Данте Алигьери – The Divine Comedy / Божественная комедия (страница 33)

40 The other, who close by me treads the sand,

Tegghiaio Aldobrandi is, whose fame

Above there in the world should welcome be.

And I, who with them on the cross am placed,

Jacopo Rusticucci was; and truly

45 My savage wife, more than aught else, doth harm me.”

Could I have been protected from the fire,

Below I should have thrown myself among them,

And think the Teacher would have suffered it;

But as I should have burned and baked myself,

50 My terror overmastered my good will,

Which made me greedy of embracing them.

Then I began: “Sorrow and not disdain

Did your condition fix within me so,

That tardily it wholly is stripped off,

55 As soon as this my Lord said unto me

Words, on account of which I thought within me

That people such as you are were approaching.

I of your city am; and evermore

Your labours and your honourable names

60 I with affection have retraced and heard.

I leave the gall, and go for the sweet fruits

Promised to me by the veracious Leader;

But to the centre first I needs must plunge.”

“So may the soul for a long while conduct

65 Those limbs of thine,” did he make answer then,

“And so may thy renown shine after thee,

Valour and courtesy, say if they dwell

Within our city, as they used to do,

Or if they wholly have gone out of it;

70 For Guglielmo Borsier, who is in torment

With us of late, and goes there with his comrades,

Doth greatly mortify us with his words.”

“The new inhabitants and the sudden gains,

Pride and extravagance have in thee engendered,

75 Florence, so that thou weep'st thereat already!”

In this wise I exclaimed with face uplifted;

And the three, taking that for my reply,

Looked at each other, as one looks at truth.

“If other times so little it doth cost thee,”

80 Replied they all, “to satisfy another,

Happy art thou, thus speaking at thy will!

Therefore, if thou escape from these dark places,

And come to rebehold the beauteous stars,

When it shall pleasure thee to say, 'I was,'

85 See that thou speak of us unto the people.”

Then they broke up the wheel, and in their flight

It seemed as if their agile legs were wings.

Not an Amen could possibly be said

So rapidly as they had disappeared;

90 Wherefore the Master deemed best to depart.

I followed him, and little had we gone,

Before the sound of water was so near us,

That speaking we should hardly have been heard.

Even as that stream which holdeth its own course

95 The first from Monte Veso tow'rds the East,

Upon the left-hand slope of Apennine,

Which is above called Acquacheta, ere

It down descendeth into its low bed,

And at Forli is vacant of that name,

100 Reverberates there above San Benedetto

From Alps, by falling at a single leap,

Where for a thousand there were room enough;

Thus downward from a bank precipitate,

We found resounding that dark-tinted water,