Dante's Divine Comedy: The Inferno, Canto I - Canto V

this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recorded by Corey Samuel the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri translated by Henry was with Longfellow inferno canto 1 Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark for the straightforward pathway had been lost army how hard a thing it is to say what was this forest savage rough and stern which in the very thought renews the fear so bitter is it death is little more part of the good to treat which there I found speak will I of the other things I saw there I cannot well repeat how there I entered so full was I of slumber at the moment in which I had abandoned the true way but after I had reached a mountains foot at that point where the valley terminated which had with consternation pierced my heart upward I looked and I beheld its shoulders vested already with that planet's rays which leadeth others right by every Road then was the fear a little quieted that in my heart's lake had endured throughout the night which I had passed so piteously and even as he who with distressful breath forth issued from the sea upon the shore turns to the water perilous and gazes so did my soul that still was fleeing onward turn itself back to RIBA hold the pass which never yet a living person left after my weary body I had rested the way resumed I on the desert slope so the firm foot ever was the lower and low almost where the ascent began a panther light and swift exceedingly which with a spotted skin was covered her and never moved she from before my face nay rather did impede so much my way but many times I to return her turned the time was the beginning of the morning and up the Sun was mounting with those stars but with him were what time the love divine at first in motion set those beauteous things so were to me occasion of good hope the variegated skin of that wild beast the hour of time and the delicious season but not so much that did not give me fear a lion's aspect which appeared to me he seemed as if against me he were coming with head uplifted and with ravenous hunger so that it seemed the air was afraid of him and a she-wolf that with all hunger Ang's seemed to be laden in her McGinnis and many folk has caused to live for lon she brought upon me so much heaviness with the afraid that from her aspects came that either hope relinquished of the height and as he is who willingly acquires and the time comes that causes him to lose who weeps in all his thoughts and is despondent e'en such made me that beast without in peace which coming on against me by degrees thrust me back there where the Sun is silent while I was rushing downward to the lowland before mine eyes did one present himself who seemed from long continued silence horse when I beheld him in the desert vast have pity on me unto him I cried which air thou art or shade or real man he answered me not man man once I was and both my parents were of Lombardy and man to ins by country both of them sub julio was i born though it was late and lived at rome under the good or Gustus during the time of false and lying gods a poet was I and I sang that's just son of anti-seize who came forth from Troy after that iliyan the superb was burned but thou mayest go thou back to such annoyance while climbs down at the mount delectable which is the source and cause of every joy now art thou that virtuous and that fountain which spreads abroad so wide a river of speech I made response to him with bashful forehead o of the other poets honour and light avail me the long study and greats love that have impelled me to explore thy him thou art my master and my author thou thou art alone the one from whom I took the beautiful style that has done honour to me behold the Beast for which I have turned back do thou protect me from her famous sage for she doth make my veins and pulses tremble the it behooves to take another road responded he when he beheld me weeping if from this savage place thou wouldst escape because this beast at which thou criest out suffers not any one to pass her way but so does her ass him that she destroys him and has nature so malign and ruthless that never does she glut her greedy will and after food is hungrier than before many the animals with whom she weds and more they shall be still until the Greyhound comes who shall make her perish in her pain he shall not feed on either earth or pelf but upon wisdom and on love and virtue twixt feltro and feltro she shall his nation be of that low Italy shall he be the savior on whose accounts the maid Camilla died Uriel Asst Turnus Nisa of their wounds through every city shall he hunt her down till he shall have driven her back to hell there from whence Envy first did let her loose therefore I think and judge it for thy best they'll follow me and I will be thy guide and lead thee hence through the eternal place where thou shalt hear the desperate lamentations shall see the ancient spirits disconsolate who cry out each one for the second death and thou shalt see those who contented are within the fire because they hope to come when air it may be to the Blessed people to whom then if thou wishest to ascend a soul shall be for that the nigh more worthy with her at my departure I will leave thee because that Emperor who reigns above in that I was rebellious to his law wills that through me none come into his City he governs everywhere and there he reigns there is his City and his lofty throne o happy he whom thereto he elects and I to him poet IV entreat by that same God whom thou didst never know that I may escape this woe and worse thou wouldst conduct me there where thou has said that I may see the portal of Sint Peter and those thou makest so disconsolate then he moved on and I behind him followed end of canto 1 inferno canto two day was departing and the embrowned air released