INTRO:
Dante to the Second Circle warily descends
Dante with companion Virgil, Minos’ censure fends
A whirling flock of moaning souls who mortally
had letched
Choir-like, they are heard to kvetch
Choir-like, they are heard to kvetch.

CANTO 5, continued:
Intesi che son dannati a così fatto tormento
Peccator che la ragion sommettono al talento
E come li stornei ne portano l’ali
Così quel fiato li spiriti mali
Quel fiato li spiriti mali.

Dante views the fate of those whose burning passion sinned
Buffeted like winter starlings by the smiting wind
Hurricanes that never rest tempestuously thrust,
And lash them with the winds of lust
Lash them with the winds of lust.

Dante bears the witness, but his eyes he barely trusts,
Classical and literary lovers felled by lust
Cleopatra, Semiramis, figures he knew well
Tossing on the winds of Hell
Tossing on the winds of Hell.

Dante feels great pity for a thousand tortured shades
Torn by love from mortal life ‘though none of them had AIDS
Paolo and Francesca stop for coffee and a bite
Time-out from their endless flight
Time-out to describe their plight.

Paolo and Francesca were a pair to break your heart
Paolo and Francesca topped Ravenna’s scandal charts.
(Shakespeare’s sad Verona couple - not invented yet
So no-one knew of Juliet
No-one heard of Juliet)

Bro-in-law in castle garden, bad case of the hots;
Romance tales they read of Guinevere and Lancelot.
Bro Gianciotto pulled his knife when they betrayed his trust
Murdered as revenge for lust
Murdered as revenge for lust.

Essa disse, “Esser basciato da cotanto amante,
Basciò e quel giorno non vi leggemmo avante
Dante, “Io venni men così com’io morisse
E caddi come corpo morto cade
Caddi com'uno morto cade.”

Dante learned how Frankie’d given into earthly bliss
When Paolo got his cue from reading of Sir Lancelot’s kiss
Dante poet, overwhelmed by anguish, felt so crushed
He fainted with this tale of lust
Dante felt the pain of lust.