骄傲的祈祷，翁伯尔托。但丁与欧德利西的谈话。普洛温赞。
“我们在天上的父，你并不示现在一处，因为你布施最大的爱到你高处最初的造物，所有的造物都称颂你的名字和你的力量因为由你流出的甘露应回报以感激。愿你国度和平的降临，因为她若不慈临；我们自己将无法获至，我们的智慧也无济于事。因为你的天使唱着“和散那’而为你奉献他们的意志，所以人们也如此为你奉献。赐给我们每天的口粮，没有这个，就是最努力行进的，也要在这条艰难的沙漠路上缩了。因为我们宽恕别人对于我们所做的罪恶，所以也请你发些慈悲饶恕我们，勿念我们的前嫌。我们的德性很容易消减，不要令他受旧敌的引诱，请你救我们离弃这样凶恶的境地。这最后一个祈祷，慈悲的天父，不是为我们自己，我们已经不需要，这是为落在我们后面可怜的人们”。
这些灵魂们就这样为他为他们，也为我们，发出这种令人欣慰的祷告，他们同时压在重物下面走着，如同在梦魇中受重迫一般。他们受着这等的劳苦，绕着山腹的第一层旋转，直到他们脱出地上所蒙的浓雾。
假使在山上的为我们由衷地祈祷，试问在地上有善根的人应当怎样为他们说，为他们做呢？我们实在应当帮助这些灵魂早回洗刷掉带到这里来的污点，因此他们清净轻快，可以上升到灿烂的天国去了。
“喂！正义和怜悯不久就要为你们卸下重担了，你们会以张开两翼飞到你们所希望的高空了！请告诉我们向那一边走，可以最快地找着向上的路阶；假使路阶不止一处，那末告诉我们那倾斜度最缓的；因为我的伙伴，他还带着亚兰的肉身，攀登坚难，不能自在。”
我的向导这样说，也不指定向着谁，后来有一个灵魂起初也不知是谁答道：“向右边，随我们沿着山崖走去，你们自然能够找到活人上升的关口，假使我不为此石压住了傲慢的颈根，我要抬头看看谁是这位活人，我是否认识他，叫他可怜我的重负。我是拉丁人，托斯卡那大人物的公子：阿尔多勃兰戴斯齐族的圭利埃尔莫是我的父亲；我不知道他的名字你们是否听见过。因为家族的血统和家族雄武的事业，养成我盛气凌人的习气，不想及我们共同的母亲，只是藐视一切的人，这便是我致死的原因，所有的锡耶纳人都知道，康帕尼阿提科的居民无人不晓。我是翁伯尔托，不仅我一人因傲慢而败亡，而且我的家族也连带衰微了。为了这个缘故，我在此亡灵中负着重物，直到上帝赦免的一天，正因为我在活人中没有做过这种工作。”
由于听灵魂们说话，我低着我的头。其中有一个并非刚才说话的一个人在重物之下转着头看我；他认识我，他喊我，一双眼睛用力钉着我，那时我赶忙弯着腰伴他走。我对他说：“哦！你不是欧德利西么？谷毕奥的荣耀也是在巴黎叫做着色艺术的光荣呀！”
他说：“老兄！那更悦目的是波伦亚人弗朗科所画的几页。今日的荣誉已全归于他。我只应当得一少部分。当然，在我的生前，我并不这样赞扬他人；因为我的慢心很大，我想坐第一把交椅。为了这种傲慢，现在我在这里偿债。假使不是我在尚能犯过的时候皈依上帝，那末我还未必能到此地呢。人力所能得的真是虚荣呀！绿色能够留在枝头的时间多么短促！假使不继之一个荒芜的年代。契马部埃在绘画界以为可称独霸了，然而今日乔托的呼声更高，竟盖过了前面的荣誉。至于诗坛的呢，这一个圭多挤走了那一个圭多，也许把两个都赶走的人已经生了。尘世的称颂只是一阵风，一时吹到东，一时吹到西，改变了方向就是改变了名字。假使你到老才遗弃你的肉体，或是你在学着说“饼饼’和‘钱钱’以前便死了，到了千年以后，你的声名那一方面会显赫大些呢？而一千年和永久相比，无异于眉宇的瞬动和天上星球所兜的圈子相比。在我前面不远，缓缓走着的，他曾一时闻名全托斯卡地方，但是现在却根本没有人提起他的名宁在锡耶纳了，但在佛罗伦萨的猖狂被诛灭的时候佛罗伦萨昔日的傲慢气概，亦犹今日的卑鄙嘴脸，他曾是锡耶纳的主裁。所以，人类的荣耀无异草之生，草之衰：使他青的也就使他黄。”
我说：“您的一番至理名言，使我生解谦逊之心，抑止我的骄矜之气；但是你说的这个人究竟是谁呢？”他答道：“他名字是普洛温赞·萨尔瓦尼；他所以在这里的缘故，是因为他过于把全锡耶纳控制掌握之中了。他就是这样走，还要上下去。从他死后便没有休息过。这就是他偿还的钱，因为他在自我太自命不凡了。”
我说：“听说，一个灵魂在生命的尽头才知晓忏悔，应当滞留在山门外，不许升到这里，直到时间流过和他的生命相等，除非有慈心人的祈祷来帮助他。假使这话是真的，那末这个灵魂怎么会到这里的呢？”
欧德利西答道：”当他活着正在最光荣的年代，他放下一切羞耻的观念，毫不畏缩地直往锡耶纳的热闹市场，救护一个友人出查理的牢狱；他战栗他的全身。我不多说了，我知道我的话有些含糊；但是不久你的同乡所做的事，会使你得到了解。就是这件行为，免除了他的预备工作。”
The heavens thy dwelling, not in bounds confin'd,
But that with love intenser there thou view'st
Thy primal effluence, hallow'd be thy name:
Join each created being to extol
Thy might, for worthy humblest thanks and praise
Is thy blest Spirit. May thy kingdom's peace
Come unto us; for we, unless it come,
With all our striving thither tend in vain.
As of their will the angels unto thee
Tender meet sacrifice, circling thy throne
With loud hosannas, so of theirs be done
By saintly men on earth. Grant us this day
Our daily manna, without which he roams
Through this rough desert retrograde, who most
Toils to advance his steps. As we to each
Pardon the evil done us, pardon thou
Benign, and of our merit take no count.
'Gainst the old adversary prove thou not
Our virtue easily subdu'd; but free
From his incitements and defeat his wiles.
This last petition, dearest Lord! is made
