(2) Those who were going round were far the more, And those were less who lay down to their torment, But had their tongues more loosed to lamentation. O'er all the sand-waste, with a gradual fall, Were raining down dilated flakes of fire, As of the snow on Alp without a wind. As Alexander, in those torrid parts Of India, beheld upon his host Flames fall unbroken till they reached the ground. Whence he provided with his phalanxes To trample down the soil, because the vapour Better extinguished was while it was single; Thus was descending the eternal heat, Whereby the sand was set on fire, like tinder Beneath the steel, for doubling of the dole. Without repose forever was the dance Of miserable hands, now there, now here, Shaking away from off them the fresh gleeds. "Master," began I, "thou who overcomest All things except the demons dire, that issued Against us at the entrance of the gate, Who is that mighty one who seems to heed not The fire, and lieth lowering and disdainful, So that the rain seems not to ripen him?"

(5) And if from smoke a fire may be inferred, Such an oblivion clearly demonstrates Some error in thy will elsewhere intent. Truly from this time forward shall my words Be naked, so far as it is befitting To lay them open unto thy rude gaze." And more coruscant and with slower steps The sun was holding the meridian circle, Which, with the point of view, shifts here and there When halted (as he cometh to a halt, Who goes before a squadron as its escort, If something new he find upon his way) The ladies seven at a dark shadow's edge, Such as, beneath green leaves and branches black, The Alp upon its frigid border wears. In front of them the Tigris and Euphrates Methought I saw forth issue from one fountain, And slowly part, like friends, from one another. "O light, O glory of the human race! What stream is this which here unfolds itself From out one source, and from itself withdraws?"

(2) Believe for certain, shouldst thou stand a full Millennium in the bosom of this flame, It could not make thee bald a single hair. And if perchance thou think that I deceive thee, Draw near to it, and put it to the proof With thine own hands upon thy garment's hem. Now lay aside, now lay aside all fear, Turn hitherward, and onward come securely;" And I still motionless, and 'gainst my conscience! Seeing me stand still motionless and stubborn, Somewhat disturbed he said: "Now look thou, Son, 'Twixt Beatrice and thee there is this wall." As at the name of Thisbe oped his lids The dying Pyramus, and gazed upon her, What time the mulberry became vermilion, Even thus, my obduracy being softened, I turned to my wise Guide, hearing the name That in my memory evermore is welling. Whereat he wagged his head, and said: "How now? Shall we stay on this side?" then smiled as one Does at a child who's vanquished by an apple. Then into the fire in front of me he entered, Beseeching Statius to come after me, Who a long way before divided us.

(37) And indeed he has done somewhat, in that he has set the divine Power into a Burning, which appears even in the Sun and Stars; also the Fire in the Salitter in the Elements is often kindled, so that it seems as if the Deep was of a burning Fire; of which I shall speak in another Place. He slept back out of the Meekness into the anxious Fire-will, and fell into Darkness. The Reader is advertised, that he must not understand in any Place, as if the Devil had kindled or fired the Light of God; no, but the Forms of Nature only, out of which the Light shines. For he has not comprehended the Light, as little as the Fire does, which cannot lay hold on the Light: But he entered into the Fire, and is expelled into the Darkness, and has neither Fire nor Light, besides, without, or distinct from his Creature. [Or his own creaturely Existence.]

(1) As when he vibrates forth his earliest rays, In regions where his Maker shed his blood, (The Ebro falling under lofty Libra, And waters in the Ganges burnt with noon,) So stood the Sun; hence was the day departing, When the glad Angel of God appeared to us. Outside the flame he stood upon the verge, And chanted forth, "Beati mundo corde," In voice by far more living than our own. Then: "No one farther goes, souls sanctified, If first the fire bite not; within it enter, And be not deaf unto the song beyond." When we were close beside him thus he said; Wherefore e'en such became I, when I heard him, As he is who is put into the grave. Upon my clasped hands I straightened me, Scanning the fire, and vividly recalling The human bodies I had once seen burned. Towards me turned themselves my good Conductors, And unto me Virgilius said: "My son, Here may indeed be torment, but not death. Remember thee, remember! and if I On Geryon have safely guided thee, What shall I do now I am nearer God?

