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Then said he: "It is time now to abandon

The wood; take heed that thou come after me;

A
And over them all vapors are extinguished."

way the margins make that are not burning,

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CANTO XV.

NOW bears us onward one of the hard margins,

And so the brooklet's mist o'ershadows it,

From fire it saves the water and the dikes.

Even as the Flemings, 'twixt Cadsand and Bruges,

Fearing the flood that tow'rds them hurls itself,
Their bulwarks build to put the sea to flight;

And as the Paduans along the Brenta,

To guard their villas and their villages,

Or ever Chiarentana feel the heat; In such similitude had those been made,

Albeit not so lofty nor so thick,

Whoever he might be, the master made them. Now were we from the forest so remote,

I could not have discovered where it was,
Even if backward I had turned myself,
When we a company of souls encountered,

Who came beside the dike, and every one
Gazed at us, as at evening we are wont

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Το each other under a new moon, eye

And so towards us sharpened they their brows

As an old tailor at the needle's eye.

Thus scrutinized by such a family,

By some one I was recognized, who seized

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My garment's hem, and cried out, "What a marvel!" And I, when he stretched forth his arm to me,

On his baked aspect fastened so mine eyes,
That the scorched countenance prevented not

His recognition by my intellect;

And bowing down my face unto his own,

I made reply, "Are you here, Ser Brunetto?"
And he: "May 't not displease thee, O my son,
If a brief space with thee Brunetto Latini
Backward return and let the trail

go on.'

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I said to him: "With all my power I ask it;
And if you wish me to sit down with you,
I will, if he please, for I go with him."
"O son," he said, "whoever of this herd

A moment stops, lies then a hundred years,
Nor fans himself when smiteth him the fire.

Therefore go on; I at thy skirts will come,

And afterward will I rejoin my band,
Which goes lamenting its eternal doom."

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I did not dare to go down from the road

Level to walk with him; but my

head bowed

I held as one who goeth reverently.
And he began: "What fortune or what fate

Before the last day leadeth thee down here?
And who is this that showeth thee the way?"

"Up there above us in the life serene,"

I answered him, "I lost me in a valley, Or ever yet my age had been completed. But yestermorn I turned my back upon it;

This one appeared to me, returning thither,
And homeward leadeth me along this road."
And he to me: "If thou thy star do follow,

Thou canst not fail thee of a glorious port,
If well I judged in the life beautiful.
And if I had not died so prematurely,

Seeing Heaven thus benignant unto thee,

I would have given thee comfort in the work.

But that ungrateful and malignant people,

Which of old time from Fesole descended,

And smacks still of the mountain and the granite,

Will make itself, for thy good deeds, thy foe;
And it is right; for among crabbed sorbs

It ill befits the sweet fig to bear fruit.

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Old rumor in the world proclaims them blind;

A people avaricious, envious, proud;

Take heed that of their customs thou do cleanse thee.

Thy fortune so much honor doth reserve thee,

One party and the other shall be hungry

For thee; but far from goat shall be the Their litter let the beasts of Fesole

grass.

Make of themselves, nor let them touch the plant,

If

any still

upon their dunghill rise,

In which may yet revive the consecrated

"If

Seed of those Romans, who remained there when

The nest of such great malice it became."

my entreaty wholly were fulfilled,”

Replied I to him, not yet would

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you be

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In banishment from human nature placed; For in my mind is fixed, and touches now My heart the dear and good paternal image Of you, when in the world from hour to hour You taught me how a man becomes eternal;

What

And how much I am grateful, while I live
Behoves that in my language be discerned.

you narrate of my career I write,

And keep it to be glossed with other text

By a Lady who can do it, if I reach her.

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