English Edition, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
| 1 | Through me the way is to the city dolent; |
| 2 | Through me the way is to eternal dole; |
| 3 | Through me the way among the people lost. |
| 4 | Justice incited my sublime Creator; |
| 5 | Created me divine Omnipotence, |
| 6 | The highest Wisdom and the primal Love. |
| 7 | Before me there were no created things, |
| 8 | Only eterne, and I eternal last. |
| 9 | All hope abandon, ye who enter in! |
| 10 | These words in sombre colour I beheld |
| 11 | Written upon the summit of a gate; |
| 12 | Whence I: Their sense is, Master, hard to me! |
| 13 | And he to me, as one experienced: |
| 14 | Here all suspicion needs must be abandoned, |
| 15 | All cowardice must needs be here extinct. |
| 16 | We to the place have come, where I have told thee |
| 17 | Thou shalt behold the people dolorous |
| 18 | Who have foregone the good of intellect. |
| 19 | And after he had laid his hand on mine |
| 20 | With joyful mien, whence I was comforted, |
| 21 | He led me in among the secret things. |
| 22 | There sighs, complaints, and ululations loud |
| 23 | Resounded through the air without a star, |
| 24 | Whence I, at the beginning, wept thereat. |
| 25 | Languages diverse, horrible dialects, |
| 26 | Accents of anger, words of agony, |
| 27 | And voices high and hoarse, with sound of hands, |
| 28 | Made up a tumult that goes whirling on |
| 29 | For ever in that air for ever black, |
| 30 | Even as the sand doth, when the whirlwind breathes. |
| 31 | And I, who had my head with horror bound, |
| 32 | Said: Master, what is this which now I hear? |
| 33 | What folk is this, which seems by pain so vanquished? |
| 34 | And he to me: This miserable mode |
| 35 | Maintain the melancholy souls of those |
| 36 | Who lived withouten infamy or praise. |
| 37 | Commingled are they with that caitiff choir |
| 38 | Of Angels, who have not rebellious been, |
| 39 | Nor faithful were to God, but were for self. |
| 40 | The heavens expelled them, not to be less fair; |
| 41 | Nor them the nethermore abyss receives, |
| 42 | For glory none the damned would have from them. |
| 43 | And I: O Master, what so grievous is |
| 44 | To these, that maketh them lament so sore? |
| 45 | He answered: I will tell thee very briefly. |
| 46 | These have no longer any hope of death; |
| 47 | And this blind life of theirs is so debased, |
| 48 | They envious are of every other fate. |
| 49 | No fame of them the world permits to be; |
| 50 | Misericord and Justice both disdain them. |
| 51 | Let us not speak of them, but look, and pass. |
| 52 | And I, who looked again, beheld a banner, |
| 53 | Which, whirling round, ran on so rapidly, |
| 54 | That of all pause it seemed to me indignant; |
| 55 | And after it there came so long a train |
| 56 | Of people, that I ne’er would have believed |
| 57 | That ever Death so many had undone. |
| 58 | When some among them I had recognised. |
| 59 | I looked, and I beheld the shade of him |
| 60 | Who made through cowardice the great refusal. |
| 61 | Forthwith I comprehended, and was certain, |
| 62 | That this the sect was of the caitiff wretches |
| 63 | Hateful to God and to his enemies. |
| 64 | These miscreants, who never were alive, |
| 65 | Were naked, and were stung exceedingly |
| 66 | By gadflies and by hornets that were there. |
| 67 | These did their faces irrigate with blood, |
| 68 | Which, with their tears commingled, at their feet |
| 69 | By the disgusting worms was gathered up. |
| 70 | And when to gazing farther I betook me. |
| 71 | People I saw on a great river’s bank; |
| 72 | Whence said I: Master, now vouchsafe to me, |
| 73 | That I may know who these are, and what law |
| 74 | Makes them appear so ready to pass over, |
| 75 | As I discern athwart the dusky light. |
| 76 | And he to me: These things shall all be known |
| 77 | To thee, as soon as we our footsteps stay |
| 78 | Upon the dismal shore of Acheron. |
| 79 | Then with mine eyes ashamed and downward cast, |
| 80 | Fearing my words might irksome be to him, |
| 81 | From speech refrained I till we reached the river. |
| 82 | And lo! towards us coming in a boat |
| 83 | An old man, hoary with the hair of eld, |
| 84 | Crying: Woe unto you, ye souls depraved |
| 85 | Hope nevermore to look upon the heavens; |
| 86 | I come to lead you to the other shore, |
| 87 | To the eternal shades in heat and frost. |
| 88 | And thou, that yonder standest, living soul, |
| 89 | Withdraw thee from these people, who are dead- |
| 90 | But when he saw that I did not withdraw, |
| 91 | He said: By other ways, by other ports |
| 92 | Thou to the shore shalt come, not here, for,passage; |
| 93 | A lighter vessel needs must carry thee. |
| 94 | And unto him the Guide: Vex thee not, Charon; |
| 95 | It is so willed there where is power to do |
| 96 | That which is willed; and farther question not. |
| 97 | Thereat were quieted the fleecy cheeks |
| 98 | Of him the ferryman of the livid fen, |
| 99 | Who round about his eyes had wheels of flame. |
| 100 | But all those souls who weary were and naked |
| 101 | Their colour changed and gnashed their teeth together, |
| 102 | As soon as they had heard those cruel words. |
| 103 | God they blasphemed and their progenitors, |
| 104 | The human race, the place, the time, the seed |
| 105 | Of their engendering and of their birth! |
| 106 | Thereafter all together they drew back, |
| 107 | Bitterly weeping, to the accursed shore, |
| 108 | Which waiteth every man who fears not God. |
| 109 | Charon the demon, with the eyes of glede, |
| 110 | Beckoning to them, collects them all together, |
| 111 | Beats with his oar whoever lags behind. |
| 112 | As in the autumn-time the leaves fall off, |
| 113 | First one and then another, till the branch |
| 114 | Unto the earth surrenders all its spoils; |
| 115 | In similar wise the evil seed of Adam |
| 116 | Throw themselves from that margin one by one, |
| 117 | At signals, as a bird unto its lure. |
| 118 | So they depart across the dusky wave, |
| 119 | And ere upon the other side they land, |
| 120 | Again on this side a new troop assembles. |
| 121 | My son,the courteous Master said to me, |
| 122 | All those who perish in the wrath of God |
| 123 | Here meet together out of every land; |
| 124 | And ready are they to pass o’er the river, |
| 125 | Because celestial Justice spurs them on, |
| 126 | So that their fear is turned into desire. |
| 127 | This way there never passes a good soul; |
| 128 | And hence if Charon doth complain of thee |
| 129 | Well mayst thou know now what his speech imports. |
| 130 | This being finished, all the dusk champaign |
| 131 | Trembled so violently, that of that terror |
| 132 | The recollection bathes me still with sweat. |
| 133 | The land of tears gave forth a blast of wind, |
| 134 | And fulminated a vermilion light, |
| 135 | ‘Which overmastered in me every sense, |
| 136 | And as a man whom sleep hath seized I fell. |