Treachery 1/4

If I had rhymes but rough and stridulous,
As were appropriate to the dismal hole
Down upon which thrust all the other rocks,


I would press out the juice of my conception
More fully; but because I have them not,
Not without fear I bring myself to speak;


Whereat I turned me round, and saw before me
And underfoot a lake, that from frost
The semblance had of glass, and not of water.


Livid, as far down as where shame appears,
Were the disconsolate sades within the ice,
Setting their teeth unto the note of storks.


Each one his countenance held downward bent:
From mouth the cold, from eyes the doeful heart
Among them witness of itself procures.


When round about me somewhat I had looked,
I downward turned me, and saw two so close,
The hair upon their heads together mingled.


Ye who so strain your breasts together, tell me,
I said, who are you; and they bent their necks,
And when to me their faces they had lifted,


Their eyes, whih first were only moist within
Gushed o'er the eyelids, and the frost congealed
The tears between, and locked them up again.


They from one body came, and all Cania
Thou shalt search through, and shalt not find a shade
More worthy to be fixed in gelatine;


Not he in whom were broken breast and shadow
At one and the same blow by Arthur's hand;

The first round of the Ninth Circle of Hell, is named Cania, and like the rest of this round, in it are placed the treacherous. The crime of the first round, for which it takes its name, is treachery against family. Don't say you don't deserve it