Not for ourselves, since that were needless now,
But for their sakes who after us remain."
Thus for themselves and us good speed imploring,
Those spirits went beneath a weight like that
We sometimes feel in dreams, all, sore beset,
But with unequal anguish, wearied all,
Round the first circuit, purging as they go,
The world's gross darkness off: In our behalf
If there vows still be offer'd, what can here
For them be vow'd and done by such, whose wills
Have root of goodness in them? Well beseems
That we should help them wash away the stains
They carried hence, that so made pure and light,
They may spring upward to the starry spheres.
"Ah! so may mercy-temper'd justice rid
Your burdens speedily, that ye have power
To stretch your wing, which e'en to your desire
Shall lift you, as ye show us on which hand
Toward the ladder leads the shortest way.
And if there be more passages than one,
Instruct us of that easiest to ascend;
For this man who comes with me, and bears yet
The charge of fleshly raiment Adam left him,
Despite his better will but slowly mounts."
From whom the answer came unto these words,
Which my guide spake, appear'd not; but 'twas said.
"Along the bank to rightward come with us,
And ye shall find a pass that mocks not toil
Of living man to climb: and were it not
That I am hinder'd by the rock, wherewith
This arrogant neck is tam'd, whence needs I stoop
My visage to the ground, him, who yet lives,
Whose name thou speak'st not him I fain would view.
To mark if e'er I knew him? and to crave
His pity for the fardel that I bear.
I was of Latiun, of a Tuscan horn
A mighty one: Aldobranlesco's name
My sire's, I know not if ye e'er have heard.
My old blood and forefathers' gallant deeds
Made me so haughty, that I clean forgot
The common mother, and to such excess,
Wax'd in my scorn of all men, that I fell,
Fell therefore; by what fate Sienna's sons,
Each child in Campagnatico, can tell.
I am Omberto; not me only pride
Hath injur'd, but my kindred all involv'd
In mischief with her. Here my lot ordains
Under this weight to groan, till I appease
God's angry justice, since I did it not
Amongst the living, here amongst the dead."
List'ning I bent my visage down: and one
(Not he who spake) twisted beneath the weight
That urg'd him, saw me, knew me straight, and call'd,
Holding his eyes With difficulty fix'd
Intent upon me, stooping as I went
Companion of their way. "O!" I exclaim'd,
"Art thou not Oderigi, art not thou
Agobbio's glory, glory of that art
Which they of Paris call the limmer's skill?"
"Brother!" said he, "with tints that gayer smile,
Bolognian Franco's pencil lines the leaves.
His all the honour now; mine borrow'd light.
In truth I had not been thus courteous to him,
The whilst I liv'd, through eagerness of zeal
For that pre-eminence my heart was bent on.
