Canto XXVI

by Dante

　　Rejoice, O Florence, since thou art so great,

　　   That over sea and land thou beatest thy wings,

　　   And throughout Hell thy name is spread abroad!

　　Among the thieves five citizens of thine

　　   Like these I found, whence shame comes unto me,

　　   And thou thereby to no great honour risest.

　　But if when morn is near our dreams are true,

　　   Feel shalt thou in a little time from now

　　   What Prato, if none other, craves for thee.

　　And if it now were, it were not too soon;

　　   Would that it were, seeing it needs must be,

　　   For 'twill aggrieve me more the more I age.

　　We went our way, and up along the stairs

　　   The bourns had made us to descend before,

　　   Remounted my Conductor and drew me.

　　And following the solitary path

　　   Among the rocks and ridges of the crag,

　　   The foot without the hand sped not at all.

　　Then sorrowed I, and sorrow now again,

　　   When I direct my mind to what I saw,

　　   And more my genius curb than I am wont,

　　That it may run not unless virtue guide it;

　　   So that if some good star, or better thing,

　　   Have given me good, I may myself not grudge it.

　　As many as the hind (who on the hill

　　   Rests at the time when he who lights the world

　　   His countenance keeps least concealed from us,

　　While as the fly gives place unto the gnat)

　　   Seeth the glow-worms down along the valley,

　　   Perchance there where he ploughs and makes his vintage;

　　With flames as manifold resplendent all

　　   Was the eighth Bolgia, as I grew aware

　　   As soon as I was where the depth appeared.

　　And such as he who with the bears avenged him

　　   Beheld Elijah's chariot at departing,

　　   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,

　　   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

　　Who is within that fire, which comes so cleft

　　   At top, it seems uprising from the pyre

　　   Where was Eteocles with his brother placed."

　　He answered me: "Within there are tormented

　　   Ulysses and Diomed, and thus together

　　   They unto vengeance run as unto wrath.

　　And there within their flame do they lament

　　   The ambush of the horse, which made the door

　　   Whence issued forth the Romans' gentle seed;

　　Therein is wept the craft, for which being dead

　　   Deidamia still deplores Achilles,

　　   And pain for the Palladium there is borne."

　　"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 horned flame shall hither come;

　　   Thou seest that with desire I lean towards it."

　　And he to me: "Worthy is thy entreaty

　　   Of much applause, and therefore I accept it;

　　   But take heed that thy tongue restrain itself.

　　Leave me to speak, because I have conceived

　　   That which thou wishest; for they might disdain

　　   Perchance, since they were Greeks, discourse of thine."

　　When now the flame had come unto that point,

　　   Where to my Leader it seemed time and place,

　　   After this fashion did I hear him speak:

　　"O ye, who are twofold within one fire,

　　   If I deserved of you, while I was living,

　　   If I deserved of you or much or little

　　When in the world I wrote the lofty verses,

　　   Do not move on, but one of you declare

　　   Whither, being lost, he went away to die."

　　Then of the antique flame the greater horn,

　　   Murmuring, began to wave itself about

　　   Even as a flame doth which the wind fatigues.

　　Thereafterward, the summit to and fro

　　   Moving as if it were the tongue that spake,

　　   It uttered forth a voice, and said: "When I

　　From Circe had departed, who concealed me

　　   More than a year there near unto Gaeta,

　　   Or ever yet Aeneas named it so,

　　Nor fondness for my son, nor reverence

　　   For my old father, nor the due affection

　　   Which joyous should have made Penelope,

　　Could overcome within me the desire

　　   I had to be experienced of the world,

　　   And of the vice and virtue of mankind;

　　But I put forth on the high open sea

　　   With one sole ship, and that small company

　　   By which I never had deserted been.

　　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.

　　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,

　　   And on the other already had left Ceuta.

　　'O brothers, who amid a hundred thousand

　　   Perils,' I said, 'have come unto the West,

　　   To this so inconsiderable vigil

　　Which is remaining of your senses still

　　   Be ye unwilling to deny the knowledge,

　　   Following the sun, of the unpeopled world.

　　Consider ye the seed from which ye sprang;

　　   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,

　　   That then I hardly could have held them back.

　　And having turned our stern unto the morning,

　　   We of the oars made wings for our mad flight,

　　   Evermore gaining on the larboard side.

　　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,

　　   Since we had entered into the deep pass,

　　When there appeared to us a mountain, dim

　　   From distance, and it seemed to me so high

　　   As I had never any one beheld.

　　Joyful were we, and soon it turned to weeping;

　　   For out of the new land a whirlwind rose,

　　   And smote upon the fore part of the ship.

　　Three times it made her whirl with all the waters,

　　   At the fourth time it made the stern uplift,

　　   And the prow downward go, as pleased Another,

　　Until the sea above us closed again."