(illustration from Dante's Inferno Journal)
HELL: Chapter 7
"Daddy Mephisto! Daddy Buguboo!"
gargled the demon. Like a bulging sack
his bloated body almost filled the gap 3
torn in the cliff our track descended through.
"Never fear him," murmured my gentle guide.
Pointing at Plutus swollen face, he said 6
"Shut up, you wolfish clown! Chew your own gut!
Our journey into Hell is willed on high
where archangelic swords cut rebels down!" 9
As billowing sails of scudding ship
crumple of tangles if the mast collapse,
so crumpled Plutus. We descended past, 12
arriving at the fourth shore round the bin
all evil sinks to, where I stared amazed
by the insanity that raged therein. 15
Justice of God! I cannot understand
why men condemn themselves to endless pain
by madly chasing earthy loss and gain. 18
....
How short a comedy it is, my son,
this play of wealth that's only blessed by luck,
since all the gold that glows beneath the moon 45
can't buy a single soul one moments rest."
Said I," Please tell me more about this luck
who seems to hold the worlds wealth in her fist." 48
Said he to me," O creatures of the dark –
you human brood until reason's spark,
allow my sentences to do you good. 51
The mind who formed the universe tool care
that every one could have an equal share
of sunlight, moonlight, starlight and sweet air. 54
On earth such widespread goodness cannot be.
Most goods become a private property
even within a small community. 57
Inside a city or a nation state
great force or cumming can accumulate
properties, letting some cliques dominate 60
until the angel with so many names –
luck, chance, fate, fortune, mutability –
makes new cliques prosper, other cliques decay, 63
whether by vice or virtue, who can say?
But those who trust, not virtue, but to luck
have gone astray, aye, very far astray. 66
A day and night have passed since we set out.
We must not linger longer on our way
but go to look at deeper misery." 69
...
Walking between the Styx and that foul sight
my master said," Outrageous violence
condemns these souls to mindless, endless spite. 87
Now turn your eyes and look the other way
to the black slime bubbling like boiling broth
caused by the sights of damned souls underneath. 90
I'll tell you what they'd like to say but can't.
On earth we were so full of our own woe
we saw no good in any gift of God. 93
Not space, time, air, sunlight or love itself
should woo us from our miserable state.
Eternal sullenness is now our fate. 96
Aye, could they speak such words would be their chant.
Bubbles are all that will be seen of them."
Conversing, we eventually came 99
to a base of a big tower that had no name. 100
"Dante's Sublime Comedy," a continuing translation by Alasdair Gray of Scotland, appears on his blog. With appreciation to wood s lot.
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