60
and said: ‘Stand back and let me jab him,’
then turned to face my master:
‘Speak up, if you are eager to learn more,
63
before I let him have a mangling.’
And my leader: ‘Of the other sinners in the pitch, →
tell me, is anyone Italian?’
66
And he: ‘I just now came from one
‘who hailed from near those parts. I wish →
I still were with him in the pitch—
69
then I’d have no fear of hook or claw!’
Then Libicocco said: ‘This is just too much,’ →
caught him with his grapple by the arm
72
and, ripping, gouged out a hunk of flesh.
Draghignazzo, too, wanted to catch him up,
by the legs, at which their captain
75
wheeled round on them with an ugly look.
After their fury had subsided,
my leader seized this chance to ask
78
the one still staring at his wound:
‘Who is the one you mentioned, from whom
you parted so unwisely when you came ashore?’
81
And he replied: ‘It was Fra Gomìta →
‘of Gallura, a vessel full of fraud,
who had his master’s enemies in hand
84
but dealt with them so each one sings his praises.
‘He took their money and discreetly let them off,
as he himself admits. And in his other actions
87
he was no small-time swindler but a king.
’Don Michel Zanche of Logudoro →
keeps company with him and, when speaking
90
of Sardegna, their tongues are never weary.
‘Oh, look at that one there, gnashing his teeth!— →
I would say more, but I’m afraid that demon’s
93
getting set to give my mange a scratching.’
And the great marshal, turning to Farfarello,
who was rolling his eyes, ready to strike,
96
said: ‘Back off, you filthy bird!’
‘If you would care to see or hear,’ →
the emboldened spirit then began again,
99
‘Tuscans or Lombards, I can make some come.
‘But let the Malebranche stand away →
so that the sinners have no fear of vengeance,
102
and, keeping to my place right here,
‘for one of me, I will make seven come
if I whistle, as is our custom
105
when one of us pulls free out of the pitch.’
At this Cagnazzo lifted up his snout and said,
shaking his head: ‘Hear the cunning stunt
108
he has contrived to throw himself back in!’
And he, with artifice in store, replied:
‘I must indeed be cunning if I procure
111
still greater anguish for my friends.’
Alichino couldn’t stand this any more and said,
in opposition to the others: ‘If you dive
114
back in I won’t pursue you on the run—
‘oh no! I’ll beat my wings above the pitch.
Let’s leave the ridge and hide behind the bank.
117
We’ll see if you alone can take us on.’
Now, reader, you shall hear strange sport.
All turned their backs to where the sinner stood,
120
he first who’d most opposed the plan.
The Navarrese chose his moment well,
planted his feet and in a second
123
leaped and escaped from their designs.
At this they all were angry at their blunder, →
but most of all the one whose fault it was,
126
so that he darted up and cried: ‘Now you are caught!’
It did him little good, for even wings
could not catch up with terror: the sinner dove
129
and the devil turned up his breast in flight,
just as the wild duck, when the falcon nears,
dives for the bottom, and the bird of prey
132
must fly back up, angry and outsmarted.
Calcabrina, furious at this trick,
was winging close behind him, eager for the sinner
135
to break away as an excuse to scuffle,
and, since the barrator had vanished,
he turned his claws against his fellow
138
and came to grips with him above the ditch.
But the other was indeed a full-fledged hawk,
fierce with his talons, and the pair of them
141
went tumbling down into the scalding pond.
The heat unclutched them in a moment,
but they had so beglued their wings
144
there was no way to rise above the pitch.
Barbariccia, lamenting with the rest, →
had four of them fly to the other bank,
147
each with his hook in hand, and in no time
on this side and on that they clambered down
to their posts, reaching out their grapples
to the pitch-trapped pair, already cooked to a crust.
