The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio & Paradiso. Dante Alighieri

that point where is no more descending.

       They form Cocytus; what that pool may be

       Thou shalt behold, so here 'tis not narrated."

      And I to him: "If so the present runnel

       Doth take its rise in this way from our world,

       Why only on this verge appears it to us?"

      And he to me: "Thou knowest the place is round,

       And notwithstanding thou hast journeyed far,

       Still to the left descending to the bottom,

      Thou hast not yet through all the circle turned.

       Therefore if something new appear to us,

       It should not bring amazement to thy face."

      And I again: "Master, where shall be found

       Lethe and Phlegethon, for of one thou'rt silent,

       And sayest the other of this rain is made?"

      "In all thy questions truly thou dost please me,"

       Replied he; "but the boiling of the red

       Water might well solve one of them thou makest.

      Thou shalt see Lethe, but outside this moat,

       There where the souls repair to lave themselves,

       When sin repented of has been removed."

      Then said he: "It is time now to abandon

       The wood; take heed that thou come after me;

       A way the margins make that are not burning,

      And over them all vapours are extinguished."

      Canto XV. The Violent against Nature. Brunetto Latini.

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      Now bears us onward one of the hard margins,

       And so the brooklet's mist o'ershadows it,

       From fire it saves the water and the dikes.

      Even as the Flemings, 'twixt Cadsand and Bruges,

       Fearing the flood that tow'rds them hurls itself,

       Their bulwarks build to put the sea to flight;

      And as the Paduans along the Brenta,

       To guard their villas and their villages,

       Or ever Chiarentana feel the heat;

      In such similitude had those been made,

       Albeit not so lofty nor so thick,

       Whoever he might be, the master made them.

      Now were we from the forest so remote,

       I could not have discovered where it was,

       Even if backward I had turned myself,

      When we a company of souls encountered,

       Who came beside the dike, and every one

       Gazed at us, as at evening we are wont

      To eye each other under a new moon,

       And so towards us sharpened they their brows

       As an old tailor at the needle's eye.

      Thus scrutinised by such a family,

       By some one I was recognised, who seized

       My garment's hem, and cried out, "What a marvel!"

      And I, when he stretched forth his arm to me,

       On his baked aspect fastened so mine eyes,

       That the scorched countenance prevented not

      His recognition by my intellect;

       And bowing down my face unto his own,

       I made reply, "Are you here, Ser Brunetto?"

      And he: "May't not displease thee, O my son,

       If a brief space with thee Brunetto Latini

       Backward return and let the trail go on."

      I said to him: "With all my power I ask it;

       And if you wish me to sit down with you,

       I will, if he please, for I go with him."

      "O son," he said, "whoever of this herd

       A moment stops, lies then a hundred years,

       Nor fans himself when smiteth him the fire.

      Therefore go on; I at thy skirts will come,

       And afterward will I rejoin my band,

       Which goes lamenting its eternal doom."

      I did not dare to go down from the road

       Level to walk with him; but my head bowed

       I held as one who goeth reverently.

      And he began: "What fortune or what fate

       Before the last day leadeth thee down here?

       And who is this that showeth thee the way?"

      "Up there above us in the life serene,"

       I answered him, "I lost me in a valley,

       Or ever yet my age had been completed.

      But yestermorn I turned my back upon it;

       This one appeared to me, returning thither,

       And homeward leadeth me along this road."

      And he to me: "If thou thy star do follow,

       Thou canst not fail thee of a glorious port,

       If well I judged in the life beautiful.

      And if I had not died so prematurely,

       Seeing Heaven thus benignant unto thee,

       I would have given thee comfort in the work.

      But that ungrateful and malignant people,

       Which of old time from Fesole descended,

       And smacks still of the mountain and the granite,

      Will make itself, for thy good deeds, thy foe;

       And it is right; for among crabbed sorbs

       It ill befits the sweet fig to bear fruit.

      Old rumour in the world proclaims them blind;

       A people avaricious, envious, proud;

       Take heed that of their customs thou do cleanse thee.

      Thy fortune so much honour doth reserve thee,

       One party and the other shall be hungry

       For thee; but far from goat shall be the grass.

      Their litter let the beasts of Fesole

       Make of themselves, nor let them touch the plant,

       If any still upon their dunghill rise,

      In which may yet revive the consecrated

       Seed of those Romans, who remained there when

       The nest of such great malice it became."

      "If my entreaty wholly were fulfilled,"

       Replied I to him, "not yet would you be

       In banishment from human nature placed;

      For in my mind is fixed, and touches now

       My heart the dear and good paternal image

       Of you, when in the world from hour to hour

      You taught me how a man becomes eternal;

       And how much I am grateful, while I live