Dante Inferno Canto 12 translated by D. B.

Gain
Its crags, and something else, made us both shrink
From bounding carefree down th` embattling brink,
Crags like the spill earthquake or slippage sent
T` Adigo`s left bank on this side of Trent.
The shattered, slithered rocks that summit rent
Would grant us a most difficult descent.
Worse, at the rent chasm`s edge one could greet,
Stretched out right there, the infamy of Crete,
Got in what seemed a cow but was a girl;
The sight of us set off a maddened whirl;
He bit his flesh as if he were a churl.
My skilful guide: "Perhaps you think you eye
Again Athens` king, come to make you die.
Begone you beast, because he is not led
Down here by means of clues your sister fed;
He comes here only to gloat o`er your dread".
As bulls break loose the moment that they know
For sure that they`ve been dealt a mortal blow,
With but jumps, twists and turns where`er they go,
Just so I saw the Minotaur as clown;
While he still writhes with rage, get started down".
And so we made our way down through the rocks,
Twisting and tilting from unnumbered knocks
From feet that gave them such unwonted shocks.
He thus began when I was deep in thought:
"Think you of that ruin~guarding beast full fraught
Whose crazed and rampant rage I soon cur short?
The other time (a time I know full well)
I came down to the lower part of hell
This rock stood proud, not yet a ruined shell.
`twas just ere the advent of the One so Wise
Who lightened hell`s first circle of its prize,
This sewer shook from base to that above,
So that I thought the universe felt love,
Whereby, some say, cruel chaos has been hurled
Far more than once upon th` unwilling world.
The last time was the time when some sharp shock
Created fissures in this ancient rock.
By peering down the valley you can scan
Blood boiling those who wronged their fellow man".
O blind cupidity and insane ire
That mars our short earth life with spurs so dire,
To steep us then fore`er in such a fire!
There was a bow~curved river that I eyed,
Meandering though the flatland there, as wide
As had been foretold by my sage~souled guide.
`twixt flow and steep I saw some Centaurs race
In single file with arrows in a case,
As they did once when caught up in the chase.
A far one cried: "Your torture? I would know.
Speak where you stand ~ if not, I draw my bow".
My guide: "I`ll answer Chiron when we`re there.
But you ~ I see you are as rash as e`er".
He touched me, saying: "There`s Nessus, heart filled
With fair Dejanira (the blood he spilled
When killed caused his own killer to be killed).
Chiron who views his chest`s Achilles nurse;
The last is Pholus, whom drunk rage made worse.
They gallop by the thousands rouind the dike,
To let a self~displaying guilty tyke
Feel their sharp arrows` stern avenging strike".
We neared these swift beasts; Chiron drew a shaft
And with its notch he drew his beard abaft.
He said, his mouth now free: "The one behind
Moves, do you see, all that his fingers find.
`tis not a doing of the ghostly kind".
And my good leader, standing at the breast,
Where the two bodies in him merge, confessed:
"He lives, and yet so lonely is his quest
He`ll only pass this lone vale as my guest,
Not at joy`s but necessity`s behest.
From singing alleluias with the Lord
Came she who gave me this new charge unflawed.
He is no robber nor am I a fraud.
By that Great Power in whose Name I stride
Give us one of your kind to be our guide,
To lead us to the ford and, when we`re there,
To carry him across in his own care,
As he is not one who can walk on air".
Chiron had Nessus on his right to hail.
He did: "Go guide and make sure they prevail.
If others should protest, make sure they fail".
We skirt the red flow`s bank, our escort loyal,
And hear the savage shrieks of those who boil.
We saw men sunk to eyelids in the flood;
The Centaur: "Tyrants loving theft and blood.
You`ll see with Alexander in this clime
Dionysius, poor Sicily`s cruel zyme;
Their tears are paying for their life of crime.
And here is Azzolino, he of hair
As black as Obizzo d` Esti`s is fair.
His own stepson has reft his throat of air".
I asked Virgil, who said, howe`er: "`tis he
Who must instruct you now; look not at me".
A little further the Centaur stopped o`er
What were but heads which peeped out from the gore.
His finger, pointed at one side, condemns
One there who murdered in God`s keep; naught stems
The heart still dripping blood above the Thames.
I saw others chest~high above the flood
And knew full many bathed there in its blood.
The flood lessened till but feet~high it poured;
`twas here we found a place that we could ford.
The Centaur: "The boil here gets slowly less,
There slowly more, to where tyrants confess.
`tis there that Heaven`s justice proves its worth
Against Atilla, the scourge of the earth.
Scalding blood wrings tears from Rinier Pazzo,
Pyrrhus, Sextus, Rinier da Corneto.
Their battlefield was but a robbers` lane".
With this he turned and crossed the ford again.