so i descended from the first enclosurdown to the second circle, that which girdleless space but grief more great, that goads to weeping
there dreadful minos stands, gnashing his teethexamining the sins of those who enterhe judges and assigns as his tail twines
i mean that when the spirit born to eviappears before him, it confesses alland he, the connoisseur of sin, can tethe depth in hell appropriate to itas many times as minos wraps his taiaround himself, that marks the sinner's level
always there is a crowd that stands before himeach soul in turn advances toward that judgmentthey speak and hear, then they are cast below
arresting his extraordinary taskminos, as soon as he had seen me, said"o you who reach this house of suffering
be careful how you enter, whom you trustthe gate is wide, but do not be deceived!to which my guide replied: "but why protest
do not attempt to block his fated pathour passage has been willed above, where oncan do what he has willed; and ask no more.
now notes of desperation have beguto overtake my hearing; now i comwhere mighty lamentation beats against me
i reached a place where every light is mutedwhich bellows like the sea beneath a tempestwhen it is battered by opposing winds
the hellish hurricane, which never restsdrives on the spirits with its violencewheeling and pounding, it harasses them
when they come up against the ruined slopethen there are cries and wailing and lamentand there they curse the force of the divine
i learned that those who undergo this tormenare damned because they sinned within the fleshsubjecting reason to the rule of lust
and as, in the cold season, starlings' wingbear them along in broad and crowded ranksso does that blast bear on the guilty spirits
now here, now there, now down, now up, it drives themthere is no hope that ever comforts them--no hope for rest and none for lesser pain
and just as cranes in flight will chant their laysarraying their long file across the airso did the shades i saw approaching, borby that assailing wind, lament and moanso that i asked him: "master, who are thoswho suffer punishment in this dark air?
"the first of those about whose historyou want to know," my master told me"once ruled as empress over many nations
her vice of lust became so customarthat she made license licit in her lawto free her from the scandal she had caused
she is semiramis, of whom we reathat she was ninus' wife and successorshe held the land the sultan now commands
that other spirit killed herself for loveand she betrayed the ashes of sychaeusthe wanton cleopatra follows next
see helen, for whose sake so many yearof evil had to pass; see great achilleswho finally met love--in his last battle
see paris, tristan..."--and he pointed ouand named to me more than a thousand shadedeparted from our life because of love
no sooner had i heard my teacher namthe ancient ladies and the knights, than pitseized me, and i was like a man astray
my first words: "poet, i should willinglspeak with those two who go together therand seem so lightly carried by the wind.
and he said to me: "you'll see when they draw closeto us, and then you may appeal to theby that love which impels them. they will come.
no sooner had the wind bent them towards uthan i urged on my voice: "o battered soulsif one does not forbid it, speak with us.
even as doves when summoned by desireborne forward by their will, move through the aiwith wings uplifted, still, to their sweet nest
those spirits left the ranks where dido suffersapproaching us through the malignant airso powerful had been my loving cry
"o living being, gracious and benignwho through the darkened air have come to visiour souls that stained the world with blood, if who rules the universe were friend to usthen we should pray to him to give you peacefor you have pitied our atrocious state
whatever pleases you to hear and speawill please us, too, to hear and speak with younow while the wind is silent, in this place
the land where i was born lies on that shorto which the po together with the waterthat follow it descends to final rest
love, that can quickly seize the gentle hearttook hold of him because of the fair bodtaken from me--how that was done still wounds me
love, that releases no beloved from lovingtook hold of me so strongly that through his beautthat, as you see, it has not left me yet
love led the two of us unto one deathcaina waits for him who took our life.these words were borne across from them to us
when i had listened to those injured soulsi bent my head and held it low untithe poet asked of me: "what are you thinking?
when i replied, my words began: "alashow many gentle thoughts, how deep a longinghad led them to the agonizing pass!
then i addressed my speech again to themand i began: "francesca, your afflictionmove me to tears of sorrow and of pity
but tell me, in the time of gentle sighswith what and in what way did love allow yoto recognize your still uncertain longings?
and she to me: "there is no greater sorrothan thinking back upon a happy timin misery--and this your teacher knows
yet if you long so much to understanthe first root of our love, then i shall telmy tale to you as one who weeps and speaks
one day, to pass the time away, we reaof lancelot--how love had overcame himwe were alone, and we suspected nothing
and time and time again that reading leour eyes to meet, and made our faces paleand yet one point alone defeated us
when we had read how the desired smilwas kissed by one who was so true a loverthis one, who never shall be parted from me
while all his body trembled, kissed my moutha gallehault indeed, that book and hwho wrote it, too; that day we read no more.
and while one spirit said these words to methe other wept, so that--because of pity-i fainted, as if i had met my death
and then i fell as a dead body falls
dante alighieri's inferno, canto v: translation by allen mandelbaum
