HELL. Данте АлигьериЧитать онлайн книгу.
louder, wheeled like starlings in their flight,
screaming onwards like cranes hopeless of rest 40
or lesser pains. “Master,” cried I, “name some
so mercilessly whipped by this dark air.”
He said, “There’s one whose history you know – 43
wife of a king who made her empress queen
of all the lands now ruled by the Sultan.
Her sexual appetites were so obscene 46
she legalised all kinds of viciousness.
Her name is Semiramis. Dido there
49 swore she would only wed one man. Him dead,
she took instead another mate and then
committed suicide when he escaped –
52 Helen of Troy, so opportunely raped –
Cleopatra whose expertise in love
was legend – see too the many men –
55 Paris – Achilles – Tristan – Lancelot—”
He pointed out so many souls condemned
for fleshly lust, it filled me with dismay
58 to see such noble people led astray
by love that ought to be our greatest joy.
“Poet,” I said, “let me talk with that pair
61 who seem more gently carried by the air.”
Said he, “If they come near enough to hear
Invite them by the love they clearly share.”
64 The wind now tossed them close. “O harried souls,”
I cried, “if none forbid, please talk to me!”
Like homing doves they glided to my side.
67 One said, “Dear good and kindly living soul
who frees us briefly from our storm-tossed state,
if we could pray we’d pray that you find rest –
70 that blessed rest that cannot be our fate.
The only way to show our gratitude
for these few moments out of whirling Hell
73 is telling you all that you wish to know.
My birthplace was a town where River Po
enters the sea. I married lovelessly
a hard old man. His brother at my side 76
whom I love still, had youth and gentleness.
As he enjoyed my body we were found
and slain. Our killer’s place in Hell will be 79
among the murderers who followed Cain.”
Sighing, I bowed my head. My guide enquired,
“What thought distresses you?” “Sorrow for youth 82
and what befalls youth’s sweetness,”
I replied, “Francesca, please believe I pity you,
but tell me what occurred that led you to 85
the deed you knew was sin.”
“Worst grief,” said she,
“is happiness recalled in misery.
Your master knows this well and if you need 88
to understand, I’ll tell as you command.
To pass an idle hour one afternoon
we chanced to read of how Sir Lancelot 91
was overcome by love of Guinevere.
This youth who never shall depart from me
trembling all over, dared to kiss my mouth. 94
That book seduced us. There’s no more to say
except, of course, we read no more that day.”
She wept. The other spirit wept – me too. 97
The three of us shed tears without restraint.
Because I could not give them any help
I clutched my head and fell down in a faint. 100
6: Cerberus. Doom of Gluttons
1 Returning to my senses once again
from sorrow that confused them utterly,
I saw a different multitude in pain,
4 not reeling, writhing, spirits spinning round,
but corpulences stuck in muddy ground
under a freezing hard unending rain
7 of filthy water, hailstones, blasts of snow
descending through a murkiness of fog
to make the earth below a stinking bog
10 from which the sunken souls halfway protrude.
Across this mire prowls a rude vicious beast
three-headed, each head howling like a dog.
13 His name is Cerberus, his eyes blood-red,
black hair and beards befouled by greasy phlegm,
his belly gross, each paw with knife-like claws
16 that stab and rip sinners they prance upon,
who also howl like dogs. They cannot stop
squirming to turn their downside up again
19 to shield their upside from the dreadful rain.
Cerberus, glaring on us, snarled and showed
three pairs of open jaws with dragon fangs,
his body twitching, bristled to attack. 22
My guide stooped swiftly, scooped up blood-rich mud,
then accurately flung a handful down
each throat. Howling and snarling stopped at once. 25
Like hungry hound gorging on juicy bone
he left the damned alone as we moved on
across the swamp where footsteps often sank 28
down through a groaning ghost to mud below.
Then one, twisting half up beside our way
cried out, “O Dante, surely you know me? 31