review
William Blake

 

 

Now one of the hardened outskirts was carrying
   us on, & the smoke from the rivulets was cast-
   ing shadows from above: thus hell preserves its
waters and the bank. Just like how, between Wissant
   and Bruges, do the Flemish people -- afraid that
   the tide might turn t' oppose them -- go put up a
little screen, to be able to retreat from the sea, &
   like how citizens of Padua, along river Brenta, may
   attack, in defense of their cities and castle
interests, even before the hottest season: in
   such very same image had those shades been forced,
   not one so proud or great as before, whom-
ever the master craftsman. We were already
   so far removed from the woods, I could not
   see where it went, so I turned myself right
back around, when we happened upon a
   company of shades, who went over the shore, each
   of which looked back at us as if keeping
watch for another night o'er the new moon;
   they furrowed their brows against us, such as
   veteran tailor does before his own
needle's eye. With such a family peering thus,
   I was recognized by one of them, & he
   took me by the cloak, shouting: "How wonderful!!!"
And as soon as he grabbed me with his arm, I
   fastened my eyes to his brown-baked features, so
   that his broiled aspect might not make my conscience fail my
intellect; I extended to his face my own
   hand, replying: "Are you, sir, here, oh Brunetto?"
   "Hey, you son of mine own, you won't find it so[30
bad, if Brunetto Latino back-tracks with you
   a bit, and lets the rat-race go on ahead?"
   To him said I, "However much I can, do
I thank you; now if you want to make me have
   a sit-down with you, then do it, should it
   be pleasing to that shade that I'm with you."
"Well sonny," he said, "whiche'er of these flocks stops
   a bit, will lay here for a hundred years with
   no interruption as the fire torches it.
But go on now: I'll follow you at a remove; then
   later join back up with my company, as they
   go bewailing their ever-agonizing pain."
I did not dare to mount the beach to get by
   on him; but I marchèd with head bowed, as
   if a religious man going in piety.
He started in, saying: "What stroke of luck or fate
   do ye have waiting down below, before the last
   judgment day? And who is that there, who's showing you the way?"
"There up above, in the placid life," I replied,
   "I went wandering into a form of valley,
   before my age was quite ripe enough. It
was just this morning that I turned tail on it
   as such, in turning onto this route, & it forced me
   into going down this path." And he tells me: "If
you follow your own lucky star, you could not
   fail at the gate of glory, so long as
   you liked me in the sweet lifetime; and
if I be not dead for just a time, seeing as how
   heaven looks pretty harmless to you, I would have
   comforted you through the effort of writing books.[60
But those ungrateful, wicked people, who
   descend from about Fiesole since ancient times --
   and still possess the mountain and the rock, -- they
shall become your enemy, on account of your doing
   so well; & the cause, because it's not appropriate
   for a nice fig-tree to blossom among the sour apples.
The world called them old-school celebrities, on earth;
   they were greedy, envious and arrogant: see to
   it that you rinse their customs from yourself.
Your fortunate fate is storing away so much honor,
   in your interests, that one part and another side have
   famed report of you: but keep the grass far from the goat.
Let those savage animals from Fiesole forage
   for food from among their own, and touch not a plant,
   should even one happen to spring up from
their shit, where the pious seed comes back to life
   among those Roman imperialists who subsisted
   there, when so wicked a nest of evil was built."
"If you were so cooperative with my imperative,"
   replied I to him, "you, sir, would've been no
   longer placed in that company by human nature:
now I do find your dear ol' noble image quite
   fitting, as pleases me right now and back then,
   when you used to teach me on occasion how man is
at one with the eternal: and as I should hold it
   to be of status, while I am yet alive, I'd rather
   that my native tongue never be perceived doing that.
Just as you told the story of my writerly course,
   so I ink myself, both in keeping a back-up copy
   with another script, and for the lady who'll get to[90
know it, provided that I get there. I really
   wanted you to see it made manifest, long as my
   conscience may not chafe at me for it, & so fate
herself is made ready, as you desired. Such a
   prediction is nothing new to my hearing: for Fortune spins
   her wheel in pleasing such, as does the low-class fellow
ruin his own." My lord master right then looked up,
   turned right, checking back as he looked again toward me:
   then he said, "Someone who notes this, is paying attention."
Nevertheless, I kept speaking with Brunetto Latini,
   and asked I who the most noted celebrities
   and the greatest of his comrades would be.
And he says to me: "To know of none is sufficient;
   it would be praise-worthy to stay silent on
   the others, since the time for such noise is short.
In sum, please know that all these shades were clerics and
   men of letters and people of great renown,
   befouled by one same sin upon the earth.
Priscian goes about, at the heart of that sorry lot,
   as does Francesco d'Accorso; and if you
   should crave such a rash of parasites, you might
be able to see the man who was removed from the Arno
   to the banks of Bacchiglione by pope Boniface,
   where he left his tendons so badly stretched for them.
I would say more; but my words and speech can
   go on no longer, since I view some new
   fuming over there, which rises from the sand.
People that I must not be with are on the way.
   Let my poem the Tesoro be recommended --
   I still live in it, and I ask for no more."[120
Then he turned and like those, he appeared,
   who run the green cloth through the
   country field in Verona; and he seemed
Like those he defeats, not the one losing.