Behind Them the Wood Was Full of Black Bitches, Ravenous and Running Like Greyhounds
November 6, 2010 § 2 Comments
“We were still attentive to the trunk, believing that it might wish to say more to us, when we were surprised by an uproar, as one who perceives the wild boar and the chase coming toward his stand and hears the Feasts and the branches crashing. And behold two on the left hand, naked and scratched, flying so violently that they broke all the limbs of the wood. The one in front was shouting, “Now, help, help, Death!” and the other, who seemed to himself too slow, “Lano, thy legs were not so nimble at the jousts of the Toppo:” and when perhaps his breath was failing, of himself and of a bush he made a group. Behind them the wood was full of black bitches, ravenous and running like greyhounds that have been unleashed. On him that had squatted they set their teeth and tore him to pieces, bit by bit, then carried off his woeful limbs.”
Canto XIII, Inferno
meaxylon 
Maria: the title is great and the translation antique enough to help convey the richness of the language.
when i started reading “Heaven” in the DC (in college), i realized the big joke about Dante: hell is fun; heaven is boring. i don’t know why i’ve never re-read the story; it was certainly powerful at the time. btw, i had to skip some parts in Heaven to get to the Great Rose at the end, which is magnificent. yet somehow this passage is as compelling (tho not a place i’d want to spend eternity in).
RT
I didn’t even get to Heaven because I didn’t get through Purgatory. :)
Maybe Inferno was so engaging, and inventive, that Purgatory just seemed to drag on forever without anything happening? But, it’s on my to-do-list though, to finish Purgatory and Paradise, but I also want to re-read Inferno. Maybe I should follow your advice – read the end first, then start over with the parts I haven’t read. And then revisit Inferno. And I like this translation too, I find it more captivating than the one I read when I first read it. But that translation also had lengthy footnotes which slowed down reading a lot.