the animals that are on earth from their fatigues and I the only one made myself ready to sustain the war both of the and likewise of the woe which memory that airs not shall retrace ohm uses oh hi genius now assist me no memory that didst write down what I saw here the nobility shall be manifest and I began poet who guided me regard my manhood if it should be sufficient air to the arduous pass foul dust confide me fell sayest that of silvius the parent while yet corruptible unto the world immortal went and was their bodily but if the adversary of all evil was courteous thinking of the high effect that issue would from him and who and what to men of intellects and meat it seems not for he was of great Rome and of her Empire in the Imperial heaven as father chosen the which and what wishing to speak the truth was stablished as the holy place wherein sits the successor of the greatest Peter upon this journey when stir they'll give us him vaunt things did here which the occasion were both of his victory and the papal mantle vivir went afterwards the chosen vessel to bring back comfort thence unto that faith which off salvations way is the beginning but I why there they come or who concedes it I not any Oh Sam I am NOT Paul nor I nor others think me worthy of it therefore if I resign myself to come I fear the coming may be ill-advised thou it's wise and knowest better than I speak and as he is who one wills what he willed and by a new thought stuff his intention change so that from his design he quite withdraws such I became on that dark hillside because in thinking I consumed the prize which was so very prompt in the beginning if I have well thy language understood replied that shade of the magnanimous thy soul attaint it is with cowardice which many times a man in cumbers so it turns him back from honored enterprise as false sight the Beast when he is shy that thou mayst free thee from this apprehension I'll tell thee why I came and what I heard at the first moment when I grieved for thee among those was I who are in suspense and affair saintly lady called to me in such wise I besought her to command me her eyes were shining brighter than the star and she began to say gentle and low with voice and Jellicle in her own language o spirit courteous of Mantua of whom the fame still in the world in doers and shall endure long lasting as the world a friend of mine and not the friend of fortune upon the desert slope is so impede it upon his way that he is turned through terror and may I fear already be so lost that I too late have risen to his succor from that which I have heard of him in heaven mister thee now and with thy speech ornate and with what needful is for his release assist him so that I may be consoled Beatrice am i who do bid thee go I come from there where I would fain return love moved me which compel earth me to speak when I shall be in presence of my lord full often will I praise thee unto Him then paused she and thereafter I began Oh lady of virtue thou alone through whom the human race exceeded all contained within the heaven that has the lesser circles so grateful unto me is thy commandment to obey if twere already done well no father needst thou oped to me thy wish but the cause tell me why that thus not shun the here descending down into the center from the vast place their burnished to return to since thou wouldst fain so inwardly discern briefly will I relate she answered me why I am Not Afraid to enter here of those things only should one be afraid which have the power of doing others harm of the rest no because they are not fearful God in His mercy such created me that misery of yours attains me not nor any flame assails me of this burning a gentle lady is in heaven who grieves at this impediment to which I send thee so that Stern judgment there above is broken in her entreaty she besought Lucia and said thy faithful one now stands in need of thee and unto thee I recommend him Lucia foe of all that cruel is hastened away and came unto the place where I was sitting with the ancient Rachel Beatrice said she the true praise of God was Sakura still so for thee he issued from the vulgar herd the stile not here the pity of his plains thus they'll not seed the death that combats him beside that flood where Ocean has no vaunt never were persons in the world so Swift to work their wheel and to escape their woe as I after such words as these were uttered came hither downward from My blessed seat confiding in thy dignified discourse which honours thee and are those who've listened to it after she thus had spoken unto me weeping her shining eyes she turned away whereby she made me swifter in my coming and unto thee I came as she desired I have delivered thee from that wild beast which barred the beautiful mountains short ascent what is it then why why does thou delay why is such baseness bedded in thy heart daring and hardihood why hast thou not seeing that three such ladies Benedick are caring for thee in the court of heaven and so much good my speech doth promise thee even as the florettes by nocturnal chill bowed down and closed when the Sun whitens them uplift themselves all open on their stems such I became with my exhausted strength and such good courage to my heart of their cost that I began like an intrepid person oh she compassionate who suckered me and courteous thou who has to bade so soon the words of truth which she addressed to thee thou hast my heart so with desire disposed to the adventure with these words of thine but to my first intent I have returned now go for one soul will is in us both vow leader and thou Lord and Master thou thus said I to him and when he had moved I entered on the deep and savage way end of canto to inferno canto three through me the way is to the city Doland through me the way is to eternal Dole through me the way among the people lost justice incited my