The Divine Comedy (Complete Annotated Edition). Dante Alighieri

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The Divine Comedy (Complete Annotated Edition) - Dante Alighieri

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affliction grieves me much,

      Even to tears. But tell me, if thou know’st,

      What shall at length befall the citizens

      Inhabit there: and tell me of the cause,

      Whence jarring discord hath assail’d it thus?”

      He then: “After long striving they will come

      By borrow’d force of one, who under shore

      Its forehead, keeping under heavy weight

      The other oppress’d, indignant at the load,

      But they neglected. Av’rice, envy, pride,

      Three fatal sparks, have set the hearts of all

      On fire.” Here ceas’d the lamentable sound;

      And I continu’d thus: “Still would I learn

      More from thee, farther parley still entreat.

      Their minds on working good. Oh! tell me where

      They bide, and to their knowledge let me come.

      For I am press’d with keen desire to hear,

      If heaven’s sweet cup or poisonous drug of hell

      Be to their lip assign’d.” He answer’d straight:

      “These are yet blacker spirits. Various crimes

      Have sunk them deeper in the dark abyss.

      If thou so far descendest, thou mayst see them.

      But to the pleasant world when thou return’st,

      Of me make mention, I entreat thee, there.

      No more I tell thee, answer thee no more.”

      This said, his fixed eyes he turn’d askance,

      A little ey’d me, then bent down his head,

      And ’midst his blind companions with it fell.

      When thus my guide: “No more his bed he leaves,

      Ere the last angel-trumpet blow. The Power

      Adverse to these shall then in glory come,

      Each one forthwith to his sad tomb repair,

      Resume his fleshly vesture and his form,

      And hear the eternal doom re-echoing rend

      The vault.” So pass’d we through that mixture foul

      Of spirits and rain, with tardy steps; meanwhile

      Touching, though slightly, on the life to come.

      For thus I question’d: “Shall these tortures, Sir!

      When the great sentence passes, be increas’d,

      Or mitigated, or as now severe?”

      He then: “Consult thy knowledge; that decides

      That as each thing to more perfection grows,

      It feels more sensibly both good and pain.

      Though ne’er to true perfection may arrive

      This race accurs’d, yet nearer then than now

      They shall approach it.” Compassing that path

      Circuitous we journeyed, and discourse

      Much more than I relate between us pass’d:

      Till at the point, where the steps led below,

      Arriv’d, there Plutus, the great foe, we found.

      Footnotes

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