The Inferno

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by Dante


  It is important to acknowledge that Romantic readers have a point. Had Dante thought that all those in hell deserved as little attention as the saved afford them, in other words, if he felt about them as do Beatrice and the descended angel, he could have begun the poem in purgatory, offering a brief notice of the pains of the damned, of which it is better, he might have had the guardian of purgatory say, not to speak. But he was interested in them, and not only as negative exemplars for those Christians who need to reaffirm their faith and will. The saints may have no interest in the damned, but neither we nor Dante are saints. And thus, one might argue, Inferno, the most effective part of the poem, in human terms, deals with the problem (sin) and not its solution (faith and good works). Do we have sympathy for the damned, at least those of them that reveal traits that we admire (effective rhetoric, strong feeling, a sense of their personal wrongness, even, at times, courtesy)? Of course we do. Yet we should be aware that there is a trap for us if we go too far. We need to learn to read ironically (a word that is only used once in all Dante’s works, in the incomplete thought that ends what we have of De vulgari eloquentia [II.xiv]), finding an angle of vision that corresponds to the author’s, who expresses thoughts through his characters that need to be examined with care. That is a difficult goal.

  Nonetheless, it is noteworthy (though rarely, if ever, noted) that the “best” people in hell are not necessarily those whom we tend to admire most. They include those who were involved in Florentine public affairs, always championing the cause of good governance: Ciacco (Inf. VI), Farinata degli Uberti (X), Brunetto Latini (XV), Jacopo Rusticucci and his mates (XVI), even Mosca dei Lamberti (XXVIII). All of these are unusual among the denizens of hell in that they either own up to their sins (not making an effort to persuade Dante of their innocence or simply to avoid his questions about their guilt) or want to be remembered for their good deeds on earth. That the “standard list” of sympathetic sinners only mentions two of them (Farinata and Brunetto) is informative: Francesca da Rimini (canto V), Farinata, Pier delle Vigne (XIII), Brunetto, Ulysses (XXVI), and Ugolino della Gherardesca (XXXIII). Francesca, Pier, Ulysses, and Ugolino all try to convince Dante of their worthiness, avoiding the subject of their sins. Their behavior in this regard might serve as a clue to an attentive reader. On this score, Ciacco is a good deal more reliable a witness than is Francesca.

  There is more to say about many things. The text of the poem awaits, with annotations that will address many of these. Your translators wish you an invigorated journey through hell (not a bad place once you get used to it) and your commentator hopes that you will find his remarks helpful.

  Robert Hollander

  Tortola, 23 February 2000

  The Inferno: English

  OUTLINE: INFERNO I

  1–9

  Dante, having lost his way, in a dark wood

  10–21

  hint of dawn: the sun on a mountaintop

  22–27

  simile: survivor of shipwreck looking back at sea

  28–36

  journey resumed; ascending the slope; a leopard

  37–43

  dawn and reassurance

  44–54

  a lion renews his fear; a she-wolf drives him back

  55–60

  simile: merchant (or gambler?) losing everything

  61–66

  apparition (of Virgil) and Dante’s first words

  67–75

  Virgil identifies himself

  76–78

  his pointed question to Dante

  79–90

  Dante’s recognition, praise of Virgil; plea for aid

  91–100

  Virgil’s warning: power of the she-wolf

  101–111

  Virgil’s prophecy of the hound that will defeat her

  112–120

  Virgil will guide Dante through two realms to a third

  121–129

  Virgil: a second guide will take him to those in bliss, since he is not allowed into that realm

  130–135

  Dante agrees to be led through the first two realms

  136

  the two set out

  INFERNO I

  Midway in the journey of our life →

  I came to myself in a dark wood, →

  3

  for the straight way was lost. →

  Ah, how hard it is to tell

  the nature of that wood, savage, dense and harsh—

  6

  the very thought of it renews my fear!

  It is so bitter death is hardly more so. →

  But to set forth the good I found →

  9

  I will recount the other things I saw.

  How I came there I cannot really tell,

  I was so full of sleep →

  12

  when I forsook the one true way.

  But when I reached the foot of a hill, →

  there where the valley ended →

  15

  that had pierced my heart with fear, →

  looking up, I saw its shoulders

  arrayed in the first light of the planet →

  18

  that leads men straight, no matter what their road. →

  Then the fear that had endured

  in the lake of my heart, all the night →

  21

  I spent in such distress, was calmed.

