But by that virtue through which I am moving My steps along this savage thoroughfare, Give us some one of thine, to be with us, And who may show us where to pass the ford, And who may carry this one on his back; For 't is no spirit that can walk the air." Upon his right breast Chiron wheeled about, 95 And said to Nessus: "Turn and do thou guide them, We with our faithful escort onward moved, Along the brink of the vermilion boiling, And the great Centaur said: "Tyrants are these, Is Alexander, and fierce Dionysius Who upon Sicily brought dolorous years. That forehead there which has the hair so black Is Azzolin; and the other who is blond, Obizzo is of Esti, who, in truth, Up in the world was by his step-son slain." Then turned I to the Poet; and he said, "Now he be first to thee, and second I." 100 105 110 A little farther on the Centaur stopped Above a folk, who far down as the throat Seemed from that boiling stream to issue forth. 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 honored." Then people saw I, who from out the river Lifted their heads and also all the chest ; And many among these I recognized. Thus ever more and more grew shallower That blood, so that the feet alone it covered; And there across the moat our passage was. "Even as thou here upon this side beholdest The boiling stream; that aye diminishes,” That on this other more and more declines Its bed, until it reunites itself Where it behoveth tyranny to groan. Justice divine, upon this side, is goading That Attila, who was a scourge on earth, The tears which with the boiling it unseals In Rinier da Corneto and Rinier Pazzo, 10 115 119 125 130 135 CANTO XIII. NOT yet had Nessus reached the other side, When we had put ourselves within a wood, That was not marked by any path whatever. Not foliage green, but of a dusky color, Not branches smooth, but gnarled and intertangled, s Not apple-trees were there, but thorns with poison. Such tangled thickets have not, nor so dense, Those savage wild-beasts, that in hatred hold Know that thou art within the second round," 10 15 Thou comest out upon the horrible sand; Therefore look well around, and thou shalt see I heard on all sides lamentations uttered, And person none beheld I who might make them, So 20 25 I think he thought that I perhaps might think And plucked a branchlet off from a great thorn; And the trunk cried, "Why dost thou mangle me?" After it had become embrowned with blood, It recommenced its cry: "Why dost thou rend me? 35 Men once we were, and now are changed to trees; Indeed, thy hand should be more pitiful, Even if the souls of serpents we had been." As out of a green brand, that is on fire At one of the ends, and from the other drips 40 So from that splinter issued forth together Both words and blood; whereat I let the tip "Had he been able sooner to believe," My Sage made answer, "O thou wounded soul, Not upon thee had he stretched forth his hand; Whereas the thing incredible has caused me Of some amends thy fame he may refresh I am the one who both keys had in keeping Of Frederick's heart, and turned them to and fro So softly in unlocking and in locking, That from his secrets most men I withheld; Fidelity I bore the glorious office So great, I lost thereby my sleep and pulses. Of Cæsar turned aside her strumpet eyes, 45 50 55 60 65 |