The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• The Peace of God
• Preface
• Purgatorio I
• Purgatorio Ii
• Purgatorio Iii
• Purgatorio Iv
• Purgatorio V
• Purgatorio Vi
• Purgatorio Vii
• Purgatorio Viii
• Purgatorio Ix
• Purgatorio X
• Purgatorio Xi
• Purgatorio Xii
• Purgatorio Xiii
• Purgatorio Xiv
• Purgatorio Xv
• Purgatorio Xvi
• Purgatorio Xvii
• Purgatorio Xviii
• Purgatorio Xix
• Purgatorio Xx
• Purgatorio Xxi
• Purgatorio Xxii
• Purgatorio Xxiii
• Purgatorio Xxiv
• Purgatorio Xxv
• Purgatorio Xxvi
• Purgatorio Xxvii
• Purgatorio Xxviii
• Purgatory Xxix
• Purgatorio Xxx
• Purgatorio Xxxi
• Purgatorio Xxxii
• Purgatorio Xxxiii

PURGATORIO XII

• With equal steps, like oxen going yoked,
• I went along beside that burdened soul,
• as long as my dear Pedagogue allowed;
• but when he said: “Leave him, and go thou on;
• for here ’t is well that each should urge his bark
• with sail and oars, as much as e’er he can,”
• I straightened me
• as much as walking called for,
• although my thoughts kept humble and depressed.

• On had I moved, and in my Teacher’s steps
• was following willingly, and both of us
• were showing now how light of step we were,
• when “Downward turn thine eyes!” he said to me,
• “Well will it be, to calm thee on thy way,
• that thou shouldst see the bed thy soles are treading.”

• As over those that ’neath them buried lie
• — that they may be recalled to people’s minds —
• tombs level with the ground the record bear
• of what they were before; whence there they oft
• are wept for, through the prick of memory,
• which spurs to grief the pitiful alone;

• ev’n so I saw engraved in sculpture here,
• though finer in respect to workmanship,
• as much as from the Mount juts out as path.

• I saw, on one side, Him who once was made
• nobler by far than any other creature,
• fall like a flash of lightning down from Heaven.

• I saw Briareus, on the other side,
• pierced by an arrow from the sky, lie prone,
• and heavy on the ground with mortal cold.

• I saw Apollo, Mars I saw and Pallas,
• as, still in armor, round their Sire they stood,
• gazing upon the Giants’ scattered limbs.

• I saw great Nimrod ’neath his mighty work
• dumb with confusion, as he watched the folk,
• who once were proud with him on Shinar’s plain.

• O Niobe, with what sad eyes I thee
• saw pictured forth in stone, between thy children,
• the seven and seven thy dead, upon the road!

• O Saul, how plainly there on thine own sword
• didst thou seem dead upon Gilbòa’s mount,
• which felt thereafter neither rain nor dew!

• O mad Arachne, thee I saw, as when,
• already half a spider, thou wast sad
• amid the tatters of thy fatal work.

• O Rehoboam, not a threat seems now
• thy face, but terror-stricken, as away
• a chariot bears thee, lest thou be pursued.

• It showed, moreover, that hard pavement did,
• how costly once Alcmaeon caused his mother’s
• unlucky ornament to seem to her.

• It showed how, in the temple’s walls, his sons
• cast themselves on Sennacherib, and how,
• when he was dead, they there abandoned him.

• It showed the slaughter and the cruel woe
• wrought by Tomyris, when she said to Cyrus:
• “With blood I fill thee, that didst thirst for blood!”

• It showed, too, how the Assyrians took to flight,
• routed, when Holophernes had been killed,
• and also what was of that slaughter left.

• I saw proud Troy in ashes and in caves.
• O Ilion, how degraded and how vile
• it showed thou wast, the image there perceived!

• What master, or of brush or graving-tool,
• could reproduce the shadows and the features,
• which there would cause all cultured minds to wonder?
• The dead seemed dead, the living seemed alive;
• whoever saw the real, no better saw
• than I then did what I was treading on,
• as long as bowed I walked. Be ye, then, proud,
• and go with haughty looks, ye sons of Eve,
• nor bow your heads, to see your evil path!

• More of the Mountain had we circled now,
• and of the sun’s course far more had we spent,
• than my not disengaged mind had supposed;

• when he who always walked attentively
• ahead of me, began: “Lift up thy head!
• The time for going thus absorbed is passed.
• See there an Angel who is making ready
• to come toward us; see how the sixth handmaiden
• returns now from the service of the day.
• With reverence adorn thine acts and face,
• that he may now be pleased to send us up;
• think that this day will never dawn again!”

• So well accustomed was I to his warning,
• that I should never let my time be lost,
• that on this theme he could not darkly speak.

• Toward us the lovely Creature was advancing,
• arrayed in white, and in his countenance,
• such as, when trembling, seems the morning star.
• His arms he opened, then he oped his wings,
• and said to us: “Come; near by are the steps,
• and going up is easy after this.”

• Only a few to this announcement come.
• O human race, why, born for upward flight,
• fallest thou so before a little wind?

• He led us on to where the rock was cut;
• and there my forehead with his wings he stroked,
• and promised that my passage would be safe.

• As, on the right hand, to ascend the mount,
• where seated is the church, which dominates
• the well ruled town o’er Rubaconte’s bridge,

• the slope’s bold flight is broken by the stairs
• constructed in an age, when quire and stave
• were safe;
• so, likewise, doth the bank relax,
• which from the next ledge here quite steeply falls;
• but closely on each side the high rock rubs.

• While, turning thither, we were on our way,
• “Blest are the poor in spirit!” voices sang
• in such a way as words could not describe.

• Alas! how different are the passes here
• from those in Hell! For one up here goes in
• with songs, but there below with frightful wails!

• We now were climbing up the holy stairs,
• and lighter far I felt than formerly
• I seemed to be, when on the level ground;
• I hence said: “Teacher, say, what heavy thing
• has been removed from me, that, as I walk,
• I almost feel no weariness at all?”

• He answered: “When the P’s, which still remain
• almost extinct upon thy brow, are quite
• erased, as one is now, thy feet will so
• be conquered by good will, that they will feel
• not only no fatigue, but it will be
• a pleasure to them to be upward urged.”

• I then did as do those, who go about
• with something on their head they know not of,
• till others’ gestures cause them to suspect;

• whereat their hand assists in ascertaining,
• searches, and finds, and so performs the work,
• which cannot be accomplished by their sight;
• and with my right hand’s fingers spread I found
• that only six the letters were, which he
• who held the Keys, had o’er my temples cut;
• on seeing which my Leader smiled with joy.