The Portable Dante (9 page)

She is by nature so perverse and vicious, her craving belly is never satisfied, still hungering for food the more she eats.

She mates with many creatures, and will go on mating with more until the greyhound comes and tracks her down to make her die in anguish.

He will not feed on either land or money: his wisdom, love, and virtue shall sustain him; he will be born between Feltro and Feltro.

He comes to save that fallen Italy for which the maid Camilla gave her life and Turnus, Nisus, Euryalus died of wounds.

And he will hunt for her through every city until he drives her back to Hell once more, whence Envy first unleashed her on mankind.

And so, I think it best you follow me for your own good, and I shall be your guide and lead you out through an eternal place

where you will hear desperate cries, and see tormented shades, some old as Hell itself, and know what second death is, from their screams.

And later you will see those who rejoice while they are burning, for they have hope of coming, whenever it may be, to join the blessèd—

to whom, if you too wish to make the climb, a spirit, worthier than I, must take you; I shall go back, leaving you in her care,

because that Emperor dwelling on high will not let me lead any to His city, since I in life rebelled against His law.

Everywhere He reigns, and there He rules; there is His city, there is His high throne. Oh, happy the one He makes His citizen!”

And I to him: “Poet, I beg of you, in the name of God, that God you never knew, save me from this evil place and worse,

lead me there to the place you spoke about that I may see the gate Saint Peter guards and those whose anguish you have told me of. ”

Then he moved on, and I moved close behind him.

The day was fading and the darkening air was releasing all the creatures on our earth from their daily tasks, and I, one man alone,

was making ready to endure the battle of the journey, and of the pity it involved, which my memory, unerring, shall now retrace.

O Muses! O high genius! Help me now! O memory that wrote down what I saw, here your true excellence shall be revealed!

Then I began: “O poet come to guide me, tell me if you think my worth sufficient before you trust me to this arduous road.

You wrote about young Sylvius’s father, who went beyond, with flesh corruptible, with all his senses, to the immortal realm;

but if the Adversary of all evil was kind to him, considering who he was, and the consequence that was to come from him,

this cannot seem, to thoughtful men, unfitting, for in the highest heaven he was chosen father of glorious Rome and of her empire,

and both the city and her lands, in truth, were established as the place of holiness where the successors of great Peter sit.

And from this journey you celebrate in verse, Aeneas learned those things that were to bring victory for him, and for Rome, the Papal seat;

then later the Chosen Vessel, Paul, ascended to ring back confirmation of that faith which is the first step on salvation’s road.

But why am I to go? Who allows me to?
I
am not Aeneas, I am not Paul, neither I nor any man would think me worthy;

and so, if I should undertake the journey, I fear it might turn out an act of folly— you are wise, you see more than my words express. ”

As one who unwills what he willed, will change his purpose with some new second thought, completely quitting what he first had started,

so I did, standing there on that dark slope, thinking, ending the beginning of that venture I was so quick to take up at the start.

“If I have truly understood your words, ” that shade of magnanimity replied, “your soul is burdened with that cowardice

which often weighs so heavily on man, it turns him from a noble enterprise like a frightened beast that shies at its own shadow.

To free you from this fear, let me explain the reason I came here, the words I heard that first time I felt pity for your soul:

I was among those dead who are suspended, when a lady summoned me. She was so blessed and beautiful, I implored her to command me.

With eyes of light more bright than any star, in low, soft tones she started to address me in her own language, with an angel’s voice:

’O noble soul, courteous Mantuan, whose fame the world continues to preserve and will preserve as long as world there is,

my friend, who is no friend of Fortune’s, strays on a desert slope; so many obstacles have crossed his path, his fright has turned him back

I fear he may have gone so far astray, from what report has come to me in Heaven, that I may have started to his aid too late.

Now go, and with your elegance of speech, with whatever may be needed for his freedom, give him your help, and thereby bring me solace.

I am Beatrice, who urges you to go; I come from the place I am longing to return to; love moved me, as it moves me now to speak.

When I return to stand before my Lord, often I shall sing your praises to Him. ’ And then she spoke no more. And I began,

’O Lady of Grace, through whom alone mankind may go beyond all worldly things contained within the sphere that makes the smallest round,

your plea fills me with happy eagerness— to have obeyed already would still seem late! You needed only to express your wish.

But tell me how you dared to make this journey all the way down to this point of spacelessness, away from your spacious home that calls you back. ’

’Because your question searches for deep meaning, I shall explain in simple words, ’ she said, ’just why I have no fear of coming here.

A man must stand in fear of just those things that truly have the power to do us harm, of nothing else, for nothing else is fearsome.

God gave me such a nature through His Grace, the torments you must bear cannot affect me, nor are the fires of Hell a threat to me.

A gracious lady sits in Heaven grieving for what happened to the one I send you to, and her compassion breaks Heaven’s stern decree.

She called Lucia and making her request, she said, “Your faithful one is now in need of you, and to you I now commend his soul. ”

Lucia, the enemy of cruelty, hastened to make her way to where I was, sitting by the side of ancient Rachel,

and said to me: “Beatrice, God’s true praise, will you not help the one whose love was such it made him leave the vulgar crowd for you?

Do you not hear the pity of his weeping, do you not see what death it is that threatens him along that river the sea shall never conquer?”

There never was a wordly person living more anxious to promote his selfish gains than I was at the sound of words like these—

to leave my holy seat and come down here and place my trust in you, in your noble speech that honors you and all those who have heard it!’

When she had finished reasoning, she turned her shining eyes away, and there were tears. How eager then I was to come to you!

And I have come to you just as she wished, and I have freed you from the beast that stood blocking the quick way up the mount of bliss.

So what is wrong? Why, why do you delay? Why are you such a coward in your heart, why aren’t you bold and free of all your fear,

when three such gracious ladies, who are blessed, watch out for you up there in Heaven’s court, and my words, too, bring promise of such good?”

As little flowers from the frosty night are closed and limp, and when the sun shines down on them, they rise to open on their stem,

my wilted strength began to bloom within me, and such warm courage flowed into my heart that I spoke like a man set free of fear.

“O she, compassionate, who moved to help me! And you, all kindness, in obeying quick those words of truth she brought with her for you—

you and the words you spoke have moved my heart with such desire to continue onward that now I have returned to my first purpose.

Let us start, for both our wills, joined now, are one. You are my guide, you are my lord and teacher. ” These were my words to him and, when he moved,

I entered on that deep and rugged road.

I AM THE WAY INTO THE DOLEFUL CITY,
I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL GRIEF,
I AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN RACE.

JUSTICE IT WAS THAT MOVED MY GREAT CREATOR;
DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE CREATED ME,
AND HIGHEST WISDOM JOINED WITH PRIMAL LOVE.

BEFORE ME NOTHING BUT ETERNAL THINGS
WERE MADE, AND I SHALL LAST ETERNALLY.
ABANDON EVERY HOPE, ALL YOU WHO ENTER.

I saw these words spelled out in somber colors inscribed along the ledge above a gate; “Master, ” I said, “these words I see are cruel. ”

He answered me, speaking with experience: “Now here you must leave all distrust behind; let all your cowardice die on this spot.

We are at the place where earlier I said you could expect to see the suffering race of souls who lost the good of intellect. ”

Placing his hand on mine, smiling at me in such a way that I was reassured, he led me in, into those mysteries.

Here sighs and cries and shrieks of lamentation echoed throughout the starless air of Hell; at first these sounds resounding made me weep: