The Inferno

by Dante Alighieri

And behold, one of these souls was near our ridge → when a serpent launched and pierced him through → 99 right where the neck and shoulders join. Never has ‘o’ nor even ‘i’ been writ so quick → as he caught fire and burned, turned, 102 in the very act of falling, into ashes. And as he lay unmade upon the ground, the dust regathered of its own accord 105 and suddenly he was himself again. Just, as is attested by great sages, the phoenix perishes and is reborn → 108 when it approaches its five-hundredth year— lifelong it feeds on neither grain nor grasses, but thrives on drops of frankincense and cardamom, 111 while nard and myrrh make up its winding sheet— and just as one who faints, and knows not why— whether possessed by devils that pull him down 114 or seized by the sickness that causes men to fall— rises to his feet, and gazes round, wholly bewildered by the breathless anguish 117 he has undergone, and as he looks, he sighs, such did that sinner seem when he had risen. O how stern it is, the power of God, → 120 hurling such blows as it takes vengeance!