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

I moved on behind.

      Upon my right hand I beheld new anguish,

       New torments, and new wielders of the lash,

       Wherewith the foremost Bolgia was replete.

      Down at the bottom were the sinners naked;

       This side the middle came they facing us,

       Beyond it, with us, but with greater steps;

      Even as the Romans, for the mighty host,

       The year of Jubilee, upon the bridge,

       Have chosen a mode to pass the people over;

      For all upon one side towards the Castle

       Their faces have, and go unto St. Peter's;

       On the other side they go towards the Mountain.

      This side and that, along the livid stone

       Beheld I horned demons with great scourges,

       Who cruelly were beating them behind.

      Ah me! how they did make them lift their legs

       At the first blows! and sooth not any one

       The second waited for, nor for the third.

      While I was going on, mine eyes by one

       Encountered were; and straight I said: "Already

       With sight of this one I am not unfed."

      Therefore I stayed my feet to make him out,

       And with me the sweet Guide came to a stand,

       And to my going somewhat back assented;

      And he, the scourged one, thought to hide himself,

       Lowering his face, but little it availed him;

       For said I: "Thou that castest down thine eyes,

      If false are not the features which thou bearest,

       Thou art Venedico Caccianimico;

       But what doth bring thee to such pungent sauces?"

      And he to me: "Unwillingly I tell it;

       But forces me thine utterance distinct,

       Which makes me recollect the ancient world.

      I was the one who the fair Ghisola

       Induced to grant the wishes of the Marquis,

       Howe'er the shameless story may be told.

      Not the sole Bolognese am I who weeps here;

       Nay, rather is this place so full of them,

       That not so many tongues to-day are taught

      'Twixt Reno and Savena to say 'sipa;'

       And if thereof thou wishest pledge or proof,

       Bring to thy mind our avaricious heart."

      While speaking in this manner, with his scourge

       A demon smote him, and said: "Get thee gone

       Pander, there are no women here for coin."

      I joined myself again unto mine Escort;

       Thereafterward with footsteps few we came

       To where a crag projected from the bank.

      This very easily did we ascend,

       And turning to the right along its ridge,

       From those eternal circles we departed.

      When we were there, where it is hollowed out

       Beneath, to give a passage to the scourged,

       The Guide said: "Wait, and see that on thee strike

      The vision of those others evil-born,

       Of whom thou hast not yet beheld the faces,

       Because together with us they have gone."

      From the old bridge we looked upon the train

       Which tow'rds us came upon the other border,

       And which the scourges in like manner smite.

      And the good Master, without my inquiring,

       Said to me: "See that tall one who is coming,

       And for his pain seems not to shed a tear;

      Still what a royal aspect he retains!

       That Jason is, who by his heart and cunning

       The Colchians of the Ram made destitute.

      He by the isle of Lemnos passed along

       After the daring women pitiless

       Had unto death devoted all their males.

      There with his tokens and with ornate words

       Did he deceive Hypsipyle, the maiden

       Who first, herself, had all the rest deceived.

      There did he leave her pregnant and forlorn;

       Such sin unto such punishment condemns him,

       And also for Medea is vengeance done.

      With him go those who in such wise deceive;

       And this sufficient be of the first valley

       To know, and those that in its jaws it holds."

      We were already where the narrow path

       Crosses athwart the second dike, and forms

       Of that a buttress for another arch.

      Thence we heard people, who are making moan

       In the next Bolgia, snorting with their muzzles,

       And with their palms beating upon themselves

      The margins were incrusted with a mould

       By exhalation from below, that sticks there,

       And with the eyes and nostrils wages war.

      The bottom is so deep, no place suffices

       To give us sight of it, without ascending

       The arch's back, where most the crag impends.

      Thither we came, and thence down in the moat

       I saw a people smothered in a filth

       That out of human privies seemed to flow;

      And whilst below there with mine eye I search,

       I saw one with his head so foul with ordure,

       It was not clear if he were clerk or layman.

      He screamed to me: "Wherefore art thou so eager

       To look at me more than the other foul ones?"

       And I to him: "Because, if I remember,

      I have already seen thee with dry hair,

       And thou'rt Alessio Interminei of Lucca;

       Therefore I eye thee more than all the others."

      And he thereon, belabouring his pumpkin:

       "The flatteries have submerged me here below,

       Wherewith my tongue was never surfeited."

      Then said to me the Guide: "See that thou thrust

       Thy visage somewhat farther in advance,

       That with thine eyes thou well the face attain

      Of that uncleanly and dishevelled drab,

       Who there doth scratch herself with filthy nails,

       And crouches now, and now on foot is standing.

      Thais the harlot is it, who replied

       Unto her paramour, when he said, 'Have I

       Great gratitude from thee?'—'Nay, marvellous;'

      And