Notes
25 Lucifer’s fall was due to his pride
and rebellion. See Jesus' words in Luke 10:18: "I saw Satan fall like
lightning from heaven." The first letters of lines 26 to 63 spell out
"UOM" ("MAN"). See Introduction, pp. 200-201.
28 Briareus was one of the Titans who
attacked Jove on Olympus. He is in the pit of the giants in the
ninth circle of hell (Inferno XXXI, l. 99).
31 Thymbraeus is Apollo, and Pallas is Athena
or Minerva.
34 Nimrod supposedly supervised the building
of the Tower of Babel in Shinar. He is also in the giants' pit (Inferno
XXXI, l. 77, and note).
37 Niobe, queen of Thebes and mother of seven
sons and seven daughters, taunted Latona for only having two, Apollo and Diana; the two
slew the fourteen in punishment.
40 Saul, Israel’s first king, killed
himself after being defeated by the Philistines (I Samuel 31:1-6). David mourned his death
and cursed the mountains of Gilboa (2 Samuel 1:21).
43 Arachne was turned into a spider for
challenging Athena to a weaving contest (see Inferno XVII, l.18).
46 Rehoboam, king of Israel and son of
Solomon, levied heavy taxes and was forced to flee rebellious Jerusalem (I Kings 12:1-19).
50 Alcmaeon killed his mother Eriphyle for
accepting a necklace as a bribe in return for revealing the hiding place of her husband
Amphiaraus who, foreseeing his death at Thebes, had refused to join the
siege. See Inferno XX, n. 34 and
Paradiso
IV, n. 103.
52 Sennacherib, king of Assyria, was slain by
his sons after his defeat at the hands of Hezekiah, king of Judah (2 Kings 19:1-37).
55 Tomyris, queen of Scythia, defeated Cyrus,
the Persian emperor, in 529 B.C., and to avenge her son’s death had his head thrown
into a basin of blood.
58 Holofernes, one of Nebuchadnezzar’s
generals, was decapitated in his tent by Judith when the Assyrians besieged Bethulia
(Judith 8-14).
80 The hours are the handmaids of the sun; it
is noon on Easter Monday. Venus is the morning star (l. 90).
100 The church of San Miniato, on a hill
across the Arno from Florence, was reached by the Rubaconte bridge.
110 First of the Beatitudes which are sung in
Latin at each step of the mountain. |
|
- Side
by side, as oxen go in yoke,
- I
trod along with that weight-burdened soul,
- As
long as my kind teacher would permit it.
-
- But
when he spoke up, "Leave him and push on,
- 5
For each one here does well with sail and oars
- To
urge his boat ahead with all his might,"
-
- I
raised myself up straight as one should walk
- With
body erect, although my thoughts remained
- Bowed
down low and shrunken in themselves.
-
- 10
I did move on, and willingly I followed
- The
footsteps of my master, and both of us
- Now
showed how light we could be on our feet
-
- When
he told me, "Lower your eyes: you will
- Do
well, in making your way easier,
- 15
To see the bed of rock beneath your feet."
-
- Just
as the tombs in the church floor above
- The
buried dead, to keep their memory fresh,
- Bear
carvings figuring what they were in real life,
-
- And
at the sight men often weep for them
- 20
Because of the sharp spur of memory
- Which
pierces only those faithful to the dead:
-
- So I
saw there, but in a truer likeness
- By
grace of the artist’s skill, sculptured stone
- On
the whole path that juts out round the mountain.
-
- 25
I saw on one side him who was created
-
Nobler than any other creature, falling
- Like
a streak of lightning out of heaven.
-
- I saw
Briareus on the other side
-
Transfixed by the celestial thunderbolt,
- 30
Heavy on the ground in his last death-chills.
-
- I saw
Thymbraeus, I saw Mars and Pallas,
- Still
in armor, standing around their father,
-
Staring at the giants’ scattered limbs.
-
- I saw
Nimrod at the foot of his tower,
- 35
Looking bewildered, and people gaping there
- Who
were so proud to join with him in Shinar.
-
- O
Niobe, with what tear-laden eyes
- I saw
you represented on the road
-
Between seven sons and seven daughters slain!
-
- 40
O Saul, how you appeared there fallen dead
- Upon
your own sword on Mount Gilboa
- Which
never afterward felt rain or dew!
