| |
| THE VERY tongue, whose keen reproof before | |
| Had wounded me, that either cheek was stain’d, | |
| Now minister’d my cure. So have I heard, | |
| Achilles’ and his father’s javelin caused | |
| Pain first, and then the boon of health restored. | 5 |
| Turning our back upon the vale of woe, | |
| We cross’d the encircled mound in silence. There | |
| Was less than day and less than night, that far | |
| Mine eye advanced not: but I heard a horn | |
| Sounded so loud, the peal it rang had made | 10 |
| The thunder feeble. Following its course | |
| The adverse way, my strained eyes were bent | |
| On that one spot. So terrible a blast | |
| Orlando 1 blew not, when that dismal rout | |
| O’er threw the host of Charlemain, and quench’d | 15 |
| His saintly warfare. Thitherward not long | |
| My head was raised, when many a lofty tower | |
| Methought I spied. “Master,” said I, “what land | |
| Is this?” He answer’d straight: “Too long a space | |
| Of intervening darkness has thine eye | 20 |
| To traverse: thou hast therefore widely err’d | |
| In thy imagining. Thither arrived | |
| Thou well shalt see, how distance can delude | |
| The sense. A little therefore urge thee on.” | |
| Then tenderly he caught me by the hand; | 25 |
| “Yet know,” said he, “ere farther we advance, | |
| That it less strange may seem, these are not towers, | |
| But giants. In the pit they stand immersed, | |
| Each from his navel downward, round the bank.” | |
| As when a fog disperseth gradually, | 30 |
| Our vision traces what the mist involves | |
| Condensed in air; so piercing through the gross | |
| And gloomy atmosphere, as more and more | |
| We near’d toward the brink, mine error fled | |
| And fear came o’er me. As with circling round | 35 |
| Of turrets, Montereggion 2 crowns his walls; | |
| E’en thus the shore, encompassing the abyss, | |
| Was turreted with giants, half their length | |
| Uprearing, horrible, whom Jove from Heaven | |
| Yet threatens, when his muttering thunder rolls. | 40 |
| Of one already I descried the face, | |
| Shoulders and breast, and of the belly huge | |
| Great part, and both arms down along his ribs. | |
| All-teeming Nature, when her plastic hand | |
| Left framing of these monsters, did display | 45 |
| Past doubt her wisdom, taking from mad War | |
| Such slaves to do his bidding; and if she | |
| Repent her not of the elephant and whale, | |
| Who ponders well confesses her therein | |
| Wiser and more discreet; for when brute force | 50 |
| And evil will are back’d with subtlety, | |
| Resistance none avails. His visage seem’d | |
| In length and bulk, as doth the pine 3 that tops | |
| Saint Peter’s Roman fane; and the other bones | |
| Of like proportion, so that from above | 55 |
| The bank, which girdled him below, such height | |
| Arose his stature, that three Friezelanders | |
| Had striven in vain to reach but to his hair. | |
| Full thirty ample palms was he exposed | |
| Downward from whence a man his garment loops. | 60 |
| “Raphel 4 bai ameth, sabi almi:” | |
| So shouted his fierce lips, which sweeter hymns | |
| Became not; and my guide address’d him thus: | |
| “O senseless spirit! let thy horn for thee | |
| Interpret: therewith vent thy rage, if rage | 65 |
| Or other passion wring thee. Search thy neck, | |
| There shalt thou find the belt that binds it on. | |
| Spirit confused! lo, on thy mighty breast | |
| Where hangs the baldrick!” Then to me he spake: | |
| “He doth accuse himself. Nimrod is this, | 70 |
| Through whose ill counsel in the world no more | |
| One tongue prevails. But pass we on, nor waste | |
| Our words; for so each language is to him, | |
| As his to others, understood by none.” | |
| Then to the leftward turning sped we forth, | 75 |
| And at a sling’s throw found another shade | |
| Far fiercer and more huge. I cannot say | |
| What master hand had girt him; but he held | |
| Behind the right arm fetter’d, and before, | |
| The other, with a chain, that fasten’d him | 80 |
| From the neck down; and five times round his form | |
| Apparent met the wreathed links. “This proud one | |
| Would of his strength against almighty Jove | |
| Make trial,” said my guide: “whence he is thus | |
| Requited: Ephialtes his they call. | 85 |
| Great was his prowess, when the giants brought | |
| Fear on the gods: those arms, which then he plied, | |
| Now moves he never.” Forthwith I return’d: | |
| “Fain would I, if ’t were possible, mine eyes, | |
| Of Briareus immeasurable, gain’d | 90 |
| Experience next.” He answered: “Thou shalt see | |
| Not far from hence Antæus, who both speaks | |
| And is unfetter’d, who shall place us there | |
| Where guilt is at its depth. Far onward stands | |
| Whom thou wouldst fain behold, in chains, and made | 95 |
| Like to this spirit, save that in his looks | |
| More fell he seems.” By violent earthquake rock’d | |
| Ne’er shook a tower, so reeling to its base, | |
| As Ephialtes. More than ever then | |
| I dreaded death; nor than the terror more | 100 |
| Had needed, if I had not seen the cords | |
| That held him fast. We, straightway journeying on, | |
| Came to Antæus, who, five ells complete | |
| Without the head, forth issued from the cave. | |
| “O thou, who in the fortunate vale, 5 that made | 105 |
| Great Scipio heir of glory, when his sword | |
| Drove back the troop of Hannibal in flight, | |
| Who thence of old didst carry for thy spoil | |
| An hundred lions; and if thou hadst fought | |
| In the high conflict on thy brethren’s side, | 110 |
| Seems as men yet believed, that through thine arm | |
| The sons of earth had conquer’d; now vouchsafe | |
| To place us down beneath, where numbing cold | |
| Locks up Cocytus. Force not that we crave | |
| Or Tityus’ help or Typhon’s. Here is one | 115 |
| Can give what in this realm ye covet. Stoop | |
| Therefore, nor scornfully distort thy lip. | |
| He in the upper world can yet bestow | |
| Renown on thee; for he doth live, and looks | |
| For life yet longer, if before the time | 120 |
| Grace call him not unto herself.” Thus spake | |
| The teacher. He in haste forth stretch’d his hands, | |
| And caught my guide. Alcides 6 whilom felt | |
| That grapple, straiten’d sore. Soon as my guide | |
| Had felt it, he bespake me thus: “This way, | 125 |
| That I may clasp thee;” then so caught me up, | |
| That we were both one burden. As appears | |
| The tower of Carisenda, 7 from beneath | |
| Where it doth lean, if chance a passing cloud | |
| So sail across, that opposite it hangs; | 130 |
| Such then Antæus seem’d, as at mine ease | |
| I mark’d him stooping. I were fain at times | |
| To have past another way. Yet in the abyss, | |
| That Lucifer with Judas low ingulfs, | |
| Lightly he placed us; nor, there leaning, stay’d; | 135 |
| But rose, as in a bark the stately mast. | |
