By Dante Alighieri

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All hope abandon, ye who enter in!”

“Through me the way is to the city dolent; 
Through me the way is to eternal dole; 
Through me the way among the people lost. 

Justice incited my sublime Creator; 
Created me divine Omnipotence, 
The highest Wisdom and the primal Love.

Before me there were no created things, 
Only eterne, and I eternal last. 
All hope abandon, ye who enter in!”

These words in somber color I beheld Written upon the summit of a gate; 
Whence I: “Their sense is, Master, hard to me!”
And he to me, as one experienced:

“Here all suspicion needs must be abandoned,
All cowardice must needs be here extinct.
We to the place have come, where I have told thee 

Thou shalt behold the people dolorous
Who have foregone the good of intellect.”
And after he had laid his hand on mine

With joyful mien, whence I was comforted, 
He led me in among the secret things.
There signs, complaints, and ululations loud

Resounded through the air without a star, 
Whence I, at the beginning, wept thereat.
Languages diverse, horrible dialects, 

Accents of anger, words of agony, 
And voices high and hoarse, with sound of hands,
Made up a tumult that goes whirling on 

For ever in that air for ever black,
Even as the sand doth, when the whirlwind breathes. 
And he to me: “This miserable mode

Maintain the melancholy souls of those 
Who lived withouten infamy or praise. 
Commingled are they with that caitiff choir

Of Angels, who have not rebellious been,
Nor faithful were to God, but were for self.
The heavens expelled them, not to be less fair;

Nor them the nethermore abyss receives,
For glory none the damned would have from them.”
And I: “O Master, what so grievous is 

To these, that maketh them lament so sore?”
He answered: “I will tell thee very briefly.
These have no longer any hope of death; 

And this blind life of theirs is so debased, 
They envious are of every other fate. 

(Alighieri 2016, pp.22-23)

Thereafter all together they drew back, 
Bitterly weeping, to the accursed shore,
Which waiteth every man who fears not God. 

Charon the demon, with the eyes of glede,
Beckoning to them, collects them all together, 
Beats with his oar whoever lags behind.

As in the autumn-time the leaves fall off,
First one and then another, till the branch 
Unto the earth surrenders all its spoils;

In similar wise the evil seed of Adam
Throw themselves from the margin one by one,
At signals, as a bird unto its lure.

So they depart across the dusky wave, 
And ere upon the other side they land,
Again on this side a new troop assembles.

“My son,” the courteous Master said to me,
“All those who perish in the wrath of God
Here meet together out of every land;

And ready are they to pass o’er the river,
Because celestial Justice spurs them on,
So that their fear is turned into desire.

(Alighieri 2016, pp.27)

‘Tis not enough, because they had not baptism
Which is the portal of the Faith thou holdest;

There, as it seemed to me from listening,
Were lamentations none, but only sighs,
That tremble made the everlasting air.

And this arose from sorrow without torment,
Which the crowds had, that many were and great,
Of infants and of women and of men.

To me the Master good: “Thou dost not ask
What spirits these, which thou beholdest, are?
Now will I have thee know, ere thou go farther,

That they sinned not; and if they merit had, 
‘Tis not enough, because they had not baptism
Which is the portal of the Faith thou holdest;

And if they were before Christianity,
In the right manner they adored not God;
And among such as these am I myself.

For such defects, and not for other guilt,
Lost are we, and are only so far punished,
That without hope we live on in desire.”

Great grief seized on my heart when this I heard, 
Because some people of much worthiness
I knew, who in that Limbo were suspended.

(Alighieri 2016, pp.30-31)

Man may lay violent hands upon himself
And his own goods; and therefore in the second
Round must perforce without avail repent

Whoever of your world deprives himself,
Who games, and dissipates his property,
And weepeth there, where he should jocund be.

Violence can be done the Deity,
In heart denying and blaspheming Him,
And by disdaining Nature and her bounty.

And for this reason doth the smallest round
Seal with its signet Sodom and Cahors,
And who, disdaining God, speaks from the heart.

Fraud, wherewithal is every conscience stung,
A man may practice upon him who trusts,
And him who doth no confidence imburse.

This latter mode, it would appear, dissevers
Only the bond of love which Nature makes;
Wherefore within the second circle nestle

Hypocrisy, flattery, and who deals in magic,
Falsification, theft, and simony, 
Panders, and barrators, and the like filth.

