第31章 Inferno: Canto XXV(1)

At the conclusion of his words, the thief Lifted his hands aloft with both the figs, Crying: "Take that, God, for at thee I aim them."

From that time forth the serpents were my friends;

For one entwined itself about his neck As if it said: "I will not thou speak more;"

And round his arms another, and rebound him, Clinching itself together so in front, That with them he could not a motion make.

Pistoia, ah, Pistoia! why resolve not To burn thyself to ashes and so perish, Since in ill-doing thou thy seed excellest?

Through all the sombre circles of this Hell, Spirit I saw not against God so proud, Not he who fell at Thebes down from the walls!

He fled away, and spake no further word;

And I beheld a Centaur full of rage Come crying out: "Where is, where is the scoffer?"

I do not think Maremma has so many Serpents as he had all along his back, As far as where our countenance begins.

Upon the shoulders, just behind the nape, With wings wide open was a dragon lying, And he sets fire to all that he encounters.

My Master said: "That one is Cacus, who Beneath the rock upon Mount Aventine Created oftentimes a lake of blood.

He goes not on the same road with his brothers, By reason of the fraudulent theft he made Of the great herd, which he had near to him;

Whereat his tortuous actions ceased beneath The mace of Hercules, who peradventure Gave him a hundred, and he felt not ten."

While he was speaking thus, he had passed by, And spirits three had underneath us come, Of which nor I aware was, nor my Leader, Until what time they shouted: "Who are you?"

On which account our story made a halt, And then we were intent on them alone.

I did not know them; but it came to pass, As it is wont to happen by some chance, That one to name the other was compelled, Exclaiming: "Where can Cianfa have remained?"

Whence I, so that the Leader might attend, Upward from chin to nose my finger laid.

If thou art, Reader, slow now to believe What I shall say, it will no marvel be, For I who saw it hardly can admit it.

As I was holding raised on them my brows, Behold! a serpent with six feet darts forth In front of one, and fastens wholly on him.

With middle feet it bound him round the paunch, And with the forward ones his arms it seized;

Then thrust its teeth through one cheek and the other;

The hindermost it stretched upon his thighs, And put its tail through in between the two, And up behind along the reins outspread it.

Ivy was never fastened by its barbs Unto a tree so, as this horrible reptile Upon the other's limbs entwined its own.

Then they stuck close, as if of heated wax They had been made, and intermixed their colour;

Nor one nor other seemed now what he was;

E'en as proceedeth on before the flame Upward along the paper a brown colour, Which is not black as yet, and the white dies.

The other two looked on, and each of them Cried out: "O me, Agnello, how thou changest!

Behold, thou now art neither two nor one."

Already the two heads had one become, When there appeared to us two figures mingled Into one face, wherein the two were lost.

Of the four lists were fashioned the two arms, The thighs and legs, the belly and the chest Members became that never yet were seen.

Every original aspect there was cancelled;