Saturday, December 02, 2006
Canto XIII
So entered we this forest black 1
Its colors wrong, all out of whack,
And Nessus left us find our way
In pathless wood in fear we strayed. 4
And all my clothes on briar's torn,
All shredded they on curving thorns.
And up on top of branches high
There nest foul Harpies, evil cry 8
From perch on top of highest boughs
I watched them with my twisted brow.
Their eyes were cold, with wings so wide
They screamed as heard I round me sighs 12
With dreadful moan that echoes round
The sad lament of hopeless sound
So Virgil turns to say right there
In words that died in stagnant air 16
That we had entered second ring
That Phlegathon around did pin
That stretched on to the burning sands
Where blasphemous by God were canned. 20
'Behold this wood and listen now
For source of this infernal row
Just grab a branch and snap it off
To put to rest that train of thought 24
So grabbed I branch and off I tear
And heard I then a pain filled swear
'Oh Cruel-ty, without pity!
Oh why must you most cruel wound me? 28
What once was man but now are stumps
Just flotsam in this forest dumped
For those who have the souls of snakes
Now down in seventh circle staked.' 32
From out of wound there came a voice
Of those who made a bitter choice
'Forgive me please.' my master grieved
To set this wretch upon your tree 36
So tell this fool who once you were
Your name on earth he may repair.'
And so in Wood of Suicide
I heard a tale that made me cry 40
Of servant who had served his lord
On shifting sands, by act of sword
Then came one day and he was framed
And took his life his family save 44
And then on its own tears it choked
And asked me this in voice full broke,
‘If ever Fuhrer you should see
Please tell him to remember me.48
Please tell him then of all you know
My self slain soul in hell now sown.'
But told him not I’d seen his boss
A mile before the river crossed, 52
Where rested he up to his brows
In burning blood in fate most foul.
'Now tell him how you can to be,'
My master speaks to moaning tree, 56
'In second round of seventh maw
And what your dying vision saw.'
'I saw a light.' The tree replied
'When first I'd realized I'd died 60
And then a wind began to blow
That pulled me in on current slow
Until it like Katrina blasts
That sucked me down and then was cast 64
By chance wherever happened fell
On dreadful slopes of seventh hell
And when the final day last comes
We'll suffer still with bodies hung 68
That once we wore, but wear no more,
Instead upon our limbs we'll store.
And hang they then like rotten fruit
Reminder of a dreadful truth 72
That One should never Oneself kill
Or risk your soul in forest chill.'
Before the bush could say some more
We heard a growing distant roar 76
Then a-sudden ground starts shaking
Heard I sounds of branches breaking
Sees I two I thought I knew
Come running in with asses blue 80
Followed fast by fifty bitches
One of men in pain down pitches, 82
Cries he then to fleeing mate
(Before by pack of dogs was ate!)
'You weren't so fast at Nuremberg!'
And then was caught by chasing curs, 86
And gobbled up and carried off 87
This sinner by the pack was scoffed.
Left they then with little pieces
Splattered on their midnight fleeces. 90
Heard I low then pain filled moaning
Crept I closer to the groaning
To where I saw a broken bush
That bleeding from it phrases gushed 94
'I am the ghost of Kurt Cobain
By mine own hand was I self slain
Now in this bleeding bush I'm bind
Oh well, whatever, nevermind.' 98
Then Virgil takes my hand and leads
Beyond the wood of tree that bleed
As tears now roll from wounded eye
In silence stumbled as I cried 102
So entered we this forest black 1
Its colors wrong, all out of whack,
And Nessus left us find our way
In pathless wood in fear we strayed. 4
And all my clothes on briar's torn,
All shredded they on curving thorns.
And up on top of branches high
There nest foul Harpies, evil cry 8
From perch on top of highest boughs
I watched them with my twisted brow.
Their eyes were cold, with wings so wide
They screamed as heard I round me sighs 12
With dreadful moan that echoes round
The sad lament of hopeless sound
So Virgil turns to say right there
In words that died in stagnant air 16
That we had entered second ring
That Phlegathon around did pin
That stretched on to the burning sands
Where blasphemous by God were canned. 20
'Behold this wood and listen now
For source of this infernal row
Just grab a branch and snap it off
To put to rest that train of thought 24
So grabbed I branch and off I tear
And heard I then a pain filled swear
'Oh Cruel-ty, without pity!
Oh why must you most cruel wound me? 28
What once was man but now are stumps
Just flotsam in this forest dumped
For those who have the souls of snakes
Now down in seventh circle staked.' 32
From out of wound there came a voice
Of those who made a bitter choice
'Forgive me please.' my master grieved
To set this wretch upon your tree 36
So tell this fool who once you were
Your name on earth he may repair.'
And so in Wood of Suicide
I heard a tale that made me cry 40
Of servant who had served his lord
On shifting sands, by act of sword
Then came one day and he was framed
And took his life his family save 44
And then on its own tears it choked
And asked me this in voice full broke,
‘If ever Fuhrer you should see
Please tell him to remember me.48
Please tell him then of all you know
My self slain soul in hell now sown.'
But told him not I’d seen his boss
A mile before the river crossed, 52
Where rested he up to his brows
In burning blood in fate most foul.
'Now tell him how you can to be,'
My master speaks to moaning tree, 56
'In second round of seventh maw
And what your dying vision saw.'
'I saw a light.' The tree replied
'When first I'd realized I'd died 60
And then a wind began to blow
That pulled me in on current slow
Until it like Katrina blasts
That sucked me down and then was cast 64
By chance wherever happened fell
On dreadful slopes of seventh hell
And when the final day last comes
We'll suffer still with bodies hung 68
That once we wore, but wear no more,
Instead upon our limbs we'll store.
And hang they then like rotten fruit
Reminder of a dreadful truth 72
That One should never Oneself kill
Or risk your soul in forest chill.'
Before the bush could say some more
We heard a growing distant roar 76
Then a-sudden ground starts shaking
Heard I sounds of branches breaking
Sees I two I thought I knew
Come running in with asses blue 80
Followed fast by fifty bitches
One of men in pain down pitches, 82
Cries he then to fleeing mate
(Before by pack of dogs was ate!)
'You weren't so fast at Nuremberg!'
And then was caught by chasing curs, 86
And gobbled up and carried off 87
This sinner by the pack was scoffed.
Left they then with little pieces
Splattered on their midnight fleeces. 90
Heard I low then pain filled moaning
Crept I closer to the groaning
To where I saw a broken bush
That bleeding from it phrases gushed 94
'I am the ghost of Kurt Cobain
By mine own hand was I self slain
Now in this bleeding bush I'm bind
Oh well, whatever, nevermind.' 98
Then Virgil takes my hand and leads
Beyond the wood of tree that bleed
As tears now roll from wounded eye
In silence stumbled as I cried 102
Friday, December 01, 2006
Canto XII
I heard the sound of cries and screams 1
All drifted from the distant stream
As guide points to the gloom below
And says 'This way we now must go 4
On path made by the Risen Christ
When harrowing the Hell he sliced
Right through he did, and took he then
The Fathers and the Kings of men.’ 12
So made we then our way down there
As choked I did on stinking air.
The path ahead was strewn with bones
That first I had mistook for stones 16
And human skulls filled every crag
In piles of hundreds they were stacked!
Then on the rim a nightmare shape
Of infamy, the monster lay, 20
And cast his eye about he did
All bright and red beneath its lid!
By minotaur our way was blocked
On shattered trail through blasted rock, 24
Now at its flanks the monster gnashed
With flaming hooves the ground it lashed!
'Perhaps you think him Ulysses?'
My master to the monster preached, 28
'No matter if you rant and fume,
This mortal morsel not for you.'
