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| Centaurs, by Gustave Doré |
The place
where we’d descend into the void
was alpine,
and from what was on the bank,
was such a
place that all eyes would avoid.
4 As is that
ruin which struck into the flank
of the
Adige on this side of Trent, because
of
earthquakes or eroding struts, which sank
7 from off the
mountaintop, from which it budged,
down to the
plain and crumbled in a heap,
and thus
provides a path for those above:
10 so too was
the descent of that ravine;
and on the
brink of the broken crevasse,
sprawling
out, was the infamy of Crete,
13 which was conceived
in the false cow; and as
he saw us
standing there, he bit himself,
like one
whose inner anger makes him crack.
16 “Perhaps,” my
sage in his direction yelled,
“you
believe this is the Duke of Athens here,
who brought
you to your death in the upper realm?
19 Begone, beast,
for he hasn’t come down here
with his
instructions from your sister, but
to see your
punishments he goes through here.”
22 As is that
bull which breaks loose when he’s just
in that
moment received the mortal blow,
who cannot
go, but back and forth he bucks,
25 I saw the
Minotaur do even so;
and the
shrewd guide yelled: “Run to the pass, run hard;
while he is
raging, you should scale below.”
28 So we picked
our way down through that discharge
of stones,
which often moved and wobbled under
my feet, by
the strange weight of this new charge.
31 I went pensively;
and he said: “You wonder
perhaps
about this ruin which is blockaded
by that
bestial wrath which I just smothered.
34 Now I would
have you know, on the first occasion
that I came
down here to the lower Inferno,
this rock
had not yet fallen and cascaded.
37 But surely
just before, if I discern well,
the coming
of the One to Dis who reaved
the great
plunder of the supernal circle,
40 upon all
sides the valley vile and deep
so
trembled, that I thought the universe had
felt love,
by which there are those who believe
43 that many
times the world has been converted
to chaos;
and at that point, these old boulders
made such a
downpour, here and elsewhere surging.
46 But fix your
eyes down there, for now comes closer
the river
of blood which boils in its draft
whoever by
violence does harm to others.”
49 Oh blind
cupidity and foolish wrath,
which spurs
us on so much in the short life,
and in the
eternal steeps us in this bath!
52 I saw an
ample moat in an arc, like
a bow that
was embracing all the plain,
exactly as
my guide had just described;
55 and between
this and the bank’s foot, in train
ran
centaurs, armed with bolts, as they were bowmen
in the
world above where they would hunt for game.
58 Seeing us
scaling down, each one stood frozen,
and three
departed from their troop, with bows
withdrawn and
with prime shafts already chosen;
61 and one
yelled from a distance: “To what woe
are you two
coming who descend the shore?
Speak from
right there; if not, I draw my bow.”
64 “We’ll
answer,” said my master in retort,
“to Chiron,
over there beside of him:
always so
hasty, that ill will of yours.”
67 And nudging
me: “That’s Nessus,” he said then,
“who died
for Deianira’s loveliness
and for
himself had wrought his own revenge.
70 And in the
middle, gazing at his chest,
is the
great Chiron, who once nurtured Achilles;
Pholus, who
was so full of wrath, is next.
73 Thousands and
thousands go round the moat, drilling
their bolts
in any soul that pulls its roots
out of the
blood more than its culpability
76 allots.” We came closer to those lithe brutes:
Chiron
seized an arrow, and with the notch
he pulled
his beard back to his jaw, to shoot.
79 When he had
bared his great mouth doing such,
he said to
his companions: “Do you see,
the one
behind moves anything he’s touched?
82 They’re not
inclined to do so…dead men’s feet.”
And my good
guide, already at his chest,
where his
two natures meet, part man, part beast,
85 replied: “Yes
he’s alive, and so it rests
on me alone
to show the vale of shade
to him;
need, not pleasure, compels our quest.
88 One singing
hallelujah slipped away
to pass
this novel office on to me:
he is no bandit,
and I’m no thieving shade.
91 But by that
Power by which I move my feet
through
such a savage road, give one of yours
to us, that
we may let him take the lead,
94 and who may
show us where to find a ford,
and who may
carry this one on his back,
for he’s no
spirit of the air who soars.”
97 Chiron turned
upon his right breast: “Turn back,”
he said to
Nessus, “and so, be their guide,
and ward
off other troops who block your path.”
100 Now we moved
along, with the loyal guide,
on the
shore of the vermillion boiling flood,
in which
the boiled screamed and made shrill cries.
103 I saw some to
their brows submerged in blood;
and the
great centaur said: “These are tyrants here
who plunged
their hands in pockets and in blood.
106 Here, for
their ruthless cruelties, they shed tears;
here’s
Alexander, and fierce Dionysius there,
who gave
Sicily many painful years.
109 That forehead
over there with such black hair
is
Ezzelino; and the other which is blond
is Obizzo
d’Este, who, I aver,
112 was smothered
in the world by his wife’s son.”
Then I
turned to the poet, and he said:
“He’ll now
be first, and I the second one.”
115 The centaur
paused a little more ahead,
above a
group who came up from within
that
boiling bloodspring only to their necks.
118 He showed us a
lone shade off on the fringe,
saying: “He
stabbed, in the bosom of God,
the heart
that still drips blood upon the Thames.”
121 Then I saw people
with their heads atop
the stream,
and even all their ribs afloat;
and out of
those, I recognized a lot.
124 Thus more and
more the blood grew shallow, so
that
farther on it simmered just the feet;
and through
there was our way across the moat.
127 “Just as it is
that from this side you see
the boiling
bloodspring constantly subsides,”
the centaur
said, “I want you to believe
130 that its bed
deepens on this other side,
more and
more, ‘til it overtakes itself
where
tyranny is made to groan and whine.
133 There, divine
justice stings Attila still,
who was a
scourge on earth, and Pyrrhus also,
and Sextus;
and eternally it milks
136 the tears that
the boiling frees from Rinier Pazzo,
from Rinier
da Corneto, who waged such war
upon the people
trafficking the highroads.”
139 Then he turned
back again, and crossed the ford.
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