The Divine Comedy (Complete Annotated Edition). Dante Alighieri

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The Divine Comedy (Complete Annotated Edition) - Dante Alighieri

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am not he, not he, whom thou believ’st.”

      And I, as was enjoin’d me, straight replied.

      That heard, the spirit all did wrench his feet,

      And sighing next in woeful accent spake:

      “What then of me requirest?” If to know

      So much imports thee, who I am, that thou

      Hast therefore down the bank descended, learn

      And of a she-bear was indeed the son,

      So eager to advance my whelps, that there

      My having in my purse above I stow’d,

      And here myself. Under my head are dragg’d

      The rest, my predecessors in the guilt

      Of simony. Stretch’d at their length they lie

      Along an opening in the rock. ’Midst them

      I also low shall fall, soon as he comes,

      For whom I took thee, when so hastily

      I question’d. But already longer time

      Hath pass’d, since my souls kindled, and I thus

      Upturn’d have stood, than is his doom to stand

      Planted with fiery feet. For after him,

      One yet of deeds more ugly shall arrive,

      Fated to cover both his form and mine.

      In Maccabees we read; and favour such

      As to that priest his king indulgent show’d,

      I know not if I here too far presum’d,

      But in this strain I answer’d: “Tell me now,

      What treasures from St. Peter at the first

      Our Lord demanded, when he put the keys

      Into his charge? Surely he ask’d no more

      Or gold or silver of Matthias took,

      When lots were cast upon the forfeit place

      Thy punishment of right is merited:

      And look thou well to that ill-gotten coin,

      If reverence of the keys restrain’d me not,

      Which thou in happier time didst hold, I yet

      Severer speech might use. Your avarice

      O’ercasts the world with mourning, under foot

      Treading the good, and raising bad men up.

      Of shepherds, like to you, th’ Evangelist

      Was ware, when her, who sits upon the waves,

      With kings in filthy whoredom he beheld,

      She who with seven heads tower’d at her birth,

      And from ten horns her proof of glory drew,

      Long as her spouse in virtue took delight.

      Of gold and silver ye have made your god,

      Diff’ring wherein from the idolater,

      But he that worships one, a hundred ye?

      Not thy conversion, but that plenteous dower,

      Which the first wealthy Father gain’d from thee!”

      Meanwhile, as thus I sung, he, whether wrath

      Or conscience smote him, violent upsprang

      Spinning on either sole. I do believe

      My teacher well was pleas’d, with so compos’d

      A lip, he listen’d ever to the sound

      Of the true words I utter’d. In both arms

      He caught, and to his bosom lifting me

      Upward retrac’d the way of his descent.

      Nor weary of his weight he press’d me close,

      Till to the summit of the rock we came,

      Our passage from the fourth to the fifth pier.

      His cherish’d burden there gently he plac’d

      Upon the rugged rock and steep, a path

      Not easy for the clamb’ring goat to mount.

      Thence to my view another vale appear’d

      Footnotes

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