第 23 节
作者:
辛苦 更新:2021-02-20 05:04 字数:9321
That if thou rightfully of him complain;
In knowing who ye are; and his transgression;
I in the world above repay thee for it;
If that wherewith I speak be not dried up。〃
Inferno: Canto XXXIII
His mouth uplifted from his grim repast;
That sinner; wiping it upon the hair
Of the same head that he behind had wasted。
Then he began: 〃Thou wilt that I renew
The desperate grief; which wrings my heart already
To think of only; ere I speak of it;
But if my words be seed that may bear fruit
Of infamy to the traitor whom I gnaw;
Speaking and weeping shalt thou see together。
I know not who thou art; nor by what mode
Thou hast come down here; but a Florentine
Thou seemest to me truly; when I hear thee。
Thou hast to know I was Count Ugolino;
And this one was Ruggieri the Archbishop;
Now I will tell thee why I am such a neighbour。
That; by effect of his malicious thoughts;
Trusting in him I was made prisoner;
And after put to death; I need not say;
But ne'ertheless what thou canst not have heard;
That is to say; how cruel was my death;
Hear shalt thou; and shalt know if he has wronged me。
A narrow perforation in the mew;
Which bears because of me the title of Famine;
And in which others still must be locked up;
Had shown me through its opening many moons
Already; when I dreamed the evil dream
Which of the future rent for me the veil。
This one appeared to me as lord and master;
Hunting the wolf and whelps upon the mountain
For which the Pisans cannot Lucca see。
With sleuth…hounds gaunt; and eager; and well trained;
Gualandi with Sismondi and Lanfianchi
He had sent out before him to the front。
After brief course seemed unto me forespent
The father and the sons; and with sharp tushes
It seemed to me I saw their flanks ripped open。
When I before the morrow was awake;
Moaning amid their sleep I heard my sons
Who with me were; and asking after bread。
Cruel indeed art thou; if yet thou grieve not;
Thinking of what my heart foreboded me;
And weep'st thou not; what art thou wont to weep at?
They were awake now; and the hour drew nigh
At which our food used to be brought to us;
And through his dream was each one apprehensive;
And I heard locking up the under door
Of the horrible tower; whereat without a word
I gazed into the faces of my sons。
I wept not; I within so turned to stone;
They wept; and darling little Anselm mine
Said: 'Thou dost gaze so; father; what doth ail thee?'
Still not a tear I shed; nor answer made
All of that day; nor yet the night thereafter;
Until another sun rose on the world。
As now a little glimmer made its way
Into the dolorous prison; and I saw
Upon four faces my own very aspect;
Both of my hands in agony I bit;
And; thinking that I did it from desire
Of eating; on a sudden they uprose;
And said they: 'Father; much less pain 'twill give us
If thou do eat of us; thyself didst clothe us
With this poor flesh; and do thou strip it off。'
I calmed me then; not to make them more sad。
That day we all were silent; and the next。
Ah! obdurate earth; wherefore didst thou not open?
When we had come unto the fourth day; Gaddo
Threw himself down outstretched before my feet;
Saying; 'My father; why dost thou not help me?'
And there he died; and; as thou seest me;
I saw the three fall; one by one; between
The fifth day and the sixth; whence I betook me;
Already blind; to groping over each;
And three days called them after they were dead;
Then hunger did what sorrow could not do。〃
When he had said this; with his eyes distorted;
The wretched skull resumed he with his teeth;
Which; as a dog's; upon the bone were strong。
Ah! Pisa; thou opprobrium of the people
Of the fair land there where the 'Si' doth sound;
Since slow to punish thee thy neighbours are;
Let the Capraia and Gorgona move;
And make a hedge across the mouth of Arno
That every person in thee it may drown!
For if Count Ugolino had the fame
Of having in thy castles thee betrayed;
Thou shouldst not on such cross have put his sons。
Guiltless of any crime; thou modern Thebes!
Their youth made Uguccione and Brigata;
And the other two my song doth name above!
