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? Hast thou no recollection of those words With which thine Ethics thoroughly discusses 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 That up outside are undergoing penance, Clearly wilt thou perceive why from these felons They separated are, and why less wroth Justice divine doth smite them with its hammer." "O Sun, that healest all distempered vision, 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; Genesis at the beginning, it behoves Nature herself and in her follower For quivering are the Fishes on the horizon, CANTO XII. THE place where to descend the bank we came Smote, on this side of Trent, the Adige, 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 The Minotaur beheld I do the like; And he, the wary, cried: "Run to the passage: Thus down we took our way o'er that discharge 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 spoi! 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? Shooting with shafts whatever soul emerges 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 Upon his right breast Chiron wheeled about, 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, 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; And many among these I recognised. Thus ever more and more grew shallower That blood, so that the feet alone it covered; The boiling stream, that aye diminishes," That on this other more and more declines Where it behoveth tyranny to groan. That Attila, who was a scourge on earth, In Rinier da Corneto and Rinier Pazzo, CANTO XIII. NOT yet had Nessus reached the other side, Not branches smooth, but gnarled and intertangled, Those savage wild beasts, that in hatred hold And feet with claws, and their great bellies fledged; Know that thou art within the second round," 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 From people who concealed themselves from us; Therefore the Master said: "If thou break off Some little spray from any of these trees, The thoughts thou hast will wholly be made vain.” |