Here of such pride the forfeiture is paid.
Nor were I even here; if, able still
To sin, I had not turn'd me unto God.
O powers of man! how vain your glory, nipp'd
E'en in its height of verdure, if an age
Less bright succeed not! Cimabue thought
To lord it over painting's field; and now
The cry is Giotto's, and his name eclips'd.
Thus hath one Guido from the other snatch'd
The letter'd prize: and he perhaps is born,
Who shall drive either from their nest. The noise
Of worldly fame is but a blast of wind,
That blows from divers points, and shifts its name
Shifting the point it blows from. Shalt thou more
Live in the mouths of mankind, if thy flesh
Part shrivel'd from thee, than if thou hadst died,
Before the coral and the pap were left,
Or ere some thousand years have passed? and that
Is, to eternity compar'd, a space,
Briefer than is the twinkling of an eye
To the heaven's slowest orb. He there who treads
So leisurely before me, far and wide
Through Tuscany resounded once; and now
Is in Sienna scarce with whispers nam'd:
There was he sov'reign, when destruction caught
The madd'ning rage of Florence, in that day
Proud as she now is loathsome. Your renown
Is as the herb, whose hue doth come and go,
And his might withers it, by whom it sprang
Crude from the lap of earth." I thus to him:
"True are thy sayings: to my heart they breathe
The kindly spirit of meekness, and allay
What tumours rankle there. But who is he
Of whom thou spak'st but now?"--"This," he replied,
"Is Provenzano. He is here, because
He reach'd, with grasp presumptuous, at the sway
Of all Sienna. Thus he still hath gone,
Thus goeth never-resting, since he died.
Such is th' acquittance render'd back of him,
Who, beyond measure, dar'd on earth." I then:
"If soul that to the verge of life delays
Repentance, linger in that lower space,
Nor hither mount, unless good prayers befriend,
How chanc'd admittance was vouchsaf'd to him?"
"When at his glory's topmost height," said he,
"Respect of dignity all cast aside,
Freely He fix'd him on Sienna's plain,
A suitor to redeem his suff'ring friend,
Who languish'd in the prison-house of Charles,
Nor for his sake refus'd through every vein
To tremble. More I will not say; and dark,
I know, my words are, but thy neighbours soon
Shall help thee to a comment on the text.
This is the work, that from these limits freed him."
“我们在天上的父，你并不示现在一处，因为你布施最大的爱到你高处最初的造物，所有的造物都称颂你的名字和你的力量因为由你流出的甘露应回报以感激。愿你国度和平的降临，因为她若不慈临；我们自己将无法获至，我们的智慧也无济于事。因为你的天使唱着“和散那’而为你奉献他们的意志，所以人们也如此为你奉献。赐给我们每天的口粮，没有这个，就是最努力行进的，也要在这条艰难的沙漠路上缩了。因为我们宽恕别人对于我们所做的罪恶，所以也请你发些慈悲饶恕我们，勿念我们的前嫌。我们的德性很容易消减，不要令他受旧敌的引诱，请你救我们离弃这样凶恶的境地。这最后一个祈祷，慈悲的天父，不是为我们自己，我们已经不需要，这是为落在我们后面可怜的人们”。
这些灵魂们就这样为他为他们，也为我们，发出这种令人欣慰的祷告，他们同时压在重物下面走着，如同在梦魇中受重迫一般。他们受着这等的劳苦，绕着山腹的第一层旋转，直到他们脱出地上所蒙的浓雾。
假使在山上的为我们由衷地祈祷，试问在地上有善根的人应当怎样为他们说，为他们做呢？我们实在应当帮助这些灵魂早回洗刷掉带到这里来的污点，因此他们清净轻快，可以上升到灿烂的天国去了。
