Inferno:
Canto XXI
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From
bridge to bridge thus, speaking other things
Of which my
Comedy cares not to
sing,
We came along, and held the summit, when
We halted to behold another fissure
Of
Malebolge and other
vain laments;
And I beheld it
marvellously dark.
As in the
Arsenal of the Venetians
Boils in the
winter the tenacious pitch
To smear their unsound vessels o'er again,
For sail they cannot; and instead thereof
One makes his vessel new, and one recaulks
The
ribs of that which many a voyage has made;
One
hammers at the
prow, one at the
stern,
This one makes
oars, and that one
cordage twists,
Another mends the
mainsail and the
mizzen;
Thus, not by
fire, but by the
art divine,
Was boiling down below there a dense pitch
Which upon every side the bank belimed.
I saw it, but I did not see within it
Aught but the bubbles that the boiling raised,
And all swell up and resubside compressed.
The while below there fixedly I gazed,
My Leader, crying out: "
Beware, beware!"
Drew me unto himself from where I stood.
Then I turned round, as one who is impatient
To see what it behoves him to escape,
And whom a sudden terror doth unman,
Who, while he looks, delays not his departure;
And I beheld behind us a
black devil,
Running along upon the crag, approach.
Ah, how
ferocious was he in his aspect!
And how he seemed to me in action ruthless,
With open wings and
light upon his feet!
His shoulders, which sharp-pointed were and high,
A
sinner did encumber with both
haunches,
And he held clutched the
sinews of the feet.
From off our bridge, he said: "O
Malebranche,
Behold one of the
elders of
Saint Zita;
Plunge him beneath, for I return for others
Unto that town, which is well furnished with them.
All there are
barrators, except
Bonturo;
No into
Yes for
money there is changed."
He hurled him down, and over the hard crag
Turned round, and never was a
mastiff loosened
In so much hurry to pursue a
thief.
The other sank, and rose again face downward;
But the
demons, under cover of the bridge,
Cried: "Here the
Santo Volto has no place!
Here swims one otherwise than in the
Serchio;
Therefore, if for our gaffs thou wishest not,
Do not uplift thyself above the pitch."
They seized him then with more than a hundred rakes;
They said: "It here behoves thee to dance covered,
That, if thou canst, thou secretly mayest pilfer."
Not otherwise the cooks their
scullions make
Immerse into the middle of the
caldron
The meat with hooks, so that it may not float.
Said the good
Master to me: "That it be not
Apparent thou
art here,
crouch thyself down
Behind a
jag, that thou mayest have some screen;
And for no
outrage that is done to me
Be thou afraid, because these things I know,
For once before was I in such a scuffle."
Then he passed on beyond the bridge's head,
And as upon the
sixth bank he arrived,
Need was for him to have a steadfast front.
With the same fury, and the same uproar,
As
dogs leap out upon a
mendicant,
Who on a sudden begs, where'er he stops,
They issued from beneath the little bridge,
And turned against him all their
grappling-irons;
But he cried out: "Be none of you
malignant!
Before those hooks of yours lay hold of me,
Let one of you step forward, who may hear me,
And then take counsel as to grappling me."
They all cried out: "Let
Malacoda go;"
Whereat one started, and the rest stood still,
And he came to him, saying: "What
avails it?"
"Thinkest thou,
Malacoda, to behold me
Advanced into this place," my
Master said,
"Safe hitherto from all your skill of
fence,
Without the will
divine, and
fate auspicious?
Let me go on, for it in
Heaven is willed
That I another show this
savage road."
Then was his
arrogance so humbled in him,
That he let fall his
grapnel at his feet,
And to the others said: "Now strike him not."
And unto me my
Guide: "O thou, who sittest
Among the
splinters of the bridge crouched down,
Securely now return to me again."
Wherefore I started and came swiftly to him;
And all the
devils forward thrust themselves,
So that I
feared they would not keep their
compact.
And thus beheld I once afraid the
soldiers
Who issued under
safeguard from
Caprona,
Seeing themselves among so many foes.
Close did I press myself with all my
person
Beside my Leader, and turned not mine eyes
From off their countenance,
which was not good.
They lowered their rakes, and "Wilt thou have me hit him,"
They said to one another, "on the
rump?"
And answered: "Yes; see that thou
nick him with it."
But the same
demon who was holding parley
With my
Conductor turned him very quickly,
And said: "Be quiet, be quiet,
Scarmiglione;"
Then said to us: "You can no farther go
Forward upon this crag, because is
lying
All shattered, at the bottom, the sixth
arch.
And if it still doth please you to go onward,
Pursue your way along upon this
rock;
Near is another crag that yields a path.
Yesterday, five hours later than this hour,
One thousand and two hundred sixty-six
Years were complete, that here the way was broken.
I send in that direction some of mine
To see if any one doth air himself;
Go ye with them; for they will not be
vicious.
Step forward,
Alichino and
Calcabrina,"
Began he to cry out, "and thou,
Cagnazzo;
And
Barbariccia, do thou
Guide the ten.
Come forward,
Libicocco and
Draghignazzo,
And tusked
Ciriatto and
Graffiacane,
And
Farfarello and
mad Rubicante;
Search ye all round about the boiling pitch;
Let these be safe as far as the next crag,
That all unbroken passes o'er the dens."
"O me! what is it,
Master, that I see?
Pray let us go," I said, "without an escort,
If thou knowest how,
sincefor myself I ask none.
If thou
art as observant as thy wont is,
Dost thou not see that they do gnash their teeth,
And with their
brows are threatening woe to us?"
And he to me: "I will not have thee
fear;
Let them gnash on, according to their
fancy,
Because they do it for those
boiling wretches."
Along the left-hand dike they wheeled about;
But first had each one thrust his tongue between
His teeth towards their leader for a signal;
And he had made a
trumpet of his rump.
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