第三十三篇那罪人抬起他的嘴，放下他的肉酱，在他仇人的头发上擦了擦嘴唇；于是他开始说：“你要我重提以往的恨事，在我没有开口之前，想到了就叫我心痛！但是，假使我的话是一粒种子，可以把我所咬的叛徒的罪恶传扬出去，那末我的话拌着眼泪说给你听罢。我不知道你是谁，也不知道你怎样会到这里来；不过，我听了你的口音，似乎你是一个佛罗伦萨人。你应当知道，我是伯爵乌格利诺，这一个是总主教卢吉埃里；我将告诉你，我为什么会有这样一个同伴。我怎样中了他的诡计，怎样被擒，怎样被他置于死地，这些都用不着多说了；不过，关于我的死，死得怎样惨，这是你要知道的，你应当静听，否则你不会明白我仇视他的理由。
“在我幽禁处的壁上只有一个小孔，那里因为我的缘故有‘饿塔’之称，固然那里也关闭过许多别灵魂。我从小孔里可看到月光，知道我等在那里已经有几个月了，那时我做了一个恶梦，因此我的‘希望之幕”扯破了。我梦见这个人是一付主人和大官的神气，追逐一只狼和它的小狼。在比萨和卢卡之间的山上，他带着干瘦的猎狗，怜俐而凶猛；瓜兰迪，席斯蒙迪和兰弗朗奇等族，为他的前驱。追逐了一会儿，那个父亲和他的儿子都疲倦了，我似乎看见他们的肚皮都给爪牙弄破了。天明之前我才醒来，我听见伴着我的孩了们还在梦里哭着要面包吃。
“假使你想到我心里所害怕的预兆，还不发生伤感，那末你真是硬心肠了；假使你对于这个不伤心，试问还有什么可以叫你伤心的呢？
“他们都醒了，往常送东西来吃的时候到了，我们各人都忧愁看着各人的梦；那时我听见塔下的门上锁了，我看着孩子们的面庞，但是一言不发。我也不哭，我的心已经和化石一样了。他们哭着；我的小安塞尔摩对我说：“你为什么这样看着我们，爷爷，你有什么不快的？’但是我不哭，也不回答，一整天，一整夜，一直等到太阳重照大地，那时阴森可怕的监牢里透进微弱的光线，我从他们四个的脸上，看出我自己的痛苦神色；因为悲伤，我咬自己的双手。他们意谓着我要吃东西，立刻站了起来，说：“爸爸，你要是咬我们，我们觉到的痛苦还小些；我们可怜的肉是你给的，现在还是由你拿去罢！’于是我镇静下来，以免加重他们的不幸。那一天，和后来的一天，我们都和哑巴一样。不仁的地呀！你为什么不裂开呢？
“到了第四天，伽多躺在我的面前，说：‘我的爸爸，为什么你不来帮助我呢？’于是他就死了。在第五天和第六天，其余三个都前后地倒下了；那时我的两眼已经看不清楚，我暗中抚摸着他们的尸体；在他们死后两天之中，我还呼唤他们的名字：后来那饥饿的权力强于悲伤。”
当他说完以后，他的眼珠转动一下，于是又把他的牙齿插入那个可怜的头颅里面，直达硬骨，和狗咬肉骨头一样厉害。
比萨呀！因为你，在美丽的土地上，处处听见“西”字的语音，全体人民都蒙着羞辱了；因为你的邻邑不急加征讨，我希望卡普拉亚和格尔勾纳二岛移近来堵塞阿尔诺河口，好让河水决口，淹没了住在你城里的市民！因为，假使伯爵乌格利诺有出卖城堡的媚敌行为，你不应当活活地牺牲他的孩子。新的忒拜人呀！他们这般年轻，使他们情白无罪；他们是乌圭乔和勃利伽塔，还有两个前面已经提过。
我们向前行进，我们看见葬在冰里的别的灵魂，不过，他们都仰着脸，他们并不俯着头。他们欲哭不能，因为那泪水已经结冰，堵满了他们的眼眶，像水晶一样；因此他们心中焦急，苦痛更甚。
虽然那里比前面更加寒冷，但是我脸上好像生了茧皮，倒也不感到难受，不过我觉得有风吹，我问道：“老师，这风是从哪里来的？难道下面还有空气流动么？”他回答道：“你马上可以到了那里。你自己的眼睛可以回答你的问题”
那时有一个在冰里的罪人叫道：“残忍的灵魂呀！最后一个住地等着你呢！请你把我眼睛上面的硬东西除掉罢，在再冰结以前，我心里的痛苦可以略微发泄一下呢。”我对他说：“假使你要我帮助，你要先告诉我你是谁；假使我不替你肃清，我就沉到冰底。”因此他回答道：“我是教友阿尔伯利格，我是恶果园的主人；在这里，为了给别人无花果，我不得不接受海枣子！”我对他说：“啊！难道你已经死了么？”他对我说：“我的肉体是否还存在世上，我自己也不知道。这是托勒密环的特点，就是在阿特洛波斯没有割断生命线之前，一个人的灵魂常常可以先到这里来。为使你更欢喜替我扫除面孔上的障碍，我要多告诉你一点：一个叛逆的灵魂，譬如我，他的肉体为一个魔鬼所占据，从此魔鬼管理那个肉体，直到他生命的完结，灵魂却先落到这个深渊里来。在我后面的这一个，灵魂已经在冰里了，但是他的肉体还停留在地面上。假使你是刚到这里的，你一定知道他，他就是勃朗卡；他这样被关锁着已经许多年了。”我对他说：”我想你是说胡活，因为勃朗卡还没有死；他还是在那里吃、穿、饮，睡。”他说：“在马拉卜朗卡那里那里沸着沥青，有一个名叫臧凯的，在他没有到那条沟里以前，勃朗伊的肉体已经落在魔鬼手里，还有他一个亲族做帮凶的也是这样。……不必多说了，你的手来开我的眼罢！”但是我不替他开眼；对于一个恶人无礼正是有礼貌。
热那亚人呀！你们是抛开一切道德的人，已经是恶贯满盈了，为什么不消声匿迹在地面上呢？在最坏的罗马的灵魂旁边，因为他的恶行，我找着你们中间的一个。他的灵魂现在已经浸在科奇上斯冰湖里面，但他的肉体还在地面上活动着呢。
That sinner wip'd them on the hairs o' th' head,
Which he behind had mangled, then began:
"Thy will obeying, I call up afresh
Sorrow past cure, which but to think of wrings
My heart, or ere I tell on't. But if words,
