Classic Poem

CANTO XII

Craggy the place was where for our advance
We must descend, and by such presence marred,
That any eye would look on it askance.
Like to the desolation hitherward
Of Trent, on Adige, which, by want of prop
Or earthquake, has the river's flank all scarred,
For down to the level even from the mountain-top
The rock there is so ruined by its fall
That one above might scramble down the slope,
Such was the passage down that shattered wall;
And on the ragged coping of the pit
We found the infamy of Crete a-sprawl
That was conceived in the cow's counterfeit;
Who, when he saw us, on himself, with look
Of one whom inward spleen convulses, bit.
Toward him my sage: " Thou think'st maybe the Duke
Of Athens is upon thee once again
Who in the world above thy life-blood took.
Off, Monster! This one comes not with a skein
Unravelled by thy sister, on thy track,
But passes on, to see your ranks of pain. "
As a bull bursts his tether to attack
Just when he feels the stroke that makes an end
And cannot charge but plunges forth and back,
So did the Minotaur his fury spend;
And watchful called my Guide: " To the passage! Haste!
The while he rages, best that thou descend. "
Thus climbed we downward on that splintered waste
Of stones, that often sank beneath my tread
With the unfamiliar weight upon them placed.
I went in thought: and " Peradventure, " he said,
" Thou musest on this ruin, guarded by
The brute rage I but now discomfited.
I would have thee know that the other time when I
Descended hither to the deeps of hell,
The rock was not yet tumbled from on high.
But short while certainly, if I gauge it well,
Ere He came, who the plunder made of Dis
From those who in the upmost circle dwell,
On every side the reeking vast abyss
Trembled so, that the universe I deemed
Felt love, whereby, as some think oft it is,
The world has been to chaos cracked and seamed;
And in that moment, here and otherwhere,
This ancient rock down into ruin streamed.
But turn thine eyes to the valley, for draws near
The river of blood, wherein are boiling those
Who live by violence and on other's fear. "
O blind lust, that with guilt and folly goes!
That in the short life fires so with its spark
And in the eternal plungeth to such woes!
I saw a wide fosse bent into an arc
Embaying all the level ground in front,
Even as my Guide had bidden me to mark.
Between it and the scarp's base were at hunt
Centaurs, who, armed with arrows, thronged the strand,
Running as in the world once they were wont.
Seeing us descending, each one came to a stand.
And from their company broke three, with bow
And javelin ready chosen in the hand.
One from far cried: " For what allotted woe
Are ye that come down by the screes and rake?
Tell me from there; if not, I draw the bow. "
My Master said: " Our answer will we make
To Chiron yonder. In thee, to thy rue,
Rashness did ever judgement overtake. "
He touched me, and said: " This is that Nessus, who
Died for the fair Deianira, and took
Of himself vengeance by the shirt that slew.
He in the middle who on his breast doth look
Is the great Chiron, who Achilles nursed;
The other Pholus, whom such rages shook.
Round the fosse go they in thousands; and soon pierced
With arrows is whatever spirit writhes out
From the blood higher than by his guilt immersed. "
We drew near to these creatures fleet of foot.
And Chiron took an arrow and with the notch
His beard upon his jaw-bones backward put.
When he had uncovered his great mouth thus much,
He said to his companions: " Note ye how
The one behind moves that which he doth touch?
The feet of the dead are not wont so to do. "
And my good Guide, now at the breast of him,
Where the two forms into one nature grew,
Said, " Yea, he lives, and through the valley dim
Solitary must I his steps escort.
Necessity brings him to it, and not whim.
From singing alleluias in Heaven's court
Came she who for this task did me elect.
He is no thief, nor I of thievish sort.
But by the Virtue on high which doth protect
My steps upon so wild a journey, spare
One of thy band, our going to direct,
That he may show the ford to us, and may bear
Him on his back over to the other side.
For he is no spirit, to walk upon the air. "
Chiron upon his right breast turned and: " Guide
Be thou, " said he to Nessus; " if waylaid
By another troop, compel it to avoid. "
So with our guide we moved on unafraid
By the red bubbles of the scalding ooze
Wherein the boiled their sharp lamenting made.
I saw people in it up to the very brows.
And: " These are tyrants, " said the great Centaur,
" Who made of spoil and slaughter their carouse.
Here all their ruthless ravage they deplore, —
Alexander, and Dionysius fierce of heart,
Who made for Sicily the years so sore.
That forehead with the hair on it so swart
Is Ezzelin; and the other, who is blond,
Opizzo of Este, who, the truth to impart,
Was quenched by his own son's unnatural wound. "
I turned to the poet, and he made reply:
" Take him now for the first, and me second. "
A little on, the Centaur paused anigh
Another throng of sinners which appeared
To stand above the seething stream throat-high.
And there a spirit whom no other neared
He showed us, saying: " He on God's bosom
Transfixt the heart still upon Thames revered. "
Then saw I from the river emerging some
Who could the head and even the chest uprear;
And many I knew by this doom overcome.
Thus more and more the blood grew shallower
Until it scorched only the feet below.
For us the passage of the fosse was here.
" As on this side thou seest the boiling flow
Its own continual diminution keep,
So, " said the Centaur, " I would have thee know
That on the other it shelves from deep to deep
Along the bottom, till it resumes its way
To where the tyrants are compelled to weep.
Here Divine Justice stings that Attila
Who upon earth was the world's flail and fear,
Pyrrhus and Sextus; and it milketh aye
With scald of pain the disimprisoned tear
From those two Riniers, who so savage warred,
Riding the highways, on the traveller. "
Then he turned backward, and repassed the ford.