第 23 节
作者:辛苦      更新:2021-02-20 05:04      字数:9321
  That if thou rightfully of him complain;
  In knowing who ye are; and his transgression;
  I in the world above repay thee for it;
  If that wherewith I speak be not dried up。〃
  Inferno: Canto XXXIII
  His mouth uplifted from his grim repast;
  That sinner; wiping it upon the hair
  Of the same head that he behind had wasted。
  Then he began: 〃Thou wilt that I renew
  The desperate grief; which wrings my heart already
  To think of only; ere I speak of it;
  But if my words be seed that may bear fruit
  Of infamy to the traitor whom I gnaw;
  Speaking and weeping shalt thou see together。
  I know not who thou art; nor by what mode
  Thou hast come down here; but a Florentine
  Thou seemest to me truly; when I hear thee。
  Thou hast to know I was Count Ugolino;
  And this one was Ruggieri the Archbishop;
  Now I will tell thee why I am such a neighbour。
  That; by effect of his malicious thoughts;
  Trusting in him I was made prisoner;
  And after put to death; I need not say;
  But ne'ertheless what thou canst not have heard;
  That is to say; how cruel was my death;
  Hear shalt thou; and shalt know if he has wronged me。
  A narrow perforation in the mew;
  Which bears because of me the title of Famine;
  And in which others still must be locked up;
  Had shown me through its opening many moons
  Already; when I dreamed the evil dream
  Which of the future rent for me the veil。
  This one appeared to me as lord and master;
  Hunting the wolf and whelps upon the mountain
  For which the Pisans cannot Lucca see。
  With sleuth…hounds gaunt; and eager; and well trained;
  Gualandi with Sismondi and Lanfianchi
  He had sent out before him to the front。
  After brief course seemed unto me forespent
  The father and the sons; and with sharp tushes
  It seemed to me I saw their flanks ripped open。
  When I before the morrow was awake;
  Moaning amid their sleep I heard my sons
  Who with me were; and asking after bread。
  Cruel indeed art thou; if yet thou grieve not;
  Thinking of what my heart foreboded me;
  And weep'st thou not; what art thou wont to weep at?
  They were awake now; and the hour drew nigh
  At which our food used to be brought to us;
  And through his dream was each one apprehensive;
  And I heard locking up the under door
  Of the horrible tower; whereat without a word
  I gazed into the faces of my sons。
  I wept not; I within so turned to stone;
  They wept; and darling little Anselm mine
  Said: 'Thou dost gaze so; father; what doth ail thee?'
  Still not a tear I shed; nor answer made
  All of that day; nor yet the night thereafter;
  Until another sun rose on the world。
  As now a little glimmer made its way
  Into the dolorous prison; and I saw
  Upon four faces my own very aspect;
  Both of my hands in agony I bit;
  And; thinking that I did it from desire
  Of eating; on a sudden they uprose;
  And said they: 'Father; much less pain 'twill give us
  If thou do eat of us; thyself didst clothe us
  With this poor flesh; and do thou strip it off。'
  I calmed me then; not to make them more sad。
  That day we all were silent; and the next。
  Ah! obdurate earth; wherefore didst thou not open?
  When we had come unto the fourth day; Gaddo
  Threw himself down outstretched before my feet;
  Saying; 'My father; why dost thou not help me?'
  And there he died; and; as thou seest me;
  I saw the three fall; one by one; between
  The fifth day and the sixth; whence I betook me;
  Already blind; to groping over each;
  And three days called them after they were dead;
  Then hunger did what sorrow could not do。〃
  When he had said this; with his eyes distorted;
  The wretched skull resumed he with his teeth;
  Which; as a dog's; upon the bone were strong。
  Ah! Pisa; thou opprobrium of the people
  Of the fair land there where the 'Si' doth sound;
  Since slow to punish thee thy neighbours are;
  Let the Capraia and Gorgona move;
  And make a hedge across the mouth of Arno
  That every person in thee it may drown!
  For if Count Ugolino had the fame
  Of having in thy castles thee betrayed;
  Thou shouldst not on such cross have put his sons。
  Guiltless of any crime; thou modern Thebes!
  Their youth made Uguccione and Brigata;
  And the other two my song doth name above!
