THE FROZEN COCYTUS ♫INFERNAL: COLD * * * * * * * * * * INF C32 12 VIRGIL ADDRESSES SOULS./.SOULS IN THE DARKNESS. VIRGIL: INF C32 13-15 / DANTE INF C32 13-15 / KLINE Oh sovra tutte mal creata plebe O you people, created evil beyond all others, in che stai nel loco onde parlare è duro, this place that is hard to speak of, it were better mei foste state qui pecore o zebe! if you had been sheep or goats here on earth! INF C32 16-18 / KLINE When we were down, inside the dark well, beneath the Giants’ feet, and much lower, and I was still staring at the steep cliff, BOCCA / URANIA: INF C32 19-21 / DANTE INF C32 19-21 / KLINE dicere udi'mi: «Guarda come passi: I heard a voice say to me:Take care as you pass, va sì, che tu non calchi con le piante so that you do not tread, with your feet, on the heads le teste de' fratei miseri lassi». of the wretched, weary brothers. BOCCA DEGLI ABATI *---- ? - 1260 + PLACE./.LANGUAGE ETC FLORENCE. DESCRIPTION MUSE URANIA.. A GHIBELLINE WHO FOUGHT ON THE GUELPH SIDE AT MONTAPERTI (1260) WHEN THE FLORENTINE GUELPHS WERE DEFEATED. BOCCA CUT OFF THE HAND OF THE FLORENTINE STANDARD BEARER AT THE CRITICAL MOMENT. 205 BOCCA./.URANIA AND BUOSO./.POLYHYMNIA , BOTH MUSES IN THEIR ORDINARY DRESS, ARE AT BACKSTAGE ON OPPOSITE SIDES. THEY LIE OR KNEEL FACING FRONT, SO THAT THE LOWER PART OF THEIR BODIES, OBSCURED BY THEIR GARMENT, MAY WELL BE IN ICE. OR, THEY MAY BE SO FAR TO THE BACK THAT THEIR BODIES ARE BEHIND THE STAGE. BUOSO./.POLYHYMNIA KEEPS HIS./.HER FACE DOWN AND MAY NOT BE SEEN UNTIL HE./.SHE SPEAKS. THERE MAY ALSO BE ONE OR TWO NON-MUSES WHO KEEP THEIR HEADS DOWN. DANTE AND VIRGIL TURN. DANTE OPENS HIS BOOK, WRITES AND SPEAKS. BUOSO DE DUERA *---- ? - 1266? AGE : 40?? PLACE./.LANGUAGE ETC CREMONA. DESCRIPTION MUSE POLYHYMNIA. BUOSO DE DUERA: BRIBED BY THE FRENCH, BUOSO, LEADER OF THE CREMONESE, TREACHEROUSLY ALLOWED CHARLES OF ANJOU ENTRY TO PARMA, IN 1266, AT THE BEGINNING OF HIS CAMPAIGN AGAINST MANFRED, WHO HAD ORGANISED ITS RESISTANCE. DANTE: INF C32 22-24 / DANTE INF C32 22-24 / KLINE Per ch'io mi volsi, e vidimi davante At which I turned, and saw a lake, e sotto i piedi un lago che per gelo in front of me and underneath my feet, that, avea di vetro e non d'acqua sembiante. because of the cold, appeared like glass not water.
206 INF C32 25-30 / DANTE The Danube, in Austria, never formed so thick a veil for its winter course, nor the Don, far off under the frozen sky, as was here: if Mount Tambernic in the east, or Mount Pietrapana, had fallen on it, it would not have even creaked at the margin. INF C32 31-33 / DANTE E come a gracidar si sta la rana As frogs sit croaking with their muzzles col muso fuor de l'acqua, quando sogna above water, at the time when peasant di spigolar sovente la villana, women often dream of gleaning, INF C32 34-36 / DANTE livide, insin là dove appar vergogna so the sad shadows sat sit, in the ice., eran l'ombre dolenti ne la ghiaccia, livid to where the blush of shame appears, mettendo i denti in nota di cicogna. chattering with their teeth, like storks. INF C32 37-39 / DANTE Ognuna in giù tenea volta la faccia; Each one held his face turned down: da bocca il freddo, e da li occhi il cor tristo the The cold is witnessed, amongst them, tra lor testimonianza si procaccia. by their mouths: and their sad hearts, by their eyes. INF C32 40-72 / KLINE When I had a looked around awhile, turning to my feet, I saw two, so compressed together, that the hair of their heads was intermingled. I said: ‘Tell me, you, who press your bodies together so: who are you?’ And they twisted their necks up, and when they had lifted their faces towards me, their eyes, which were only moist, inwardly, before, gushed at the lids, and the frost iced fast the tears, between them, and sealed them up again. No vice ever clamped wood to wood as firmly: so that they butted one another like two he-goats, overcome by such rage. And one, who had lost both ears to the cold, with his face still turned down, said: ‘Why are you staring at us, so fiercely? If you want to know who these two are, they are the degli Alberti, Allesandro and Napoleone: the valley where the Bisenzio runs down, was theirs and their father Alberto’s. They issued from one body, and you can search the whole Caïna, and will not find shades more worthy of being set in ice: not even Mordred, whose chest and shadow, were pierced, at one blow, by his father’s, King Arthur’s, lance: nor Focaccia: nor this one, who obstructs my face with his head, so that I cannot see further, who was named Sassol Mascheroni. If you are a Tuscan, now, you know truly what he was. And so that you do not put me to more speech, know that I am Camicion de’ Pazzi, and am waiting for Carlino, my kinsman, to outdo me.’ Afterwards I saw a thousand faces, made doglike by the cold, at which a trembling overcomes me, and always will, when I think of the frozen fords. DANTE AND VIRGIL BEGIN WALKING OFF. DANTE, VERSIFYING, (NEARLY?) TRIPS OVER BOCCA./.URANIA. DANTE: INF C32 31-33 / DANTE INF C32 31-33 / KLINE E come a gracidar si sta la rana As frogs sit croaking with their muzzles col muso fuor de l'acqua, quando sogna above water, at the time when peasant di spigolar sovente la villana, women often dream of gleaning, INF C32 34-36 / DANTE livide, insin là dove appar vergogna so the sad shadows sat, in the ice, eran l'ombre dolenti ne la ghiaccia, livid to where the blush of shame appears, mettendo i denti in nota di cicogna. chattering with their teeth, like storks. INF C32 37-39 / DANTE Ognuna in giù tenea volta la faccia; Each one held his face turned down: da bocca il freddo, e da li occhi il cor tristo the cold is witnessed, amongst them, tra lor testimonianza si procaccia. by their mouths: and their sad hearts, by their eyes. INF C32 73-78 / KLINE And, whether it was will, or fate or chance, I do not know: but walking, among the heads, I struck my foot violently against one face. BOCCA / URANIA: INF C32 79-81 / DANTE INF C32 79-81 / KLINE Piangendo mi sgridò: Perché mi peste? Weeping it cried out to me: Why do you se tu non vieni a crescer la vendetta trample on me? If you do not come to increase the di Montaperti, perché mi moleste?. revenge for Montaperti, why do you trouble me?
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