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INFERNO CANTO 30
Mandelbaum Tr. and Longfellow Tr.		 NotesAnn.

	When Juno was incensed with Semele
and, thus, against the Theban family
had shown her fury time and time again,

	'TWAS at the time when Juno was enraged,
For Semele, against the Theban blood,
As she already more than once had shown,






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	then Athamas was driven so insane
that, seeing both his wife and their two sons,
as she bore one upon each arm, he cried:

	So reft of reason Arthamas became,
That, seeing his own wife with children twain
Walking encumbered upon either hand,






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	"Let's spread the nets, to take the lioness
together with her cubs along the pass";
and he stretched out his talons, pitiless,

	He cried: "Spread out the nets, that I may take
The lioness and her whelps upon the passage;"
And then extended his unpitying claws,








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	and snatched the son who bore the name Learchus,
whirled him around and dashed him on a rock;
she, with her other burden, drowned herself.

	Seizing the first, who had the name Learchus,
And whirled him round, and dashed him on a rock;
And she, with the other burthen, drowned herself; --








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	And after fortune turned against the pride
of Troy, which had dared all, so that the king
together with his kingdom, was destroyed,

	And at the time when fortune downward hurled
The Trojan's arrogance, that all things dared,
So that the king was with his kingdom crushed,








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	then Hecuba was wretched, sad, a captive;
and after she had seen Polyxena
dead and, in misery, had recognized

	Hecuba sad, disconsolate, and captive,
When lifeless she beheld Polyxena,
And of her Polydorus on the shore






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	her Polydorus lying on the shore,
she barked, out of her senses, like a dog-
her agony had so deformed her mind.

	Of ocean was the dolorous one aware,
Out of her senses like a dog she barked,
So much the anguish had her mind distorted;








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	But neither fury-Theban, Trojan-ever
was seen to be so cruel against another,
in rending beasts and even human limbs,

	But not of Thebes the furies nor the Trojan
Were ever seen in any one so cruel
In goading beasts, and much more human members,








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	as were two shades I saw, both pale and naked,
who, biting, ran berserk in just the way
a hog does when it's let loose from its sty.

	As I beheld two shadows pale and naked,
Who, biting, in the manner ran along
That a boar does, when from the sty turned loose.








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	The one came at Capocchio and sank
his tusks into his neck so that, by dragging,
he made the hard ground scrape against his belly.

	One to Capocchio came, and by the nape
Seized with its teeth his neck, so that in dragging
It made his belly grate the solid bottom.








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	And he who stayed behind, the Aretine,
trembled and said: "That phantom's Gianni Schicchi,
and he goes raging, rending others so."

	And the Aretine, who trembling had remained,
Said to me: "That mad sprite is Gianni Schicchi,
And raving goes thus harrying other people."






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	And, "Oh," I said to him, "so may the other
not sink its teeth in you, please tell me who
it is before it hurries off from here."

	"O," said I to him, "so may not the other
Set teeth on thee, let it not weary thee
To tell us who it is, ere it dart hence."








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	And he to me: "That is the ancient soul
of the indecent Myrrha, she who loved
her father past the limits of just love.

	And he to me: "That is the ancient ghost
Of the nefarious Myrrha, who became
Beyond all rightful love her father's lover.








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	She came to sin with him by falsely taking
another's shape upon herself, just as
the other phantom who goes there had done,

	She came to sin with him after this manner,
By counterfeiting of another's form;
As he who goeth yonder undertook,








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	that he might gain the lady of the herd,
when he disguised himself as Buoso Donati,
making a will as if most properly."

	That he might gain the lady of the herd,
To counterfeit in himself Buoso Donati,
Making a will and giving it due form."








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	And when the pair of raging ones had passed,
those two on whom my eyes were fixed, I turned
around to see the rest of the ill-born.

	And after the two maniacs had passed
On whom I held mine eye, I turned it back
To look upon the other evil-born.








