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

our friend,

       We would pray unto him to give thee peace,

       Since thou hast pity on our woe perverse.

      Of what it pleases thee to hear and speak,

       That will we hear, and we will speak to you,

       While silent is the wind, as it is now.

      Sitteth the city, wherein I was born,

       Upon the sea-shore where the Po descends

       To rest in peace with all his retinue.

      Love, that on gentle heart doth swiftly seize,

       Seized this man for the person beautiful

       That was ta'en from me, and still the mode offends me.

      Love, that exempts no one beloved from loving,

       Seized me with pleasure of this man so strongly,

       That, as thou seest, it doth not yet desert me;

      Love has conducted us unto one death;

       Caina waiteth him who quenched our life!"

       These words were borne along from them to us.

      As soon as I had heard those souls tormented,

       I bowed my face, and so long held it down

       Until the Poet said to me: "What thinkest?"

      When I made answer, I began: "Alas!

       How many pleasant thoughts, how much desire,

       Conducted these unto the dolorous pass!"

      Then unto them I turned me, and I spake,

       And I began: "Thine agonies, Francesca,

       Sad and compassionate to weeping make me.

      But tell me, at the time of those sweet sighs,

       By what and in what manner Love conceded,

       That you should know your dubious desires?"

      And she to me: "There is no greater sorrow

       Than to be mindful of the happy time

       In misery, and that thy Teacher knows.

      But, if to recognise the earliest root

       Of love in us thou hast so great desire,

       I will do even as he who weeps and speaks.

      One day we reading were for our delight

       Of Launcelot, how Love did him enthral.

       Alone we were and without any fear.

      Full many a time our eyes together drew

       That reading, and drove the colour from our faces;

       But one point only was it that o'ercame us.

      When as we read of the much-longed-for smile

       Being by such a noble lover kissed,

       This one, who ne'er from me shall be divided,

      Kissed me upon the mouth all palpitating.

       Galeotto was the book and he who wrote it.

       That day no farther did we read therein."

      And all the while one spirit uttered this,

       The other one did weep so, that, for pity,

       I swooned away as if I had been dying,

      And fell, even as a dead body falls.

      Canto VI. The Third Circle: The Gluttonous. Cerberus. The Eternal Rain. Ciacco. Florence.

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      At the return of consciousness, that closed

       Before the pity of those two relations,

       Which utterly with sadness had confused me,

      New torments I behold, and new tormented

       Around me, whichsoever way I move,

       And whichsoever way I turn, and gaze.

      In the third circle am I of the rain

       Eternal, maledict, and cold, and heavy;

       Its law and quality are never new.

      Huge hail, and water sombre-hued, and snow,

       Athwart the tenebrous air pour down amain;

       Noisome the earth is, that receiveth this.

      Cerberus, monster cruel and uncouth,

       With his three gullets like a dog is barking

       Over the people that are there submerged.

      Red eyes he has, and unctuous beard and black,

       And belly large, and armed with claws his hands;

       He rends the spirits, flays, and quarters them.

      Howl the rain maketh them like unto dogs;

       One side they make a shelter for the other;

       Oft turn themselves the wretched reprobates.

      When Cerberus perceived us, the great worm!

       His mouths he opened, and displayed his tusks;

       Not a limb had he that was motionless.

      And my Conductor, with his spans extended,

       Took of the earth, and with his fists well filled,

       He threw it into those rapacious gullets.

      Such as that dog is, who by barking craves,

       And quiet grows soon as his food he gnaws,

       For to devour it he but thinks and struggles,

      The like became those muzzles filth-begrimed

       Of Cerberus the demon, who so thunders

       Over the souls that they would fain be deaf.

      We passed across the shadows, which subdues

       The heavy rain-storm, and we placed our feet

       Upon their vanity that person seems.

      They all were lying prone upon the earth,

       Excepting one, who sat upright as soon

       As he beheld us passing on before him.

      "O thou that art conducted through this Hell,"

       He said to me, "recall me, if thou canst;

       Thyself wast made before I was unmade."

      And I to him: "The anguish which thou hast

       Perhaps doth draw thee out of my remembrance,

       So that it seems not I have ever seen thee.

      But tell me who thou art, that in so doleful

       A place art put, and in such punishment,

       If some are greater, none is so displeasing."

      And he to me: "Thy city, which is full

       Of envy so that now the sack runs over,

       Held me within it in the life serene.

      You citizens were wont to call me Ciacco;

       For the pernicious sin of gluttony

       I, as thou seest, am battered by this rain.

      And I, sad soul, am not the only one,

       For all these suffer the like penalty

       For the like sin;" and word no more spake he.

      I answered him: "Ciacco, thy wretchedness

       Weighs on me so that it to weep invites me;

       But tell