151
And that is how we left them in that broil. →
OUTLINE: INFERNO XXIII
1–3
Virgil and Dante continue, walking as Franciscans do
4–9
Aesopic second-thoughts on the preceding scene
10–12
simile: one thought springing from another
13–18
Dante’s reflection on his present condition
19–24
his resultant request to Virgil that they hide
25–33
Virgil’s plan to escape into the next bolgia
34–36
the Malebranche are back in force
37–51
similes: mother escaping with babe; water through sluice (Virgil seizes Dante and carries him)
52–57
view of the Malebranche from floor of sixth bolgia
58–67
the hypocrites in their gilded leaden cloaks
68–75
Dante hopes Virgil will find a being familiar to him
76–93
Dante’s Tuscan speech catches the interest of two
94–99
Dante explains his origin and condition and asks of their identities and punishment
100–108
Catalano identifies Loderingo and responds
109–110
Dante’s interrupted apostrophe of evil friars
111–123
Caiaphas and Catalano’s gloss on him
124–126
Virgil’s wonderment at Caiaphas
127–132
Virgil asks Catalano for directions
133–138
Catalano reveals what Malacoda concealed
139–144
Virgil’s response and Catalano’s rejoinder
145–148
Virgil, in some anger, departs, with Dante following
INFERNO XXIII
Silent, alone, and unescorted →
we went on, one in front, the other following,
3
as Friars Minor walk along the roads.
The brawl played out before our eyes →
put me in mind of Aesop’s fable
6
in which he told the tale of frog and mouse,
for ‘issa’ and ‘mo’ are not more like in meaning
than one
case and the other, if we compare
9
with circumspection their beginnings and their ends.
Just as one thought issues from another,
so, from the first, another now was born
12
that made me twice as fearful as before.
I thought, ’It’s our fault they have been cheated,
and with such hurt and shame
15
I’m sure it must enrage them.
‘If rage is added to their malice,
they will pursue us still more cruelly
18
than the hound that sets his fangs into a hare.’
I could feel my scalp go taut with fear →
and kept my thoughts fixed just behind me
21
as I spoke: ‘Master, can’t you quickly
‘hide yourself and me? I am in terror
of the Malebranche; I sense them there behind us,
24
imagine them so clear I almost hear them.’
And he: ‘If I were made of leaded glass →
I could not reflect your outward likeness
27
in less time than I grasp the one inside you.
’Just now your thought commingled with my own,
alike in attitude and aspect,
30
so that of both I’ve formed a single plan.
‘If the slope there to the right allows us
to make our way into the other ditch,
33
we shall escape the chase we both envision.’
Before he finished telling me his plan →
I saw them coming, wings outspread,
36
closing in to catch us.
My leader in a moment snatched me up, →
like a mother who, awakened by the hubbub
39
before she sees the flames that burn right near her,
snatches up her child and flees,
and, more concerned for him than for herself,
42
does not delay to put a shift on.
Down from the rim of that stony bank,
supine, he slid along the sloping rock
45
that forms one border of the next crevasse.
Never did water, as it nears the paddles, →
rush down along the sluices
48
cut through earth to turn a millwheel
more swiftly than my master down that bank,
bearing me along clasped to his breast
51
as if I were his child, not his companion.
No sooner had he touched the bottom with his feet →
than the devils were above us on the ridge.
54
Yet now we had no cause for feeling fear,
for high Providence, which made them
wardens of the fifth crevasse,
57
deprives them of the power to leave it.
Down there we came upon a lacquered people →
who made their round, in tears, with listless steps.
60
They seemed both weary and defeated.
The cloaks they wore cut like the capes →
sewn for the monks at Cluny,
63
had cowls that hung down past their eyes.
Gilded and dazzling on the outside, →
within they are of lead, so ponderous
66
that those imposed by Frederick would seem but straw. →
Oh what a toilsome cloak to wear forever!
Once more we turned to the left, then went along
69
beside them, intent upon their wretched wailing.
Their burden made that weary people
move so slowly we had new companions
72
each time we set one foot before the other.
