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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 XVIII

• A place there is in Hell, called Malebolgë,
• wholly of stone, and of an iron hue,
• as is the round wall which encircles it.
• Right in the midst of its malicious field
• yawneth a well exceeding wide and deep,
• of whose construction, in its place, I ’ll speak.
• Round, therefore, is the girdle which remains
• between the well and that hard, high wall’s base,
• and ten great trenches subdivide its bed.

• As is the appearance which, where many moats
• encircle castles for the walls’ protection,
• the section where they are presents;
• such was the one those trenches furnished here;
• and just as in such fortresses small bridges
• stretch from their thresholds to the outmost bank;
• so crags ran from the bottom of the cliff
• across the banks and trenches to the well,
• which, gathering them together, cuts them off.

• In this place, then, we found ourselves, when dropped
• from Geryon’s back; the Poet thereupon
• held to the left, and I behind him moved.

• Upon the right side I beheld new cause
• for sympathy, new pains, and scourgers new,
• wherewith the first trench was completely filled.
• Down at its bottom naked were the sinners;
• this side the middle facing us they came,
• beyond it with us, but with quicker steps;
• means such as those which at the Jubilee
• the Romans took, because of its great throng,
• to have the people pass across the bridge,
• who toward the Castle all on one side face,
• and toward Saint Peter’s go their way; while all
• move toward the mountain on the other edge.

• This side and that, upon the dark, stone floor,
• horned demons with great scourges I beheld,
• who from behind were fiercely whipping them.
• Ah, how they caused them to lift them up their heels,
• when by the first blows smitten! Certainly
• none waited for the second, or the third.

• While I was going on, mine eyes were met
• by one of them; and instantly I said:
• “I fast not from a previous sight of him.”
• To make him out I therefore stayed my feet;
• and, having stopped with me, my gentle Leader
• assented to my going back a little.

• That scourged one thought that he could hide himself
• by looking down, but little it availed him;
• for “Thou, that castest down thine eyes,” said I,

• unless the features which thou hast are false,
• Venèdico Caccianimico art;
• but what brings thee into such pungent sauces?”

• And he to me: “Unwillingly I tell it;
• but forced I am by thy transparent speech,
• which makes me recollect the olden world.
• I was the one who led Ghisolabella
• to do according to the Marquis’ will,
• however the disgusting tale be told.
• Nor am I here the only Bolognese
• that weeps; nay, this place is so full of us,
• that not so many tongues are taught today
• between Savena and Reno to say sipa;
• and if thereof thou wouldst have pledge or proof,
• recall to mind our avaricious breasts.”

• As thus he spoke, a demon with his lash
• smote him, and said to him: “Pandar, begone!
• There are no women here to sell for coin.”

• I then rejoined my Escort; whereupon,
• when we had taken some few steps, we came
• to where a crag projected from the bank.
• This we ascended with the greatest ease,
• and turning to the right along its ridge,
• we left those everlasting circling walls.

• When we were where it hollows out below,
• to let the scourged pass through, my Leader said:
• “Now stay thy steps, and on thee let the sight

• of all these other ill-born spirits strike,
• whose faces thou hast not perceived as yet,
• because they ’ve gone with us in our direction.”

• As from the ancient bridge we watched the troop,
• which on the other side was toward us coming,
• and which the scourge was likewise driving on,
• without my asking, my good Teacher said:
• “Look at that great man there, who, as he comes,
• for all his pain, seems not to shed a tear.
• How royal an appearance he still keeps!
• Jason is he, who, by his doughtiness
• and wit, deprived the Colchians of their ram.
• He passed the isle of Lemmos on his way,
• after its pitiless and daring women
• had given up to death their every male.
• With tokens of his love and flattering words
• he there deceived the maid, Hypsìpylë,
• who previously had all the rest deceived.
• He left her there with child, and all alone;
• him to this punishment that fault condemns;
• and for Medea, too, is vengeance wrought.
• With him go those that in this way deceive;
• be this enough to know of this first ditch,
• and of those, too, that in its fangs it holds.”

• Already were we where the narrow path
• forms with the second bank a cross, and makes
• therewith abutments for another arch.

• We thence heard people in the following trench
• who whined and groaned, and with their muzzles puffed,
• while smiting their own bodies with their palms.
• The banks were crusted over with a mould
• by vapor from below, which, sticking there,
• offensive to both eyes and nose became.
• So deep the bottom, that there is no means
• of looking into it, unless one climb
• the arch’s summit, where the crag is highest.
• Thither we came, and from it in the ditch
• people I saw immersed in excrement,
• which seemed from human privies to have come.

• While peering with mine eyes down there, I saw
• a head so foul with filth, that whether clerk’s
• or layman’s head it were, was not apparent.
• Scolding, he said: “Why greedier art thou
• to look at me, than at the other foul ones?”

• And I: “Because, if I remember well,
• I ’ve seen thee with dry hair ere now, for thou
• Alèssio Interminèi of Lucca art;
• that ’s why I eye thee more than all the rest.”
• And he then, as he beat upon his pate:
• “Those flatteries immersed me here below,
• wherewith my tongue was never surfeited.”

• Then, after this, my Leader said to me:
• “See that thou urge thy glance a little further,
• that with thine eyes thou quite attain the face

• of that disgusting and dishevelled wench,
• who yonder claws herself with filthy nails,
• and crouches now, and now is on her feet.
• That Thaïs is, the prostitute, who answered
• her paramour, when he had said ‘Have I
• great thanks from thee?’: ‘Nay, marvelously great!’
• Herewith, then, let our sight be satisfied.”