The Online Library of Liberty

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• 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 XIV

• Since love for my own native place constrained me,
• I gathered up the scattered twigs and leaves,
• and gave them back to him who now was weak.
• Thence to the bound we came, where from the third
• the second ring is severed, and wherein
• a frightful form of Justice may be seen.

• To manifest aright what here was new,
• I say that we had reached a barren plain,
• which from its bed removeth every plant.
• The woeful wood is as a garland round it,
• as round the former is the dismal moat;
• there on its very edge we stayed our steps.
• Its soil was of a dense and arid sand,
• whose nature differed in no way from that,
• which once was trodden by the feet of Cato.

• Vengeance of God, how much by every one
• thou oughtest to be feared, who readeth here
• what to these eyes of mine was manifest!

• Of naked souls I many flocks beheld,
• who all wept very sorely, while on each
• a different law appeared to be imposed.

• A few lay on the ground upon their backs;
• and some were seated cuddled up together,
• while others moved about continually.
• Most numerous were those that moved around,
• and least so those that under torment lay,
• but all the freer had their tongues to wail.

• Down on the whole great waste of sand there rained
• with gentle fall dilated flakes of fire,
• like flakes of snow that fall on windless Alps.
• As were the flames which Alexander saw
• in India’s torrid regions, as they fell
• upon his hosts, unbroken to the ground;
• — and this he met, by ordering his troops
• to trample on the soil, because the flames,
• when single, were more easily put out —
• even such descended here the eternal heat,
• whereby the sand was set on fire, as tinder
• is kindled under steel, to double pain.
• And ever without resting was the dance
• of wretched hands, that kept, now here, now there,
• slapping away each latest burning flake.

• “Thou, Teacher,” I began, “that conquerest all,
• except the stubborn devils who came out
• against us at the entrance of the gate,
• who is that great one who seems not to mind
• the fire, but lies there scornful and awry,
• so that the rain seems not to ripen him?”

• And that same one, who had observed that I
• concerning him was questioning my Leader,
• cried: “As I was alive, such am I dead!
• If Jove should tire that smith of his, from whom,
• in wrath, he took the pointed thunderbolt,
• wherewith I smitten was that final day;
• or should he tire the others, each in turn,
• in Mongibello’s smithy black with smoke,
• by calling out: ‘Help, help, good Vulcan, help!’
• even as he did on Phlegra’s battle-field;
• and should he shoot at me with all his might,
• no glad revenge would he obtain thereby!”

• Thereat my Leader spoke with so much force,
• that I had never heard him use the like:
• “In that thine arrogance, O Capaneus,
• is not extinguished, art thou all the more
• chastised; no torment, saving thine own rage,
• were for thy furious pride a fitting pain.”

• Then with a gentler mien he turned to me,
• and said: “One of the seven kings was he,
• who Thebes besieged; he held, and seems to hold
• God in disdain, and little seems to prize Him;
• but, as I told him, his own spitefulness
• is fit enough adornment for his breast.
• Now follow me, and see that thou meanwhile
• set not thy feet upon the burning sand,
• but to the thicket keep them ever close.”

• In silence we went on, and came to where,
• out of the wood a little stream spirts forth,
• whose ruddy color makes me shudder still.
• As from the Bulicàmë springs a brook,
• which afterward the sinful women share,
• even so went that one down across the sand.
• Its bottom and both sides had turned to stone,
• as also had the embankments on each side;
• I hence perceived the crossing-place was there.

• “Of all the other things which I have shown thee
• since first we entered through the outer gate,
• whose threshold unto no one is denied,
• nothing has ever by thine eyes been seen
• as notable as is this present brook,
• which deadens o’er itself all little flames.”

• These were my Leader’s words; I therefore begged
• that he would freely grant to me the food,
• desire of which he had so freely given.

• “Amid the sea there lies a wasted land,”
• he told me thereupon, “whose name is Crete,
• under whose king the world of old was pure.
• There is a mountain there, which, happy once
• with waters and green leaves, was Ida called;
• ’t is now abandoned like a thing outworn.
• Whilom as trusty cradle for her son
• Rhea selected it, and when he wept,
• to hide him better, caused a shouting there.

• Within that mountain stands a great Old Man,
• who holds his shoulders toward Damiata turned,
• and who, as at his mirror, looks at Rome.
• His head is formed of finest gold, his arms
• and breast are of the purest silver, then,
• as far as to his loins, he ’s made of brass;
• all chosen iron is he down from there,
• save that baked clay his right foot is, and straighter
• he stands on that, than on the other foot.
• Each of these parts, except the golden one,
• is broken by a cleft, whence trickle tears,
• which, when collected, perforate that cave.
• From rock to rock they course into this vale;
• then Acheron with Styx and Phlegethon
• they form, and through this narrow duct descend
• as far as where one goes no further down;
• they form Cocytus there; and what that pool
• is like, thou ’lt see; hence here it is not told.

• And I to him: “If thus this present stream
• hs from our world descended, why alone
• on this ring’s edge hath it appeared to us?”

• And he: “Thou knowest that the place is round,
• and though a long way thou hast gone already,
• e’er to the left descending toward the bottom,
• through the whole circle thou hast not yet gone;
• wherefore, if aught that ’s new appear to us,
• it should not bring amazement to thy face.”

• And I again: “But where are Phlegethon
• and Lethe, Teacher? For, of this one silent,
• thou say’st the other of this rain is made.”

• And he replied: “Thou certainly dost please me
• in all thy questions, but the red stream’s boiling
• ought surely to have answered one of them.
• Lethe thou ’lt see, but there, outside this cave,
• whither souls go to wash themselves, when once
• their sin, repented of, has been removed.”

• And then he said: “It now is time for us
• to leave the wood; see that thou follow me;
• the banks, which are not burned, afford a path;
• and up above them every flame is quenched.”