song which above the others as an eagle flies. After they had
discoursed somewhat together, they turned to me with sign of
salutation; and my Master smiled thereat. And far more of honor
yet they did me, for they made me of their band, so that I was
the sixth amid so much wit. Thus we went on as far as the light,
speaking things concerning which silence is becoming, even as was
speech there where I was.

We came to the foot of a noble castle, seven times circled by
high walls, defended round about by a fair streamlet. This we
passed as if hard ground; through seven gates I entered with
these sages; we came to a meadow of fresh verdure. People were
there with eyes slow and grave, of great authority in their
looks; they spake seldom, and with soft voices. Thus we drew
apart, on one side, into a place open, luminous, and high, so
that they all could be seen. There opposite upon the green enamel
were shown to me the great spirits, whom to have seen I inwardly
exalt myself.

I saw Electra with many companions, among whom I knew both Hector
and Aeneas, Caesar in armor, with his gerfalcon eyes; I saw
Camilla and Penthesilea on the other side, and I saw the King
Latinus, who was seated with Lavinia his daughter. I saw that
Brutus who drove out Tarquin; Lucretia, Julia, Marcia, and
Cornelia; and alone, apart, I saw the Saladin. When I raised my
brow a little more, I saw the Master of those who know, seated
amid the philosophic family; all regard him, all do him honor.
Here I saw both Socrates and Plato, who before the others stand
nearest to him; Democritus, who ascribes the world to chance;
Diogenes, Anaxagoras, and Thales, Empedocles, Heraclitus, and
Zeno; and I saw the good collector of the qualities, Dioscorides,
I mean; and I saw Orpheus, Tully, and Linus, and moral Seneca,
Euclid the geometer, and Ptolemy, Hippocrates, Avicenna, Galen,
and Averrhoes, who made the great comment. I cannot report of all
in full, because the long theme so drives me that many times
speech comes short of fact.

The company of six is reduced to two. By another way the wise
guide leads me, out from the quiet, into the air that trembles,
and I come into a region where is nothing that can give light.



CANTO V. The Second Circle, that of Carnal Sinners.--Minos.--
Shades renowned of old.--Francesca da Rimini.

Thus I descended from the first circle down into the second,
which girdles less space, and so much more woe that it goads to
wailing. There abides Minos horribly, and snarls; he examines the
sins at the entrance; he judges, and he sends according as he
entwines himself. I mean, that, when the miscreant spirit comes
there before him, it confesses itself wholly, and that discerner
of sins sees what place of Hell is for it; he girdles himself
with his tail so many times as the degrees he wills it should be
sent down. Always before him stand many of them. They go, in
turn, each to the judgment; they speak, and hear, and then are
whirled below.

"O thou that comest to the woeful inn," said Minos to me, when he
saw me, leaving the act of so great an office, "beware how thou
enterest, and to whom thou trustest thyself; let not the
amplitude of the entrance deceive thee." And my Leader to
him, "Why then dost thou cry out? Hinder not his fated going;
thus is it willed there where is power to do that which is
willed; and ask thou no more."

Now the woeful notes begin to make themselves heard; now am I
come where much lamentation smites me. I had come into a place
mute of all light, that bellows as the sea does in a tempest, if
it be combated by opposing winds. The infernal hurricane that
never rests carries along the spirits in its rapine; whirling and
smiting it molests them. When they arrive before its rushing
blast, here are shrieks, and bewailing, and lamenting; here they
blaspheme the power divine. I understood that to such torment are
condemned the carnal sinners who subject reason to appetite. And
as their wings bear along the starlings in the cold season in a
troop large and full, so that blast the evil spirits; hither,
thither, down, up it carries them; no hope ever comforts them,
not of repose, but even of less pain.

And as the cranes go singing their lays, making in air a long
line of themselves, so saw I come, uttering wails, shades borne
along by the aforesaid strife. Wherefore I said, "Master, who are
those folk whom the black air so castigates?" "The first of these
of whom thou wishest to have knowledge," said he to me then, "was
empress of many tongues. To the vice of luxury was she so
abandoned that lust she made licit in her law, to take away the
blame she had incurred. She is Semiramis, of whom it is read that
she succeeded Ninus and had been his spouse; she held the land
which the Soldan rules. That other is she who, for love, killed
herself, and broke faith to the ashes of Sichaeus. Next is
Cleopatra, the luxurious. See Helen, for whom so long a time of
ill revolved; and see the great Achilles, who at the end fought
with love. See Paris, Tristan,--" and more than a thousand shades
he showed me with his finger, and named them, whom love had
parted from our life.

After I had heard my Teacher name the dames of eld and the
cavaliers, pity overcame me, and I was well nigh bewildered. I
began, "Poet, willingly would I speak with those two that go


<< previous page | next page >>

Jump to page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 |