That I may utter, shall prove seed to bear
Fruit of eternal infamy to him,
The traitor whom I gnaw at, thou at once
Shalt see me speak and weep. Who thou mayst be
I know not, nor how here below art come:
But Florentine thou seemest of a truth,
When I do hear thee. Know I was on earth
Count Ugolino, and th' Archbishop he
Ruggieri. Why I neighbour him so close,
Now list. That through effect of his ill thoughts
In him my trust reposing, I was ta'en
And after murder'd, need is not I tell.
What therefore thou canst not have heard, that is,
How cruel was the murder, shalt thou hear,
And know if he have wrong'd me. A small grate
Within that mew, which for my sake the name
Of famine bears, where others yet must pine,
Already through its opening sev'ral moons
Had shown me, when I slept the evil sleep,
That from the future tore the curtain off.
This one, methought, as master of the sport,
Rode forth to chase the gaunt wolf and his whelps
Unto the mountain, which forbids the sight
Of Lucca to the Pisan. With lean brachs
Inquisitive and keen, before him rang'd
Lanfranchi with Sismondi and Gualandi.
After short course the father and the sons
Seem'd tir'd and lagging, and methought I saw
The sharp tusks gore their sides. When I awoke
Before the dawn, amid their sleep I heard
My sons (for they were with me) weep and ask
For bread. Right cruel art thou, if no pang
Thou feel at thinking what my heart foretold;
And if not now, why use thy tears to flow?
Now had they waken'd; and the hour drew near
When they were wont to bring us food; the mind
Of each misgave him through his dream, and I
Heard, at its outlet underneath lock'd up
The' horrible tower: whence uttering not a word
I look'd upon the visage of my sons.
I wept not: so all stone I felt within.
They wept: and one, my little Anslem, cried:
'Thou lookest so! Father what ails thee?' Yet
I shed no tear, nor answer'd all that day
Nor the next night, until another sun
Came out upon the world. When a faint beam
Had to our doleful prison made its way,
And in four countenances I descry'd
The image of my own, on either hand
Through agony I bit, and they who thought
I did it through desire of feeding, rose
O' th' sudden, and cried, 'Father, we should grieve
Far less, if thou wouldst eat of us: thou gav'st
These weeds of miserable flesh we wear,
And do thou strip them off from us again.'
