menu_book Chapter 49

chapter forty nine of jerusalem to revelations a quartet of spiritual experience by william blake and others this deeprovox recording is in the public domain recording by tony addison inferno thirteen the seventh circle the second ring violence against one's self suicides and squanderers not yet had nessus reached the other side when we had set our steps within a wood which was not marked by any path whatever no green leaves there but leaves of gloomy hue no smooth and straight but gnarled and twisted twigs nor was there any fruit but poison thorns no thickets rough and dense as these are owned by those wild beasts that hate the tilled estates that lie between the cecina and cornetto herein those ugly harpies make their nest who drove the trojans from the stophades with gloomy prophecies of future loss wide wings they have and human necks and faces

their feet are clawed and feathered their great bellies they utter wailings on the uncouth trees my kindly teacher then began to say before thou enter any further know that in the second ring thou art and wilt be until thou reach the horrid plain of sand hence look around thee well and things thou see that from my words would take away belief moans i heard uttered upon every side but saw no person who might make them there hence utterly confused i checked my steps i think he thought i thought that all those voices were uttered from among those thorny trunks by people hiding there on our account the teacher therefore said if thou break off a little twig from any of these trees the thoughts thou hast will all be proven false i then stretched out my hand a little way and from a sturdy thorn-tree plucked a twig whereat its trunk cried out why dost thou rent me then after growing dark with blood its cry began again

why dost thou break me off hast thou no spirit of compassion in thee men were we once and now are stocks become thy hand ought surely to have had more even if the souls of serpents we had been as from a fresh green log that at one end is being burned and at the other drifts and makes a hissing with the escaping air so from the broken twig together issued both words and blood i therefore dropped the end and stood unbounded like a man who fears had he before been able to believe a wounded soul replied my sage to him what in my verses only he has seen he had not set his hand on thee whereas the thing's incredibility has made me lead him to do what i myself regret but tell him who thou wast that he by way of compensation may refresh thy fame up in the world where he can still return the trunk

with sweet words thou dost so entice me that i cannot keep still be not annoyed if i am tempted to a little talk i am the man who once held both the keys of frederick's heart and he who turned them round so gently locking and unlocking it that most men from his secrets i withhold so faithful was i to my glorious charge that for its sake i lost both sleep and strength the cotizam who never turned away her harlot eyes from caesar's dwelling-place a common form of death and vice of courts gainst me inflamed the minds of every one and those on fire inflamed augustus so that my glad honours turned to wretched grief my mind to vent its feelings of disdain and thinking to avoid disdain by death made me unjust against myself the just by this tree's uncouth roots i swear to you i never broke the face i owed my lord who so deserving was of reverence and to the world should one of you return let him assist my memory which still lies crushed beneath the blow which envy gave it

a while he waited then the poet said since he is still lose not thy chance but speak and ask him other questions if thou like whence i to him ask thou again whate'er thou thinkest satisfactory to me for i could not such pity stirs my heart hence he began again so may this man do freely for thee what thy words request in prison spirit may it please thee still to tell us how within these knotted trunks a soul is bound and tell us if thou canst if any from such limbs is ever freed thereat the trunk blew hard and afterward that wind was changed into the following word briefly shall a reply be made to you whenever a wild spirit leaves the body from which itself hath torn itself away minos commits it to the seventh ravine into the wood it falls nor is a place allotted to it but where fortune holds it there like a grain of spelt it germinates it grows into a sapling and wild trach

the harpies feeding then upon its leaves cause pain to it and for the pain event like other spirit for our spoils we'll come though not that any be reclothed therewith but tis not right to have what one casts off we'll drag them with us here and then our bodies will all around the dismal would be hung each on the thorn-tree of its hostile shade we still were giving heed unto the trunk believing that it wished to tell us more when we were startled by a sudden noise as likewise he is who perceives a boar and pack of hounds approach his hunting-post and hears the crashing of the beasts and boughs and lo two on the left two naked were and scratched and fled away so rapidly they shattered all the branches of the wood the one ahead now hurry hurry death and the other one who thought himself too slow cried lano not so knowing were thy legs when running from del topo's bottle joust and then perhaps because of failing breath he there made of himself and of a bush a group

the wood behind these two was full of swarthy bitches ravenous and fleet as greyhounds are when from their chains unleashed into the one who crouched they set their teeth and tore him into pieces bit by bit they then made off with those his suffering limbs thereat my escort took me by the hand and led me to the bush which all in vain out of its bleeding rents was shedding tears o gyakimowicz said i stand and thrift what puts it thee to make a screen of me and how am i to blame for thy bad life when over him my teacher stopped he said who then wast thou that through so many gashes are flowing forth with blood such painful speech and he to us o spirits that have come in time to see the unbecoming havoc which from me thus hath torn away my leaves collect them at the foot of my sad bush

