The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Ave Dante
• Preface
• Inferno I
• Inferno Ii
• Inferno Iii
• Inferno Iv
• Inferno V
• Inferno Vi
• Inferno Vii
• Inferno Viii
• Inferno Ix
• Inferno X
• Inferno Xi
• Inferno Xii
• Inferno Xiii
• Inferno Xiv
• Inferno Xv
• Inferno Xvi
• Inferno Xvii
• Inferno Xviii
• Inferno Xix
• Inferno Xx
• Inferno Xxi
• Inferno Xxii
• Inferno Xxiii
• Inferno Xxiv
• Inferno Xxv
• Inferno Xxvi
• Inferno Xxvii
• Inferno Xxviii
• Inferno Xxix
• Inferno Xxx
• Inferno Xxxi
• Inferno Xxxii
• Inferno Xxxiii
• Inferno Xxxiv

INFERNO III

• Through me one goes into the town of woe,
• through me one goes into eternal pain,
• through me among the people that are lost.

• Justice inspired my high exalted Maker;
• I was created by the Might divine,
• the highest Wisdom and the primal Love.

• Before me there was naught created, save
• eternal things, and I eternal last;
• all hope abandon, ye that enter here!

• These words of gloomy color I beheld
• inscribed upon the summit of a gate;
• whence I: “Their meaning, Teacher, troubles me.”

• And he to me, like one aware, replied:
• “All fearfulness must here be left behind;
• all forms of cowardice must here be dead.
• We ’ve reached the place where, as I said to thee,
• thou ’lt see the sad folk who have lost the Good
• which is the object of the intellect.”
• Then, after he had placed his hand in mine
• with cheerful face, whence I was comforted,
• he led me in among the hidden things.

• There sighs and wails and piercing cries of woe
• reverberated through the starless air;
• hence I, at first, shed tears of sympathy.
• Strange languages, and frightful forms of speech,
• words caused by pain, accents of anger, voices
• both loud and faint, and smiting hands withal,
• a mighty tumult made, which sweeps around
• forever in that timelessly dark air,
• as sand is wont, whene’er a whirlwind blows.

• And I, whose head was girt about with horror,
• said: “Teacher, what is this I hear? What folk
• is this, that seems so overwhelmed with woe?”

• And he to me: “This wretched kind of life
• the miserable spirits lead of those
• who lived with neither infamy nor praise.
• Commingled are they with that worthless choir
• of Angels who did not rebel, nor yet
• were true to God, but sided with themselves.
• The heavens, in order not to be less fair,
• expelled them; nor doth nether Hell receive them,
• because the bad would get some glory thence.”

• And I: “What is it, Teacher, grieves them so,
• it causes them so loudly to lament?”

• “I ’ll tell thee very briefly,” he replied.
• “These have no hope of death, and so low down
• is this unseeing life of theirs, that envious
• they are of every other destiny.

• The world allows no fame of them to live;
• Mercy and Justice hold them in contempt.
• Let us not talk of them; but look, and pass!”

• And I, who gazed intently, saw a flag,
• which, whirling, moved so swiftly that to me
• contemptuous it appeared of all repose;
• and after it there came so long a line
• of people, that I never would have thought
• that death so great a number had undone.

• When some I ’d recognized, I saw and knew
• the shade of him who through his cowardice
• the great Refusal made. I understood
• immediately, and was assured that this
• the band of cowards was, who both to God
• displeasing are, and to His enemies.
• These wretched souls, who never were alive,
• were naked, and were sorely spurred to action
• by means of wasps and hornets that were there.
• The latter streaked their faces with their blood,
• which, after it had mingled with their tears,
• was at their feet sucked up by loathsome worms.

• When I had given myself to peering further,
• people I saw upon a great stream’s bank;
• I therefore said: “Now, Teacher, grant to me
• that I may know who these are, and what law
• makes them appear so eager to cross over,
• as in this dim light I perceive they are.”

• And he to me: “These things will be made clear
• to thee, as soon as on the dismal strand
• of Acheron we shall have stayed our steps.”
• Thereat, with shame-suffused and downcast eyes,
• and fearing lest my talking might annoy him,
• up to the river I abstained from speech.

• Behold then, coming toward us in a boat,
• an agèd man, all white with ancient hair,
• who shouted: “Woe to you, ye souls depraved!
• Give up all hope of ever seeing Heaven!
• I come to take you to the other shore,
• into eternal darkness, heat and cold.
• And thou that yonder art, a living soul,
• withdraw thee from those fellows that are dead.”
• But when he saw that I did not withdraw,
• he said: “By other roads and other ferries
• shalt thou attain a shore to pass across,
• not here; a lighter boat must carry thee.”

• To him my Leader: “Charon, be not vexed;
• thus is it yonder willed, where there is power
• to do whate’er is willed; so ask no more!”

• Thereat were quieted the woolly cheeks
• of that old boatman of the murky swamp,
• who round about his eyes had wheels of flame.
• Those spirits, though, who nude and weary were,
• their color changed, and gnashed their teeth together,
• as soon as they had heard the cruel words.

• They kept blaspheming God, and their own parents,
• the human species, and the place, and time,
• and seed of their conception and their birth.
• Then each and all of them drew on together,
• weeping aloud, to that accursèd shore
• which waits for every man that fears not God.

• Charon, the demon, with his ember eyes
• makes beckoning signs to them, collects them all,
• and with his oar beats whoso takes his ease.

• Even as in autumn leaves detach themselves,
• now one and now another, till their branch
• sees all its stripped off clothing on the ground;
• so, one by one, the evil seed of Adam
• cast themselves down that river-bank at signals,
• as doth a bird to its recalling lure.
• Thus o’er the dusky waves they wend their way;
• and ere they land upon the other side,
• another crowd collects again on this.

• “My son,” the courteous Teacher said to me,
• “all those that perish in the wrath of God
• from every country come together here;
• and eager are to pass across the stream,
• because Justice Divine so spurs them on,
• that what was fear is turned into desire.
• A good soul never goes across from hence;
• if Charon, therefore, findeth fault with thee,
• well canst thou now know what his words imply.”

• The darkling plain, when this was ended, quaked
• so greatly, that the memory of my terror
• bathes me even now with sweat.
• The tear-stained ground
• gave forth a wind, whence flashed vermilion light
• which in me overcame all consciousness;
• and down I fell like one whom sleep o’ertakes.