And in that part whereat is first received Our aliment, it one of them transfixed; Then downward fell in front of him extended. The one transfixed looked at it, but said naught ; Nay, rather with feet motionless he yawned, Just as if sleep or fever had assailed him. He at the serpent gazed, and it at him; One through the wound, the other through the mouth Smoked violently, and the smoke commingled. Henceforth be silent Lucan, where he mentions Wretched Sabellus and Nassidius, And wait to hear what now shall be shot forth. Be silent Ovid, of Cadmus and Arethusa; For if him to a snake, her to a fountain, Converts he fabling, that I grudge him not; Because two natures never front to front Has he transmuted, so that both the forms That to a fork the serpent cleft his tail, Adhered so, that in little time the juncture The other one was losing, and his skin And both feet of the reptile, that were short, Became the member that a man conceals, And of his own the wretch had two created. While both of them the exhalation veils With a new colour, and engenders hair On one of them and depilates the other, The one uprose and down the other fell, Though turning not away their impious lamps, Underneath which each one his muzzle changed. He who was standing drew it tow'rds the temples, And from excess of matter, which came thither, Of that excess made to the face a nose, He who lay prostrate thrusts his muzzle forward, For speech before, is cleft, and the bi-forked Along the valley hissing takes to flight, Shift and reshift, and here be my excuse But that I plainly saw Puccio Sciancato; And he it was who sole of three companions, Which came in the beginning, was not changed; The other was he whom thou, Gaville, weepest. 130 135 140 245 150 CANTO XXVI. REJOICE, O Florence, since thou art so great, Like these I found, whence shame comes unto me, Would that it were, seeing it needs must be, The bourns had made us to descend before, Among the rocks and ridges of the crag, Then sorrowed I, and sorrow now again, So that if some good star, or better thing, As many as the hind (who on the hill Rests at the time when he who lights the world While as the fly gives place unto the gnat) Seeth the glow-worms down along the valley, 20 25 Perchance there where he ploughs and makes his vintage; With flames as manifold resplendent all Was the eighth Bolgia, as I grew aware And such as he who with the bears avenged him What time the steeds to heaven erect uprose, For with his eye he could not follow it So as to see aught else than flame alone, Even as a little cloud ascending upward, Thus each along the gorge of the intrenchment Was moving; for not one reveals the theft, And every flame a sinner steals away. I stood upon the bridge uprisen to see, So that, if I had seized not on a rock, 31 35 40 Down had I fallen without being pushed. And the Leader, who beheld me so attent, Exclaimed: "Within the fires the spirits are; Each swathes himself with that wherewith he burns." 'My Master," I replied, "by hearing thee I am more sure; but I surmised already It might be so, and already wished to ask thee 45 50 Who is within that fire, which comes so cleft At top, it seems uprising from the pyre The ambush of the horse, which made the door And pain for the Palladium there is borne." 55 60 "If they within those sparks possess the power To speak," I said, “thee, Master, much I pray, And re-pray, that the prayer be worth a thousand, That thou make no denial of awaiting Until the hornëd flame shall hither come; Thou seest that with desire I lean towards it." Of much applause, and therefore I accept it; Leave me to speak, because I have conceived That which thou wishest; for they might disdain Perchance, since they were Greeks, discourse of thine." 75 When now the flame had come unto that point, Where to my Leader it seemed time and place, "O ye, who are twofold within one fire, Do not move on, but one of you declare Murmuring, began to wave itself about Moving as if it were the tongue that spake, For my old father, nor the due affection Could overcome within me the desire I had to be experienced of the world, But I put forth on the high open sea With one sole ship, and that small company Both of the shores I saw as far as Spain, Far as Morocco, and the isle of Sardes, And the others which that sea bathes round about. 105 I and my company were old and slow When at that narrow passage we arrived Where Hercules his landmarks set as signals, That man no farther onward should adventure. On the right hand behind me left I Seville, Be ye unwilling to deny the knowledge, Ye were not made to live like unto brutes, But for pursuit of virtue and of knowledge.' So eager did I render my companions, With this brief exhortation, for the voyage, We of the oars made wings for our mad flight, Already all the stars of the other pole The night beheld, and ours so very low It did not rise above the ocean floor. Five times rekindled and as many quenched Had been the splendour underneath the moon, From distance, and it seemed to me so high Joyful were we, and soon it turned to weeping; 110 726 129 131 135 140 CANTO XXVII. ALREADY was the flame erect and quiet, To speak no more, and now departed from us |