And in that part whereat is first received Our aliment, it one of them transfixed; Then downward fell in front of him extended. The one transfixed looked at it, but said naught; Nay, rather with feet motionless he yawned, Just as if sleep or fever had assailed him. He at the serpent gazed, and it at him ; One through the wound, the other through the mouth Smoked violently, and the smoke commingled. Henceforth be silent Lucan, where he mentions Wretched Sabellus and Nassidius, And wait to hear what now shall be shot forth. Be silent Ovid, of Cadmus and Arethusa; For if him to a snake, her to a fountain, Converts he fabling, that I grudge him not; Because two natures never front to front Has he transmuted, so that both the forms That to a fork the serpent cleft his tail, Adhered so, that in little time the juncture And both feet of the reptile, that were short, Became the member that a man conceals, And of his own the wretch had two created. While both of them the exhalation veils With a new colour, and engenders hair On one of them and depilates the other, The one uprose and down the other fell, Though turning not away their impious lamps, And from excess of matter, which came thither, He who lay prostrate thrusts his muzzle forward, s; For speech before, is cleft, and the bi-forked And said to the other: "I'll have Buoso run, Shift and reshift, and here be my excuse But that I plainly saw Puccio Sciancato; And he it was who sole of three companions, Which came in the beginning, was not changed; The other was he whom thou, Gaville, weepest. 130 135 140 245 150 CANTO XXVI. REJOICE, O Florence, since thou art so great, Among the thieves five citizens of thine Like these I found, whence shame comes unto me, But if when morn is near our dreams are true, Would that it were, seeing it needs must be, The bourns had made us to descend before, Among the rocks and ridges of the crag, Then sorrowed I, and sorrow now again, So that if some good star, or better thing, As many as the hind (who on the hill Rests at the time when he who lights the world While as the fly gives place unto the gnat) Seeth the glow-worms down along the valley, Perchance there where he ploughs and makes his vintage; With flames as manifold resplendent all Was the eighth Bolgia, as I grew aware And such as he who with the bears avenged him What time the steeds to heaven erect uprose, For with his eye he could not follow it So as to see aught else than flame alone, Was moving; for not one reveals the theft, I stood upon the bridge uprisen to see, So that, if I had seized not on a rock, And the Leader, who beheld me so attent, Exclaimed: "Within the fires the spirits are; Each swathes himself with that wherewith he burns." 'My Master," I replied, "by hearing thee I am more sure; but I surmised already It might be so, and already wished to ask thee At top, it seems uprising from the pyre The ambush of the horse, which made the door And pain for the Palladium there is borne." 20 25 31 35 40 45 50 55 55 60 "If they within those sparks possess the power Until the horned flame shall hither come; Of much applause, and therefore I accept it; 65 70 Leave me to speak, because I have conceived That which thou wishest; for they might disdain Perchance, since they were Greeks, discourse of thine." 75 When now the flame had come unto that point, Where to my Leader it seemed time and place, "O ye, who are twofold within one fire, Do not move on, but one of you declare Murmuring, began to wave itself about Moving as if it were the tongue that spake, Nor fondness for my son, nor reverence For my old father, nor the due affection Could overcome within me the desire I had to be experienced of the world, But I put forth on the high open sea 80 85 06 95 του With one sole ship, and that small company Both of the shores I saw as far as Spain, Far as Morocco, and the isle of Sardes, And the others which that sea bathes round about. 105 I and my company were old and slow When at that narrow passage we arrived Where Hercules his landmarks set as signals, That man no farther onward should adventure. Be ye unwilling to deny the knowledge, Ye were not made to live like unto brutes, But for pursuit of virtue and of knowledge.' So eager did I render my companions, With this brief exhortation, for the voyage, That then I hardly could have held them b And having turned our stern unto the morning, We of the oars made wings for our mad flig The night beheld, and ours so very low >reath : nd still; Five times rekindled and as many quenched ear. aft, forth. From distance, and it seemed to me so h ead me; WS, 90 ALREADY was the flame erect and quiet, d, To speak no more, and now departe When yet another, which behind it camet more meagre ; By a confused sound that issued frc pt |