The Eighth Circle. Fraud. The First Trench. Pandars and Seducers. The Second Trench. Flatterers and Prostitutes
A place there is in Hell, called Malebolgë,
wholly of stone, and of an iron hue,
as is the round wall which encircles it.
Right in the midst of its malicious field
yawneth a well exceeding wide and deep,
of whose construction, in its place, I ’ll speak.
Round, therefore, is the girdle which remains
between the well and that hard, high wall’s base,
and ten great trenches subdivide its bed.
As is the appearance which, where many moats
encircle castles for the walls’ protection,
the section where they are presents;
such was the one those trenches furnished here;
and just as in such fortresses small bridges
stretch from their thresholds to the outmost bank;
so crags ran from the bottom of the cliff
across the banks and trenches to the well,
which, gathering them together, cuts them off.
In this place, then, we found ourselves, when dropped
from Geryon’s back; the Poet thereupon
held to the left, and I behind him moved.
Upon the right side I beheld new cause
for sympathy, new pains, and scourgers new,
wherewith the first trench was completely filled.
Down at its bottom naked were the sinners;
this side the middle facing us they came,
beyond it with us, but with quicker steps;
means such as those which at the Jubilee
the Romans took, because of its great throng,
to have the people pass across the bridge,
who toward the Castle all on one side face,
and toward Saint Peter’s go their way; while all
move toward the mountain on the other edge.
This side and that, upon the dark, stone floor,
horned demons with great scourges I beheld,
who from behind were fiercely whipping them.
Ah, how they caused them to lift them up their heels,
when by the first blows smitten! Certainly
none waited for the second, or the third.
While I was going on, mine eyes were met
by one of them; and instantly I said:
“I fast not from a previous sight of him.”
To make him out I therefore stayed my feet;
and, having stopped with me, my gentle Leader
assented to my going back a little.
That scourged one thought that he could hide himself
by looking down, but little it availed him;
for “Thou, that castest down thine eyes,” said I,
unless the features which thou hast are false,
Venèdico Caccianimico art;
but what brings thee into such pungent sauces?”
And he to me: “Unwillingly I tell it;
but forced I am by thy transparent speech,
which makes me recollect the olden world.
I was the one who led Ghisolabella
to do according to the Marquis’ will,
however the disgusting tale be told.
Nor am I here the only Bolognese
that weeps; nay, this place is so full of us,
that not so many tongues are taught today
between Savena and Reno to say sipa;
and if thereof thou wouldst have…
