Purgatorio
Canto XIX
In a dream Dante has a vision of the Siren (symbolising worldly enticements). A lady from heaven appears in this dream; and Virgil, at her bidding, exposes the Siren’s real foulness. Dante is roused by Virgil, the sun having now risen, and an angel speeds them up the passage to the fifth terrace, where are the souls of the avaricious and the prodigal, lying prone on the ground. Virgil asks the way, and is answered by one who proves to be Pope Adrian V. He tells them that he was possessed by Avarice till he reached the highest office, and then turned to God. Dante kneels, to show his reverence, but is told by the spirit to rise.
IN THAT hour when the heat of day no more
Can warm the Moon’s cold influence, and it dies
O’ercome by the earth or whiles by Saturn’s power;
When geomancers see in the East arise[i]4: “Geomancers” foretold the future by means of figures constructed on points that were distributed by chance. One of their figures, called “Greater Fortune,” resembled a constellation.
Their Greater Fortune, ere the dawn be come,
By a path which not long dark before it lies,
In dream came to me a woman stuttering dumb,
With squinting eyes and twisted on her feet,
With deformed hands and cheeks of pallor numb.
I gazed on her; and as the sun’s good heat [10]
Comforteth cold limbs weighed down by the night,
So did my look make her tongue nimbly feat,
And straightened her and set her all upright
In short time, and her ruined countenance made
Into the colour which is love’s delight.
Soon as her loosened tongue came to her aid,
She began singing, so that for its sake
From her voice hardly had my hearing strayed.
“I am,” she said, “the sweet Siren, who make
Mariners helpless, charmed in the mid-sea; [20]
Such pleasure in my music do men take.
I turned Ulysses from his wandering, he
So loved my song; and who with me hath found
Home, seldom quits, so glad is he of me.”
Her lips were not yet closed upon the sound
When came a lady in whom was holiness
Prompt to my side, that other to confound.
“O Virgil, Virgil, tell me who is this?”
Indignantly she said; and straight he went
With eyes fixt on that honest one, to seize [30]
The other, and when her garments he had rent,
He laid her open and showed her belly creased,
That waked me with the stench that forth it sent.
I turned my eyes, and Virgil said: “At least
Thrice have I called thee; up, let us begone!
Find we the opening where thou enterest.”
I raised me up; high day now overshone
The holy mount and filled each winding ledge.
We went, and at our back was the new sun.
I followed him, like one who is the siege [40]
Of heavy thought that droops his forehead, when
He makes himself the half-arch of a bridge.
And I heard: “Come! Here is the pass”; spoken
With so much loving kindness in the tone
As is not heard in this our mortal pen.
With outspread wings that shone white as a swan
He who thus spoke guided our journeying
Upward between the two walls of hard stone.
Stirring his plumes, he fanned us with his wing
And named qui lugent blessed, for that they [50][ii]50. “Qui lugent”: those who mourn.
Shall dispense consolation, like a king.
We both had passed the angel a little way
When, “What now ails thee that thine eyes are so
Fixt on the ground?” my Guide began to say.
And I: “In such misgiving do I go
From a strange dream which doth my mind possess
So that the thought I cannot from me throw.”
“Sawest thou,” he said, “that ancient sorceress
For whom alone the mount above us wails?[iii]59. “Above us”: in the three upper circles.
Sawest thou how man obtains from her release? [60]
Let that suffice: beat the earth down with thy heels;
Turn thine eyes toward the lure which from his seat[iv]62. “The lure . . .”: the uplifting influence of the revolving heavens.
The Eternal King spins round with the great wheels.”
As a falcon, that first gazes at his feet,
Turns at the cry and stretches him beyond
Where desire draws him thither to his meat,
Such I became; and far as, for one bound
Upwards, a path is cloven through the stone,
Such went I up to where one must go round.
Soon as I was enlarged on the fifth zone [70][v]70. This is the circle of avarice and prodigality.
I saw on it a weeping multitude
With faces to the ground all lying prone.
My spirit clave unto the dust, I could
Hear them cry out, with sighings and laments
So that the words hardly were understood.
“O ye chosen of God, whose punishments
Both hope and justice make less hard to bear,
Direct our footsteps to the high ascents.”
“If from the lying prone exempt ye are,
And wish the speediest way to be revealed, [80]
Keep your right hands to the outside as ye fare.”
This answer to the poet, who thus appealed,
Was made a little in front of us; therefore
I noted, as each spoke, what was concealed,
My Lord then with my eyes I turned to implore,
Whereat his glad sign of assent I caught
To what my eager look was craving for.
Then, free to do according to my thought,
I passed forward above that creature there
Whose words before had made me of him take note, [90]
Saying: “Spirit, in whom weeping ripens fair
That without which one cannot turn to God,[vi]92. The fruit of repentance.
Suspend for me awhile thy greater care.
Who thou wast, tell me, and why to earth ye are bowed,
Face down, and if thou would’st that I should win
Aught for thee yonder, whence I tread this road.”
And he: “Why turned to Heaven our backs have been
Thou shalt learn; but first scias quod ego[vii]
Fui successor Petri. Down between
Sestri and Chiaveri waters flow [100]
Of a fair stream, wherefrom our old estate[viii]101. “A fair stream”: the Lavagna river. Adrian belonged to the Fieschi family, who were counts of Lavagna.
Nameth the title it vaunts most to bestow.
One month, scarce more, taught me how weighs the great[ix]103. “One month”: Adrian V held the papal office only for 38 days.
Mantle on him who keeps it from the dirt,
So that all others seem a feather’s weight.
Late came the day that could my soul convert,
But when the Roman Pastor I became,
Thus found I life to be with lies begirt.
I saw that there the heart no peace could claim,
Nor in that life could one mount higher: of this [110]
Therefore the love sprang in me to a flame.
Up-to that hour I, lost in avarice,
Was miserable, being a soul in want
Of God; thou seèst here what my forfeit is.
Here of what avarice works is made the account,
In purge of souls converted ere the end;
And no more bitter penalty hath the mount.
Even as our eyes on high we would not send,
Which only upon earthly things were cast,
So here to earth Justice hath forced them bend. [120]
As avarice turned all our works to waste
Because it quenched our love of all goodness,
Even so Justice here doth hold us fast,
Both hands and feet, in seizure and duress;
And so long as the just Lord hath assigned,
So long we lie stretched-out and motionless.”
I had knelt down; to speak was in my mind;
But he, by the mere hearing, in that pause
Being aware that I my back inclined,
Said, “Dost thou bow thy knees? and for what cause?” [130]
And I to him: “ ’Tis for your dignity:
My conscience pricked me, standing as I was.”
“Make straight thy legs and rise up from thy knee,
Brother,” he answered: “err not; of one Lord
I am fellow-servant with the rest and thee.
If thou hast understood that holy chord
The Gospel sounds which Neque nubent saith,[x]137. If thou hast interpreted Neque nubent (“They neither marry”) in the broader sense, as meaning that earthly relations are not preserved in the spiritual world.
Thou mayest perceive well why I spoke that word.
Go now, and no more tarry upon thy path,
For thou disturb’st the tears wherewith I crave [140]
To ripen what thyself didst say of faith.
A niece yonder, Alagia named, I have,[xi]142. “Alagia” de’ Fieschi was the daughter of Adrian’s brother Niccolò.
Good in herself, so only that our house
Her nature by example not deprave.
She only is there to assist me with her vows.”