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For the Barbagia of Sardinia

By far more modest in its women is
Than the Barbagia I have left her in.
O brother sweet, what wilt thou have me say?
A future time is in my sight already,
To which this hour will not be very old,
When from the pulpit shall be interdicted

To the unblushing womankind of Florence
To go about displaying breast and paps.
What savages were e'er, what Saracens,

Who stood in need, to make them covered go,
Of spiritual or other discipline?

But if the shameless women were assured

Of what swift Heaven prepares for them, already
Wide open would they have their mouths to howl;

For if my foresight here deceive me not,

They shall be sad ere he has bearded cheeks
Who now is hushed to sleep with lullaby.
O brother, now no longer hide thee from me;
See that not only I, but all these people
Are gazing there, where thou dost veil the sun."
Whence I to him: "If thou bring back to mind

What thou with me hast been and I with thee,
The present memory will be grievous still.
Out of that life he turned me back who goes

In front of me, two days agone when round
The sister of him yonder showed herself,"
And to the sun I pointed. "Through the deep

Night of the truly dead has this one led me,
With this true flesh, that follows after him.

Thence his encouragements have led me up,

Ascending and still circling round the mount

That you doth straighten, whom the world made crooked.

Till I shall be where Beatrice will be;

He says that he will bear me company,

There it behoves me to remain without him.

This is Virgilius, who thus says to me,"

And him I pointed at; "the other is

That shade for whom just now shook every slope

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Your realm, that from itself discharges him."

CANTO XXIV.

NOR Speech the going, nor the going that
Slackened; but talking we went bravely on,
Even as a vessel urged by a good wind.
And shadows, that appeared things doubly dead,
From out the sepulchres of their eyes betrayed
Wonder at me, aware that I was living.

And I, continuing my colloquy,

Said: "Peradventure he goes up more slowly
Than he would do, for other people's sake.
But tell me, if thou knowest, where is Piccarda ;
Tell me if any one of note I see
Among this folk that gazes at me so."
"My sister, who, 'twixt beautiful and good,

I know not which was more, triumphs rejoicing
Already in her crown on high Olympus.'
So said he first, and then: “'Tis not forbidden
To name each other here, so milked away
Is our resemblance by our dieting.
This," pointing with his finger, "is Buonagiunta,
Buonagiunta, of Lucca; and that face

Beyond him there, more peaked than the others,
Has held the holy Church within his arms;

From Tours was he, and purges by his fasting
Bolsena's eels and the Vernaccia wine."

He named me many others one by one;

And all contented seemed at being named,
So that for this I saw not one dark look.

I saw for hunger bite the empty air

Ubaldin dalla Pila, and Boniface,

Who with his crook had pastured many people.

I saw Messer Marchese, who had leisure

Once at Forlì for drinking with less dryness,
And he was one who ne'er felt satisfied.
But as he does who scans, and then doth prize
One more than others, did I him of Lucca,
Who seemed to take most cognizance of me.

He murmured, and I know not what Gentucca
From that place heard I, where he felt the wound
Of justice, that doth macerate them so.

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"O soul," I said, "that seemest so desirous

To speak with me, do so that I may hear thee, And with thy speech appease thyself and me.” "A maid is born, and wears not yet the veil,"

Began he, "who to thee shall pleasant make
My city, howsoever men may blame it.
Thou shalt go on thy way with this prevision;

If by my murmuring thou hast been deceived,
True things hereafter will declare it to thee.
But say if him I here behold, who forth

Evoked the new-invented rhymes, beginning,
Ladies, that have intelligence of love?"
And I to him: "One am I, who, whenever
Love doth inspire me, note, and in that measure
Which he within me dictates, singing go."
"O brother, now I see," he said, "the knot

Which me, the Notary, and Guittone held
Short of the sweet new style that now I hear.
I do perceive full clearly how your pens

Go closely following after him who dictates,
Which with our own forsooth came not to pass;
And he who sets himself to go beyond,