I to that town belonged which, for the Baptist, changed its first patron, wherefore he, for this, will always make her mournful with his art, and were it not that on the Arno's Bridge there lingers still some little glimpse of him, those townsmen who rebuilt her afterward over the ashes left by Attila had caused that work to be performed in vain, I made myself a gibbet of my house. inferno fourteen the seventh circle the third ring violence against god blasphemers since love for my own native place constrained me i gathered up the scattered twigs and leaves and gave them back to him who now was weak thence to the bound we came where from the third the second ring is severed and wherein a frightful form of justice may be seen to manifest aright what here was new i say that we had reached a barren plain which from its bed removeth every plant the woeful wood is as a garland round it as round the former is the dismal moat there on its very edge we stayed our steps its soil was of a dense and arid sand whose nature differed in no way from that which once was trodden by the feet of cato

vengeance of god how much by every one thou oughtest to be feared who readeth here what to these eyes of mine was manifest of naked souls i many flocks beheld who all wept very sorely while on each a different law appeared to be imposed a few lay on the ground upon their backs and some were seated cuddled up together while others moved about continually most numerous were those that moved around and least so those that under torment life but all the freer had their tongues to wail down on the whole great waste of sand there reigned with gentle fall dilated flakes of fire like flakes of snow that fall on windless alps as were the flames which alexander saw in india's torrid regions as they fell upon his hosts unbroken to the ground and this he met by ordering his troops to trample on the soil because the flames when single were more easily put out even such descended here the eternal heat whereby the sand was set on fire as tinder is kindled under steel through double pain

and ever without resting was the dance of wretched hands that kept now here now there slapping away each latest burning flake thou teacher i began that conquerest all except the stubborn devils who came out against us at the entrance of the gate who is that great one who seems not to mind the fire but lies there scornful and awry so that the rain seems not to ripen him and that same one who had observed that i concerning him was questioning my leader cried as i was alive such am i dead if jome should tire that smith of his from whom in rot he took the pointed thunderbolt wherewith eyes smitten was that final day or should he tire the others each in turn in mongy billows smithy black with smoke by calling out help help good vulcan help

even as he did on phlegra's battlefield and should he shoot at me with all his might no glad revenge would he obtain thereby thereat my leader spoke with so much force that i had never heard him use the like in that thine arrogance o capaneus is not distinguished art thou all the more chastised no torment saving thine own rage were for thy furious pride a fitting pain then with a gentle mien he turned to me and said one of the seven kings was he who thebes besieged he held and seems to hold god in disdain and little seems to prize him but as i told him his own spitefulness is fit enough adornment for his breast now follow me and see that thou meanwhile set not thy feet upon the burning sand but to the thicket keep them ever close

in silence we went on and came to where out of the wood a little stream spurts forth whose ruddy colour makes me shudder still as from the bulikame springs a brook which afterward the sinful women share even so went that one down across the sand its bottom and both sides had turned to stone as also had the embankments on each side i hence perceived the crossing-place was there of all the other things which i have shown thee since first we entered through the outer gate whose threshold unto no one is denied nothing has ever by thine eyes been seen as notable as is this present brook which deadens for itself all little flames these were my leader's words i therefore begged that he would freely grant to me the food desire of which he had so freely given amid the sea there lies a wasted land he told me thereupon whose name is crete under whose king the world of old was pure there is a mountain there which happy once with waters and green leaves was eider cold tis now abandoned like a thing at warm

willem as trusty cradle for her son ria selected it and when he wept to hide him better caused a shouting there within that mountain stands a great old man who holds his shoulders toward demiata turned and who as at his mirror looks at rome his head is formed of finest gold his arms and breast are of the purest silver then as far as to his loins he's made of brass all chosen iron is he down from there save that baked clay his right foot is and straighter he stands on that than on the other foot each of these parts except the golden one is broken by a cleft whence trickle tears which when collected perforate that cave from rock to rock they course into this vale then akaron with sticks and plegiton they form and through this narrow duck descend as far as where one goes no further down they form casitas there and what that pool is like thou see hence here it is not told and i to him

