Gluttons, Ciacco
Returning to the consciousness I'd lost
In the pathos of those kindred lovers
Whose plight completely baffled me with grief,
I see new sufferings and new suffering souls
5 Surrounding me no matter where I walk,
No matter where I turn or where I look.
I am in the third circle, a place of rain
Accursed, freezing, heavy, and unending:
Its density and direction never change.
10 Huge hailstones, mucky sleet and snow
Keep pouring down through the gloom-filled air
So that the soil that sucks it in is putrid.
Cerberus, that weird and vicious beast,
15 Howls like a mad-dog out of all three throats,
Baying above the people wallowing here.
His eyes are red, his beard is greasy black,
His belly bloated and talon-sharp his hands:
He claws the spirits, skins and splits them up.
The downpour forces them to howl like hounds.
20 Making a shield of one flank, then the other,
The impious wretches flip and flop about.
When the fat worm Cerberus had seen us,
He opened up his mouths and showed his fangs.
He stood there quivering in every muscle.
25 Then my guide, reaching down his hands,
Scooped up the earth and hurtled two fistfuls
Straight into those three rapacious jaws.
Just as a dog that barks when he is hungry,
Then quiets down while gnawing on his food,
30 Struggling and straining just to swallow it,
Such was the change in the filth-spattered faces
Of the demon Cerberus thundering loudly
Against the souls who wish that they were deaf.
We tread upon the shadows beaten down
35 By the heavy rain, and we set our feet
On emptiness that seems like solid bodies.
All of them were stretched out on the ground
Except for one who sat up straight as soon
As he perceived us passing on before him.
40 "Oh you who are led onward through this hell,"
He said to me, "see if you can place me:
For you were made before I was unmade."
And I told him, "The distress that you endure
Perhaps has wiped you from my memory
45 So it appears that I have never seen you.
"But tell me who you are who in so sad
A place are plunged to suffer such a torture
That, though worse exists, none's more repulsive."
And he told me, "Your city, so crammed full
50 Of envy that already the sack spills over,
Held me in its walls in the tranquil life.
"You citizens had nicknamed me Ciacco.
For the damnable sin of gluttony,
As you can see, I am drubbed by this rain.
55 "And I, unhappy soul, am not alone,
For all these souls bear the same punishment
For the same sin." With that he said no more.
I answered him, "Ciacco, this anguish of yours
So weighs on me it summons me to tears.
60 But tell me, if you know, what shall become
"Of the citizens of that divided city?
Is anyone there just? Tell me too the reason
Why so much discord has assaulted it?"
And he replied, "After long contention
65 They shall come to blood, and the rural party
Shall push the other out with strong offense.
"Then that party itself is doomed to fall
Within three years: the other will prevail
By the might of one now straddling the middle.
70 "This party shall hold its head up high
While keeping the other under heavy burdens,
However much it moans and feels ashamed.
"Two men are just, but no one minds them there:
Pride, spitefulness, and avarice
75 Are three sparks that have fired up their hearts."
Here his mournful words came to a close.
I said to him, "More I would have you tell me
And make me a present of still further speech.
"Farinata and Tegghiaio, once so worthy,
80 Jacopo Rusticucci, Arrigo, Mosca,
And others who put their talents to good use,
"Tell me where they are and how to know them,
For keen desire drives me on to learn
Whether heaven heals or hell poisons them."
85 And he: "They are among the blackest souls:
Different sins sink them to different pits.
If you go down that far, there you will see them.
"But when you have returned to the sweet world,
I pray you to recall me to men's minds.
90 No more I say here and no more I answer."
His straight eyes then he twisted to a squint;
He studied me a moment, bent his head,
And sank down with the others who are blind.
And my guide said to me, "He wakens no more
95 Until resounds the trumpet of the angel
When the hostile power of their Judge shall come.
"Each one shall see again his woeful tomb,
Shall once again don his own flesh and frame,
Shall hear what blasts out to eternity."
100 So we passed on through that polluted mess
Of shades and rainfall, our steps pacing slow,
And touched a moment on the future life.
At that I asked, "Master, these tormentings,
Will they increase after the final judgment
105 Or lessen or be just as burning hot?"
And he said to me, "Go back to your learning
Which holds that when a thing is the more perfect
The more it feels the grief as well as good.
"Although these same detestable people
110 Never can arrive at true perfection,
They can look to get closer then than now."
The two of us walked on around that road,
Talking about much more than I repeat.
We came to the spot where the grade falls off.
115 There we found Plutus, the great enemy.
