Purgatory

  I saw through hunger Ubaldino grind

  Take up my pen, and, as he dictates, write.”

  His teeth on emptiness; and Boniface,

  “Brother!” said he, “the hind’rance which once held That wav’d the crozier o’er a num’rous flock.

  The notary with Guittone and myself,

  I saw the Marquis, who tad time erewhile

  Short of that new and sweeter style I hear,

  To swill at Forli with less drought, yet so

  Is now disclos’d. I see how ye your plumes

  Was one ne’er sated. I howe’er, like him,

  Stretch, as th’ inditer guides them; which, no question, That gazing ‘midst a crowd, singles out one,

  Ours did not. He that seeks a grace beyond,

  So singled him of Lucca; for methought

  Sees not the distance parts one style from other.”

  69

  The Divine Comedy of Dante - Purgatory And, as contented, here he held his peace.

  A corse most vilely shatter’d. No long space

  Like as the bird, that winter near the Nile,

  Those wheels have yet to roll” (therewith his eyes

  In squared regiment direct their course,

  Look’d up to heav’n) “ere thou shalt plainly see

  Then stretch themselves in file for speedier flight; That which my words may not more plainly tell.

  Thus all the tribe of spirits, as they turn’d

  I quit thee: time is precious here: I lose

  Their visage, faster deaf, nimble alike

  Too much, thus measuring my pace with shine.”

  Through leanness and desire. And as a man,

  As from a troop of well-rank’d chivalry

  Tir’d With the motion of a trotting steed,

  One knight, more enterprising than the rest,

  Slacks pace, and stays behind his company,

  Pricks forth at gallop, eager to display

  Till his o’erbreathed lungs keep temperate time;

  His prowess in the first encounter prov’d

  E’en so Forese let that holy crew

  So parted he from us with lengthen’d strides,

  Proceed, behind them lingering at my side,

  And left me on the way with those twain spirits,

  And saying: “When shall I again behold thee?”

  Who were such mighty marshals of the world.

  “How long my life may last,” said I, “I know not; When he beyond us had so fled mine eyes

  This know, how soon soever I return,

  No nearer reach’d him, than my thought his words,

  My wishes will before me have arriv’d.

  The branches of another fruit, thick hung,

  Sithence the place, where I am set to live,

  And blooming fresh, appear’d. E’en as our steps

  Is, day by day, more scoop’d of all its good,

  Turn’d thither, not far off it rose to view.

  And dismal ruin seems to threaten it.”

  Beneath it were a multitude, that rais’d

  “Go now,” he cried: “lo! he, whose guilt is most, Their hands, and shouted forth I know not What

  Passes before my vision, dragg’d at heels

  Unto the boughs; like greedy and fond brats,

  Of an infuriate beast. Toward the vale,

  That beg, and answer none obtain from him,

  Where guilt hath no redemption, on it speeds,

  Of whom they beg; but more to draw them on,

  Each step increasing swiftness on the last;

  He at arm’s length the object of their wish

  Until a blow it strikes, that leaveth him

  Above them holds aloft, and hides it not.

  70

  The Divine Comedy of Dante - Purgatory At length, as undeceiv’d they went their way:

  I now beheld. “If ye desire to mount,”

  And we approach the tree, who vows and tears

  He cried, “here must ye turn. This way he goes,

  Sue to in vain, the mighty tree. “Pass on,

  Who goes in quest of peace.” His countenance

  And come not near. Stands higher up the wood,

  Had dazzled me; and to my guides I fac’d

  Whereof Eve tasted, and from it was ta’en

  Backward, like one who walks, as sound directs.

  ‘this plant.”Such sounds from midst the thickets came.

  As when, to harbinger the dawn, springs up

  Whence I, with either bard, close to the side

  On freshen’d wing the air of May, and breathes

  That rose, pass’d forth beyond. “Remember,” next

  Of fragrance, all impregn’d with herb and flowers,

  We heard, “those noblest creatures of the clouds,

  E’en such a wind I felt upon my front

  How they their twofold bosoms overgorg’d

  Blow gently, and the moving of a wing

  Oppos’d in fight to Theseus: call to mind

  Perceiv’d, that moving shed ambrosial smell;

  The Hebrews, how effeminate they stoop’d

  And then a voice: “Blessed are they, whom grace

  To ease their thirst; whence Gideon’s ranks were thinn’d, Doth so illume, that appetite in them

  As he to Midian march’d adown the hills.”

  Exhaleth no inordinate desire,

  Thus near one border coasting, still we heard

  Still hung’ring as the rule of temperance wills.”

  The sins of gluttony, with woe erewhile

  Reguerdon’d. Then along the lonely path,

  CANTO XXV

  Once more at large, full thousand paces on

  It was an hour, when he who climbs, had need

  We travel’d, each contemplative and mute.

  To walk uncrippled: for the sun had now

  “Why pensive journey thus ye three alone?”

  To Taurus the meridian circle left,

  Thus suddenly a voice exclaim’d: whereat

  And to the Scorpion left the night. As one

  I shook, as doth a scar’d and paltry beast;

  That makes no pause, but presses on his road,

  Then rais’d my head to look from whence it came.