if thus this present stream is from our world descended why alone on this ring's edge hath it appeared to us and he thou knowest that the place is round and though a long way thou hast gone already ere to the left descending toward the bottom through the whole circle thou hast not yet gone wherefore if all that new appear to us it should not bring amazement to thy face and i again but whereof lecheton and lethe teacher for of this one silence thou say'st the other of this reign is made and he replied thou certainly dost please me in all thy questions but the red streams boiling are surely to have answered one of them lethe thou see but there outside this cave whither souls go to wash themselves when whence their sin repented of has been removed and then he said it now is time for us to leave the wood see that thou follow me the banks which are not burned are forward apart and up above them every flame is quenched

inferno fifteen the seventh circle the third ring violence against nature sodomites one of the hard embankments spares us now and overhead the brook's mist shades them so that from the far it saves the stream and banks such bullocks as to keep the sea away the flemings make between witsand and bruges through fearing lest the high tide break upon them and as the paduans make along the brenta their villages and strongholds to defend ere kia and tana feel the summer in such a way were those embankments made although the master did not make them there so high or thick whoe'er he may have been so far we were already from the wood that i could not have seen just where it was even had i turned around to look behind when we a band of spirits met who came along the bank each one of whom looked hard at us as in the evening one is wont to look at people when the moon is new

and toward us they were knitting close their brows as an old tailor at his needle's eye when by that gathering i had thus been eyed one of them who had recognized me seizing my garments him exclaimed how wonderful and i when toward me he had stretched his arm fastened upon his roasted face mine eyes so that though blistered it did not prevent my intellect from recognizing him and downward having bent my face toward him i answered him are you here sir brunetto and that one o my son be not displeased should brunetto latini a little way turn back with thee and let the troop go on i beg you to with all my power said i and if you'd have me sit with you i will if it pleased that one for with him i go o son he said whoever of this herd stands still at all lies prone a hundred geus nor shields himself when spetten by the fire therefore go on i'll follow up thy skirts and then i'll join again my company which goes bewailing its eternal loss i dared not from the path descend to go upon his level there but held my head bowed down like one who walks in reverence and he began

what fortune or what fate before thy last day leadeth thee down here and who is he that showeth thee the way i answered him when in the life serene up yonder in a vale i lost my way before my age had rounded out its noon thereon i turned my back but yestermorn this one as i returned to it appeared to me and o'er this path now leads me home and he to me if thine own star thou follow thou canst not fail to reach a glorious port if in the lovely life i judged aright and had i not so prematurely died i seeing heaven so well disposed toward thee had given thee comfort in thy work but that ungrateful wicked people which of old came down from fear solely and which e'en now smacks of the mountain and of hard grey stone for thy well-doing shall become thy foe and rightly for among the acid sobs it is not fitting that sweet figs bear fruit an old fame in the world proclaims them blind a greedy envious overweening folk see to it that thou cleanse thee from their ways thy fortune hath in store for thee such honour that either party shall be hungry for thee

but distant from the goat shall be the grass let them the beasts of fierce solely make litter with their own selves nor let them touch the plant if on their dung-heap any burgeon still in which the sacred seed may live again that those old romans who remained therein when of such wickedness the nest was made if perfectly fulfilled had been my prayer i then replied to him you had not yet been banished from the natural life of man for in my mind is fixed and stirs e'en now my heart that dear and kind paternal face you showed when in the world from time to time you taught me how man makes himself eternal and how much gratitude i feel for this must while i live be in my words perceived what of my course you tell i write and keep with other texts for a lady to explain who can if ever i attain to her i only wish that this be clear to you that i if but my conscience chide me not

am ready for whatever fortune wills not new unto mine ears is such reward hence as she lists let fortune turn her wheel and let the country clown his matter ply there at my teacher over his right cheek turned back and looked at me and then he said he listens well who giveth heed to this nor speaking less do i on this account go on with sir brunetto asking who his followers were of greatest note and rank and he to me tis well to know of some our silence on the rest will merit praise for short the time will for so longer talk know then in brief that clerics were they all and mighty men of letters of great fame soiled by the selfsame sin when in the world and with that sad crowd yonder briscian goes and francis of ocorso too and him if thou hadst had a longing for such scurpe thou couldst have seen there whom the servant servant changed from the arno to the bacchiglione where he behind him left his ill-strained

