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