INF C22 22-24 / DANTE talor così, ad alleggiar la pena, so, now and then, to ease the punishment, mostrav' alcun de' peccatori 'l dosso some sinner showed his back, e nascondea in men che non balena. and hid as quick as lightning. INF C22 25-27 / DANTE E come a l'orlo de l'acqua d'un fosso As frogs squat, at the edge of stanno i ranocchi pur col muso fuori, the ditchwater, sì che celano i piedi e l'altro grosso, with only mouths showing, INF C22 28-30 / DANTE sì stavan d'ogne parte i peccatori; so the sinners stood on every side: ma come s'appressava Barbariccia, but they instantly shot beneath così si ritraén sotto i bollori. the seething, as Barbariccia approached. INF C22 31-33 / DANTE I' vidi, e anco il cor me n'accapriccia, I saw, and my heart still shudders at it, uno aspettar così, com' elli 'ncontra one linger, just as one frog remains ch'una rana rimane e l'altra spiccia; when the others scatter: 159 INF C22 34-36 / DANTE e Graffiacan, che li era più di contra, and Graffiacane…Scratchdog… who was nearest li arruncigliò le 'mpegolate chiome him, hooked his pitchy hair, and hauled him up, e trassel sù, che mi parve una lontra. looking, to me, like an otter. INF C22 37-63 / KLINE I already knew the names of every demon, so I noted them well as they were called, and when they shouted to each other, listened out. ‘O Rubicante, see you get your clutches in him, and flay him,’ all the accursed tribe cried together. And I: ‘Master, make out if you can, who that wretch is, who has fallen into the hands of his enemies.’ My guide drew close to him, and asked him where he came from, and he answered: I was born in the kingdom of Navarre. My mother placed me as a servant to a lord, since she had borne me to a scurrilous waster of himself and his possessions. Then I was of the household of good King Thibaut, and there I took to selling offices, for which I serve my sentence in this heat.’ And Ciriatto, from whose mouth a tusk, like a boar’s, projected on each side, made him feel how one of them could rip. The mouse had come among the evil cats: but Barbariccia caught him in his arms, and said: ‘Stand back, while I fork him!’ And, turning to my Master, he said: ‘Ask away, if you want to learn more from him, before someone else gets at him.’ INF C22 64-87 / KLINE So my guide said: ‘Now say, do you know any of the other sinners under the boiling pitch that is a Latian?’ And Ciampolo replied: ‘I separated, just now, from one who was a neighbour of theirs over there, and I wish I were still beneath him, since I should not then fear claw or hook!’ And Libicocco cried: ‘We have endured this too long!’ and grappled Ciampolo’s arm with the prong, and, mangling it, carried away a chunk. Draghignazzo, too, wanted a swipe at the legs, below: at which their leader twisted round and round on them with an evil frown. When they had settled a little, without waiting, my guide asked Ciampolo, who was still gazing at his wound: ‘Who was he, from whom you say you unluckily separated, to come on land?’ He replied: ‘It was Friar Gomita, he of Gallura, in Sardinia, the vessel of every fraud, who held his master’s prisoners in his hands, and treated them so that they all praise him for it, taking money for himself, and letting them go, quietly: and in his other roles, he was a high, and not a low, barrator. INF C22 88-123 / KLINE With him, Don Michel Zanche of Logodoro, keeps company, and their tongues never tire of speaking of Sardinia. O me! See that other demon grinning: I would speak more, but I fear he is getting ready to claw my skin.’ And their great captain, turning to Farfarello, who was rolling his eyes to strike, said: ‘Away with you, cursed bird.’ The scared sinner then resumed: ‘If you want to see or hear Tuscans or Lombards, I will make them come, but let the Malebranche hold back a little, so that the others may not feel their vengeance, and sitting here, I, who am one, will make seven appear, by whistling, as we do, when any of us gets out.’ Cagnazzo raised his snout, at these words, and, shaking his head, said: Hear the wicked scheme he has contrived to plunge back down.’ At which Ciampolo, who had a great store of tricks, replied: ‘I would be malicious indeed, if I contrived greater sorrow for my companions.’ Alichino, could contain himself no longer, and contrary to the others said to him: ‘If you run, I will not charge after you, but beat my wings above the boiling pitch: forget the cliff, and let the bank be a course, and see if you alone can beat us.’ O you that read this, hear of this new sport! They all glanced towards the cliff side, he above all who had been most unwilling for this. The Navarrese picked his moment well, planted his feet on the ground, and in an instant plunged, and freed himself from their intention. INF C22 124-151 / KLINE Each of the demons was stung with guilt, but Alichino most who had caused the error: so he started up and shouted: ‘You are caught!’ But it helped him little, since wings could not outrun terror: the sinner dived down: and Alichino, flying, the sinner dived down: and Alichino, flying, lifted his breast. The duck dives like that when the falcon nears, and the hawk flies back up, angry and thwarted. Calcabrina, furious at the trick, flew on after him, wanting the sinner to escape, in order to quarrel. And when the barrator had vanished, he turned his claws on his friend, and grappled with him above the ditch. But the other was sparrow hawk enough to claw him thoroughly, and both dropped down, into the centre of the boiling pond. The heat, instantly, separated them, but they could not rise, their wings were so glued up. Barbariccia, lamenting with the rest, made four fly over to the other bank, with all their grappling irons, and they dropped rapidly on both sides to the shore. They stretched their hooks out to the trapped pair, who were already scaled by the crust, and we left them, like that, embroiled.