i speak of more but i can come and talk no further for a new dust-cloud i see rising o'er yonder from the sandy plain people with whom i must not be are coming let my tesoro in which i am still alive be recommended thee i ask no more then round he turned and seemed to be of those who at verona run across the meadow to win the green clock and of these he seemed not he who loses but the one who wins inferno sixteen the seventh circle the third ring violence against nature sodomites i now was where the booming of the water which fell into the following ground was heard like the dull buzzing sound which beehives make when three shades separated from a group which neath the rain's tormenting punishment was passing by and ran along together toward us they came and each of them cried out stop thou that by thy gob dost seem to us a citizen of our corrupted town alas what wounds i saw upon their limbs both old and recent by the flames burnt in

it pains me still but to remember them my leader giving heed to these there cries turned his face round toward me and said now wait to these men yonder courtesy is due and were not for the fire which arrow-like the nature of the place shoots forth i'd say that haste were more becoming thee than them and they when we had stopped began again their old refrain and after they had reached us all three of them made of themselves a wheel as champions oiled and nude are wont to do when looking for an advantageous grip before they come to giving blows and wounds thus as he wheeled each turned his face toward me so that his feet continuous journey made in opposite direction to his neck and one began even if the wretched nature of this soft place and our burned shrivelled faces bring us and our requests into contempt still let our reputation bend thy mind to tell us who thou art that dost so safely rub on the soil of hell thy living feet

he in whose footprints thou dost see me tread was though we go both nude and hairless now of higher rank than thou believest him he was the grandson of the good his name was guido guerra and when alive his wisdom and his sword accomplished much the other who behind me treads the sand taggayio aldobrande is whose voice should have been welcomed in the world above and i who with them am tormented here jacopo rusticucci was and surely my shrewish wife than aught else hurts me more if i had been protected from the fire i would have leapt into their midst below and i believed my leader had allowed it but since i should have burned and baked myself fear was victorious over my good-will which made me eager to embrace them there i then began your state impressed within me not scorn but so much pain that only late will all of it entirely disappear as soon as this my lord said words to me because of which i thought within myself that there were people coming such as you

of your own town am i and evermore have i your doings and your honoured names related and heard mentioned with regard i leave the gaul and for the sweet fruit go which my voracious leader promised me but to the centre must i first descend so may thy spirit lead thy members long the former thereupon replied to me and after thou art gone thy fame be bright tell me if courtesy and worth abide within our town as they were wont to do and whether they have wholly gone from it for guglielmo bossiere who but newly has been in pain with us and with our mates goes yonder grieves us greatly with his words the people newly come and sudden gains have bred in thee such pride and such excess that florence thou art even now in pain thus with uplifted face i cried whereafter three who this as answer understood looked at each other as one looks at truth if satisfying others other times cost thee so little happy thou that thus of thy sweet will dost speak

they all replied hence so mayst thou from these dark places saved return to see the lovely stars again when saying i was there thou shalt do thee good see that thou tell the people about us they then broke up their wheel and in their flight it seemed as if their nimble legs were wings our men could not have been as quickly said as they then disappeared my teacher therefore thought it advisable for us to leave i followed him and not far had we gone before the water's noise was so near by that had we spoken we had not been heard and as the stream which is the first that eastward from monteveso takes a separate cause upon the left slope of the apennines and which above is aquacheta called before it flows into its lowly bed and at fall he is of that name deprived booms loud because of falling over a cliff above san benedetto of the alp where for a thousand there should refuge be even thus as over a precipice it fell we found that coloured water roaring so that very soon it would have hurt our ears

i had a cord around about me girt wherewith i once had thought that i could capture the leopard with the brightly coloured hide when from me i had wholly loosened it even as my leader had commanded me i coiled it up and held it out to him thereat upon his right he turned around and hurled it to some distance from the edge down into that profound and dark abyss surely some strange new thing must needs reply said i within myself to this strange signal which with his eye my teacher follows thus ah with what caution men should deal with those who see not only what is done by others but with the wisdom seeing to their thoughts he said to me what i am waiting for and what thy thought now dreams will soon come up soon to thy vision will it be revealed eh to a truth that hath a falsehood's face ought one to close his lips as best he can for though one faultless be it brings him shame but i cannot suppress it here hence reader even by the verses of this comedy so may they not be void of lasting favour i swear to thee

that through that coarse dark air i saw a shape which would have chilled with wonder however brave a heart comes swimming up as he returns who going down at times to clear an anchor clinging to a reef or aught else lying hidden in the sea above extends and draweth in below chapter forty nine