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

Behoves that in my language be discerned.

      What you narrate of my career I write,

       And keep it to be glossed with other text

       By a Lady who can do it, if I reach her.

      This much will I have manifest to you;

       Provided that my conscience do not chide me,

       For whatsoever Fortune I am ready.

      Such handsel is not new unto mine ears;

       Therefore let Fortune turn her wheel around

       As it may please her, and the churl his mattock."

      My Master thereupon on his right cheek

       Did backward turn himself, and looked at me;

       Then said: "He listeneth well who noteth it."

      Nor speaking less on that account, I go

       With Ser Brunetto, and I ask who are

       His most known and most eminent companions.

      And he to me: "To know of some is well;

       Of others it were laudable to be silent,

       For short would be the time for so much speech.

      Know them in sum, that all of them were clerks,

       And men of letters great and of great fame,

       In the world tainted with the selfsame sin.

      Priscian goes yonder with that wretched crowd,

       And Francis of Accorso; and thou hadst seen there

       If thou hadst had a hankering for such scurf,

      That one, who by the Servant of the Servants

       From Arno was transferred to Bacchiglione,

       Where he has left his sin-excited nerves.

      More would I say, but coming and discoursing

       Can be no longer; for that I behold

       New smoke uprising yonder from the sand.

      A people comes with whom I may not be;

       Commended unto thee be my Tesoro,

       In which I still live, and no more I ask."

      Then he turned round, and seemed to be of those

       Who at Verona run for the Green Mantle

       Across the plain; and seemed to be among them

      The one who wins, and not the one who loses.

      Canto XVI. Guidoguerra, Aldobrandi, and Rusticucci. Cataract of the River of Blood.

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      Now was I where was heard the reverberation

       Of water falling into the next round,

       Like to that humming which the beehives make,

      When shadows three together started forth,

       Running, from out a company that passed

       Beneath the rain of the sharp martyrdom.

      Towards us came they, and each one cried out:

       "Stop, thou; for by thy garb to us thou seemest

       To be some one of our depraved city."

      Ah me! what wounds I saw upon their limbs,

       Recent and ancient by the flames burnt in!

       It pains me still but to remember it.

      Unto their cries my Teacher paused attentive;

       He turned his face towards me, and "Now wait,"

       He said; "to these we should be courteous.

      And if it were not for the fire that darts

       The nature of this region, I should say

       That haste were more becoming thee than them."

      As soon as we stood still, they recommenced

       The old refrain, and when they overtook us,

       Formed of themselves a wheel, all three of them.

      As champions stripped and oiled are wont to do,

       Watching for their advantage and their hold,

       Before they come to blows and thrusts between them,

      Thus, wheeling round, did every one his visage

       Direct to me, so that in opposite wise

       His neck and feet continual journey made.

      And, "If the misery of this soft place

       Bring in disdain ourselves and our entreaties,"

       Began one, "and our aspect black and blistered,

      Let the renown of us thy mind incline

       To tell us who thou art, who thus securely

       Thy living feet dost move along through Hell.

      He in whose footprints thou dost see me treading,

       Naked and skinless though he now may go,

       Was of a greater rank than thou dost think;

      He was the grandson of the good Gualdrada;

       His name was Guidoguerra, and in life

       Much did he with his wisdom and his sword.

      The other, who close by me treads the sand,

       Tegghiaio Aldobrandi is, whose fame

       Above there in the world should welcome be.

      And I, who with them on the cross am placed,

       Jacopo Rusticucci was; and truly

       My savage wife, more than aught else, doth harm me."

      Could I have been protected from the fire,

       Below I should have thrown myself among them,

       And think the Teacher would have suffered it;

      But as I should have burned and baked myself,

       My terror overmastered my good will,

       Which made me greedy of embracing them.

      Then I began: "Sorrow and not disdain

       Did your condition fix within me so,

       That tardily it wholly is stripped off,

      As soon as this my Lord said unto me

       Words, on account of which I thought within me

       That people such as you are were approaching.

      I of your city am; and evermore

       Your labours and your honourable names

       I with affection have retraced and heard.

      I leave the gall, and go for the sweet fruits

       Promised to me by the veracious Leader;

       But to the centre first I needs must plunge."

      "So may the soul for a long while conduct

       Those limbs of thine," did he make answer then,

       "And so may thy renown shine after thee,

      Valour and courtesy, say if they dwell

       Within our city, as they used to do,

       Or if they wholly have gone out of it;

      For Guglielmo Borsier, who is in torment

       With us of late, and goes there with his comrades,

       Doth greatly mortify us with his words."

      "The