“喂！正义和怜悯不久就要为你们卸下重担了，你们会以张开两翼飞到你们所希望的高空了！请告诉我们向那一边走，可以最快地找着向上的路阶；假使路阶不止一处，那末告诉我们那倾斜度最缓的；因为我的伙伴，他还带着亚兰的肉身，攀登坚难，不能自在。”
我的向导这样说，也不指定向着谁，后来有一个灵魂起初也不知是谁答道：“向右边，随我们沿着山崖走去，你们自然能够找到活人上升的关口，假使我不为此石压住了傲慢的颈根，我要抬头看看谁是这位活人，我是否认识他，叫他可怜我的重负。我是拉丁人，托斯卡那大人物的公子：阿尔多勃兰戴斯齐族的圭利埃尔莫是我的父亲；我不知道他的名字你们是否听见过。因为家族的血统和家族雄武的事业，养成我盛气凌人的习气，不想及我们共同的母亲，只是藐视一切的人，这便是我致死的原因，所有的锡耶纳人都知道，康帕尼阿提科的居民无人不晓。我是翁伯尔托，不仅我一人因傲慢而败亡，而且我的家族也连带衰微了。为了这个缘故，我在此亡灵中负着重物，直到上帝赦免的一天，正因为我在活人中没有做过这种工作。”
由于听灵魂们说话，我低着我的头。其中有一个并非刚才说话的一个人在重物之下转着头看我；他认识我，他喊我，一双眼睛用力钉着我，那时我赶忙弯着腰伴他走。我对他说：“哦！你不是欧德利西么？谷毕奥的荣耀也是在巴黎叫做着色艺术的光荣呀！”
他说：“老兄！那更悦目的是波伦亚人弗朗科所画的几页。今日的荣誉已全归于他。我只应当得一少部分。当然，在我的生前，我并不这样赞扬他人；因为我的慢心很大，我想坐第一把交椅。为了这种傲慢，现在我在这里偿债。假使不是我在尚能犯过的时候皈依上帝，那末我还未必能到此地呢。人力所能得的真是虚荣呀！绿色能够留在枝头的时间多么短促！假使不继之一个荒芜的年代。契马部埃在绘画界以为可称独霸了，然而今日乔托的呼声更高，竟盖过了前面的荣誉。至于诗坛的呢，这一个圭多挤走了那一个圭多，也许把两个都赶走的人已经生了。尘世的称颂只是一阵风，一时吹到东，一时吹到西，改变了方向就是改变了名字。假使你到老才遗弃你的肉体，或是你在学着说“饼饼’和‘钱钱’以前便死了，到了千年以后，你的声名那一方面会显赫大些呢？而一千年和永久相比，无异于眉宇的瞬动和天上星球所兜的圈子相比。在我前面不远，缓缓走着的，他曾一时闻名全托斯卡地方，但是现在却根本没有人提起他的名宁在锡耶纳了，但在佛罗伦萨的猖狂被诛灭的时候佛罗伦萨昔日的傲慢气概，亦犹今日的卑鄙嘴脸，他曾是锡耶纳的主裁。所以，人类的荣耀无异草之生，草之衰：使他青的也就使他黄。”
我说：“您的一番至理名言，使我生解谦逊之心，抑止我的骄矜之气；但是你说的这个人究竟是谁呢？”他答道：“他名字是普洛温赞·萨尔瓦尼；他所以在这里的缘故，是因为他过于把全锡耶纳控制掌握之中了。他就是这样走，还要上下去。从他死后便没有休息过。这就是他偿还的钱，因为他在自我太自命不凡了。”
我说：“听说，一个灵魂在生命的尽头才知晓忏悔，应当滞留在山门外，不许升到这里，直到时间流过和他的生命相等，除非有慈心人的祈祷来帮助他。假使这话是真的，那末这个灵魂怎么会到这里的呢？”
欧德利西答道：”当他活着正在最光荣的年代，他放下一切羞耻的观念，毫不畏缩地直往锡耶纳的热闹市场，救护一个友人出查理的牢狱；他战栗他的全身。我不多说了，我知道我的话有些含糊；但是不久你的同乡所做的事，会使你得到了解。就是这件行为，免除了他的预备工作。”
The heavens thy dwelling, not in bounds confin'd,
But that with love intenser there thou view'st
Thy primal effluence, hallow'd be thy name:
Join each created being to extol
Thy might, for worthy humblest thanks and praise
Is thy blest Spirit. May thy kingdom's peace
Come unto us; for we, unless it come,
With all our striving thither tend in vain.
As of their will the angels unto thee
Tender meet sacrifice, circling thy throne
With loud hosannas, so of theirs be done
By saintly men on earth. Grant us this day
Our daily manna, without which he roams
Through this rough desert retrograde, who most
Toils to advance his steps. As we to each
Pardon the evil done us, pardon thou
Benign, and of our merit take no count.
'Gainst the old adversary prove thou not
Our virtue easily subdu'd; but free
From his incitements and defeat his wiles.
This last petition, dearest Lord! is made
Not for ourselves, since that were needless now,
But for their sakes who after us remain."
Thus for themselves and us good speed imploring,
Those spirits went beneath a weight like that
We sometimes feel in dreams, all, sore beset,
But with unequal anguish, wearied all,
Round the first circuit, purging as they go,
The world's gross darkness off: In our behalf
If there vows still be offer'd, what can here
For them be vow'd and done by such, whose wills
Have root of goodness in them? Well beseems
That we should help them wash away the stains
They carried hence, that so made pure and light,
They may spring upward to the starry spheres.
