And four handmaidens of the day already Were left behind, and at the pole the fifth And we resumed our way with less suspicion Behind them, and I listened to their speech, A tree which midway in the road we found, From bough to bough, so downwardly did that; And from among the foliage a voice The marriage feast complete and honourable, With water were content; and Daniel Disparaged food, and understanding won. The primal age was beautiful as gold; Acorns it made with hunger savorous, And nectar every rivulet with thirst. Honey and locusts were the aliments That fed the Baptist in the wilderness; Whence he is glorious, and so magnified As by the Evangel is revealed to you." CANTO XXIII. THE while among the verdant leaves mine eyes I riveted, as he is wont to do Who wastes his life pursuing little birds. My more than Father said unto me: "Son, Come now; because the time that is ordained us More usefully should be apportioned out." I turned my face and no less soon my steps Unto the Sages, who were speaking so They made the going of no cost to me; And lo! were heard a song and a lament, "Labia mea, Domine," in fashion Such that delight and dolence it brought forth. "O my sweet Father, what is this I hear ?" Began I; and he answered: "Shades that go Who, unknown people on the road o'ertaking, Turn themselves round to them, and do not stop, Even thus, behind us with a swifter motion Coming and passing onward, gazed upon us That from the bones the skin did shape itself. I do not think that so to merest rind Could Erisichthon have been withered up Begetting longing, could consume them so, Of their emaciation and sad squalor; His eyes a shade turned on me, and looked keenly; Never should I have known him by his look: But in his voice was evident to me That which his aspect had suppressed within it. This spark within me wholly re-enkindled And I recalled the features of Forese. "Ah, do not look at this dry leprosy," Entreated he, "which doth my skin discolour, Two souls, that yonder make for thee an escort; Falls power into the water and the tree For following beyond measure appetite The scent that issues from the apple-tree, And from the spray that sprinkles o'er the verdure; And not a single time alone, this ground Encompassing, becomes refreshed our pain,- Which led the Christ rejoicing to say Eli, And I to him: "Forese, from that day When for a better life thou changedst worlds, If sooner were the power exhausted in thee Of sinning more, than thee the hour surprised Of that good sorrow which to God reweds us, How hast thou come up hitherward already? I thought to find thee down there underneath, To drink of the sweet wormwood of these torments, She with her prayers devout and with her sighs So much more dear and pleasing is to God My little widow, whom so much I loved, For the Barbagia of Sardinia By far more modest in its women is To the unblushing womankind of Florence Who stood in need, to make them covered go, But if the shameless women were assured Of what swift Heaven prepares for them, already For if my foresight here deceive me not, They shall be sad ere he has bearded cheeks What thou with me hast been and I with thee, In front of me, two days agone when round Night of the truly dead has this one led me, Thence his encouragements have led me up, Ascending and still circling round the mount That you doth straighten, whom the world made crooked. He says that he will bear me company, Till I shall be where Beatrice will be; There it behoves me to remain without him. This is Virgilius, who thus says to me," And him I pointed at; "the other is 310 115 130 179 130 That shade for whom just now shook every slope Your realm, that from itself discharges him." CANTO XXIV. NOR Speech the going, nor the going that And I, continuing my colloquy, Said: "Peradventure he goes up more slowly Than he would do, for other people's sake. But tell me, if thou knowest, where is Piccarda; Tell me if any one of note I see Among this folk that gazes at me so." "My sister, who, 'twixt beautiful and good, I know not which was more, triumphs rejoicing This," pointing with his finger, "is Buonagiunta, Beyond him there, more peaked than the others, From Tours was he, and purges by his fasting He named me many others one by one; I saw for hunger bite the empty air Ubaldin dalla Pila, and Boniface, Who with his crook had pastured many people. Once at Forlì for drinking with less dryness, 35 |