Dante's Divine Comedy 12

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=== Page 309: ===
Title: The Eighth Circle

=== Page 310: ===
Virgil: There is a place in Hell called Malebolge,
Wholly of stone and of an iron colour,
As is the circle that around it turns.

Right in the middle of the field malign
There yawns a well exceeding wide and deep,
Of which its place the structure will recount.

Round, then, is that enclosure which remains
Between the well and foot of the high, hard bank,

And has distinct in valleys ten its bottom.

=== Page 311: ===
Dante: Surprised was I when Geryon thus arrived,
But no fear did his virtuous face instill.

Virgil: And yet, Geryon can mighty walls destroy,
He, a monster which could corrode the world.

Well, let us go on, into Malebolge.

=== Page 312: ===
Sfx: Uooo, Ugyaaa

=== Page 313: ===
Virgil: The first Bolgia holds the panderers*!

For the crime of deception and barter
Of women, they by the powerful whips
By demons held are struck repeatedly.

Tears of blood they so torn and broken shed!

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=== Page 315: ===
Virgil: Such a punishment is meet for their crimes.

Let us proceed.

Dante: Y-yes...

=== Page 316: ===
Dante: Ugh!
This stench....!?

Virgil: The second Bolgia is filled with that
Substance which from human privies does flow...

Here you see the hell of the flatterers!

=== Page 317: ===
Virgil: They are those of bitter sycophancy,
Cajolery, and brazen flattery
Of those who sat in higher seats than they.

Let filth flow through their nose and mouth and ears,
For such is fitting to their filthy crime!

Let them be blinded by the excrement!
Let their breathing be labored from the stench!

=== Page 318: ===
Virgil: Look, Dante...

A beautiful face, now dirtied by filth,
Which not one shade in this pit does not see.

See well the face of that vile temptress!

=== Page 319: ===
Virgil: She is Thais, harlot of famous Athens!

With her body she deceived many men,
Wandering the world of ostentation.

Her once-beautiful hair has absorbed too
The filth which now does sully her body...

=== Page 320: ===
Virgil: Here, those in the company of Simon...

Dante: Oh! Simon... / the sorcerer!

=== Page 321: ===
Virgil: Oh, Simon Magus, Oh forlorn disciples,
You who the things of God, which ought to be
The brides of holiness, rapaciously

For silver and for gold do prostitute,
Now it behoves for you the trumpet sound,
Because in this third Bolgia you abide.

They in the hell of the Simoniacs*

Are clergymen who forgot their duty
And sold salvation to those who could pay.

* Simony was the act of selling indulgences (basically get-out-of-Purgatory passes), which was just part of the corruption plaguing the Church at the time.

Dante: You there, will you speak? Will you answer me!?

With that ill mouth of yours, in sand buried...

When did our Lord Jesus extort money!?

Corrupt false priests, you've earned your penance here!

Virgil: Let's go, Dante.

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=== Page 323: ===
??: Aah...

Dante: That is...!?

Virgil: This is the fourth Bolgia, for those who
The future predicted for their profit--
The fortune-tellers and the diviners.

Their heads look ever-backwards, cursed souls,
That they may never know of where they step.

=== Page 324: ===
Dante: A song?

Demons: Let us fish, in the barren wastes of Hell!

Dante: I hear a song from a curious band...

Demons: Why not fish, hey! Let us fish, let us fish!
Let us fish in the river of Hell's tar!

Virgil: But it is not a mirthful song of joy,
For it is by demons forever sung...

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Demons: Hey, why not fish? Oh!

Hey, why not fish! Aye!

=== Page 326: ===
Demons: We fish, we fish, in this river in Hell!
Now you're upside-down, with nothing to grab!

=== Page 327: ===
Virgil: This is the fifth Bolgia, boiling tar!

A normal person would be burned straight off,
But the shades which here to remain are damned
Burn not, but must suffer pain eternal!

If a hair's breadth out of boiling lake
Should a sinner rise, then the demons lunge
And force him back into the burning depths.

Such is the fate for they who were corrupt!

This is the Hell for whom bribes were given
Or accepted -- the Hell of the grafters!

Demons: Ah! But who is that who trespasses here?

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Demons: Who are you, bastards!? An escaped sinner!?
Cast them back!

=== Page 330: ===
Virgil: Do you think, Malacoda, to see me

Advanced into this place, so far trespassed,

Safe hitherto from all your skill of fence,
Without the will divine, and fate auspicious?

Let me go on, for it in Heaven is willed
That I another show this savage road.

Demon: Ah! Then, my brethren, let us strike him not!

=== Page 331: ===
Step forward, Alichino and Calcabrina,

Come forth, all ye demons, and thou, Cagnazzo;

And Barbariccia, do thou guide the ten.
Come forward, Libicocco and Draghignazzo,

And tusked Ciriatto and Graffiacane,
And Farfarello and mad Rubicante.

Dante: So quickly they come forth! By demons now
Escorted...

Will they truly keep their peace?

Virgil: Even if they wish to not, what of it?

As they say,

In the tavern sits the drunk,
And in the pews of the church sits the saint.