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	I saw one who'd be fashioned like a lute
if he had only had his groin cut off
from that part of his body where it forks.

	I saw one made in fashion of a lute,
If he had only had the groin cut off
Just at the point at which a man is forked.








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	The heavy dropsy, which so disproportions
the limbs with unassimilated humors
that there's no match between the face and belly,

	The heavy dropsy, that so disproportions
The limbs with humours, which it ill concocts,
That the face corresponds not to the belly,








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	had made him part his lips like a consumptive,
who will, because of thirst, let one lip drop
down to his chin and lift the other up.

	Compelled him so to hold his lips apart
As does the hectic, who because of thirst
One tow'rds the chin, the other upward turns.








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	"O you exempt from every punishment
in this grim world, and I do not know why,"
he said to us, "look now and pay attention

	"O ye, who without any torment are,
And why I know not, in the world of woe,"
He said to us,"behold, and be attentive








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	to this, the misery of Master Adam:
alive, I had enough of all I wanted;
alas, I now long for one drop of water.

	Unto the misery of Master Adam;
I had while living much of what I wished,
And now, alas ! a drop of water crave.






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	The rivulets that fall into the Arno
down from the green hills of the Casentino
with channels cool and moist, are constantly

	The rivulets, that from the verdant hills
Of Cassentin descend down into Arno,
Making their channels to be cold and moist,






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	before me; I am racked by memory-
the image of their flow parches me more
than the disease that robs my face of flesh.

	Ever before me stand, and not in vain;
For far more doth their image dry me up
Than the disease which strips my face of flesh.








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	The rigid Justice that would torment me
uses, as most appropriate, the place
where I had sinned, to draw swift sighs from me.

	The rigid justice that chastises me
Draweth occasion from the place in which
I sinned, to put the more my sighs in flight.








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	There is Romena, there I counterfeited
the currency that bears the Baptist's seal;
for this I left my body, burned, above.

	There is Romena, where I counterfeited
The currency imprinted with the Baptist,
For which I left my body burned above.






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	But could I see the miserable souls
of Guido, Alessandro, or their brother,
I'd not give up the sight for Fonte Branda.

	But if I here could see the tristful soul
Of Guido, or Alessandro, or their brother,
For Branda's fount I would Dot give the sight.








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	And one of them is in this moat already,
if what the angry shades report is true.
What use is that to me whose limbs are tied?

	One is within already, if the raving
Shades that are going round about speak truth;  
But what avails it me, whose limbs are tied ?








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	Were I so light that, in a hundred years,
I could advance an inch, I should already
be well upon the road to search for him

	If I were only still so light, that in
A hundred years I could advance one inch,
I had already started on the way,








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	among the mutilated ones, although
this circuit measures some eleven miles
and is at least a half a mile across.

	Seeking him out among this squalid folk,
Although the circuit be eleven miles,
And be not less than half a mile across.







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	Because of them I'm in this family;
it was those three who had incited me
to coin the florins with three carats' dross."

	For them am I in such a family;
They did induce me into coining florins,
Which had three carats of impurity."








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	And I to him: "Who are those two poor sinners
who give off smoke like wet hands in the winter
and lie so close to you upon the right?"

	And I to him: "Who are the two poor wretches
That smoke like unto a wet hand in winter,
Lying there close upon thy right-hand confines ?"








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	"I found them here," he answered, "when I rained
down to this rocky slope; they've not stirred since
and will not move, I think, eternally.

	"I found them here," replied he, "when I rained
Into this chasm, and since they have not turned,  
Nor do I think they will for evermore.








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	One is the lying woman who blamed Joseph;
the other, lying Sinon, Greek from Troy:
because of raging fever they reek so."

	One the false woman is who accused Joseph,
The other the false Sinon, Greek of Troy;
From acute fever they send forth such reek."






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	And one of them, who seemed to take offense,
perhaps at being named so squalidly,
struck with his fist at Adam's rigid belly.

