Dante Inferno Canto 26 translated by David Bruce Gain

Rejoice, O Florence, as you are the belle;

Your wings encompass land and sea so well
Your name is known in all the holes of hell.
I found among the thieves five men of fame,
Surely, O Florence, such a source of shame!
You'll soon have the fate, if dawn dreams are true,
That Prato and the others crave for you.
If come, as come it must, 'twill be relief;
The longer the delay, the more my grief.
My master's tasks to pull, mine to submit;
So 'twas thus we remounted bit by bit
The stairs down which we'd erewhile neared the pit.
Alone we clambered o'er the high rock stand;
The foot could not advance without the hand.
I know that I grieved then and now, once more,
I grieve when I remember what I saw.
Now more than e'er I deem my skill a threat
If it runs a course that right has not set.
'tis a good which, if from a lucky star
Or something e'en better, I must not mar.
In the season the world's light most espies,
At the hour gnats take over from the flies,
The hind snug on a hill looks down below
Where he perhaps picks grapes or wields the hoe
And sees dense swarms of flickering fireflies glow.
E'en so the eighth bag's fearsome fires were vast
When I was where I saw the depths at last.
As th' avenged by bears saw Elijah rise
When his car's horses reared and climbed the skies,
And, though he tried to follow with his eyes,
'twas but the flame alone he could espy
Like a small cloud once it has risen high,
So each flame moves himself along the throat
Of the abyss, none showing me his tote,
But all sending the sinnners that they note.
I craned so o'er the bridge to look that, if
My hold upon a rock had not been stiff,
I would, unpushed, have fallen offf the cliff.
My guide, who saw me so struck by the sight:
"Each moving fire you see conceals a sprite,
Each tightly swathed in what sets him alight".
I: "Guide, your words tell me I had a clue
To test; the one I'd thought would help was you.
I'd know who's in that cleft flame (mad desire!)
Like that one which once sprang up from the fire
That was Eteocles' and his brother's pyre".
"Ulysses with Diomede's in that fire",
Said he, "joined in their doom as in their ire.
They thus mourn that inside the horse, the seed,
The gate whence came the noble Roman breed.
They pay for the Palladium and the ploy
That reft Deidamia, now dead, of joy
When her beloved Achilles sailed for Troy".
I: "Guide, I pray a thousand times and more,
If they can speak despite the fierce flames' roar,
That you do not refuse me time to stay
Until the coming of the two-horned ray;
You see how longingly I lean that way".
Then he : "I grant your most praiseworthy suit;
But see to it that your tongue remains mute.
I'll speak; I can predict your very word;
If you speak they'll ignore whate'er they've heard".
He, when the space twixt flame and us was slight,
Decided that the time and place were right;
He spoke while I listened to him indict:
"O you who are two souls within one blaze,
Whate'er I deserved in my living days,
Whether I deserved much or little praise,
When in the world I wrote my epic verse,
Stay; tell me where you died when you turned worse".
The greater of the ancient flame's horns thinned,
Swaying, quivering, rustling as if in wind.
We had thus both seen the tip of it fly
Back and forth and, as if the tongue's own cry,
The flame took on a voice and said: "When I
'scaped Circe's year-long hold near Gaeta
(Not so named till named so by Aenea),
Although I was fond of my son and loyal
To my revered aging sire and aboil,
Through love, to joy my wife, naught could spoil
My wish to know the world and know the dearth
Of man's goodness, but also know his worth.
So I set out on the deep and open sea
With just one ship and with that company,
Not many, who had not deserted me.
Far as Morocco, far as Spain I scanned
Both shores; I saw Sardinia's island strand
And all the sea and every wave-girt land.
We were tired and old, I and every mate,
When finally we reached the narrow strait
Where Hercules set signal pillars fast
To warn men that it must not e'er be passed;
Yet we, Seville past on the right, were reft
Of Ceuta we'd sighted on the left.
'Brothers, though countless perils have oppressed'
I cried to them, 'we've won at last the west;
While we yet live we'll see what seas afford
Behind the sun; we'll probe the unexplored.
We Greeks weren't born to live like mindless brutes;
Knowledge and worth must be your preferred routes'.
My short short speech had so inspired my crew
I'd not stopped them e'en had I wanted to.
And with our stern turned to the morning light
We made our oars our wings for that mad flight,
Gaining distance, always shunning the right.
Night now already knew th' other pole's stars,
Ours was so low 'twas far below the spars.
Five times since we'd first ventured on the main
The moon had waxed, only to wane again;
We saw a distant, darkened mountain soar,
A mountain such as never seen before.
Our joy at the new land soon turned to grief;
A wind battered the ship without relief.;
We were thrice whilred within the churning swell;
The stern's then high, the bows deep in a well,
A sight full fain to please the lord of hell;
The sea then closed above us was our knell".