  We passed still farther onward; where the ice
  Another people ruggedly enswathes;
  Not downward turned; but all of them reversed。
  Weeping itself there does not let them weep;
  And grief that finds a barrier in the eyes
  Turns itself inward to increase the anguish;
  Because the earliest tears a cluster form;
  And; in the manner of a crystal visor;
  Fill all the cup beneath the eyebrow full。
  And notwithstanding that; as in a callus;
  Because of cold all sensibility
  Its station had abandoned in my face;
  Still it appeared to me I felt some wind;
  Whence I: 〃My Master; who sets this in motion?
  Is not below here every vapour quenched?〃
  Whence he to me: 〃Full soon shalt thou be where
  Thine eye shall answer make to thee of this;
  Seeing the cause which raineth down the blast。〃
  And one of the wretches of the frozen crust
  Cried out to us: 〃O souls so merciless
  That the last post is given unto you;
  Lift from mine eyes the rigid veils; that I
  May vent the sorrow which impregns my heart
  A little; e'er the weeping recongeal。〃
  Whence I to him: 〃If thou wouldst have me help thee
  Say who thou wast; and if I free thee not;
  May I go to the bottom of the ice。〃
  Then he replied: 〃I am Friar Alberigo;
  He am I of the fruit of the bad garden;
  Who here a date am getting for my fig。〃
  〃O;〃 said I to him; 〃now art thou; too; dead?〃
  And he to me: 〃How may my body fare
  Up in the world; no knowledge I possess。
  Such an advantage has this Ptolomaea;
  That oftentimes the soul descendeth here
  Sooner than Atropos in motion sets it。
  And; that thou mayest more willingly remove
  From off my countenance these glassy tears;
  Know that as soon as any soul betrays
  As I have done; his body by a demon
  Is taken from him; who thereafter rules it;
  Until his time has wholly been revolved。
  Itself down rushes into such a cistern;
  And still perchance above appears the body
  Of yonder shade; that winters here behind me。
  This thou shouldst know; if thou hast just come down;
  It is Ser Branca d' Oria; and many years
  Have passed away since he was thus locked up。〃
  〃I think;〃 said I to him; 〃thou dost deceive me;
  For Branca d' Oria is not dead as yet;
  And eats; and drinks; and sleeps; and puts on clothes。〃
  〃In moat above;〃 said he; 〃of Malebranche;
  There where is boiling the tenacious pitch;
  As yet had Michel Zanche not arrived;
  When this one left a devil in his stead
  In his own body and one near of kin;
  Who made together with him the betrayal。
  But hitherward stretch out thy hand forthwith;
  Open mine eyes;〃and open them I did not;
  And to be rude to him was courtesy。
  Ah; Genoese! ye men at variance
  With every virtue; full of every vice
  Wherefore are ye not scattered from the world?
  For with the vilest spirit of Romagna
  I found of you one such; who for his deeds
  In soul already in Cocytus bathes;
  And still above in body seems alive!
  Inferno: Canto XXXIV
  〃'Vexilla Regis prodeunt Inferni'
  Towards us; therefore look in front of thee;〃
  My Master said; 〃if thou discernest him。〃
  As; when there breathes a heavy fog; or when
  Our hemisphere is darkening into night;
  Appears far off a mill the wind is turning;
  Methought that such a building then I saw;
  And; for the wind; I drew myself behind
  My Guide; because there was no other shelter。
  Now was I; and with fear in verse I put it;
  There where the shades were wholly covered up;
  And glimmered through like unto straws in glass。
  Some prone are lying; others stand erect;
  This with the head; and that one with the soles;
  Another; bow…like; face to feet inverts。
  When in advance so far we had proceeded;
  That it my Master pleased to show to me
  The creature who once had the beauteous semblance;
  He from before me moved and made me stop;
  Saying: 〃Behold Dis; and behold the place
  Where thou with fortitude must arm thyself。〃
  How frozen I became and powerless then;
  Ask it not; Reader; for I write it not;
  Because all language would be insufficient。
  I did not die; and I alive remained not;
  Think for thyself now; hast thou aught of wit;
  What I became; being of both deprived。
  The Emperor of the kingdom dolorous
  From his mid…breast forth issued from the ice;
  And better with a giant I compare
  Than do the giants with those arms of his;
  Consider now how great must be that whole;
  Which unto such a part conforms itself。
  Were he as fair once; as he now is foul;
  And lifted up his brow against his Maker;
  Well may proceed from him all tribulation。
  O; what a marvel it appeared to me;
  When I beheld three faces on his head!
  The one in front; and that vermilion was;
  Two were the others; that were joined with this
  Above the middle part of either shoulder;
  And they were joined together at the crest;