第 20 节
作者:辛苦      更新:2021-02-20 05:04      字数:9322
  So that the blood made horrible his face;
  Cried out: 〃Thou shalt remember Mosca also;
  Who said; alas! 'A thing done has an end!'
  Which was an ill seed for the Tuscan people。〃
  〃And death unto thy race;〃 thereto I added;
  Whence he; accumulating woe on woe;
  Departed; like a person sad and crazed。
  But I remained to look upon the crowd;
  And saw a thing which I should be afraid;
  Without some further proof; even to recount;
  If it were not that conscience reassures me;
  That good companion which emboldens man
  Beneath the hauberk of its feeling pure。
  I truly saw; and still I seem to see it;
  A trunk without a head walk in like manner
  As walked the others of the mournful herd。
  And by the hair it held the head dissevered;
  Hung from the hand in fashion of a lantern;
  And that upon us gazed and said: 〃O me!〃
  It of itself made to itself a lamp;
  And they were two in one; and one in two;
  How that can be; He knows who so ordains it。
  When it was come close to the bridge's foot;
  It lifted high its arm with all the head;
  To bring more closely unto us its words;
  Which were: 〃Behold now the sore penalty;
  Thou; who dost breathing go the dead beholding;
  Behold if any be as great as this。
  And so that thou may carry news of me;
  Know that Bertram de Born am I; the same
  Who gave to the Young King the evil comfort。
  I made the father and the son rebellious;
  Achitophel not more with Absalom
  And David did with his accursed goadings。
  Because I parted persons so united;
  Parted do I now bear my brain; alas!
  From its beginning; which is in this trunk。
  Thus is observed in me the counterpoise。〃
  Inferno: Canto XXIX
  The many people and the divers wounds
  These eyes of mine had so inebriated;
  That they were wishful to stand still and weep;
  But said Virgilius: 〃What dost thou still gaze at?
  Why is thy sight still riveted down there
  Among the mournful; mutilated shades?
  Thou hast not done so at the other Bolge;
  Consider; if to count them thou believest;
  That two…and…twenty miles the valley winds;
  And now the moon is underneath our feet;
  Henceforth the time allotted us is brief;
  And more is to be seen than what thou seest。〃
  〃If thou hadst;〃 I made answer thereupon;
  〃Attended to the cause for which I looked;
  Perhaps a longer stay thou wouldst have pardoned。〃
  Meanwhile my Guide departed; and behind him
  I went; already making my reply;
  And superadding: 〃In that cavern where
  I held mine eyes with such attention fixed;
  I think a spirit of my blood laments
  The sin which down below there costs so much。〃
  Then said the Master: 〃Be no longer broken
  Thy thought from this time forward upon him;
  Attend elsewhere; and there let him remain;
  For him I saw below the little bridge;
  Pointing at thee; and threatening with his finger
  Fiercely; and heard him called Geri del Bello。
  So wholly at that time wast thou impeded
  By him who formerly held Altaforte;
  Thou didst not look that way; so he departed。〃
  〃O my Conductor; his own violent death;
  Which is not yet avenged for him;〃 I said;
  〃By any who is sharer in the shame;
  Made him disdainful; whence he went away;
  As I imagine; without speaking to me;
  And thereby made me pity him the more。〃
  Thus did we speak as far as the first place
  Upon the crag; which the next valley shows
  Down to the bottom; if there were more light。
  When we were now right over the last cloister
  Of Malebolge; so that its lay…brothers
  Could manifest themselves unto our sight;
  Divers lamentings pierced me through and through;
  Which with compassion had their arrows barbed;
  Whereat mine ears I covered with my hands。
  What pain would be; if from the hospitals
  Of Valdichiana; 'twixt July and September;
  And of Maremma and Sardinia
  All the diseases in one moat were gathered;
  Such was it here; and such a stench came from it
  As from putrescent limbs is wont to issue。
  We had descended on the furthest bank
  From the long crag; upon the left hand still;
  And then more vivid was my power of sight
  Down tow'rds the bottom; where the ministress
  Of the high Lord; Justice infallible;
  Punishes forgers; which she here records。
  I do not think a sadder sight to see
  Was in Aegina the whole people sick;
  (When was the air so full of pestilence;
  The animals; down to the little worm;
  All fell; and afterwards the ancient people;
  According as the poets have affirmed;
  Were from the seed of ants restored again;)
