Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/190

170 He must come down among my servitors,

Because he gave the fraudulent advice

From which time forth I have been at his hair;

For who repents not cannot be absolved,

Nor can one both repent and will at once,

Because of the contradiction which consents not.'

O miserable me! how I did shudder

When he seized on me, saying: 'Peradventure

Thou didst not think that I was a logician!'

He bore me unto Minos, who entwined

Eight times his tail about his stubborn back,

And after he had bitten it in great rage,

Said: 'Of the thievish fire a culprit this';

Wherefore, here where thou seest, am I lost,

And vested thus in going I bemoan me."

When it had thus completed its recital,

The flame departed uttering lamentations,

Writhing and flapping its sharp-pointed horn.

Onward we passed, both I and my Conductor,

Up o'er the crag above another arch,

Which the moat covers, where is paid the fee

By those who, sowing discord, win their burden.