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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 XXI

• Speaking of other things my Comedy
• cares not to sing, we thus from bridge to bridge
• moved on, and, when upon the summit, stopped,
• in order to behold the next ravine
• of Malebòlgë, and the next vain cries;
• and I beheld it wonderfully dark.

• And just such sticky pitch as that which boils
• in the Venetians’ Arsenal in winter,
• for calking up again the unsound ships,
• which cannot then be sailed; — instead of which,
• as one a new one builds, one plugs the ribs
• of that which many voyages has made;
• one hammers at the stern, and at the prow another;
• one fashions oars, another cordage twists,
• while still another mends a jib or mainsail; —
• such was the coarse, dense pitch, which, not by fire,
• but by an art divine, boiled there below,
• and limed the bank on every side. I saw
• the pitch, but nothing in it, save the bubbles
• the boiling raised, and that the whole of it
• kept swelling up, and settling back compressed.

• While I was gazing fixedly down yonder,
• my Leader cried to me: “Beware, beware!”
• and drew me to himself from where I was.
• I then turned round, as one who longs to see
• the thing which it behooves him to escape,
• and who, when by a sudden fear unmanned,
• although he sees, delays not his departure;
• and I perceived behind us a black devil
• come running up along the rocky crag.

• Ah, how ferocious in his looks he was,
• and in his actions how severe he seemed,
• with wings outspread, and light upon his feet!
• His shoulder, which was sharp and high, was loaded
• with both a sinner’s haunches, whom he held
• clutched tightly by the sinews of his feet.

• “O Malebranche,” from our bridge he cried,
• “here ’s one of Santa Zita’s Ancients! Put him
• beneath, for I ’m for more of them returning
• to that town which I have well stocked therewith;
• there, save Bonturo, every one ’s a grafter;
• a ‘No’ for money there becomes a ‘Yes.’”

• He hurled him down, and o’er the rugged crag
• returned; and never was a mastif loosed
• with so much hurry to pursue a thief.

• The other sank, and then rose doubled up;
• those fiends, though, who were sheltered by the bridge,
• cried: “Here the Holy Face availeth not!

• One here swims otherwise than in the Serchio!
• If, therefore, thou dost not desire our hooks,
• protrude not from the surface of the pitch.”

• They pricked him then with o’er a hundred prongs,
• and said: “Here under cover must thou dance,
• that, if thou canst, thou mayst thieve secretly.”
• Not otherwise do cooks have scullions plunge
• the meat with hooks into the cauldron’s midst,
• to hinder it from floating on its surface.

• Thereat my kindly Teacher said to me:
• “That here thy presence be not known, crouch down
• behind a rock, which may avail to screen thee;
• and be not thou afraid, for any harm
• that may be done to me, who know these things,
• for I in frays like this have been before.”

• He then passed on beyond the bridge’s head,
• and when the sixth embankment had been reached,
• he had to show assurance in his face.
• With just the storm and fury wherewith dogs
• break out and rush upon a poor old man,
• who stops and begs at once from where he is;
• from ’neath the little bridge those devils issued,
• and turned against him all their grappling hooks;
• but he cried out: “Be none of you malicious!
• Before your grappling hooks take hold of me,
• let one of you advance, and hear me speak;
• then take ye counsel as to grappling me.”

• Then all cried out: “Let Malacoda go!”
• Thereat one started, while the rest kept still,
• and, as he came, said: “What does this avail him?”

• “Dost thou think, Malacoda,” said my Teacher,
• “that, as thou seest, I have hither come,
• safe until now from all your hindrances,
• unhelped by Will Divine and favoring fate?
• Let us go on, for it is willed in Heaven
• that I should show another this wild road.”

• Thereat his pride received so great a fall,
• that at his feet he dropped his grappling hook,
• and to the rest said: “Let him not be wounded.”

• My Leader thereupon cried out to me:
• “Thou that among the bridge’s broken rocks
• art crouching, safely now regain my side.”

• I therefore moved, and quickly came to him;
• then all the fiends advanced so far, I feared
• they would not keep their word. Even thus I once
• saw infantry, who, under pledge of safety,
• were from Caprona coming forth, afraid,
• when ’mong so many foes they saw themselves.
• Then wholly to my Leader’s side I drew,
• nor from their faces, which did not look good,
• did I remove my eyes. For as their prongs
• they lowered, one fiend to another said:
• “Wouldst thou that I should touch him on his rump?”
• and they replied: “Yes, see thou nick it for him!”

• But that fiend, who was with my Leader talking,
• turned round at once, and said to him: “Keep still,
• keep still there, Scarmiglionë!” Then to us:
• “Further advance along this present crag
• can not be made, because the sixth arch yonder
• lies wholly shattered on the ground below;
• but if it please you still to go ahead,
• go on along this ridge; there is near by
• another crag which furnishes a path.
• Than this hour five hours later yesterday,
• twelve hundred, six and sixty years had passed,
• since here the path was broken. I am sending
• some of my company in that direction,
• to see if any yonder air themselves;
• go on with them, for they will not be bad.”

• “Step forward, Alichino, and Calcabrina,”
• he then began to say, “thou, too, Cagnazzo;
• and let old Barbariccia guide the ten.
• Have Libicocco go, and Draghignazzo;
• tusked Ciriatto, too, and Graffiacane,
• with Farfarello and crazy Rubicante.
• Search round about the boiling birdlime pitch;
• let these be safe as far as that next crag,
• which all unbroken goes across the dens.”

• “Oh, Teacher, what is this I see?” said I.
• “If thou know how, pray let us go alone,
• for I request no escort for myself.

• If thou as wary art as thou art wont,
• dost thou not notice how they gnash their teeth,
• and with their eyebrows threaten us with woe?”

• And he to me: “I would not have thee frightened;
• let them grin on, then, as they like, for that
• they ’re doing at the wretches who are boiled.”

• They wheeled, and moved along the left bank then;
• but not till each, as signal toward their leader,
• had first thrust out his tongue between his teeth,
• and he had of his rump a trumpet made.