Berserk then goes the Minotaur
As hang we right to valley floor 32
The stones all move beneath my feet
And skitter then down pathway steep
Unused it was to living mass
That sent bones down the slope to crash 36
There standing at the pathway end
I saw a gang of Centaur bend
And stared they did to stare at bones
That skittered past like Rolling Stones 40
'You see he moves the very rocks!'
Proud Pholus said as moved he hocks
Then landed I in tangled heap
In tumble down at Centaur feet 44
And looked they did, and then they speak
'What punishment is it you seek?'
Then drew their bows and further still
With speed then loaded fast with quills. 48
Yet Virgil on them quickly gained
And to the Guardians he then explained,
'He is no robber, I no thief
But living man would you believe 52
Provide us Chiron, with a guide
For he not dead and cannot fly.’
Then Chiron turned to Nessus proud
And tells him then in voice full loud 56
To guard us and to guide us through
To place where we were going to
So on the Centaurs back I rode
As tales of river red I'm told 60
Where all who sin are want to learn
That Hell is free, but Heaven earned.
'See these who sit in boiling flow
These mighty tyrants now do know 64
The price of all their tyrant crimes
In life most brief, now endless time
All sit upon these rocks instead
With bloody flow up to their heads 68
And every time they gasp for air
An arrow hits them fair and square
For Centaurs move in watchful ranks
And guard with bow from deadly bank 72
And on each arrow flowing writ
'To Tyrants Death!’ in tiny script.’ 74
Now further up this bitter stream
I move along to sound of screams
Where people who did others ill
Might sit midstream up to their gills 78
And of these souls I knew some few
Who steeped within this boiling brew
There Hitler sat up to his brows
With Stalin, Enzo, Chairman Mao 82
And Reagan sat up to his lips
And Thatcher sunk up to her tits.
And Churchill lurked with belly wide
Immersed beneath the boiling tide, 86
And all the kings of Europe past
Into the boiling river cast,
Now find themselves in screaming throng
Up to their necks in Phlegathon. 90
Where all the souls of Darfur Black,
Avenged they were upon that bank.
Beside the course our path now led,
The boiling brook beside we tread, 94
Then Nessus takes us to a point
Where here and there by shallows joined.
And there we over shoals then crossed
Between the burning human dross 98
Then reaching we the other side
And enter Wood of Suicide 100
I heard the sound of cries and screams 1
All drifted from the distant stream
As guide points to the gloom below
And says 'This way we now must go 4
On path made by the Risen Christ
When harrowing the Hell he sliced
Right through he did, and took he then
The Fathers and the Kings of men.’ 12
So made we then our way down there
As choked I did on stinking air.
The path ahead was strewn with bones
That first I had mistook for stones 16
And human skulls filled every crag
In piles of hundreds they were stacked!
Then on the rim a nightmare shape
Of infamy, the monster lay, 20
And cast his eye about he did
All bright and red beneath its lid!
By minotaur our way was blocked
On shattered trail through blasted rock, 24
Now at its flanks the monster gnashed
With flaming hooves the ground it lashed!
'Perhaps you think him Ulysses?'
My master to the monster preached, 28
'No matter if you rant and fume,
This mortal morsel not for you.'
Berserk then goes the Minotaur
As hang we right to valley floor 32
The stones all move beneath my feet
And skitter then down pathway steep
Unused it was to living mass
That sent bones down the slope to crash 36
There standing at the pathway end
I saw a gang of Centaur bend
And stared they did to stare at bones
That skittered past like Rolling Stones 40
'You see he moves the very rocks!'
Proud Pholus said as moved he hocks
Then landed I in tangled heap
In tumble down at Centaur feet 44
And looked they did, and then they speak
'What punishment is it you seek?'
Then drew their bows and further still
With speed then loaded fast with quills. 48
Yet Virgil on them quickly gained
And to the Guardians he then explained,
'He is no robber, I no thief
But living man would you believe 52
Provide us Chiron, with a guide
For he not dead and cannot fly.’
Then Chiron turned to Nessus proud
And tells him then in voice full loud 56
To guard us and to guide us through
To place where we were going to
So on the Centaurs back I rode
As tales of river red I'm told 60
Where all who sin are want to learn
That Hell is free, but Heaven earned.
'See these who sit in boiling flow
These mighty tyrants now do know 64
The price of all their tyrant crimes
In life most brief, now endless time
All sit upon these rocks instead
With bloody flow up to their heads 68
And every time they gasp for air
An arrow hits them fair and square
For Centaurs move in watchful ranks
And guard with bow from deadly bank 72
And on each arrow flowing writ
'To Tyrants Death!’ in tiny script.’ 74
Now further up this bitter stream
I move along to sound of screams
Where people who did others ill
Might sit midstream up to their gills 78
And of these souls I knew some few
Who steeped within this boiling brew
There Hitler sat up to his brows
With Stalin, Enzo, Chairman Mao 82
And Reagan sat up to his lips
And Thatcher sunk up to her tits.
And Churchill lurked with belly wide
Immersed beneath the boiling tide, 86
And all the kings of Europe past
Into the boiling river cast,
Now find themselves in screaming throng
Up to their necks in Phlegathon. 90
Where all the souls of Darfur Black,
Avenged they were upon that bank.
Beside the course our path now led,
The boiling brook beside we tread, 94
Then Nessus takes us to a point
Where here and there by shallows joined.
And there we over shoals then crossed
Between the burning human dross 98
Then reaching we the other side
And enter Wood of Suicide 100
Canto XI
In the meantime troubled breathing 1
Staggered through this hell deep heaving
Master stops to hear me gasping
Breath from me in gulps, throat rasping 4
So came we to a rim like shoulder
Ringed all around by giant boulders
And found more gangs of sinners pent
In air full foul with dreadful stench 8
So bide we while to catch some air
Before we left that edge most bare
In the meantime ragged breathing
Lay against this headstone heaving
As shelter there with both our backs
Sit tight against this masoned* plaque 14
Names carved deep within that stone
List all the popes from number one.
To pass the time and keep me sane
My guide the map of hell explains
'Beyond this broken ring of stones
Three rings descend to Satan's bones 20
The six behind were of their sort
But those below this circle fort 22
Reflect the worst that man can be
All locked in pain eternally
The way that hell is crafted here
From top to bottom make it clear 26
Those cowards who from hell without
Then Limbo ring in thickest cloud
Then the lustful in the second
Sex the sin, just for the record 30
Third ring holds those gluttons most
Who sit in stinking rain as ghosts
The fourth ring is the place to be
If you have been consumed by greed 34
The weight of wealth will drag them down
Upon their death to prison round
We then descend to circle five
Where wrathful and the sullen thrive 38
And then we enter circle six
The burning graves beyond the Styx
Now comes the time to draw a line
That separates these different crimes 42
As all below this bitter rim
Are all those damned by deeper sin
The seventh set in circles three
Divided by severity 46
The first reserved for those who kill
And those that rob and things worse still
The next is there for those that die
By their own hand, in hell they lie 50
The last for those who dare blaspheme
In circle third their ass is reamed
And so we come to circle eight
A place arranged for those too late 54
The lawyers and the liars crash
With flatterers and like same trash
The final ring is number nine
The deepest place for deepest crime 58
Those foulest who betrayed their lords
In lake of ice impaled on swords
And so the souls of traitors born
In hells ninth ring by heaven scorned 62
So there it is boy, top to pit
The lay of layered prison split
The sings arranged from least to worst
A place in death for all those cursed 66
Where every sin is marked in line
How foul it was, how base the crime.'
