Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/116

96 And I, who with them on the cross am placed,

Jacopo Rusticucci was; and truly

My savage wife, more than aught else, doth harm me."

Could I have been protected from the fire,

Below I should have thrown myself among them,

And think the Teacher would have suffered it;

But as I should have burned and baked myself,

My terror overmastered my good will,

Which made me greedy of embracing them.

Then I began: "Sorrow and not disdain

Did your condition fix within me so,

That tardily it wholly is stripped off,

As soon as this my Lord said unto me

Words, on account of which I thought within me

That people such as you are were approaching.

I of your city am; and evermore

Your labors and your honorable names

I with affection have retraced and heard.

I leave the gall, and go for the sweet fruits

Promised to me by the veracious Leader;

But to the centre first I needs must plunge."

"So may the soul for a long while conduct

Those limbs of thine," did he make answer then,

"And so may thy renown shine after thee,