The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Ave Dante
• Preface
• Inferno I
• Inferno Ii
• Inferno Iii
• Inferno Iv
• Inferno V
• Inferno Vi
• Inferno Vii
• Inferno Viii
• Inferno Ix
• Inferno X
• Inferno Xi
• Inferno Xii
• Inferno Xiii
• Inferno Xiv
• Inferno Xv
• Inferno Xvi
• Inferno Xvii
• Inferno Xviii
• Inferno Xix
• Inferno Xx
• Inferno Xxi
• Inferno Xxii
• Inferno Xxiii
• Inferno Xxiv
• Inferno Xxv
• Inferno Xxvi
• Inferno Xxvii
• Inferno Xxviii
• Inferno Xxix
• Inferno Xxx
• Inferno Xxxi
• Inferno Xxxii
• Inferno Xxxiii
• Inferno Xxxiv

INFERNO VII

• “Papè Satàn, papè Satàn, alèppë!”
• thus Plutus with his clucking voice began;
• that noble Sage, then, who knew everything,
• said, to encourage me: “Let not thy fear
• distress thee, for, whatever power he have,
• he ’ll not prevent our going down this rock.”

• Then to those swollen lips he turned around,
• and said: “Be silent, thou accursèd wolf;
• with thine own rage consume thyself within!
• Not causeless is our going to the bottom;
• there is it willed on high, where Michael wrought
• vengeance upon the arrogant rebellion.”

• As sails, when swollen by the wind, fall down
• entangled, when the mast breaks; even so,
• down to the ground the cruel monster fell.

• Into the fourth ditch we descended thus,
• advancing further o’er the woeful edge,
• which bags all evil in the universe.

• Justice of God, alas! who heapeth up
• the many unheard of toils and pains I saw,
• and wherefore doth our sin torment us so?

• As yonder o’er Charybdis doth the sea,
• which breaks against the one it runs to meet,
• so must the people dance a ring-dance here.
• I here saw folk, more numerous than elsewhere,
• on one side and the other, with great howls
• rolling big weights around by strength of chest;
• they struck against each other; then, right there
• each turned, and rolling back his weight, cried out:
• “Why keepest thou?” and “Wherefore throw away?”
• They circled thus around the gloomy ring
• on either hand unto the point opposed,
• still shouting each to each their vile refrain;
• then each turned back, when through his own half-ring
• he had attained the other butting place.

• And I, whose heart was well nigh broken, said:
• “Now, Teacher, show me who these people are,
• and tell me whether all these tonsured ones
• upon our left ecclesiastics were.”

• And he replied to me: “They each and all
• were in their first life so squint-eyed in mind,
• that they with measure used no money there.
• Clearly enough their voices bark it forth,
• whene’er they reach the two points of the ring,
• where difference in fault unmateth them.
• These churchmen were, who have no hairy covering
• upon their heads, and Popes and Cardinals,
• among whom avarice works its mastery.”

• And I to him: “Among such men as these
• I surely, Teacher, ought to recognize
• a few, who by these sins polluted were.”

• And he to me: “Thou shapest a vain thought;
• the undiscerning life which made them foul,
• now to all recognition makes them dark.
• To these two shocks they ’ll come eternally;
• these from the sepulchre will rise again
• close-fisted; these, shorn of their very hair.
• Ill-giving and ill-keeping took from them
• the lovely world, and set them at this fray;
• to qualify it I ’ll not use fair words.
• Now canst thou, son, behold the short-lived cheat
• of riches that are put in Fortune’s care,
• and for whose sake the human race contends;
• for, all the gold there is beneath the moon,
• and all that was there once, could not avail
• to make one of these weary spirits rest.”

• “Teacher,” said I to him, “now tell me further:
• what is this Fortune thou dost touch upon,
• which hath the world’s good things thus in her claws?”

• “O foolish creatures,” said he then to me.
• “how great the ignorance which hurteth you!
• I ’d have thee swallow now my thought of her.
• The One whose knowledge everything transcends,
• so made the heavens, and so gave guides to them,
• that every part on every other shines,

• thus equally distributing the light;
• likewise for worldly splendours He ordained
• a general minister and guide, to change,
• from time to time, the vain goods of the world
• from race to race, from one blood to another,
• past all resistance by the minds of men;
• wherefore, one people governs, and the other
• declines in power, according to her judgment,
• which hidden is, as in the grass a snake.
• Your knowledge is not able to resist her;
• foreseeing, she decides, and carries on
• her government, as theirs the other gods.
• Her permutations have no truce at all;
• necessity compels her to be swift;
• hence oft it happens that a change occurs.
• This is the one who is so often cursed
• even by those who ought to give her praise,
• yet give her blame amiss, and ill repute.
• But she is blest, and gives no heed to that;
• among the other primal creatures glad,
• she turns her sphere, and blest enjoys herself.
• But now to woe more piteous let ’s descend;
• now falls each star that rose when I set out,
• and one is here forbidden too long a stay.”

• We crossed the circle to the other bank
• over a bubbling stream, that poureth down
• along a ditch which from it takes its shape.

• Than purple-black much darker was its water;
• and we, accompanying its dusky waves,
• went down and entered on an uncouth path.
• A swamp it forms which hath the name of Styx,
• this dismal little brook, when it hath reached
• the bottom of the grey, malignant slopes.

• And I, who was intensely gazing there,
• saw muddy people in that slimy marsh,
• all naked, and with anger in their looks.
• They struck each other, not with hands alone,
• but with their heads and chests, and with their feet,
• and rent each other piecemeal with their teeth.

• Said the good Teacher: “Son, thou seest now
• the souls of those whom anger overcame;
• nay, more, I ’d have thee certainly believe
• that ’neath the water there are folk who sigh,
• and make this water bubble at its surface,
• as, wheresoe’er it turn, thine eye reveals.
• Stuck in the slime, they say: “Sullen we were
• in the sweet air that ’s gladdened by the sun,
• bearing within us fumes of surliness;
• we now are sullen in the swamp’s black mire.”
• This hymn they gurgle down inside their throats,
• because they cannot utter it with perfect speech.

• And so we circled round the filthy fen
• a great arc ’tween the dry bank and the marsh,
• our eyes intent on those that swallow mud;
• and to a tower’s foot we came at last.