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Purgatorio
Canto 19
Translated by Robert Hollander
1 At that hour when the heat of day,
2 cooled by earth and at times by Saturn,
3 can no longer temper the cold of the moon,
4 when geomancers see their Fortuna Major
5 rise in the east before the dawn,
6 which does not long stay dark for it,
7 there came to me a woman, in a dream,
8 stammering, cross-eyed, splayfooted,
9 with crippled hands and sickly pale complexion.
10 I looked at her, and as the sun revives
11 cold limbs benumbed by night,
12 so my gaze gave her a ready tongue
13 and then in very little time
14 straightened her crooked limbs
15 and tinged her sallow face as love desires.
16 And with her speech set free
17 she started singing in a way that would
18 have made it hard for me to turn aside.
19 'I am,' she sang, 'I am the sweet siren
20 who beguile mariners on distant seas,
21 so great is their delight in hearing me.
22 I drew Ulysses, eager for the journey,
23 with my song. And those who dwell with me
24 rarely depart, so much do I content them.'
25 Her lips had not yet closed
26 when there appeared a lady at my side,
27 holy and alert, to confound her.
28 'O Virgil, Virgil, who is this?'
29 she asked, indignant. And he came forward
30 with his eyes fixed on that virtuous one.
31 The other he seized and, ripping her garments,
32 laid her front bare and exposed her belly.
33 The stench that came from there awoke me.
34 I was looking around, and the good master said:
35 'Three times at least I've called you. Arise and come.
36 Let us find the opening through which you enter.'
37 I stood up. All the circles of the holy mountain
38 were already filled with the advancing day
39 and we went on with the new sun at our backs.
40 With furrowed brow I followed him,
41 as though burdened with a thought that bent
42 my body like the half-arch of a bridge,
43 until I heard: 'Come, here is the passage,'
44 spoken in such gentle, gracious tones
45 as are not heard within these earthly confines.
46 With open wings that seemed a swan's
47 he that had spoken showed the way on up
48 between two walls of flinty stone
49 and, stirring his feathers, gently fanned us,
50 declaring those qui lugent to be blessed,
51 for their souls shall be comforted.
52 'What's wrong, that you keep staring at the ground?'
53 my guide began, once we were on our way,
54 leaving the angel just below.
55 'I am so distracted going on,' I said,
56 because this strange new dream so weighs on me
57 I cannot keep it from my mind.'
58 'You saw,' he said, 'that ancient witch
59 who alone is purged with tears above us here.
60 And you saw how man is freed from her.
61 'Let that be enough. Press your heels
62 into the ground. Raise your eyes to the lure
63 the Eternal King spins with His majestic spheres.'
64 Like the falcon that at first looks at its feet,
65 and only then turns to the call and stretches up
66 in its desire for the food that draws it,
67 such I became and, so impelled, I went
68 as far as the cleft rock allowed for the ascent
69 to where the circling starts again.
70 When I came out onto the ledge
71 of the fifth round, I saw people on it
72 lying face down on the ground and weeping.
73 'Adhaesit pavimento anima mea'
74 I heard them say with such deep sighs
75 the words could hardly be distinguished.
76 'O chosen ones of God, whose sufferings
77 both hope and justice make less hard,
78 direct us to the steps that lead us up.'
79 'If you are here exempt from lying prostrate
80 and wish to find the quickest way,
81 keep to the right along the outer rim.'
82 Thus the poet asked and thus came the response
83 from a little way ahead, and I could tell who spoke
84 although his face was hidden.
85 I turned my eyes to the eyes of my lord.
86 With a pleased sign he consented
87 to what my pleading look had asked.
88 When I was free to do what I desired
89 I drew away and stood above that soul
90 whose words had made me first aware of him,
91 saying: 'Spirit in whom weeping ripens
92 that without which there is no return to God,
93 for my sake just a while neglect your greater care.
94 'Tell me who you were and why you lie face down
95 and whether there is something I might do
96 for you back there, where I set out alive.'
97 And he to me: 'Why Heaven turns our backs
98 against Itself, that you shall know, but first
99 scias quod ego fui successor Petri.
100 'Between Sestri and Chiàvari there runs down
101 a lovely stream and with its name
102 the title of my line has marked its shield.
103 'In a month and little more I learned how heavy
104 the mantle weighs on one who keeps it from the mud,
105 making any other burden seem a feather.
106 'My conversion, alas, came late--
107 when I was made the Roman shepherd,
108 I discovered a life of lies.
109 'I saw that there the heart was not at peace,
110 nor was preferment possible in that life,
111 and for this higher state my love was kindled.
112 'Until that moment I was a wretched soul,
113 cut off from God, and filled with avarice.
114 Now, as you see, I am punished for that here.
115 'The work of avarice is here proclaimed
116 in the purging of the down-turned souls,
117 and the mountain gives no punishment more bitter.
118 'Just as we failed to lift our eyes on high
119 because they were fixed on earthly things,
120 so justice here has turned them to the earth.
121 'As avarice quenched our love of worthy things,
122 wasting our chance to do good works,
123 so justice here has bound us fast.
124 'Securely tied are our hands and feet.
125 As long as it shall please the righteous Lord
126 so long shall we, unmoving, lie here prone.'
127 I had kneeled and was about to speak,
128 but as soon as I began and he perceived,
129 only by listening, that I did him reverence,
130 'Why,' he asked, 'did you bend down that way?'
131 And I: 'Because the dignity of Your high office
132 stung my conscience as I stood erect.'
133 'Straighten your legs, stand up, brother,'
134 he replied, 'make no mistake. I am a fellow-servant
135 with you, and with the others, of a single Power.
136 'If ever you did understand the holy passage
137 in the Gospel where it says "Neque nubent,"
138 you may well perceive just why I say this.
139 'Now go your way. I would not keep you longer,
140 for your being here impedes the tears
141 with which I ripen that of which you spoke.
142 'On earth I have a niece who is called Alàgia--
143 she is still virtuous, if indeed our house
144 has not by its example made her wicked,
145 and she alone is left to me back there.'
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