L ' I N F E R N O

140
INF C18 100-118 / KLINE
We had already come to where the narrow causeway crosses the second bank and forms a buttress to a second arch.
Here we heard people whining in the next chasm, and blowing with their muzzles, and striking themselves with their
palms. The banks were crusted, with a mould from the fumes below that condenses on them, and attacks the eyes
and nose. The floor is so deep, that we could not see any part of it, except by climbing to the ridge of the arch, where
the rock is highest. We came there, and from it, in the ditch below, I saw people immersed in excrement, that looked
as if it flowed from human privies. And while I was searching it, down there, with my eyes, I saw one with ahead so
smeared with ordure, that it was not clear if he was clerk or layman.
DANTE LOOKS INTO THE DARKNESS
ALESSIO INTERMINEI (VOICE):
INF C18 118-120 / DANTE INF C18 118-119 / KLINE
Quei mi sgridò: «Perché se' tu sì gordo He shouted at me: Why are you so keen to gaze
di riguardar più me che li altri brutti?». at me more than the other mired ones?
E io a lui: «Perché, se ben ricordo, And I to him: Because, if I remember rightly,
ALESSIO DEGLI INTERMINEI *---- ? - 1295 + AGE : *-- ?
PLACE./.LANGUAGE ETC
LUCCA.
DESCRIPTION
VOICE ONLY.
ALESSIO DEGLI INTERMINEI: MEMBER OF A PROMINENT FAMILY OF LUCCAN WHITES, ALIVE IN THE YEAR 1295.
DANTE:
INF C18 121-123 / DANTE INF C18 121-123 / KLINE
già t'ho veduto coi capelli asciutti, I have seen you before with dry head,
e se' Alessio Interminei da Lucca: and you are: Alessio Interminei of Lucca:
però t'adocchio più che li altri tutti». so I eye you more than all the others.
ALESSIO INTERMINEI (VOICE):
INF C18 124-126 / DANTE INF C18 124-126 / KLINE
Ed elli allor, battendosi la zucca: And he then, beating his forehead: The flatteries
Qua giù m'hanno sommerso le lusinghe Flatteries, of which my tongue never
ond' io non ebbi mai la lingua stucca. wearied, have brought me down to this!
DANTE MOVES AND IS ABOUT TO ACCOST SIMON MAGUS WHEN THE INTERMINEI VERSE COMES
TOGETHER IN HIS HEAD. HE NODS OR POINTS BACK AND SPEAKS, CLOSING THE CANTO.
(ALTERNATIVELY, HE ACTUALLY SAYS ‘O SIMON MAGUS’ BEFORE TURNING BACK, BUT THAT FURTHER
SEPARATES ‘LUCCA’ AND ‘ZUCCA’.)
DANTE:
INF C18 124-126 / DANTE INF C18 124-126 / KLINE
Ed elli allor, battendosi la zucca: And he then, beating his forehead:
Qua giù m'hanno sommerso le lusinghe The flatteries, of which my tongue never wearied,
ond' io non ebbi mai la lingua stucca. have brought me down to this!
INF C18 127-132 / KLINE
At which my guide said to me: ‘Advance your head a little, so that your eyes can clearly see, over there, the face of
that filthy and dishevelled piece, who scratches herself, with her soiled nails, now crouching down, now rising to her
feet. It is Thais, the whore, who answered her lover’s message, in which he asked: “Do you really return me great
thanks?” with “No, wondrous thanks.” And let our looking be sated with this.’
CANTO 19
SIMONISTS