sublime creator created me divine omnipotence the highest wisdom and the primal love before me there were no created things only a turn and I eternal lasts all hope abandon ye who enter in these words in somber color I beheld written upon the sumit of agate whence I their senses master hard to me and he to me as one experienced here all suspicion needs must be abandoned or cowardice must needs be here extinct we to the place have come where I have told thee thou shalt behold the people dollars who have forgotten the good of intellect and after he had laid his hand on mine with joyful men whence I was comforted he led me in among the secret things their size complaints and elevations loud resounding through the air without a star whence I at the beginning wept there at languages diverse horrible dialects accents of anger words of agony and voices high and hoarse with sound of hands made up a tumult that goes whirling on forever in that air forever black even as the sands Duff when the whirlwind breathes and I who had my head with horror bound said master what is this which now I hear what focus this which seems by pain so vanquished and he to me this miserable mode maintained the melancholy souls of those who lived without an infamy or praise commingled are they with that caitiff choir of angels who have not rebellious been nor faithful word to God but were for self the heavens expelled them not to be less fair nor them the nether more abyss receives for glory than the damned world would have from them and I Oh master what so Grievous is to these that maketh them lament so saw he answered I will tell thee very briefly these have no longer any hope of death and this blind life of theirs is so debased they envious are of every other fate no Fame of them the world permits to be misery cord and justice both disdain them let us not speak of them but look and pass and I who looked again beheld a banner which whirling round ran on so rapidly that of all pause it seemed to me indignant and after it there came so long a train of people that I now would have believed that ever death so many had undone when some among them I had recognized I looked and I beheld the shade of him who made through cowardice the great refusal forthwith I comprehended and was certain that this the sect was of the Katie fetches hateful to God and to his enemies these miscreants who never were alive were naked and was stung exceedingly by gadflies and by Hornets that were there these did their faces irrigate with blood which with their tears commingled at their feet by the disgusting worms was gathered up and when to gazing father I / took me people I saw on a great rivers Bank whence said I master now vouchsafe to me that I may know who these are and what law makes them appear so ready to pass over as I discern athwart for dusky light and he to me these things shall all be known to thee as soon as we our footsteps stay upon the dismal shore of asharam then with mine eyes ashamed and downward cast fearing my words might perk some be to him from speech refrained I till we reached the river and lo towards us coming about an old man hoary with the hair of elde crying woe unto ye ye souls depraved hope Nevermore to look upon the heavens I come to lead you to the other Shore to the eternal shades in heat and frost and thau that you understand us living soul withdraw thee from these people who are dead but when he saw that I did not withdraw he said by other ways by other ports Vout the shore shalt come not here for passage a lighter vessel needs must carry thee and unto Him the guide vex thee not sharin it is so willed where there is power to do that which is willed and father question not there at were quieted the fleecy cheeks of him the ferryman of the livid fen who round his eyes had wheels of flame but all those souls who where he were and naked their colour changed and gnashed their teeth together as soon as they had heard those cruel words God they blaspheme and their progenitors the human race the place the time the seed of their engendering and of their birth thereafter all together they drew back bitterly weeping to be accursed sure which waiteth every man who fears not God cheran the demon with the eyes of glede beckoning to them collects them all together beats with his or whoever lags behind as in the autumn time the leaves fall off first one and then another till the branch unto the earth surrenders all its spoils in similar wise the evil seed of Adam throw themselves from that margin one by one at signals as a bird unto its lure so they depart across the dusky wave and air upon the other side they land again on this side a new troop assembles my son the courteous master said to me all those who perish in the wrath of God here meet together out of every land and ready of a to pass over the river because celestial justice Spurs them on so that their fear is turned into desire this way then never passes a good soul and hence if cheran doth complain of thee well Maius they'll know now what his speech imports this being finished all the dusk champagne trembled so violently that of that terror the recollection bathes me still with sweat the land of tears gave forth a blast of wind and fulminated of a million light which overmastered me in every sense and as a man whom sleep hath seized I fell end of canto three inferno canto 4 broke the deep lethargy within my head a heavy thunder so that I up started like to a person who by force is wakened and round about I moved my rested eyes are prison erect and steadfastly I gazed to recognize the place where he and I was true is it that upon the verge I found me of the abysmal Valley dolorous that gathers Thunder of infinite elevations obscure profound it was and nebulous so that by fixing on its depths my sight nothing whatever I discerned therein let us descend now into the blind world began the