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INFERNO CANTO 07
Mandelbaum Tr. and Longfellow Tr.		 NotesAnn.

	"Pape Satan, Pape Satan aleppe!"
so Plutus, with his grating voice, began.
The gentle sage, aware of everything,

	"PAPE Satàn, Pape Satàn, Aleppe !" 
Thus Plutus with his clucking voice began;
And that benignant Sage, who all things knew,






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	said reassuringly, "Don't let your fear
defeat you; for whatever power he has,
he cannot stop our climbing down this crag."

	Said, to encourage me: "Let not thy fear
Harm thee; for any power that he may have  
Shall not prevent thy going down this crag"








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	Then he turned back to Plutus' swollen face
and said to him: "Be quiet, cursed wolf!
Let your vindictiveness feed on yourself.

	Then he turned round unto that bloated lip,
And said: "Be silent, thou accursed wolf;
Consume within thyself with thine own rage.








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	His is no random journey to the deep:
it has been willed on high, where Michael took
revenge upon the arrogant rebellion."

	Not causeless is this journey to the abyss;  
Thus is it willed on high, where Michael wrought 
Vengeance upon the proud adultery."







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	As sails inflated by the wind collapse,
entangled in a heap, when the mast cracks,
so that ferocious beast fell to the ground.

	Even as the sails inflated by the wind
Involved together fall when snaps the mast,
So fell the cruel monster to the earth.








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	Thus we made our way down to the fourth ditch,
to take in more of that despondent shore
where all the universe's ill is stored.

	Thus we descended into the fourth chasm,
Gaining still farther on the dolesome shore
Which all the woe of the universe insacks.








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	Justice of God! Who has amassed as many
strange tortures and travails as I have seen?
Why do we let our guilt consume us so?

	Justice of God, ah ! who heaps up so many
New toils and sufferings as I beheld ?
And why doth our transgression waste us so ?








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	Even as waves that break above Charybdis,
each shattering the other when they meet,
so must the spirits here dance their round dance.

	As doth the billow there upon Charybdis,
That breaks itself on that which it encounters,
So here the folk must dance their roundelay. 








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	Here, more than elsewhere, I saw multitudes
to every side of me; their howls were loud
while, wheeling weights, they used their chests to push.

	Here saw I people, more than elsewhere, many,
On one side and the other, with great howls,
Rolling weights forward by main force of chest. 








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	They struck against each other; at that point,
each turned around and, wheeling back those weights,
cried out: "Why do you hoard?" "Why do you squander?"

	They clashed together, and then at that point
Each one turned backward, rolling retrograde,
Crying, "Why keepest ?" and, "Why squanderest thou ?"








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	So did they move around the sorry circle
from left and right to the opposing point;
again, again they cried their chant of scorn;

	Thus they returned along the lurid circle
On either hand unto the opposite point,
Shouting their shameful metre evermore.








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	and so, when each of them had changed positions,
he circled halfway back to his next joust.
And I, who felt my heart almost pierced through,

	Then each, when he arrived there, wheeled about
Through his half-circle to another joust;
And I, who had my heart pierced as it were,








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	requested: "Master, show me now what shades
are these and tell me if they all were clerics-
those tonsured ones who circle on our left."

	Exclaimed: "My Master, now declare to me
What people these are, and if all were clerks,
These shaven crowns upon the left of us." 








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	And he to me: "All these, to left and right
were so squint-eyed of mind in the first life-
no spending that they did was done with measure.

	And he to me: "All of them were asquint
In intellect in the first life, so much
That there with measure they no spending made.








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	Their voices bark this out with clarity
when they have reached the two points of the circle
where their opposing guilts divide their ranks.

	Clearly enough their voices bark it forth,
Whene'er they reach the two points of the circle,
Where sunders them the opposite defect.








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	These to the left-their heads bereft of hair-
were clergymen, and popes and cardinals,
within whom avarice works its excess."

	Clerks those were who no hairy covering
Have on the head, and Popes and Cardinals,
In whom doth Avarice practise its excess."








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	And I to him: "Master, among this kind
I certainly might hope to recognize
some who have been bespattered by these crimes."

	And I: "My Master, among such as these
I ought forsooth to recognise some few,
Who were infected with these maladies."








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	And he to me: "That thought of yours is empty:
the undiscerning life that made them filthy
now renders them unrecognizable.

	And he to me: "Vain thought thou entertainest;
The undiscerning life which made them sordid
Now makes them unto all discernment dim.








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	For all eternity they'll come to blows:
these here will rise up from their sepulchers
with fists clenched tight; and these, with hair cropped close.

	Forever shall they come to these two buttings;
These from the sepulchre shall rise again
With the fist closed, and these with tresses shorn.








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	Ill giving and ill keeping have robbed both
of the fair world and set them to this fracas-
what that is like, my words need not embellish.

	Ill giving and ill keeping the fair world 
Have ta'en from them, and placed them in this scuffle;
Whate'er it be, no words adorn I for it.






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	Now you can see, my son, how brief's the sport
of all those goods that are in Fortune's care,
for which the tribe of men contend and brawl;

	Now canst thou, Son, behold the transient farce
Of goods that are committed unto Fortune,
For which the human race each other buffet;








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	for all the gold that is or ever was
beneath the moon could never offer rest
to even one of these exhausted spirits."

