THROUGH ME THE WAY TO THE CITY OF WOE,
THROUGH ME THE WAY TO
EVERLASTING PAIN,
THROUGH ME THE WAY
AMONG THE LOST.
JUSTICE MOVED MY
MAKER ON HIGH.
DIVINE POWER MADE ME,
WISDOM SUPREME, AND
PRIMAL LOVE.
BEFORE ME NOTHING WAS
BUT THINGS ETERNAL,
AND ETERNAL I ENDURE.
ABANDON ALL HOPE, YOU
WHO ENTER HERE.
These words, dark in hue, I saw inscribed
over an archway. And
then I said:
'Master, for me their
meaning is hard.'
And he, as one who understood:
'Here you must banish
all distrust,
here must all
cowardice be slain.
'We have come to
where I said
you would see the
miserable sinners
who have lost the
good of the intellect.'
And after he had put
his hand on mine
with a reassuring
look that gave me comfort,
he led me toward
things unknown to man……..
I drew closer to my leader.
And he to me: 'Turn back! What are you doing?
Look, there Farinata stands erect --
you can see all of him from the waist up.'
Already I had fixed my gaze on his.
And he was rising, lifting chest and brow
as though he held all Hell in utter scorn.
At which my leader: 'Choose your words with care,'
and his hands, ready, encouraging,
thrust me toward him among the tombs.
When I stood at the foot of his tomb
he looked at me a moment. Then he asked,
almost in disdain: 'Who were your ancestors?'
And I, eager to obey, held nothing back,
but told him who they were,
at which he barely raised his eyebrows
and said: 'They were most bitter enemies
to me, my forebears, and my party --
not once, but twice, I had to drive them out.'
'If they were banished,' I responded, 'they returned
from every quarter both the first time and the second,
a skill that Yours have failed to learn as well.'
Then, beside him, in the open tomb, up came
a shade, visible to the chin: I think
he had raised himself upon his knees.
He looked around me as though he wished to see
if someone else were with me,
and when his hesitant hopes were crushed,
weeping, he said: 'If you pass through this dark
prison by virtue of your lofty genius,
where is my son and why is he not with you?'
And I to him: 'I come not on my own:
he who stands there waiting leads me through,
perhaps to one Your Guido held in scorn.'
His words and the manner of his punishment
already had revealed his name to me,
and thus was my reply so to the point.
Suddenly erect, he cried: 'What?
Did you say "he held"? Lives he not still?
Does not the sweet light strike upon his eyes?'
When he perceived that I made some delay
before I answered, he fell backward
and showed himself no more.
But the other, that great soul at whose wish
I had stopped, did not change countenance,
nor bend his neck, nor move his chest.
And he, continuing from where he'd paused:
'That they have badly learned this skill
torments me more than does this bed.
'But the face of the lady reigning here
will be rekindled not fifty times before you too
shall know how difficult a skill that is to learn.
'And, so may you return to the sweet world,
tell me, why are your people,
in every edict, so pitiless against my kin?'
Then I to him: 'The havoc and great slaughter
that dyed the Arbia red caused them to raise
such prayers in our temple.'
He sighed and shook his head, then spoke:
'I was not alone, nor surely without cause
would I have acted with the rest.
'But it was I alone, when all agreed
to make an end of Florence, I alone
who dared speak out in her defense.'
'So may Your seed sometime find peace,
pray untie for me this knot,' I begged him,
'which has entangled and confused my judgment.
'From what I hear, it seems
you see beforehand that which time will bring,
but cannot know what happens in the present.'
'We see, like those with faulty vision,
things at a distance,' he replied. 'That much,
for us, the mighty Ruler's light still shines.
'When things draw near or happen now,
our minds are useless. Without the words of others
we can know nothing of your human state.
'Thus it follows that all our knowledge
will perish at the very moment
the portals of the future close.'
Then, remorseful for my fault, I said:
'Will You tell him who fell back down
his son is still among the living?
'And let him know, if I was slow to answer,
it was because I was preoccupied
with doubts You have resolved for me.'
And now my master summoned me,
so that I begged the spirit to reveal,
at once, who else was down there with him.
His answer was: 'More than a thousand lie
here with me: both the second Frederick
and the Cardinal. Of the rest I do not speak.'
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