poet pallid utterly I will be first and thou shalt second be and I who of his color was aware said how shall I come if thou art afraid who it wants to be a comfort to my fears and he to me the anguish of the people who are below here in my face depicts that pity for which terror thou hast taken let us go on for the long way impels us thus he went in and thus he made me enter the foremost circle that surrounds the abyss there as it seemed to me from listening were lamentations none but only sighs that tremble made the everlasting air and this arose from sorrow without torment which the crowds had that many were and great of infants and of women and of men to me the master good that does not ask what spirits these which thou beholdest are now will I have thee know ere thou go father that they sinned not and if they merit had tis not enough because they had not baptism which is the portal of the faith thou holdest and if they were before Christianity in the right manner they adored not God and among such as these am I myself for such defects and not for other guilt lost are we and our only so far punished that without hope we live on in desire great grief seized on my heart when this I heard because some people have much worthiness I knew who him that Limbo were suspended tell me my master tell me thou my lord began I with desire of being certain of that faith which overcometh every error came any one by his own merit hence or by another's who was blessed thereafter and he who understood my covert speech replied I was a novice in this state when I saw here come a mighty one with sign of victory in coronate hence he drew forth the shade of the first parent and that of his son Abel and of Noah of Moses the lawgiver and to the obedient Abraham patriarch and David King Israel with his father and his children and Rachel for whose sake he did so much and others many and he made them blessed and thou must know that earlier than these never were any human spirits saved we ceased not to advance because he spake but still were passing onward through the forest the forest say I of thick crowded ghosts not very far as yet our way had gone this side the summit when I saw a fire that overcame a hemisphere of darkness we were a little distant from it still but not so far that iron part discerned not that honorable people held to that place o thou who onerous every art and science who may these be which such great honor have that from the fashion of the rest it parts them and he to me the honorable name that sounds of them above there in thy life winds grace in heaven that so advances them in the meantime a voice was heard by me all honor be to the preeminent poet his shade returns again that was departed after the voice had ceased and quiet was for mighty shades I saw approaching us semblance had they nor sorrowful nor glad to say to me began my gracious master him with that fell Shin in his hand behold who comes before the three even as their Lord that's one is homer poet sovereign he who comes next is Horace the satirist the third is Ovid and the last is Lucan because to each of these with me applies the name that solitary voice proclaimed they do me honor and in that do well the Swiper held assemble the fair school of that Lord of the song preeminence who were the others like an eagle soars when they together had this cost somewhat they turned to me with signs of salutation and on beholding this my master smiled and more of honor still much more they did me in that they made me one of their own band so that the sixth was I made so much weight thus we went on as far as to the light things saying tis becoming to keep silent as was the saying of them where I was we came unto a noble castles foot seven times encompassed with lofty walls defended round by a fair River let this we passed over even as firm ground through portal seven I entered with these sages we came into a meadow of fresh Verger people were there with solemn eyes and slow of great Authority in their countenance they spake but seldom and with gentle voices thus we withdrew ourselves upon one side into an opening luminous and lofty so that they all of them were visible their opposite upon the green enamel were pointed out to me the mighty spirits whom to have seen I feel myself exalted I saw Electra with companions many amongst whom I knew both Hector and Aeneas Caesar in Armour with Jerr Falcon eyes I saw Camilla and Penthesilea on the other side and saw the King Latinus who with Lavinia his daughter Sat I saw that Brutus who drove Tarquin forth Lucretia Julia Marcia and Cornel and saw alone apart the Saladin when I had lifted up my brows a little the master I beheld of those who know sit with his philosophic family all gaze upon him and all do him honor there I beheld both Socrates and Plato who nearer him before the others stand Democritus who puts the world on chance Diogenes anaxagoras and Farley's Zeno and Peter Cleese and Heraclitus of qualities I saw the good collector Heights discouraged ease and Orpheus saw I Tully and Livy and moral Seneca Euclid geometrician and Ptolemy Galen Hippocrates and Avicenna ever arose who the great comment made i cannot all of them betray in full because so drives me onward the long theme that many times the word come short of fact the six fold company in two divides another way my sapiens guide conducts me forth from the quiet to the air that trembles and to a place I come when nothing shines end of canto for inferno canto v thus I descended out of the first circle down to the second that less space baguettes and so much greater dole that goads to whaling there standeth Menace horribly and snarls examines the transgressions at the entrance judges and sends accordingly as he Gerdes him I say that when the spirit evil born cometh before him wholly it confesses and this discriminator of transgressions cieth what place in hell