第二十九篇这一群苦难的人和他们的种种不幸，使我的眼睛里积满着泪水，我很想找一个闲暇把他洒去；但是维吉尔对我说：“你在注视着什么？为什么你执着地看着这一群不幸的影子呢？在别的沟里你却没有这般；假如你想把他们一个个数清楚，那末在这条沟转一圈共有二十二里，这是绝对办不到的；而且月亮已经在我们的脚下了，时间是很短暂，你需要看的东西，比你已经看过的还多呢。”我答道：“如果你注意到我之所以这样注视的原因，也许你会准许我多逗留一刻吧。”
我虽然这样回答，我的引路人已经往前走了，我只好跟追着他；我又说：“在这条沟里，我特别重视，因为我知道这里有我的一个族人哭着呢。”于是我的老师说：“你不要再怀念这个灵魂了；你改变你的想法，让他永远在这条沟里吧。我刚才看见他站在桥墩旁边，手指着你做威胁的姿势；我听见有人叫他杰利·戴尔·贝洛。那时你正谋杀那个守奥特浮的，你没有看见他，因此他走过去了。”我说：“哦，我的引导人呀！他是被人谋害的，到现在我们蒙受着耻辱的还未有人替他报仇，所以他这样愤怒。我想他是不愿意和我说话而去了，因此我更加悲怜他。”
我们这样说着，来到了一块岩石之上，望见另一条沟，如果那里有足够的光亮，我们一定可以看到他的底部。当我们来到马勒勃尔介的最后一条沟，里面的精灵都陈列在我们眼前了，种种惨叫的声音，像尖刀一般地刺着我的耳鼓，使我心里难受，我只得用手掌把耳孔堵塞起来。若是把七九月间，所有在瓦尔第洽纳、马菜姆玛和萨丁等地医院中的病人聚集在一起，那就仿佛这条沟里的情景了；这里的气味是肌肉腐烂的腹臭。
我们降落到最后一条堤岸，仍旧向左边转弯，那时我们看得更加清楚了：在这块土地上，那无上权威的主人，命令他的仆人，用完全正确的正义，处理这群伪造者。
就是埃吉那的百姓，遭遇了瘟疫从大的动物，到小的虫类一个个倒毙在地；直到后来诗人意谓这是确实的，这些古代的人种才从蚁卵孵化出来；我想也比不上这里所见的更加凄惨。这里一堆，那里一堆，这些灵魂痛苦地呻吟。有的肚子着地卧着，有的肩并着肩，有的在可怕的路上爬行。
我们一步一步慢慢地走过，并不说话，看着听着这些罪人，他们已经不能站立了。我看见两个互相依靠相视的灵魂，好比这片瓦依着那片瓦，从头到脚，他们的身上结满疮痂，我从来没有见过有一个马夫，被他的主人催促，如此心急地梳刷马的毛，就像这两个罪人搔抓他们的皮肤。他们痒得厉害，没办法，只好把他们的指甲深深地抓进肉里去。他们的指甲抓落他们的疮痂，与刀子刮下鲤鱼鳞或别的大鱼鳞没有不同。
我的引路人开始向其中的一个说：“哦！你用你的指甲抓破了自己，你把他们当做铁钳子；请你告诉我，在你们中间是否有拉丁人；以后，你可以用你的指甲永久地工作了。”其中一个挥着眼泪说：“我们就是拉丁人，我们两个这般的丑相让你看见了；但是。你是谁，你来问我们做什么？”我的引路人答道：“我带着这个活人，一级一级降到这里，目的是把地狱让他看一看。”于是这两个互相依靠的离开了，把脸转向我们，其他的听见我们说话的也面向我们。和善的老师对我说：“你要问什么，你对他们说吧。”我按了他的吩咐，我开始说：“请你们告诉我，你们是谁，是什么地方人？这样就可以使你们的名字不被阳世间的人类所遗忘，可以永久地留在太阳底下；你们不要自惭形秽、而把真话隐藏起来。”
其中一个答道：“我是阿雷佐人，是锡那纳的阿尔伯罗把我烧死的；但是我的死亡，并不是被带到这里来的原因。事实是这样：我对他说和他开玩笑罢了：“我能够在天空飞行呢。’但是他头脑简单，他想跟我学，要我在他面前露露本领；就因为我没有能够使他成为一个代达路斯，他便指使一个人烧死了我，这一个人把他当作儿子呢。现在我住在第十条沟里，是因为我在世的时候要了一套炼金术的缘故，米诺斯判决得丝毫不错。”
那时我对诗人说：“现在是否有一种国民像锡那纳人那样轻浮狂躁？当然法国入也远不如他们。”我说了这句话，有一个生癞病的听见了，回答我说：“除去斯特里；他是有节制的：除去尼科洛，他是第一个发明用丁香为食品，这是在那儿园子里产生的；还要除去那个团体，在这个团体里面，卡洽消费掉他的葡萄园和大树林，阿巴利亚托显示他的聪明。但是假如你想知道赞成你而反对锡那纳人的是谁，请你专心注视我，我的面孔会给你正确的回答，你一定能看得出我是卡波乔的影子，他曾经用炼金术伪造了金属；假如我熟视着你，你一定能记起我是天生的一只聪明猴子。”
Of the vast multitude, whom various wounds
Disfigur'd, that they long'd to stay and weep.
But Virgil rous'd me: "What yet gazest on?
Wherefore doth fasten yet thy sight below
Among the maim'd and miserable shades?
