第40章 Inferno: Canto XXXI(2)

Search round thy neck, and thou wilt find the belt Which keeps it fastened, O bewildered soul, And see it, where it bars thy mighty breast."

Then said to me: "He doth himself accuse;

This one is Nimrod, by whose evil thought One language in the world is not still used.

Here let us leave him and not speak in vain;

For even such to him is every language As his to others, which to none is known."

Therefore a longer journey did we make, Turned to the left, and a crossbow-shot oft We found another far more fierce and large.

In binding him, who might the master be I cannot say; but he had pinioned close Behind the right arm, and in front the other, With chains, that held him so begirt about From the neck down, that on the part uncovered It wound itself as far as the fifth gyre.

"This proud one wished to make experiment Of his own power against the Supreme Jove,"

My Leader said, "whence he has such a guerdon.

Ephialtes is his name; he showed great prowess.

What time the giants terrified the gods;

The arms he wielded never more he moves."

And I to him: "If possible, I should wish That of the measureless Briareus These eyes of mine might have experience."

Whence he replied: "Thou shalt behold Antaeus Close by here, who can speak and is unbound, Who at the bottom of all crime shall place us.

Much farther yon is he whom thou wouldst see, And he is bound, and fashioned like to this one, Save that he seems in aspect more ferocious."

There never was an earthquake of such might That it could shake a tower so violently, As Ephialtes suddenly shook himself.

Then was I more afraid of death than ever, For nothing more was needful than the fear, If I had not beheld the manacles.

Then we proceeded farther in advance, And to Antaeus came, who, full five ells Without the head, forth issued from the cavern.

"O thou, who in the valley fortunate, Which Scipio the heir of glory made, When Hannibal turned back with all his hosts, Once brought'st a thousand lions for thy prey, And who, hadst thou been at the mighty war Among thy brothers, some it seems still think The sons of Earth the victory would have gained:

Place us below, nor be disdainful of it, There where the cold doth lock Cocytus up.

Make us not go to Tityus nor Typhoeus;

This one can give of that which here is longed for;

Therefore stoop down, and do not curl thy lip.

Still in the world can he restore thy fame;

Because he lives, and still expects long life, If to itself Grace call him not untimely."

So said the Master; and in haste the other His hands extended and took up my Guide,--Hands whose great pressure Hercules once felt.

Virgilius, when he felt himself embraced, Said unto me: "Draw nigh, that I may take thee;"

Then of himself and me one bundle made.

As seems the Carisenda, to behold Beneath the leaning side, when goes a cloud Above it so that opposite it hangs;

Such did Antaeus seem to me, who stood Watching to see him stoop, and then it was I could have wished to go some other way.

But lightly in the abyss, which swallows up Judas with Lucifer, he put us down;

Nor thus bowed downward made he there delay, But, as a mast does in a ship, uprose.