第78章 Purgatorio: Canto XXIV(2)

Yet my return will not so speedy be, But I shall sooner in desire arrive;

Because the place where I was set to live From day to day of good is more depleted, And unto dismal ruin seems ordained."

"Now go," he said, "for him most guilty of it At a beast's tail behold I dragged along Towards the valley where is no repentance.

Faster at every step the beast is going, Increasing evermore until it smites him, And leaves the body vilely mutilated.

Not long those wheels shall turn," and he uplifted His eyes to heaven, "ere shall be clear to thee That which my speech no farther can declare.

Now stay behind; because the time so precious Is in this kingdom, that I lose too much By coming onward thus abreast with thee."

As sometimes issues forth upon a gallop A cavalier from out a troop that ride, And seeks the honour of the first encounter, So he with greater strides departed from us;

And on the road remained I with those two, Who were such mighty marshals of the world.

And when before us he had gone so far Mine eyes became to him such pursuivants As was my understanding to his words, Appeared to me with laden and living boughs Another apple-tree, and not far distant, From having but just then turned thitherward.

People I saw beneath it lift their hands, And cry I know not what towards the leaves, Like little children eager and deluded, Who pray, and he they pray to doth not answer, But, to make very keen their appetite, Holds their desire aloft, and hides it not.

Then they departed as if undeceived;

And now we came unto the mighty tree Which prayers and tears so manifold refuses.

"Pass farther onward without drawing near;

The tree of which Eve ate is higher up, And out of that one has this tree been raised."

Thus said I know not who among the branches;

Whereat Virgilius, Statius, and myself Went crowding forward on the side that rises.

"Be mindful," said he, "of the accursed ones Formed of the cloud-rack, who inebriate Combated Theseus with their double breasts;

And of the Jews who showed them soft in drinking, Whence Gideon would not have them for companions When he tow'rds Midian the hills descended."

Thus, closely pressed to one of the two borders, On passed we, hearing sins of gluttony, Followed forsooth by miserable gains;

Then set at large upon the lonely road, A thousand steps and more we onward went, In contemplation, each without a word.

"What go ye thinking thus, ye three alone?"

Said suddenly a voice, whereat I started As terrified and timid beasts are wont.

I raised my head to see who this might be, And never in a furnace was there seen Metals or glass so lucent and so red As one I saw who said: "If it may please you To mount aloft, here it behoves you turn;

This way goes he who goeth after peace."

His aspect had bereft me of my sight, So that I turned me back unto my Teachers, Like one who goeth as his hearing guides him.

And as, the harbinger of early dawn, The air of May doth move and breathe out fragrance, Impregnate all with herbage and with flowers, So did I feel a breeze strike in the midst My front, and felt the moving of the plumes That breathed around an odour of ambrosia;

And heard it said: "Blessed are they whom grace So much illumines, that the love of taste Excites not in their breasts too great desire, Hungering at all times so far as is just."