Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/207

Rh Ever before me stand, and not in vain;

For far more doth their image dry me up

Than the disease which strips my face of flesh.

The rigid justice that chastises me

Draweth occasion from the place in which

I sinned, to put the more my sighs in flight.

There is Romena, where I counterfeited

The currency imprinted with the Baptist,

For which I left my body burned above.

But if I here could see the tristful soul

Of Guido, or Alessandro, or their brother,

For Branda's fount I would not give the sight.

One is within already, if the raving

Shades that are going round about speak truth;

But what avails it me, whose limbs are tied?

If I were only still so light, that in

A hundred years I could advance one inch,

I had already started on the way,

Seeking him out among this squalid folk,

Although the circuit be eleven miles,

And be not less than half a mile across.

For them am I in such a family;

They did induce me into coining florins,

Which had three carats of impurity."