Inferno
Other Falsifiers or Forgers. Gianni Schicchi, Myrrha, Adam of Brescia, Potiphar's Wife, and Sinon of Troy. 'Twas at
Just as Juno's rage against the Theban bloodline
burned for Semele's sake, as she had shown
more than once before,
Athamas was stripped of all reason—
seeing his wife walking with their two children,
one clinging to each hand,
he cried out: "Spread the nets! I'll catch
the lioness and her cubs as they pass!"
Then he stretched out his merciless claws,
seized the first child, named Learchus,
whirled him around and dashed him against a rock.
The mother, clutching her other burden, drowned herself.
And when fortune cast down
the Trojans' pride that had dared everything,
crushing both king and kingdom,
Hecuba—sad, hopeless, captive—
saw lifeless Polyxena,
then discovered her son Polydorus
washed up on the ocean shore.
Driven out of her mind, she barked like a dog,
so completely had anguish twisted her soul.
But neither the Theban nor the Trojan furies
were ever seen to be so cruel
in tormenting beasts, much less human beings,
as I witnessed in two pale, naked shadows
who ran biting through that place
like wild boars released from their pen.
One rushed at Capocchio,
sinking its teeth into his neck,
dragging him so his belly scraped
the hard ground as they went.
The man from Arezzo, trembling,
said to me: "That mad demon is Gianni Schicchi—
he goes raging around, savaging others like this."
View larger
FORGERS
“The man from Arezzo, trembling, / said to me: "That mad demon is Gianni Schicchi—”
"Oh," I replied, "if that other one
doesn't sink its teeth into you,
please don't let it tire you
to tell us who it is before it darts away."
He answered: "That's the ancient spirit
of wicked Myrrha, who became
her father's lover, beyond all natural love.
She came to sin with him
by taking another woman's form—
just as the one running there
counterfeited Buoso Donati himself
to gain the lady of the inheritance,
drawing up a will in proper legal form."
View larger
MYRRHA
“please don't let it tire you / to tell us who it is before it darts away." / He answered: "That's the ancient spirit”
After those two maniacs passed
and I had watched them go,
I turned back to observe
the other misshapen souls.
I saw one formed like a lute—
if only he'd been cut off at the groin,
right where the human body forks.
Heavy dropsy had so swollen his limbs
with fluids his body couldn't process
that his face no longer matched his belly.
It forced him to hold his lips apart
like someone with fever—one toward his chin,
the other curled upward from thirst.
"You who suffer no torment
in this world of woe—though I don't know why—"
he said to us, "look and pay attention
to Master Adam's misery.
In life I had much of what I wanted,
and now I crave a single drop of water.
The streams that flow from Casentino's green hills
down into the Arno,
making their channels cool and wet,
stand before me always—and not in vain,
for their image dries me up far more
than this disease that strips flesh from my face.
The rigid justice that punishes me
draws power from the very place I sinned,
making my sighs fly faster.
There lies Romena, where I counterfeited
the currency stamped with the Baptist's image—
for which my body was burned above.
But if I could see the wretched soul
of Guido, Alessandro, or their brother here,
I wouldn't trade that sight for Branda's fountain.
One is already down here,
if these raving shades circling around speak truth.
But what good does that do me, with limbs bound like this?
If I were light enough to move
just one inch in a hundred years,
I would have already started down the path
searching for him among this filthy crowd,
even though this ring stretches eleven miles around
and measures at least half a mile across.
Because of them I'm in such company—
they induced me to mint florins
that contained three carats of base metal."
I asked him: "Who are those two wretched souls
that steam like wet hands in winter,
lying close beside your right border?"
"I found them here when I rained down
into this pit," he replied, "and they haven't moved since—
nor do I think they ever will.
One is the lying woman who accused Joseph;
the other is false Sinon, the Greek from Troy.
Burning fever makes them reek like that."
One of them, perhaps annoyed
at being described so harshly,
struck his hardened belly with his fist.
It rang out like a drum,
and Master Adam hit him in the face
with an arm that seemed no less solid,
saying: "Though I can't move
because my limbs are so heavy,
I have one arm free for exactly this purpose."
Sinon shot back: "When you went to the fire,
that arm wasn't so ready—
though it was ready enough when you were counterfeiting!"
The dropsied one replied: "You speak the truth there,
but you weren't such a truthful witness
when they questioned you about Troy."
"If I spoke lies, you falsified coins,"
said Sinon, "and I'm here for one crime,
while you're here for more than any other demon."
"Remember the horse, you perjurer!"
answered the one with the swollen belly.
"May it torment you that the whole world knows it!"
"May the thirst that cracks your tongue torment you,"
the Greek replied, "and the putrid water
that makes your belly bulge before your eyes!"
The counterfeiter then said: "Your mouth
gapes wide with evil speech as always—
if I'm thirsty and swollen with fluid,
you burn with fever and your head pounds.
You wouldn't need many words of invitation
to lick Narcissus's mirror."
I was completely absorbed in listening to them
when my master said: "Keep staring like that
and I'll be ready to quarrel with you!"
When I heard him speak to me in anger,
I turned toward him with such shame
that it still churns through my memory.
Like someone who dreams of disaster
and while dreaming wishes it were only a dream,
longing for what is as if it weren't—
that's what I became, unable to speak,
wanting to excuse myself
yet excusing myself without realizing I was doing it.
"Less shame washes away a greater fault
than yours has been," my master said.
"So free yourself of all this sadness,
and remember that I am always beside you
if fate ever brings you again
to where people are having such disputes.
The desire to hear such things is base."