The flame stood upright and still,
no longer speaking,
2
With the gentle Poet's permission, we had moved away from the previous soul
when another flame behind it caught our attention,
drawing our eyes to its tip
where a confused sound was emerging.
6
Like the Sicilian bull—that first bellowed
with the cries of its creator,
the man who shaped it with his tools—
so this flame roared with the voice of the damned.
Though made of brass, that ancient torture device
seemed pierced through with agony.
Here too, having no other way or opening
to escape the fire at first,
the sorrowful words were converted into the flame's own language.
15
But once they found their path
up through the tip, giving it the same vibration
the tongue had given them as they passed out,
we heard it say: "O you, toward whom I direct
my voice, who just now spoke in Lombard dialect,
saying 'Go now, I urge you no further'—
though I may come perhaps a little late,
don't let it trouble you to stay and speak with me.
You see it doesn't trouble me, and I am burning!
24
If you have only recently fallen
into this blind world from that sweet Italian land
from which I bring all my guilt,
tell me—do the people of Romagna have peace or war?
I was from the mountains between
Urbino and the ridge where the Tiber springs forth."
30
I was still leaning down and listening
when my Guide touched me on the side,
saying: "You speak—this one is Italian."
33
Since I had my answer ready,
I began at once to speak:
"O soul concealed down there below,
your Romagna never has been
and never will be without war
in the hearts of its tyrants,
but I left no open warfare there just now.
40
Ravenna stands as it has for many years—
Polenta's Eagle broods there,
covering Cervia with its wings.
The city that once made the long resistance
and left the French in bloody heaps
now finds itself again under the Green Claws.
The old Mastiff of Verrucchio and the young one
who dealt so badly with Montagna
still sharpen their teeth where they're accustomed.
49
The cities along the Lamone and Santerno rivers
are governed by the little Lion of the white den,
who changes sides between summer and winter.
And the city whose flank the Savio bathes,
lying as it does between plain and mountain,
lives between tyranny and freedom.
55
Now I beg you, tell us who you are.
Don't be more stubborn than others have been—
so may your name endure in the world above."
58
After the fire had roared a little more
in its own way, it moved its sharp point
back and forth, then released this breath:
61
"If I believed my answer were being given
to someone who might return to the world,
this flame would cease its flickering.
But since no one has ever returned
from this depth, if what I hear is true,
I answer you without fear of infamy.
67
I was a man of war, then became a Franciscan,
believing that by wearing the cord I could make amends.
And truly my belief would have been fulfilled,
but for the High Priest—may evil befall him!—
who drew me back into my former sins.
How and why this happened, I want you to hear.
73
While I still possessed the form
of bone and flesh my mother gave me,
my deeds were not those of a lion, but of a fox.
I knew all the schemes and secret ways,
and practiced their craft so well
that my reputation reached the ends of the earth.
79
When I saw myself arrived at that time of life
when everyone ought to lower the sails
and coil up the ropes,
what had once pleased me then displeased me.
Penitent and confessing, I surrendered to God—
alas for me! and it would have saved me.
85
But the Leader of the modern Pharisees,
waging war near the Lateran—
not against Saracens or Jews,
for all his enemies were Christians,
none of whom had gone to conquer Acre
or traded in the Sultan's lands—
regarded neither his high office nor holy orders,
nor the cord I wore that used to make its wearers lean.
93
Just as Constantine sought out Pope Sylvester
in Mount Soracte to cure his leprosy,
so this Pope sought me out as an expert
to cure the fever of his pride.
He asked my counsel, and I kept silent
because his words seemed drunk with madness.
99
Then he said: 'Don't let your heart be afraid.
From now on, I absolve you. Teach me
how to raze Palestrina to the ground.
I have the power to lock and unlock Heaven,
as you know—therefore I hold two keys,
which my predecessor did not hold dear.'
105
His weighty arguments pushed me forward
to where my silence would have been the better counsel,
and I said: 'Father, since you wash me clean
of the sin I'm about to fall into,
a long promise with short fulfillment
will bring you triumph on your lofty throne.'
111
Later, when I died, Saint Francis came for me,
but one of the black Cherubim said to him:
'Don't take him! Don't wrong me!
He must come down among my servants
because he gave that fraudulent advice.
Since then, I've been at his hair,
for one who doesn't repent cannot be absolved,
nor can anyone repent and sin at the same time—
the contradiction makes it impossible.'
120
Oh wretched me! How I shuddered
when he seized me, saying: 'Perhaps
you didn't think I was a logician!'
123
He carried me to Minos, who coiled
his tail eight times around his rigid back,
and after biting it in great rage,
said: 'This one belongs to the thieving fire.'
So here, where you see me, I am lost,
and clothed like this, I go lamenting."
129
When the flame had finished its tale,
it departed with mourning cries,
writhing and tossing its sharp-pointed tip.
132
We moved on, my Guide and I,
over the ridge to the next arch
that spans the ditch where the penalty is paid
by those who, sowing discord, earned their burden.
136