The Divine Comedy by Dante: The Vision of Hell, Or The Inferno: Canto III

"THROUGH me you pass into the city of woe:     Through me you pass into eternal pain:     Through me among the people lost for aye.     Justice the founder of my fabric mov'd:     To rear me was the task of power divine,     Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.     Before me things create were none, save things     Eternal, and eternal I endure.     "All hope abandon ye who enter here."     Such characters in colour dim I mark'd     Over a portal's lofty arch inscrib'd:     Whereat I thus: "Master, these words import     Hard meaning."    He as one prepar'd replied:     "Here thou must all distrust behind thee leave;     Here be vile fear extinguish'd. We are come     Where I have told thee we shall see the souls     To misery doom'd, who intellectual good     Have lost."    And when his hand he had stretch'd forth     To mine, with pleasant looks, whence I was cheer'd,     Into that secret place he led me on.     Here sighs with lamentations and loud moans     Resounded through the air pierc'd by no star,     That e'en I wept at entering.    Various tongues,     Horrible languages, outcries of woe,     Accents of anger, voices deep and hoarse,     With hands together smote that swell'd the sounds,     Made up a tumult, that for ever whirls     Round through that air with solid darkness stain'd,     Like to the sand that in the whirlwind flies.     I then, with error yet encompass'd, cried:     "O master!    What is this I hear?    What race     Are these, who seem so overcome with woe?"     He thus to me: "This miserable fate     Suffer the wretched souls of those, who liv'd     Without or praise or blame, with that ill band     Of angels mix'd, who nor rebellious prov'd     Nor yet were true to God, but for themselves     Were only.    From his bounds Heaven drove them forth,     Not to impair his lustre, nor the depth     Of Hell receives them, lest th' accursed tribe     Should glory thence with exultation vain."     I then: "Master! what doth aggrieve them thus,     That they lament so loud?"    He straight replied:     "That will I tell thee briefly.    These of death     No hope may entertain: and their blind life     So meanly passes, that all other lots     They envy.    Fame of them the world hath none,     Nor suffers; mercy and justice scorn them both.     Speak not of them, but look, and pass them by."     And I, who straightway look'd, beheld a flag,     Which whirling ran around so rapidly,     That it no pause obtain'd: and following came     Such a long train of spirits, I should ne'er     Have thought, that death so many had despoil'd.     When some of these I recogniz'd, I saw     And knew the shade of him, who to base fear     Yielding, abjur'd his high estate.    Forthwith     I understood for certain this the tribe     Of those ill spirits both to God displeasing     And to his foes.    These wretches, who ne'er lived,     Went on in nakedness, and sorely stung     By wasps and hornets, which bedew'd their cheeks     With blood, that mix'd with tears dropp'd to their feet,     And by disgustful worms was gather'd there.     Then looking farther onwards I beheld     A throng upon the shore of a great stream:     Whereat I thus: "Sir! grant me now to know     Whom here we view, and whence impell'd they seem     So eager to pass o'er, as I discern     Through the blear light?"    He thus to me in few:     "This shalt thou know, soon as our steps arrive     Beside the woeful tide of Acheron."     Then with eyes downward cast and fill'd with shame,     Fearing my words offensive to his ear,     Till we had reach'd the river, I from speech     Abstain'd.    And lo! toward us in a bark     Comes on an old man hoary white with eld,     Crying, "Woe to you wicked spirits! hope not     Ever to see the sky again.    I come     To take you to the other shore across,     Into eternal darkness, there to dwell     In fierce heat and in ice.    And thou, who there     Standest, live spirit! get thee hence, and leave     These who are dead."    But soon as he beheld     I left them not, "By other way," said he,     "By other haven shalt thou come to shore,     Not by this passage; thee a nimbler boat     Must carry."    Then to him thus spake my guide:     "Charon! thyself torment not: so 't is will'd,     Where will and power are one: ask thou no more."     Straightway in silence fell the shaggy cheeks     Of him the boatman o'er the livid lake,     Around whose eyes glar'd wheeling flames.    Meanwhile     Those spirits, faint and naked, color chang'd,     And gnash'd their teeth, soon as the cruel words     They heard.    God and their parents they blasphem'd,     The human kind, the place, the time, and seed     That did engender them and give them birth.     Then all together sorely wailing drew     To the curs'd strand, that every man must pass     Who fears not God.    Charon, demoniac form,     With eyes of burning coal, collects them all,     Beck'ning, and each, that lingers, with his oar     Strikes.    As fall off the light autumnal leaves,     One still another following, till the bough     Strews all its honours on the earth beneath;     E'en in like manner Adam's evil brood     Cast themselves one by one down from the shore,     Each at a beck, as falcon at his call.     Thus go they over through the umber'd wave,     And ever they on the opposing bank     Be landed, on this side another throng     Still gathers.    "Son," thus spake the courteous guide,     "Those, who die subject to the wrath of God,     All here together come from every clime,     And to o'erpass the river are not loth:     For so heaven's justice goads them on, that fear     Is turn'd into desire.    Hence ne'er hath past     Good spirit.    If of thee Charon complain,     Now mayst thou know the import of his words."     This said, the gloomy region trembling shook     So terribly, that yet with clammy dews     Fear chills my brow.    The sad earth gave a blast,     That, lightening, shot forth a vermilion flame,     Which all my senses conquer'd quite, and I     Down dropp'd, as one with sudden slumber seiz'd.