Purgatorio, Canto 22

1Già era l’angel dietro a noi rimaso,

l’angel che n’avea vòlti al sesto giro,

avendomi dal viso un colpo raso;

e quei c’hanno a giustizia lor disiro

5detto n’avea beati, e le sue voci

con ‘sitiunt’, sanz’ altro, ciò forniro.

E io più lieve che per l’altre foci

m’andava, sì che sanz’ alcun labore

seguiva in sù li spiriti veloci;

1Already the angel had been left behind us,

the angel who had turned us to the sixth round,

having wiped one stroke from my face;

and those whose desire is set on justice

5he had called blessed, and his words

ended with sitiunt, and nothing more.

And I, lighter than through the other passages,

went on, so that without any labor

I followed upward after the swift spirits;

10quando Virgilio incominciò: «Amore,

acceso di virtù, sempre altro accese,

pur che la fiamma sua paresse fore;

onde da l’ora che tra noi discese

nel limbo de lo ’nferno Giovenale,

15che la tua affezion mi fé palese,

mia benvoglienza inverso te fu quale

più strinse mai di non vista persona,

sì ch’or mi parran corte queste scale.

Ma dimmi, e come amico mi perdona

20se troppa sicurtà m’allarga il freno,

e come amico omai meco ragiona:

come poté trovar dentro al tuo seno

loco avarizia, tra cotanto senno

di quanto per tua cura fosti pieno?».

10when Virgil began: Love,

kindled by virtue, always kindles another,

provided that its flame appears outwardly;

therefore from the hour when Juvenal

descended among us in the limbo of Hell,

15and made your affection clear to me,

my good will toward you became such

as ever most closely bound one to a person unseen,

so now these stairs will seem short to me.

But tell me, and as a friend forgive me

20if too much confidence loosens my rein,

and now speak with me as a friend:

how could avarice find room

inside your breast, amid so much wisdom

as that with which your care had filled you?

25Queste parole Stazio mover fenno

un poco a riso pria; poscia rispuose:

«Ogne tuo dir d’amor m’è caro cenno.

Veramente più volte appaion cose

che danno a dubitar falsa matera

30per le vere ragion che son nascose.

La tua dimanda tuo creder m’avvera

esser ch’i’ fossi avaro in l’altra vita,

forse per quella cerchia dov’ io era.

Or sappi ch’avarizia fu partita

35troppo da me, e questa dismisura

migliaia di lunari hanno punita.

E se non fosse ch’io drizzai mia cura,

quand’ io intesi là dove tu chiame,

crucciato quasi a l’umana natura:

40‘Per che non reggi tu, o sacra fame

de l’oro, l’appetito de’ mortali?’,

voltando sentirei le giostre grame.

Allor m’accorsi che troppo aprir l’ali

potean le mani a spendere, e pente’mi

45così di quel come de li altri mali.

Quanti risurgeran coi crini scemi

per ignoranza, che di questa pecca

toglie ’l penter vivendo e ne li stremi!

E sappie che la colpa che rimbecca

50per dritta opposizione alcun peccato,

con esso insieme qui suo verde secca;

però, s’io son tra quella gente stato

che piange l’avarizia, per purgarmi,

per lo contrario suo m’è incontrato».

25These words first moved Statius

a little to laughter; then he answered:

Every word of yours is a dear sign of love to me.

Truly, many times things appear

that give false material for doubt,

30because the true reasons are hidden.

Your question makes your belief clear to me,

that I was avaricious in the other life,

perhaps because of that circle where I was.

Now know that avarice was removed

35too far from me, and this failed measure

thousands of lunar courses have punished.

And if I had not set my care straight,

when I understood the place where you cry out,

as though angered against human nature:

40To what do you not drive, O accursed hunger

for gold, the appetite of mortals?

I would, while turning, feel the grievous jousts.

Then I perceived that the hands could open

their wings too widely in spending, and I repented

45of that as I did of my other evils.

How many will rise again with hair shorn

because of ignorance, which for this fault

takes away repentance in life and at the last!

