the pain
\nThat is adjudged upon thine accusations?”<\/h3>\n

“Nor death hath reached him yet, nor guilt doth bring him,”
\nMy Master made reply, “to be tormented;
\nBut to procure him full experience,<\/h3>\n

Me, who am dead, behoves it to conduct him
\nDown here through Hell, from circle unto circle;
\nAnd this is true as that I speak to thee.”<\/h3>\n

More than a hundred were there when they heard him,
\nWho in the moat stood still to look at me,
\nThrough wonderment oblivious of their torture.<\/h3>\n

“Now say to Fra Dolcino, then, to arm him,
\nThou, who perhaps wilt shortly see the sun,
\nIf soon he wish not here to follow me,<\/h3>\n

So with provisions, that no stress of snow
\nMay give the victory to the Novarese,
\nWhich otherwise to gain would not be easy.”<\/h3>\n

After one foot to go away he lifted,
\nThis word did Mahomet say unto me,
\nThen to depart upon the ground he stretched it.<\/h3>\n

Another one, who had his throat pierced through,
\nAnd nose cut off close underneath the brows,
\nAnd had no longer but a single ear,<\/h3>\n

Staying to look in wonder with the others,
\nBefore the others did his gullet open,
\nWhich outwardly was red in every part,<\/h3>\n

And said: “O thou, whom guilt doth not condemn,
\nAnd whom I once saw up in Latian land,
\nUnless too great similitude deceive me,<\/h3>\n

Call to remembrance Pier da Medicina,
\nIf e’er thou see again the lovely plain
\nThat from Vercelli slopes to Marcabo,<\/h3>\n

And make it known to the best two of Fano,
\nTo Messer Guido and Angiolello likewise,
\nThat if foreseeing here be not in vain,<\/h3>\n

Cast over from their vessel shall they be,
\nAnd drowned near unto the Cattolica,
\nBy the betrayal of a tyrant fell.<\/h3>\n

Between the isles of Cyprus and Majorca
\nNeptune ne’er yet beheld so great a crime,
\nNeither of pirates nor Argolic people.<\/h3>\n

That traitor, who sees only with one eye,
\nAnd holds the land, which some one here with me
\nWould fain be fasting from the vision of,<\/h3>\n

Will make them come unto a parley with him;
\nThen will do so, that to Focara’s wind
\nThey will not stand in need of vow or prayer.”<\/h3>\n

And I to him: “Show to me and declare,
\nIf thou wouldst have me bear up news of thee,
\nWho is this person of the bitter vision.”<\/h3>\n

Then did he lay his hand upon the jaw
\nOf one of his companions, and his mouth
\nOped, crying: “This is he, and he speaks not.<\/h3>\n

This one, being banished, every doubt submerged
\nIn Caesar by affirming the forearmed
\nAlways with detriment allowed delay.”<\/h3>\n

O how bewildered unto me appeared,
\nWith tongue asunder in his windpipe slit,
\nCurio, who in speaking was so bold!<\/h3>\n

And one, who both his hands dissevered had,
\nThe stumps uplifting through the murky air,
\nSo that the blood made horrible his face,<\/h3>\n

Cried out: “Thou shalt remember Mosca also,
\nWho said, alas! ‘A thing done has an end!’
\nWhich was an ill seed for the Tuscan people.”<\/h3>\n

“And death unto thy race,” thereto I added;
\nWhence he, accumulating woe on woe,
\nDeparted, like a person sad and crazed.<\/h3>\n

But I remained to look upon the crowd;
\nAnd saw a thing which I should be afraid,
\nWithout some further proof, even to recount,<\/h3>\n

If it were not that conscience reassures me,
\nThat good companion which emboldens man
\nBeneath the hauberk of its feeling pure.<\/h3>\n

I truly saw, and still I seem to see it,
\nA trunk without a head walk in like manner
\nAs walked the others of the mournful herd.<\/h3>\n

And by the hair it held the head dissevered,
\nHung from the hand in fashion of a lantern,
\nAnd that upon us gazed and said: “O me!”<\/h3>\n

It of itself made to itself a lamp,
\nAnd they were two in one, and one in two;
\nHow that can be, He knows who so ordains it.<\/h3>\n

When it was come close to the bridge’s foot,
\nIt lifted high its arm with all the head,
\nTo bring more closely unto us its words,<\/h3>\n

Which were: “Behold now the sore penalty,
\nThou, who dost breathing go the dead beholding;
\nBehold if any be as great as this.<\/h3>\n

And so that thou may carry news of me,
\nKnow that Bertram de Born am I, the same
\nWho gave to the Young King the evil comfort.<\/h3>\n

I made the father and the son rebellious;
\nAchitophel not more with Absalom
\nAnd David did with his accursed goadings.<\/h3>\n

Because I parted persons so united,
\nParted do I now bear my brain, alas!
\nFrom its beginning, which is in this trunk.<\/h3>\n

Thus is observed in me the counterpoise.”<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

Translation by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.everypoet.com\/archive\/poetry\/dante\/dante_contents.htm<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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  Inferno: Canto I Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost. Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say What was this forest savage, rough, and stern, Which in the very thought renews the fear. So bitter is it, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-213","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/hell-spring2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/hell-spring2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/hell-spring2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/hell-spring2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/hell-spring2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/hell-spring2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/hell-spring2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/213\/revisions\/283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/hell-spring2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}