| |
| THE HUE, 1 which coward dread on my pale cheeks | |
| Imprinted when I saw my guide turn back, | |
| Chased that from his which newly they had worn, | |
| And inwardly restrain’d it. He, as one | |
| Who listens, stood attentive: for his eye | 5 |
| Not far could lead him through the sable air, | |
| And the thick-gathering cloud. “It yet behoves | |
| We win this fight;” thus he began: “if not, | |
| Such aid to us is offer’d—Oh! how long | |
| Me seems it, ere the promised help arrive.” | 10 |
| I noted, how the sequel of his words | |
| Cloked their beginning; for the last he spake | |
| Agreed not with the first. But not the less | |
| My fear was at his saying; sith I drew | |
| To import worse, perchance, than that he held, | 15 |
| His mutilated speech. “Doth ever any | |
| Into this rueful concave’s extreme depth | |
| Descend, out of the first degree, whose pain | |
| Is deprivation merely of sweet hope?” | |
| Thus I inquiring. “Rarely,” he replied, | 20 |
| “It chances, that among us any makes | |
| This journey, which I wend. Erewhile, ’tis true, | |
| Once came I here beneath, conjured by fell | |
| Erichtho, 2 sorceress, who compell’d the shades | |
| Back to their bodies. No long space my flesh | 25 |
| Was naked of me, when within these walls | |
| She made me enter, to draw forth a spirit | |
| From out of Judas’ circle. Lowest place | |
| Is that of all, obscurest, and removed | |
| Farthest from Heaven’s all-circling orb. The road | 30 |
| Full well I know: thou therefore rest secure. | |
| That lake, the noisome stench exhaling, round | |
| The city of grief encompasses, which now | |
| We may not enter without rage, “Yet more | |
| He added: but I hold it not in mind, | 35 |
| For that mine eye toward the lofty tower | |
| Had drawn me wholly, to its burning top; | |
| Where, in an instant, I beheld uprisen | |
| At once three hellish furies stain’d with blood. | |
| In limb and motion feminine they seem’d; | 40 |
| Around them greenest hydras twisting roll’d | |
| Their volumes; adders and cerastes crept | |
| Instead of hair, and their fierce temples bound. | |
| He, knowing well the miserable hags | |
| Who tend the queen of endless owe, thus spake: | 45 |
| “Mark thou each dire Erynnis. To the left, | |
| This is Megæra; on the right hand, she | |
| Who wails, Alecto; and Tisiphone | |
| I’ th’ midst.” This said, in silence he remain’d. | |
| Their breast they each one clawing tore; themselves | 50 |
| Smote with their palms, and such thrill clamour raised, | |
| That to the bard I clung, suspicion-bound. | |
| “Hasten Medusa: so to adamant | |
| Him shall we change;” all looking down exclaim’d: | |
| “E’en when by Theseus’ might assail’d, we took | 55 |
| No ill revenge.” “Turn thyself round and keep | |
| Thy countenance hid; for if the Gorgon dire | |
| Be shown, and thou shouldst view it, thy return | |
| Upwards would be forever lost.” This said, | |
| Himself, my gentle master, turn’d me round; | 60 |
| Nor trusted he my hands, but with his own | |
| He also hid me. Ye of intellect | |
| Sound and entire, mark well the lore 3 conceal’d | |
| Under close texture of the mystic strain. | |
| And now there came o’er the perturbed waves | 65 |
| Loud-crashing, terrible, a sound that made | |
| Either shore tremble, as if of a wind | |
| Impetuous, from conflicting vapors sprung, | |
| That ’gainst some forest driving all his might, | |
| Plucks off the branches, beats them down, and hurls | 70 |
| Afar; then, onward passing, proudly sweeps | |
| His whirlwind rage, while beasts and shepherds fly. | |
| Mine eyes he loosed, and spake: “And now direct | |
| Thy visual nerve along that ancient foam, | |
| There, thickest where the smoke ascends.” As frogs | 75 |
| Before their foe the serpent, through the wave | |
| Ply swiftly all, till at the ground each one | |
| Lies on a heap; more than a thousand spirits | |
| Destroy’d, so saw I fleeing before one | |
| Who pass’d with unwet feet the Stygian sound. | 80 |
| He, from his face removing the gross air, | |
| Oft his left hand forth stretch’d, and seem’d alone | |
| By that annoyance wearied. I perceived | |
| That he was sent from Heaven; and to my guide | |
| Turn’d me, who signal made, that I should stand | 85 |
| Quiet, and bend to him. Ah me! how full | |
| Of noble anger seem’d he. To the gate | |
| He came, and with his wand touch’d it, whereat | |
| Open without impediment it flew. | |
| “Outcasts of heaven! O abject race, scorn’d!” | 90 |
| Began he, on the horrid grunsel standing, | |
| “Whence doth this wild excess of insolence | |
| Lodge in you? wherefore kick you ’gainst that will | |
| Ne’er frustrate of its end, and which so oft | |
| Hath laid on you enforcement of your pangs? | 95 |
| What profits at the Fates to butt the horn? | |
| Your Cerberus, 4 if ye remember, hence | |
| Bears still, peel’d of their hair, his throat and maw.” | |
| This said, he turn’d back o’er the filthy way, | |
| And syllable to us spake none; but wore | 100 |
| The semblance of a man by other care | |
| Beset, and keenly prest, than thought of him | |
| Who in his presence stands. Then we our steps | |
| Toward that territory moved, secure | |
| After the hallow’d words. We, unopposed, | 105 |
| There enter’d; and, my mind eager to learn | |
| What state a fortress like to that might hold, | |
| I, soon as enter’d, throw mine eye around, | |
| And see, on every part, wide-stretching space, | |
| Replete with bitter pain and torment ill. | 110 |
| As where Rhone stagnates on the plains of Arles, 5 | |
| Or as at Pola, 6 near Quarnaro’s gulf, | |
| That closes Italy and laves her bounds, | |
| The place is all thick spread with sepulchres; | |
| So was it here, save what in horror here | 115 |
| Excell’d: for ’midst the graves were scattered flames, | |
| Wherewith intensely all throughout they burn’d, | |
| That iron for no craft there hotter needs. | |
| Their lids all hung suspended; and beneath, | |
| From them forth issued lamentable moans, | 120 |
| Such as the sad and tortured well might raise. | |
| I thus: “Master! say who are these, interr’d | |
| Within these vaults, of whom distinct we hear | |
| The dolorous sighs.” He answer thus return’d: | |
| “The arch-heretics are here, accompanied | 125 |
| By every sect their followers; and much more | |
| Than thou believest, the tombs are freighted: like | |
| With like is buried; and the monuments | |
| Are different in degrees of heat.” This said, | |
| He to the right hand turning, on we pass’d | 130 |
| Betwixt the afflicted and the ramparts high. | |