Then, not to make them sadder, I kept down
My spirit in stillness. That day and the next
We all were silent. Ah, obdurate earth!
Why open'dst not upon us? When we came
To the fourth day, then Geddo at my feet
Outstretch'd did fling him, crying, 'Hast no help
For me, my father!' There he died, and e'en
Plainly as thou seest me, saw I the three
Fall one by one 'twixt the fifth day and sixth:
Whence I betook me now grown blind to grope
Over them all, and for three days aloud
Call'd on them who were dead. Then fasting got
The mastery of grief." Thus having spoke,
Once more upon the wretched skull his teeth
He fasten'd, like a mastiff's 'gainst the bone
Firm and unyielding. Oh thou Pisa! shame
Of all the people, who their dwelling make
In that fair region, where th' Italian voice
Is heard, since that thy neighbours are so slack
To punish, from their deep foundations rise
Capraia and Gorgona, and dam up
The mouth of Arno, that each soul in thee
May perish in the waters! What if fame
Reported that thy castles were betray'd
By Ugolino, yet no right hadst thou
To stretch his children on the rack. For them,
Brigata, Ugaccione, and the pair
Of gentle ones, of whom my song hath told,
Their tender years, thou modern Thebes! did make
Uncapable of guilt. Onward we pass'd,
Where others skarf'd in rugged folds of ice
Not on their feet were turn'd, but each revers'd.
There very weeping suffers not to weep;
For at their eyes grief seeking passage finds
Impediment, and rolling inward turns
For increase of sharp anguish: the first tears
Hang cluster'd, and like crystal vizors show,
Under the socket brimming all the cup.
Now though the cold had from my face dislodg'd
Each feeling, as 't were callous, yet me seem'd
Some breath of wind I felt. "Whence cometh this,"
Said I, "my master? Is not here below
All vapour quench'd?"—"'Thou shalt be speedily,"
He answer'd, "where thine eye shall tell thee whence
The cause descrying of this airy shower."
Then cried out one in the chill crust who mourn'd:
"O souls so cruel! that the farthest post
Hath been assign'd you, from this face remove
The harden'd veil, that I may vent the grief
Impregnate at my heart, some little space
Ere it congeal again!" I thus replied:
"Say who thou wast, if thou wouldst have mine aid;
And if I extricate thee not, far down
As to the lowest ice may I descend!"
"The friar Alberigo," answered he,
"Am I, who from the evil garden pluck'd
Its fruitage, and am here repaid, the date
More luscious for my fig."—"Hah!" I exclaim'd,
"Art thou too dead!"—"How in the world aloft
It fareth with my body," answer'd he,
"I am right ignorant. Such privilege
Hath Ptolomea, that ofttimes the soul
Drops hither, ere by Atropos divorc'd.
And that thou mayst wipe out more willingly
The glazed tear-drops that o'erlay mine eyes,
Know that the soul, that moment she betrays,
As I did, yields her body to a fiend
Who after moves and governs it at will,
Till all its time be rounded; headlong she
Falls to this cistern. And perchance above
Doth yet appear the body of a ghost,
Who here behind me winters. Him thou know'st,
If thou but newly art arriv'd below.
The years are many that have pass'd away,
Since to this fastness Branca Doria came."
"Now," answer'd I, "methinks thou mockest me,
For Branca Doria never yet hath died,
But doth all natural functions of a man,
Eats, drinks, and sleeps, and putteth raiment on."
He thus: "Not yet unto that upper foss
By th' evil talons guarded, where the pitch
Tenacious boils, had Michael Zanche reach'd,
When this one left a demon in his stead
In his own body, and of one his kin,
Who with him treachery wrought. But now put forth
Thy hand, and ope mine eyes." I op'd them not.
Ill manners were best courtesy to him.
Ah Genoese! men perverse in every way,
With every foulness stain'd, why from the earth
Are ye not cancel'd? Such an one of yours
I with Romagna's darkest spirit found,
As for his doings even now in soul
Is in Cocytus plung'd, and yet doth seem
In body still alive upon the earth.
CANTO XXXIV
"THE banners of Hell's Monarch do come forth
Towards us; therefore look," so spake my guide,
"If thou discern him." As, when breathes a cloud
Heavy and dense, or when the shades of night
Fall on our hemisphere, seems view'd from far
A windmill, which the blast stirs briskly round,
Such was the fabric then methought I saw,
To shield me from the wind, forthwith I drew
Behind my guide: no covert else was there.
Now came I (and with fear I bid my strain