Caina and Antenora — Canto XXXII

Canto 32 of Inferno by Dante Alighieri

If I had rhymes both rough and stridulous, As were appropriate to the dismal hole Down upon which thrust all the other rocks, I would press out the juice of my conception More fully; but because I have them not, Not without fear I bring myself to speak; For to describe the bottom of all the universe Is no enterprise to take in jest, Nor for a tongue that cries Mamma and Daddy.

But may those Ladies help this verse of mine, Who helped Amphion in enclosing Thebes, So that from fact the saying be not diverse. O rabble ill-begotten above all, Who in the place to speak of which is hard Stand in this place, 'twere better ye had here Been either sheep or goats!

When we were down within the darksome well, Beneath the feet of the giant far below, And I was scanning still the lofty wall, I heard it said to me: "Look how thou steppest; Take heed thou do not trample with thy feet The heads of the tired, miserable brothers." Wherefore I turned me, and before my face Saw and beneath my feet a lake, that from The frost the semblance had of glass, and not of water.