Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/219

Rh I heard it said to me: "Look how thou steppest!

Take heed thou do not trample with thy feet

The heads of the tired, miserable brothers!"

Whereat I turned me round, and saw before me

And underfoot a lake, that from the frost

The semblance had of glass, and not of water.

So thick a veil ne'er made upon its current

In winter-time Danube in Austria,

Nor there beneath the frigid sky the Don,

As there was here; so that if Tambernich

Had fallen upon it, or Pietrapana,

E'en at the edge 't would not have given a creak.

And as to croak the frog doth place himself

With muzzle out of water,—when is dreaming

Of gleaning oftentimes the peasant-girl,—

Livid, as far down as where shame appears,

Were the disconsolate shades within the ice,

Setting their teeth unto the note of storks.

Each one his countenance held downward bent;

From mouth the cold, from eyes the doleful heart

Among them witness of itself procures.

When round about me somewhat I had looked,

I downward turned me, and saw two so close,

The hair upon their heads together mingled.