Thou hast not shewn in any chasm beside
This weakness. Know, if thou wouldst number them
That two and twenty miles the valley winds
Its circuit, and already is the moon
Beneath our feet: the time permitted now
Is short, and more not seen remains to see."
"If thou," I straight replied, "hadst weigh'd the cause
For which I look'd, thou hadst perchance excus'd
The tarrying still." My leader part pursu'd
His way, the while I follow'd, answering him,
And adding thus: "Within that cave I deem,
Whereon so fixedly I held my ken,
There is a spirit dwells, one of my blood,
Wailing the crime that costs him now so dear."
Then spake my master: "Let thy soul no more
Afflict itself for him. Direct elsewhere
Its thought, and leave him. At the bridge's foot
I mark'd how he did point with menacing look
At thee, and heard him by the others nam'd
Geri of Bello. Thou so wholly then
Wert busied with his spirit, who once rul'd
The towers of Hautefort, that thou lookedst not
That way, ere he was gone."—"O guide belov'd!
His violent death yet unaveng'd," said I,
"By any, who are partners in his shame,
Made him contemptuous: therefore, as I think,
He pass'd me speechless by; and doing so
Hath made me more compassionate his fate."
So we discours'd to where the rock first show'd
The other valley, had more light been there,
E'en to the lowest depth. Soon as we came
O'er the last cloister in the dismal rounds
Of Malebolge, and the brotherhood
Were to our view expos'd, then many a dart
Of sore lament assail'd me, headed all
With points of thrilling pity, that I clos'd
Both ears against the volley with mine hands.
As were the torment, if each lazar-house
Of Valdichiana, in the sultry time
'Twixt July and September, with the isle
Sardinia and Maremma's pestilent fen,
Had heap'd their maladies all in one foss
Together; such was here the torment: dire
The stench, as issuing steams from fester'd limbs.
We on the utmost shore of the long rock
Descended still to leftward. Then my sight
Was livelier to explore the depth, wherein
The minister of the most mighty Lord,
All-searching Justice, dooms to punishment
The forgers noted on her dread record.
More rueful was it not methinks to see
The nation in Aegina droop, what time
Each living thing, e'en to the little worm,
All fell, so full of malice was the air
(And afterward, as bards of yore have told,
The ancient people were restor'd anew
From seed of emmets) than was here to see
The spirits, that languish'd through the murky vale
Up-pil'd on many a stack. Confus'd they lay,
One o'er the belly, o'er the shoulders one
Roll'd of another; sideling crawl'd a third
Along the dismal pathway. Step by step
We journey'd on, in silence looking round
And list'ning those diseas'd, who strove in vain
To lift their forms. Then two I mark'd, that sat
Propp'd 'gainst each other, as two brazen pans
Set to retain the heat. From head to foot,
A tetter bark'd them round. Nor saw I e'er
Groom currying so fast, for whom his lord
Impatient waited, or himself perchance
Tir'd with long watching, as of these each one
Plied quickly his keen nails, through furiousness
Of ne'er abated pruriency. The crust
Came drawn from underneath in flakes, like scales
Scrap'd from the bream or fish of broader mail.
"O thou, who with thy fingers rendest off
Thy coat of proof," thus spake my guide to one,
"And sometimes makest tearing pincers of them,
Tell me if any born of Latian land
Be among these within: so may thy nails
Serve thee for everlasting to this toil."
"Both are of Latium," weeping he replied,
"Whom tortur'd thus thou seest: but who art thou
That hast inquir'd of us?" To whom my guide:
"One that descend with this man, who yet lives,
From rock to rock, and show him hell's abyss."
Then started they asunder, and each turn'd
Trembling toward us, with the rest, whose ear
Those words redounding struck. To me my liege
Address'd him: "Speak to them whate'er thou list."
And I therewith began: "So may no time
Filch your remembrance from the thoughts of men
In th' upper world, but after many suns
Survive it, as ye tell me, who ye are,
And of what race ye come. Your punishment,
Unseemly and disgustful in its kind,
Deter you not from opening thus much to me."
"Arezzo was my dwelling," answer'd one,
"And me Albero of Sienna brought
To die by fire; but that, for which I died,
Leads me not here. True is in sport I told him,
That I had learn'd to wing my flight in air.
And he admiring much, as he was void
Of wisdom, will'd me to declare to him
The secret of mine art: and only hence,
Because I made him not a Daedalus,
Prevail'd on one suppos'd his sire to burn me.
But Minos to this chasm last of the ten,
For that I practis'd alchemy on earth,
Has doom'd me. Him no subterfuge eludes."
Then to the bard I spake: "Was ever race
Light as Sienna's? Sure not France herself
Can show a tribe so frivolous and vain."
The other leprous spirit heard my words,
And thus return'd: "Be Stricca from this charge
Exempted, he who knew so temp'rately
To lay out fortune's gifts; and Niccolo
Who first the spice's costly luxury
Discover'd in that garden, where such seed
Roots deepest in the soil: and be that troop
Exempted, with whom Caccia of Asciano
Lavish'd his vineyards and wide-spreading woods,
And his rare wisdom Abbagliato show'd
A spectacle for all. That thou mayst know
Who seconds thee against the Siennese
Thus gladly, bend this way thy sharpen'd sight,
That well my face may answer to thy ken;
So shalt thou see I am Capocchio's ghost,
Who forg'd transmuted metals by the power
Of alchemy; and if I scan thee right,
Thus needs must well remember how I aped
Creative nature by my subtle art."