Such did Antæus seem to me, who stood Watching to see him stoop, and then it was I could have wished to go some other way. But lightly in the abyss, which swallows up Judas with Lucifer, he put us down; Nor thus bowed downward made he there delay, But, as a mast does in a ship, uprose. 140 145 CANTO XXXII. IF 【F I had rhymes both rough and stridulous, As were appropriate to the dismal hole Down upon which thrust all the other rocks, More fully; but because I have them not, For 't is no enterprise to take in jest, But To sketch the bottom of all the universe, O rabble ill-begotten above all, Who 're in the place to speak of which is hard, "T were better ye had here been sheep or goats! When we were down within the darksome well, Beneath the giant's feet, but lower far, And I was scanning still the lofty wall, 5 10 15 I heard it said to me: "Look how thou steppest And underfoot a lake, that from the frost So thick a veil ne'er made upon its current In winter-time Danube in Austria, Nor there beneath the frigid sky the Don, As there was here; so that if Tambernich Had fallen upon it, or Pietrapana, E'en at the edge 't would not have given a creak. And as to croak the frog doth place himself Of gleaning oftentimes the peasant-girl, — Livid, as far down as where shame appears, Were the disconsolate shades within the ice, Setting their teeth unto the note of storks. Each one his countenance held downward bent; From mouth the cold, from eyes the doleful heart Among them witness of itself procures. When round about me somewhat I had looked, I downward turned me, and saw two so close, 20 25 30 35 40 "Ye who so strain your breasts together, tell me," Their I said, "who are you"; and they bent their necks, eyes, which first were only moist within, So strongly; whereat they, like two he-goats, Butted together, so much wrath o'ercame them. And one, who had by reason of the cold Lost both his ears, still with his visage downward, Said: "Why dost thou so mirror thyself in us? If thou desire to know who these two are, The valley whence Bisenzio descends Belonged to them and to their father Albert. They from one body came, and all Caïna 45 50 55 Thou shalt search through, and shalt not find a shade Not he in whom were broken breast and shadow At one and the same blow by Arthur's hand So with his head I see no farther forward, And bore the name of Sassol Mascheroni; ; Well knowest thou who he was, if thou art Tuscan. 60 65 And that thou put me not to further speech, And wait Carlino to exonerate me." Then I beheld a thousand faces, made 70 Purple with cold; whence o'er me comes a shudder, I know not; but in walking 'mong the heads Who was blaspheming vehemently still: So that, if thou wert living, 't were too much?" 75 80 85 90 |