The Giants — Canto XXXI

One and the selfsame tongue first wounded me, So that it tinged the one cheek and the other, And then held out to me the medicine; Thus do I hear that once Achilles' lance, His and his father's, used to be the cause First of a sad and then a gracious boon.

We turned our backs upon the wretched valley, Upon the bank that girds it round about, Going across it without any speech. Here it was less than night, and less than day, So that my sight went little in advance; But I could hear the blare of a loud horn, So loud it would have made each thunder faint, Which, counter to it following its way, Mine eyes directed wholly to one place.

After the dolorous discomfiture When Charlemagne the holy emprise lost, So terribly Orlando sounded not. Short while my head turned thitherward I held, When many lofty towers I seemed to see, Whereat I: "Master, say, what town is this?"

And he to me: "Because thou peerest forth Athwart the darkness at too great a distance, It happens that thou errest in thy fancy. Well shalt thou see, if thou arrivest there, How much the sense deceives itself by distance; Therefore a little faster spur thee on."

Then tenderly he took me by the hand, And said: "Before we farther have advanced, That the reality may seem to thee Less strange, know that these are not towers, but giants, And they are in the well, around the bank, From the navel downward, one and all of them."

As, when the fog is vanishing away, Little by little doth the sight refigure Whate'er the mist that crowds the air conceals, So, piercing through the dense and darksome air, More and more near approaching tow'rd the verge, My error fled, and fear came over me; Because as on its circular parapets Montereggion is crowned with towers, So the horrible giants, whom Jove menaces E'en now from out the heavens when he thunders, With half their bodies turreted the bank Which encompasses the well round about.

And I could see already the face of one, The shoulders and the breast, and a great part Of the belly, and down along his sides both arms. Certainly Nature, when she left the making Of animals like these, did well indeed, By taking such executors from Mars; And if of elephants and whales she doth not Repent her, whosoever looketh subtly More just and more discreet will hold her for it.

For where the argument of intellect Is added unto evil will and power, No rampart can the people make against it. His face appeared to me as long and large As is at Rome the pine-cone of Saint Peter's, And in proportion were the other bones; So that the bank, which was an apron to him From the middle downward, showed us so much of him Above, that to his hair three Frieslanders In vain had vaunted they could have attained.

"Raphel may amech zabi almi," Began to clamour the ferocious mouth, To which were not befitting sweeter psalms.

And unto him my Guide: "Soul idiotic, Keep to thy horn, and vent thyself with that, When wrath or other passion touches thee. Search round thy neck, and thou wilt find the belt Which keeps it tied, O soul of all confounded, And see it, where it lies athwart thy breast."

Then said to me: "He doth himself accuse; This one is Nimrod, by whose evil thought One language in the world is not still used. Here let us leave him and not speak in vain; For even such to him is every language As his to others, which to none is known."

Therefore we journeyed on, turned to the left, And at a crossbow-shot we found the next, Far more ferocious and of greater bulk. In binding him, who might the master be I cannot say; but he had pinioned close Behind the right arm, and in front the other, With chains, that held him so begirt about From the neck down, that on the part uncovered It wound itself as far as the fifth gyre.

"This proud one wished to make experiment Of his own power against the Supreme Jove," My Leader said, "whence he has such a guerdon. Ephialtes is his name; he his great endeavours made What time the giants terrified the Gods; The arms he wielded never more he moves."

And I to him: "If possible, I should wish That of the measureless Briareus These eyes of mine might have experience." Whereat he answered: "Thou shalt see Antaeus Close by here, who can speak and is unbound, Who at the bottom of all crime shall place us. Much farther yon is he whom thou wouldst see, And he is bound, and fashioned like to this one, Save that he seems in countenance more fierce."

We went on farther forward after that, And came upon Antaeus, who, full five ells Without the head, forth issued from the cavern. "O thou, who in the valley fortunate, Which Scipio the heir of glory made, When Hannibal turned back with all his hosts, Once brought'st a thousand lions for thy prey, And who, hadst thou been at the mighty war Among thy brothers, some it seems still think The sons of Earth the victory would have gained: Place us below, nor be disdainful of it, There where the cold doth lock up Cocytus. Make us not go to Tityus nor Typhon; This one can give of that which here is longed for; Therefore stoop down, and do not curl thy lip. Still in the world can he restore thy fame; Because he lives, and still expects long life, If to itself Grace call him not untimely."

Thus said the Master; and he in haste Stretched forth his hands, of which great Hercules Once felt the grip, and took up my Conductor. Virgil, when felt himself embraced thereby, Said unto me: "Draw nigh, that I may take thee;" Then of himself and me one bundle made.

As seems the Carisenda, to behold Beneath the leaning, when a cloud is going Over it so that opposite it hangs; Such did Antaeus seem to me, who stood Watching to see him stoop, and then it was I could have wished to go some other way. But lightly in the abyss, which swallows up Judas with Lucifer, he put us down; Nor thus bowed downward made he there delay, But, as a mast does in a ship, he rose.