Purgatorio
Canto 4
Translated by Robert Hollander
1 When one of our faculties is given over
2 to pleasure or to pain,
3 our soul will focus on that one alone
4 and seem to pay no mind to any of its other powers--
5 revealing the error in the doctrine that maintains
6 among the souls within us one is more aflame.
7 And therefore when we see or hear a thing
8 that concentrates the soul,
9 time passes and we're not aware of it,
10 for the faculty that hears the passing time
11 is not the one that holds the soul intent:
12 the one that hears is bound, the other free.
13 This I truly understood,
14 listening to that spirit in amazement,
15 for the sun had climbed a good fifty degrees
16 and I had failed to notice, when we came
17 to where these souls cried out as one:
18 'Here is the place you asked for.'
19 Often, at the time the grapes are darkening,
20 a peasant, with a pitchfork full of thorns,
21 will plug a larger opening
22 than the gap through which my leader
23 and I behind him climbed alone,
24 after the troop went on without us.
25 One may go up to San Leo or descend to Noli
26 or mount to the summits of Bismàntova or Cacùme
27 on foot, but here one had to fly--
28 I mean with the swift wings and plumage
29 of great desire, following that guidance
30 which gave me hope and showed me light.
31 We climbed into a fissure in the rock.
32 The stony walls pressed close on either side.
33 We had to use our hands to keep our footing.
34 When we had reached the crag's high upper ledge,
35 out on the open hillside, 'Master,' I said,
36 'which path shall we take?'
37 And he to me: 'Do not fall back a single step.
38 Just keep climbing up behind me
39 until some guide who knows the way appears.'
40 The summit was so high that it was out of sight,
41 the slope far steeper than the line
42 drawn from midquadrant to the center.
43 Exhausted, I complained:
44 'Belovèd father, turn around and see
45 how I'll be left alone unless you pause.'
46 'My son,' he said, 'drag yourself up there,'
47 pointing to a ledge a little higher,
48 which from that place encircles all the hill.
49 His words so spurred me on
50 I forced myself to clamber up
51 until I stood upon the ledge.
52 There we settled down to rest, facing
53 the east, where we had begun our climb,
54 for often it pleases us to see how far we've come.
55 First I gazed upon the shore below,
56 then raised my eyes up to the sun and was amazed
57 to see its rays were striking from the left.
58 The poet understood I was astounded
59 to see the road that chariot of light
60 was taking in its path between the north and us.
61 And so he said: 'If the mirror that moves its light
62 to either side of the Equator
63 were in the company of Castor and of Pollux,
64 'the red part of the zodiac would show
65 still closer to the Bears
66 unless it were to leave its ancient track.
67 'If you would understand how this may be,
68 with your mind focused, picture Zion
69 and this mountain positioned so on earth
70 'they share the same horizon
71 but are in different hemispheres.
72 Then you shall see how, to his misfortune,
73 'the highway Phaeton failed to drive
74 must pass this mountain on the one side,
75 Zion on the other, if you consider it with care.'
76 'Indeed, my master,' I said,
77 'I did not understand what now is clear,
78 the point for which my wit was lacking:
79 'the mid-circle of that celestial motion,
80 which a certain science calls "Equator,"
81 and which lies always between the sun and winter,
82 'for the very reason you have given
83 is as far to the north from here
84 as the Hebrews saw it toward the torrid parts.
85 'But, please, tell me just how far
86 we have to go, for the hill rises
87 farther than my eyes can climb.'
88 And he to me: 'This mountain is so fashioned
89 that the climb is harder at the outset
90 and, as one ascends, becomes less toilsome.
91 'When climbing uphill will seem pleasing--
92 as easy as the passage of a boat
93 that lets the current float it down the stream--
94 'at that point will this trail be done.
95 There look to rest your weariness.
96 This I know for truth. I say no more.'
97 As soon as he had said these words
98 a voice close by called out: 'Perhaps
99 you'll feel the need to sit before then.'
100 Hearing this, both of us turned around,
101 and saw to our left an enormous rock
102 that neither he nor I at first had noticed.
103 When we approached, we saw some people
104 resting in the shade behind the boulder
105 as men will settle down in indolence to rest,
106 and one of them, who seemed so very weary,
107 was sitting with his arms around his knees,
108 his face pressed down between them.
109 'O my dear lord,' I said, 'just look at him.
110 He shows himself more indolent
111 than if sloth had been his very sister.'
112 Then he turned and fixed his eyes on us,
113 barely lifting his face above his haunch,
114 and said: 'Go on up then, you who are so spry.'
115 At that I realized who he was,
116 and the exertion that still kept me short of breath
117 now did not keep me from his side.
118 When I reached him he barely raised his head
119 to say: 'Have you marked how the sun
120 drives his car past your left shoulder?'
121 His lazy movements and curt speech
122 slowly shaped my lips into a smile, and I began:
123 'Belacqua, no longer need I grieve for you.
124 'But tell me, what keeps you sitting here?
125 Are you waiting for an escort,
126 or have you gone back to your old lazy ways?'
127 And he: 'Brother, what's the good of going up?
128 The angel of God who sits in the gateway
129 would not let me pass into the torments.
130 'I must wait outside as long as in my lifetime
131 the heavens wheeled around me
132 while I put off my sighs of penance to the end,
133 'unless I'm helped by prayers that rise
134 from a heart that lives in grace.
135 What good are those that go unheard in Heaven?'
136 And now, not waiting for me, the poet began
137 to climb the path, saying: 'Come along.
138 Look, now the sun is touching the meridian,
139 and on Morocco's shore night sets her foot.'