Notes
6 Octavian is the Emperor Augustus.
See Canto III, note 26.
35 The three virtues are faith, hope, and
charity; the four moral or cardinal virtues are justice, prudence, temperance, and fortitude.
82 Salve Regina is a liturgical song
in praise of Mary, the Mother of Christ.
91 Rudolph I of Hapsburg, emperor from 1273
to 1292 shared the blame with his son Albert for the chaotic political situation in Italy
(see note to Canto VI, l. 97).
100 Ottokar II of Bohemia opposed Rudolph who
defeated and killed him in 1278. Ottokar’s son, Wenceslaus II, married Rudolph’s
daughter.
103 Philip III, king of France from
1270-1285, called the Bold or the Snubnose, is pictured here with Henry I the Fat, king of
Navarre from 1270 to 1274. Philip and Henry are the two described in lines 106-108.
109 Philip IV the Fair, king of France from
1285 to 1314, was the son of Philip and son-in-law of Henry.
112 Peter III of Aragon (1276-1285) is here
with his former foe Charles I of Anjou (1220-1282), king of Naples and Sicily (1266-1282).
115 Alfonso III of Aragon, known as the
Magnificent, was the eldest son of Peter III; he died in 1291 after a reign of six years.
Peter’s other sons (l. 119) were James II, king of Spain and Aragon, and Frederick
II, king of Sicily.
124 Charles I of Anjou was the husband first
of Beatrice of Provence and then of Margaret of Burgundy (l. 129). Peter III of Aragon (l.
125) was married to Constance (l. 129). Charles II (l. 127) is as inferior to his father
as he, Charles I, was inferior to Peter III.
130 Henry III was king of England from 1226
to 1272 and father of Edward I who reigned until 1307.
134 William VII, marquis of Monferrato and
Canavese, was captured by the people of Alessandria and displayed in an iron cage until he
died: his son invaded the districts in revenge, but the Alessandrians defeated him and
took over the area. |
|
- After
this gallant and warm-hearted greeting
- Again
had been given three or four times more,
-
Sordello stepped back and asked, "Who are you?"
-
-
"Before those souls worthy of climbing up
- 5
To God were turned toward this mountaintop,
- My
bones were buried by Octavian:
-
-
"I am Virgil, and for no other fault
- Have
I lost heaven than for want of faith."
- This
then was the answer my guide gave him.
-
- 10
As one who sees suddenly before him
-
Something to make him wonder, in belief
- And
disbelief he says, "It is ... It isn’t so!"
-
- So
that shade seemed, and then he bowed his head
- And,
humbly coming to my guide again,
- 15
Embraced him as a minion clasps his lord.
-
-
"O glory of the Latin race," he cried,
-
"Who proved the power of our native tongue,
- O
everlasting honor of my birthplace,
-
-
"What merit or what grace brings you to me?
- 20
Should I be worthy to hear your words, tell me
- If
you come here from hell, and from which cell?"
-
-
"Through all the circles of that realm of pain,"
- He
answered him, "have I come to this place.
-
Heaven’s might moved me: by its help I came.
-
- 25
"Not what I did but what I did not do
- Lost
me the sight of that high sun you crave
- And
which I came to recognize too late.
-
-
"There is a place down there not cursed by tortures
- But
only by the darkness, and distress
- 30
Has not the sound of cries but of deep sighs.
-
-
"There I stay with the infant innocents
- Bit
off by the strong teeth of death before
- They
were delivered from our human guilt.
-
-
"There I stay with those souls who did not don
- 35
Three holy virtues, but who, free from vice,
- Knew
all the other virtues and followed them.
-
-
"But if you know and are allowed to tell,
- Teach
us how we may reach most quickly
- Where
purgatory properly begins."
-
- 40
He answered, "No particular place is set us:
- I am
permitted to amble up and around:
- As
far as I may travel I shall guide you.
-
-
"But look! already daylight is declining,
- And
it is not possible to climb at night:
- 45
It’s best to think then of a resting-place.
-
-
"Some souls are off here to the right, apart:
- By
your leave I will take you both to them,
- And
you will find delight in their acquaintance."
