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