	And one of them, who felt himself annoyed
At being, peradventure, named so darkly,
Smote with the fist upon his hardened paunch.








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	It sounded as if it had been a drum;
and Master Adam struck him in the face,
using his arm, which did not seem less hard,

	It gave a sound, as if it were a drum;
And Master Adam smote him in the face,
With arm that did not seem to be less hard,






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	saying to him: "Although I cannot move
my limbs because they are too heavy, I
still have an arm that's free to serve that need."

	Saying to him: "Although be taken from me
All motion, for my limbs that heavy are,
I have an arm unfettered for such need."








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	And he replied: "But when you went to burning,
your arm was not as quick as it was now;
though when you coined, it was as quick and more."

	Whereat he answer made: "When thou didst go
Unto the fire, thou hadst it not so ready:
But hadst it so and more when thou wast coining."








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	To which the dropsied one: "Here you speak true;
but you were not so true a witness there,
when you were asked to tell the truth at Troy."

	The dropsical: "Thou sayest true in that;
But thou wast not so true a witness there,
Where thou wast questioned of the truth at Troy."








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	"If I spoke false, you falsified the coin,"
said Sinon; "I am here for just one crime-
but you've committed more than any demon."

	"If I spake false, thou falsifiedst the coin,"
Said Sinon; "and for one fault I am here,
And thou for more than any other demon."








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	"Do not forget the horse, you perjurer,"
replied the one who had the bloated belly,
"may you be plagued because the whole world knows it."

	"Remember, perjurer, about the horse,"
He made reply who had the swollen belly,
"And rueful be it thee the whole world knows it."








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	The Greek: "And you be plagued by thirst that cracks
your tongue, and putrid water that has made
your belly such a hedge before your eyes."

	"Rueful to thee the thirst be wherewith cracks
Thy tongue," the Greek said, "and the putrid water
That hedges so thy paunch before thine eyes."








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	And then the coiner: "So, as usual,
your mouth, because of racking fever, gapes;
for if I thirst and if my humor bloats me,

	Then the false-coiner: "So is gaping wide
Thy mouth for speaking evil, as 'tis wont;
Because if I have thirst, and humour stuff me








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	you have both dryness and a head that aches;
few words would be sufficient invitation
to have you lick the mirror of Narcissus."

	Thou hast the burning and the head that aches,
And to lick up the mirror of Narcissus
Thou wouldst not want words many to invite thee."







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	I was intent on listening to them
when this was what my master said: "If you
insist on looking more, I'll quarrel with you!"

	In listening to them was I wholly fixed,
When said the Master to me: "Now just look,
For little wants it that I quarrel with thee."








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	And when I heard him speak so angrily,
I turned around to him with shame so great
that it still stirs within my memory.

	When him I heard in anger speak to me,
I turned me round towards him with such shame
That still it eddies through my memory.








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	Even as one who dreams that he is harmed
and, dreaming, wishes he were dreaming, thus
desiring that which is, as if it were not,

	And as he is who dreams of his own harm,
Who dreaming wishes it may be a dream,
So that he craves what is, as if it were not;








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	so I became within my speechlessness:
I wanted to excuse myself and did
excuse myself, although I knew it not.

	Such I became, not having power to speak,
For to excuse myself I wished, and still
Excused myself, and did not think I did it.








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	"Less shame would wash away a greater fault
than was your fault," my master said to me;
"therefore release yourself from all remorse

	"Less shame doth wash away a greater fault,"
The Master said, "than this of thine has been;
Therefore thyself disburden of all sadness,








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	and see that I am always at your side,
should it so happen-once again-that fortune
brings you where men would quarrel in this fashion:

	And make account that I am aye beside thee,
If e'er it come to pass that fortune bring thee
Where there are people in a like dispute;








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	to want to hear such bickering is base."

	For a base wish it is to wish to hear it."




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