Inferno: Canto 5 Cries and lamentations strike the air, And blasphemies against the power divine!

I learned that to such torment are condemned.

The sinners of the flesh/ who vilely yield Their reason to their carnal appetite./ As when in times of cold the starlings fly/

Borne on their wings in large and crowded flocks:/ So did that blast convey those wretched souls. Now up/ now down/ now round/ Now up now down now round about they whirled:

No hope of rest could ever comfort them/ Or even a moments lessening of their pain. As cranes proceed with their unearthly cry Across the heavens in long aerial line: Thus came a rustling/ clangorous company/ A wailing flight of ghosts upon the gale/

(Wherefore I asked): O master/ who are those Whom the tempestuous blackness castigates? Do you know him (soft) Do you know him? (loud)

(He answered)

*The first of those of whom you would have news,

Was an empress, and held sway Over men of many tongues, but was so sunk In sensual vices, that to lift the blame From the perversions which she wallowed in, All license was permitted by her law.

Aaaah She is Semiramis/ who history says/ As Ninus widow sat upon his throne/ And ruled the land where now the sultan reigns/ The second/ she who slew herself for love/

Unfaithful to the ashes of Sichaeus;/ Behind her comes voluptuous Cleopatra./ See Helen there, / for whom so many years Of strife were wasted: / Next / the great Achillessss Who battled in his final hour with love./ See Paris,/ Tristan/ These and many more/

These and many more/ more than a thousand shades whom love divorced from life/ he pointed out and named for me./ And when I heard my master call by name/

And when I heard my master call by name Those knightsss and ladiesss of antiquity, Pity so smote me that I nearly swooned.

(I said to him ) O poet,/ I would speak

To that sequestered pair that cling together/ And seem to float so lightly on the wind./ (He answered me: ) Take heed when they approach/ More nearly to us/ ask them by that love Which bears them on/and they will come to you.

Now when the wind had wafted them to us,

(I raised my voice: ) O wearied souls,/ YOU/ YES YOU!/ Unless Forbidden by Another, Come and speak! Come and speak! Come and speak

Like doves that with their wings upraised and still/ Are borne upon the air by their desire/ When longing calls them back to their soft nest: Just so these two left Didos company.

Second Part (Our Galeot was the book; and he that wrote it,) A Galeot! On that day we read no more.(close folder)

No more!

While the first spirit told her tale, the other Wept with a passionate grief that mastered me; I felt a faintness, (as it were of death), Death! Death! Death! Death! And like a corpse fell headlong to the ground./ When once again my senses come to me/ When once again my senses come to me/ When once again my senses come to me that left me, / When the anguish of those two So altogether stunned me with compassion/ Whichever may I move/ or turn/ or look My eyes behold, on every side alike, New torments and tormented souls anew.

To the third circle of eternal rain, Accursed, cold and heavy, I am come. Thick hail, dark water, and unending snow

Third part Stood thwart our path; / and then my noble leader Stretched forth his hands/ and picking up some he hurled it full/

Full within the rabid jaws earth,

Just as a hungry dog that barks for food Shhhh Is quieted/ when first he gnaws his meat/ Thinking and striving but to devour it/ Just so were stilled the jaws of Cerberus/ (close folder)

Last Part For you were born while I still breathed above./ I answered him: The anguish in your face Perchance withdraws you from my memory/ Who are you?

As if I had not looked on you before./ But tell me who you are/ and why condemned To suffer such a penalty/ (dont condemn me)

That none Is worse to bear/ although it were a greater./ Your city/ which of envy is so full Its brim is overflowing in tranquil life./ I still wan to live No I still want to live. From the Divine Comedy By Dante Aleghierri