Dante Alighieri
translation: Rev. H. F. Cary

THE DIVINE COMEDY - The Vision of Paradise, Purgatory and Hell
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CANTO VI

 When from their game of dice men separate,
 He, who hath lost, remains in sadness fix'd,
 Revolving in his mind, what luckless throws
 He cast: but meanwhile all the company
 Go with the other; one before him runs,
 And one behind his mantle twitches, one
 Fast by his side bids him remember him.
 He stops not; and each one, to whom his hand
 Is stretch'd, well knows he bids him stand aside;
 And thus he from the press defends himself.
 E'en such was I in that close-crowding throng;
 And turning so my face around to all,
 And promising, I 'scap'd from it with pains.
      Here of Arezzo him I saw, who fell
 By Ghino's cruel arm; and him beside,
 Who in his chase was swallow'd by the stream.
 Here Frederic Novello, with his hand
 Stretch'd forth, entreated; and of Pisa he,
 Who put the good Marzuco to such proof
 Of constancy.  Count Orso I beheld;
 And from its frame a soul dismiss'd for spite
 And envy, as it said, but for no crime:
 I speak of Peter de la Brosse; and here,
 While she yet lives, that Lady of Brabant
 Let her beware; lest for so false a deed
 She herd with worse than these. When I was freed
 From all those spirits, who pray'd for others' prayers
 To hasten on their state of blessedness;
 Straight I began: "O thou, my luminary!
 It seems expressly in thy text denied,
 That heaven's supreme decree can never bend
 To supplication; yet with this design
 Do these entreat.  Can then their hope be vain,
 Or is thy saying not to me reveal'd?"
      He thus to me: "Both what I write is plain,
 And these deceiv'd not in their hope, if well
 Thy mind consider, that the sacred height
 Of judgment doth not stoop, because love's flame
 In a short moment all fulfils, which he
 Who sojourns here, in right should satisfy.
 Besides, when I this point concluded thus,
 By praying no defect could be supplied;
 Because the pray'r had none access to God.
 Yet in this deep suspicion rest thou not
 Contented unless she assure thee so,
 Who betwixt truth and mind infuses light.
 I know not if thou take me right; I mean
 Beatrice.  Her thou shalt behold above,
 Upon this mountain's crown, fair seat of joy."
      Then I: "Sir! let us mend our speed; for now
 I tire not as before; and lo! the hill
 Stretches its shadow far."  He answer'd thus:
 "Our progress with this day shall be as much
 As we may now dispatch; but otherwise
 Than thou supposest is the truth.  For there
 Thou canst not be, ere thou once more behold
 Him back returning, who behind the steep
 Is now so hidden, that as erst his beam
 Thou dost not break.  But lo! a spirit there
 Stands solitary, and toward us looks:
 It will instruct us in the speediest way."
      We soon approach'd it.  O thou Lombard spirit!
 How didst thou stand, in high abstracted mood,
 Scarce moving with slow dignity thine eyes!
 It spoke not aught, but let us onward pass,
 Eyeing us as a lion on his watch.
 But Virgil (...)
(......)