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INFERNO CANTO 34
Mandelbaum Tr. and Longfellow Tr.		 NotesAnn.

	"Vexilla regis prodeunt inferni
toward us; and therefore keep your eyes ahead,"
my master said, "to see if you can spy him."

	"Vexilla Regis prodeunt Inferni
Towards us; therefore look in front of thee,"
My Master said,"if thou discernest him."






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	Just as, when night falls on our hemisphere
or when a heavy fog is blowing thick,
a windmill seems to wheel when seen far off,

	As, when there breathes a heavy fog, or when
Our hemisphere is darkening into night,
Appears far off a mill the wind is turning,








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	so then I seemed to see that sort of structure.
And next, because the wind was strong, I shrank
behind my guide; there was no other shelter.

	Methought that such a building then I saw;
And, for the wind, I drew myself behind
My Guide, because there was no other shelter.








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	And now-with fear I set it down in meter-
I was where all the shades were fully covered
but visible as wisps of straw in glass.

	Now was I, and with fear in verse I put it,
There where the shades were wholly covered up,
And glimmered through like unto straws in glass.








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	There some lie flat and others stand erect,
one on his head, and one upon his soles;
and some bend face to feet, just like a bow.

	Some prone are Iying, others stand erect,
This with the head, and that one with the soles;
Another, bow-like, face to feet inverts.








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	But after we had made our way ahead,
my master felt he now should have me see
that creature who was once a handsome presence;

	When in advance so far we had proceeded,
That it my Master pleased to show to me
The creature who once had the beauteous semblance,








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	he stepped aside and made me stop, and said:
"Look! Here is Dis, and this the place where you
will have to arm yourself with fortitude."

	He from before me moved and made me stop,
Saying: "Behold Dis, and behold the place
Where thou with fortitude must arm thyself"








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	O reader, do not ask of me how I
grew faint and frozen then-I cannot write it:
all words would fall far short of what it was.

	How frozen I became and powerless then,
Ask it not, Reader, for I write it not,
Because all language would be insufficient.








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	I did not die, and I was not alive;
think for yourself, if you have any wit,
what I became, deprived of life and death.

	I did not die, and I alive remained not;
Think for thyself now, hast thou aught of wit,
What I became, being of both deprived.








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	The emperor of the despondent kingdom
so towered from the ice, up from midchest,
that I match better with a giant's breadth

	The Emperor of the kingdom dolorous
From his mid-breast forth issued from the ice,
And better with a giant I compare






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	than giants match the measure of his arms;
now you can gauge the size of all of him
if it is in proportion to such parts.

	Than do the giants with those arms of his;
Consider now how great must be that whole,
Which unto such a part conforms itself.








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	If he was once as handsome as he now
is ugly and, despite that, raised his brows
against his Maker, one can understand

	Were he as fair once, as he now is foul,
And lifted up his brow against his Maker,
Well may proceed from him all tribulation.








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	how every sorrow has its source in him!
I marveled when I saw that, on his head,
he had three faces: one-in front-bloodred;

	O, what a marvel it appeared to me,
When I beheld three faces on his head !
The one in front, and that vermilion was;







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	and then another two that, just above
the midpoint of each shoulder, joined the first;
and at the crown, all three were reattached;

	Two were the others, that were joined with this
Above the middle part of either shoulder,
And they were joined together at the crest;








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	the right looked somewhat yellow, somewhat white; 
the left in its appearance was like those
who come from where the Nile, descending, flows.

	And the right-hand one seemed 'twixt white and yellow
The left was such to look upon as those
Who come from where the Nile falls valley-ward. 








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	Beneath each face of his, two wings spread out,
as broad as suited so immense a bird:
I've never seen a ship with sails so wide.

	Underneath each came forth two mighty wings,
Such as befitting were so great a bird;
Sails of the sea I never saw so large.








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	They had no feathers, but were fashioned like
a bat's; and he was agitating them,
so that three winds made their way out from him-

	 No feathers had they, but as of a bat
Their fashion was; and he was waving them,
So that three winds proceeded forth therefrom.








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	and all Cocytus froze before those winds.
He wept out of six eyes; and down three chins,
tears gushed together with a bloody froth.

	Thereby Cocytus wholly was congealed.
With six eyes did he weep, and down three chins
Trickled the tear-drops and the bloody drivel.








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	Within each mouth-he used it like a grinder-
with gnashing teeth he tore to bits a sinner,
so that he brought much pain to three at once.

	At every mouth he with his teeth was crunching 
A sinner, in the manner of a brake,
So that he three of them tormented thus.






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	The forward sinner found that biting nothing
when matched against the clawing, for at times
his back was stripped completely of its hide.

	To him in front the biting was as naught
Unto the clawing, for sometimes the spine
Utterly stripped of all the skin remained.








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	"That soul up there who has to suffer most,"
my master said: "Judas Iscariot-
his head inside, he jerks his legs without.

	"That soul up there which has the greatest pain,"
The Master said, "is Judas Iscariot;
With head inside, he plies his legs without.







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	Of those two others, with their heads beneath,
the one who hangs from that black snout is Brutus-
see how he writhes and does not say a word!

	Of the two others, who head downward are,
The one who hangs from the black jowl is Brutus;
See how he writhes himself, and speaks no word.








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	That other, who seems so robust, is Cassius.
But night is come again, and it is time
for us to leave; we have seen everything."

	And the other, who so stalwart seems, is Cassius.
But night is reascending, and 'tis time 
That we depart, for we have seen the whole."