"Ah! so may mercy-temper'd justice rid
Your burdens speedily, that ye have power
To stretch your wing, which e'en to your desire
Shall lift you, as ye show us on which hand
Toward the ladder leads the shortest way.
And if there be more passages than one,
Instruct us of that easiest to ascend;
For this man who comes with me, and bears yet
The charge of fleshly raiment Adam left him,
Despite his better will but slowly mounts."
From whom the answer came unto these words,
Which my guide spake, appear'd not; but 'twas said.
"Along the bank to rightward come with us,
And ye shall find a pass that mocks not toil
Of living man to climb: and were it not
That I am hinder'd by the rock, wherewith
This arrogant neck is tam'd, whence needs I stoop
My visage to the ground, him, who yet lives,
Whose name thou speak'st not him I fain would view.
To mark if e'er I knew him? and to crave
His pity for the fardel that I bear.
I was of Latiun, of a Tuscan horn
A mighty one: Aldobranlesco's name
My sire's, I know not if ye e'er have heard.
My old blood and forefathers' gallant deeds
Made me so haughty, that I clean forgot
The common mother, and to such excess,
Wax'd in my scorn of all men, that I fell,
Fell therefore; by what fate Sienna's sons,
Each child in Campagnatico, can tell.
I am Omberto; not me only pride
Hath injur'd, but my kindred all involv'd
In mischief with her. Here my lot ordains
Under this weight to groan, till I appease
God's angry justice, since I did it not
Amongst the living, here amongst the dead."
List'ning I bent my visage down: and one
(Not he who spake) twisted beneath the weight
That urg'd him, saw me, knew me straight, and call'd,
Holding his eyes With difficulty fix'd
Intent upon me, stooping as I went
Companion of their way. "O!" I exclaim'd,
"Art thou not Oderigi, art not thou
Agobbio's glory, glory of that art
Which they of Paris call the limmer's skill?"
"Brother!" said he, "with tints that gayer smile,
Bolognian Franco's pencil lines the leaves.
His all the honour now; mine borrow'd light.
In truth I had not been thus courteous to him,
The whilst I liv'd, through eagerness of zeal
For that pre-eminence my heart was bent on.
Here of such pride the forfeiture is paid.
Nor were I even here; if, able still
To sin, I had not turn'd me unto God.
O powers of man! how vain your glory, nipp'd
E'en in its height of verdure, if an age
Less bright succeed not! Cimabue thought
To lord it over painting's field; and now
The cry is Giotto's, and his name eclips'd.
Thus hath one Guido from the other snatch'd
The letter'd prize: and he perhaps is born,
Who shall drive either from their nest. The noise
Of worldly fame is but a blast of wind,
That blows from divers points, and shifts its name
Shifting the point it blows from. Shalt thou more
Live in the mouths of mankind, if thy flesh
Part shrivel'd from thee, than if thou hadst died,
Before the coral and the pap were left,
Or ere some thousand years have passed? and that
Is, to eternity compar'd, a space,
Briefer than is the twinkling of an eye
To the heaven's slowest orb. He there who treads
So leisurely before me, far and wide
Through Tuscany resounded once; and now
Is in Sienna scarce with whispers nam'd:
There was he sov'reign, when destruction caught
The madd'ning rage of Florence, in that day
Proud as she now is loathsome. Your renown
Is as the herb, whose hue doth come and go,
And his might withers it, by whom it sprang
Crude from the lap of earth." I thus to him:
"True are thy sayings: to my heart they breathe
The kindly spirit of meekness, and allay
What tumours rankle there. But who is he
Of whom thou spak'st but now?"--"This," he replied,
"Is Provenzano. He is here, because
He reach'd, with grasp presumptuous, at the sway
Of all Sienna. Thus he still hath gone,
Thus goeth never-resting, since he died.
Such is th' acquittance render'd back of him,
Who, beyond measure, dar'd on earth." I then:
"If soul that to the verge of life delays
Repentance, linger in that lower space,
Nor hither mount, unless good prayers befriend,
How chanc'd admittance was vouchsaf'd to him?"
"When at his glory's topmost height," said he,
"Respect of dignity all cast aside,
Freely He fix'd him on Sienna's plain,
A suitor to redeem his suff'ring friend,
Who languish'd in the prison-house of Charles,
Nor for his sake refus'd through every vein
To tremble. More I will not say; and dark,
I know, my words are, but thy neighbours soon
Shall help thee to a comment on the text.
This is the work, that from these limits freed him."