That, by effect of his malicious thoughts, Trusting in him I was made prisoner, But ne'ertheless what thou canst not have heard, Hear shalt thou, and shalt know if he has wronged me. A narrow perforation in the mew, Which bears because of me the title of Famine, Hunting the wolf and whelps upon the mountain With sleuth-hounds gaunt, and eager, and well trained, He had sent out before him to the front. After brief course seemed unto me forespent The father and the sons, and with sharp tushes When I before the morrow was awake, Moaning amid their sleep I heard my sons Who with me were, and asking after bread. Cruel indeed art thou, if yet thou grieve not, Thinking of what my heart foreboded me, And weep'st thou not, what art thou wont to weep at? 20 20 30 35 40 They were awake now, and the hour drew nigh At which our food used to be brought to us, And through his dream was each one apprehensive; 45 And I heard locking up the under door Of the horrible tower; whereat without a word Said: Thou dost gaze so, father, what doth ail thee?' Still not a tear I shed, nor answer made All of that day, nor yet the night thereafter, Until another sun rose on the world. As now a little glimmer made its way Into the dolorous prison, and I saw Both of my hands in agony I bit; And, thinking that I did it from desire 55 And said they: 'Father, much less pain 'twill give us I calmed me then, not to make them more sad. Threw himself down outstretched before my feet, And there he died; and, as thou seest me, I saw the three fall, one by one, between And three days called them after they were dead; The wretched skull resumed he with his teeth, Of the fair land there where the Si doth sound, Let the Capraia and Gorgona move, And make a hedge across the mouth of Arno For if Count Ugolino had the fame Of having in thy castles thee betrayed, Thou shouldst not on such cross have put his sons. Their youth made Uguccione and Brigata, Not downward turned, but all of them reversed. And grief that finds a barrier in the eyes Turns itself inward to increase the anguish ; Because the earliest tears a cluster form, And, in the manner of a crystal visor, Fill all the cup beneath the eyebrow full. And notwithstanding that, as in a callus, Because of cold all sensibility Its station had abandoned in my face, Still it appeared to me I felt some wind; Whence I: "My Master, who sets this in motion ? Whence he to me: "Full soon shalt thou be where Cried out to us: "O souls so merciless Lift from mine eyes the rigid veils, that I May vent the sorrow which impregns my heart A little, e'er the weeping recongeal." Whence I to him: "If thou wouldst have me help thee Then he replied: "I am Friar Alberigo; He am I of the fruit of the bad garden, Who here a date am getting for my fig." "O," said I to him, "now art thou, too, dead ?" And he to me: "How may my body fare Up in the world, no knowledge I possess. Such an advantage has this Ptolomæa, That oftentimes the soul descendeth here From off my countenance these glassy tears, Is taken from him, who thereafter rules it, 12C 125 130 Itself down rushes into such a cistern; And still perchance above appears the body 135 Have passed away since he was thus locked up." "I think," said I to him, "thou dost deceive me ; For Branca d' Oria is not dead as yet, 140 And eats, and drinks, and sleeps, and puts on clothes." "In moat above," said he, "of Malebranche, Open mine eyes ;"-and open them I did not, 150 Ah, Genoese! ye men at variance With every virtue, full of every vice Wherefore are ye not scattered from the world? For with the vilest spirit of Romagna I found of you one such, who for his deeds CANTO XXXIV. "VEXILLA Regis prodeunt Inferni Towards us; therefore look in front of thee," And, for the wind, I drew myself behind There where the shades were wholly covered up, Some prone are lying, others stand erect, 155 10 This with the head, and that one with the soles; 15 When in advance so far we had proceeded, He from before me moved and made me stop, That it my Master pleased to show to me The creature who once had the beauteous semblance, Saying: "Behold Dis, and behold the place Where thou with fortitude must arm thyself." How frozen I became and powerless then, Ask it not, Reader, for I write it not, I did not die, and I alive remained not; Think for thyself now, hast thou aught of wit, The Emperor of the kingdom dolorous From his mid-breast forth issued from the ice; Than do the giants with those arms of his ; 2C 30 Were he as fair once, as he now is foul, And lifted up his brow against his Maker, When I beheld three faces on his head! Two were the others, that were joined with this Above the middle part of either shoulder, 35 40 And the right-hand one seemed 'twixt white and yellow; The left was such to look upon as those Who come from where the Nile falls valley-ward. Their fashion was; and he was waving them, With six eyes did he weep, and down three chins So that he three of them tormented thus. Unto the clawing, for sometimes the spine "That soul up there which has the greatest pain," Of the two others, who head downward are, The one who hangs from the black jowl is Brutus ; But night is reascending, and 'tis time As seemed him good, I clasped him round the neck, He laid fast hold upon the shaggy sides; From fell to fell descended downward then When we were come to where the thigh revolves The Guide, with labour and with hard-drawn breath, |