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FLORENCE exult! for thou so mightily Hast thriven, that o’er land and sea thy wings Thou beatest, and thy name spreads over hell! Among the plund’rers such the three I found Thy citizens, whence shame to me thy son, And no proud honour to thyself redounds. But if our minds, when dreaming near the dawn, Are of the truth presageful, thou ere long Shalt feel what Prato, (not to say the rest) Would fain might come upon thee; and that chance Were in good time, if it befell thee now. Would so it were, since it must needs befall! For as time wears me, I shall grieve the more. We from the depth departed; and my guide Remounting scal’d the flinty steps, which late We downward trac’d, and drew me up the steep. Pursuing thus our solitary way Among the crags and splinters of the rock, Sped not our feet without the help of hands. Then sorrow seiz’d me, which e’en now revives, As my thought turns again to what I saw, And, more than I am wont, I rein and curb The powers of nature in me, lest they run Where Virtue guides not; that if aught of good My gentle star, or something better gave me, I envy not myself the precious boon. As in that season, when the sun least veils His face that lightens all, what time the fly Gives way to the shrill gnat, the peasant then Upon some cliff reclin’d, beneath him sees Fire-flies innumerous spangling o’er the vale, Vineyard or tilth, where his day-labour lies: With flames so numberless throughout its space Shone the eighth chasm, apparent, when the depth Was to my view expos’d. As he, whose wrongs The bears aveng’d, at its departure saw Elijah’s chariot, when the steeds erect Rais’d their steep flight for heav’n; his eyes meanwhile, Straining pursu’d them, till the flame alone Upsoaring like a misty speck he kenn’d; E’en thus along the gulf moves every flame, A sinner so enfolded close in each, That none exhibits token of the theft. Upon the bridge I forward bent to look, And grasp’d a flinty mass, or else had fall’n, Though push’d not from the height. The guide, who mark’d How I did gaze attentive, thus began: "Within these ardours are the spirits, each Swath’d in confining fire."--"Master, thy word," I answer’d, "hath assur’d me; yet I deem’d Already of the truth, already wish’d To ask thee, who is in yon fire, that comes So parted at the summit, as it seem’d Ascending from that funeral pile, where lay The Theban brothers?" He replied: "Within Ulysses there and Diomede endure Their penal tortures, thus to vengeance now Together hasting, as erewhile to wrath. These in the flame with ceaseless groans deplore The ambush of the horse, that open’d wide A portal for that goodly seed to pass, Which sow’d imperial Rome; nor less the guile Lament they, whence of her Achilles ’reft Deidamia yet in death complains. And there is rued the stratagem, that Troy Of her Palladium spoil’d."--"If they have power Of utt’rance from within these sparks," said I, "O master! think my prayer a thousand fold In repetition urg’d, that thou vouchsafe To pause, till here the horned flame arrive. See, how toward it with desire I bend." He thus: "Thy prayer is worthy of much praise, And I accept it therefore: but do thou Thy tongue refrain: to question them be mine, For I divine thy wish: and they perchance, For they were Greeks, might shun discourse with thee." When there the flame had come, where time and place Seem’d fitting to my guide, he thus began: "O ye, who dwell two spirits in one fire! If living I of you did merit aught, Whate’er the measure were of that desert, When in the world my lofty strain I pour’d, Move ye not on, till one of you unfold In what clime death o’ertook him self-destroy’d." Of the old flame forthwith the greater horn Began to roll, murmuring, as a fire That labours with the wind, then to and fro Wagging the top, as a tongue uttering sounds, Threw out its voice, and spake: "When I escap’d From Circe, who beyond a circling year Had held me near Caieta, by her charms, Ere thus Aeneas yet had nam’d the shore, Nor fondness for my son, nor reverence Of my old father, nor return of love, That should have crown’d Penelope with joy, Could overcome in me the zeal I had T’ explore the world, and search the ways of life, Man’s evil and his virtue. Forth I sail’d Into the deep illimitable main, With but one bark, and the small faithful band That yet cleav’d to me. As Iberia far, Far as Morocco either shore I saw, And the Sardinian and each isle beside Which round that ocean bathes. Tardy with age Were I and my companions, when we came To the strait pass, where Hercules ordain’d The bound’ries not to be o’erstepp’d by man. The walls of Seville to my right I left, On the’ other hand already Ceuta past. "O brothers!" I began, "who to the west Through perils without number now have reach’d, To this the short remaining watch, that yet Our senses have to wake, refuse not proof Of the unpeopled world, following the track Of Phoebus. Call to mind from whence we sprang: Ye were not form’d to live the life of brutes But virtue to pursue and knowledge high. With these few words I sharpen’d for the voyage The mind of my associates, that I then Could scarcely have withheld them. To the dawn Our poop we turn’d, and for the witless flight Made our oars wings, still gaining on the left. Each star of the’ other pole night now beheld, And ours so low, that from the ocean-floor It rose not. Five times re-illum’d, as oft Vanish’d the light from underneath the moon Since the deep way we enter’d, when from far Appear’d a mountain dim, loftiest methought Of all I e’er beheld. Joy seiz’d us straight, But soon to mourning changed. From the new land A whirlwind sprung, and at her foremost side Did strike the vessel. Thrice it whirl’d her round With all the waves, the fourth time lifted up The poop, and sank the prow: so fate decreed: And over us the booming billow clos’d." |
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