=== Page 332: ===
Virgil: Besides this, no other way does exist.

=== Page 333: ===
Demon: Guhehehe,
Look upon the pitiful dead, master!

Hihihi

Do you not want to torment them as well?

Oh!?

Behind that rock, a soul is surely hid!

Hey, Rubicante, scratch that mortal's back!

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Demon: You bastard! Ought I to peel his skin off?

Hiding behind a rock... do not try such!

Dude: Gyaaa

Demon: What torment shall we deliver to him?

Bring him this way!

Dude: Uwaaa, gyaa

Demon: Master, if you wish, I can amuse you...

=== Page 335: ===
Dante: Th... that person...

What crime did he commit?

Demon: Ehehehe, Master, you wish to know?

All right! Spit it out, you vile bastard!

Won't ya spit it out, hey? Hey, won't you, hey?

For Master wishes to know your story!

Dante: Ah...

Dude: Waa!

Demons: Come on!
Or else, over and over, just like this...!

=== Page 336: ===
Dude: I shall talk, I shall talk, cease, I beg you!
I in the kingdom of Navarre was born.

Then I domestic was of good King Thibault;
I set me there to practise barratry*,

* Barratry: sale or purchase of positions in church or state. I.e., corruption.

For which I pay the reckoning in this heat.

Demon: Haha!
Fallen to Hell, far too late to repent!
Let us now do what Master desires!

Dude: Ooo...

Demon: When you finish, let his skin be flayed off!

Dante: Eh!?
Ah, no, such a thing is--

Demon: Master is unsatisfied, it appears!

Aye!

Seems he wants to hear something more of note...

Let us call this one's companions to us!

Dude: Ooo...

=== Page 337: ===
Demon: A good idea! Come, call your companions!

Dude: Impossible! If you guys are gathered,

No one will come, no matter my shouting.

You must go away, there behind those rocks.

Then, I shall call.

Demon: Bastard, I know the trick of which you've thought!

Dude: N-no, no!

Demon: No matter, even if you should escape,
My faster wings would quickly chase you down.

Aye, true.

=== Page 338: ===
Demon: Alright, we'll hide, so call your companions.

=== Page 339: ===
Ah!

Ah! He's escaping!

Get him!

=== Page 340-341: ===
Demon: I can't reach!?

Idiot! Because you agreed to such
Clearly foolish things, now he has escaped!

And you had said you could catch up to him!

=== Page 342: ===
Demon: Shut up, it was you who suggested it!

Silence, surely for this you are to blame!
I will report it to Malacoda!

Go ahead and try, if you are able!

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=== Page 344: ===

=== Page 345: ===
Dante: Th... they dissolved into the boiling tar!

Virgil: The demons, unlike the shades who are here,
Cannot eternally suffer the heat...

=== Page 346: ===
Demons: Get them! They have caused our companions' deaths!

=== Page 347: ===
They were the ones who wished to hear a tale!

Aye! It was their fault, their fault, all their fault!

Dante: Eh!? Wait, I--!

Virgil: Escape, Dante!

Dante: Eeh, Maestro!?

Virgil: They've lost their senses, and cannot be stayed!
And if you fall into the tar, then you'll--...

Dante: Waah!?

=== Page 348: ===
Demons: Kill the bastards who dare to Hell tour!

'Twas a mistake for a live soul to come!

Dante: Waa? / Waa?

=== Page 349: ===
Dante: Maestro!

Virgil: It's this way, Dante!

Jump!

=== Page 350: ===
Dante: Wawa

Virgil: If we've come this far, we are surely safe.

Dante: Eh!?

Virgil: See it well...

Dante: Haa... haa... haa...

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=== Page 352: ===
Virgil: However they struggle, they may not pass.

Dante: If... if I had sunk in the lake of tar...
I of yet-living flesh would be helpless...

Virgil: Whoa, be steady...

The journey remains yet long before us!
There is no time to fall here; let us go!

=== Page 353: ===
Dante: What is this? All shine with golden color...?

Virgil: It is not true gold, but false gold of lead!

Without, they gilded are so that it dazzles;
But inwardly 'tis all leaden and heavy.

=== Page 354-355: ===
Virgil: For the Hypocrites is this the cursed Hell,
In the Sixth Bolgia of Malebolge!

In life they had turned a good face outward
And became popular through shallow means.

They are those that pushed aside each person
Who had lived honestly by their own means!

The gilded mantles, those orangish cloaks

Are made of lead so heavy, that the weights
Cause in this way their balances to creak.

They cannot stop, but walk eternally.

For hypocrites, a gilded lead mantle
Seems appropriately miserable...

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=== Page 357: ===
Dante: Why are you damned to suffer cruelly so?

Crucified in such a place, will not you
Be trampled by those mantled hypocrites?

Dude: Yes, so hear me!

In the past, I said things I should not have,
Counselled the Pharisees that it was meet
To put one man to torture for the people...
For such things, this is my retribution...

Crosswise and naked am I on the path,
As you can see; and I am forced to feel,
Whoever passes, first how much he weighs.
Save me...

They've come,
Save me...

Don't go,
Wait...

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Dante's Divine Comedy 1 -- End