Canto XXXII of Hell
The diabolic rock concert.
The collective histeria in the great plain of Woodstock.
S'io avessi le rime aspre e chiocce, come si converrebbe al tristo buco sovra 'l qual pontan tutte l'altre rocce, io premerei di mio concetto il suco più pienamente; ma perch'io non l'abbo, non sanza tema a dicer mi conduco; ché non è impresa da pigliare a gabbo discriver fondo a tutto l'universo, né da lingua che chiami mamma o babbo. Ma quelle donne aiutino il mio verso ch'aiutaro Anfione a chiuder Tebe, sì che dal fatto il dir non sia diverso.
My poems could not express, as it is appropriate, this lugubrious hole above which the other rocks rest. But let the Muses come to my assistance so that the words I employ, accounts for the real facts. Oh diabolic plebe among all, rejected into this place where one cannot speak any more then to synthesize, it would have been better than you were born animals rather than to act as if you were animals! And still, is this give justice to the animals? When we were at the deepness of the obscure pit, well below the feet of the giants, and than I still looked towards the cliff, I heard my Master tell me: "Look where you put tyour feet! And do not let anyone walk on your feet neither project above the heads such as a toy because the body-surfing is used here, to feed the mass hysteria." I turned myself then and I saw, in front of me and under my feet, a cold lake; it appeared to be such as glass rather than water. Never the Manicouagan neither this other very round sea which makes drink the fjord of Saguenay, nor the disturbed pastures of Lollapalooza, covered its bed of a crust so thick, that the one which was here in the large plain of Woodstock. As make the frogs to brawl, holding their muzzle out of thewater, such were the sorrowful shadows, livid and showing the place where shame appears, they lay on the ice, and their teeth clap like nozzles of storks. Each one held his face turned towards the sky; their mouth open testifying for them delirium, and their eyes, ofrom the cold which freezes them. After I looked a little around me, I threw my eyes towards my feet and I saw two damned ones who tore one and the other, and their clothing and scraps of flesh while vociferating and in rythming their gestures on the rate of the jerked sounds which came from further away. I approached them and I asked: "Tell me, you who are martyrising mutually, who you are and why you act like this?" They then bent their neck and, after they had raised their faces towards me, they tried to speak to me by looking with their wild eyes, but I could not seize what came from their mouth, neither words nor sentences nor understandable noise so that I left them thus. During this time, we approached the center towards which fall all that has weight; I shivered in the eternal cold, and I do not know if it were voluntarily, or by the effect of the destiny, or by chance, but while passing between the heads, I strongly struck with my foot, one of the bodies which was struggling in the white frost. He shouted to me while barking: "Ffff ffffffuck ffffuck you, you you its of has bitchhhhhhhhhh!" Without understanding what he said but moved, I said: "Master, I must help him to leave this mud then you will make me hasten as much as you want." And I tried to raise him, but he always fell down not being able to hold on his legs and he continued to insult me; I had to back up, I was already splashed by the glu which formed under our feet and already, the crowd around became animated and integrated itself into the viscous marsh by pressing her body sunked in the mud, with their wild dances so that I moved away in a hurry. There was a thundering and unmatched noise which diffused from a platform; the more we approached to it, the more our tympanums suffered from this infernal noise and our eyes did not manage to see, so much the lights which whirled on themselves, struck our retinas with violence. On the stage, I saw thread-like demons who agitated themselves such as wind vanes, handling incomprehensible instruments of tortures; and these beings seemed to be connected from everywhere by strange wires which connected them to thundering loud boxes, so that it would be difficult for me to describe what they where suffering about or from what torture they were the providers. In front of the stage, shadows were agitating, stamp each othe, sent temselves into the air and surf over the bodies in fright, like in an irrational slam. From their lungs came out immense cries of pain, they suffered at the same rhythm than the sounds and the more we approach to them, the more the pity invaded me. The discordant noises escaped from immense loud-speakers which where disposed on each side of the stage. I was disturbed, I was afraid to lose consciousness and I asked my Master to let us go out of this disturbing place, to what my Master says to me: "We must cross this field to reach the other circle, you will not have to suffer the effect of this forfeiture for a long time, if you have courage to resist to it and not to let you bewitch by it. Then, be vigilant and pretend to be one of them, but above all, keep consciousness because it is so easy to succumb to the influence of the sounds and to lose then, its own personality there." We approached to a place besides the large stage, there was there, an alignment of cabins all identical, from where entered and leaved staggering beings who seemed to me that they suffer from a strange evil; all around, there was a thick mud and we stopped there, where the stink discourages from advancing further. Some beings where defecating in the mud and bathed in it, everywhere around, there were avid spectators who seemed to harange them, launching their own shit, so that I begged my Master to take me far away from these animals who acted as no animal could do it on earth. We had already left this place when I saw two shadows frozen in the same hole, so that one of the heads rested on the chest of the other and, happy finally, I though that they where making love; as bread is eaten when one is hungry, so the one on top inserted his teeth in the breast of the other, where the flesh is more tender and their combined cries seemed something other then cries of pain. "Oh! you who testify by a sign so bestial of your hatred against the one you eat, make known to me, the reasons for this pact that, if you are right to be avenged of her, knowing who you are and what is her fault, I will reward you for that, when I return on earth, if my tongue is not desiccated meanwhile!" And I saw very well that they were such, without the conscience to be such, that they answered to other impulses which did not fuse any more from themselves but from the noise that came from the atage, and from the grasses that encumbered their throat.
Marco Polo ou le voyage imaginaire (La tragédie humaine, janvier 2000) © 1999 Jean-Pierre Lapointe
Theme musical: rape me de Nirvana, emprunté aux Archives du Web.
Important Notice: any photos or fragments of photos subject to copyright will be removed on notice.