Part 32 (1/2)
II They started up, and every tender limb In st.u.r.dy steel and stubborn plate they dight, Before the old man stalked, they followed him Through gloomy shades of sad and sable night, Through vaults obscure again and entries dim, The way they came their steps remeasured right; But at the flood arrived, ”Farewell,” quoth he, ”Good luck your aid, your guide good fortune be.”
III The flood received them in his bottom low And lilt them up above his billows thin; The waters so east up a branch or bough, By violence first plunged and dived therein: But when upon the sh.o.r.e the waves them throw, The knights for their fair guide to look begin, And gazing round a little bark they spied, Wherein a damsel sate the stern to guide.
IV Upon her front her locks were curled new, Her eyes were courteous, full of peace and love; In look a saint, an angel bright in show, So in her visage grace and virtue strove; Her robe seemed sometimes red and sometimes blue, And changed still as she did stir or move; That look how oft man's eye beheld the same So oft the colors changed, went and came.
V The feathers so, that tender, soft, and plain, About the dove's smooth neck close couched been, Do in one color never long remain, But change their hue gainst glimpse of Phoebus' sheen; And now of rubies bright a vermeil chain, Now make a carknet rich of emeralds green; Now mingle both, now alter, turn and change To thousand colors, rich, pure, fair, and strange.
VI ”Enter this boat, you happy men,” she says, ”Wherein through raging waves secure I ride, To which all tempest, storm, and wind obeys, All burdens light, benign is stream and tide: My lord, that rules your journeys and your ways, Hath sent me here, your servant and your guide.”
This said, her shallop drove she gainst the sand, And anchor cast amid the steadfast land.
VII They entered in, her anchors she upwound, And launched forth to sea her pinnace flit, Spread to the wind her sails she broad unbound, And at the helm sat down to govern it, Swelled the flood that all his banks he drowned To bear the greatest s.h.i.+p of burthen fit; Yet was her fatigue little, swift and light, That at his lowest ebb bear it he might.
VIII Swifter than thought the friendly wind forth bore The sliding boat upon the rolling wave, With curded foam and froth the billows h.o.a.r About the cable murmur roar and rave; At last they came where all his watery store The flood in one deep channel did engrave, And forth to greedy seas his streams he sent, And so his waves, his name, himself he spent.
IX The wondrous boat scant touched the troubled main But all the sea still, hushed and quiet was, Vanished the clouds, ceased the wind and rain, The tempests threatened overblow and pa.s.s, A gentle breathing air made even and plain The azure face of heaven's smooth looking-gla.s.s, And heaven itself smiled from the skies above With a calm clearness on the earth his love.
X By Ascalon they sailed, and forth drived, Toward the west their speedy course they frame, In sight of Gaza till the bark arrived, A little port when first it took that name; But since, by others' loss so well it thrived A city great and rich that it became, And there the sh.o.r.es and borders of the land They found as full of armed men as sand.
XI The pa.s.sengers to landward turned their sight, And there saw pitched many a stately tent, Soldier and footman, captain, lord and knight, Between the sh.o.r.e and city, came and went: Huge elephants, strong camels, coursers light, With horned hoofs the sandy ways outrent, And in the haven many a s.h.i.+p and boat, With mighty anchors fastened, swim and float;
XII Some spread their sails, some with strong oars sweep The waters smooth, and brush the buxom wave, Their b.r.e.a.s.t.s in sunder cleave the yielding deep, The broken seas for anger foam and rave, When thus their guide began, ”Sir knights, take keep How all these sh.o.r.es are spread with squadrons brave And troops of hardy knights, yet on these sands The monarch scant hath gathered half his bands.
XIII ”Of Egypt only these the forces are, And aid from other lands they here attend, For twixt the noon-day sun and morning star, All realms at his command do bow and bend; So that I trust we shall return from far, And bring our journey long to wished end, Before this king or his lieutenant shall These armies bring to Zion's conquered wall.”
