INFERNO CANTO 25 Mandelbaum Tr. and Longfellow Tr.	Notes	Ann.
When he had finished with his words, the thief raised high his fists with both figs cocked and cried: "Take that, o God; I square them off for you!" AT the conclusion of his words, the thief Lifted his hands aloft with both the figs, Crying : "Take that, God, for at thee I aim them."	25.001 25.002 25.003
From that time on, those serpents were my friends, for one of them coiled then around his neck, as if to say, "I'll have you speak no more"; From that time forth the serpents were my friends; For one entwined itself about his neck As if it said: "I will not thou speak more;"	25.006
another wound about his arms and bound him again and wrapped itself in front so firmly, he could not even make them budge an inch. And round his arms another, and rebound him, Clinching itself together so in front, That with them he could not a motion make,	25.009
Pistoia, ah, Pistoia, must you last: why not decree your self-incineration, since you surpass your seed in wickedness? Pistoia, ah, Pistoia ! why resolve not To burn thyself to ashes and so perish, Since in ill-doing thou thy seed excellest ?	25.010 25.012
Throughout the shadowed circles of deep Hell, I saw no soul against God so rebel, not even he who fell from Theban walls. Through all the sombre circles of this Hell, Spirit I saw not against God so proud, Not he who fell at Thebes down from the walls !	25.015
He fled and could not say another word; and then I saw a Centaur full of anger, shouting: "Where is he, where's that bitter one?" He fled away, and spake no further word; And I beheld a Centaur full of rage Come crying out: "Where is, where is the scoffer ?"	25.018
I do not think Maremma has the number of snakes that Centaur carried on his haunch until the part that takes our human form. I do not think Maremma has so many Serpents as he had all along his back, As far as where our countenance begins.	25.019 25.021
Upon his shoulders and behind his nape there lay a dragon with its wings outstretched; it sets ablaze all those it intercepts. Upon the shoulders, just behind the nape, With wings wide open was a dragon lying, And he sets fire to all that he encounters.	25.024
My master said: "That Centaur there is Cacus, who often made a lake of blood within a grotto underneath Mount Aventine. My Master said: "That one is Cacus, who Beneath the rock upon Mount Aventine Created oftentimes a lake of blood.	25.025 25.027
He does not ride the same road as his brothers because he stole-and most deceitfully- from the great herd nearby; his crooked deeds He goes not on the same road with his brothers, By reason of the fraudulent theft he made Of the great herd, which he had near to him;	25.028 25.030
ended beneath the club of Hercules, who may have given him a hundred blows- but he was not alive to feel the tenth." Whereat his tortuous actions ceased beneath The mace of Hercules, who peradventure Gave him a hundred, and he felt not ten."	25.033
While he was talking so, Cacus ran by and, just beneath our ledge, three souls arrived; but neither I nor my guide noticed them While he was speaking thus, he had passed by, And spirits three had underneath us come, Of which nor I aware was, nor my Leader	25.035 25.036
until they had cried out: "And who are you?" At this the words we shared were interrupted, and we attended only to those spirits. Until what time they shouted: "Who are you ?" On which account our story made a halt And then we were intent on them alone.	25.038 25.039
I did not recognize them, but it happened, as chance will usually bring about, that one of them called out the other's name, I did not know them; but it came to pass, As it is wont to happen by some chance, That one to name the other was compelled,	25.042
exclaiming: "Where was Cianfa left behind?" At this, so that my guide might be alert, I raised my finger up from chin to nose. Exclaiming: "Where can Cianfa have remained ?" Whence I, so that the Leader might attend, Upward from chin to nose my finger laid.	25.043 25.045
If, reader, you are slow now to believe what I shall tell, that is no cause for wonder, for I who saw it hardly can accept it. If thou art, Reader, slow now to believe What I shall say, it will no marvel be, For I who saw it hardly can admit it.	25.048
As I kept my eyes fixed upon those sinners, a serpent with six feet springs out against one of the three, and clutches him completely. As I was holding raised on them my brows, Behold ! a serpent with six feet darts forth In front of one, and fastens wholly on him.	25.051
It gripped his belly with its middle feet, and with its forefeet grappled his two arms; and then it sank its teeth in both his cheeks; With middle feet it bound him round the paunch, And with the forward ones his arms it seized; Then thrust its teeth through one cheek and the other;	25.054
it stretched its rear feet out along his thighs and ran its tail along between the two, then straightened it again behind his loins. The hindermost it stretched upon his thighs, And put its tail through in between the two, And up behind along the reins outspread it.	25.057
No ivy ever gripped a tree so fast as when that horrifying monster clasped and intertwined the other's limbs with its. Ivy was never fastened by its barbs Unto a tree so, as this horrible reptile Upon the other's limbs entwined its own.	25.060
Then just as if their substance were warm wax, they stuck together and they mixed their colors, so neither seemed what he had been before; Then they stuck close, as if of heated wax They had been made, and intermixed their colour; Nor one nor other seemed now what he was;	25.063
just as, when paper's kindled, where it still has not caught flame in full, its color's dark though not yet black, while white is dying off. E'en as proceedeth on before the flame Upward along the paper a brown colour, Which is not black as yet, and the white dies.	25.065 25.066
The other two souls stared, and each one cried: "Ah me, Agnello, how you change! Just see, you are already neither two nor one!" The other two looked on, and each of them Cried out: "O me, Agnello, how thou changest ! Behold, thou now art neither two nor one."	25.069
Then two heads were already joined in one, when in one face where two had been dissolved, two intermingled shapes appeared to us. Already the two heads had one become, When there appeared to us two figures mingled Into one face, wherein the two were lost.	25.072
Two arms came into being from four lengths; the thighs and legs, the belly and the chest became such limbs as never had been seen. Of the four lists were fashioned the two arms, The thighs and legs, the belly and the chest Members became that never yet were seen.	25.073 25.075
