Данте Алигьери – The Divine Comedy / Божественная комедия (страница 32)

100 Nor speaking less on that account, I go

With Ser Brunetto, and I ask who are

His most known and most eminent companions.

And he to me: “To know of some is well;

Of others it were laudable to be silent,

105 For short would be the time for so much speech.

Know them in sum, that all of them were clerks,

And men of letters great and of great fame,

In the world tainted with the selfsame sin.

Priscian goes yonder with that wretched crowd,

110 And Francis of Accorso; and thou hadst seen there

If thou hadst had a hankering for such scurf,

That one, who by the Servant of the Servants

From Arno was transferred to Bacchiglione,

Where he has left his sin-excited nerves.

115 More would I say, but coming and discoursing

Can be no longer; for that I behold

New smoke uprising yonder from the sand.

A people comes with whom I may not be;

Commended unto thee be my Tesoro,

120 In which I still live, and no more I ask.”

Then he turned round, and seemed to be of those

Who at Verona run for the Green Mantle

Across the plain; and seemed to be among them

The one who wins, and not the one who loses.

Canto XVI

Now was I where was heard the reverberation

Of water falling into the next round,

Like to that humming which the beehives make,

When shadows three together started forth,

5 Running, from out a company that passed

Beneath the rain of the sharp martyrdom.

Towards us came they, and each one cried out:

“Stop, thou; for by thy garb to us thou seemest

To be some one of our depraved city.”

10 Ah me! what wounds I saw upon their limbs,

Recent and ancient by the flames burnt in!

It pains me still but to remember it.

Unto their cries my Teacher paused attentive;

He turned his face towards me, and “Now wait,”

15 He said; “to these we should be courteous.

And if it were not for the fire that darts

The nature of this region, I should say

That haste were more becoming thee than them.”

As soon as we stood still, they recommenced

20 The old refrain, and when they overtook us,

Formed of themselves a wheel, all three of them.

As champions stripped and oiled are wont to do,

Watching for their advantage and their hold,

Before they come to blows and thrusts between them,

25 Thus, wheeling round, did every one his visage

Direct to me, so that in opposite wise

His neck and feet continual journey made.

And, “If the misery of this soft place

Bring in disdain ourselves and our entreaties,”

30 Began one, “and our aspect black and blistered,

Let the renown of us thy mind incline

To tell us who thou art, who thus securely

Thy living feet dost move along through Hell.

He in whose footprints thou dost see me treading,

35 Naked and skinless though he now may go,

Was of a greater rank than thou dost think;

He was the grandson of the good Gualdrada;

His name was Guidoguerra, and in life

Much did he with his wisdom and his sword.