is meat for it Gerdes himself with his tale as many times as grades he wishes it should be thrust down always before him many of them stand they go by turns each one unto the judgment they speak and hear and then a downward hurled oh thou that to this dolorous hostelry comest said menaced me when he saw me leaving the practice of so great an office look how thou interest and in whom thou trustus let's not the portals amplitude deceive thee and unto him my guide why cry Estelle to do not impede his journey fate ordained it is so willed there where there is power to do that which is willed and ask no further question and now begin the Dolson notes to grow audible unto me now I am come there where much lamentation strikes upon me I came into a place mute of all light which bellows as the Cedars in a tempest if by opposing winds tis combatted the infernal hurricane that never rests hurtles the spirits onwards in its rapine whirling them round and smiting it molest s' them when they arrived before the precipice there are the shrieks the plates and the laments there they blaspheme the poisson's divine I understand that unto such a torment the carnal malefactors were condemned who reasoned subjugates to appetite and as the wings of starlings bear them on in the cold season in large band and full soda that blast of the spirits maledicte it hither thither downward upward drives them no hope doth comfort them for evermore not of repose but even of lesser pain and as the cranes go chanting forth their leis making in air a long line of themselves so saw i coming uttering lamentations shadows borne onward by the aforesaid stress whereupon said I master who are those people whom the black air so castigates the first of those of whom intelligence thou fain wouldst have then said he unto me the Empress was of many languages to sensual vices she was so abandoned that lustful isset in her law to remove the blame to which she had been led she is Semiramis of whom we read that she succeeded ninis and with his spouse she held the land which now the Sultan rules the next is she who killed herself for love and broke faith with the ashes of tsuchiya's then Cleopatra the voluptuous Helen I saw for whom so many ruthless seasons revolved and saw the great Achilles who at the last hour combatted with love Paris I saw Tristan and more than a thousand shades did he name and point out with his finger whom love had separated from our life after that I had listened to my teacher naming the Dame's of elde and Cavaliers pity prevailed and I was neither wildered and I began a poet willingly speak would I to those two who go together and seem upon the wind to be so light and he to me felt mark when they shall be nearer to us and then do thou implore them by love which leadeth them and they will come soon as the wind in our direction sways them my voice uplift i o ye weary Souls come speak to us if no one interdict sit as turtledoves called onward by desire with open and steady wings to the sweet nest fly through the air by their volition borne so came they from the band where Dido is approaching us a thwart the air malign so strong was the affectionate appeal o living creature gracious and benign and who sitting goest through the purple air us who have stained the world incarnadine if were the king of the universe our friend we would pray unto Him to give thee peace since thou hast pity on our way verse of what it pleases thee to hear and speak that's will we hear and we will speak to you while silent is the wind as it is now sitteth the city wherein I was born upon the seashore where the PO descends to rest in peace with all his retinue love but on gentle hearts death swiftly cease cease to this man for the person beautiful that was taken from me and still the mode offends me love that exempts no one beloved from loving seized me with pleasure of this man so strongly that as thou seest it does not yet desert me love has conducted us unto one death Kain awaiteth him who quenched our life these words were born along from them to us as soon as I had heard those souls tormented about my face and so long held it down until the poet said to me what thinkest when I'm a dancer I began alas how many pleasant thoughts how much desire conducted these under the dollar Espace then unto them I turned me and I spake and I began Vine Agony's Francesca sad and compassionate to weeping make me but tell me at the time of those sweet sighs by what and in what manner love conceded that you should know your dubious desires and she to me there is no greater sorrow than to be mindful of the happy time in misery and that sigh teacher knows but if to recognize the earliest root of love in us thou hast so great desire I will do even as he who beeps and speaks one day we reading were for our delight of Lancelot how love did him enthrall alone we were and without any fear full many a time our eyes together drew that reading and to drove the colour from our faces but one point only was it that Eric Amos when as we read of the much longed for smile being by such a noble lover kissed this one who never for me shall be divided kissed me upon the mouth all palpitating Galli otto was the book and he who wrote it that day no father did we read therein and all the while one spirit uttered this the other did weep so that for pity I swooned away as if I had been dying and fell even as a dead body falls end of inferno canto one two five

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Keywords: God, LibriVox, Paradise, Inspiring, Dante Alighieri, Dante Audiobook, Masterpiece, Classic, Dante's Inferno, Heaven and Hell, Medieval Literature, Audiobook, Purgatory, Literature, Inferno, Afterlife, Renaissance, The Divine Comedy, Christianity, Book 1, Poem, English Translation

Id: DC5NqLPfjMw

Length: 43min 11sec (2591 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 17 2017