Canto IV of the Purgatory

Jean-Baptiste the lazy.
Why think, if our Mother, the State does everything and thinks for me?

 Quando per dilettanze o ver per doglie,
che alcuna virtù nostra comprenda
l'anima bene ad essa si raccoglie,

  par ch'a nulla potenza più intenda;
e questo è contra quello error che crede
ch'un'anima sovr'altra in noi s'accenda.

  E però, quando s'ode cosa o vede
che tegna forte a sé l'anima volta,
vassene 'l tempo e l'uom non se n'avvede;

  ch'altra potenza è quella che l'ascolta,
e altra è quella c'ha l'anima intera:
questa è quasi legata, e quella è sciolta.

When, at the time of a great joy or after a great pain, the soul is meditative, it does not seem to know 
other contradictory desires. This, contradicted the idea that a bad conscience can thus pretend to be, 
under the appearance of a good conscience. It is while listening and by admiring these souls that 
I made the experiment of it, when we saw them shouting with only one voice: 
"Here is the passage which you seek to go higher" 

We arrived where we hoped to go, and the souls who accompanied us, let us know it
before leaving us alone, whereas the sun had already reached the horizon.
I was excited, because I liked to climb these mountain passes which brings you closer to the Sky 
in Saint-Gothard, which plunge you in the clouds in Laco Rosso, or which rejoin, in Hakone, 
the lost Paradise of lake Achi, where are reflected, in its calm waters, the fogs of the Fuji-Yama. 

But here, it is using your feet and your hands, and the wings of your desire, and by seeking the light, 
that we advance with sorrow. We went up increasingly higher while flying, because here, it is necessary 
to use the wings of courage and the will to reach the top. We went up to the inside of the abrupt rock 
by giving to us and each other, the hope to reach the summit. 
Arrived at the higher edge of the high cliff, I said: 
"My Master, which way then, will we take?" 

He answered me: 
"Do that, none of your steps mislays you; but go higher in following me, 
until some escort, less unfortunate, then, shows to us." 
The cliff was still so high that one could not see its summit. I was tired and I say: 
"Oh my soft father, my guide, turn around and see how I will be lonely if you do not stop!" 

And he answered me: 
"My son, do not succumb, thus, to unconsciousness by not raising yourself above the vulgar mass.
 See this projection in the mountain and stop there, only for a short rest." 

His words gave me courage and I follow him on four legs; there, we sat down and looked from where 
we came from, because it is always useful to look in the past, than to see, without understand it,
 only what is in front. Thus, I realized that the good Phaeton had toppled over and that 
 we just changed hemisphere. Hardly had he finished speaking that I heard, 
 coming from a heap of stones on our left, a voice saying as follows: 
"Yes, but you will  perhaps, be glad to sit before going up!" 

We went on this side where there were people laying with idleness under the shade of the rock. 
One of them seemed tired and he was seated, his head lowered between his knees, 
he did not move and I feared that he was dead.

 I recognized there, Jean-Baptiste, and I made him share my surprise of seing him thus, falling down 
into his creative idleness. Eaven before I questionned him, but seeing my distress, he says: 
"Brother, what good is it to go up? 
What good is the effort to raise myself above what I know of the things, or what there is beyond 
the things that I know. Why seek to know other places, other people, other cultures, other horizons 
whereas I am so comfortable here, not to have to adjust myself, to the manners which are foreign to me. 

Leave me, I am well and satisfy in my ignorance of these things, whereas there are so many 
learned people who know well all these things, who organize the things and distribute them,
and who take care of all an everything for me. 
What good is it to pray, since heaven does not hear me? 
Moreover I could not say the words and I would, undoubtedly, use the vulgar force 
to then, allure the divine Birdy who keeps the keys to the door of the punishments, 
so, why think..................... if our Mother the State does everything and thinks for me?" 

Already the poet advanced and he was anxious to go up more ahead and he says to me:
"Go ahead now! See as the sun turns and already  lie down on the Orient."