The Portable Dante (19 page)

“Oh, if all I wished for had been granted, ” I answered him, “you certainly would not, not yet, be banished from our life on earth;

my mind is etched (and now my heart is pierced) with your kind image, loving and paternal, when, living in the world, hour after hour

you taught me how man makes himself eternal. And while I live my tongue shall always speak of my debt to you, and of my gratitude.

I will write down what you tell me of my future and save it, with another text, to show a lady who can interpret, if I can reach her.

This much, at least, let me make clear to you: if my conscience continues not to blame me, I am ready for whatever Fortune wants.

This prophecy is not new to my ears, and so let Fortune turn her wheel, spinning it as she pleases, and the peasant turn his spade. ”

My master, hearing this, looked to the right, then, turning round and facing me, he said: “He listens well who notes well what he hears. ”

But I did not answer him; I went on talking, walking with Ser Brunetto, asking him who of his company were most distinguished.

And he: “It might be good to know who some are, about the rest I feel I should be silent, for the time would be too short, there are so many.

In brief, let me tell you, all here were clerics and respected men of letters of great fame, all befouled in the world by one same sin:

Priscian is traveling with that wretched crowd and Franceso d’Accorso too; and also there, if you could have stomached such repugnancy,

you might have seen the one the Servant of Servants transferred to the Bacchiglione from the Arno where his sinfully erected nerves were buried.

I would say more, but my walk and conversation with you cannot go on, for over there I see a new smoke rising from the sand:

people approach with whom I must not mingle. Remember my
Trésor,
where I live on, this is the only thing I ask of you. ”

Then he turned back, and he seemed like one of those who run Verona’s race across its fields to win the green cloth prize, and he was like

Already we were where I could hear the rumbling of the water plunging down to the next circle, something like the sound of beehives humming,

when three shades with one impulse broke away, running, from a group of spirits passing us beneath the rain of bitter suffering.

They were coming toward us shouting with one voice: “O you there, stop! From the clothes you wear, you seem to be a man from our perverted city. ”

Ah, the wounds I saw covering their limbs, some old, some freshly branded by the flames! Even now, when I think back to them, I grieve.

Their shouts caught the attention of my guide, and then he turned to face me, saying, “Wait, for these are shades that merit your respect.

And were it not the nature of this place to rain with piercing flames, I would suggest
you
run toward
them,
for it would be more fitting. ”

When we stopped, they resumed their normal pace and when they reached us, then they started circling; the three together formed a turning wheel,

just like professional wrestlers stripped and oiled, eyeing one another for the first, best grip before the actual blows and thrusts begin.

And circling in this way each kept his face pointed up at me, so that their necks and feet moved constantly in opposite directions.

“And if the misery along these sterile sands, ” one of them said, “and our charred and peeling flesh make us, and what we ask, repulsive to you,

let our great worldly fame persuade your heart to tell us who you are, how you can walk safely with living feet through Hell itself.

This one in front, whose footsteps I am treading, even though he runs his round naked and skinned, was of noble station, more than you may think:

he was the grandson of the good Gualdrada; his name was Guido Guerra, and in his life he accomplished much with counsel and with sword.

This other one, who pounds the sand behind me, is Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, whose wise voice the world would have done well to listen to.

And I, who share this post of pain with them, was Jacopo Rusticucci, and for sure my reluctant wife first drove me to my sin. ”

If I could have been sheltered from the fire, I would have thrown myself below with them, and I think my guide would have allowed me to;

but, as I knew I would be burned and seared, my fear won over my first good intention that made me want to put my arms around them.

And then I spoke: “Repulsion, no, but grief for your condition spread throughout my heart (and years will pass before it fades away),

as soon as my lord here began to speak in terms that led me to believe a group of such men as yourselves might be approaching.

I am from your city, and your honored names and your accomplishments I have always heard rehearsed, and have rehearsed, myself, with fondness.

I leave the bitter gall, and journey toward those sweet fruits promised me by my true guide, but first I must go down to the very center. ”

“So may your soul remain to guide your body for years to come, ” that same one spoke again, “and your fame’s light shine after you are gone,

tell us if courtesy and valor dwell within our city as they used to do, or have they both been banished from the place?

Guglielmo Borsiere, who joined our painful ranks of late, and travels there with our companions, has given us reports that make us grieve. ”

“A new breed of people with their sudden wealth have stimulated pride and unrestraint in you, O Florence, made to weep so soon. ”

These words I shouted with my head strained high, and the three below took this to be my answer and looked, as if on truth, at one another.

“If you always answer questions with such ease, ” they all spoke up at once, “O happy you, to have this gift of ready, open speech;

therefore, if you survive these unlit regions and return to gaze upon the lovely stars, when it pleases you to say ‘I was down there, ’

do not fail to speak of us to living men. ” They broke their man-made wheel and ran away, their nimble legs were more like wings in flight.

“Amen” could not have been pronounced as quick as they were off, and vanished from our sight; and then my teacher thought it time to leave.

I followed him, and we had not gone far before the sound of water was so close that if we spoke we hardly heard each other.

As that river on the Apennines’ left slope, first springing from its source at Monte Veso, then flowing eastward holding its own course

(called Acquacheta at its start above before descending to its lower bed where, at Forlì, it has another name),

reverberates there near San Benedetto dell’Alpe (plunging in a single bound), where at least a thousand vassals could be housed,

so down a single rocky precipice we found the tainted waters falling, roaring sound loud enough to deafen us in seconds.

I wore a cord that fastened round my waist, with which I once had thought I might be able to catch the leopard with the gaudy skin.

As soon as I removed it from my body just as my guide commanded me to do, I gave it to him looped into a coil.

Then taking it and turning to the right, he flung it quite a distance past the bank and down into the deepness of the pit.

“Now surely something strange is going to happen, ” I thought to myself, “to answer the strange signal whose course my master follows with his eyes. ”

How cautious a man must be in company with one who can not only see his actions but read his mind and understand his thoughts!

He spoke: “Soon will rise up what I expect; and what you are trying to imagine now soon must reveal itself before your eyes. ”

It is always better to hold one’s tongue than speak a truth that seems a bold-faced lie when uttered, since to tell this truth could be embarrassing;

but I shall not keep quiet; and by the verses of my
Comedy
—so may they be received with lasting favor, Reader—I swear to you

I saw a figure coming, it was swimming through the thick and murky air, up to the top (a thing to startle even stalwart hearts),

like one returning who has swum below to free the anchor that has caught its hooks on a reef or something else the sea conceals,

spreading out his arms, and doubling up his legs.