PURGATORY. Данте Алигьери
Читать онлайн книгу.
astern
of ship so light that the prow cleft no wave.
More than a hundred souls within it sat 28
singing King David’s psalm, When Israel
escaped from Egypt’s land, chanting Amen
on feeling that their vessel touched the strand. 31
The angel signed the cross over these souls
who sprang ashore. His ferry sped away
fast as it came. Passengers on the beach 34
stood looking round like strangers anywhere.
The sun had chased stars from the sky when one
approached and said, “Sirs, there is a mountain 37
we must climb. We do not know where to start,
can you show the way?” My guide said, “We two
are pilgrims just as ignorant as you, 40
come by a road so rough that further climb
to us will be child’s play.” A whisper grew
among these spirits that I lived and breathed. 43
They stared as if I were good news. One face
I knew, so ran to embrace that man. Alas,
my hands passed through his shade and hit my chest. 46
He smiled, withdrew. I cried, “Stay Casella –
I love you – tunes you gave my poems
49 make them popular! Why die before me?
And months ago! Why so long getting here?”
The sweet voice I knew said, “And I love you,
52 though gladly Heavenward bound. Remember
exactly thirteen centuries ago
Christ died for us. Our Pope proclaims this year
55 a Jubilee. All who hear mass in Rome
will have their sins forgiven. Hope of that
draws hoards of ancient dying pilgrims there.
58 The port for all not damned to Hell is where
Tiber joins the sea. Queues for that ferry
are very long these days, hence some delay
61 not troublesome to me. Heaven’s decree
is best, but say why you stand breathing here!”
I said, “I live, so must return this way
64 when dead, like you, by the same ferry. Please,
if death has not deprived you of your art
sing verses I once wrote to cheer my heart.”
67 He sang, Love that converses with my mind,
so sweetly that it sounds within me still.
My master and the others listened too,
70 as if it wholly occupied their will
till, like a thunderclap, Cato appeared
shouting, “You lazy louts, why linger here?
73 Run to the mountain! There strip off the sins
hiding your souls from God!” As pigeon flock
pecking the ground for seed, at sudden shock,
explodes into the air, these travellers 76
in panic fled that terrible old man
and spread across the plain, at the same time
racing blindly uphill, wholly unsure 79
what he or she was bound to find ahead.
Having no clue what better we could do
I and my leader were not far behind. 82
3: The Foothills
1 Our pace became more dignified upon
the foothills of that mount where climbing joins
goodness and reason. Since he had let me halt
4 to hear a song, Virgil had said no word.
His noble mind, believing no fault small,
suffered the sting of being in the wrong.
7 The rising sun shone rosy on our backs.
I gladly viewed the upward slope ahead
then felt it incomplete, for only one
10 shadow lay on the ground before my feet.
Afraid that suddenly I climbed alone
I gasped with dread. My comforter enquired,
13 “Why, even now, do you distrust my aid?
In Naples, underneath a monument
my shadow is entombed among my dust.
16 That I am shadowless is not more strange
than all the starry spheres of Heaven are.
Admiring wonder is the right response
19 to everything beyond your wisdom’s range.
Thought alone cannot know the infinite
eternal Three-in-One creating all.
If human science could bring men to God 22
Mary need never have borne Jesus Christ,
or we in Limbo live unsatisfied
in outer Hell, far from the greatest good 25
where Homer, Plato, Aristotle dwell
with many more.” He fell silent again,
staring with troubled face on ground we trod 28
until we reached Mount Purgatory’s base.
The wildest mountainside in Italy
would look an easy staircase seen beside 31
this cliff too sheer, this granite precipice
too high and smooth for any mountaineer.
My master sighed and murmured, “Lacking wings, 34
we need to find a slope that legs can use.
It must exist. Do we turn left or right?”
He pondered where the ground met the rock wall. 37
I, looking round, saw, a sling-shot away,
a group of souls approaching from our left,
walking so slowly that at first I thought 40
they did not move at all. I shouted out,
“See Master! These may know where we should go.”
He looked, then spoke with confidence renewed. 43
“Indeed they may, my son. Let us enquire
and never cease to hope.” A thousand steps
brought us to where the flock of souls, like sheep, 46
walked timidly, heads bowed, behind a few
dignified leaders pacing slowly too.
49 “Hail, holy ones!” cried Virgil. “You have died
as Christians, so are sure of Heaven’s grace.
Unlike you we must ascend at once. Please
52 where is