Unequally in anguish round and round
And weary all, upon that foremost cornice,
Purging away the smoke-stains of the world.
If there good words are always said for us,

What may not here be said and done for them,
By those who have a good root to their will?
Well may we help them wash away the marks

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That hence they carried, so that clean and light 35 They may ascend unto the starry wheels! "Ah! so may pity and justice you disburden

Soon, that ye may have power to move the wing, That shall uplift you after your desire, Show us on which hand tow'rd the stairs the way

Is shortest, and if more than one the passes, Point us out that which least abruptly falls; For he who cometh with me, through the burden Of Adam's flesh wherewith he is invested, Against his will is chary of his climbing." The words of theirs which they returned to those That he whom I was following had spoken, It was not manifest from whom they came, But it was said: "To the right hand come with us Along the bank, and ye shall find a pass Possible for living person to ascend.

And were I not impeded by the stone,

Which this proud neck of mine doth subjugate,
Whence I am forced to hold my visage down,
Him, who still lives and doth not name himself,
Would I regard, to see if I may know him,
And make him piteous unto this burden.
A Latian was I, and born of a great Tuscan;
Guglielmo Aldobrandeschi was my father;

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I know not if his name were ever with The ancient blood and deeds of gallantry

you.

Of my progenitors so arrogant made me
That, thinking not upon the common mother,
All men
I held in scorn to such extent

I died therefor, as know the Sienese,
And every child in Campagnatico.

I am Omberto; and not to me alone

Has pride done harm, but all my kith and kin
Has with it dragged into adversity.

And here must I this burden bear for it

Till God be satisfied, since I did not.

Among the living, here among the dead." Listening I downward bent my countenance;

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And one of them, not this one who was speaking, Twisted himself beneath the weight that cramps

him,

And looked at me, and knew me, and called out,
Keeping his eyes laboriously fixed

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On me, who all bowed down was going with them. "Oh," asked I him, "art thou not Oderisi,

Agobbio's honor, and honor of that art
Which is in Paris called illuminating?"
"Brother," said he, "more laughing are the leaves
Touched by the brush of Franco Bolognese;
All his the honor now, and mine in part.
In sooth I had not been so courteous

While I was living, for the great desire
Of excellence, on which my heart was bent.
Here of such pride is paid the forfeiture;
And yet I should not be here, were it not
That, having power to sin, I turned to God.

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O thou vain glory of the human powers,
How little green upon thy summit lingers,
If 't be not followed by an age of grossness!
In painting Cimabue thought that he

Should hold the field, now Giotto has the cry,
So that the other's fame is growing dim.

So has one Guido from the other taken

The glory of our tongue, and he perchance

Is born, who from the nest shall chase them both. Naught is this mundane rumor but a breath

Of wind, that comes now this way and now that, And changeth name, because it changeth side. What fame shalt thou have more, if old peel off From thee thy flesh, than if thou hadst been dead Before thou left the pappo and the dindi, Ere pass a thousand years? which is a shorter

Space to the eterne, than twinkling of an eye
Unto the circle that in heaven wheels slowest.
With him, who takes so little of the road

In front of me, all Tuscany resounded;
And now he scarce is lisped of in Siena,
Where he was lord, what time was overthrown
The Florentine delirium, that superb
Was at that day as now 't is prostitute.
Your reputation is the color of grass

Which comes and goes, and that discolors it
By which it issues green from out the earth."
And I "Thy true speech fills my heart with good
Humility, and great tumor thou assuagest;

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But who is he, of whom just now thou spakest?" "That," he replied, " is Provenzan Salvani,

Line 102. And changes name, because it changes side.

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And he is here because he had presumed
To bring Siena all into his hands.
He has gone thus, and goeth without rest

E'er since he died; such money renders back
In payment he who is on earth too daring."
And I: "If every spirit who awaits

The verge of life before that he repent, Remains below there and ascends not hither (Unless good orison shall him bestead),

Until as much time as he lived be passed, How was the coming granted him in largess?" "When he in greatest splendor lived," said he, "Freely upon the Campo of Siena,

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All shame being laid aside, he placed himself; And there to draw his friend from the duress Which in the prison-house of Charles he suffered, He brought himself to tremble in each vein. I say no more, and know that I speak darkly; Yet little time shall pass before thy neighbors Will so demean themselves that thou canst gloss it. This action hath released him from those confines."

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CANTO XII

ABREAST, like oxen going in a yoke,

I with that heavy-laden soul went on,
As long as the sweet pedagogue permitted;
But when he said, "Leave him, and onward pass,

For here 't is good that with the sail and oars, As much as may be, each push on his barque;" Upright, as walking wills it, I redressed

My person, notwithstanding that my thoughts
Remained within me downcast and abated.
I had moved on, and followed willingly

eyes;

The footsteps of my Master, and we both Already showed how light of foot we were, When unto me he said: "Cast down thine 'T were well for thee, to alleviate the way, To look upon the bed beneath thy feet." As, that some memory there may be of them, Above the buried dead their tombs in earth Bear sculptured on them what they were before; Whence often there we weep for them afresh, From pricking of remembrance, which alone To the compassionate doth set its spur; So saw I there, but of a better semblance In point of artifice, with figures covered Whate'er as pathway from the mount projects.

I saw that one who was created noble

Line 9. Remained within me downcast and abashed.
Line 16. As, that some memory may exist of them,

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