But tell me, those within the fat lagoon, Whom the wind drives, and whom the rain doth beat, Wherefore are they inside of the red city Not punished, if God has them in his wrath, And unto me he said: "Why wanders so Thine intellect from that which it is wont ? 70 75 With which thine Ethics thoroughly discusses Hast thou no recollection of those words Or, sooth, thy mind where is it elsewhere looking? 80 The dispositions three, that Heaven abides not,— 85 Incontinence, and Malice, and insane Bestiality? and how Incontinence Less God offendeth, and less blame attracts? If thou regardest this conclusion well, And to thy mind recallest who they are 66 Thou dost content me so, when thou resolvest, That doubting pleases me no less than knowing! Once more a little backward turn thee," said I, "There where thou sayest that usury offends Goodness divine, and disengage the knot." Philosophy," he said, "to him who heeds it, Noteth, not only in one place alone, After what manner Nature takes her course And if thy Physics carefully thou notest, That this your art as far as possible Follows, as the disciple doth the master; So that your art is, as it were, God's grandchild. From these two, if thou bringest to thy mind Genesis at the beginning, it behoves Nature herself and in her follower For quivering are the Fishes on the horizon, 90 95 100 105 120 115 CANTO XII. THE place where to descend the bank we came Smote, on this side of Trent, the Adige, For from the mountain's top, from which it moved, Some path 'twould give to him who was above; Even such was the descent of that ravine, And on the border of the broken chasm My Sage towards him shouted: "Peradventure Thou think'st that here may be the Duke of Athens, Get thee gone, beast, for this one cometh not Instructed by thy sister, but he comes And he, the wary, cried: "Run to the passage; Of stones, which oftentimes did move themselves Beneath my feet, from the unwonted burden. Thoughtful I went; and he said: "Thou art thinking Perhaps upon this ruin, which is guarded By that brute anger which just now I quenched. Now will I have thee know, the other time I here descended to the nether Hell, Before His coming who the mighty spoil Upon all sides the deep and loathsome valley Trembled so, that I thought the Universe Was thrilled with love, by which there are who think The world ofttimes converted into chaos; And at that moment this primeval crag Both here and elsewhere made such overthrow. But fix thine eyes below; for draweth near O blind cupidity, O wrath insane, That spurs us onward so in our short life, And in the eternal then so badly steeps us ! I saw an ample moat bent like a bow, As one which all the plain encompasses, Conformable to what my Guide had said. And between this and the embankment's foot Centaurs in file were running, armed with arrows, And from the squadron three detached themselves, Come ye, who down the hillside are descending? To Chiron, near you there; in evil hour, And for himself, himself did vengeance take. Is the great Chiron, who brought up Achilles; That other Pholus is, who was so wrathful. Thousands and thousands go about the moat Shooting with shafts whatever soul emerges Out of the blood, more than his crime allots." Near we approached unto those monsters fleet; Chiron an arrow took, and with the notch Backward upon his jaws he put his beard. After he had uncovered his great mouth, He said to his companions: "Are you ware And my good Guide, who now was at his breast, Replied: "Indeed he lives, and thus alone Who unto me committed this new office, And who may carry this one on his back; And said to Nessus: "Turn and do thou guide them, We with our faithful escort onward moved, Along the brink of the vermilion boiling, People I saw within up to the eyebrows, And the great Centaur said: "Tyrants are these, That forehead there which has the hair so black Up in the world was by his stepson slain." Then turned I to the Poet; and he said, “Now he be first to thee, and second I.” A little farther on the Centaur stopped Above a folk, who far down as the throat A shade he showed us on one side alone, Saying: "He cleft asunder in God's bosom The heart that still upon the Thames is honoured." Then people saw I, who from out the river Lifted their heads and also all the chest ; That blood, so that the feet alone it covered; That on this other more and more declines That Attila, who was a scourge on earth, In Rinier da Corneto and Rinier Pazzo, 130 135 CANTO XIII. Not yet had Nessus reached the other side, Not branches smooth, but gnarled and intertangled, 5 Such tangled thickets have not, nor so dense, Those savage wild beasts, that in hatred hold And feet with claws, and their great bellies fledged ; Therefore look well around, and thou shalt see I heard on all sides lamentations uttered, And person none beheld I who might make them, I think he thought that I perhaps might think So many voices issued through those trunks Some little spray from any of these trees, The thoughts thou hast will wholly be made vain." |