Authors: Dante
Purgatorio (42 page)
I do not know if she had more to say,
for now, before my eyes, appeared the one
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who had closed me off from any other thought.
On the bare ground she sat alone,
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as if left behind to guard the chariot
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I had seen the twofold beast make fast.
The seven nymphs encircled and enclosed her,
holding up lights that would not waver
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should winds blow even from the north or south.
‘Here for a time you shall be a woodsman
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and then forever a citizen with me
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of that Rome where Christ Himself is Roman.
‘Therefore, to serve the world that lives so ill,
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keep your eyes upon the chariot and write down
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what now you see here once you have gone back.’
Thus Beatrice. And I, overwhelmed,
prostrate at the feet of her commands,
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gave my mind and eyes to what she wished.
Never did fire descend with such swift motion
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out of thickened banks of clouds,
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plunging from the farthest zone of air,
as I saw the bird of Jove swoop down and plummet
through the tree, ripping the bark,
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shredding flowers and fresh leaves.
It struck the chariot with its full force
so that it reeled like a ship tossed in a tempest,
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now leeward, now windward, driven by the waves.
Then I saw, flinging itself into the very cradle
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of the triumphal car, a fox so wasted
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it seemed deprived of any nourishment.
But my lady, railing at its foul offenses,
drove it back in such retreat
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as its fleshless bones allowed.
Then, from where it had swept down before,
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I saw the eagle plummet to the chariot’s floor
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and leave it feathered with its plumage.
Such a voice as issues from a grieving heart
I heard break forth from Heaven, saying:
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‘O my little bark, how badly are you laden!’
Then it seemed to me the earth was cleft
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between the wheels, and I saw a dragon issue,
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thrust its tail up through the car
and, as a wasp withdraws its sting, so it drew back
its venomed tail, ripping out part of the floor,
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and then slithered off on its own errant way.
What was left was once more covered,
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as is fertile soil with weeds, by plumage,
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offered perhaps with kind and innocent intent,
and both the wheels and shaft
were completely covered over
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in less time than a sigh may part the lips.
Thus transformed, the holy edifice
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put forth heads on all its parts,
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three on the shaft and one at every corner—
the first three bore horns like oxen, the others
had a single horn upon their foreheads—
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such a monster as never seen before.
Secure, like a fortress on a towering mountain,
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I saw a disheveled harlot sitting there,
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casting provocative glances this way and that.
I saw a giant who stood beside her,
perhaps to prevent her being taken from him.
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They were kissing each other again and again.
But because she turned on me
her lustful, roving eye, that savage lover
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thrashed her body from head to foot.
Then, full of suspicion and cruel in his rage,
he unhitched the monster and dragged it through the wood
so far that the wood itself now screened
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the harlot and the strange brute from my sight.
‘Deus, venerunt gentes,’
the ladies,
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now three, now four, in alternation sang,
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beginning their sweet psalmody in tears,
and Beatrice, sighing and compassionate,
was listening, her face so changed in its expression
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that Mary’s, at the cross, was hardly more transformed.
But when the other virgins stopped their song,
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allowing her to speak, she answered, rising
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to her feet and blazing like a fire:
Then she arranged the seven before her
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and, with a gesture, signaled me, the lady,
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and the sage who had remained, to follow.
Thus she moved forward. I do not believe
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she had left her tenth step on the ground
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when her piercing eyes met mine
and, with a calmer look, she said: ‘Follow me
more closely, so that, if I should speak to you,
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you will be able to hear me better.’
And as soon as I, obeying, drew up near her,
she asked: ‘My brother, since we are together,
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why do you not dare to ask me questions?’
As with those who are too shy
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when speaking to their betters and thus fail
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to bring their words distinctly to their lips,
so it was with me, and in a failing voice
I began: ‘My lady, You know what I lack
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and exactly how You may provide it.’