  Than was it to behold through that dark valley
  The spirits languishing in divers heaps。
  This on the belly; that upon the back
  One of the other lay; and others crawling
  Shifted themselves along the dismal road。
  We step by step went onward without speech;
  Gazing upon and listening to the sick
  Who had not strength enough to lift their bodies。
  I saw two sitting leaned against each other;
  As leans in heating platter against platter;
  From head to foot bespotted o'er with scabs;
  And never saw I plied a currycomb
  By stable…boy for whom his master waits;
  Or him who keeps awake unwillingly;
  As every one was plying fast the bite
  Of nails upon himself; for the great rage
  Of itching which no other succour had。
  And the nails downward with them dragged the scab;
  In fashion as a knife the scales of bream;
  Or any other fish that has them largest。
  〃O thou; that with thy fingers dost dismail thee;〃
  Began my Leader unto one of them;
  〃And makest of them pincers now and then;
  Tell me if any Latian is with those
  Who are herein; so may thy nails suffice thee
  To all eternity unto this work。〃
  〃Latians are we; whom thou so wasted seest;
  Both of us here;〃 one weeping made reply;
  〃But who art thou; that questionest about us?〃
  And said the Guide: 〃One am I who descends
  Down with this living man from cliff to cliff;
  And I intend to show Hell unto him。〃
  Then broken was their mutual support;
  And trembling each one turned himself to me;
  With others who had heard him by rebound。
  Wholly to me did the good Master gather;
  Saying: 〃Say unto them whate'er thou wishest。〃
  And I began; since he would have it so:
  〃So may your memory not steal away
  In the first world from out the minds of men;
  But so may it survive 'neath many suns;
  Say to me who ye are; and of what people;
  Let not your foul and loathsome punishment
  Make you afraid to show yourselves to me。〃
  〃I of Arezzo was;〃 one made reply;
  〃And Albert of Siena had me burned;
  But what I died for does not bring me here。
  'Tis true I said to him; speaking in jest;
  That I could rise by flight into the air;
  And he who had conceit; but little wit;
  Would have me show to him the art; and only
  Because no Daedalus I made him; made me
  Be burned by one who held him as his son。
  But unto the last Bolgia of the ten;
  For alchemy; which in the world I practised;
  Minos; who cannot err; has me condemned。〃
  And to the Poet said I: 〃Now was ever
  So vain a people as the Sienese?
  Not for a certainty the French by far。〃
  Whereat the other leper; who had heard me;
  Replied unto my speech: 〃Taking out Stricca;
  Who knew the art of moderate expenses;
  And Niccolo; who the luxurious use
  Of cloves discovered earliest of all
  Within that garden where such seed takes root;
  And taking out the band; among whom squandered
  Caccia d'Ascian his vineyards and vast woods;
  And where his wit the Abbagliato proffered!
  But; that thou know who thus doth second thee
  Against the Sienese; make sharp thine eye
  Tow'rds me; so that my face well answer thee;
  And thou shalt see I am Capocchio's shade;
  Who metals falsified by alchemy;
  Thou must remember; if I well descry thee;
  How I a skilful ape of nature was。〃
  Inferno: Canto XXX
  'Twas at the time when Juno was enraged;
  For Semele; against the Theban blood;
  As she already more than once had shown;
  So reft of reason Athamas became;
  That; seeing his own wife with children twain
  Walking encumbered upon either hand;
  He cried: 〃Spread out the nets; that I may take
  The lioness and her whelps upon the passage;〃
  And then extended his unpitying claws;
  Seizing the first; who had the name Learchus;
  And whirled him round; and dashed him on a rock;
  And she; with the other burthen; drowned herself;
  And at the time when fortune downward hurled
  The Trojan's arrogance; that all things dared;
  So that the king was with his kingdom crushed;
  Hecuba sad; disconsolate; and captive;
  When lifeless she beheld Polyxena;
  And of her Polydorus on the shore
  Of ocean was the dolorous one aware;
  Out of her senses like a dog she barked;
  So much the anguish had her mind distorted;
  But not of Thebes the furies nor the Trojan
  Were ever seen in any one so cruel
  In goading beasts; and much more human members;
  As I beheld two shadows pale and naked;
  Who; biting; in the manner ran along
  That a boar does; when from the sty turned loose。
  One to Capocchio came; and by the nape
  Seized with its teeth his neck; so that in dragging
  It ma