  And as one who, with laboring breath, →

  has escaped from the deep to the shore

  24

  turns and looks back at the perilous waters,

  so my mind, still in flight,

  turned back to look once more upon the pass →

  27

  no mortal being ever left alive.

  After I rested my wearied flesh a while,

  I took my way again along the desert slope,

  30

  my firm foot always lower than the other. →

  But now, near the beginning of the steep,

  a leopard light and swift →

  33

  and covered with a spotted pelt →

  refused to back away from me

  but so impeded, barred the way,

  36

  that many times I turned to go back down.

  It was the hour of morning,

  when the sun mounts with those stars →

  39

  that shone with it when God’s own love

  first set in motion those fair things,

  so that, despite that beast with gaudy fur,

  42

  I still could hope for good, encouraged

  by the hour of the day and the sweet season,

  only to be struck by fear

  45

  when I beheld a lion in my way.

  He seemed about to pounce—

  his head held high and furious with hunger—

  48

  so that the air appeared to tremble at him.

  And then a she-wolf who, all hide and bones,

  seemed charged with all the appetites

  51

  that have made many live in wretchedness

  so weighed my spirits down with terror,

  which welled up at the sight of her,

  54

  that I lost hope of making the ascent.

  And like one who rejoices in his gains →

  but when the time comes and he loses,

  57

  turns all his thought to sadness and lament,

  such did the restless beast make me—

  coming against me, step by step,

  60

  it drove me down to where the sun is silent.

  While I was fleeing to a lower place, →

  before my eyes a figure showed, →

  63

  faint, in the wide silence. →

  When I saw him in that vast desert, →

  ‘Have mercy on me, whatever you are,’ →

  66

  I cried, ‘whether shade
or living man!’

  He answered: ’Not a man, though once I was. →

  My parents were from Lombardy—

  69

  Mantua was their homeland.

  ‘I was born sub Julio, though late in his time, →

  and lived at Rome, under good Augustus

  72

  in an age of false and lying gods.

  ‘I was a poet and I sang →

  the just son of Anchises come from Troy →

  75

  after proud Ilium was put to flame. →

  ‘But you, why are you turning back to misery?

  Why do you not climb the peak that gives delight, →

  78

  origin and cause of every joy?’

  ‘Are you then Virgil, the fountainhead →

  that pours so full a stream of speech?’

  81

  I answered him, my head bent low in shame. →

  ‘O glory and light of all other poets,

  let my long study and great love avail

  84

  that made me delve so deep into your volume. →

  ‘You are my teacher and my author.

  You are the one from whom alone I took →

  87

  the noble style that has brought me honor.

  ‘See the beast that forced me to turn back.

  Save me from her, famous sage—

  90

  she makes my veins and pulses tremble.’

  ‘It is another path that you must follow,’

  he answered, when he saw me weeping,

  93

  ‘if you would flee this wild and savage place.

  ‘For the beast that moves you to cry out

  lets no man pass her way,

  96

  but so besets him that she slays him.

  ‘Her nature is so vicious and malign

  her greedy appetite is never sated—

  99

  after she feeds she is hungrier than ever.

  ‘Many are the creatures that she mates with, →

  and there will yet be more, until the hound

  102

  shall come who’ll make her die in pain.

  ‘He shall not feed on lands or lucre

  but on wisdom, love, and power.

  105

  Between felt and felt shall be his birth.

  ‘He shall be the salvation of low-lying Italy, →

  for which maiden Camilla, Euryalus, →

  108

  Turnus, and Nisus died of their wounds.

  ‘He shall hunt the beast through every town →

  till he has sent her back to Hell

  111

  whence primal envy set her loose.

  ‘Therefore, for your sake, I think it wise

  you follow me: I will be your guide,

  114

  leading you, from here, through an eternal place

  ‘where you shall hear despairing cries

  and see those ancient souls in pain

  117

  as they bewail their second death. →

  ‘Then you shall see the ones who are content

  to burn because they hope to come,

  120

  whenever it may be, among the blessed.

  ‘Should you desire to ascend to these,

  you’ll find a soul more fit to lead than I: →

  123

  I’ll leave you in her care when I depart.

