Clearly enough their voices bark it forth,
Whene'er they reach the two points of the circle,
Where sunders them the opposite defect. 45
Clerks those were who no hairy covering
Have on the head, and Popes and Cardinals,
In whom doth avarice practise its excess."
And I: "My Master, among such as these
I ought forsooth to recognize some few, 50
Who were infected with these maladies."
And he to me: "Vain thought thou entertainest;
The undiscerning life which made them sordid
Now makes them unto all discernment dim.
Forever shall they come to these two buttings; 55
These from the sepulchre shall rise again
With the fist closed, and these with tresses shorn.
Ill giving and ill keeping the fair world
Have ta'en from them, and placed them in this scuffle;
Whate'er it be, no words adorn I for it. 60
Now canst thou. Son, behold the transient farce
Of goods that are committed unto Fortune,
For which the human race each other buffet;
For all the gold that is beneath the moon,
Or ever has been, of these weary souls 65
Could never make a single one repose."
Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/61
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Inferno VII.
41