And know that the fault which strikes back

50against some sin by direct opposition

dries up its green here together with it;

therefore, if I have been among that people

who weep for avarice, to purge myself,

it befell me because of its contrary.

55«Or quando tu cantasti le crude armi

de la doppia trestizia di Giocasta»,

disse ’l cantor de’ buccolici carmi,

«per quello che Clïò teco lì tasta,

non par che ti facesse ancor fedele

60la fede, sanza qual ben far non basta.

Se così è, qual sole o quai candele

ti stenebraron sì, che tu drizzasti

poscia di retro al pescator le vele?».

55Now when you sang the cruel arms

of the double sorrow of Jocasta,

said the singer of the bucolic songs,

from what Clio touches there with you,

it does not seem that faith had yet made you

60faithful, without which good works do not suffice.

If this is so, what sun or what candles

cleared your darkness so that afterward you set

your sails behind the Fisherman?

64Ed elli a lui: «Tu prima m’invïasti

65verso Parnaso a ber ne le sue grotte,

e prima appresso Dio m’alluminasti.

Facesti come quei che va di notte,

che porta il lume dietro e sé non giova,

ma dopo sé fa le persone dotte,

70quando dicesti: ‘Secol si rinova;

torna giustizia e primo tempo umano,

e progenïe scende da ciel nova’.

Per te poeta fui, per te cristiano:

ma perché veggi mei ciò ch’io disegno,

75a colorare stenderò la mano.

Già era ’l mondo tutto quanto pregno

de la vera credenza, seminata

per li messaggi de l’etterno regno;

e la parola tua sopra toccata

80si consonava a’ nuovi predicanti;

ond’ io a visitarli presi usata.

Vennermi poi parendo tanto santi,

che, quando Domizian li perseguette,

sanza mio lagrimar non fur lor pianti;

85e mentre che di là per me si stette,

io li sovvenni, e i lor dritti costumi

fer dispregiare a me tutte altre sette.

E pria ch’io conducessi i Greci a’ fiumi

di Tebe poetando, ebb’ io battesmo;

90ma per paura chiuso cristian fu’mi,

lungamente mostrando paganesmo;

e questa tepidezza il quarto cerchio

cerchiar mi fé più che ’l quarto centesmo.

64And he said to him: You first sent me

65toward Parnassus to drink in its grottoes,

and after God, you first gave me light.

You did like one who goes by night,

who carries the light behind and does not help himself,

but makes the people after him wise,

70when you said: The age renews itself;

justice returns, and the first human time,

and a new progeny descends from heaven.

Through you I became a poet, through you a Christian:

but so that you may better see what I sketch,

75I will stretch out my hand to add color.

Already the whole world was pregnant

with the true belief, sown

by the messengers of the eternal kingdom;

and your word touched on above

80was in harmony with the new preachers;

so I took up the habit of visiting them.

Then they came to seem so holy to me

that when Domitian persecuted them,

their tears were not without my weeping;

85and while I remained over there,

I aided them, and their upright customs

made me despise every other sect.

And before I led the Greeks to the rivers

of Thebes in poetry, I received baptism;

90but through fear I was a hidden Christian,

for a long while showing paganism;

and this lukewarmness made me circle

the fourth circle for more than four hundred years.

94Tu dunque, che levato hai il coperchio

95che m’ascondeva quanto bene io dico,

mentre che del salire avem soverchio,

dimmi dov’ è Terrenzio nostro antico,

Cecilio e Plauto e Varro, se lo sai:

dimmi se son dannati, e in qual vico».

100«Costoro e Persio e io e altri assai»,

rispuose il duca mio, «siam con quel Greco

che le Muse lattar più ch’altri mai,

nel primo cinghio del carcere cieco;

spesse fïate ragioniam del monte

105che sempre ha le nutrice nostre seco.

Euripide v’è nosco e Antifonte,

Simonide, Agatone e altri piùe

Greci che già di lauro ornar la fronte.

Quivi si veggion de le genti tue

110Antigone, Deïfile e Argia,

e Ismene sì trista come fue.