We passed still farther onward; where the ice
Another people ruggedly enswathes;
Not downward turned; but all of them reversed。
Weeping itself there does not let them weep;
And grief that finds a barrier in the eyes
Turns itself inward to increase the anguish;
Because the earliest tears a cluster form;
And; in the manner of a crystal visor;
Fill all the cup beneath the eyebrow full。
And notwithstanding that; as in a callus;
Because of cold all sensibility
Its station had abandoned in my face;
Still it appeared to me I felt some wind;
Whence I: 〃My Master; who sets this in motion?
Is not below here every vapour quenched?〃
Whence he to me: 〃Full soon shalt thou be where
Thine eye shall answer make to thee of this;
Seeing the cause which raineth down the blast。〃
And one of the wretches of the frozen crust
Cried out to us: 〃O souls so merciless
That the last post is given unto you;
Lift from mine eyes the rigid veils; that I
May vent the sorrow which impregns my heart
A little; e'er the weeping recongeal。〃
Whence I to him: 〃If thou wouldst have me help thee
Say who thou wast; and if I free thee not;
May I go to the bottom of the ice。〃
Then he replied: 〃I am Friar Alberigo;
He am I of the fruit of the bad garden;
Who here a date am getting for my fig。〃
〃O;〃 said I to him; 〃now art thou; too; dead?〃
And he to me: 〃How may my body fare
Up in the world; no knowledge I possess。
Such an advantage has this Ptolomaea;
That oftentimes the soul descendeth here
Sooner than Atropos in motion sets it。
And; that thou mayest more willingly remove
From off my countenance these glassy tears;
Know that as soon as any soul betrays
As I have done; his body by a demon
Is taken from him; who thereafter rules it;
Until his time has wholly been revolved。
Itself down rushes into such a cistern;
And still perchance above appears the body
Of yonder shade; that winters here behind me。
This thou shouldst know; if thou hast just come down;
It is Ser Branca d' Oria; and many years
Have passed away since he was thus locked up。〃
〃I think;〃 said I to him; 〃thou dost deceive me;
For Branca d' Oria is not dead as yet;
And eats; and drinks; and sleeps; and puts on clothes。〃
〃In moat above;〃 said he; 〃of Malebranche;
There where is boiling the tenacious pitch;
As yet had Michel Zanche not arrived;
When this one left a devil in his stead
In his own body and one near of kin;
Who made together with him the betrayal。
But hitherward stretch out thy hand forthwith;
Open mine eyes;〃and open them I did not;
And to be rude to him was courtesy。
Ah; Genoese! ye men at variance
With every virtue; full of every vice
Wherefore are ye not scattered from the world?
For with the vilest spirit of Romagna
I found of you one such; who for his deeds
In soul already in Cocytus bathes;
And still above in body seems alive!
Inferno: Canto XXXIV
〃'Vexilla Regis prodeunt Inferni'
Towards us; therefore look in front of thee;〃
My Master said; 〃if thou discernest him。〃
As; when there breathes a heavy fog; or when
Our hemisphere is darkening into night;
Appears far off a mill the wind is turning;
Methought that such a building then I saw;
And; for the wind; I drew myself behind
My Guide; because there was no other shelter。
Now was I; and with fear in verse I put it;
There where the shades were wholly covered up;
And glimmered through like unto straws in glass。
Some prone are lying; others stand erect;
This with the head; and that one with the soles;
Another; bow…like; face to feet inverts。
When in advance so far we had proceeded;
That it my Master pleased to show to me
The creature who once had the beauteous semblance;
He from before me moved and made me stop;
Saying: 〃Behold Dis; and behold the place
Where thou with fortitude must arm thyself。〃
How frozen I became and powerless then;
Ask it not; Reader; for I write it not;
Because all language would be insufficient。
I did not die; and I alive remained not;
Think for thyself now; hast thou aught of wit;
What I became; being of both deprived。
The Emperor of the kingdom dolorous
From his mid…breast forth issued from the ice;
And better with a giant I compare
Than do the giants with those arms of his;
Consider now how great must be that whole;
Which unto such a part conforms itself。
Were he as fair once; as he now is foul;
And lifted up his brow against his Maker;
Well may proceed from him all tribulation。
O; what a marvel it appeared to me;
When I beheld three faces on his head!
The one in front; and that vermilion was;
Two were the others; that were joined with this
Above the middle part of either shoulder;
And they were joined together at the crest;