As sat we down to clear the air
I thanked my guide for wisdom shared 70
Though glad I was to know the way
That God did punish sin today
And not one sin would go unpaid
For those fell and those who strayed 74
‘But tell me, those the Dead Marsh holds
Or the lustful who fore cold wind blow
If God intends to punish sin
Then why indeed aren’t all within?’ 78
The City Dis, within its walls
The better they might feel the fall?’
‘Why do you let your reason pour
So far from its accustomed course?’ 82
Then Virgil stands and looks to sky
To see which stars above fly by
And so we leave for level round
Path that leads us to devil down. 86
The rings that hold those left behind
We'd set ourselves to it, we'd bind
Our fate to travel down this trail
From now until the end of days. 90
* Masoned: That which has had masons** applied to it
** Masons: (also known as Freemasons) belong to the oldest and third creepiest*** fraternal organization in the world.
*** The second creepiest is the notorious ‘Skull and Bones’, and the creepiest fraternal organization in the world is the utterly disgusting ‘Toad-suckers of the World and Anonymous Tadpole Ticklers’, or TWATT.
I started working on the notes and appendix data for this canto (as a diversion, it was taking too long). I'm happy enough to move on, nothing but a conversation occurs between Dante and Virgil about the nature of sin and the layout of Hell.
In the meantime troubled breathing 1
Staggered through this hell deep heaving
Master stops to hear me gasping
Breath from me in gulps, throat rasping 4
So came we to a rim like shoulder
Ringed all around by giant boulders
And found more gangs of sinners pent
In air full foul with dreadful stench 8
So bide we while to catch some air
Before we left that edge most bare
In the meantime ragged breathing
Lay against this headstone heaving
As shelter there with both our backs
Sit tight against this masoned* plaque 14
Names carved deep within that stone
List all the popes from number one.
To pass the time and keep me sane
My guide the map of hell explains
'Beyond this broken ring of stones
Three rings descend to Satan's bones 20
The six behind were of their sort
But those below this circle fort 22
Reflect the worst that man can be
All locked in pain eternally
The way that hell is crafted here
From top to bottom make it clear 26
Those cowards who from hell without
Then Limbo ring in thickest cloud
Then the lustful in the second
Sex the sin, just for the record 30
Third ring holds those gluttons most
Who sit in stinking rain as ghosts
The fourth ring is the place to be
If you have been consumed by greed 34
The weight of wealth will drag them down
Upon their death to prison round
We then descend to circle five
Where wrathful and the sullen thrive 38
And then we enter circle six
The burning graves beyond the Styx
Now comes the time to draw a line
That separates these different crimes 42
As all below this bitter rim
Are all those damned by deeper sin
The seventh set in circles three
Divided by severity 46
The first reserved for those who kill
And those that rob and things worse still
The next is there for those that die
By their own hand, in hell they lie 50
The last for those who dare blaspheme
In circle third their ass is reamed
And so we come to circle eight
A place arranged for those too late 54
The lawyers and the liars crash
With flatterers and like same trash
The final ring is number nine
The deepest place for deepest crime 58
Those foulest who betrayed their lords
In lake of ice impaled on swords
And so the souls of traitors born
In hells ninth ring by heaven scorned 62
So there it is boy, top to pit
The lay of layered prison split
The sings arranged from least to worst
A place in death for all those cursed 66
Where every sin is marked in line
How foul it was, how base the crime.'
As sat we down to clear the air
I thanked my guide for wisdom shared 70
Though glad I was to know the way
That God did punish sin today
And not one sin would go unpaid
For those fell and those who strayed 74
‘But tell me, those the Dead Marsh holds
Or the lustful who fore cold wind blow
If God intends to punish sin
Then why indeed aren’t all within?’ 78
The City Dis, within its walls
The better they might feel the fall?’
‘Why do you let your reason pour
So far from its accustomed course?’ 82
Then Virgil stands and looks to sky
To see which stars above fly by
And so we leave for level round
Path that leads us to devil down. 86
The rings that hold those left behind
We'd set ourselves to it, we'd bind
Our fate to travel down this trail
From now until the end of days. 90
* Masoned: That which has had masons** applied to it
** Masons: (also known as Freemasons) belong to the oldest and third creepiest*** fraternal organization in the world.
*** The second creepiest is the notorious ‘Skull and Bones’, and the creepiest fraternal organization in the world is the utterly disgusting ‘Toad-suckers of the World and Anonymous Tadpole Ticklers’, or TWATT.
I started working on the notes and appendix data for this canto (as a diversion, it was taking too long). I'm happy enough to move on, nothing but a conversation occurs between Dante and Virgil about the nature of sin and the layout of Hell.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Canto X
My master leads me through these gates 1
Where found myself in land insane,
On every side stood open tombs
That echoed screams through Land of Doom. 4
So followed we that narrow path
Between these scenes of pain and wrath
'O Highest Virtue,' I decried
'Can those within the graves be spied?' 8
My master turned and told me then
'Their spirits burn in flame within
And only on the final day 11
When Armageddon come their way
Will flesh that once before was worn
In time to face the Savior's scorn.
Within this crematory lies 15
The ghosts of those who thought when died
That soul would cease to be right there
So life best lived without a care
And others here burn hotter yet
Who dared to change the Heaven’s set, 20
And some are here who told their peers
Heretic thoughts masked as ideas
Of what the Maker might have meant
When Adam first to earth was sent. 24
Now see that hottest grave of all
To look upon would eyeballs scald
Were dreadful sinners cast within
Must contemplate their origins. 28
Now those who lived by being free
Must burn in hell for heresy.' 30
As questioned I my Guide once more 31
A noise I heard from fires roar,
A voice there was, that cried in pain
That begged of me to know my name.
This shade who once before was king 35
Asked how I toured this dreadful ring, 36
And asked me from which city came,
And why I journeyed through the flame 38
So Virgil turned and led me to
Where ghost of Nixon rose on through 40
With head held high, with look of scorn
He stared at me as though I worm 42
'Who were your fathers?' then he asked
As burned he in the fire basked
It made me glad for I to know 45
This sinner to the bad place go
So told him then of who I was,
My name, my church, my favorite cause.
I told the shade and held none back 49
As listened he from roasting crack
Then lectures me his manner grand
As future there his vision spanned
And told me tales of things to come 53
And battles made to distant drums 54
He told me then of wars in line
From Friday next to end of time
Then Nixon asks, ‘Is Henry Come?’ 57
With blinking eyes and visage numb,
Right then I grasped the fate of soul
The past and future only know 60
But not the present could they see
Just echoes of the things that be
And when the final portal closed
These souls would burn while others rose 64
So crept I close then to the brink
And looked I into grave I sink
My gaze it falls on writhing mass
That cooked within the steaming gas.
One thousand pairs of bloodshot eyes
There looked at me as watched I fry 70
And more than just a few of those 71
Who blazed within these burning stones
Were known to me from books I’d read
As filled they up the reasoned head,
And anyone fool who thought to know
Consumed within inferno glow.
But these were damned and all their works
Now used to fan the fires cursed.
However hot a grave might burn
Was ranked from ‘bake’, to far more stern,
For those who’d made the bigger sin
In torment they were placed within. 84
I catch my foot, I fall head first
Into the burning grave with cursed,
But Virgil he had caught my bag
And from the brink he hauled me back! 88
So Virgil turns and cautions there
'The way is long and far from fair.'
From here on in it is the pits
But still no chance for you to quit.’ 92
So walk we on through circle sixth
Path littered with these brittle sticks
That crack and crunched beneath my toes
As down to level seven go. 96
This may be a little too long, but I'm contemplating allowing up to 96 lines per verse. There is probably more than a few lines that are entirely losable anyway, so it will barely matter.
