Notes
1
Vexilla regis prodeunt
inferni: the opening line, quoted in Latin by Dante,
is a slightly parodied version of a sixth-century hymn by Fortunatus. The pilgrims reach
the fourth zone of Cocytus which is called Judecca (l. 117) for the traitor Judas.
20 Dis is another name that Dante uses for
Lucifer. He is also addressed as Satan in l. 73.
34 Lucifer (a word derived from Latin,
meaning "bearer of light") was beautiful before he rebelled against God.
61 The sinners in the three mouths of Lucifer
are Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed Christ,center, and Brutus and Cassius (ll.
65-67), left, who conspired to assassinate Julius Caesar.
67 Cassius looks brawny because, with his
skin chewed away, the muscles are exposed.
68 It is the evening of Holy Saturday. When
the poet passes the center point of the earth, it will be twelve hours earlier (l. 96).
112 Lucifer fell headfirst from heaven
through the southern hemisphere. All the land on that side of the globe rushed to the
north, except for a mound caused by the impact of his fall: the Mount of Purgatory.
130 The stream of Lethe runs down from the
Garden of Paradise on the top of purgatory. |
|
- "‘The
Banners of the King of Hell Advance’
-
Closer to us," my master said; "so look
-
Straight ahead and see if you can spot them."
-
- Just
as when a thick fog starts to settle
- 5
Or when evening darkens all our hemisphere,
-
Far-off a windmill appears to be rotating,
-
- So I
thought I saw such a structure there.
- Then
out of the wind I stepped back behind
- My
guide, because there was no other shelter.
-
- 10
I was now — and with fear I set it down
- In
verse — where the shades were wholly sealed
- And
yet showed through below like straws in glass.
-
- Some
of them lie flat, some stand upright,
- One
on his head and one upon his soles;
- 15
Another, like a bow, bends face to foot.
-
- When
we had made our way so far forward
- That
my master sensed it time to show me
- The
creature who was once so beautiful,
-
- He
took a step aside and made me stop;
- 20
"Look at Dis," he said, "look at the place
- Where
you must arm yourself with steadfastness."
-
- How
faint and frozen, reader, I grew then
- Do
not inquire: I shall not write it down,
- Since
all my words would be too few and weak.
-
- 25
I did not die and still I did not live.
- Think
for yourself — should you possess the talent —
- What
I became, robbed of both life and death!
-
- The
emperor of the kingdom of despair
- Rose
up from mid-chest out of the sheer ice;
- 30
And I come closer to a giant’s height
-
- Than
giants match the size of his huge arms:
- See
now how large the whole of him must be
- If
it’s proportionate to that one part!
-
- Were
he once as beautiful as now he’s ugly
- 35
(And yet he raised his fist against his Maker!)
- Well
may all our grief come down from him!
-
- Oh
how much wonder was it for me when
- I saw
that on his head he had three faces:
- One
in front — and it was fiery red —
-
- 40
And two others, which joined onto this one
- Above
the center of his shoulder blades,
- And
all three came together at his crown.
-
- The
right face seemed halfway white and yellow
- While
the left one looked the color of the race
- 45 That
lives close to the source of the Nile.
-
-
Beneath each face there sprouted two large wings,
-
Suitably massive for such a bird of prey:
- I
never sighted sails so broad at sea.
-
- They
had no feathers but looked just like a bat’s,
- 50
And he kept flapping these wings up and down
- So
that three winds moved out from in around him:
-
- This
was the cause Cocytus was all iced.
- With
six eyes he wept, and from his three chins
-
Dripped down the teardrops and a bloody froth.
-
- 55
In each mouth he mashed up a separate sinner
- With
his sharp teeth, as if they were a grinder,
- And
in this way he put the three through torture.
-
- For
the one in front, the biting was as nothing
-
Compared to the clawing, for at times his back
- 60
Remained completely stripped bare of its skin.
-
-
"That soul up there who suffers the worst pain,"
- My
master said, "is Judas Iscariot —
- His
head within, he kicks his legs outside.
-
-
"Of those other two, with their heads hung down,
- 65
The one who hangs from the black snout is Brutus:
- Look
how he writhes and mutters not a word!
-
-
"That other one is Cassius, who seems brawny.
- But
nightfall rises once again, and we now
- Must
take our leave, since we have seen the whole."
-
- 70
As he requested, I held him round the neck,
- And
then he waited the right time and place,
- And
when the wings spread open wide enough
-
- He
caught firm hold of Satan’s shaggy flanks.
-
Downward from shock to shock he climbed below
- 75
Between the matted hair and frozen crust.
-
- When
we were at the point at which the thigh
-
Revolves, right where the hip widens out,
- My
guide, by straining and agonizing effort,
-
-
Turned his head round to where his legs had been
- 80
And grabbed the hair, like a man climbing up,
- So
that I thought we’d headed back to hell!
-
-
"Hold tight! these are the only stairs to take us
- Out
of this sin-filled hole," said my master,
-
Panting, like a man worn out, for breath.
-
- 85
Then he squeezed through the crevice of a rock
- And
raised me up onto its rim to sit,
- And
afterward reached me with one wary step.
-
- I
lifted up my eyes, thinking I’d see
-
Lucifer as I had left him — instead
- 90
I found him with his legs suspended upward!
-
- And
if at that time I became confused
- Let
dull minds judge: those who do not see
- What
point it was that I must just have passed.
-
-
"Stand up!" my master said, "Up on your feet!
- 95
The way is long and the path strenuous.
- The
sun once more turns back to middle tierce."
-
- It
was no palace hall, the place where we
- Had
come, but a natural stone cavern
- With
scanty lighting and a treacherous floor.
-
- 100 "Before
we uproot ourselves from this abyss,
- My
master," said I when I stood up straight,
-
"Talk to me a bit to clear my error:
-
-
"Where is the ice? And how can he be fixed
-
Upside-down like that? And how in so short time
- 105
Has the sun moved from dusk to morning?"
-
- And
he told me, "You picture yourself still
- On
the other side of center where I caught
- The
hair of the vile worm that pierced the earth.
-
-
"You were there as long as I climbed downward.
- 110
When I turned myself round you passed the point
- To
which all weight on every side pulls down.
-
-
"And now you come under the hemisphere
-
Opposite that which domes the vast dry land:
-
There, beneath its pinnacle of sky,
-
- 115
"The Man, sinless in birth and life, was slain.
- Your
feet stand on a little sphere, a spot
- That
marks the other side of Judecca.
-
-
"Here it is morning when it is evening there,
- And
he whose hair supplied our ladder down
- 120
Is still stuck fast, as he was from the first.
-
-
"He fell down straight from heaven on this side,
- And
the land, which once had bulged out here,
- In
fright at his fall cloaked itself with sea
-
-
"And rushed up toward our hemisphere; perhaps,
- 125
What you see on this side, to flee from him,
- Left
this space vacant here and spurted upward.
-
-
"Below, as far away from Beelzebub
- As
the limit of his tomb, there is a place
- Which
is known not by sight but by the sound
-
- 130
"Of a small stream that courses down this way
- Along
the hollow of a rock it wore
- Away
with winding flow and trickling fall."
-
- Along
that hidden path my guide and I
-
Started out to return to the bright world.
- 135
And without a thought for any resting-stops,
-
- We
bounded up, he first and I second,
-
Until, through a round opening, I saw
- Some
of the lovely things the heavens hold:
-
- From
there we came out to see once more the stars.
|
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to Inferno XXXIII