Dante Inferno Canto 17 translated by David Bruce Gain

"Behold the beast with stinging tail unfurled;

Past mountains, on walls and weapons he`s hurled;
Behold him that pollutes the whole wide world".
These were the words I heard my master pour
As he signalled the beast to come ashore
Up close to where the rocky levee`s o`er.
I saw then the foul fraud`s head and chest sail
Ashore, while the water still held his tail.
While his fair face seemed of an honest make
The rest of him, that trailed behind, was snake.
Knots and wheels held back, breast and rib~cage pair,
His two paws and both arms were hid in hair.
Arachne, Turks or Tartars couldn`t achieve
A work of richer colours, richer weave.
As fishing boats are sometimes seen to moor,
Part still in the water, part on the shore,
And just as busy beavers who stay
Near drunken Germans squat to catch their prey,
So that beast, the worst of beasts, took his stand
On the stone ledge that bounds that stretch of sand.
On the void beyond he exercised his swing,
Twitching and twisting up the venomed string
That armed his tip just like a scorpion`s sting.
Then my leader: "`tis right that our path yaws
A little towards those malignant jaws".
So we descended on our right and came
Ten paces onward, skirting the cliff`s frame,
To give a wide berth to the sand and flame.
When we had come to him I saw men shrink
Near him in sand that lay right on the brink.
"That naught in this gyre be unknown, go gain"
My master cried, "full knowledge of their pain.
I`ll go and ask this one to loan his strength.
So let your discoursiveness there lack length".
So I skirted the seventh gyre, all alone,
To where the set of sufferers were strown.
The pain was bursting from their eyes; each hand
Went scurrying up and down to withstand
Here the fierce flame and there the burning sand,
Like summer dogs, desperate to gain their ease
With paw and snout when bitten by the fleas.
I scanned faces scorched by the fiery flaw
But failed to recognize e`en one I saw.
Around each sinner`s neck a coin bag lies,
Of sign and colour you could recognize,
And, fixed on these, they seemed to feast their eyes.
I searched the crowd; blue on yellow was seen;
`twas a bag with a lion`s face and mien.
There`s another, blood red, it held no luce
But, whiter far than butter white, a goose.
Another shouted: "Why are you here now?"
His white bag held a farrowing blue sow.
"Away and learn, since you have still not died;
For neighbour Vitaliano I`ll provide;
He`ll sit with me upon my left hand side.
Save me, Paduan, they`re Florentines here
And they all keep on shouting in my ear:
"Bring on, bring on the peerless cavalier
With three~goat bag". He stuck his tongue right out
As far out as an ox licking his snout.
I left these tired Shadows, lest I bring grief
To the one who had warned me to be brief.
I saw my guide set high on that fierce beast.
He cried to me: "That fear is best that`s ceased.
We descend now. Such stairs as these avail.
Climb on up front. Behind, I`ll be your mail,
Because between you and the toxic tail".
One whom a shivering fever has greyed,
One who has already seen his bright nails fade,
Will tremble at the mere sight of cool shade.
I was that man when his wise words were stored,
But then felt those stabs of shame that afford
A thrall valour before his valorous lord.
Achieved! Ascent of this burning spire!
Yet I would cry: "Hold me, descent is dire!",
But had no voice to second my desire.
Then he who once before had seen my plight
And put his arms around me when in fright,
As soon as I was settled, held me tight.
And then he cried: "Geryon, do not wait.
Descend, circling wide and with gentle gait;
Remember you are carrying living freight!"
Just as a ship slips slowly from the shore,
Slowly, slowly, yes slowly, more and more,
Slowly, slowly, slowly he left that pier,
And, when he felt at last that he was clear,
Made sure it was his tail his breast could feel;
He stretched it undulating like an eel
As with his paws he made the air his meal.
I doubt if Phahethon`s fear went as far
When he dropped the reins of his father`s car
And gave the sky, once whole, its still~seen scar,
Nor Icarus` at the hot wax run,
Unfeathering him, with, from his father: "Shun
The sun`s fierce rays; you fly too high, my son",
As mine as I beheld nothing but air,
With only the beast I sat upon there.
He moves and his swim is slow. O so slow,
And descends a spiral path; this I know
But by a breeze ahead and one below.
I`d heard already on my right hand rise
From the whirlpool a horrible surprise;
And so I craned my head with downcast eyes.
But there I heard moans and the fierce fire`s power
And in my fear I could do naught but cower.
I saw then what I had not seen before,
What the spiral path of our descent bore,
Closing in on us ever more and more.
A falcon which has long been poised on high
With no bird or even a lure to eye
Descends, to the falconer`s despairing cry.
Tired, it makes a hundred whirls, to remain
Far from him, perched in anger and disdain.
So Geryon bore us to the beetling blind,
Shot off shaft~swift and left us both behind.