My master leads me through these gates 1
Where found myself in land insane,
On every side stood open tombs
That echoed screams through Land of Doom. 4
So followed we that narrow path
Between these scenes of pain and wrath
'O Highest Virtue,' I decried
'Can those within the graves be spied?' 8
My master turned and told me then
'Their spirits burn in flame within
And only on the final day 11
When Armageddon come their way
Will flesh that once before was worn
In time to face the Savior's scorn.
Within this crematory lies 15
The ghosts of those who thought when died
That soul would cease to be right there
So life best lived without a care
And others here burn hotter yet
Who dared to change the Heaven’s set, 20
And some are here who told their peers
Heretic thoughts masked as ideas
Of what the Maker might have meant
When Adam first to earth was sent. 24
Now see that hottest grave of all
To look upon would eyeballs scald
Were dreadful sinners cast within
Must contemplate their origins. 28
Now those who lived by being free
Must burn in hell for heresy.' 30
As questioned I my Guide once more 31
A noise I heard from fires roar,
A voice there was, that cried in pain
That begged of me to know my name.
This shade who once before was king 35
Asked how I toured this dreadful ring, 36
And asked me from which city came,
And why I journeyed through the flame 38
So Virgil turned and led me to
Where ghost of Nixon rose on through 40
With head held high, with look of scorn
He stared at me as though I worm 42
'Who were your fathers?' then he asked
As burned he in the fire basked
It made me glad for I to know 45
This sinner to the bad place go
So told him then of who I was,
My name, my church, my favorite cause.
I told the shade and held none back 49
As listened he from roasting crack
Then lectures me his manner grand
As future there his vision spanned
And told me tales of things to come 53
And battles made to distant drums 54
He told me then of wars in line
From Friday next to end of time
Then Nixon asks, ‘Is Henry Come?’ 57
With blinking eyes and visage numb,
Right then I grasped the fate of soul
The past and future only know 60
But not the present could they see
Just echoes of the things that be
And when the final portal closed
These souls would burn while others rose 64
So crept I close then to the brink
And looked I into grave I sink
My gaze it falls on writhing mass
That cooked within the steaming gas.
One thousand pairs of bloodshot eyes
There looked at me as watched I fry 70
And more than just a few of those 71
Who blazed within these burning stones
Were known to me from books I’d read
As filled they up the reasoned head,
And anyone fool who thought to know
Consumed within inferno glow.
But these were damned and all their works
Now used to fan the fires cursed.
However hot a grave might burn
Was ranked from ‘bake’, to far more stern,
For those who’d made the bigger sin
In torment they were placed within. 84
I catch my foot, I fall head first
Into the burning grave with cursed,
But Virgil he had caught my bag
And from the brink he hauled me back! 88
So Virgil turns and cautions there
'The way is long and far from fair.'
From here on in it is the pits
But still no chance for you to quit.’ 92
So walk we on through circle sixth
Path littered with these brittle sticks
That crack and crunched beneath my toes
As down to level seven go. 96
This may be a little too long, but I'm contemplating allowing up to 96 lines per verse. There is probably more than a few lines that are entirely losable anyway, so it will barely matter.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
This was posted on Autoblog, I loved all these cars I thinkClassical Drive reported last week on the passing of Count Albrecht Graf Goertz earlier in the month. He was the designer behind the singularly beautiful BMW 507. Goertz emigrated to the United States in 1936, and in 1938 opened a shop in California where he specialized in modifying Model A and B Fords. It was in that shop that Goertz created his "Paragon" coupe, a custom car that would be the catalyst for what can only be described as a remarkable career.
Goertz saw his Paragon displayed at the1939 World Exhibition in San Francisco, and in 1940 he closed up shop to join the Army. Five years later,he returned, got the Paragon out and drove it to New York, where a chance encounter in the parking lot of the Waldorf-Astoria changed everything. Goertz had gotten out of the Paragon to inspect the car in front of him. Likewise, the passenger of that car noticed the Paragon and had similarly gotten out to have a look. The man in the other car was industrial designer Raymond Loewy, who then met with Goertz and ultimately got him a job at the Studebaker design studio.
By 1953, Goertz has established his own business and befriended Max Hoffman, BMW's US importer. Goertz learned through Hoffman that BMW was planning a new sports car. He got into the mix and won the bid to design the car, the spectacular BMW 507. While at BMW, Goertz also designed the 503. After working at BMW, Goertz spent time with Porsche, where he was part of the team behind the 911, Toyota, where he influenced he 2000GT, and Datsun, where his fingerprints were left on the 240Z. Every vehicle on that list is iconic in its own right.
On November 2, Albrecht Graf von Goertz died at the age of 92, leaving behind an automotive legacy that will live forever.
(BMW bio, add'l photos after the jump)
[Sources: Classical Drive, BMW]
Continue reading Count Albrecht Graf Goertz, BMW 507 designer, dies at 92
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Canto VIII
As I said, not long before 1
We reached the distant tower's door
Our eyes were drawn towards the top
Where fires flashed like burning spots 4
And answer came from distant spire
As flickered there returning fire.
Then cross the water comes a boat
That moved as fast as speeding bolt 8
And at its helm one spitting man
Who bears us down as if to ram,
And cries he in his dreadful shout
'Now you are caught, O soul without!' 12
But Virgil stands in helmsman's way
And listened I to hear him say
'O Phlegyas don’t torment your mind
His passing has been blessed you'll find 16
With you and we in binded truce
So ferry us cross muddy sluice.'
Enraged he was, this demon red
As one who'd lost on sucker's bet 20
Then Virgil leads me on the boat
As lower then the ferry floats.
But Phlegyas turns the skiff around
And pointed prow to distant ground 24
A hundred leagues and more did pass
Beneath the speeding demon craft.
Then saw I thing before obscene
That rose from water inbetween 28
A shade there formed of face I'd known
Com-patriot of distant home
Who stares at me as cold I shiver
Stands O'Reilly! (dreadful sinner!) 32
Screams 'Who are you before your time
That floats across this world of slime?'
I answered him 'O slave of sin
You're looking great, so very thin 36
And I may come and I may go
But after all you'll never know.'*
This sinner lunges at my boat
So kicked I swiftly at his throat 40
And then I pulled my trusty glock
And had him in the cross-hairs locked 42
I shot the fiend in his fiend head
Then spat into the river bed
And then my guide, he then rejoiced
As singing raised he up his voice 46
And called he to the Heaven's there
With words that burned in blackest air
'This my friend is right, is proper!
These foul souls have come a cropper! 50
Damned by God, by world forgotten
Curse their souls with curses rotten.'
I to him, 'I'd see him suffer,'
'Underneath this river smothered!' 54
He to me 'You'll get your wish
His torture here provides us bliss!
Our bliss, our bliss, the very joy!
To know his soul is devil toyed.' 58
And then indeed his body torn
As watched we from the skiff past borne
Consumed his fellows every bit
Till nothing left but bones to spit 62
And happy then it was to know
That hated here in time would go.
Continued on to distant gate
Where Phleg-Yas left us to our fate 66
And spikes arose like tongues of flame
Where devils lived and demons reigned.
So stood we there upon the brink
My mind so cowed I could not think 70
And up upon the rampart wall
A thousand devils made the call
'Who is this who without death
Can journey through the land of dread.' 74
My master made a secret sign
That devils knew from former time
Suppressed they then their great disdain
These angels who from Heaven rained.** 78
But angel gate would open not
Our path ahead it seemed was blocked
But Virgil turns to me and says
'Now One descends through Lion's Gate.' 82
Who has been charged to clear our path
So wait we for the coming wrath.'
