The color that cowardice brought to my face
when I saw my guide turning back
made him quickly suppress his own new pallor.
He stood still and alert, like someone listening,
because the eye could not see far ahead
The black air could not carry him far through that heavy fog.
"We must still win this fight," he began,
"Otherwise... She who offered herself to us...
Oh, how I long for someone to arrive!"
I could tell from the moment he began
that he was covering up his first words
with what came after—
they were completely different from what he'd started to say.
But his words frightened me nonetheless,
because I completed that broken phrase in my mind,
perhaps twisting it to something worse than he meant.
"Does anyone ever descend into this bottom
of the sorrowful pit from the first circle,
where the only punishment is hope cut away?"
This was my question, and he answered:
"Rarely does one of us make the journey I'm taking.
It's true that I came down here once before,
conjured by that merciless sorceress Erictho,
who called shades back into their bodies.
My flesh had barely grown cold
when she forced me to enter that wall
to bring forth a spirit from Judas's circle—
the lowest place, the darkest,
farthest from the heaven that encircles all.
I know the way well, so don't worry.
This marsh that breathes such a foul stench
surrounds the city of sorrow,
where we cannot enter now without violence."
He said more, but I can't remember it,
because my eyes had drawn me completely
toward the high tower with its red-flaming peak.
There in an instant I saw three infernal Furies
rise up, swift and blood-stained,
with the limbs and bearing of women.
Green hydras girded them around,
small serpents and horned vipers formed their hair,
twisting around their horrible temples.
And he who knew well these handmaids
of the Queen of eternal lamentation
said to me: "Look at the fierce Furies.
This is Megaera on the left side,
the one weeping on the right is Alecto,
Tisiphone stands between them."
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THE ERINNYS
“This is Megaera on the left side, / the one weeping on the right is Alecto, / Tisiphone stands between them."”
Each one tore at her breast with her nails,
they beat themselves with their palms
and shrieked so loudly
that I pressed close to the Poet in terror.
"Let Medusa come and turn him to stone!"
they all shouted, looking down.
"We should have taken better revenge on Theseus!"
"Turn around and keep your eyes shut tight,"
my Master said. "If the Gorgon appears
and you see her,
you'll never return to the world above."
He turned me around himself,
not trusting my hands alone,
shielding my eyes with his own.
O you who have clear understanding,
observe the teaching that hides itself
beneath the veil of these mysterious verses!
Now across the murky waves
came the crash of a terrifying sound
that made both shores tremble—
like a violent wind born of clashing temperatures
that strikes the forest without restraint,
shattering branches, beating them down, sweeping them away.
It moves forward proudly, thick with dust,
putting wild beasts and shepherds to flight.
He freed my eyes and said: "Now direct your sight
along that ancient foam,
there where the smoke is thickest."
Like frogs scattering across the water
before their enemy the snake,
each one huddling down in the mud,
I saw more than a thousand ruined souls
fleeing before one who walked on foot
across the Styx with dry soles.
He fanned away that thick air from his face,
often waving his left hand before him,
and seemed weary only from this annoyance.
I could tell he was sent from Heaven,
and I turned to my Master, who signaled
that I should stand quietly and bow.
How full of scorn he appeared to me!
He reached the gate and with a small rod
opened it—there was no resistance.
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THE ANGEL
“How full of scorn he appeared to me! / He reached the gate and with a small rod”
"O outcasts from Heaven, despised people!"
he began on that horrible threshold.
"What is this arrogance that lives in you?
Why do you kick against that will
whose purpose can never be thwarted
and has only increased your pain?
What good does it do to butt against fate?
Your Cerberus, if you remember well,
still bears his throat and chin scraped raw."
Then he turned back along the filthy road
and spoke no word to us,
but looked like someone driven by other concerns
than whoever stands before him.
We directed our steps toward the city,
confident after those sacred words.
We entered without any struggle.
And I, eager to see
what condition such a fortress holds,
as soon as I was inside, looked around
and saw on every side a vast plain
full of distress and terrible torment.
Just as at Arles where the Rhône grows stagnant,
or at Pola near the Quarnaro
that closes off Italy and bathes its borders,
sepulchers make the whole place uneven—
so they did here on every side,
except the manner here was more bitter.
Flames were scattered among the tombs,
heating them so intensely
that no metalworker's art requires iron hotter.
All their lids were lifted up,
and from them came such terrible laments
they seemed truly from the wretched and tormented.
"Master," I said, "who are all these people
who, buried within those coffins,
make themselves known by mournful sighs?"
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BURNING GRAVES—THE HERESIARCHS
“they seemed truly from the wretched and tormented. / "Master," I said, "who are all these people / who, buried within those coffins,”
"Here are the heretics," he answered,
"with their followers from every sect.
The tombs hold far more than you think.
Like is buried with like here,
and the monuments burn with different intensities."
When he had turned to the right, we passed
between the torments and the high walls.