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(2) "What is that, Father sweet, from which I cannot So fully screen my sight that it avail me," Said I, "and seems towards us to be moving?" "Marvel thou not, if dazzle thee as yet The family of heaven," he answered me; "An angel 'tis, who comes to invite us upward. Soon will it be, that to behold these things Shall not be grievous, but delightful to thee As much as nature fashioned thee to feel." When we had reached the Angel benedight, With joyful voice he said: "Here enter in To stairway far less steep than are the others." We mounting were, already thence departed, And "Beati misericordes" was Behind us sung, "Rejoice, thou that o'ercomest!" My Master and myself, we two alone Were going upward, and I thought, in going, Some profit to acquire from words of his; And I to him directed me, thus asking: "What did the spirit of Romagna mean, Mentioning interdict and partnership?" Whence he to me: "Of his own greatest failing He knows the harm; and therefore wonder not If he reprove us, that we less may rue it.

(4) "Adhaesit pavimento anima mea," I heard them say with sighings so profound, That hardly could the words be understood. "O ye elect of God, whose sufferings Justice and Hope both render less severe, Direct ye us towards the high ascents." "If ye are come secure from this prostration, And wish to find the way most speedily, Let your right hands be evermore outside." Thus did the Poet ask, and thus was answered By them somewhat in front of us; whence I In what was spoken divined the rest concealed, And unto my Lord's eyes mine eyes I turned; Whence he assented with a cheerful sign To what the sight of my desire implored. When of myself I could dispose at will, Above that creature did I draw myself, Whose words before had caused me to take note, Saying: "O Spirit, in whom weeping ripens That without which to God we cannot turn, Suspend awhile for me thy greater care. Who wast thou, and why are your backs turned upwards, Tell me, and if thou wouldst that I procure thee Anything there whence living I departed."

(3) He moved his pinions afterwards and fanned us, Affirming those 'qui lugent' to be blessed, For they shall have their souls with comfort filled. "What aileth thee, that aye to earth thou gazest?" To me my Guide began to say, we both Somewhat beyond the Angel having mounted. And I: "With such misgiving makes me go A vision new, which bends me to itself, So that I cannot from the thought withdraw me." "Didst thou behold," he said, "that old enchantress, Who sole above us henceforth is lamented? Didst thou behold how man is freed from her? Suffice it thee, and smite earth with thy heels, Thine eyes lift upward to the lure, that whirls The Eternal King with revolutions vast." Even as the hawk, that first his feet surveys, Then turns him to the call and stretches forward, Through the desire of food that draws him thither, Such I became, and such, as far as cleaves The rock to give a way to him who mounts, Went on to where the circling doth begin. On the fifth circle when I had come forth, People I saw upon it who were weeping, Stretched prone upon the ground, all downward turned.

(1) The natural thirst, that ne'er is satisfied Excepting with the water for whose grace The woman of Samaria besought, Put me in travail, and haste goaded me Along the encumbered path behind my Leader And I was pitying that righteous vengeance; And lo! in the same manner as Luke writeth That Christ appeared to two upon the way From the sepulchral cave already risen, A shade appeared to us, and came behind us, Down gazing on the prostrate multitude, Nor were we ware of it, until it spake, Saying, "My brothers, may God give you peace!" We turned us suddenly, and Virgilius rendered To him the countersign thereto conforming. Thereon began he: "In the blessed council, Thee may the court veracious place in peace, That me doth banish in eternal exile!" "How," said he, and the while we went with speed, "If ye are shades whom God deigns not on high, Who up his stairs so far has guided you?" And said my Teacher: "If thou note the marks Which this one bears, and which the Angel traces Well shalt thou see he with the good must reign.

(2) And my Conductor, with his spans extended, Took of the earth, and with his fists well filled, He threw it into those rapacious gullets. Such as that dog is, who by barking craves, And quiet grows soon as his food he gnaws, For to devour it he but thinks and struggles, The like became those muzzles filth-begrimed Of Cerberus the demon, who so thunders Over the souls that they would fain be deaf. We passed across the shadows, which subdues The heavy rain-storm, and we placed our feet Upon their vanity that person seems. They all were lying prone upon the earth, Excepting one, who sat upright as soon As he beheld us passing on before him. "O thou that art conducted through this Hell," He said to me, "recall me, if thou canst; Thyself wast made before I was unmade." And I to him: "The anguish which thou hast Perhaps doth draw thee out of my remembrance, So that it seems not I have ever seen thee. But tell me who thou art, that in so doleful A place art put, and in such punishment, If some are greater, none is so displeasing."

(3) And made my wish so full of eagerness To look and see who was it that was speaking, It never rests till meeting face to face; But as before the sun, which quells the sight, And in its own excess its figure veils, Even so my power was insufficient here. "This is a spirit divine, who in the way Of going up directs us without asking, And who with his own light himself conceals. He does with us as man doth with himself; For he who sees the need, and waits the asking, Malignly leans already tow'rds denial. Accord we now our feet to such inviting, Let us make haste to mount ere it grow dark; For then we could not till the day return." Thus my Conductor said; and I and he Together turned our footsteps to a stairway; And I, as soon as the first step I reached, Near me perceived a motion as of wings, And fanning in the face, and saying, "'Beati Pacifici,' who are without ill anger." Already over us were so uplifted The latest sunbeams, which the night pursues, That upon many sides the stars appeared.

(2) Down at the bottom were the sinners naked; This side the middle came they facing us, Beyond it, with us, but with greater steps; Even as the Romans, for the mighty host, The year of Jubilee, upon the bridge, Have chosen a mode to pass the people over; For all upon one side towards the Castle Their faces have, and go unto St. Peter's; On the other side they go towards the Mountain. This side and that, along the livid stone Beheld I horned demons with great scourges, Who cruelly were beating them behind. Ah me! how they did make them lift their legs At the first blows! and sooth not any one The second waited for, nor for the third. While I was going on, mine eyes by one Encountered were; and straight I said: "Already With sight of this one I am not unfed." Therefore I stayed my feet to make him out, And with me the sweet Guide came to a stand, And to my going somewhat back assented; And he, the scourged one, thought to hide himself, Lowering his face, but little it availed him; For said I: "Thou that castest down thine eyes,