Védeisi quella che mostrò Langia;

èvvi la figlia di Tiresia, e Teti,

e con le suore sue Deïdamia».

94You, then, who have lifted the covering

95that hid from me the great good I speak of,

while we have ascent to spare,

tell me where our ancient Terence is,

Caecilius and Plautus and Varro, if you know:

tell me if they are damned, and in what quarter.

100These men, and Persius and I and many others,

my guide replied, are with that Greek

whom the Muses nursed more than any other,

in the first belt of the blind prison;

often we speak of the mountain

105that always has our nurses with it.

Euripides is there with us, and Antiphon,

Simonides, Agathon, and many other

Greeks who once adorned their brows with laurel.

There among your own people are seen

110Antigone, Deiphyle, and Argia,

and Ismene, as sorrowful as she was.

There is seen the one who showed Langia;

there is the daughter of Tiresias, and Thetis,

and Deidamia with her sisters.

115Tacevansi ambedue già li poeti,

di novo attenti a riguardar dintorno,

liberi da saliri e da pareti;

e già le quattro ancelle eran del giorno

rimase a dietro, e la quinta era al temo,

120drizzando pur in sù l’ardente corno,

quando il mio duca: «Io credo ch’a lo stremo

le destre spalle volger ne convegna,

girando il monte come far solemo».

Così l’usanza fu lì nostra insegna,

125e prendemmo la via con men sospetto

per l’assentir di quell’ anima degna.

Elli givan dinanzi, e io soletto

di retro, e ascoltava i lor sermoni,

ch’a poetar mi davano intelletto.

115Both poets were already silent,

once more intent on looking around,

free from ascents and from walls;

and already the four handmaids of the day

were left behind, and the fifth was at the chariot pole,

120still directing its burning horn upward,

when my guide said: I think that toward the edge

we should turn our right shoulders,

circling the mountain as we are accustomed to do.

Thus custom was our guide there,

125and we took the way with less suspicion

because of that worthy soul's assent.

They went ahead, and I alone

behind them listened to their discourses,

which gave me understanding for poetry.

130Ma tosto ruppe le dolci ragioni

un alber che trovammo in mezza strada,

con pomi a odorar soavi e buoni;

e come abete in alto si digrada

di ramo in ramo, così quello in giuso,

135cred’ io, perché persona sù non vada.

Dal lato onde ’l cammin nostro era chiuso,

cadea de l’alta roccia un liquor chiaro

e si spandeva per le foglie suso.

Li due poeti a l’alber s’appressaro;

140e una voce per entro le fronde

gridò: «Di questo cibo avrete caro».

130But soon the sweet reasonings were broken

by a tree we found in the middle of the road,

with apples sweet and good to smell;

and as a fir tree narrows upward

from branch to branch, so this one narrowed downward,

135I think, so that no person may go up.

From the side where our path was closed,

a clear liquid fell from the high rock

and spread itself over the leaves above.

The two poets approached the tree;

140and a voice from within the leaves

cried: This food will be dear to you.

142Poi disse: «Più pensava Maria onde

fosser le nozze orrevoli e intere,

ch’a la sua bocca, ch’or per voi risponde.

145E le Romane antiche, per lor bere,

contente furon d’acqua; e Danïello

dispregiò cibo e acquistò savere.

Lo secol primo, quant’ oro fu bello,

fé savorose con fame le ghiande,

150e nettare con sete ogne ruscello.

Mele e locuste furon le vivande

che nodriro il Batista nel diserto;

per ch’elli è glorïoso e tanto grande

quanto per lo Vangelio v’è aperto».

142Then it said: Mary thought more about how

the wedding might be honorable and complete

than about her mouth, which now answers for you.

145And the ancient Roman women, for their drink,

were content with water; and Daniel

despised food and acquired wisdom.

The first age, as beautiful as gold,

made acorns savory with hunger,

150and every little stream nectar with thirst.

Honey and locusts were the food

that nourished the Baptist in the wilderness;

therefore he is glorious and so great

as the Gospel has opened to you.