Inferno:
Canto XXVIII
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Who ever could, e'en with
untrammelled words,
Tell of the
Blood and of the wounds in full
Which now I saw, by many times narrating?
Each tongue would for a certainty fall short
By
reason of our speech and memory,
That have small room to comprehend so much.
If were again assembled all the people
Which formerly upon the fateful land
Of
Puglia were lamenting for their
Blood
Shed by the
Romans and the lingering war
That of the rings made such illustrious spoils,
As
Livy has recorded, who errs not,
With those who felt the
agony of blows
By making counterstand to
Robert Guiscard,
And all the rest, whose bones are gathered still
At
Ceperano, where a renegade
Was each
Apulian, and at
Tagliacozzo,
Where
without arms the old
Alardo conquered,
And one his limb
transpierced, and one lopped off,
Should show, it would be nothing to compare
With the
Disgusting mode of the ninth
Bolgia.
A cask by losing centre-piece or cant
Was never shattered so, as I saw one
Rent from the chin to where one
breaketh wind.
Between his legs were hanging down his
entrails;
His
heart was visible, and the
dismal sack
That maketh excrement of what is eaten.
While I was all absorbed in seeing him,
He looked at me, and opened with his hands
His bosom, saying: "See now how I rend me;
How mutilated, see, is
Mahomet;
In front of me doth
Ali weeping go,
Cleft in the face
from forelock unto chin;
And all the others whom thou here beholdest,
Disseminators of
scandal and of
schism
While living were, and therefore are cleft thus.
A
devil is behind here, who doth cleave us
Thus cruelly, unto the
falchion's edge
Putting again each one of all this ream,
When we have gone around the doleful road;
By
reason that our wounds are closed again
Ere any one in front of him repass.
But who
art thou, that musest on the crag,
Perchance to postpone going to the pain
That is adjudged upon thine accusations?"
"Nor
death hath reached him yet, nor guilt doth bring him,"
My
Master made reply, "to be tormented;
But to
procure him full experience,
Me, who am dead, behoves it to conduct him
Down here through
Hell, from circle unto circle;
And this is true as that I speak to thee."
More than a hundred were there when they heard him,
Who in the moat stood still to look at me,
Through wonderment oblivious of their torture.
"Now say to
Fra Dolcino, then, to
arm him,
Thou, who perhaps wilt shortly see the sun,
If soon he wish not here to follow me,
So with provisions, that no stress of snow
May give the victory to the
Novarese,
Which otherwise to gain would not be easy."
After one
foot to go away he lifted,
This word did
Mahomet say unto me,
Then to depart upon the ground he stretched it.
Another one, who had his throat pierced through,
And nose cut off close underneath the brows,
And had no longer but a
single ear,
Staying to look in wonder with the others,
Before the others did his
gullet open,
Which outwardly was red in every part,
And said: "O thou, whom guilt doth not condemn,
And whom I once saw up in
Latian land,
Unless too great similitude deceive me,
Call to remembrance
Pier da Medicina,
If e'er thou see again the lovely plain
That from
Vercelli slopes to
Marcabo,
And make it known to the best two of
Fano,
To
Messer Guido and
Angiolello likewise,
That if foreseeing here be not in vain,
Cast over from their vessel shall they be,
And drowned near unto the
Cattolica,
By the betrayal of a tyrant fell.
Between the isles of
Cyprus and
Majorca
Neptune ne'er yet beheld so great a
crime,
Neither of pirates nor Argolic people.
That
Traitor, who sees only with one eye,
And holds the land, which some one here with me
Would fain be fasting from the vision of,
Will make them come unto a parley with him;
Then will do so, that to
Focara's wind
They will not stand in need of vow or prayer."
And I to him: "Show to me and declare,
If thou wouldst have me bear up news of thee,
Who is this
person of the bitter vision."
Then did he lay his hand upon the jaw
Of one of his companions, and his mouth
Oped, crying: "This is he, and he speaks not.
This one, being banished, every doubt submerged
In
Caesar by affirming the forearmed
Always with detriment allowed delay."
O how bewildered unto me appeared,
With tongue asunder in his windpipe
slit,
Curio, who in speaking was so bold!
And one, who both his
hands dissevered had,
The stumps uplifting through the murky air,
So that the
Blood made horrible his face,
Cried out: "Thou
shalt remember
Mosca also,
Who said, alas! 'A thing done has an end!'
Which was an ill seed for the
Tuscan people."
"And
death unto thy race," thereto I added;
Whence he, accumulating woe on woe,
Departed, like a
person sad and crazed.
But I remained to look upon the crowd;
And saw a thing which I should be afraid,
Without some further proof, even to recount,
If it were not that conscience reassures me,
That good companion which emboldens man
Beneath the
hauberk of its feeling pure.
I truly saw, and still I seem to see it,
A trunk without a head walk in like manner
As walked the others of the mournful herd.
And by the
hair it held the
head dissevered,
Hung from the hand in fashion of a lantern,
And that upon us gazed and said: "O me!"
It of itself made to itself a lamp,
And they were two in one, and one in two;
How that can be, He knows who so ordains it.
When it was come close to the bridge's
foot,
It lifted high its
arm with all the head,
To bring more closely unto us its words,
Which were: "Behold now the sore penalty,
Thou, who dost breathing go the dead beholding;
Behold if any be as great as this.
And so that thou may carry news of me,
Know that
Bertram de Born am I, the same
Who gave to the
Young King the
evil comfort.
I made the
father and the
son rebellious;
Achitophel not more with
Absalom
And
David did with his accursed goadings.
Because I parted
persons so united,
Parted do I now bear my
brain, alas!
From its beginning, which is in this trunk.
Thus is observed in me the
counterpoise."
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