Classic Poem

CANTO XVII

" Behold the fell beast with the sharp tail curled
That mountains, walls and armour pierces through!
Behold him who corrupteth the whole world! "
Thus did my Master speak to me anew,
And beckoned him that he should come ashore
Where to the stony causeway's end we drew.
And that obscene image of Fraud then bore
Onward, and landed with his head and chest,
But drew not up his tail upon the scaur.
His face was as a just man's, and expressed
The mildness that its outward aspect feigned;
Like to a serpent's trunk was all the rest.
He had two paws, up to the armpits maned
With hair; the neck and breast and either flank
Were freaked with knots and little rings ingrained.
Never did Turk or Tartar livelier prank
With colour cloth, inlaid and overlaid;
Such dyes Arachne's tissue never drank.
As sometimes on the shore a barge is stayed,
That part in water lies and part on land;
And as, where greedy Germans dwell, to aid
His fishery, the beaver takes his stand,
So that most evil of beasts leant on the stone
Which with its rim encloses the great sand.
Out in the void flickered his tail alone,
Twisting the venomed fork up in the air
Which armed the point, as in the scorpion.
My Guide said, " Now must we a little bear
Off from our path, far as that beast that, buoyed
Upon the bank, couches in evil there. "
Descending to the right hand we deployed,
And made ten paces toward the margin, so
That we might well the flame and sand avoid;
And soon as we came close upon him, lo!
A little farther upon the sandy waste
Were people sitting near the abyss a-row.
" Here, " said to me my Master, " that thou may'st
Bear with thee full experience of this ring,
Go and observe the state of these; but haste!
Brief let thy talk be. I will with this thing
Be parleying, till thou return again,
That on his shoulders we may downward wing. "
Thus on the extreme border of the plain
Of that seventh circle, all alone I went
To where that folk were seated in their pain.
Through the eyes their grief in torrents was unpent.
This side and that they sought, twisting about,
Some shield from the air or hot soil to invent.
Not otherwise the dogs in summer drought,
When they are bitten by the fleas or flies,
Defend themselves, either with paw or snout.
After I had scanned the faces with my eyes
Of many on whom the dread fire falling smote,
I found not one that I could recognize
But saw on each a pouch, hung from the throat,
With a certain colour and device impressed,
And thereon with their gaze they seemed to gloat.
As I came close to them, mine eyes at quest
Saw a yellow purse an azure mark display
That had a lion's semblance for a crest.
Then as my look continued on its way
Another, red as blood, I noted now
Whereon was stampt a goose more white than whey.
And to me one, whose wallet with a sow,
Azure and pregnant, was imprinted, cried:
" What in this pit of misery doest thou?
Get thee away, and as thou hast not yet died,
Know, neighbour Vitaliano shall appear
And come to seat himself at my left side.
Florentine these are, Paduan I, whose ear
Their cries belabour often as with blows,
Shouting " Let come the sovereign cavalier
Who brings the pouch with three goats where he goes." "
Then with his mouth he writhed and sudden sent
His tongue out, like an ox that licks his nose.
And I, dreading my lord's admonishment,
Lest longer stay should his displeasure meet,
Turned me back from those spirits forlorn and spent.
I found my master who had taken seat
Already on that dread creature's haunches bare.
" Be bold, " he said, " and think not of retreat.
This way must serve us for the downward stair.
Mount thou in front, I shall the middle take,
Lest the tail, swindging, hurt thee unaware. "
Like one whom shiverings of the quartan shake
So that he has his nails already pale
And even at sight of shade is forced to quake,
So did I, when these words were spoken, ail.
But shame of those threats, like a servant bold
In his master's presence, made my will prevail.
On those dread shoulders did I then get hold.
I wished to say, only the voice came not
As I had meant: " Thy arms about me fold. "
But he who at other times my succour wrought
In other peril, clasped me by the waist,
Soon as I mounted, and my body caught.
Then he: " Move, Geryon, gently as thou may'st,
Wide be thy wheelings, thy descending slow.
Think on the unusual burden that thou hast. "
As the ship glides back from its station, so
He launched himself from where he had come to lean;
And when he felt him quite unmoored below,
His tail he turned there where his breast had been,
And like an eel he moved it as to steer,
And with his paws gathered the air between.
Verily I think there was not greater fear
When Phaithon his reins relaxing lost,
Whereby heaven scorched, as ev'n now doth appear,
Or when faint Icarus felt his shoulders roast
Disfeathered, as the warm'd wax was unbound,
And his sire cried to him, " An ill way thou go'st, "
Than was my terror when myself I found
In the air all round about me and all alone,
And save that beast all else from sight was drowned.
Slow, slowly he continueth swimming on,
Wheels and descends, but naught of this appeared
Save on my face a wind from under blown.
Already upon the right the stream I heard
Roar horribly beneath us; and I lowered
My head, and forth with eyes bent down I peered.
Then feared I the dismounting that was toward
Yet more, for fires I saw, and crying keen
I heard, so that my limbs all trembling cowered.
I saw, what heretofore I had not seen,
The sinking and the wheeling, through the things,
Drawing near on divers sides, of dole and teen.
As falcon that has been long on his wings,
Whom watching, with no bird or lure in sight,
The falconer suddenly " Ah, thou stoopest " sings,
Descendeth weary and then with quickened flight
Makes many a circle, and from his master far
Goes sullen and disdainful to alight,
So Geryon at the bottom of the scaur
Set us beside the rock's foot, ribbed and rough,
And when he was disburdened of our care
Like arrow from the string he bounded off.