Lady Luck, from print of renaissance wood-cut

«Pompeii's aid ton, pal-pay Satan, a lip: pay!»
   Plutus with his clucking voice began; and that
   kind, wise soul -- who understands all -- did say,
to reassure me, "Let not your fear do harm
   to you; now, power though he may have, it won't
   prevent us from climbing down this rockface."
Then he turns back toward the angered front,
   saying: "Quiet, you cursèd wolf, go eat
   your own insides up in that frenzy. It's not
for random cause, to head into the deep: it
   is willed from on high, up where Michael took
   vengeance upon the arrogant uprising."
Like sails on the wind that collapse, drop
   tangled into the step, when it breaks the
   mast, so fell the savage beast down, to the earth.
Into the fourth embankment so did we
   climb, picking up more from the grievous bank
   which is stuffed with the whole world entirely.
Oh dear justice of God that packed how many
   new disciplines and punishments as I saw? --
   & why is it our fault does not spoil thereby?
As the current which goes along Charybdis,
   that breaks with which wave it stumbles upon,
   so people who gather here dance like squares.
Here saw I peoples in greater company than
   elsewhere, from one side and another who, with howl-
   ing cries, keep moving weights by force from tit, astern.
They strike up meeting -- & then is each turned a-
   bout each other, returning back again, to cry out:
   "Why are you stingy?" & "What are you wasting for?"[30
So do they turn the dreary circle about,
   from each side toward the opposing point,
   as well in their dark measure do they shout.
Then each one was turned, when met up joined,
   through the very compass to the next game of
   chicken. And I, who held my heart all but humbled,
did say, "Master of mine, now show me what
   people these are, and whether all these ones
   to our lefthand side were clerks tonsured."
And he said to me: "All these shades were of
   such poor insight, in the original life,
   they did not spend with any moderation.
The barking voice makes quite clear to them when
   they arrive at the two ends of the circle,
   where contrapasso keeps them separate.
They were clerics, who had no hair to cover
   their head at top, and pontiffs and cardinals,
   in whom greed employs its lack of self-control."
And I said, "Master, among such shades as
   these, I should easily recognize some
   that were sullied from such wicked sinners."
And to me, he says: "You're composing empty
   thoughts: the unexamined life which got them so
   dirty in full knowledge now obscures them.
Forever are they going to go at the two
   points: these will rise again from the tomb tight-
   fisted, & those with the latest style of hair-do.
Bad giving and ill keeping has bereft
   them of the lovely world, & put them up to this
   fight: what it is, I shall not euphemize[60
words here. Now you're able, dear son, to see the
   weird court of the goods which are entrusted
   to Fortune, by which the human race is quashed;
for all the gold which the moon shines upon and
   that has ever been, with these restless souls, it'd
   be impossible to make one stay put with it."
"My guide," I said, "do tell me now as well: a-
   bout this fortune you mention to me, that is,
   which holds the goods of the world in her hands?"
And he, to me: "Oh you foolish living things,
   how great's that ignorance which assails you!
   Now let it please you to chew on my words over it.
He who transcends all knowledge true,
   did make the heavens and gave them guides in
   such way, that it lights every part up all through-
out, dividing the light in equal degree.
   Likewise he ordained, for worldly marvel,
   a chief minister and leader to shift, in
time, the empty benefits from one people
   to the next, one bloodline to another -- beyond
   the defenses of human symbols; for
which one race rules, and another wanes,
   abiding by the judgment of the lady
   who is hidden like a snake in the grass.
Your knowledge withstands not her knowing: she
   foresees, makes judgment and pursues her realm
   like science with the other divinities.
Her metamorphoses take no time off:
   necessity gives her alacrity; so
   it often happens, one who pursues changes,[90
does alter. It is she who gets so put up to
   the cross just by those that should grant her praise,
   in presenting it wrongfully with censure
and words of scorn; but she is blissful and hears
   not of it: she gladdens her hope to happy
   and takes joy in being among the first beings.
Now let us climb down to e'er greater pity;
   every star that was ascendant when I set
   out already falls -- one mustn't stay too long." We
cut across the circle toward the next
   riverbank upon a fountainhead which seethes
   and rushes through a ditch whose source comes of it.
The water was rather darker than finest
   purple; and in the companionship of
   the murky waves, we went on down along
a varied-strange path. In the marshland does
    flow that which is named sad stream, Styx, when it
   descends underfoot from th' infernal gray slopes.
And I, who've myself understood admiring
   marvels, saw the muddy peoples in that bog,
   entirely unclothed, with look of offense.
These shades laid into one another, not
   only by hand, but with head and chest and
   feet, with teeth tearing themselves limb from limb.
My master teacher said: "Now look, son, at
   the spirits of those whom anger overcame;
   and just so you believe it for sure, beneath
the water are people whose sighs do make
   this water boil over at the top, like how
   the gaze speaks to you, wherever roams the eye.[120
Stuck in the mud, they say, 'We were sad in
   the sweet air which the sun enlightens, bearing
   internally the bile vapor: now we get de-
pressed inside the swarthy slime.' This mantra
   they do blubber in suffocation, as they're un-
   able to say so with their speech intact."
So we bypassed the pool of filth with huge
   bend about the parched bank and the dank shore, with
   eyes on who was gobbling some mud. We came
to a tower's base, by the end: at last.