Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/186

166 We heard it said: "O thou, at whom I aim

My voice, and who but now wast speaking Lombard,

Saying, 'Now go thy way, no more I urge thee,'

Because I come perchance a little late,

To stay and speak with me let it not irk thee;

Thou seest it irks not me, and I am burning.

If thou but lately into this blind world

Hast fallen down from that sweet Latian land,

Wherefrom I bring the whole of my transgression,

Say, have the Romagnuoli peace or war,

For I was from the mountains there between

Urbino and the yoke whence Tiber bursts."

I still was downward bent and listening,

When my Conductor touched me on the side,

Saying: "Speak thou: this one a Latian is."

And I, who had beforehand my reply

In readiness, forthwith began to speak:

"O soul, that down below there art concealed,

Romagna thine is not and never has been

Without war in the bosom of its tyrants;

But open war I none have left there now.

Ravenna stands as it long years has stood;

The Eagle of Polenta there is brooding,

So that she covers Cervia with her vans.