Canto III of the Purgatory

hose who arrogate for themselves, the Trade of God.
Why mortals, do you want to reinvent Life?

Avvegna che la subitana fuga
dispergesse color per la campagna,
rivolti al monte ove ragion ne fruga,

  i' mi ristrinsi a la fida compagna:
e come sare' io sanza lui corso?
chi m'avria tratto su per la montagna?

  El mi parea da sé stesso rimorso:
o dignitosa coscienza e netta,
come t'è picciol fallo amaro morso!

  Quando li piedi suoi lasciar la fretta,
che l'onestade ad ogn'atto dismaga,
la mente mia, che prima era ristretta,

Our sudden escape made disperse these spirits in the direction of the mountain where punishes the Divine justice. 
I could not hide my fears. My faithful companion blamed himself not to be able to find his way back. 
When he hastened his steps, my spirit applied to other thoughts and I stared  towards the high summit 
which emerges from the water, where those who have sinned, expient. 

Fearing that my Master abandon me, I said to him: 
 
"But how could I, without you, reach the summit of the mountain?"

 And he answered me: 
 "Why do you fear, do you not believe that I am with you and that I guide you?" 

I was astonished that I was the only one, whereas it was not his case, to project a shadow on the ground: 

"The divine power has created your body thus. Why seek to know the unsoundable intentions of God, 
is it not wiser to resigned itself, not to be aware of the meaning of things 
of which we know the existence but whose causes escape from us? 
If God had wanted all the mortals to know everything, He would have allowed Adam and Eve 
to know the fruit of knowledge. If reason had allowed to explain everything, 
what reason there would have been to Marie, to give birth to a prophet of faith?" 


 And he added to that: 
"Why do you need, mortals, to reinvent life?
 I speak about these magicians, these doctors, the torturers and many others 
who thus believe to rise at the level of God in arrogating for themselves, the Trade of God."


And he lowered his head and he seemed disturbed: 
"I say it to you, by preferring vice over giving birth and by reinventing  life with artifices, 
they destroy nature and life as well as the hope in life, they think only about survival;
 believing then they become God,  they carry out the works of Satan. 
 But it will be other beings, infinitely small now who will survive the mortals and who will remake the cycle of life. 

And you the adventurous, in love with your own freedom and who travels around the world hunting on the females
 who are beautiful, do you know that instead of creating life, you only entertain your pleasure; are you not also 
 one of those who believe they are God and who confuse, then, the reason why the virgins maids are so beautiful?" 


We arrived at the foot of the mountain, but we had to circumvent it, to find a less steep slope. 
Here is that we see a troop of souls who moved slowly towards us; they were tightened against 
the rough walls of the high cliff, then they stopped with concern as soon as they saw us. 

Baudelaire started talking as so:

"Oh! you who lived well, already elected spirits, in the name of this peace which you all hope for,
 tell us which side of the mountain is soft inclined so that it is possible to climb it, 
 because it displeases us so much to experiment the penitence of wasting our time ." 


As sheep who leave their sheep-fold, squeezed between themselves, the muzzle and the eye rivetted to the ground, 
timorous, simplets and peaceful, imitating each others without knowing why, they came towards us, full with decency 
and with a serious pace. When they saw that I projected a shadow they stopped and moved back, 
my guide had to reassure them as follows: 
 
"Without you asking it, I tell you that this is a human body, 
that explains why it intercepts the light as such." 


One of them started:

 "Whom you would be, without stopping, look at me! And wonders if you ever did see me over there." 

And indeed, I recognized the one who had been a friend, and he says to me: 
"On your return over there, see my wife, so beautiful and so lonely, who loved you as much as I loved her; 
speak to her about who transpierced me like this with his sword and who usurps since, my couch and my glory. 
See whether you can, by revealing to my tender wife, the state in which you saw me,and then so, 
she makes me the great benefit of praying so that her prayers shorten my waiting at the foot of this cliff." 


This friend will never know that whom who usurped his couch and his beauty, was perhaps me?