Classic Poem

CANTO XXXI

The self-same tongue first dealt to me the wound
So that it coloured both my cheeks with red,
And then itself restoring medicine found.
Thus have I heard that by Achilles sped
The spear, that was his father's, where it pierced
Brought hurt and then with healing comforted.
We turned our back upon the valley accurst
Up by the bank about its circle cast
And without any speech the ridge traversed.
To less than night and less than day we passed,
So that my sight not far before me went;
But now, on high, a horn sounded a blast
So loud, it would have made the thunder faint;
Which drew my eyes in course reverse to go
Whence the sound came, all on that one place bent.
When Charlemagne by dolorous overthrow
Had lost his army and sacred enterprise,
No note so terrible did Roland blow.
Thitherward short while had I turned mine eyes,
When many lofty towers I seemed to see;
Whereat I: " Master, say, what city is this? "
" Because thou travellest, " said he to me,
" The murk at too great distance, thou dost err
And thy imagination cheateth thee.
If thou arrive there, thou shalt see full clear
How much remoteness doth the sense confound.
Therefore thy steps I bid thee somewhat spur. "
Then fondly he clasped his hand my hand around
And said: " I'll tell thee, ere we further go,
So that the truth of it may less astound,
These are not towers but Giants, and thou must know
That each and all, around the bank confined,
Down from the navel are in the well below. "
As, when the mist disperses in the wind,
By little and little the eye creates anew
What forms the thickening vapour curtained blind,
So whilst the gross, dark air I journeyed through
And toward the brink came near and nearer yet.
My error was dissolved, and my fear grew.
For as with towers on its round rampart set
Montereggione crowns itself, so tall
Around the stony circle of the pit
With half their bodies turreted the wall
The horrible Giants whose rebellious pride
Jove's thunderings out of heaven still appal.
By now the face of one I well descried,
Shoulders and breast, and of the belly a part,
And arms that hung down by his either side.
Of a truth Nature, when she left the art
Of making the like creatures, did not ill
Mars of such executioners to thwart.
And if of elephants and whales she still
Repents not, he that subtly reads her right
Approves the prudent working of her will.
For if with the mind's instrument unite
Power and evil intention both at once,
Men have no arms against such force to fight.
His face seemed large as is the pine of bronze
That by St. Peter's has in Rome renown.
In like proportion were his other bones;
So that the bank which from the middle down
Made him an apron, still so much displayed
Above, that to have reached up to his crown
Three Frieslanders in vain their boast had made.
For down from where a man buckles his coat
Thirty large spans of him mine eye surveyed.
Raphel may amech zabi almi , throat
And brutish mouth incontinently cried;
And they were fitted for no sweeter note.
" Stupid soul! " towards him then began my Guide,
" Keep to thy horn, and vent thee with its sound
When rage or other passion shakes thy hide.
Search on thy neck whereon the belt is bound
That holds it fastened, O thou soul confused.
See where it girdles thy huge breast around. "
Then to me speaking: " He hath himself accused.
This is that Nimrod, through whose ill design
One language through the world is no more used.
Leave we him standing, nor waste words of thine;
For every tongue to him is as to all
Others is his, which no one can divine. "
Then made we a longer journey along the wall
Leftward, and at a cross-bow shot beyond
We found the next, even yet more fierce and tall.
What master it was who put him in such bond
I cannot tell, but his right arm behind
And the other in front of him were pinioned
With a great chain, thaTheld him all entwined
From the neck down, and over what was bared
To view, far as the fifth turn went to wind.
" This proud imperious spirit his prowess dared
Against the supreme sovreignty of Jove, "
Said my Guide; " wherefore he hath such reward.
Ephialtes he, who would the adventure prove
When that the Giants made the Gods afraid.
The arms he shook then, now he cannot move. "
" If it were possible, I should wish, " I said,
" That these mine eyes should have experience
Of Briareus' immeasurable shade. "
Whereto he said: " Antaeus not far hence
Thou'lt see, who speaks and is not chained; and he
Will lower us to the pit of last offence.
Far beyond stands he whom thou cravest to see,
And shackled is, and like this one he shows,
Save thaThe seems a fiercer fate to dree. "
Never convulsion of an earthquake rose
To shake with so much violence a tower
As now shook Ephialtes in its throes.
Then more than ever I dreaded my death-hour,
And nought else needed for it but the dread,
Had I not seen what bonds constrained his power.
We then continued on our way that led
Around the hollow, and to Antaeus came
Emerging full five ells, without the head.
" O thou who in the valley assigned to fame,
Which gave to Scipio glory on the day
When routed Hannibal was put to shame,
Didst take a thousand lions once for prey,
And through whom, hadst thou been amongst the host
Of thy high-warring brethren, men yet say
The sons of the Earth had not the victory lost,
Set thou us down, nor scruple to do thus,
Where lies Cocytus locked in the deep frost.
Make us not go to Typho or Tityus!
This man can give whaThere is languished for.
Bend thee then down, nor curl thy lip at us.
He can thy fame yet upon earth restore:
He lives, and him long life doth yet abide
So Grace not call him ere the time be o'er. "
Thus spake the Master, and quickly from his side
He stretched the hands which Hercules assayed
Of old in mighty grapple, and took my Guide.
When Virgil felt their grasp upon him laid
He said, " Come hither, and let me take thee, " and then
Of me and of himself one bundle made.
Such as the Garisenda seems to men
Beneath its leaning, when clouds pass on high,
And counter-wise it seemeth then to lean,
Such seemed Antaeus to me, who stood to eye
His bending; and it frighted so my mind
That I had longed another road to try.
But gently on the deep which keeps confined
Judas with Lucifer, he down at last
Set us, nor lingered over us inclined
But raised himself, as in a ship the mast.