The Liberation of Jerusalem by Tasso Torquato; Wickert Max; Davie Mark

Author:Tasso, Torquato; Wickert, Max; Davie, Mark
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2009-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Canto Thirteen

1 But scarce has that immense war-engine caught

flame while the walls it battered at endure,

when Ismen’s brain grows busy with fresh thought

to make his city rest the more secure.

Therefore he plots how he might bring to naught

Frankish attempts fresh lumber to procure,

lest from the woods toward Zion should be sent

some new siege-tower to shake a battlement.

2 Not far from where the Christian tents rise grows

amid deserted glens a lofty grove, where loom,

in dense-packed crowds, huge, age-old trees that close

their tops and round about cast shades of doom.

There, even at noon, when sun shines brightest, glows

so feeble a light, dun, fitful, thick with gloom,

as when one doubts, while skies with clouds turn grey,

if day be born of night, or night of day.

3 But when the sun departs, over it all

spread blackness, clouds, vapours, and horrors drear,

so devilish to the view that they appal

the eye with blindness and the heart with fear.

No cowherd and no shepherd dares to call

his kine or flock to graze in the shadows here;

and, unless lost, all wanderers halt and stare

thither, aghast, and hasten otherwhere.

4 Here witches gather, each of them to meet

by night the incubus on whom she dotes.

Riding the clouds they come, some on the feet

of dragons fierce, some like misshapen goats—

revolting coven, whom the dim conceit

of vainly fancied benefits devotes

to filthy festivals, rites vile and fell,

blasphemous trysts, and spousals sealed in Hell.

5 (So ran the tale.) No native of the land

from that fierce wood dared cull the merest bough,

but the Franks despoiled it, since it stood at hand

for building their high engines. Hither now

the magus came, choosing for what he planned

propitious night’s profoundly silent shroud,

the very next night’s. Here his magic round

and arcane signs he traced upon the ground.

6 Ungirt, one foot unshod, in that charmed maze

he stood and muttered spells of Acheron.*

Thrice eastward now he turned his wicked gaze,

thrice toward the realms where sinks the setting sun,

thrice shook his charmed wand that had power to raise

corpses from tombs and make them walk or run,

and thrice he with his bare foot stamped the earth,

then with a loud cry to this speech gave birth:

7 ‘Hear me! Oh hear, ye who once from the stars

by thunderbolts were hurtled headlong down;

and ye, who in storms and whirlwinds stir up wars;

ye who,* exiled, through sightless air are blown;

and ye, whose toil for felon souls unbars

portals that close on everlasting moan.

Ye, citizens of Styx, I here require,

and thee, Lord of the heinous realms* of fire.

8 ‘Possess this wood, take of these trees control

that one by one I here consign to you.

Even as the body holds and garbs the soul,

so let each trunk* enfold one of your crew,

that the Frank may flee or, hacking at your bole,

may fear at first stroke what your wrath may do.’

He spoke, adding revolting oaths to which

no tongue without blaspheming can give speech.

9 At this, the stars grow dim by which the sky’s

expanse is decked. Dark silence covers all.

The moon is troubled, hiding from all eyes,

and sheathes her horns within a cloudy pall.

Enraged, he endeavours

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