-
- O mad
Arachne, so I saw you turned
-
Half-spider already, in sadness on the shreds
- 45
Of the work you wove to your own undoing!
-
- O
Rehoboam, your image there seems now
-
Menacing no more, but a chariot wafts it
- Away
in panic with no one in pursuit!
-
- Shown
as well upon that pavement stone
- 50
Was Alcmaeon making his mother pay
- The
full dear price for her ill-fated necklace.
-
- Shown
were the sons of King Sennacherib
-
Felling him at prayers in the temple
- And
then leaving him there slain on the floor.
-
- 55
Shown was the downfall and the cruel killing
-
Tomyris enacted when she said to Cyrus,
-
"For blood you thirsted and with blood I sate you!"
-
- Shown
were the Assyrians in full rout,
- After
Holofernes had been murdered,
- 60
And also his remains amid the slaughter.
-
- I saw
Troy in ashes, caved-in ruins:
- O
Ilion, how cast down low were you
- Shown
by the carving there exposed to view!
-
- What
master artist of brush or pen was he
- 65
Who so sketched out the shapes and shadings there
- That
they would strike the subtlest minds with awe?
-
- The
dead looked dead, the living looked alive!
- Those
who had seen the real scenes saw no better
- Than
I did all I trod on while bent down!
-
- 70
Now be proud, and go with haughty looks,
-
Children of Eve, and do not bend your faces
- To
see the trail of sin you leave behind!
-
- By
now we’d rounded far more of the mountain
- And
much more of the sun’s course had run up
- 75
Than my restricted mind had reckoned on,
-
- When
he who always looked ahead as he went
- On
walking called anew, "Lift up your head!
-
You’ve no more time to go on lost in thought!
-
-
"Look! an angel over there makes ready
- 80
To come toward us. Look at the sixth handmaid
-
Return from her noon service to the day.
-
-
"Let reverence beam in your face and bearing
- That
he may now be glad to send us upward.
-
Remember, this day will not dawn again."
-
- 85
I was well used to his admonitions
- Not
to waste time, so nothing that he said
- In
that regard could be unclear to me.
-
- The
beautiful creature now came closer to us,
- All
clothed in white and looking radiant
- 90
Like a trembling star in the morning sky.
-
-
Opening his arms wide, he spread his wings,
-
Saying, "Come! the steps are here at hand
- And
from now on the climbing will be easy."
-
- To
this same invitation few come forward.
- 95
O human race, born to fly aloft,
- Why
do you fall at a mere puff of wind?
-
- He
led us where the rock had split wide open:
- There
he struck my forehead with his wings,
- And
then he promised me a safe, sure journey.
-
- 100
As on the right hand, on climbing on the hill
- Where
rises the church, above the Rubaconte,
- Which
dominates my so-well-governed city,
-
- The
bold rise of the escarpment is broken
- By
the stone stairway hewed out in time
- 105
When ledgers and staves were still trustworthy,
-
- Just
so, steps make easier the embankment
- That
falls steeply from the upper circle,
- But
on both sides the high rock squeezes close.
-
- When
we turned ourselves to that direction,
- 110
"Blessed are the poor in spirit" voices sang
- More
sweetly than words ever could describe.
-
- Ah,
how different these inroads are from those
- Of
hell! For here the entrance is with hymns
- And
there below with savage clamorings.
-
- 115
Now as we mounted up the sacred stairs,
-
I seemed to be ever so much lighter
-
Than I had been before on level ground:
-
-
So I asked, "Master, tell me, what great weight
-
Has just been lifted from me that I feel
- 120
Almost no fatigue as I walk on?"
-
- He
answered, "When the P’s that still remain
- Upon
your brow, although now nearly faded,
- Are
totally erased, as this one is,
-
-
"Your feet shall be so guided by goodwill
- 125
That not only will they never feel exhausted,
-
They even will rejoice to be urged uphill."
-
-
Then I did what persons do when strolling
-
Unaware of something on their head,
-
Until the signs of others make them guess it,
-
- 130
Their hand goes up to help find out for certain,
-
And gropes and discovers and performs
-
The duty that the eyes can’t carry through:
-
- So
with the outstretched fingers of my right hand
- 135
I found only six of the letter P’s
- The
angel of the keys traced on my temples,
-
- And,
watching this reaction, my guide smiled.
|
return
to Purgatorio XI