Purgatorio (31 page)

               
‘For if our foresight here does not deceive me

               
they shall be sorrowing before hair grows

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on cheeks of babes still soothed by lullabies.

               
‘Pray, brother, conceal your tale no longer.

               
Look, not only I but all these people

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gaze in wonder where you veil the sun.’

               
At that I said to him: ‘If you recall   
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what you were with me and I was with you,

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that memory now would still be painful.

               
‘He who precedes me made me renounce

               
that life but several days ago, when the sister

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of him’—and I pointed to the sun—   
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‘appeared round back then. It is he who led me

               
through the deep night of the forever dead

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in this my very flesh that follows him.

               
‘With his support I have left all that behind,

               
climbing and circling each terrace of the mountain

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that straightens those made crooked by the world.   
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‘He promises to keep me company

               
until I shall encounter Beatrice.   
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Then must I be left without him.

               
‘It is Virgil who tells me this’—I pointed to him—

               
‘and the other is the shade for whom just now

               
your kingdom quaked in all its slopes,

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shaking him from itself to set him free.’

               
Walking did not slow our talk, nor did the talking   
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slow our motion, as conversing we moved swiftly,

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like ships that are driven by favoring winds.

               
And the shades, that seemed things dead twice over,   
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stared at me, amazed, from the sockets of their eyes,

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once they saw I was alive.

               
And I, continuing, remarked:

               
‘Perhaps he climbs more slowly than he’d like   
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because someone else is with him.

               
‘But tell me, if you know, where Piccarda is.   
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And tell me if I am seeing anyone of note

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among these people who are staring at me so.’

               
‘I cannot say whether my sister was more virtuous   
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than she was beautiful. On high Olympus

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she already triumphs, rejoicing in her crown.’

               
This he said first and then:   
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‘Here it’s not forbidden to call us by our names,

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since our features are sucked dry by fasting.

               
‘He there’—and he pointed with his finger—‘is   
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Bonagiunta, Bonagiunta of Lucca, and that one

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just beyond him, the face more cracked and scaly   
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‘than the rest, held Holy Church within his arms.

               
He was from Tours and now by fasting purges

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eels from the Bolsena served
alla vernaccia
.’

               
He named many another, one by one,

               
and each seemed happy to be named—   
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I did not see a scowl on any face.

               
I saw, gnashing his teeth on nothing in his hunger,

               
Ubaldino dalla Pila, and Bonifazio,   
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who with his crozier led and fed a multitude.

               
I saw Messer Marchese, who once took his leisure,   
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drinking in Forlì with less cause for thirst

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and still could not be satisfied.

               
But as a man might look around and take more note   
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of one than of another, so I did with him from Lucca,

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who clearly seemed to know me.

               
He was muttering and all I could make out   
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was a word like ‘Gentucca’ coming from his mouth,

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where he felt most the justice that so wastes them.

               
‘O soul,’ I said, ‘who seem so keen to speak with me,   
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speak in a manner I can understand

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and with your speech thus satisfy us both.’

               
‘A woman is born and wears not yet the wimple,’   
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he said. ‘She shall make my city please you,

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however men revile it.

               
‘Take your way with this prophecy in mind

               
and, if you have mistook my muttering,

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events themselves will make it plain to you.

               
‘But tell me if I see before me   
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the one who brought forth those new rhymes

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begun with
Ladies that have intelligence of love
.’

               
And I to him: ‘I am one who, when Love   
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inspires me, take note and, as he dictates

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deep within me, so I set it forth.’

               
‘O my brother,’ he said, ‘now I understand the knot   
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that kept the Notary, Guittone, and me   
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on this side of the sweet new style I hear.

               
‘I clearly understand that your pens follow

               
faithfully whatever Love may dictate,

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which, to be sure, was not the case with ours.

               
‘And he who takes the next step sees in this

               
what separates the one style from the other.’

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Then, as though with satisfaction, he was silent.

               
As birds that spend the wintertime along the Nile   
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sometimes gather in a flock high in the air,

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then, flying faster, form a line,

               
so all the people gathered there

               
turned from us, hurrying away,

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light as they were through leanness and desire.

               
And, as one exhausted by his run

               
lets his companions race ahead while he but walks

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until the heaving of his chest is eased,

               
so Forese let the holy flock pass by

               
and came along with me behind them. He asked:

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‘How long until I see you here again?’   
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‘I do not know,’ I said, ‘how long I’ll live.   
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But my return could not occur so soon

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that I will not in thought return before,

               
‘since the place where I was put to live

               
day by day despoils itself of every good

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and seems disposed to certain ruin.’