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INFERNO CANTO 26
Mandelbaum Tr. and Longfellow Tr.		 NotesAnn.

	Be joyous, Florence, you are great indeed,
for over sea and land you beat your wings;
through every part of Hell your name extends!

	REJOICE, 0 Florence, since thou art so great,
That over sea and land thou beatest thy wings,
And throughout Hell thy name is spread abroad !






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	Among the thieves I found five citizens
of yours-and such, that shame has taken me;
with them, you can ascend to no high honor.

	Among the thieves five citizens of thine
Like these I found, whence shame comes unto me,
And thou thereby to no great honour risest.






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	But if the dreams dreamt close to dawn are true,
then little time will pass before you feel
what Prato and the others crave for you.

	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.






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	Were that already come, it would not be
too soon-and let it come, since it must be!
As I grow older, it will be more heavy.

	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.






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	We left that deep and, by protruding stones
that served as stairs for our descent before,
my guide climbed up again and drew me forward;

	We went our way, and up along the stairs
The bourns had made us to descend before,
Remounted my Conductor and drew me.








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	and as we took our solitary path
among the ridge's jagged spurs and rocks,
our feet could not make way without our hands.

	And following the solitary path
Among the rocks and ridges of the crag,
The foot without the hand sped not at all.








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	It grieved me then and now grieves me again
when I direct my mind to what I saw;
and more than usual, I curb my talent,

	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,








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	that it not run where virtue does not guide;
so that, if my kind star or something better
has given me that gift, I not abuse it.

	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.







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	As many as the fireflies the peasant
(while resting on a hillside in the season
when he who lights the world least hides his face),

	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,








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	just when the fly gives way to the mosquito,
sees glimmering below, down in the valley,
there where perhaps he gathers grapes and tills-

	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








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	so many were the flames that glittered in
the eighth abyss; I made this out as soon
as I had come to where one sees the bottom.

	With flames as manifold resplendent all
Was the eighth Bolgia, as I grew aware
As soon as I was where the depth appeared.








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	Even as he who was avenged by bears
saw, as it left, Elijah's chariot-
its horses rearing, rising right to heaven-

	And such as he who with the bears avenged him
Beheld Elijah's chariot at departing,
What time the steeds to heaven erect uprose






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	when he could not keep track of it except
by watching one lone flame in its ascent,
just like a little cloud that climbs on high:

	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,








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	so, through the gullet of that ditch, each flame
must make its way; no flame displays its prey,
though every flame has carried off a sinner.

	Thus each along the gorge of the intrenchment
Was moving; for not one reveals the theft,
And every flame a sinner steals away.








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	I stood upon the bridge and leaned straight out
to see; and if I had not gripped a rock,
I should have fallen off-without a push.

	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.








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	My guide, who noted how intent I was,
told me: "Within those fires there are souls;
each one is swathed in that which scorches him."

	And the Leader, who beheld me so attent,
Exclaimed: "Within the fires the spirits are;
Each swathes himself with that wherewith he burns."








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	"My master," I replied, "on hearing you,
I am more sure; but I'd already thought
that it was so, and I had meant to ask:

	'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








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	Who is within the flame that comes so twinned
above that it would seem to rise out of
the pyre Eteocles shared with his brother?"

	Who is within that fire, which comes so cleft
At top, it seems uprising from the pyre
Where was Eteocles with his brother placed."








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	He answered me: "Within that flame, Ulysses
and Diomedes suffer; they, who went
as one to rage, now share one punishment.

	He answered me: "Within there are tormented
Ulysses and Diomed, and thus together
They unto vengeance run as unto wrath.







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	And there, together in their flame, they grieve
over the horse's fraud that caused a breach-
the gate that let Rome's noble seed escape.

	And there within their flame do they lament
The ambush of the horse, which made the door
Whence issued forth the Romans' gentle seed;







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	There they regret the guile that makes the dead
Deidamia still lament Achilles;
and there, for the Palladium, they pay."

	Therein is wept the craft, for which being dead
Deidamia still deplores Achilles,
And pain for the Palladium there is borne."







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	"If they can speak within those sparks," I said,
"I pray you and repray and, master, may
my prayer be worth a thousand pleas, do not

	"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,








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	forbid my waiting here until the flame
with horns approaches us; for you can see
how, out of my desire, I bend toward it."

	That thou make no denial of awaiting
Until the horned flame shall hither come;
Thou seest that with desire I lean towards it."








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	And he to me: "What you have asked is worthy
of every praise; therefore, I favor it.
I only ask you this: refrain from talking.

