The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• 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 XXXIV

• “The banners of the King of Hell advance
• toward us; now, therefore, look ahead of thee,”
• my Teacher said, “and see if thou perceive him.”

• As, when a heavy fog is breathed abroad,
• or when at night our hemisphere grows dark,
• a windmill looks when seen from far away;
• even such a structure seemed I now to see;
• then, for the wind, I shrank behind my Leader,
• for other shelter was there none. I now —
• and ’t is with fear I put it into verse, —
• was where the shades were wholly covered up,
• and visible as is a straw in glass;
• some lying are; and some are standing up,
• one on his head, the other on his soles;
• one, like a bow, bends toward his feet his face.

• When we had gone so far ahead, that now
• it pleased my Teacher to reveal to me
• the Creature who once seemed so beautiful,
• he stepped from where he was in front of me,
• stopped me, and said: “Lo Dis, and lo the place,
• where thou must arm thyself with fortitude!”

• How frozen and how weak I then became,
• ask thou not, Reader, for I write it not,
• because all speech would be of small avail.
• I did not die, nor yet remained alive;
• think for thyself now, hast thou any wit,
• what I became, of both of these deprived.

• The Emperor of the Realm of Woe stood forth
• out of the ice from midway up his breast;
• and I compare more closely with a Giant,
• than merely with his arms the Giants do;
• consider now how great that whole must be,
• that with such parts as these may be compared.
• If, once as beautiful as ugly now,
• he still raised up his brows against his Maker,
• justly doth every woe proceed from him.

• Oh, what a marvel it appeared to me,
• when I beheld three faces to his head!
• One was in front of us, and that was red;
• the other two were to the latter joined
• right o’er the middle of each shoulder-blade,
• and met each other where he had his crest;
• that on the right twixt white and yellow seemed;
• the left one such to look at, as are those
• who come from there, where valeward flows the Nile.
• Under each face two mighty wings stretched out,
• of size proportioned to so huge a bird;
• sails of the sea I never saw so large.

• They had no feathers, but were like a bat’s
• in fashion; these he flapped in such a way,
• that three winds issued forth from him; thereby
• Cocytus was completely frozen up.
• With six eyes he was weeping, and his tears
• and bloody slaver trickled o’er three chins.
• In each mouth, as a heckle would have done,
• a sinner he was crushing with his teeth,
• and thus was causing pain to three of them.
• To him who was in front of us the biting
• was nothing to the clawing, for at times
• his back remained completely stripped of skin.

• “That soul up there which hath the greatest pain
• Judas Iscariot is,” my Teacher said,
• “who hath his head within, and plies his legs
• without. Of the other two, whose heads are down,
• Brutus is he who from the black snout hangs;
• see how he writhes, and utters not a word!
• Cassius the other is, who so big-limbed
• appears. But night is coming up again,
• and now ’t is time to leave, for we ’ve seen all.”

• Then, as it pleased him, I embraced his neck,
• and he availed himself of time and place,
• and when the wings were opened wide enough,
• he firmly grasped the shaggy flanks, and then
• from tuft to tuft he afterward descended
• between the matted hair and frozen crusts.

• When we were come to where the thigh turns round,
• just at the thick part of the hips, my Leader
• with tiring effort and with stress of breath
• turned his head round to where his legs had been,
• and seized the hair as one would who ascends;
• hence I thought we were going back to Hell.

• “Hold fast to me, for by such stairs as these”
• panting like one worn out, my Teacher said,
• “must such great wickedness be left behind.”
• Then, through an opening in the rock he issued,
• and, after seating me upon its edge,
• over toward me advanced his cautious step.

• Raising mine eyes, I thought that I should still
• see Lucifer the same as when I left him;
• but I beheld him with his legs held up.
• And thereupon, if I became perplexed,
• let those dull people think, who do not see
• what kind of point that was which I had passed.

• “Stand up” my Teacher said, “upon thy feet!
• the way is long and difficult the road,
• and now to middle-tierce the sun returns.”

• It was no palace hallway where we were,
• but just a natural passage under ground,
• which had a wretched floor and lack of light.

• “Before I tear myself from this abyss,
• Teacher,” said I on rising, “talk to me
• a little, and correct my wrong ideas.

• Where is the ice? And how is this one fixed
• thus upside down? And in so short a time
• how hath the sun from evening crossed to morn?”

• Then he to me: “Thou thinkest thou art still
• beyond the center where I seized the hair
• of that bad Worm who perforates the world.
• While I was going down, thou wast beyond it;
• but when I turned, thou then didst pass the point
• to which all weights are drawn on every side;
• thou now art come beneath the hemisphere
• opposed to that the great dry land o’ercovers,
• and ’neath whose zenith was destroyed the Man,
• who without sinfulness was born and died;
• thy feet thou hast upon the little sphere,
• which forms the other surface of Judecca.
• ’T is morning here, whenever evening there;
• and he who made our ladder with his hair,
• is still fixed fast, ev’n as he was before.

• He fell on this side out of Heaven; whereat,
• the land, which hitherto was spread out here,
• through fear of him made of the sea a veil,
• and came into our hemisphere; perhaps
• to flee from him, what is on this side seen
• left the place empty here, and upward rushed.”

• There is a place down there, as far removed
• from Beelzebub, as e’er his tomb extends,
• not known by sight, but by a brooklet’s sound,

• which flows down through a hole there in the rock,
• gnawed in it by the water’s spiral course,
• which slightly slopes. My Leader then, and I,
• in order to regain the world of light,
• entered upon that dark and hidden path;
• and, without caring for repose, went up,
• he going on ahead, and I behind,
• till through a rounded opening I beheld
• some of the lovely things the sky contains;
• thence we came out, and saw again the stars.

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