And I said to my leader: ‘Cast your eyes
this way and that as we walk on.
75
See if you know the names or deeds of any.’
And one of them, having heard my Tuscan speech, →
cried out behind us: ‘Stay your feet,
78
you who hasten through this sullen air.
‘I perhaps can answer what you asked.’
At that my leader turned around to say:
81
‘Wait a moment, then continue at his pace.’
I stopped and noticed two whose looks
showed haste of mind to reach me,
84
but their load and the narrow way detained them.
When they came near they looked at me askance
for a while, without uttering a word,
87
until they turned to one another, saying:
‘The way his throat moves, this one must be alive.
And if they are dead, what gives them the right
90
to go uncovered by the heavy stole?’
and then to me: ‘O Tuscan, who have come
to this assembly of sad hypocrites, →
93
do not disdain to tell us who you are.’
‘In the great city, by the fair river Arno,’
I said to them, ’I was born and raised,
96
and I am here in the body that was always mine.
‘But who are you in whom I see distilled
the misery running down your cheeks in tears?
99
And one of them answered: ‘Our golden cloaks
are made of lead, and they’re so dense,
102
like scales we creak beneath their weight. →
‘We were Jovial Friars, born in Bologna. →
My name was Catalano, his, Loderingo. →
105
Your city made the two of us a pair,
‘where usually a single man was chosen,
to keep the peace within, and we were such
108
that all around Gardingo the ruins can be seen.’
I began: ‘O Friars, your evil deeds …’ →
but said no more, for one there caught my eye, →
111
fixed cross-wise to the ground by three short stakes.
Seeing me, he writhed all over,
blowing sighs into his beard,
114
and Fra Catalano, observing this, said:
‘That man you see nailed down
advised the Pharisees it was the better course
117
that one man should be martyred for the people.
’He is stretched out naked, as you see, →
across the path. It is his lot to feel
120
the weight of each who passes.
‘Just so his father-in-law is racked with us →
down here and with the others of the council
123
that was a seed of evil for the Jews.’
I saw that Virgil marveled at the sight →
of this shape stretched as on a cross,
126
so ignoble in his eternal exile.
Then he addressed the friar with these words:
‘May it please you, if it is permitted,
129
to say if on our right there is a passage
‘by which we two might leave this place
without requiring help from some black angels →
132
to pluck us from these depths.’
And he replied: ’Nearer than you hope there lies →
a rocky ridge that crosses all the savage valleys
135
from the farthest circle inward.
‘It has fallen only here and fails to reach across.
You can clamber up the sloping rubble
138
that lies upon the bottom a
nd piles up along the side.’
My leader stood a while, his head bent down, then said:
‘He who rips the sinners in the other ditch
141
misled us in his picture of this place.’
And the friar: ‘At one time in Bologna I heard tell →
of the Devil’s many vices, and I heard
144
he is a liar and the father of all lies.’
At that my leader stalked off with long strides, →
a moment’s look of anger on his face.
And so I left those overburdened souls
148
to follow in the imprints of his cherished feet.
OUTLINE: INFERNO XXIV
1–21
the elaborate opening simile: peasant and hoarfrost
22–24
Virgil, back and prudently calculating, embraces Dante
25–30
simile: a provident man
31–42
the difficult ascent out of the sixth bolgia
43–45
Dante’s arrival and temporary repose
46–57
Virgil urges Dante upward and onward
58–60
Dante’s forced assurances of his readiness
61–63
along the ridge over the seventh bolgia
64–69
Dante’s curiosity about a voice from below
70–78
his desire to find its source and Virgil’s assent
79–81
over the bridge to the edge of the eighth bolgia and a closer look into the seventh
82–96
the serpents and the sinners
97–111
“death and resurrection” of Vanni Fucci
112–118
simile: a man possessed or in epileptic fit
119–120
exclamation of the poet: God’s power