Dante Inferno Canto 4 translated by D. B.

Gain
I was like one drowned in deepest drowse
Whom naught but violent thunder could arouse.
I gave my eyes their greatest roving range;
I saw a sight so savage and so strange.
There endless groans rang from the savage sink;
I, terrified, was teetering on the brink.
`Twas deep and dense, nor lit by littlest light,
Its dark dank depths hid in the nullest night.
My guide: "I first and you come close behind;
Let us together dare the beetling blind".
I saw him blanch and cried: "Can I prevail
When fright makes e`en my constant comfort fail?"
But he: "You have not read my wan face well;
I fear not, rather pity those who dwell
Wracked by th` unending sufferings of hell".
He bad me haste, as we had far to go.
We came to the first circle down below.
We heard no loud complaint, no crying there
But only sighs {no fits of wild despair}
Quivering for ever through th` eternal air.
Men, women, children of all kinds felt grief;
Though untormented, yet they lacked relief.
Then my good guide: " Ere these people are past
Know they, though they sinned not, are yet outcast.
Although their many merits may be prized,
Their lack of Christian Trust can`t be disguised;
They`re barred from heaven, as still unbaptized.
As I, they lived unflooded by Christ`s light;
The worship that they gave God was not right.
For this alone we suffer; grief devours;
We pine for what we know will ne`er be ours".
I`m filled with cares; I could not comprehend;
Though good, their life in limbo knows no end.
"Good guide" I said then, "By that trust I sue
By which the false is conquered by the true,
Was any road of any`s worth e`er trod
By which one, leaving limbo, could find God?"
Then he, well knowing what I wished to hear,
Said: "I, when new here, saw a Lord appear.
He wore the crown of victory as his sign
And took from here the founder of our line,
And his son Abel, Noah too, and sought
Th` obeyer of laws that he himself had taught,
The patriarch Abram and David, e`en higher,
And Israel with his children and his sire
And Rachel, by whom so much was possessed,
And many more, and made all of them blest.
These are the first that heaven`s bounds contain;
Seek others ere them, you shall seek in vain".
We crossed the woods e`en mid such words as these,
I say the woods, since souls were thick as trees.
The distance from where I awoke was slight;
We saw a fire that gave a partial light.
Though I was far, my straining eyes could show
A trace of ones whom I would want to know.
I cried: "O you who honour every art,
Who are these honoured souls who dwell apart?"
And he: "Your world above praises their name;
They find here Heaven`s favour for their fame".
A voice cried: "Great the honour that is earned
By the great poet who has now returned".
I saw four great Shadows come, neither sad
Of countenance as they approached, or glad.
Then my good guide: "See him who holds the sword
Leading the three as if he were their Lord,
Shadow by whom all others are outclassed,
Next satirist Horace, then, when he has past,
The third is Ovid, and Lucan is last.
You heard the voice that cried the common name;
They do me honour; the source is the same,
Since poetry is our common claim to fame".
So I saw there the Lords, th` assembled school,
Acknowledging the lofty eagle`s rule.
When they had talked together there a while
They turned to me, with gestures without guile
And at that sign I saw my master smile.
The boon`s still greater that they deigned to pay ~
They made me sixth among such minds as they.
We sought the light with speech we knew would suit,
Though now I know my mouth must e`er be mute.
We gazed up at a seven~walled keep of note;
A limpid streamlet served it as a moat.
I passed through seven gates with this sage band;
We`d walked the water as if `twere dry land.
And there we found the freshest sylvan scene,
Mid men of mark made manifest by mien.
Their eyes were grave and all their glances slow;
Each spoke but seldom and his voice was low.
We swerved and gained that higher than before,
Spread out and brighter, whence we might see more.
I saw the Shadows on th` enamelled green;
I am still thrilled to think of what I`ve seen!
Hector, Aeneas, Caesar, falcon~eyed
Within Electra`s throng could be descried.
I saw Camilla and Penthesilea,
Latinus and his daughter Lavinia,
Lucretia, Julia, Mareia, Cornelia,
Brutus, by whom proud Tarquin was o`er thrown
And Saladin also, aloof, alone.
Higher, I saw his pupils in a row,
Mid them, the master sage of all who know.
All those there own the reverence that they owe;
Those closest are Socrates and Plato;
There too are Heraclitus and Zeno,
Anaxagoras and Diogenes,
And with them Thales and Empedocles,
Dioscorides, proving there`s design,
Democritus, denying all divine,
And Euclid the geometer, Linus,
And Orpheus and Ptolemy and Tullius,
Galen, Hippocrates and Seneca
The good and moral and Avicenna,
Averrohes, commenter on the sage;
To tell of all of them would take an age.
Though my long task oft urges to prevail,
Full oft I falter and my weak words fail.
The company of six becomes a pair;
My wise guide finds another way to fare,
Out of the quiet into tempestuous air.
I`m in another place; there`s no light there.