Dante Alighieri
translation: Rev. H. F. Cary

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

 While singly thus along the rim we walk'd,
 Oft the good master warn'd me: "Look thou well.
 Avail it that I caution thee."  The sun
 Now all the western clime irradiate chang'd
 From azure tinct to white; and, as I pass'd,
 My passing shadow made the umber'd flame
 Burn ruddier.  At so strange a sight I mark'd
 That many a spirit marvel'd on his way.
 
 This bred occasion first to speak of me,
 "He seems," said they, "no insubstantial frame:"
 Then to obtain what certainty they might,
 Stretch'd towards me, careful not to overpass
 The burning pale.  "O thou, who followest
 The others, haply not more slow than they,
 But mov'd by rev'rence, answer me, who burn
 In thirst and fire: nor I alone, but these
 All for thine answer do more thirst, than doth
 Indian or Aethiop for the cooling stream.
 Tell us, how is it that thou mak'st thyself
 A wall against the sun, as thou not yet
 Into th' inextricable toils of death
 Hadst enter'd?"  Thus spake one, and I had straight
 Declar'd me, if attention had not turn'd
 To new appearance.  Meeting these, there came,
 Midway the burning path, a crowd, on whom
 Earnestly gazing, from each part I view
 The shadows all press forward, sev'rally
 Each snatch a hasty kiss, and then away.
 E'en so the emmets, 'mid their dusky troops,
 Peer closely one at other, to spy out
 Their mutual road perchance, and how they thrive.
 
 That friendly greeting parted, ere dispatch
 Of the first onward step, from either tribe
 Loud clamour rises: those, who newly come,
 Shout  "Sodom and Gomorrah!" these, "The cow
 Pasiphae enter'd, that the beast she woo'd
 Might rush unto her luxury."  Then as cranes,
 That part towards the Riphaean mountains fly,
 Part towards the Lybic sands, these to avoid
 The ice, and those the sun; so hasteth off
 One crowd, advances th' other; and resume
 Their first song weeping, and their several shout.
 
 Again drew near my side the very same,
 Who had erewhile besought me, and their looks
 Mark'd eagerness to listen.  I, who twice
 Their will had noted, spake: "O spirits secure,
 Whene'er the time may be, of peaceful end!
 My limbs, nor crude, nor in mature old age,
 Have I left yonder: here they bear me, fed
 With blood, and sinew-strung.  That I no more
 May live in blindness, hence I tend aloft.
 There is a dame on high, who wind for us
 This grace, by which my mortal through your realm
 I bear.  But may your utmost wish soon meet
 Such full fruition, that the orb of heaven,
 Fullest of love, and of most ample space,
 Receive you, as ye tell (upon my page
 Henceforth to stand recorded) who ye are,
 And what this multitude, that at your backs
 Have past behind us."  As one, mountain-bred,
 Rugged and clownish, if some city's walls
 He chance to enter, round him stares agape,
 Confounded and struck dumb; e'en such appear'd
 Each spirit.  But when rid of that amaze,
 (Not long the inmate of a (...)
(......)