No difference sees from one style to another;"
And as if satisfied, he held his peace.
Even as the birds, that winter tow'rds the Nile,
Sometimes into a phalanx form themselves,
Then fly in greater haste, and go in file ;
In such wise all the people who were there,

Turning their faces, hurried on their steps,
Both by their leanness and their wishes light.
And as a man, who weary is with trotting,

Lets his companions onward go, and walks,
Until he vents the panting of his chest ;

So did Forese let the holy flock

Pass by, and came with me behind it, saying,
"When will it be that I again shall see thee?"
"How long," I answered, "I may live, I know not;
Yet my return will not so speedy be,
But I shall sooner in desire arrive;
Because the place where I was set to live

From day to day of good is more depleted,
And unto dismal ruin seems ordained.”
"Now go," he said, "for him most guilty of it
At a beast's tail behold I dragged along
Towards the valley where is no repentance.

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Increasing evermore until it smites him,
And leaves the body vilely mutilated.

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Not long those wheels shall turn," and he uplifted
His eyes to heaven, ere shall be clear to thee
That which my speech no farther can declare.
Now stay behind; because the time so precious

Is in this kingdom, that I lose too much
By coming onward thus abreast with thee."
As sometimes issues forth upon a gallop

A cavalier from out a troop that ride,
And seeks the honour of the first encounter,
So he with greater strides departed from us ;

And on the road remained I with those two,
Who were such mighty marshals of the world.
And when before us he had gone so far

Mine eyes became to him such pursuivants
As was my understanding to his words,
Appeared to me with laden and living boughs
Another apple-tree, and not far distant,
From having but just then turned thitherward.
People I saw beneath it lift their hands,

And cry I know not what towards the leaves,
Like little children eager and deluded,
Who pray, and he they pray to doth not answer,
But, to make very keen their appetite,
Holds their desire aloft, and hides it not.
Then they departed as if undeceived;

And now we came unto the mighty tree Which prayers and tears so manifold refuses. "Pass farther onward without drawing near;

The tree of which Eve ate is higher up,
And out of that one has this tree been raised."
Thus said I know not who among the branches;

Whereat Virgilius, Statius, and myself
Went crowding forward on the side that rises.
"Be mindful," said he, "of the accursed ones

Formed of the cloud-rack, who inebriate
Combated Theseus with their double breasts;
And of the Jews who showed them soft in drinking,
Whence Gideon would not have them for companions,
When he tow'rds Midian the hills descended."

Thus, closely pressed to one of the two borders,
On passed we, hearing sins of gluttony,
Followed forsooth by miserable gains;

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Then set at large upon the lonely road,

A thousand steps and more we onward went,
In contemplation, each without a word.
"What go ye thinking thus, ye three alone?"

Said suddenly a voice, whereat I started
As terrified and timid beasts are wont.

I raised my head to see who this might be,
And never in a furnace was there seen
Metals or glass so lucent and so red
As one I saw who said: "If it may please you
To mount aloft, here it behoves you turn ;
This way goes he who goeth after peace."

His aspect had bereft me of my sight,

So that I turned me back unto my Teachers,

Like one who goeth as his hearing guides him.

And as, the harbinger of early dawn,

The air of May doth move and breathe out fragrance,
Impregnate all with herbage and with flowers,

So did I feel a breeze strike in the midst

My front, and felt the moving of the plumes That breathed around an odour of ambrosia ; And heard it said: "Blessed are they whom grace So much illumines, that the love of taste Excites not in their breasts too great desire, Hungering at all times so far as is just."

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CANTO XXV.

Now was it the ascent no hindrance brooked,
Because the sun had his meridian circle
To Taurus left, and night to Scorpio ;
Wherefore as doth a man who tarries not,
But goes
his way,
whate'er to him appear,
If of necessity the sting transfix him,

In this wise did we enter through the gap,

Taking the stairway, one before the other,
Which by its narrowness divides the climbers.

And as the little stork that lifts its wing

With a desire to fly, and does not venture
To leave the nest, and lets it downward droop,
Even such was I, with the desire of asking

Kindled and quenched, unto the motion coming
He makes who doth address himself to speak.

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