By the other mode, forgotten is the love
Which Nature makes, and what is after added, 
From which there is a special faith engendered.

Hence in the smallest circle, where the point is 
Of the Universe, upon which Dis is seated, 
Whoe’er betrays forever is consumed.”

(Alighieri 2016, pp.88)

Then pushed the portals of the sacred door,
Exclaiming: “Enter; but I give you warning 
That forth returns whoever looks behind.”

And when upon their hinges were turned round
The swivels of that consecrated gate,
Which are of metal, massive and sonorous,

Roared not so loud, not so discordant seemed
Tarpeia, when was ta’en from it the good
Metellus, wherefore meager it remained.

At the first thunder-peal I turned attentive, 
And “Te Deum laudamus” seemed to hear
In voices mingled with sweet melody.

Exactly such an image rendered me
That which I heard, as we are wont to catch,
When people singing with the organ stand;

For now we hear, and now hear not, the words.

(Alighieri 2016, pp.328-329)

When we had crossed the threshold of the door
Which the perverted love of souls disuses, 
Because it makes the crooked way seem straight,

Re-echoing I heard it closed again;
And if I had turned back mine eyes upon it,
What for my failing had been fit excuse?

(Alighieri 2016, pp.329)

When he; who ever watchful in advance
Was going on, began: “Lift up thy head,
‘Tis no more time to go thus meditating.

Lo there an Angel who is making haste 
To come towards us; lo, returning is
From service of the day the sixth handmaiden.

With reverence thine acts and looks adorn,
So that he may delight to speed us upward;
Think that this day will never dawn again.”

I was familiar with his admonition
Ever to lose no time; so on this theme
He could not unto me speak covertly.

Towards us came the being beautiful
Vested in white, and in his countenance
Such as appears the tremulous morning star.

His arms he opened, and opened then his wings;
“Come,” said he, “near at hand here are the steps,
And easy from henceforth is the ascent.”

At this announcement few are they who come!
O human creatures, both so soar aloft,
Why fall ye thus before a little wind?

(Alighieri 2016, pp.346-347)

More are there to love well, and more they love there, 
And, as a mirror, one reflects the other.

“What is that, Father sweet, from which I cannot 
So fully screen my sight that it avail me,” 
Said I, “and seems towards us to be moving?”

“Marvel thou not, if dazzle thee as yet 
The family of heaven,” he answered me;
“An angel ‘tis, who comes to invite us upward.

Soon will it be, that to behold these things
Shall not be grievous, but delightful to thee
As much as nature fashioned thee to feel.”

When we had reached the Angel benedight,
With joyful voice he said: “Here enter in 
To stairway far less steep than are the others.”

We mounting were, already thence departed, 
And “Beati misercordes” was
Behind us sung, “Rejoice, thou that o’ercomest!”

My Master and myself, we two alone 
Were going upward, and I thought, in going, 
Some profit to acquire from words of his;

And I to him directed me, thus asking:
“What did the spirit of Romagna mean,
Mentioning interdict and partnership?”

Whence he to me: “Of his own greatest failing
He knows the harm; and therefore wonder not 
If he reprove us, that we less may rue it.

Because are thither pointed your desires
Where by companionship each share is lessened, 
Envy doth ply the bellows to your sighs.

But if the love of the supernal shere
Should upwardly direct your aspiration, 
There would not be that fear within your breast;

For there, as much the more as one says Our,
So much the more of good each one possesses,
And more of charity in that cloister burns.”

“I am more hungering to be satisfied,”
I said, “than if I had before been silent,
And more of doubt within my mind I gather.

How can it be, that boon distributed
The more posessors can more wealthy make 
Therein, than if by few it be possessed?”

And he to me: “Because thou fixest still
Thy mind entirely upon earthly things,
Thou pluckest darkness from the very light.

That goodness infinite and ineffable 
Which is above there, runneth unto love, 
As to a lucid body comes the sunbeam.

So much it fixes itself as it finds ardor,
So that as far as charity extends, 
O’er it increases the eternal valor.

And the more people thitherward aspire,
More are there to love well, and more they love there, 
And, as a mirror, one reflects the other.

