“[They s]end bubbles to the surface of this ooze
As glancing roundabouts you may observe.
Fixed in the slime they say: ‘Sullen we were
In the sweet air cheered by the brightening sun
Because of sulky vapors in our hearts;
Now here in this black mud we curse our luck.’
This burden, though they cannot form in words,
They gurgle in their gullets”

—Dante Alighieri, The divine comedy, translated by Thomas G. Bergin, 1969.