Intro (CANTO III)

"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 sombre colour 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.

Thou shalt behold the people dolorous
Who have foregone the good of intellect."

And after he had laid his hand on mine
He led me in among the secret things.

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 I: "O Master, what so grievous is

To these, that maketh them lament so sore?"
He answered: "I will tell thee very briefly.
These people have not any hope of death."