(Alighieri 2016, pp.363-365)

Then upon all sides there began a cry,
Such that the Master drew himself towards me,
Saying, “Fear not, while I am guiding thee.”

“Gloria in excelsis Deo,” all
Were saying, from what near I comprehended,
Where it was possible to hear the cry.

We paused immovable and in suspense,
Even as the shepherds who first heard that song, 
Until the trembling ceased, and it was finished.

Then we resumed again our holy path,
Watching the shades that lay upon the ground, 
Already turned to their accustomed plaint.

No ignorance ever with so great a strife
Had rendered me importunate to know, 
If erreth not in this my memory,

As meditating then I seemed to have; 
Nor out of haste to question did I dare,
Nor of myself I there could aught perceive;

So I went onward timorous and thoughtful.

(Alighieri 2016, pp.402)

Through thee I Poet was, through thee a Christian; 
But that thou better see what I design,
To color it will I extend my hand.

Already was the world in every part 
Pregnant with the true creed, disseminated
By messengers of the eternal kingdom;

And thy assertion, spoken of above,
With the new preachers was in unison; 
Whence I to visit them the custom took.

Then they became so holy in my sight, 
That, when Domitian persecuted them, 
Not without tears of mine were their laments;

And all the while that I on earth remained, 
Them I befriended, and their upright customs
Made me disparage all the other sects.

And ere I led the Greeks unto the rivers
Of Thebes, in poetry, I was baptized,
But out of fear was covertly a Christian,

For a long time professing paganism;
And this lukewarmness caused me the fourth circle
To circuit round more than four centuries.

Thou, therefore, who hast raised the covering
That hid from me whatever good I speak of, 
While in ascending we have time to spare,

(Alighieri 2016, pp.411)

“Hope,” said I, “is the certain expectation
Of future glory, which is the effect
Of grace divine and merit precedent.

The two remaining points, that not for knowledge
Have been demanded, but that he report
How much this virtue unto thee is pleasing, 

To him I leave; for hard he will not find them,
Nor of self-praise; and let him answer them;
And may the grace of God in this assist him!”

As a disciple, who his teacher follows, 
Ready and willing, where he is expert, 
That his proficiency may be displayed,

“Hope,” said I, “is the certain expectation
Of future glory, which is the effect
Of grace divine and merit precedent.

From many stars this light comes unto me;
But he instilled it first into my heart 
Who was chief singer unto the chief captain.

(Alighieri 2016, pp.640-641)

For there where God immediately doth govern,
The natural law in naught is relevant.

Thus into greater pomp were changed for me
The flowerets and the sparks, so that I saw
Both of the Courts of Heaven made manifest.

O splendor of God! by means of which I saw
The lofty triumph of the realm veracious,
Give me the power to say how it I saw!

There is a light above, which visible 
Makes the Creator unto every creature, 
Who only in beholding Him has peace, 

And it expands itself in circular form
To such extent, that its circumference
Would be too large a girdle for the sun.

The semblance of it is all made of rays
Reflected from the top of Primal Motion,
Which takes therefrom vitality and power.

And as a hill in water at its base
Mirror itself, as if to see its beauty
When affluent most in verdure and in flowers,

So, ranged aloft all round about the light,
Mirrored I saw in more ranks than a thousand
All who above there have from us returned.

And if the lowest row collect within it
So great a light, how vast the amplitude 
Is of this Rose in its extremest leaves!

My vision in the vastness and the height
Lost not itself, but comprehended all
The quantity and quality of that gladness.

There near and far nor add nor take away; 
For there where God immediately doth govern,
The natural law in naught is relevant.

Into the yellow of the Rose Eternal 
That spreads, and multiplies, and breathes an odor
Of praise unto the ever-vernal Sun, 

As one who silent is and fain would speak, 
Me Beatrice drew on, and said: “Behold
Of the white stoles how vast the convent is!

Behold how vast the circuit of our city!
Behold our seats so filled to overflowing, 
That here henceforward are few people wanting!

On that great throne whereon thine eyes are fixed 
For the crown’s sake already placed upon it,
Before thou suppest at this wedding feast

(Alighieri 2016, pp.672-674)

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References

Alighieri, Dante. 2016. The Divine Comedy. Translated by Henry W. Longfellow. N.p.: Barnes & Noble, Incorporated.

ISBN 978-1-43516206-8