	And he to me: "Worthy is thy entreaty
Of much applause, and therefore I accept it;
But take heed that thy tongue restrain itself.








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	Let me address them-I have understood
what you desire of them. Since they were Greek,
perhaps they'd be disdainful of your speech."

	Leave me to speak, because I have conceived
That which thou wishest; for they might disdain
Perchance, since they were Greeks, discourse of thine."








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	And when my guide adjudged the flame had reached
a point where time and place were opportune,
this was the form I heard his words assume:

	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:








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	"You two who move as one within the flame,
if I deserved of you while I still lived,
if I deserved of you much or a little

	"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








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	when in the world I wrote my noble lines, 
do not move on; let one of you retell
where, having gone astray, he found his death."

	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."








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	The greater horn within that ancient flame
began to sway and tremble, murmuring
just like a fire that struggles in the wind;

	Then of the antique flame the greater horn,
Murmuring, began to wave itself about
Even as a flame doth which the wind fatigues.








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	and then he waved his flame-tip back and forth
as if it were a tongue that tried to speak,
and flung toward us a voice that answered: "When

	Thereafterward, the summit to and fro
Moving as if it were the tongue that spake
It uttered forth a voice, and said: "When I








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	I sailed away from Circe, who'd beguiled me
to stay more than a year there, near Gaeta-
before Aeneas gave that place a name-

	From Circe had departed, who concealed me
More than a year there near unto Gaeta,
Or ever yet Aenas named it so,








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	neither my fondness for my son nor pity
for my old father nor the love I owed
Penelope, which would have gladdened her,

	Nor fondness for my son, nor reverence
For my old father, nor the due affection
Which joyous should have made Penelope,








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	was able to defeat in me the longing
I had to gain experience of the world
and of the vices and the worth of men.

	Could overcome within me the desire
I had to be experienced of the world,
And of the vice and virtue of mankind;








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	Therefore, I set out on the open sea
with but one ship and that small company
of those who never had deserted me.

	But I put forth on the high open sea
With one sole ship, and that small company
By which I never had deserted been.








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	I saw as far as Spain, far as Morocco,
along both shores; I saw Sardinia
and saw the other islands that sea bathes.

	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. 








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	And I and my companions were already
old and slow, when we approached the narrows
where Hercules set up his boundary stones

	I and my company were old and slow
When at that narrow passage we arrived
Where Hercules his landmarks set as signals,








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	that men might heed and never reach beyond:
upon my right, I had gone past Seville,
and on the left, already passed Ceuta.

	That man no farther onward should adventure.
On the right hand behind me left I Seville,
And on the other already had left Ceuta.








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	'Brothers,' I said, 'o you, who having crossed
a hundred thousand dangers, reach the west,
to this brief waking-time that still is left

	'O brothers, who amid a hundred thousand
Perils,' I said, ' have come unto the West,
To this so inconsiderable vigil








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	unto your senses, you must not deny
experience of that which lies beyond
the sun, and of the world that is unpeopled.

	Which is remaining of your senses still
Be ye unwilling to deny the knowledge,
Following the sun, of the unpeopled world.








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	Consider well the seed that gave you birth:
you were not made to live your lives as brutes,
but to be followers of worth and knowledge.'

	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.'








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	I spurred my comrades with this brief address
to meet the journey with such eagerness
that I could hardly, then, have held them back;

	So eager did I render my companions,
With this brief exhortation, for the voyage,
That then I hardly could have held them back.








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	and having turned our stern toward morning, we
made wings out of our oars in a wild flight
and always gained upon our left-hand side.

	And having turned our stern unto the morning,
We of the oars made wings for our mad flight,
Evermore gaining on the larboard side.







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	At night I now could see the other pole
and all its stars; the star of ours had fallen
and never rose above the plain of the ocean.

	Already all the stars of the other pole
The night beheld, and ours so very low
It did not rise above the ocean floor.






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	Five times the light beneath the moon had been
rekindled, and, as many times, was spent,
since that hard passage faced our first attempt,

	Five times rekindled and as many quenched
Had been the splendour underneath the moon,
Since we had entered into the deep pass,








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	when there before us rose a mountain, dark
because of distance, and it seemed to me
the highest mountain I had ever seen.

	When there appeared to us a mountain, dim
From distance, and it seemed to me so high
As I had never any one beheld.








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	And we were glad, but this soon turned to sorrow,
for out of that new land a whirlwind rose
and hammered at our ship, against her bow.

	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.








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	Three times it turned her round with all the waters;
and at the fourth, it lifted up the stern
so that our prow plunged deep, as pleased an Other,

	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,








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	until the sea again closed-over us."

	Until the sea above us closed again."




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