	For all the gold that is beneath the moon,
Or ever has been, of these weary souls
Could never make a single one repose."








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	"Master," I asked of him, "now tell me too:
this Fortune whom you've touched upon just now-
what's she, who clutches so all the world's goods?"

	"Master," I said to him, "now tell me also
What is this Fortune which thou speakest of, 
That has the world's goods so within its clutches ?"







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	And he to me: "O unenlightened creatures,
how deep-the ignorance that hampers you!
I want you to digest my word on this.

	And he to me: "O creatures imbecile,
What ignorance is this which doth beset you ?
Now will I have thee learn my judgment of her.








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	Who made the heavens and who gave them guides
was He whose wisdom transcends everything;
that every part may shine unto the other,

	He whose omniscience everything transcends
The heavens created, and gave who should guide them, 
That every part to every part may shine,







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	He had the light apportioned equally;
similarly, for wordly splendors, He
ordained a general minister and guide

	Distributing the light in equal measure;
He in like manner to the mundane splendours
Ordained a general ministress and guide,  








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	to shift, from time to time, those empty goods
from nation unto nation, clan to clan,
in ways that human reason can't prevent;

	That she might change at times the empty treasures
From race to race, from one blood to another,
Beyond resistance of all human wisdom.








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	just so, one people rules, one languishes,
obeying the decision she has given,
which, like a serpent in the grass, is hidden.

	Therefore one people triumphs, and another
Languishes, in pursuance of her judgment,
Which hidden is, as in the grass a serpent.








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	Your knowledge cannot stand against her force;
for she foresees and judges and maintains
her kingdom as the other gods do theirs.

	Your knowledge has no counterstand against her;
She makes provision, judges, and pursues
Her governance, as theirs the other gods.








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	The changes that she brings are without respite:
it is necessity that makes her swift;
and for this reason, men change state so often.

	Her permutations have not any truce;
Necessity makes her precipitate,
So often cometh who his turn obtains.








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	She is the one so frequently maligned
even by those who should give praise to her-
they blame her wrongfully with words of scorn.

	And this is she who is so crucified
Even by those who ought to give her praise,
Giving her blame amiss, and bad repute.








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	But she is blessed and does not hear these things;
for with the other primal beings, happy,
she turns her sphere and glories in her bliss.

	But she is blissful, and she hears it not;
Among the other primal creatures gladsome
She turns her sphere, and blissful she rejoices.








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	But now let us descend to greater sorrow,
for every star that rose when I first moved
is setting now; we cannot stay too long."

	Let us descend now unto greater woe;
Already sinks each star that was ascending 
When I set out, and loitering is forbidden."







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	We crossed the circle to the other shore;
we reached a foaming watercourse that spills
into a trench formed by its overflow.

	We crossed the circle to the other bank,
Near to a fount that boils, and pours itself
Along a gully that runs out of it.








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	That stream was even darker than deep purple;
and we, together with those shadowed waves,
moved downward and along a strange pathway.

	The water was more sombre far than perse; 
And we, in company with the dusky waves,
Made entrance downward by a path uncouth.






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	When it has reached the foot of those malign
gray slopes, that melancholy stream descends,
forming a swamp that bears the name of Styx.

	A marsh it makes, which has the name of Styx,
This tristful brooklet, when it has descended
Down to the foot of the malign gray shores.








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	And I, who was intent on watching it,
could make out muddied people in that slime,
all naked and their faces furious.

	And I, who stood intent upon beholding,
Saw people mudbesprent in that lagoon,
All of them naked and with angry look.








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	These struck each other not with hands alone,
but with their heads and chests and with their feet,
and tore each other piecemeal with their teeth.

	They smote each other not alone with hands,
But with the head and with the breast and feet,
Tearing each other piecemeal with their teeth.








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	The kindly master told me: "Son, now see
the souls of those whom anger has defeated;
and I should also have you know for certain

	Said the good Master: "Son, thou now beholdest 
The souls of those whom anger overcame;
And likewise I would have thee know for certain






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	that underneath the water there are souls
who sigh and make this plain of water bubble,
as your eye, looking anywhere, can tell.

	Beneath the water people are who sigh
And make this water bubble at the surface,
As the eye tells thee wheresoe'er it turns. 








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	Wedged in the slime, they say: 'We had been sullen
in the sweet air that's gladdened by the sun;
we bore the mist of sluggishness in us:    

	Fixed in the mire they say, ' We sullen were
In the sweet air, which by the sun is gladdened,
Bearing within ourselves the sluggish reek;








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	now we are bitter in the blackened mud.'
This hymn they have to gurgle in their gullets,
because they cannot speak it in full words."

	Now we are sullen in this sable mire.'
This hymn do they keep gurgling in their throats,
For with unbroken words they cannot say it."








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	And so, between the dry shore and the swamp,
we circled much of that disgusting pond,
our eyes upon the swallowers of slime.

	Thus we went circling round the filthy fen
A great arc 'twixt the dry bank and the swamp,
With eyes turned unto those who gorge the mire;








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	We came at last upon a tower's base.

	Unto the foot of a tower we came at last.




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