XIV While thus she said, as soaring eagles fly Mongst other birds securely through the air, And mounting up behold with wakeful eye, The radiant beams of old Hyperion's hair, Her gondola so pa.s.sed swiftly by Twixt s.h.i.+p and s.h.i.+p, withouten fear or care Who should her follow, trouble, stop or stay, And forth to sea made lucky speed and way.
XV Themselves fornenst old Raffia's town they fand, A town that first to sailors doth appear As they from Syria pa.s.s to Egypt land: The sterile coasts of barren Rhinocere They pa.s.sed, and seas where Casius hill doth stand That with his trees o'erspreads the waters near, Against whose roots breaketh the brackish wave Where Jove his temple, Pompey hath his grave:
XVI Then Damiata next, where they behold How to the sea his tribute Nilus pays By his seven mouths renowned in stories old, And by an hundred more ign.o.ble ways: They pa.s.s the town built by the Grecian bold, Of him called Alexandria till our days, And Pharaoh's tower and isle removed of yore Far from the land, now joined to the sh.o.r.e:
XVII Both Crete and Rhodes they left by north unseen, And sailed along the coasts of Afric lands, Whose sea towns fair, but realms more inward been All full of monsters and of desert sands: With her five cities then they left Cyrene, Where that old temple of false Hammon stands: Next Ptolemais, and that sacred wood Whence spring the silent streams of Lethe flood.
XVIII The greater Syrte, that sailors often cast In peril great of death and loss extreme, They compa.s.sed round about, and safely pa.s.sed, The Cape Judeca and flood Magra's stream; Then Tripoli, gainst which is Malta placed, That low and hid, to lurk in seas doth seem: The little Syrte then, and Alzerhes isle, Where dwelt the folk that Lotos ate erewhile.
XIX Next Tunis on the crooked sh.o.r.e they spied, Whose bay a rock on either side defends, Tunis all towns in beauty, wealth and pride Above, as far as Libya's bounds extends; Gainst which, from fair Sicilia's fertile side, His rugged front great Lilybaeum bends.
The dame there pointed out where sometime stood Rome's stately rival whilom, Carthage proud;
XX Great Carthage low in ashes cold doth lie, Her ruins poor the herbs in height scant pa.s.s, So cities fall, so perish kingdoms high, Their pride and pomp lies hid in sand and gra.s.s: Then why should mortal man repine to die, Whose life, is air; breath, wind; and body, gla.s.s?
From thence the seas next Bisert's walls they cleft, And far Sardinia on their right hand left.
XXI Numidia's mighty plains they coasted then, Where wandering shepherds used their flocks to feed, Then Bugia and Argier, the infamous den Of pirates false, Oran they left with speed, All Tingitan they swiftly overren, Where elephants and angry lions breed, Where now the realms of Fez and Maroc be, Gainst which Granada's sh.o.r.es and coasts they see.
XXII Now are they there, where first the sea brake in By great Alcides' help, as stories feign, True may it be that where those floods begin It whilom was a firm and solid main Before the sea there through did pa.s.sage win And parted Afric from the land of Spain, Abila hence, thence Calpe great upsprings, Such power hath time to change the face of things.
XXIII Four times the sun had spread his morning ray Since first the dame launched forth her wondrous barge And never yet took port in creek or bay, But fairly forward bore the knights her charge; Now through the strait her jolly s.h.i.+p made way, And boldly sailed upon the ocean large; But if the sea in midst of earth was great, Oh what was this, wherein earth hath her seat?
XXIV Now deep engulphed in the mighty flood They saw not Gades, nor the mountains near, Fled was the land, and towns on land that stood, Heaven covered sea, sea seemed the heavens to bear.
”At last, fair lady,” quoth Ubaldo good, ”That in this endless main dost guide us here, If ever man before here sailed tell, Or other lands here be wherein men dwell.”
XXV ”Great Hercules,” quoth she, ”when he had quailed The monsters fierce in Afric and in Spain, And all along your coasts and countries sailed, Yet durst he not a.s.say the ocean main, Within his pillars would he have impaled The overdaring wit of mankind vain, Till Lord Ulysses did those bounders pa.s.s, To see and know he so desirous was.