Classic Poem

Canto XXXIV

Argument.

Centre of the Universe, where Lucifer is fixed in the eternal ice. There, is punished treason to benefactors, and there Judas, Brutus, and Cassius, are found. — Virgil bears Dante through the centre of the earth, and rises with him in the opposite hemisphere.

" Behold ! the banners of the King of Hell
Come tow'rd us; therefore look before thee now, "
My Master said, " wouldst thou discern them well. "
As, when the air to a thick mist doth grow,
Or when night falleth on our hemisphere,
Ye see a windmill from afar; even so,
Like edifice did to mine eyes appear:
Then from the blast I shelter'd me, behind
My Guide; none other covert was there here.
In sooth, to tell it fear doth fill my mind;
But now I look'd on Shades within the ice,
Descried as straws which in clear glass ye find.
One stands upright, another prostrate lies;
Some, on their heads, and some, upon their feet,
And others, like a bow, inverted-wise.
When we so far had gone as seemid meet
Unto my Master, that he thence might show
The Being, erst of semblance fair and sweet,
Me he now placed before him, saying: " Lo!
The dreadful throne of Dis thou dost behold;
Well arm'd with courage here thou needs must go. "
How then my limbs became all weak and cold,
Demand not, reader, that to thee I strive
To tell; no words such hist'ry may unfold.
I died not; nor did yet remain alive:
Paint for thyself, if thou canst understand,
His state whom ye of life and death deprive.
The Sovereign Ruler of the doleful land
With half his chest from out the ice was seen:
More like to one of the huge giant-band
Am I, than they unto his arm had been;
Thus mayst thou see how great must be the whole,
Proportion'd to such monstrous limbs, I ween.
If he was erst as fair as since his fall
He hath grown foul, and yet he raised his brow
Against his Maker, it is well that all
Of sorrow flow from him. And much I now
Did marvel, gazing on his faces three:
One look'd before, and gleam'd with blood-red glow;
And, of the others which I there did see,
Rising from out each shoulder's mighty pile,
And join'd beneath his crest, one unto me
Appear'd of pale and sallow hue; the while
The other seem'd as of the region old,
Which hideth the far fountains of the Nile.
'Neath each, two wide-spread wings he did unfold,
As fitting for a bird of such huge size;
Like sails on ocean ne'er did I behold.
No plumage had they; but in bat-like guise
Were fashion'd: and they swiftly beat the air,
So that from thence three diverse winds arise.
Thence Cocytus its icy flood doth bear:
Six eyes shed tears; and down three several chins
Flows bloody spittle, mix'd with the salt tear.
Each mouth aye crunches one who for his sins
Is ground ev'n as the grist within the mill;
And thus, for three, just punishment he wins.
Unto the first, the gnawing teeth were still
As nought compar'd with the sharp claws that tore
His flesh, and bore away the skin, which fell
In shreds. " Yon soul, whose torment is most sore,
Judas Iscariot was erst; and he
Is here with head within, and legs which o'er
Those bloody lips do lie. Of those who be
Head-downwards hung, in the black jaws reveal'd
Is Brutus; see him writhing silently:
The other, Cassius, he of sinewy build.
But night once more doth rise again; and now
'Tis time to go: all things thou hast beheld. "
Thus Virgil spake; my arms I then did throw
Ev'n as he bade me, round his neck full fast:
And when the wide-spread wings fit moment show,
Unto the velvet sides he clung; and pass'd
From hair to hair, while he did thus descend
'Twixt the thick fur and the hard icy crust.
When we attain'd to where the thigh doth bend,
My leader with much toil and anguish sore,
(As he once more the upward path would wend)
With head now where his feet had been before
Did firmly cling; while climbing still he sped,
So that to Hell I thought to turn once more.
" Now hold thee fast; for by such stairs, " he said,
Panting like one with weariness opprest,
" Man from these depths of evil must be led. "
Then from a crevice he came forth at last,
And placed me on a rock, and show'd to me
The pathway intricate by which we pass'd.
I rais'd my eyes, and deem'd that I should see
Still Lucifer as he at first had been;
But saw him stand inverted. Thus may ye
Unletter'd ones, who know not aught, I ween,
Touching the point beyond which we had sped,
Perceive how much, at that which I had seen,
I marvell'd. " Now arise, " my Master said;
" The way is long, and evil is the path,
And the eighth portion of the day is fled. "
No royal road, in sooth, he followeth
Who climbs this steep; but a wild cavern rude,
That little light and roughest footing hath.
I said, when ready to depart I stood:
" My Master, ere I turn from the abyss,
Lest in my mind some error should intrude,
Say, where is now the ice? The form of Dis,
How standeth it inverted? and hath pass'd
The sun from morn to eve so soon, I wis? "
" Thou dost imagine that thy footsteps rest, "
He said, " beyond the point whence I did wend
Along his hide who is enclosid fast,
Piercing the earth. While I did yet descend,
In truth it was so; when I turn'd again,
We pass'd the spot to which all weights do tend.
And now we to that hemisphere attain
Oppos'd to the great solid tract of earth,
Upon whose central point the man was slain,
Who was all sinless both in life and birth:
Thou hast thy feet upon the little sphere
Which forms Giudecca. Evening goeth forth
There, when the morning light is dawning here;
And he, on whom to us a path was given,
Is fixid still as first he did appear.
And at this spot it was he fell from Heaven;
And all the land which here was erst outspread,
Veil'd 'neath the sea, and hence in terror driven,
Rose in our hemisphere. Perchance, there fled
Before him, leaving a wide, vacant spot,
The mountain which beyond us rears its head. "
There is a place, from Beelzebub remote
As far as doth his sepulchre extend,
Unknown to sight, but by the sound and note
Of a small stream that hither doth descend,
Wearing a rocky bed through which it flows
In winding path, and little doth impend.
My guide and I that hidden pathway chose,
To turn again to the clear world of light:
We had no thought or care to seek repose,
But still pass'd on, I following aright,
Until the lovely things of heaven afar
Through a round aperture now met my sight;
And thence we issued forth to see again each star.