And every former shape was canceled there: that perverse image seemed to share in both- and none; and so, and slowly, it moved on. Every original aspect there was cancelled; Two and yet none did the perverted image Appear, and such departed with slow pace.	25.076 25.078
Just as the lizard, when it darts from hedge to hedge, beneath the dog days' giant lash, seems, if it cross one's path, a lightning flash, Even as a lizard, under the great scourge Of days canicular, exchanging hedge, Lightning appeareth if the road it cross;	25.081
so seemed a blazing little serpent moving against the bellies of the other two, as black and livid as a peppercorn. Thus did appear, coming towards the bellies Of the two others, a small fiery serpent, Livid and black as is a peppercorn.	25.083 25.084
Attacking one of therm, it pierced right through the part where we first take our nourishment; and then it fell before him at full length. And in that part whereat is first received Our aliment, it one of them transfixed; Then downward fell in front of him extended.	25.087
The one it had transfixed stared but said nothing; in fact he only stood his ground and yawned as one whom sleep or fever has undone. 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.	25.090
The serpent stared at him, he at the serpent; one through his wound, the other through his mouth were smoking violently; their smoke met. He at the serpent gazed, and it at him; One through the wound, the other through the mouth Smoked violently, and the smoke commingled.	25.093
Let Lucan now be silent, where he sings of sad Sabellus and Nasidius, and wait to hear what flies off from my bow. Henceforth be silent Lucan, where he mentions Wretched Sabellus and Nassidius, And wait to hear what now shall be shot forth.	25.096
Let Ovid now be silent, where he tells of Cadmus, Arethusa; if his verse has made of one a serpent, one a fountain, Be silent Ovid, of Cadmus and Arethusa; For if him to a snake, her to fountain, Converts he fabling, that I grudge him not;	25.099
I do not envy him; he never did transmute two natures, face to face, so that both forms were ready to exchange their matter. Because two natures never front to front Has he transmuted, so that both the forms To interchange their matter ready were.	25.102
These were the ways they answered to each other: the serpent split its tail into a fork; the wounded sinner drew his steps together. Together they responded in such wise, That to a fork the serpent cleft his tail, And eke the wounded drew his feet together.	25.105
The legs and then the thighs along with them so fastened to each other that the juncture soon left no sign that was discernible. The legs together with the thighs themselves Adhered so, that in little time the juncture No sign whatever made that was apparent.	25.108
Meanwhile the cleft tail took upon itself the form the other gradually lost; its skin grew soft, the other's skin grew hard. He with the cloven tail assumed the figure The other one was losing, and his skin Became elastic, and the other's hard.	25.111
I saw the arms that drew in at his armpits and also saw the monster's two short feet grow long for just as much as those were shortened. I saw the arms draw inward at the armpits, And both feet of the reptile, that were short, Lengthen as much as those contracted were.	25.114
The serpent's hind feet, twisted up together, became the member that man hides; just as the wretch put out two hind paws from his member. Thereafter the hind feet, together twisted, Became the member that a man conceals, And of his own the wretch had two created.	25.117
And while the smoke veils each with a new color, and now breeds hair upon the skin of one, just as it strips the hair from off the other, While both of them the exhalation veils With a new colour, and engenders hair On one of them and depilates the other,	25.120
the one rose up, the other fell; and yet they never turned aside their impious eyelamps, beneath which each of them transformed his snout: The one uprose and down the other fell, Though turning not away their impious lamps, Underneath which each one his muzzle changed.	25.123
he who stood up drew his back toward the temples, and from the excess matter growing there came ears upon the cheeks that had been bare; He who was standing drew it tow'rds the temples, And from excess of matter, which came thither, Issued the ears from out the hollow cheeks;	25.126
whatever had not been pulled back but kept, superfluous, then made his face a nose and thickened out his lips appropriately. What did not backward run and was retained Of that excess made to the face a nose, And the lips thickened far as was befitting.	25.129
He who was lying down thrust out his snout; and even as the snail hauls in its horns, he drew his ears straight back into his head; He who lay prostrate thrusts his muzzle forward, And backward draws the ears into his head, In the same manner as the snail its horns	25.132
his tongue, which had before been whole and fit for speech, now cleaves; the other's tongue, which had been forked, now closes up; and the smoke stops. And so the tongue, which was entire and apt For speech before, is cleft, and the bi-forked In the other closes up, and the smoke ceases.	25.134 25.135
The soul that had become an animal, now hissing, hurried off along the valley; the other one, behind him, speaks and spits. The soul, which to a reptile had been changed, Along the valley hissing takes to flight, And after him the other speaking sputters.	25.136 25.138
And then he turned aside his new-made shoulders and told the third soul: "I'd have Buoso run on all fours down this road, as I have done." Then did he turn upon him his new shoulders, And said to the other: "I'll have Buoso run, Crawling as I have done, along this road."	25.141
And so I saw the seventh ballast change and rechange; may the strangeness plead for me if there's been some confusion in my pen. In this way I beheld the seventh ballast Shift and reshift, and here be my excuse The novelty, if aught my pen transgress.	25.144
And though my eyes were somewhat blurred, my mind bewildered, those three sinners did not flee so secretly that I could not perceive And notwithstanding that mine eyes might be Somewhat bewildered, and my mind dismayed, They could not flee away so secretly	25.147
Puccio Sciancato clearly, he who was the only soul who'd not been changed among the three companions we had met at first; But that I plainly saw Puccio Sciancato; And he it was who sole of three companions, Which came in the beginning, was not changed;	25.150
the other one made you, Gaville, grieve. The other was he whom thou, Gaville, weepest.	25.151

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