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 XXXI

• One and the selfsame tongue first wounded me,
• so that it colored both my cheeks, and then
• supplied me with the medicine required;
• Achilles’ and his father’s lance, I hear,
• was likewise wont to be the source of, first,
• a sad, and, after, of a grateful gift.

• We turned our backs upon the woeful vale
• over the bank which girds it round about,
• and passed across without a single word.

• Here less than night it was, and less than day,
• so that my sight advanced not far; but here
• I heard a horn give forth so loud a sound,
• that it had rendered any thunder faint;
• this led mine eyes, as counter to its path
• they followed, wholly to a single place.

• After the woeful rout, when Charlemagne
• the holy army of his knights had lost,
• Roland blew not so terrible a blast.

• I had not kept my head turned toward it long,
• when many lofty towers I seemed to see;
• I, therefore: “Teacher, say what town is this?”

• “Since through the darkness from too far away
• thou peerest,” he replied, “it comes about
• that afterward thou errest in conceiving.
• If yonder thou attain, thou ’lt clearly see
• how from afar one’s senses are deceived;
• hence onward urge thyself a little more.”

• Thereat he took my hand with kindly care,
• and said to me: “Ere further on we go,
• so that the fact may seem less strange to thee,
• know, then, that towers they are not, but Giants;
• and all of them are standing in the well
• around the bank, each from his navel down.”

• As, when a fog is thinning off, one’s gaze
• little by little giveth shape to that,
• which, since it packs the air, the mist conceals;
• even so, as through the dense, dark air I pierced,
• and nearer drew and nearer to the brink,
• error in me took flight, and fear increased;
• for, as upon its round enclosing walls
• Montereggione crowns itself with towers;
• thus o’er the margin which surrounds the well
• with one half of their bodies towered up
• those frightful Giants, whom, when from the sky
• he thunders, Jupiter is threatening still.

• Already now was I distinguishing
• the face of one, his shoulders and his breast,
• most of his paunch, and, down his sides, both arms.

• When Nature ceased from making animals
• like these, and took such executioners
• from Mars, she certainly did very well;
• and ev’n if she of elephants and whales
• repent her not, whoever subtly looks
• holds her therein the more discreet and just;
• for where the reasoning faculty is joined
• to evil will equipped with power to act,
• people can make against it no defence.

• His face appeared to me as long and big
• as is at Rome the pine-cone of Saint Peter’s,
• and in proportion to it were his other bones;
• so that the bank, which from his middle down
• an apron was, showed quite so much of him
• above it, that of reaching to his hair
• three Frisians would have made a useless boast;
• for I full thirty spans of him perceived,
• down from the place at which one buckles cloaks.

• “Rafel mai amech zabi et almi”
• the frightful mouth, to which no sweeter psalms
• were fitting, thereupon began to cry.

• Then toward him cried my Leader: “Foolish soul,
• keep to thy horn, and vent thyself therewith,
• when wrath or other passion seizes thee!
• Search at thy neck, and thou wilt find the cord
• which holds it tied, O spirit of confusion,
• and see it lying on thy mighty breast.”

• To me then: “Self-accused he stands, for this
• is Nimrod, to whose evil thought is due
• that more than one tongue in the world is spoken.
• Let us leave him alone, nor talk in vain;
• for such is every tongue to him, as his
• to others is, for that is known to none.

• Then, turning to the left, we travelled on
• much further; and within a crossbow’s shot
• we found the next one far more large and fierce.
• What was the master’s power who girded him,
• I cannot say; but this one had in front
• his left arm, and behind his back his right,
• tied by a chain, which downward from his neck
• held him so bound, that on the uncovered part
• it wound around as far as the fifth coil.

• My Leader said to me: “’Gainst Jove Most High
• this proud soul wished to test his strength, and hence
• hath this reward. Ephialtes is his name;
• his haughty undertaking he attempted
• what time the Giants caused the Gods to fear;
• the arms he plied he moveth now no more.”

• And I to him: “If possible it be,
• I ’d gladly have these eyes of mine enjoy
• experience of the measureless Briareus.”

• Then he replied: “Antaeus thou ’lt behold
• not far from here, who speaks, and, since unbound,
• can set us at the bottom of all sin.

• He is much further on, whom thou wouldst see,
• and bound he is, and shaped like this one, save
• that more ferocious in his looks he seems.”

• There never was an earthquake strong enough
• to shake a tower with so much violence,
• as Ephialtes quickly shook at this.
• Then more than ever yet did I fear death,
• nor for it was there need of more than fear,
• had it not been that I perceived his bonds.

• We thereupon proceeded further still,
• and to Antaeus came, who full five ells,
• beside his head, protruded from the pit.

• “O thou that in the valley fortune-blest,
• which once caused Scipio to inherit glory
• when with his followers Hannibal took flight,
• once tookst a thousand lions as thy prey,
• and who, hadst thou been at thy brethren’s war
• on high, it seems that it is still believed
• the Sons of Earth had been the victors there;
• pray set us down below, nor let disdain
• affect thee, where the cold locks up Cocytus.
• Make us not go to Tìtyus or to Tìpheus;
• this man can give what most is longed for here;
• stoop, then, nor twist thy muzzle. He can still
• give fame to thee on earth, since he is living,
• and still looks forward to long life, if Grace
• recall him not untimely to itself.”

• The Teacher thus; then he in haste stretched out
• the hands, whose mighty pressure Hercules
• once felt, and took my Leader. Virgil then,
• on feeling himself taken, said to me:
• “Come here, that I may take thee up;” and then
• so did, that he and I one bundle were.

• Such as the Carisenda seems, when viewed
• beneath its leaning side, whene’er a cloud
• sails o’er it so, that opposite it hangs;
• such did Antaeus seem to me, who watched
• to see him stoop, and such a moment ’t was,
• that I had gladly gone another road.

• But lightly at the bottom, which devours
• Judas and Lucifer, he set us down;
• nor, thus bent over, did he linger there,
• but raised himself, as on a ship a mast.