The Shadow That Reveals Truth — Divine Comedy

Sudden flight scatters them toward the mountain. Dante will not leave Virgil, who seems smitten with self-remorse: a clear conscience takes even a little fling as a wound. When the haste that mars decency slackens, Dante faces the steep. The sun breaks his form on the ground. He fears being left, because only his own shade falls. Virgil asks why he distrusts. It is evening where the body that once cast a shade lies buried, moved to Naples from Brundusium. Marvel not if before me no shadow fall. Insane who hopes reason may explore three persons in one substance. Seek not the wherefore; could ye have seen the whole, no need had been for Mary to bring forth. He names Plato and the Stagyrite, then bends his forehead and breaks off.

At the foot the rock is so steep that nimblest steps would be vain. Any wild path between Lerice and Turbia would be a ladder to this. Who knows on which hand the steep declines? Dante sees spirits so slow they seem unmoving. Virgil will ask them: who knows most, him loss of time most grieves. A thousand paces off they draw back on the crags. As sheep follow the first without discerning why, the fortunate crew advances, then stops when Dante's broken light reaches the cave. Virgil confesses a human body, and virtue from Heaven. They signal with bent hands: turn, the entrance lies before you.

One asks Dante to look if he has seen him. Comely, with a gash on the brow. Dante disclaims him. The man shows a wound on the breast: I am Manfredi, grandson to Queen Costanza. Tell my daughter the truth. Two mortal blows shattered him; he went weeping to him who of free will forgives. Sins were horrible, but the arms are wide, and all who turn are received. Cosenza's shepherd, set on by Clement, dragged the bones to Verde with lights extinguished. Yet the curse does not destroy hope while her blossoms stay green. Contumacy, even with repentance, wanders thirty-fold unless good men's prayers shorten it. Advance my bliss: tell Costanza you have beheld me, and the terms of that interdict.