[Translation from Dante, <emph xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0">Inferno</emph> Canto xxxiii 1-78] From his dire food the grisly felon raised His gore-dyed lips, which on the clottered locks Of the half-devoured head he wiped, and thus Began: 'Would'st thou revive the deep despair, The anguish, that, unuttered, natheless wrings My inmost heart? Yet if the telling may Beget the traitor's infamy, whom thus I ceaseless gnaw insatiate, thou shalt see me At once give loose to utterance and to tears. 'I know not who thou art nor on what errand Sent hither; but a Florentine my ear, Won by thy tongue, declares thee. Know, thou see'st In me Count Ugolino, and Ruggieri, Pisa's perfidious prelate, this: now hear My wrongs and from them judge of my revenge. 'That I did trust him, that I was betrayed By trusting, and by treachery slain, it recks not That I advise thee; that which yet remains To thee and all unknown (a horrid tale), The bitterness of death, I shall unfold. Attend, and say if he have injured me. 'Through a small crevice opening, what scant light That grim and antique tower admitted (since Of me the Tower of Famine hight, and known To many a wretch) already 'gan the dawn To send. The whilst I slumbering lay, a sleep Prophetic of my woes with direful hand Oped the dark veil of fate. I saw methought Toward Pisa's mount, that intercepts the view Of Lucca, chased by hell-hounds gaunt and bloody A wolf full-grown; with fleet and equal speed His young ones ran beside him. Lanfranc there And Sigismundo and Gualandi rode Amain, my deadly foes, headed by this The deadliest: he their chief, the foremost he Flashed to pursue and cheer the eager cry. Nor long endured the chase: the panting sire, Of strength bereft, his helpless offspring soon O'erta'en beheld, and in their trembling flanks The hungry pack their sharp-set fangs embrued. 'The morn had scarce commenced when I awoke: My children (they were with me) sleep as yet Gave not to know their sum of misery, But yet in low and uncompleted sounds I heard 'em wail for bread. Oh! thou art cruel, Or thou dost mourn to think what my poor heart Foresaw, foreknew; oh! if thou weep not now, Where are thy tears? Too soon they had aroused them, Sad with the fears of sleep, and now the hour Of timely food approached; when, at the gate Below, I heard the dreadful clank of bars And fastening bolts. Then on my children's eyes Speechless my sight I fixed, nor wept, for all Within was stone. They wept, unhappy boys, They wept; and first my little dear Anselmo Cried, 'Father, why do you gaze so sternly? What would you have?' Yet wept I not or answered All that whole day or the succeeding night, Till a new sun arose with weakly gleam And wan, such as mought entrance find within That house of woe. But oh! when I beheld My sons, and in four faces saw my own Despair reflected, either hand I gnawed For anguish, which they construed hunger. Straight Arising all they cried, 'Far less shall be Our sufferings, sir, if you resume your gift; These miserable limbs with flesh you clothed; Take back what once was yours.' I swallowed down My struggling sorrow, nor to heighten theirs. That day and yet another, mute we sat And motionless. O earth, could'st thou not gape Quick to devour me? Yet a fourth day came, When Gaddo, at my feet outstretched, imploring In vain my help, expired; ere the sixth morn Had dawned, my other three before my eyes Died one by one. I saw 'em fall; I heard Their doleful cries. For three days more I groped About among their cold remains (for then Hunger had reft my eyesight), often calling On their dear names, that heard me now no more; The fourth, what sorrow could not, famine did.' He finished; then with unrelenting eye Askance he turned him, hasty to renew The hellish feast, and rent his trembling prey. 