Displayed moreo'er the adamantine pavement And how, he being dead, they left him there; Displayed the ruin and the cruel carnage That Tomyris wrought, when she to Cyrus said, "Blood didst thou thirst for, and with blood I glut thee!" Displayed how routed fled the Assyrians After that Holofernes had been slain, And likewise the remainder of that slaughter. I saw there Troy in ashes and in caverns; O Ilion! thee, how abject and debased, Whoe'er of pencil master was or stile, That could portray the shades and traits which there Was going on, began: "Lift up thy head, Lo there an Angel who is making haste To come towards us; lo, returning is So that he may delight to speed us upward; I was familiar with his admonition Ever to lose no time; so on this theme Towards us came the being beautiful Vested in white, and in his countenance Such as appears the tremulous morning star. His arms he opened, and opened then his wings; "Come," said he, "near at hand here are the steps, 55 60 65 20 75 80 85 90 At this announcement few are they who come! There smote upon my forehead with his wings, Where seated is the church that lordeth it By stairways that were made there in the age Sheer downward from the second circle there; Sang in such wise that speech could tell it not. From the Infernal! for with anthems here Has been uplifted from me, so that hardly 66 He answered: When the P's which have remained Shall wholly, as the first is, be erased, Thy feet will be so vanquished by good will, Then did I even as they do who are going With something on the head to them unknown, Unless the signs of others make them doubt, Wherefore the hand to ascertain is helpful, And seeks and finds, and doth fulfil the office Which cannot be accomplished by the sight; And with the fingers of the right hand spread I found but six the letters, that had carved Upon my temples he who bore the keys; Upon beholding which my Leader smiled. 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 135 CANTO XIII. WE were upon the summit of the stairs, The hill all round about, as does the first, Shade is there none, nor sculpture that appears; So seems the bank, and so the road seems smooth, "If to inquire we wait for people here," The Poet said, "I fear that peradventure Made his right side the centre of his motion, "O thou sweet light! with trust in whom I enter So much already there had we advanced Unto Love's table courteous invitations, And went reiterating it behind us. And ere it wholly grew inaudible Because of distance, passed another, crying, “O," said I, “Father, these, what voices are they?" Saying "Love those from whom ye have had evil!" And the good Master said: "This circle scourges Are drawn from love the lashes of the scourge. 5 10 15 20 15 30 35 The bridle of another sound shall be; I think that thou wilt hear it, as I judge, I looked before me, and saw shades with mantles I heard a cry of, "Mary, pray for us!" A man so hard, that he would not be pierced And one sustained the other with his shoulder, Stand at the doors of churches asking alms, So that in others pity soon may rise, Not only at the accent of their words, So to the shades, of whom just now I spake, For all their lids an iron wire transpierces, And sews them up, as to a sparhawk wild To me it seemed, in passing, to do outrage, But said: "Speak, and be brief, and to the point." I had Virgilius upon that side Of the embankment from which one may fall, Upon the other side of me I had The shades devout, who through the horrible seam To them I turned me, and, "O people, certain," Upon your consciences, that limpidly And 'twill perchance be good for him I learn it." "O brother mine, each one is citizen Of one true city; but thy meaning is, Who may have lived in Italy a pilgrim." By way of answer this I seemed to hear A little farther on than where I stood, Whereat I made myself still nearer heard. Among the rest I saw a shade that waited In aspect, and should any one ask how, Its chin it lifted upward like a blind man. "Spirit," I said, "who stoopest to ascend, If thou art he who did reply to me, Make thyself known to me by place or name." "Sienese was I," it replied, " and with The others here recleanse my guilty life, Sapient I was not, although I Sapìa Was called, and I was at another's harm More happy far than at my own good fortune. My fellow-citizens near unto Colle Were joined in battle with their adversaries, Passes of flight; and I, the chase beholding, Crying to God, 'Henceforth I fear thee not,' Of my existence, and as yet would not Had it not been that in remembrance held me |