Then knelt we there, with out escape
In fear I wept with mouth agape 86
As parley not the lords of rot
And jeered they from the rampart top. 88
Canto IX
I frosted white in growing fright 1
As sat we there in bloody light
My guide beside me troubled seemed
While I beside him lost in dream 4
To see my master driven back
By fallen from this evil crack.
'Does anyone from Limbo come,'
I asked him then in halting tongue 8
'As deep as we from Lion's Gate
And so down through this Land of Hate?' 10
And answered me and tale he telled
Of journey to the deeps of Hell
That he had made when new born shade
To Judas Ring, a soul to save 14
'My worthy guide!' I gladly cried
'My road is blessed with you beside!'
And then I choked in sudden fear
As saw I Furies standing clear 18
And screamed they down from highest peak
As cowered I in muck and reek.
And each of them was robed in snakes
With ragged nails their breasts they rake
Then cast they curses down on me
That burn my ears and sear my cheeks 24
And screamed they did for my life’s blood
Be captured in a golden cup
That Gorgon feed, for which they bleed
The matter from my veins there freed 28
'If you would live then shade your eyes
Or always here as boulder lie 30
For Gorgon with her deadly gaze
Will petrify!' My Guide then raves.
And all my knowledge, all my knowing
Couldn't stop blind terror growing 34
And all the things that I believed
Right then weren't worth the fog I breath
And having nothing left but hearing
Heard I sounds most horrid nearing 38
Facing fast this coming storm
That sounded like a demon swarm
As spirits screamed in rages fright
And ever louder grew the blight. 42
It seemed as if a million men
Charged down upon that point and then
My guide he there releases me
And raise myself so I can see. 44
And what I saw, it blew my mind
A vision there of hope refined.
I saw an Angel crossing fast
All shining like a lightning blast 48
His blessed feet not touching down
This messenger of high renown
He barely seemed to notice us
As hung we low with heads like thus 52
So stands he wide and belows loud
'O You Cast Out, O Hated Crowd! 54
Why do you Fallen listen not
When Betters tell you what is what?
Why do you rail against the fates
That told you to unlock that gate?' 58
Then tears he down the cities door's
His face wrapped up in other chores 60
Then walked He through and followed I,
Beyond the broken gate with guide
My mind could not believe my eyes
As entered we the Land of Flies 64
I saw on every side a plain
Of lament and of spreading pain
With burning graves that bake red hot
And in graves were sinners caught 68
As flames pour from the burning tombs
And smoke rise high in giant plumes
And everything was bathed in red
The bloody hue from city fed 72
At every point I cast my gaze
I see ten thousand burning graves 76
And tortured moans and piteous wails
Sound round me as we walk this trail. 78
'O Who can all these people be?'
I asked in shock at what I see. 80
My master said with steely breath
'Those heretics who dared mock death
They looked at world and thought they saw
A kingdom made without God's Law 84
And so they fry as heretics
In burning graves beyond the Styx.' 88
Where those who thought there was no rule
In pain now learned their lesson cruel
So walking on he gestures right
As toil we through torment and fright. 92
Canto's VIII and IX together.
Canto VIII only needed 8 lines to place it in the range so it took a couple of hours to get it right. Canto IX was another story completely.
IX actually turned out to be quite complex. It was 32 lines short, which made it one of the shortest canto's, but also, it was one where there were a lot of images I'd skipped over in the first pass. The areas that were fleshed out were the lines containing the Furies and the approach of the Gorgon which I had almost ignored of my way first through.
I'm almost at the point where I reach the opposite problem of the earlier canto's. There are two canto's coming up that I have to shorten. One of them needs to be trimmed by over a third. Ouch.
As I said, not long before 1
We reached the distant tower's door
Our eyes were drawn towards the top
Where fires flashed like burning spots 4
And answer came from distant spire
As flickered there returning fire.
Then cross the water comes a boat
That moved as fast as speeding bolt 8
And at its helm one spitting man
Who bears us down as if to ram,
And cries he in his dreadful shout
'Now you are caught, O soul without!' 12
But Virgil stands in helmsman's way
And listened I to hear him say
'O Phlegyas don’t torment your mind
His passing has been blessed you'll find 16
With you and we in binded truce
So ferry us cross muddy sluice.'
Enraged he was, this demon red
As one who'd lost on sucker's bet 20
Then Virgil leads me on the boat
As lower then the ferry floats.
But Phlegyas turns the skiff around
And pointed prow to distant ground 24
A hundred leagues and more did pass
Beneath the speeding demon craft.
Then saw I thing before obscene
That rose from water inbetween 28
A shade there formed of face I'd known
Com-patriot of distant home
Who stares at me as cold I shiver
Stands O'Reilly! (dreadful sinner!) 32
Screams 'Who are you before your time
That floats across this world of slime?'
I answered him 'O slave of sin
You're looking great, so very thin 36
And I may come and I may go
But after all you'll never know.'*
This sinner lunges at my boat
So kicked I swiftly at his throat 40
And then I pulled my trusty glock
And had him in the cross-hairs locked 42
I shot the fiend in his fiend head
Then spat into the river bed
And then my guide, he then rejoiced
As singing raised he up his voice 46
And called he to the Heaven's there
With words that burned in blackest air
'This my friend is right, is proper!
These foul souls have come a cropper! 50
Damned by God, by world forgotten
Curse their souls with curses rotten.'
I to him, 'I'd see him suffer,'
'Underneath this river smothered!' 54
He to me 'You'll get your wish
His torture here provides us bliss!
Our bliss, our bliss, the very joy!
To know his soul is devil toyed.' 58
And then indeed his body torn
As watched we from the skiff past borne
Consumed his fellows every bit
Till nothing left but bones to spit 62
And happy then it was to know
That hated here in time would go.
Continued on to distant gate
Where Phleg-Yas left us to our fate 66
And spikes arose like tongues of flame
Where devils lived and demons reigned.
So stood we there upon the brink
My mind so cowed I could not think 70
And up upon the rampart wall
A thousand devils made the call
'Who is this who without death
Can journey through the land of dread.' 74
My master made a secret sign
That devils knew from former time
Suppressed they then their great disdain
These angels who from Heaven rained.** 78
But angel gate would open not
Our path ahead it seemed was blocked
But Virgil turns to me and says
'Now One descends through Lion's Gate.' 82
Who has been charged to clear our path
So wait we for the coming wrath.'
Then knelt we there, with out escape
In fear I wept with mouth agape 86
As parley not the lords of rot
And jeered they from the rampart top. 88
Canto IX
I frosted white in growing fright 1
As sat we there in bloody light
My guide beside me troubled seemed
While I beside him lost in dream 4
To see my master driven back
By fallen from this evil crack.
'Does anyone from Limbo come,'
I asked him then in halting tongue 8
'As deep as we from Lion's Gate
And so down through this Land of Hate?' 10
And answered me and tale he telled
Of journey to the deeps of Hell
That he had made when new born shade
To Judas Ring, a soul to save 14
'My worthy guide!' I gladly cried
'My road is blessed with you beside!'
And then I choked in sudden fear
As saw I Furies standing clear 18
And screamed they down from highest peak
As cowered I in muck and reek.
And each of them was robed in snakes
With ragged nails their breasts they rake
Then cast they curses down on me
That burn my ears and sear my cheeks 24
And screamed they did for my life’s blood
Be captured in a golden cup
That Gorgon feed, for which they bleed
The matter from my veins there freed 28
'If you would live then shade your eyes
Or always here as boulder lie 30
For Gorgon with her deadly gaze
Will petrify!' My Guide then raves.