(5) And lo! at one who was upon our side There darted forth a serpent, which transfixed him There where the neck is knotted to the shoulders. Nor 'O' so quickly e'er, nor 'I' was written, As he took fire, and burned; and ashes wholly Behoved it that in falling he became. And when he on the ground was thus destroyed, The ashes drew together, and of themselves Into himself they instantly returned. Even thus by the great sages 'tis confessed The phoenix dies, and then is born again, When it approaches its five-hundredth year; On herb or grain it feeds not in its life, But only on tears of incense and amomum, And nard and myrrh are its last winding-sheet. And as he is who falls, and knows not how, By force of demons who to earth down drag him, Or other oppilation that binds man, When he arises and around him looks, Wholly bewildered by the mighty anguish Which he has suffered, and in looking sighs; Such was that sinner after he had risen. Justice of God! O how severe it is, That blows like these in vengeance poureth down!

(13) Also the Devils tremble at the Kindling of the Wrath, whose Faces appear before the Eyes of the Ungodly; for they see the angelical World before them, and the hellish Fire in them; and they see how every Life burns, and every one in its own Source, in its own Fire. The angelical World burns in Triumph, in Joy, in the Light of the Glory, and it shines as the clear Sun, which neither Devil, nor any of the Wicked dare look upon, and there is Praise [and Hallelujahs] that the Driver is overcome.

(10) Aye, this man will destroy my doctrines (indeed, for he blasphemes the highest of creatures that live or are made). He declares that the (sacred) Kine and the Sun are the worst of things which eye can see; and he will offer the gifts of the wicked (as priest to their Demon-gods). And at the last he will parch our meadows with drought, and will hurl his mace at Thy saint (who may fall before his arms ).

(1) At the conclusion of his words, the thief Lifted his hands aloft with both the figs, Crying: "Take that, God, for at thee I aim them." From that time forth the serpents were my friends; For one entwined itself about his neck As if it said: "I will not thou speak more;" And round his arms another, and rebound him, Clinching itself together so in front, That with them he could not a motion make. Pistoia, ah, Pistoia! why resolve not To burn thyself to ashes and so perish, Since in ill-doing thou thy seed excellest? Through all the sombre circles of this Hell, Spirit I saw not against God so proud, Not he who fell at Thebes down from the walls! He fled away, and spake no further word; And I beheld a Centaur full of rage Come crying out: "Where is, where is the scoffer?" I do not think Maremma has so many Serpents as he had all along his back, As far as where our countenance begins. Upon the shoulders, just behind the nape, With wings wide open was a dragon lying, And he sets fire to all that he encounters.

(6) O miserable me! how I did shudder When he seized on me, saying: 'Peradventure Thou didst not think that I was a logician!' He bore me unto Minos, who entwined Eight times his tail about his stubborn back, And after he had bitten it in great rage, Said: 'Of the thievish fire a culprit this;' Wherefore, here where thou seest, am I lost, And vested thus in going I bemoan me." When it had thus completed its recital, The flame departed uttering lamentations, Writhing and flapping its sharp-pointed horn. Onward we passed, both I and my Conductor, Up o'er the crag above another arch, Which the moat covers, where is paid the fee By those who, sowing discord, win their burden.

(133) There is Fire even in a Stone, but if you do not strike upon it, the Fire remains hidden, but if you strike it, then the Fire springs forth; and then if any combustible Matter be near it, that will take Fire and burn, and so it comes to be a large Fire; and thus it is also with Man, when he kindles the resting Wrath-fire, which is otherwise at rest. Of the Night. [Nacht.]

(76) When now the wrathful Fire-flash awakened, and rouzed up the Spirits of Nature, which stand in Death in the Earth, and made them moveable by its fierce Terror or Crack, then the Spirits begun, according to their peculiar divine Right, to generate themselves, as they had done from Eternity, and form, figure, or frame a Body together, according to the innate infant Qualities of that Place. [Or Inflamming.]