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Dante Alighieri (1265–1321). The Divine Comedy.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

Inferno [Hell]

Canto VI ARGUMENT.—On his recovery, the Poet finds himself in the third circle, where the gluttonous are punished. Their torment is, to lie in the mire, under a continual and heavy storm of hail, snow, and discolored water; Cerberus, meanwhile barking over them with his threefold throat, and rending them piecemeal. One of these, who on earth was named Ciacco, foretells the divisions with which Florence is about to be distracted. Dante proposes a question to his guide, who solves it; and they proceed toward the fourth circle.

MY sense reviving, that erewhile had droop’d

With pity for the kindred shades, whence grief

O’ercame me wholly, straight around I see

New torments, new tormented souls, which way

Soe’er I move, or turn, or bend my sight.

In the third circle I arrive, of showers

Ceaseless, accursed, heavy and cold, unchanged

For ever, both in kind and in degree.

Large hail, discolor’d water, sleety flaw

Through the dun midnight air stream’d down amain:

Stank all the land whereon that tempest fell.

Cerberus, cruel monster, fierce and strange,

Through his wide threefold throat, barks as a dog

Over the multitude immersed beneath.

His eyes glare crimson, black his unctuous beard,

His belly large, and claw’d the hands, with which

He tears the spirits, flays them, and their limbs

Piecemeal disparts. Howling there spread, as curs,

Under the rainy deluge, with one side

The other screening, oft they roll them round,

A wretched, godless crew. When that great worm

Descried us, savage Cerberus, he oped

His jaws, and the fangs show’d us; not a limb

Of him but trembled. Then my guide, his palms

Expanding on the ground, thence fill’d with earth

Raised them, and cast it in his ravenous maw.

E’en as a dog, that yelling bays for food

His keeper, when the morsel comes, lets fall

His fury, bent alone with eager haste

To swallow it; so dropp’d the loathsome cheeks

Of demon Cerberus, who thundering stuns

The spirits, that they for deafness wish in vain.

We, o’er the shades thrown prostrate by the brunt

Of the heavy tempest passing, set our feet

Upon their emptiness, that substance seem’d.

They all along the earth extended lay,

Save one, that sudden raised himself to sit,

Soon as that way he saw us pass. “O thou!”

He cried, “who through the infernal shades art led,

Own, if again thou know’st me. Thou wast framed

Or ere my frame was broken.” I replied:

“The anguish thou endurest perchance so takes

Thy form from my remembrance, that it seems

As if I saw thee never. But inform

Me thou art, that in a place so sad

Art set, and in such torment, that although

Other be greater, none disgusteth more.”

He thus in answer to my words rejoin’d:

“Thy city, heap’d with envy to the brim,

Aye, that the measure overflows its bounds,

Held me in brighter days. Ye citizens

Were wont to name me Ciacco. For the sin

Of gluttony, damned vice, beneath this rain,

E’en as thou seest, I with fatigue am worn:

Nor I sole spirit in this woe: all these

Have by like crime incurr’d like punishment.”

No more he said, and I my speech resumed:

“Ciacco! thy! dire affliction grieves me much,

Even to tears. But tell me, if thou know’st,

What shall at length befall the citizens

of the divided city; whether any

Just one inhabit there: and tell the cause,

Whence jarring Discord hath assail’d it thus.”

He then: “After long striving they will come

To blood; and the wild party from the woods

Will chase the other with much injury forth.

Then it behooves that this must fall, within

Three solar circles; and the other rise

By borrow’d force of one, who under shore

Now rests. It shall a long space hold aloof

Its forehead, keeping under heavy weight

The other opprest, indignant at the load,

And grieving sore. The just are two in number.

But they neglected. Avarice, envy, pride,

Three fatal sparks, have set the hearts of all

On fire.” Here ceased the lamentable sound;

And I continued thus: “Still would I learn

More from thee, further parley still entreat.

Of Farinata and Tegghiaio say,

They who so well deserved; of Giacopo,

Arrigo, Mosca, and the rest, who bent

Their minds on working good. Oh! tell me where

They bide, and to their knowledge let me come.

For I am prest with keen desire to hear

If Heaven’s sweet cup, or poisonous drug of Hell,

Be to their lip assign’d.” He answer’d straight:

“These are yet blacker spirits. Various crimes

Have sunk them deeper in the dark abyss.

If thou so far descendest, thou mayst see them.

But to the pleasant world, when thou return’st,

Of me make mention, I entreat thee, there.

No more I tell thee, answer thee no more.”

This said, his fixed eyes he turn’d askance,

A little eyed me, then bent down his head,

And ’midst his blind companions with it fell.

When thus my guide: “No more his bed he leaves,

Ere the last angel-trumpet blow. The Power

Adverse to these shall then in glory come,

Each one forthwith to his sad tomb repair,

Resume his fleshly vesture and his form,

And hear the eternal doom re-echoing rend

The vault.” So pass’d we through that mixture foul

Of spirits and rain, with tardy steps; meanwhile

Touching, though slightly, on the life to come.

For thus I question’d: “Shall these tortures, Sir!

When the great sentence passes, be increased,

Or mitigated, or as now severe?”

He then: “Consult thy knowledge; that decides,

That, as each thing to more perfection grows,

It feels more sensibly both good and pain.

Though ne’er to true perfection may arrive

This race accurst, yet nearer then, than now,

They shall approach it.” Compassing that path,

Circuitous we journey’d; and discourse,

Much more than I relate, between us pass’d:

Till at the point, whence the steps led below,

Arrived, there Plutus, the great foe, we found.