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Was my response; 〃if thou demandest fame;
That 'mid the other notes thy name I place。〃
And he to me: 〃For the reverse I long;
Take thyself hence; and give me no more trouble;
For ill thou knowest to flatter in this hollow。〃
Then by the scalp behind I seized upon him;
And said: 〃It must needs be thou name thyself;
Or not a hair remain upon thee here。〃
Whence he to me: 〃Though thou strip off my hair;
I will not tell thee who I am; nor show thee;
If on my head a thousand times thou fall。〃
I had his hair in hand already twisted;
And more than one shock of it had pulled out;
He barking; with his eyes held firmly down;
When cried another: 〃What doth ail thee; Bocca?
Is't not enough to clatter with thy jaws;
But thou must bark? what devil touches thee?〃
〃Now;〃 said I; 〃I care not to have thee speak;
Accursed traitor; for unto thy shame
I will report of thee veracious news。〃
〃Begone;〃 replied he; 〃and tell what thou wilt;
But be not silent; if thou issue hence;
Of him who had just now his tongue so prompt;
He weepeth here the silver of the French;
'I saw;' thus canst thou phrase it; 'him of Duera
There where the sinners stand out in the cold。'
If thou shouldst questioned be who else was there;
Thou hast beside thee him of Beccaria;
Of whom the gorget Florence slit asunder;
Gianni del Soldanier; I think; may be
Yonder with Ganellon; and Tebaldello
Who oped Faenza when the people slep。〃
Already we had gone away from him;
When I beheld two frozen in one hole;
So that one head a hood was to the other;
And even as bread through hunger is devoured;
The uppermost on the other set his teeth;
There where the brain is to the nape united。
Not in another fashion Tydeus gnawed
The temples of Menalippus in disdain;
Than that one did the skull and the other things。
〃O thou; who showest by such bestial sign
Thy hatred against him whom thou art eating;
Tell me the wherefore;〃 said I; 〃with this compact;
That if thou rightfully of him complain;
In knowing who ye are; and his transgression;
I in the world above repay thee for it;
If that wherewith I speak be not dried up。〃
Inferno: Canto XXXIII
His mouth uplifted from his grim repast;
That sinner; wiping it upon the hair
Of the same head that he behind had wasted。
Then he began: 〃Thou wilt that I renew
The desperate grief; which wrings my heart already
To think of only; ere I speak of it;
But if my words be seed that may bear fruit
Of infamy to the traitor whom I gnaw;
Speaking and weeping shalt thou see together。
I know not who thou art; nor by what mode
Thou hast come down here; but a Florentine
Thou seemest to me truly; when I hear thee。
Thou hast to know I was Count Ugolino;
And this one was Ruggieri the Archbishop;
Now I will tell thee why I am such a neighbour。
That; by effect of his malicious thoughts;
Trusting in him I was made prisoner;
And after put to death; I need not say;
But ne'ertheless what thou canst not have heard;
That is to say; how cruel was my death;
Hear shalt thou; and shalt know if he has wronged me。
A narrow perforation in the mew;
Which bears because of me the title of Famine;
And in which others still must be locked up;
Had shown me through its opening many moons
Already; when I dreamed the evil dream
Which of the future rent for me the veil。
This one appeared to me as lord and master;
Hunting the wolf and whelps upon the mountain
For which the Pisans cannot Lucca see。
With sleuth…hounds gaunt; and eager; and well trained;
Gualandi with Sismondi and Lanfianchi
He had sent out before him to the front。
After brief course seemed unto me forespent
The father and the sons; and with sharp tushes
It seemed to me I saw their flanks ripped open。
When I before the morrow was awake;
Moaning amid their sleep I heard my sons
Who with me were; and asking after bread。
Cruel indeed art thou; if yet thou grieve not;
Thinking of what my heart foreboded me;
And weep'st thou not; what art thou wont to weep at?
They were awake now; and the hour drew nigh
At which our food used to be brought to us;
And through his dream was each one apprehensive;
And I heard locking up the under door
Of the horrible tower; whereat without a word
I gazed into the faces of my sons。
I wept not; I within so turned to stone;
They wept; and darling little Anselm mine
Said: 'Thou dost gaze so; father; what doth ail thee?'
Still not a tear I shed; nor answer made
All of that day; nor yet the night thereafter;
Until another sun rose on the world。
As now a little glimmer made its way
Into the dolorous prison; and I saw
Upon four faces my own very aspect;
Both of my hands in agony I bit;
And; thinking that I did it from desire
Of eating; on a sudden they uprose;
And said they: 'Father; much less pain 'twill give us
If thou do eat of us; thyself didst clothe us
With this poor flesh; and do thou strip it off。'
I calmed me then; not to make them more sad。
That day we all were silent; and the next。
Ah! obdurate earth; wherefore didst thou not open?
When we had come unto the fourth day; Gaddo
Threw himself down outstretched before my feet;
Saying; 'My father; why dost thou not help me?'
And there he died; and; as thou seest me;
I saw the three fall; one by one; between
The fifth day and the sixth; whence I betook me;
Already blind; to groping over each;
And three days called them after they were dead;
Then hunger did what sorrow could not do。〃
When he had said this; with his eyes distorted;
The wretched skull resumed he with his teeth;
Which; as a dog's; upon the bone were strong。
Ah! Pisa; thou opprobrium of the people
Of the fair land there where the 'Si' doth sound;
Since slow to punish thee thy neighbours are;
Let the Capraia and Gorgona move;
And make a hedge across the mouth of Arno
That every person in thee it may drown!
For if Count Ugolino had the fame
Of having in thy castles thee betrayed;
Thou shouldst not on such cross have put his sons。
Guiltless of any crime; thou modern Thebes!
Their youth made Uguccione and Brigata;
And the other two my song doth name above!
We passed still farther onward; where the ice
Another people ruggedly enswathes;
Not downward turned; but all of them reversed。
Weeping itself there does not let them weep;
And grief that finds a barrier in the eyes
Turns itself inward to increase the anguish;
Because the earliest tears a cluster form;
And; in the manner of a crystal visor;
Fill all the cup beneath the eyebrow full。
And notwithstanding that; as in a callus;
Because of cold all sensibility
Its station had abandoned in my face;
Still it appeared to me I felt some wind;
Whence I: 〃My Master; who sets this in motion?
Is not below here every vapour quenched?〃
Whence he to me: 〃Full soon shalt thou be where
Thine eye shall answer make to thee of this;
Seeing the cause which raineth down the blast。〃
And one of the wretches of the