And all my knowledge, all my knowing
Couldn't stop blind terror growing 34
And all the things that I believed
Right then weren't worth the fog I breath
And having nothing left but hearing
Heard I sounds most horrid nearing 38
Facing fast this coming storm
That sounded like a demon swarm
As spirits screamed in rages fright
And ever louder grew the blight. 42
It seemed as if a million men
Charged down upon that point and then
My guide he there releases me
And raise myself so I can see. 44
And what I saw, it blew my mind
A vision there of hope refined.
I saw an Angel crossing fast
All shining like a lightning blast 48
His blessed feet not touching down
This messenger of high renown
He barely seemed to notice us
As hung we low with heads like thus 52
So stands he wide and belows loud
'O You Cast Out, O Hated Crowd! 54
Why do you Fallen listen not
When Betters tell you what is what?
Why do you rail against the fates
That told you to unlock that gate?' 58
Then tears he down the cities door's
His face wrapped up in other chores 60
Then walked He through and followed I,
Beyond the broken gate with guide
My mind could not believe my eyes
As entered we the Land of Flies 64
I saw on every side a plain
Of lament and of spreading pain
With burning graves that bake red hot
And in graves were sinners caught 68
As flames pour from the burning tombs
And smoke rise high in giant plumes
And everything was bathed in red
The bloody hue from city fed 72
At every point I cast my gaze
I see ten thousand burning graves 76
And tortured moans and piteous wails
Sound round me as we walk this trail. 78
'O Who can all these people be?'
I asked in shock at what I see. 80
My master said with steely breath
'Those heretics who dared mock death
They looked at world and thought they saw
A kingdom made without God's Law 84
And so they fry as heretics
In burning graves beyond the Styx.' 88
Where those who thought there was no rule
In pain now learned their lesson cruel
So walking on he gestures right
As toil we through torment and fright. 92
Canto's VIII and IX together.
Canto VIII only needed 8 lines to place it in the range so it took a couple of hours to get it right. Canto IX was another story completely.
IX actually turned out to be quite complex. It was 32 lines short, which made it one of the shortest canto's, but also, it was one where there were a lot of images I'd skipped over in the first pass. The areas that were fleshed out were the lines containing the Furies and the approach of the Gorgon which I had almost ignored of my way first through.
I'm almost at the point where I reach the opposite problem of the earlier canto's. There are two canto's coming up that I have to shorten. One of them needs to be trimmed by over a third. Ouch.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Canto VII
'Pape Satan, Demon Leader!' 1
Plutus screams O fearful reader.
As shook I from the demon's cries
The gentle sage, my noble guide, 4
He taps me on the arm and says
'Stay true upon this troubled way,
This monster has no power here
So follow close, the way is shear.' 8
Then turned he to the demon there
And silenced him with ringing glare
'O Plutus don't torment you're mind
His passage has been blessed you'll find 12
Upon your spite thy soul should feed
While down we go on journey deep!'
So demon drops like wind starved sail
As walked we on to Devil's dale, 16
Then found ourselves by purple shore
Where all the ills of world were stored.
'This is the Styx' My master says
As watched I this foul water spray 20
With spirits locked within its depths
That writhe in pain while fight for breath.
And all around us spirits roll
Great stones that bind their mortal souls 24
In fourth ditch down of prison round
Where guilty those of greed are found.
And all of these before me ranged
Would walk about till bumped then change 28
To turn and push this useless rock
Around again till next was knocked
While all the time at every turn
They cry in pain for Heaven spurned 32
‘Why do you waste? Why do you squander?’
They call aloud as round they wander
And then again with stinging cries
As push to second point they try. 36
‘Who are these souls who toil below?’
I asked my guide with voice set low.
He answered me with sideways look
And then his head he slowly shook. 40
‘These souls to left and souls to right
Were squint of mind in former life.’
And I in sadness, heart pierced through
As watched I all these sinners screwed 44
‘Do I know these?’ I quickly asked
As looked I down on pitied mass
He looked at me and answered thus
‘They’re all the same that greed has brushed, 48
These misers who endured the fall,
Their faces lost beyond recall,
They sold their souls for gems and cold
Now live they here in toil and scold. 52
Ill giving and ill keeping cost
These sinners in this land of sobs.
And not enough gold now exists
To stop these souls eternal twist. 56
Now those who cheated fortune fair
Here find their souls neath Plutus glare.
Away with we, no pity here!’
He scolded as he led me clear. 60
‘But who this ‘Fortune’ you describe?’
I asked as watched I wretched tribe.
‘O dullard, my pupil, how dumb can you be?
Why Fortune is goddess of destiny’s tree. 64
When God the Almighty the Heavens he made
He put Fortune amongst us to circumstance trade.
Now all who exist live on destiny’s path
Where you future lies wait like a rake in the grass.’ 68
And then Virgil looks up to tell he the time
Then says he abruptly ‘Now downward we climb.’
And so we toil to the far distant shore
That fills from a spill on high water course. 72
Together we stand by these shadowy waves
That terminate sudden this pathway most strange.
Besides the foul waters that’s known as the Styx,
Its surface all slimed with the scum it was slicked. 76
And all of these sinners against each the railed
Their brothers about them with fist they did flail,
And tore at each other with nails and with teeth
As foul and enraged they each other there beat. 80
‘Now here resides,’ my guide then says
Those quick to rage at every breath
And others who did sullen sigh
When air was bright and sun was high.’ 84
And sinners foul of both these types
Were locked within these waters ripe
And as we left by wails were chased
From there unto far towers base. 88
So this was canto VII, it required a little re-writing but a whole lot of re-ordering.
'Pape Satan, Demon Leader!' 1
Plutus screams O fearful reader.
As shook I from the demon's cries
The gentle sage, my noble guide, 4
He taps me on the arm and says
'Stay true upon this troubled way,
This monster has no power here
So follow close, the way is shear.' 8
Then turned he to the demon there
And silenced him with ringing glare
'O Plutus don't torment you're mind
His passage has been blessed you'll find 12
Upon your spite thy soul should feed
While down we go on journey deep!'
So demon drops like wind starved sail
As walked we on to Devil's dale, 16
Then found ourselves by purple shore
Where all the ills of world were stored.
'This is the Styx' My master says
As watched I this foul water spray 20
With spirits locked within its depths
That writhe in pain while fight for breath.
And all around us spirits roll
Great stones that bind their mortal souls 24
In fourth ditch down of prison round
Where guilty those of greed are found.
And all of these before me ranged
Would walk about till bumped then change 28
To turn and push this useless rock
Around again till next was knocked
While all the time at every turn
They cry in pain for Heaven spurned 32
‘Why do you waste? Why do you squander?’
They call aloud as round they wander
And then again with stinging cries
As push to second point they try. 36
‘Who are these souls who toil below?’
I asked my guide with voice set low.
He answered me with sideways look
And then his head he slowly shook. 40
‘These souls to left and souls to right
Were squint of mind in former life.’
And I in sadness, heart pierced through
As watched I all these sinners screwed 44
‘Do I know these?’ I quickly asked
As looked I down on pitied mass
He looked at me and answered thus
‘They’re all the same that greed has brushed, 48
These misers who endured the fall,
Their faces lost beyond recall,
They sold their souls for gems and cold
Now live they here in toil and scold. 52
Ill giving and ill keeping cost
These sinners in this land of sobs.
And not enough gold now exists
To stop these souls eternal twist. 56
Now those who cheated fortune fair
Here find their souls neath Plutus glare.
Away with we, no pity here!’
He scolded as he led me clear. 60
‘But who this ‘Fortune’ you describe?’
I asked as watched I wretched tribe.
‘O dullard, my pupil, how dumb can you be?
