CANTO XXXIV
The ninth circle, fourth ring, Judecca; Dis or Lucifer;
Judas, Brutus,Cassius; the southern hemisphere; the stars
canto summary and diagram
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"Vexilla regis prodeunt inferni," my master said, *
"Toward us, so see if you can get a clear
View of him by keeping your eyes ahead."
inferno xxxiv
The way a distant, turning windmill might appear
When a thick fog is blowing, or when night
Spreads over our half of the world's sphere,
Just so a remote structure showed itself to my sight;
For protection I had to shrink behind my guide,
For there was no other shelter from the bite
10 Of the wind. It was at this frozen depth that I'd
Come to where the shades—and I now put what I
saw
Into verse with fear—were completely buried inside
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13 The ice, showing through like bits of straw
In glass. Here some lie flat, others are on their
feet
Or on their heads, vertically; still others draw
16 Themselves into a bow so that face and foot meet.
When we'd moved farther on my master thought
He should now show me that creature of conceit
19 Who'd once been so handsome, and he brought *
Me to a halt. "This is Dis!" he said, stepping
aside, *
"And here, beyond all other places, you ought
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22 To arm yourself with courage." I nearly died
Of fright, reader, so don't ask me how impotent
And frozen I grew; no matter how hard I now tried,
25 I could not find words to describe that moment.
I did not die, but neither was there any life in me;
And what I became, with both life and death absent,
28 You can imagine if you've a grain of ingenuity.
The emperor of that desperate kingdom stood
Way out from the ice, showing the majority
31 Of his massive chest; my own size would
Be closer to a giant's than a giant's stature
Would be to this one's arms alone, which gives a
good
34 Sense of the enormity of this frightening creature.
If he was once as handsome as he now is horrible
When he raised his brows in a gesture
37 Of defiance against his Maker, then it's plausible
That he's the ultimate source of all grief. His
head *
Wore three separate faces, which I found incredible
40 To behold! The one in front was bright red,
While two others joined it to the left and right,
Just above each shoulder's midpoint; all three were
wed
43 Together again at the crown; a blend of white
And yellow was the color the right face displayed,
And the left was like the skin of those who might
46 Live along the Nile. Six wings were arrayed *
In pairs beneath the faces, of a size that
Fit such a bird; no ship I ever saw was made
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49 With sails so broad. Like the wings of a bat
They had no feathers, and they flapped
perpetually
So that the three winds he sent out over the flat
52 Lake of Cocytus kept it frozen eternally.
He wept from six eyes, and down each chin
Tears and bloody saliva streamed continually.
55 In each of his mouths he rewarded the sin
Of a traitorous soul with his ferocious bite,
Giving pain to three sinners at once within
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58 His grinder–like teeth. But the chewing was light
Compared with the clawing, at least on the hide
Of the one in front, for his back was stripped quite
61 Bare of skin at times. "That one," said my guide,
"Who suffers the greatest punishment,
Is Judas Iscariot, with his head stuck inside *
64 And his legs thrashing. Of those other two in
torment
With their heads out, Brutus hangs from the black
face ; *
See how he squirms but remains silent;
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67 Large–limbed Cassius completes this trio of base
Betrayers. But now night is falling, and it would
Be best to leave, for we've seen all of this place."
70 I held him about the neck, as he said I should,
And he, catching the moment when the angle
Between the wings was widest, secured a good
73 Grip on the shaggy sides; through the tangle
Of hair and frozen crusts he crawled little by
Little down to where the hip bulges, a single
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76 Tuft at a time; and at just this point, where the thigh
*
Pivots, with extreme effort and excruciating strain
He reversed his body so his legs were now high
And his head below, (which would explain
Why I believed—when he grabbed the hair as if
about
To start climbing—that we were heading into Hell
again).
Of the evil worm which pierces the world," he
replied.
109 "As long as I descended, you were there;
But you passed the point, once I rotated,
To which all weight is drawn from everywhere.
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112 Now you're beneath the hemisphere situated
*
Opposite the dry portion of the earth,
At whose center was crucified and humiliated
79
82 "Hold tight!" said my master, panting as if tired out,
"These are our only stairs, don't slack,
We can leave all this evil by no other route."
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85 Then he slipped out through a rocky crack,
Lifting me up to sit on its edge while with caution
He climbed up to join me. I leaned my head back
88 And raised my eyes, expecting to see the portion
Of Lucifer I'd just left, but instead
I saw his legs pointing upward. My mystification
91 Will be shared by the simple–minded who have
read
Up to this point but failed to understand
The point I'd just passed. "Get up," my master said
inferno xxxiv
94 "On your feet: the way is long, the road rough, and
*
The sun has nearly returned to middle tierce."
*
The place in which we found ourselves was no
grand,
97 Palatial gallery; barely enough light could pierce
This cavern for me to make out its rugged floor;
It was like a great dungeon, shaped by the fierce
100 Forces of nature. Standing up, I said: "Master,
before
We struggle out of this abyss, help me to see
This clearly, so I'm not confused any more.
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103 Where is the ice? And how can Lucifer be
Turned upside down? And how did the sun slide
So quickly from night to morning? Please tell me."
106 "You think that you're still on the other side
Of the center, where I first grabbed the hair
115 The Man whose life was sinless from birth.
Your feet rest upon a little sphere
Which forms the traitorous Judecca's girth.
*
118 There it's evening, while it's morning here;
And he whose hair was our ladder is still
Fixed head down, as ever, like a stuck spear.
inferno xxxiv
121 There was dry land on this side until
*
He fell from heaven, at which moment
It made a veil of the sea and fled in fear to fill
124 Our hemisphere; perhaps the land still present
On this side fled upward as well, piling up in a
mound
And scooping out this cavern with its sudden
movement."
127 Somewhere below, at the farthest bound
Of Beelzebub's tomb, there is a place
*
Recognized not by sight but by sound;
inferno xxxiv
130 One hears a stream winding through a space
*
It has hollowed in rock and continues to erode
In a gentle incline. Vigorous of pace,
133 My guide and I entered that hidden road
To reach the bright world once more,
And with no thought of rest we strode
136 Ahead, he first, I following, as so often before,
Until, through a round hole, I looked up toward
Mars,
*
Venus, and all the beautiful things in Heaven's
store,
inferno xxxiv
139 And we came out again to see the stars.