CANTO V: Paolo and Francesca

Divine Comedy
Dante Alighieri

Thus I descended from the first circle to the second, which contains less space, but much
more pain, and searing pain, which causes heart-rending screams. There was the horrible
Minas who, gnashing his teeth, examines the faults of those who enter; He judges and
makes his orders understood by the turns of his tail. That is to say, when a sinful soul
appears before him and confesses all his sins, that great connoisseur of sins sees what place
in hell he must occupy and designates it for him, wrapping his tail around the body as many
times as the number of the soul is. circle to which it should be sent.
Many souls are always before him, coming in turn to be judged; They speak and listen and
then they are thrown into the abyss. - Oh, you who come to the mansion of pain! -Minas
yelled at me
- The first of those, of whom you want news - he told me then - was empress of a multitude
of peoples where different languages were spoken, and so given to the vice of lust, that she
allowed in her laws everything that excited pleasure, to hide in this way the abjection in
which he lived.
It is Semiramis, who is said to have succeeded Nino and was his wife and reigned in the
land where the Sultan reigns. The other is the one who killed herself for love and broke the
faith promised to the ashes of Sycheus. Then follows the lascivious Cleopatra. See also
Helena, who gave rise to such disastrous times; and sees the great Achilles, who finally had
to fight for love. Go to Paris and Tristan... And he showed me more than a thousand
shadows and pointed out with his finger those whom Love had made leave this life. When I
heard my wise man name the ancient ladies and gentlemen, I was overcome by pity and
was as if stunned. I began to say: - Poet, I would like to speak to those two souls that go
together and seem lighter than the others propelled by the wind.
And he answered me: - Wait until they are closer to us: and then ask them, by the love that
guides them, to turn to you. As soon as the wind blew them towards us, I raised my voice
saying: - Oh tormented souls, come speak to us, if someone else does not oppose it. Just as
two doves, excited by my desires, head with open and firm wings towards the sweet nest,
carried in the air by the same will, so those two souls emerged from the crowd where Dido
was, heading towards us through of the unhealthy air, attracted by my effective and
affectionate appeal.
- Oh gracious and benign being, who comes to visit in the middle of this air those of us who
have dyed the world with blood! If we were loved by the King of the universe, we would
beg him for your peace of mind, since you sympathize with our bitter pain. Whatever you
like to hear and say, we will tell you and listen with pleasure as long as the wind continues
as calm as now. The land where I was born is located on the coast where the Po with all its
tributaries flows out to rest in the sea. Love, which quickly takes over a gentle heart, made
it fall in love with that beautiful body that was taken from me in a way that still torments
me.
Love, which does not exempt from loving the one who is loved, made me give myself over
vividly to the pleasure that he was intoxicated with, which, as you see, never leaves me.
Love led us to death itself. Caina waits for the one who took our lives. Such were the words
of the two shadows.
When I heard those tormented souls, I lowered my head and kept it bowed for so long that
the poet told me:
- What are you thinking about? - Oh! -I exclaimed when answering him-; how sweet
thoughts, how many desires have led them to painful transit! Then I addressed them,
saying: - Francisca, your misfortunes make me shed sad and compassionate tears. But tell
me: in the time of sweet sighs, how did Love allow you to know your secret desires? She
answered me:
- There is no greater pain than remembering the happy time in misery; and your Master
knows that well. But if you have such a desire to know what was the main origin of our
love, I will do like the one who speaks and cries at the same time.
One day as a hobby we were reading the adventures of Lancelot, and how he fell into the
nets of Love: we were alone and without any suspicion. That reading made our eyes search
many times and made our countenance pale; but a single passage was what decided us.
When we read that the desired smile of the beloved was interrupted by the kiss of the lover,
he, who will never be separated from me, kissed me trembling on the mouth: the book and
the person who wrote it was for us another Galeoto; That day we didn't read anymore.
While one soul said this, the other cried in such a way that, moved with compassion, I
fainted as if dying, and fell as an inanimate body falls.