Why Fortune is goddess of destiny’s tree. 64
When God the Almighty the Heavens he made
He put Fortune amongst us to circumstance trade.
Now all who exist live on destiny’s path
Where you future lies wait like a rake in the grass.’ 68
And then Virgil looks up to tell he the time
Then says he abruptly ‘Now downward we climb.’
And so we toil to the far distant shore
That fills from a spill on high water course. 72
Together we stand by these shadowy waves
That terminate sudden this pathway most strange.
Besides the foul waters that’s known as the Styx,
Its surface all slimed with the scum it was slicked. 76
And all of these sinners against each the railed
Their brothers about them with fist they did flail,
And tore at each other with nails and with teeth
As foul and enraged they each other there beat. 80
‘Now here resides,’ my guide then says
Those quick to rage at every breath
And others who did sullen sigh
When air was bright and sun was high.’ 84
And sinners foul of both these types
Were locked within these waters ripe
And as we left by wails were chased
From there unto far towers base. 88
So this was canto VII, it required a little re-writing but a whole lot of re-ordering.
Okay, its monday morning. I have some paying work to look after but I'm nearly crippled. My back is twisted, must have slept funny, I think.
Anyways, I had a great weekend and I got a lot of stuff done. All the canto's up as far as six have been edited and revised to make their new line target (86-92 lines per canto) and I have two more (VII and VIII) which are almost ready to type up with their revisions in place.
Some of the canto's that I tackled over the holiday weekend were some of the shortest, and therefore, the ones with the most work left to do. I'm really quite pleased. I had originally planned that the revision of the canto's up to number XVII should take, or would take, about a month or so. It looks like I move forward on to the second half of the poem far sooner than I had originally imagined.
As always, too much to do. However, I have to say that I'm having so much fun with this project that the size that its necessarily become doesn't phase me in the least. I'm thinking when all told that the full book with appendices and index etc will be more than two hundred pages.
And I still have to start doing the graphic design and illustration for the book. This could take years.
Anyways, I had a great weekend and I got a lot of stuff done. All the canto's up as far as six have been edited and revised to make their new line target (86-92 lines per canto) and I have two more (VII and VIII) which are almost ready to type up with their revisions in place.
Some of the canto's that I tackled over the holiday weekend were some of the shortest, and therefore, the ones with the most work left to do. I'm really quite pleased. I had originally planned that the revision of the canto's up to number XVII should take, or would take, about a month or so. It looks like I move forward on to the second half of the poem far sooner than I had originally imagined.
As always, too much to do. However, I have to say that I'm having so much fun with this project that the size that its necessarily become doesn't phase me in the least. I'm thinking when all told that the full book with appendices and index etc will be more than two hundred pages.
And I still have to start doing the graphic design and illustration for the book. This could take years.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Canto VI
Then upon my minds reviving 1
I find myself on ground reclining
Saw I things that chilled my marrow
Souls immersed in graves foul shallow 4
Under tumbled surface moaning,
Spirits of the damned lay groaning.
Sinners turn and turn again
As seek they some unknown refrain 8
Whichever way I cast my eyes
New sufferings and more I spy.
In circle third here lashed with snow
My knuckles white in cold wind blow 12
The mud beneath my feet foul stinking
Feel myself to knees now sinking,
Blinking back the tears full streaming
Eyes stung blind by blizzard screaming. 16
Hailstones gross and raindrops greasy,
(Rancid stench makes stomach queasy).
Over these a demon towered,
Burning eyes of three heads glowered 20
The demon Cerebus swipes his claws
Then gores these sinners in his jaws
His eyes blood red and belly black
As made he feast like Scooby snacks 24
As sinners flop and flip like eels
That squirm beneath these claws of steel
And all the while they scream like dogs
Here trapped beneath this stinking bog 28
So Virgil stoops while I in awe
And throws he earth into that maw
Who whimpers like a scalded pup
Then over goes till toes were up. 32
So walked we then across this field
Of sinners under water sealed
And Virgil told me who they were
These gluttons who did linger there 36
Of sins they’d made against the Lord
A million years for each drink poured
Who’d ate until it made them sick
These gluttons now immersed in slick 40
Where torture makes them turn and turn
In stinking rain unending churns.
Then sudden I saw body proud
Who sat within his muddy shroud 44
Then screams he does his face in pain
Blue battered by the stinking rain
'Oh you that travel through this hell
Recall me fore I downward fell?' 48
'I can't recall' I answered him
'No person with your visage grim,
But tell me sir about your flaw
That cast you out against God's law 52
And tell me now of what your name
Might I recall for point of fame?’
'For gluttony I fell in sin
Beyond all hope of risen King 56
In living state they called me Farley
Stuffed myself on coke and barley
Went I always back for seconds
Thirds and fourths and pie I reckon’. 60
Then he sighed while my heart cried
To see this wretch in circle tied
But then he says these words I write
That placed upon my heart a blight 64
As looked he to the future dim
And told me this in words full grim
‘I tell a tale of city great
Where sickness is the native state 68
I tell you this, within five suns
The walls will shake to many guns!'
In agony I begged to know
What happens to those fractured souls. 72
'Can none be saved?' I almost raved.
'The path to hell is merit paved?'
He ghastly said with lips all torn
'No none shall live' he coldly warned 76
'I need to know,' to him I plead,
'My fellows all do God's word heed?'
He looked at me and ghastly said,
'They all fall here upon their death 80
Six billions souls and more on earth
But only one or two of worth
For every million doomed to burn
There might be one whom heaven earns' 84
He goes all quite and dips his brow
My guide says 'He will rise not now
Until the final judgment come
When answer all to Savior’s drum.' 88
Then walking down Inferno's path
He brings us down to Plutus wrath 90
So, theres canto VI to some degree of finish anyway, onto canto VII.
I do recall warning that hell was filled with people that you like.
This was a canto where nearly everything changed. The new lines needed changed the order of the old lines and I had to expand on Cerebus and the named sinner (Ciacco) or Farley as we called him.
Then upon my minds reviving 1
I find myself on ground reclining
Saw I things that chilled my marrow
Souls immersed in graves foul shallow 4
Under tumbled surface moaning,
Spirits of the damned lay groaning.
Sinners turn and turn again
As seek they some unknown refrain 8
Whichever way I cast my eyes
New sufferings and more I spy.
In circle third here lashed with snow
My knuckles white in cold wind blow 12
The mud beneath my feet foul stinking
Feel myself to knees now sinking,
Blinking back the tears full streaming
Eyes stung blind by blizzard screaming. 16
Hailstones gross and raindrops greasy,
(Rancid stench makes stomach queasy).
Over these a demon towered,
Burning eyes of three heads glowered 20
The demon Cerebus swipes his claws
Then gores these sinners in his jaws
His eyes blood red and belly black
As made he feast like Scooby snacks 24
As sinners flop and flip like eels
That squirm beneath these claws of steel
And all the while they scream like dogs
Here trapped beneath this stinking bog 28
So Virgil stoops while I in awe
And throws he earth into that maw
Who whimpers like a scalded pup
Then over goes till toes were up. 32
So walked we then across this field
Of sinners under water sealed
And Virgil told me who they were
These gluttons who did linger there 36
Of sins they’d made against the Lord
A million years for each drink poured
Who’d ate until it made them sick
These gluttons now immersed in slick 40
Where torture makes them turn and turn
In stinking rain unending churns.
Then sudden I saw body proud
Who sat within his muddy shroud 44
Then screams he does his face in pain
Blue battered by the stinking rain
'Oh you that travel through this hell
Recall me fore I downward fell?' 48
'I can't recall' I answered him
'No person with your visage grim,
But tell me sir about your flaw
That cast you out against God's law 52
And tell me now of what your name
Might I recall for point of fame?’
