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 XXII

• Ere now have I seen cavalry break camp,
• start to attack, or be reviewed, and even,
• at times, retreat, in order to escape;
• scouts have I also seen upon your lands,
• O Aretines; raids, too, have I beheld,
• and tournaments and tilting-matches fought;
• with trumpets now, and now with bells, with drums
• and beacon-signals made from fortresses,
• with native and with foreign things; but never
• have I seen horse, or infantry, or ship,
• by sign of either land or sky, set out
• with instrument of wind as odd as that.

• With the ten demons we were going on;
• ah, the fierce company! But in a church
• with saints consort, with gluttons at an inn!
• Upon the pitch alone was I intent,
• that I might see all details of the trench
• and of the people who were burned therein.

• As dolphins do, when, arching up their backs,
• they give the warning which bids mariners
• take measures for the safety of their ship;

• even so at times, his suffering to relieve,
• one of the sinners there displayed his back,
• and hid it in less time than lightning takes.

• And as in ditches at the water’s edge
• frogs stay with nothing but their muzzles out,
• and thus conceal their feet and all the rest;
• even so on all sides did those sinners stay;
• and now that Barbariccia was approaching,
• they likewise ’neath the boiling pitch withdrew.

• I saw, and still it stirs my heart with horror,
• one waiting thus, as oft, while one frog stays,
• it happens that another scurries off.
• And Graffiacane, who was nearest to him,
• hooking his pitch-smeared tresses, pulled him up,
• so that an otter he appeared to me.

• I knew by now the names of each and all,
• I noted them so well when they were chosen,
• and, when they called each other, noticed how.
• “O Rubicante, see thou set thy claws
• upon him so, that thou peel off his skin!”
• the accursèd all cried out together then.

• And I: “My Teacher, if thou canst, contrive
• to learn who that wretch is, who thus
• has fallen into his adversaries’ hands.”

• My Leader thereupon drew near to him,
• and asked him whence he was, and he replied:
• “Of Navarre’s kingdom I a native was.

• My mother placed me out to serve a lord,
• for she had borne me to a rascal knave,
• who both himself and what he owned destroyed.
• I next in good King Thibaut’s household served,
• and there I set myself to practice graft,
• for which I pay the reckoning in this heat.”

• Here Ciriatto, from whose mouth protruded,
• as from a boar’s, a tusk on either side,
• caused him to feel how one of them could rip.
• Among bad cats the mouse had fallen now;
• for Barbariccia clasped him in his arms,
• and said: “Stand off, while I am clutching him!”
• Then, toward my Teacher having turned his face,
• he said: “Ask him again, if more thou wish
• to know of him, before the others rend him.”

• My Leader then: “Now tell me: know’st thou any,
• among the other sinners ’neath the pitch,
• who Latin is?” And he: “Not long ago
• I left a man from that vicinity;
• would that like him I still were covered up,
• for I should then fear neither claw nor hook!”

• Here Libicocco said: “We ’ve borne too much!”
• and with his hook so seized him by the arm,
• and tore it, that he carried off a piece.
• And Draghignazzo also wished to clutch him
• down at his legs; but their decurion then
• turned right around at them with threatening looks.

• When they were somewhat pacified again,
• of him, who still was looking at his wound,
• my Leader asked without delay: “Who, then,
• was he, from whom thou tookst unlucky leave,
• as thou hast said, to land upon the shore?”

• And he made answer: “That was Fra Gomita,
• Gallura’s man, a vessel of all fraud,
• who, when he held in hand his master’s foes,
• so dealt with them that each is glad. Their money
• he took, and, as he puts it, let them all
• off easy, and even in other offices
• was not a petty, but a first rate grafter.
• With him Don Michel Zanche of Logodoro
• associates; and never do their tongues
• feel tired out by talking of Sardinia.
• But oh! Look at the other grinning there!
• More would I say, but am afraid lest that one
• be making ready now to claw my skin.”

• Then the great provost turned toward Farfarello,
• who rolled his eyes as if he meant to strike,
• and said: “Off yonder, thou malicious bird!”

• “If you desire” thereat began again
• the terror-stricken man, “to see or hear
• Tuscans or Lombards, I will have some come.
• But let the Evil Claws here stand aside
• a little, that their vengeance be not feared,
• and I, while sitting in this very place,

• for one that I am, shall make seven come out,
• when I shall whistle, as our wont it is,
• when any one of us protrudes himself.”

• Cagnazzo at this speech his muzzle raised,
• and shook his head, and said: “Hear the sly trick
• devised by him to cast himself below!”

• Then he, who frauds in great abundance had,
• replied to him: “Tricky indeed am I,
• when for my mates a greater pain I win!”

• Here Alichìn could not control himself,
• but said, in opposition to the rest:
• “I shall not gallop after thee, in case
• thou dive, but o’er the pitch shall beat my wings;
• the ridge abandoned, be the bank a screen,
• to see if thou alone art more than we!”

• Now, Reader, of a new sport shalt thou hear!
• Each turned his eyes the other way; and he
• the first, who had thereto been most opposed.
• The Navarrese chose well his time, stood firmly
• upon the ground, and, jumping suddenly,
• from what they purposed freed himself thereby.
• For this each felt himself to blame, but most
• the one who of the loss had been the cause;
• hence he moved first, and shouted: “Thou art caught!”
• But little did it profit him; for wings
• could not outmeasure fear; as one went under,
• the other, flying upward, raised his breast;

• nor different is the speed with which a duck
• dives under water, when a hawk draws near,
• who, vexed and baffled thus, flies up again.

• Then Calcabrina, angered by the flout,
• flew out behind him, glad that one escaped,
• because it let him scuffle with the other;
• and then, the grafter having disappeared,
• he turned his claws upon his own companion,
• and grappled with him o’er the ditch; but he,
• being, indeed, a fighting sparrow-hawk
• fitted to claw him well, they both fell down
• into the middle of the boiling fen.
• A sudden separator was the heat;
• but rising thence was quite impossible,
• they had their wings so limed with sticky pitch.

• Then Barbariccia, vexed as were the rest,
• his mates, had four of them with all their hooks
• fly to the other bank; on both sides then
• they speedily descended to their posts,
• and stretched their hooks out toward the pitch-belimed,
• who now were cooked inside their crusted hides;
• and, thus embarassed, we abandoned them.