  Whate’er betide him, if some urgent need

  Was ne’er, in furnace, glass, or metal seen

  Impel: so enter’d we upon our way,

  So bright and glowing red, as was the shape

  71

  The Divine Comedy of Dante - Purgatory One before other; for, but singly, none

  The secrets of heaven’s vengeance, let me plead

  That steep and narrow scale admits to climb.

  Thine own injunction, to exculpate me.”

  E’en as the young stork lifteth up his wing

  So Statius answer’d, and forthwith began:

  Through wish to fly, yet ventures not to quit

  “Attend my words, O son, and in thy mind

  The nest, and drops it; so in me desire

  Receive them: so shall they be light to clear

  Of questioning my guide arose, and fell,

  The doubt thou offer’st. Blood, concocted well,

  Arriving even to the act, that marks

  Which by the thirsty veins is ne’er imbib’d,

  A man prepar’d for speech. Him all our haste

  And rests as food superfluous, to be ta’en

  Restrain’d not, but thus spake the sire belov’d:

  From the replenish’d table, in the heart

  Fear not to speed the shaft, that on thy lip

  Derives effectual virtue, that informs

  Stands trembling for its flight.” Encourag’d thus

  The several human limbs, as being that,

  I straight began: “How there can leanness come,

  Which passes through the veins itself to make them.

  Where is no want of nourishment to feed?”


  Yet more concocted it descends, where shame

  “If thou,” he answer’d, “hadst remember’d thee, Forbids to mention: and from thence distils

  How Meleager with the wasting brand

  In natural vessel on another’s blood.

  Wasted alike, by equal fires consm’d,

  Then each unite together, one dispos’d

  This would not trouble thee: and hadst thou thought, T’ endure, to act the other, through meet frame

  How in the mirror your reflected form

  Of its recipient mould: that being reach’d,

  With mimic motion vibrates, what now seems

  It ‘gins to work, coagulating first;

  Hard, had appear’d no harder than the pulp

  Then vivifies what its own substance caus’d

  Of summer fruit mature. But that thy will

  To bear. With animation now indued,

  In certainty may find its full repose,

  The active virtue (differing from a plant

  Lo Statius here! on him I call, and pray

  No further, than that this is on the way

  That he would now be healer of thy wound.”

  And at its limit that) continues yet

  “If in thy presence I unfold to him

  To operate, that now it moves, and feels,

  72

  The Divine Comedy of Dante - Purgatory As sea sponge clinging to the rock: and there

  Memory, intelligence, and will, in act

  Assumes th’ organic powers its seed convey’d.

  Far keener than before, the other powers

  ‘This is the period, son! at which the virtue,

  Inactive all and mute. No pause allow’d,

  That from the generating heart proceeds,

  In wond’rous sort self-moving, to one strand

  Is pliant and expansive; for each limb

  Of those, where the departed roam, she falls,

  Is in the heart by forgeful nature plann’d.

  Here learns her destin’d path. Soon as the place

  How babe of animal becomes, remains

  Receives her, round the plastic virtue beams,

  For thy consid’ring. At this point, more wise,

  Distinct as in the living limbs before:

  Than thou hast err’d, making the soul disjoin’d

  And as the air, when saturate with showers,

  From passive intellect, because he saw

  The casual beam refracting, decks itself

  No organ for the latter’s use assign’d.

  With many a hue; so here the ambient air

  “Open thy bosom to the truth that comes.

  Weareth that form, which influence of the soul

  Know soon as in the embryo, to the brain,

  Imprints on it; and like the flame, that where

  Articulation is complete, then turns

  The fire moves, thither follows, so henceforth

  The primal Mover with a smile of joy

  The new form on the spirit follows still:

  On such great work of nature, and imbreathes

  Hence hath it semblance, and is shadow call’d,

  New spirit replete with virtue, that what here

  With each sense even to the sight endued:

  Active it finds, to its own substance draws,

  Hence speech is ours, hence laughter, tears, and sighs And forms an individual soul, that lives,

  Which thou mayst oft have witness’d on the mount

  And feels, and bends reflective on itself.

  Th’ obedient shadow fails not to present

  And that thou less mayst marvel at the word,

  Whatever varying passion moves within us.

  Mark the sun’s heat, how that to wine doth change,

  And this the cause of what thou marvel’st at.”

  Mix’d with the moisture filter’d through the vine.

  Now the last flexure of our way we reach’d,

  “When Lachesis hath spun the thread, the soul

  And to the right hand turning, other care

  Takes with her both the human and divine,

  Awaits us. Here the rocky precipice

  73

  The Divine Comedy of Dante - Purgatory Hurls forth redundant flames, and from the rim

  To medicine the wound, that healeth last.

  A blast upblown, with forcible rebuff

  Driveth them back, sequester’d from its bound.

  CANTO XXVI

  Behoov’d us, one by one, along the side,

  While singly thus along the rim we walk’d,

  That border’d on the void, to pass; and I

  Oft the good master warn’d me: “Look thou well.