'For gluttony I fell in sin
Beyond all hope of risen King 56
In living state they called me Farley
Stuffed myself on coke and barley
Went I always back for seconds
Thirds and fourths and pie I reckon’. 60
Then he sighed while my heart cried
To see this wretch in circle tied
But then he says these words I write
That placed upon my heart a blight 64
As looked he to the future dim
And told me this in words full grim
‘I tell a tale of city great
Where sickness is the native state 68
I tell you this, within five suns
The walls will shake to many guns!'
In agony I begged to know
What happens to those fractured souls. 72
'Can none be saved?' I almost raved.
'The path to hell is merit paved?'
He ghastly said with lips all torn
'No none shall live' he coldly warned 76
'I need to know,' to him I plead,
'My fellows all do God's word heed?'
He looked at me and ghastly said,
'They all fall here upon their death 80
Six billions souls and more on earth
But only one or two of worth
For every million doomed to burn
There might be one whom heaven earns' 84
He goes all quite and dips his brow
My guide says 'He will rise not now
Until the final judgment come
When answer all to Savior’s drum.' 88
Then walking down Inferno's path
He brings us down to Plutus wrath 90
So, theres canto VI to some degree of finish anyway, onto canto VII.
I do recall warning that hell was filled with people that you like.
This was a canto where nearly everything changed. The new lines needed changed the order of the old lines and I had to expand on Cerebus and the named sinner (Ciacco) or Farley as we called him.
Canto V
So then we neared hell's second gate 1
I saw a vision carved from hate
The demon Minas flicked his tail
To whip the damned until they wailed 4
And all in front of Minas gaze
I saw a crowd of sinners flayed
With stripes he left on peoples souls
Their place in hell was bound to roll 8
Like connaisseur of things most fine
He sniffs the souls like finest wine
And just like that he drinks them in
Then round himself his tail he spins 12
The times around this tail would band
Would indicate where soul would land 14
Around again his tail would twine
As judges he these sinners fine
Then seeing me the demon cried
'Welcome to hell, the way is wide 18
And you who enter this foul place
Beware you must of path you pace!’
My guide then quickly turned to him
And silenced him with sentence grim 22
'O Minas don't torment your mind
His passing has been blessed you'll find 24
And one should do just what ones told
So let us through this portal cold'
The demon Minas lashed his tail
But us he could not here assail 28
As walked we through to hell's next round
Assailed I was by dreadful sound
Laments that beat in turbid air
For lustful souls in pain lived there 32
And up above these sinners flapped
With noise like distant thunder clap
As half a million starlings flocked
Then beat themselves on burning rocks 36
As screamed they all the time in voices
Cursing God for life's poor choices.
And so in flocks these souls were stuffed
Yet none of them each other touched 40
And spied I then in distant vee’s
Full ranks of spirits on the breeze
Who flew in lines like migrant geese
That passed in ranks that never ceased 44
So asked I master ‘Who are those?
That struggle on this bitter flow
My master stands with brows crease covered
‘This the fate of mankind’s lovers 48
These the souls that broke God’s law
See the queen who scandal caused
Cleopatra follows next
Asp still hanging from her breast 52
Then the heroes of fair Troy
All tempest tossed and typhoon toyed
And Romeo and Juliet
Were battered in this flock were kept 56
And Casanova, Dido too
In ragged lines right past me flew
And then he names a thousand names
Of infamy that lived in shame 60
These ladies great and knights full bold
That flocked within this blizzard cold 62
And spied I there some souls I’d known
Who suffered in this tempest blown
'Master might I call these two?'
I asked as by me cold wind blew 66
'I'm sure they'll come' to me replied
So called I then as by they flied
Then came there over pair of doves
Who suffered here because of love 70
So came they over circled me
And listened to my begging plea
'Oh battered souls Inferno blow
How came you to this place most low?' 74
They answered me with heartfelt cry
'Our souls were cast here when we died
While books we'd read of Lancelot
And courtly love prepared us not.’ 78
They spoke to me of all they were
And wept I then with tears unspared 80
These gentle souls by God's define
Had desecrate the human shrine
And blessed me that I pitied them
Instead of choosing to condemn 84
And salty tears ran down my cheeks
Before my toes in drops they seek
My mind recoiled from hellish strain
So down I went in faint again 88
So, thats canto V done for the most part. I might have to reorder some of the lines to make it flow a little better, and it needs some punctuation too.
The two spirits that are know to Dante are named in the original but since nobody recognizes their names it doesn't seem to matter.
Notes later, now on to fix canto VI
So then we neared hell's second gate 1
I saw a vision carved from hate
The demon Minas flicked his tail
To whip the damned until they wailed 4
And all in front of Minas gaze
I saw a crowd of sinners flayed
With stripes he left on peoples souls
Their place in hell was bound to roll 8
Like connaisseur of things most fine
He sniffs the souls like finest wine
And just like that he drinks them in
Then round himself his tail he spins 12
The times around this tail would band
Would indicate where soul would land 14
Around again his tail would twine
As judges he these sinners fine
Then seeing me the demon cried
'Welcome to hell, the way is wide 18
And you who enter this foul place
Beware you must of path you pace!’
My guide then quickly turned to him
And silenced him with sentence grim 22
'O Minas don't torment your mind
His passing has been blessed you'll find 24
And one should do just what ones told
So let us through this portal cold'
The demon Minas lashed his tail
But us he could not here assail 28
As walked we through to hell's next round
Assailed I was by dreadful sound
Laments that beat in turbid air
For lustful souls in pain lived there 32
And up above these sinners flapped
With noise like distant thunder clap
As half a million starlings flocked
Then beat themselves on burning rocks 36
As screamed they all the time in voices
Cursing God for life's poor choices.
And so in flocks these souls were stuffed
Yet none of them each other touched 40
And spied I then in distant vee’s
Full ranks of spirits on the breeze
Who flew in lines like migrant geese
That passed in ranks that never ceased 44
So asked I master ‘Who are those?
That struggle on this bitter flow
My master stands with brows crease covered
‘This the fate of mankind’s lovers 48
These the souls that broke God’s law
See the queen who scandal caused
Cleopatra follows next
Asp still hanging from her breast 52
Then the heroes of fair Troy
All tempest tossed and typhoon toyed
And Romeo and Juliet
Were battered in this flock were kept 56
And Casanova, Dido too
In ragged lines right past me flew
And then he names a thousand names
Of infamy that lived in shame 60
These ladies great and knights full bold
That flocked within this blizzard cold 62
And spied I there some souls I’d known
Who suffered in this tempest blown
'Master might I call these two?'
I asked as by me cold wind blew 66
'I'm sure they'll come' to me replied
So called I then as by they flied
Then came there over pair of doves
Who suffered here because of love 70
So came they over circled me
And listened to my begging plea
'Oh battered souls Inferno blow
How came you to this place most low?' 74
They answered me with heartfelt cry
'Our souls were cast here when we died
While books we'd read of Lancelot
And courtly love prepared us not.’ 78
They spoke to me of all they were
And wept I then with tears unspared 80
These gentle souls by God's define
Had desecrate the human shrine
And blessed me that I pitied them
Instead of choosing to condemn 84
And salty tears ran down my cheeks
Before my toes in drops they seek
My mind recoiled from hellish strain
So down I went in faint again 88
So, thats canto V done for the most part. I might have to reorder some of the lines to make it flow a little better, and it needs some punctuation too.
The two spirits that are know to Dante are named in the original but since nobody recognizes their names it doesn't seem to matter.
Notes later, now on to fix canto VI
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