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	Just as he asked, I clasped him round the neck;
and he watched for the chance of time and place,
and when the wings were open wide enough,

	As seemed him good, I clasped him round the neck,  
And he the vantage seized of time and place,
And when the wings were opened wide apart,








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	he took fast hold upon the shaggy flanks
and then descended, down from tuft to tuft,
between the tangled hair and icy crusts.

	He laid fast hold upon the shaggy sides;
From fell to fell descended downward then
Between the thick hair and the frozen crust.








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	When we had reached the point at which the thigh 
revolves, just at the swelling of the hip,
my guide, with heavy strain and rugged work,

	When we were come to where the thigh revolves
Exactly on the thickness of the haunch, 
The Guide. with labour and with hard-drawn breath.







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	reversed his head to where his legs had been
and grappled on the hair, as one who climbs-
I thought that we were going back to Hell.

	Turned round his head where he had had his legs,
And grappled to the hair, as one who mounts,
So that to Hell I thought we were returning.








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	"Hold tight," my master said-he panted like
a man exhausted-"it is by such stairs
that we must take our leave of so much evil."

	"Keep fast thy hold, for by such stairs as these,"
The Master said, panting as one fatigued,
"Must we perforce depart from so much evil."








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	Then he slipped through a crevice in a rock
and placed me on the edge of it, to sit;
that done, he climbed toward me with steady steps.

	Then through the opening of a rock he issued,
And down upon the margin seated me;
Then tow'rds me he outstretched his wary step.








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	I raised my eyes, believing I should see
the half of Lucifer that I had left;
instead I saw him with his legs turned up;

	I lifted up mine eyes and thought to see
Lucifer in the same way I had left him;
And I beheld him upward hold his legs.








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	and if I then became perplexed, do let
the ignorant be judges-those who can
not understand what point I had just crossed.

	And if I then became disquieted,
Let stolid people think who do not see
What the point is beyond which I had passed.








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	"Get up," my master said, "be on your feet:
the way is long, the path is difficult;
the sun's already back to middle tierce."

	"Rise up," the Master said, "upon thy feet;
The way is long, and difficult the road,
And now the sun to middle-tierce returns."







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	It was no palace hall, the place in which
we found ourselves, but with its rough-hewn floor
and scanty light, a dungeon built by nature.

	It was not any palace corridor
There where we were, but dungeon natural,
With floor uneven and unease of light.








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	"Before I free myself from this abyss,
master," I said when I had stood up straight,
"tell me enough to see I don't mistake:

	"Ere from the abyss I tear myself away,
My Master," said I when I had arisen?
"To draw me from an error speak a little;








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	Where is the ice? And how is he so placed
head downward? Tell me, too, how has the sun
in so few hours gone from night to morning?"

	Where is the ice ?" and how is this one fixed
Thus upside down ? and how in such short time
From eve to morn has the sun made his transit?"








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	And he to me: "You still believe you are
north of the center, where I grasped the hair
of the damned worm who pierces through the world.

	And he to me: "Thou still imaginest
Thou art beyond the centre, where I grasped
The hair of the fell worm, who mines the world.








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	And you were there as long as I descended;
but when I turned, that's when you passed the point
to which, from every part, all weights are drawn.

	That side thou wast, so long as I descended;
When round I turned me, thou didst pass the point
To which things heavy draw from every side,








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	And now you stand beneath the hemisphere
opposing that which cloaks the great dry lands
and underneath whose zenith died the Man

	And now beneath the hemisphere art come
Opposite that which overhangs the vast
Dry-land, and 'neath whose cope was put to death








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	whose birth and life were sinless in this world.
Your feet are placed upon a little sphere
that forms the other face of the Judecca.

	The Man who without sin was born and lived.
Thou hast thy feet upon the little sphere
Which makes the other face of the Judecca








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	Here it is morning when it's evening there;
and he whose hair has served us as a ladder
is still fixed, even as he was before.

	Here it is morn when it is evening there;
And he who with his hair a stairway made us
Still fixed remaineth as he was before.








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	This was the side on which he fell from Heaven;
for fear of him, the land that once loomed here
made of the sea a veil and rose into

	Upon this side he fell down out of heaven;
And all the land, that whilom here emerged,
For fear of him made of the sea a veil,








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	our hemisphere; and that land which appears
upon this side-perhaps to flee from him-
left here this hollow space and hurried upward."

	And came to our hemisphere; and peradventure 
To flee from him, what on this side appears
Left the place vacant here, and back recoiled"







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	There is a place below, the limit of
that cave, its farthest point from Beelzebub,
a place one cannot see: it is discovered

	A place there is below, from Beelzebub
As far receding as the tomb extends,
Which not by sight is known, but by the sound








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	by ear-there is a sounding stream that flows
along the hollow of a rock eroded
by winding waters, and the slope is easy.

	Of a small rivulet, that there descendeth 
Through chasm within the stone, which it has gnawed
With course that winds about and slightly falls.






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	My guide and I came on that hidden road
to make our way back into the bright world;
and with no care for any rest, we climbed-

	The Guide and I into that hidden road 
Now entered, to return to the bright world;
And without care of having any rest








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	he first, I following-until I saw,
through a round opening, some of those things
of beauty Heaven bears. It was from there

	We mounted up, he first and I the second,
Till I beheld through a round aperture
Some of the beauteous things that Heaven doth bear;








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	that we emerged, to see-once more-the stars.

	Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars.




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