  ‘For the Emperor who has His seat on high

  wills not, because I was a rebel to His law, →

  126

  that I should make my way into His city.

  ‘In every part He reigns and there He rules.

  There is His city and His lofty seat.

  129

  Happy the one whom He elects to be there!’

  And I answered: ‘Poet, I entreat you

  by the God you did not know,

  132

  so that I may escape this harm and worse, →

  ‘lead me to the realms you’ve just described

  that I may see Saint Peter’s gate →

  and those you tell me are so sorrowful.’

  136

  Then he set out and I came on behind him.

  OUTLINE: INFERNO II

  1–6

  Dante, “alone” with Virgil, prepares for the journey

  7–9

  invocation (Muses, “lofty genius”); his worthy memory

  10–36

  Dante’s uncertainty as to his qualifications

  37–42

  simile: a man unwilling to do what he has resolved

  43–48

  Virgil: Dante is a coward

  49–74

  Virgil tells of his encounter with Beatrice in Limbo

  75–84

  Virgil will lead Dante; why is Beatrice not fearful?

  85–93

  Beatrice’s response: the saved are proof against hell

  94–114

  a lady in heaven (Mary), Lucy, and Beatrice all help

  115–120

  tears of Beatrice induce Virgil to begin at once

  121–126

  Virgil chides Dante for his cowardice

  127–130

  simile: flowers raised and opened by sun

  131–135

  Dante’s renewed vigor; debt to Beatrice and to Virgil

  136–140

  Dante has again embraced his first resolve

  141–142

  the two again set out

  INFERNO II

  Day was departing and the darkened air →

  released the creatures of the earth

  3

  from their labor, and I, alone, →

  prepared to face the struggle— →

  of the way and of the pity of it—

  6

  which memory, unerring, shall retrace. →

  O Muses, O lofty genius, aid me now! →

  O memory, that set down what I saw,

  9

  here shall your worth be shown.

  I began: ‘Poet, you who guide me, →

  consider if my powers will suffice

  12

  before you trust me to this arduous passage. →

  ‘You tell of the father of Sylvius; →

  that he, still subject to corruption, went

  15

  to the eternal world while in the flesh. →

  ‘But that the adversary of all evil showed; →

  such favor to him, considering who and what he was,

  18

  and the high sequel that would spring from him,

  ‘seems not unfitting to a man who understands. →

  For in the Empyrean he was chosen

  21

  to father holy Rome and her dominion,

  ‘both of these established—if we would speak; →

  the truth—to be the sacred precinct where

  24

  successors of great Peter have their throne.

  ‘On this journey, for which you grant him glory,

  he heard the words that prompted him; →

  27

  to victory and prepared the Papal mantle. →

  ‘Later, the Chosen Vessel went there; →

  to bring back confirmation of our faith,

  30

  the first step in our journey to salvation.

  ‘But why should I go there? who allows it?

  I am not Aeneas, nor am I Paul. →

  33

  Neither I nor any think me fit for this. →

  ‘And so, if I commit myself to come,

  I fear it may be madness. You are wise,

  36

  you understand what I cannot express.’

  And as one who unwills what he has willed, →

  changing his intent on second thought

  39

  so that he quite gives over what he has begun,

  such a man was I on that dark slope.

&
nbsp; With too much thinking I had undone; →

  42

  the enterprise so quick in its inception.

  ‘If I have rightly understood your words,’ →

  replied the shade of that great soul,

  45

  ‘your spirit is assailed by cowardice,

  ‘which many a time so weighs upon a man

  it turns him back from noble enterprise,

  48

  the way a beast shies from a shadow. →

  ‘To free you from this fear

  I’ll tell you why I came and what I heard

  51

  when first I felt compassion for you.

  ‘I was among the ones who are suspended; →

  when a lady called me, so blessèd and so fair; →

  54

  that I implored her to command me.

  ‘Her eyes shone brighter than the stars.

  Gentle and clear, the words she spoke to me— →

  57

  an angel’s voice was in her speech:

  ‘ “O courteous Mantuan spirit, →

  whose fame continues in the world

  60

  and shall continue while the world endures,

  ‘ “my friend, who is no friend of Fortune, →

  is so hindered on his way upon the desert slope; →

 

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