-
-
"How do you mean?" my guide asked. "Would someone
- 50
Wishing to mount by night be stopped by others,
- Or
would he not go on because he cannot?"
-
- Good
Sordello drew his finger on the ground
- And
answered, "Look! even beyond this line
- You
could not dare cross once the sun has set.
-
- 55
"Nor is there anything else that blocks the path
- For
going up except the dark of night:
- That
blinds the will with inability.
-
-
"One might, indeed, at nightfall turn back down
- And
go wandering around the mountainside
- 60
While the horizon seals the daylight shut."
-
- At
that my master, seemingly amazed,
- Said,
"Lead us then to the place that you mention,
- Where
we may find delight in our delay."
-
- We
had gone on just a short way from there
- 65
When I observed that the hill was hollowed out,
- As
valleys carve out mountains here on earth.
-
-
"Out there," the shade now told us, "we shall walk
- To
where the slope shapes out a lap of stone,
- And
we shall all wait there for the new day."
-
- 70
Half steep, half level was a rambling path
- Which
led us to the border of that hollow
- Whose
edge fades to the middle of the slope.
-
- Gold,
fine silver, white lead, cochineal,
-
Indigo, self-glowing polished wood,
- 75
Fresh emerald at the instant it is split,
-
- The
grass and flowers blooming in that valley
-
Outshine them all in color — were they there —
- As
finer works surpass inferior.
-
- But
nature had not only painted that place:
- 80
Out of the sweetness of a thousand scents
- She
made there one unknown and secret perfume.
-
-
"Salve Regina" — I saw the souls who sang
- This
hymn seated on the flowering green:
- They
had been hidden till then in the valley.
-
- 85
"Do not wish me to guide you there among them,"
- The
Mantuan conducting us began,
-
"Before the setting sun drops to its nest.
-
-
"From this knoll you will discover better
- The
movements and the faces of them all
- 90
Than if you were down with them in their glen.
-
-
"The one who sits highest and wears the look
- Of
having failed to do what he should have done
- And
neglects to move his lips with others singing
-
-
"Was Rudolph the Emperor, who could have cured
- 95
The wounds that meant the death of Italy:
-
Though someone else should help, it is too late.
-
-
"The other shade who seems to comfort him
- Once
ruled the land where spring up those waters
- Which
the Moldau drifts to the Elbe and the sea:
-
- 100
"Ottokar was his name, and in babyhood
- He
was braver than his grown son Wenceslaus
- In
his beard, fed on idleness and lust.
-
-
"That snub-nosed one who seems so thick in talk
- With
the kind-looking soul next to him
- 105
Died fleeing and dishonoring the lily:
-
-
"Watch him there — look how he beats his breast!
- See
too that other one who cradles his cheek
- In
the palm of his hand, the while he sighs:
-
-
"They’re father and father-in-law of the Plague
- 110
Of France — they know his vile and vicious life,
- And
that is why grief stabs them to the heart.
-
-
"That one who seems so strong in build and who
-
Chimes his singing with the big-nosed shade
- Was
cinctured with the cord of worthiness,
-
- 115
"And if the young man seated at his rear
- Had
succeeded him to his throne, then
- His
worth would have passed on from urn to urn,
-
-
"A thing that never happened to his heirs.
- James
and Frederick now hold the kingdoms,
- 120
But neither gained the better heritage.
-
-
"The sap of human goodness rarely rises
-
Through its branches, and this He wills who gives
- The
gift that we may call on Him for it.
-
-
"My words apply to him with the big nose
- 125
And to the one who sings with him, Peter,
- Who
caused Apulia and Provence distress.
-
-
"So stunted has the family tree become
- That
Constance can still boast about her husband
- More
than Beatrice and Margaret could of theirs.
-
- 130
"See there the king who led a simple life,
-
Sitting all alone, Henry of England:
- He in
his branches has a sturdier stock.
-
-
"The one who sits with them on lower ground,
-
Gazing upward, is William the Marquis,
- 135
Through whom Alessandria and its war
-
-
"Make Montferrat and Canavese weep."
|
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