  Fear’d on one hand the fire, on th’ other fear’d

  Avail it that I caution thee.” The sun

  Headlong to fall: when thus th’ instructor warn’d:

  Now all the western clime irradiate chang’d

  “Strict rein must in this place direct the eyes.

  From azure tinct to white; and, as I pass’d,

  A little swerving and the way is lost.”

  My passing shadow made the umber’d flame

  Then from the bosom of the burning mass,

  Burn ruddier. At so strange a sight I mark’d

  “O God of mercy!” heard I sung; and felt

  That many a spirit marvel’d on his way.

  No less desire to turn. And when I saw

  This bred occasion first to speak of me,

  Spirits along the flame proceeding, I

  “He seems,” said they, “no insubstantial frame:”

  Between their footsteps and mine own was fain

  Then to obtain what certainty they might,

  To share by turns my view. At the hymn’s close

  Stretch’d towards me, careful not to overpass

  They shouted loud, “I do not know a man;”

  The burning pale. “O thou, who followest

  Then in low voice again took up the strain,

  The others, haply not more slow than they,

  Which once more ended, “To the wood,” they cried,

  But mov’d by rev’rence, answer me, who burn

  “Ran Dian, and drave forth Callisto, stung

  In thirst and fire: nor I alone, but these

  With Cytherea’s poison:” then return’d

  All for thine answer do more thirst, than doth

  Unto their song; then marry a pair extoll’d,

  Indian or Aethiop for the cooling stream.

  Who liv’d in virtue chastely, and the bands

  Tell us, how is it that thou mak’st thyself

  Of wedded love. Nor from that task, I ween,

  A wall against the sun, as thou not yet

  Surcease they; whilesoe’er the scorching fire

  Into th’ inextricable toils of death

  Enclasps them. Of such skill appliance needs

  74

  The Divine Comedy of Dante - Purgatory Hadst enter’d?” Thus spake one, and I had straight

  Whene’er the time may be, of peaceful end!

  Declar’d me, if attention had not turn’d

  My limbs, nor crude, nor in mature old age,

  To new appearance. Meeting these, there came,

  Have I left yonder: here they bear me, fed

  Midway the burning path, a crowd, on whom

  With blood, and sinew-strung. That I no more

  Earnestly gazing, from each part I view

  May live in blindness, hence I tend aloft.

  The shadows all press forward, sev’rally

  There is a dame on high, who wind for us

  Each snatch a hasty kiss, and then away.

  This grace, by which my mortal through your realm

  E’en so the emmets, ‘mid their dusky troops,

  I bear. But may your utmost wish soon meet

  Peer closely one at other, to spy out

  Such full fr
uition, that the orb of heaven,

  Their mutual road perchance, and how they thrive.

  Fullest of love, and of most ample space,

  That friendly greeting parted, ere dispatch

  Receive you, as ye tell (upon my page

  Of the first onward step, from either tribe

  Henceforth to stand recorded) who ye are,

  Loud clamour rises: those, who newly come,

  And what this multitude, that at your backs

  Shout Sodom and Gomorrah!” these, “The cow

  Have past behind us.” As one, mountain-bred,

  Pasiphae enter’d, that the beast she woo’d

  Rugged and clownish, if some city’s walls

  Might rush unto her luxury.” Then as cranes,

  He chance to enter, round him stares agape,

  That part towards the Riphaean mountains fly,

  Confounded and struck dumb; e’en such appear’d

  Part towards the Lybic sands, these to avoid

  Each spirit. But when rid of that amaze,

  The ice, and those the sun; so hasteth off

  (Not long the inmate of a noble heart)

  One crowd, advances th’ other; and resume

  He, who before had question’d, thus resum’d:

  Their first song weeping, and their several shout.

  “O blessed, who, for death preparing, tak’st

  Again drew near my side the very same,

  Experience of our limits, in thy bark!

  Who had erewhile besought me, and their looks

  Their crime, who not with us proceed, was that,

  Mark’d eagerness to listen. I, who twice

  For which, as he did triumph, Caesar heard

  Their will had noted, spake: “O spirits secure,

  The snout of ‘queen,’ to taunt him. Hence their cry 75

  The Divine Comedy of Dante - Purgatory Of ‘Sodom,’ as they parted, to rebuke

  As forces credence, I devoted me

  Themselves, and aid the burning by their shame.

  Unto his service wholly. In reply

  Our sinning was Hermaphrodite: but we,

  He thus bespake me: “What from thee I hear

  Because the law of human kind we broke,

  Is grav’d so deeply on my mind, the waves

  Following like beasts our vile concupiscence,

  Of Lethe shall not wash it off, nor make

  Hence parting from them, to our own disgrace

  A whit less lively. But as now thy oath

  Record the name of her, by whom the beast

  Has seal’d the truth, declare what cause impels

  In bestial tire was acted. Now our deeds

  That love, which both thy looks and speech bewray.”

  Thou know’st, and how we sinn’d. If thou by name