Note 23 — Chapter XVII · BERTRAN DE BORN.
Reading edition
Some readers may care to know the whole passage referring to our troubadour, one of the most weird and impressive of the ‘Inferno.’ It occurs in the 28th Canto towards the close, and runs thus:—
Ma io rimasi a riguardar lo stuolo, E vidi cosa ch’io avrei paura Senza più pruova di contarla solo; Se non che conscienzia m’assicura, La buona compagnia che l’uom francheggia Sotto l’usbergo del sentirsi pura. Io vidi certo ed ancor par ch’io ’l veggia, Un busto senza capo andar, si come Andavan gli altri della trista greggia. E ‘l capo tronco tenea per le chiome Pesol con mano, a guisa di lanterna: E quei mirava noi, e dicea: O me! Di sè faceva a sè stesso lucerna; Ed eran due in uno ed uno in due: Com’ esser puo, Quei sa che sì governa. Quando diritto appiè del ponte fue Levò ‘l braccio alto con tutta la testa Per appressarne le parole sue, Che furo: Or vedi la pena molesta Tu che, spirando vai veggendo i morti: Vedi s’alcuna è grave come questa. E perchè tu di me novella porti, Sappi ch’io son Bertram dal Bornio, quelli Che al rè giovane diedi i mai conforti; Io feci ’l padre e ‘l figlio in sè ribelli: Achitofel non fè più d’Absalone E di David, coi malvagi pungelli. Perch’io partii così giunte persone, Partito porto il mio cerebro lasso! Dal suo principio chè ’n questo troncone; Così s’osserva in me lo contrappasso.
But I remained to look upon the troop, And saw a thing which I should be in fear, Without more proof of telling, I alone, But that my conscience reassureth me, The good companion which emboldens man Under the hauberk of its feeling pure. I certes saw, and seems I see it still, A trunk without a head proceeding, so As went the others of the sorry flock. And by the hair he held his truncate head In guise of lantern, pendulous in hand: And that gazed on us, and it said, ‘Oh me!’ He of himself made light unto himself, And they were two in one, and one in two: How it can be He knows who governs thus. When he was right against the bridge’s foot, He raised, with all the head, his arm on high So to approach to us the words thereof, Which were: ‘See now the troublous penalty Thou who go’st breathing, looking at the dead, See whether any is so great as this. And, for that thou mayst carry of me news, I, know thou, am Bertran de Born, the man Who gave the young king ill encouragements. I mutually made rebels son and sire: Ahithophel made Absalom no more And David with his wicked goadings on. Because I parted persons thus conjoined, My brain, alas! I carry parted from Its principle which is in this my trunk. So retribution is in me observed. W. M. Rossetti’s translation.