CANTO 23 160 INF C23 1-18 / KLINE Silent, alone, and free of company, we went on, one in front, and the other after, like minor friars journeying on their way. My thoughts were turned, by the recent quarrel, to Aesop’s fable of the frog and mouse, since ‘Si’ and ‘Yes’ are not better matched, than the one case with the other, if the thoughtful mind couples the beginning and end. And as one thought springs from another, so another sprang from that, redoubling my fear. I thought of this: ‘Through us, these are mocked, and with a kind of hurt and ridicule, that I guess must annoy them. If anger is added to their malice, they will chase after us, fiercer than snapping dogs that chase a leveret.’ VIRGIL EMERGES. DANTE AND HE WALK ON SLOWLY. DANTE LOOKS AT VIRGIL THEN FACES AHEAD. HE IS CLEARLY DOING SOME HARD THINKING [INF C23 4-22]. ♫INFERNAL: SOFT, BECOMING LOUDER * * * * * * * * * * Before INF C23-19 DANTE: INF C23 19-21 / DANTE INF C23 19-21 / KLINE Già mi sentia tutti arricciar li peli I felt my hair already lifting in fright, de la paura e stava in dietro intento, and was looking back intently, as I said: quand' io dissi: Maestro, se non celi Master, if you do not hide us INF C23 22-24 / DANTE te e me tostamente, i' ho pavento both, quickly, I am afraid of the d'i Malebranche. Noi li avem già dietro; Malebranche the Evil-clawed: they are io li 'magino sì, che già li sento». already behind us. I imagine I can hear them now. VIRGIL: INF C23 25-27 / DANTE INF C23 25-27 / KLINE E quei: «S'i' fossi di piombato vetro, And he: If I were made of silvered glass, l'imagine di fuor tua non trarrei I could not take up your image from outside più tosto a me, che quella dentro 'mpetro. more rapidly than I fix that image from within. INF C23 28-30 / DANTE Pur mo venieno i tuo' pensier tra ' miei, Even now your thoughts were entering mine, con simile atto e con simile faccia, with similar form and action, so that, from both, sì che d'intrambi un sol consiglio fei. I have made one decision. INF C23 31-33 / DANTE S'elli è che sì la destra costa giaccia, If the right bank slopes enough, che noi possiam ne l'altra bolgia scendere, that we can drop down, into the next chasm, noi fuggirem l'imaginata caccia». we will escape this imaginary pursuit. INF C23 34-57 / KLINE He had not finished stating this resolve, when I saw them, not far off, when I saw them, coming with extended wings, with desire to seize us. My guide suddenly took me up like a mother, wakened by a noise, seeing flames burning in front of her eyes, who takes her child and runs, and caring more about him than herself, does not even wait to look around her. Down from the ridge of the solid bank, he threw himself forward on to the hanging cliff that dams up the side of the next chasm. Water never ran as fast through the conduit, turning a mill-wheel on land, when it reaches the paddles, as my Master, down that bank, carrying me, against his breast, like a son, and not a companion. His feet had hardly touched the floor, of the depth below, before the demons were on the heights above us, but it gave him no fear, since the high Providence, that willed them to be the guardians of the fifth moat, takes, from all of them, the power to leave it.
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