The Divine Comedy ~ English Edition, translated by H.F. Cary - Inferno

Canto III
English Edition, translated by H.F. Cary

The Vestibule of Hell

The Opportunists

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1	THROUGH me you pass into the city of woe:
2	Through me you pass into eternal pain:
3	Through me among the people lost for aye.

4	Justice the founder of my fabric mov'd:
5	To rear me was the task of power divine,
6	Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.

7	Before me things create were none, save things
8	Eternal, and eternal I endure.
9	All hope abandon ye who enter here.

10	Such characters in colour dim I mark'd
11	Over a portal's lofty arch inscrib'd:
12	Whereat I thus: Master, these words import

13	Hard meaning. He as one prepar'd replied:
14	Here thou must all distrust behind thee leave;
15	Here be vile fear extinguish'd. We are come

16	Where I have told thee we shall see the souls
17	To misery doom'd, who intellectual good
18	Have lost. And when his hand he had stretch'd forth

19	To mine, with pleasant looks, whence I was cheer'd,
20	Into that secret place he led me on.
21	Here sighs with lamentations and loud moans

22	Resounded through the air pierc'd by no star,
23	That e'en I wept at entering. Various tongues,
24	Horrible languages, outcries of woe,

25	Accents of anger, voices deep and hoarse,
26	With hands together smote that swell'd the sounds,
27	Made up a tumult, that for ever whirls

28	Round through that air with solid darkness stain'd,
29	Like to the sand that in the whirlwind flies.
30	I then, with error yet encompass'd, cried:

31	O master! What is this I hear? What race
32	Are these, who seem so overcome with woe?
33	He thus to me: This miserable fate

34	Suffer the wretched souls of those, who liv'd
35	Without or praise or blame, with that ill band
36	Of angels mix'd, who nor rebellious prov'd

37	Nor yet were true to God, but for themselves
38	Were only. From his bounds Heaven drove them forth,
39	Not to impair his lustre, nor the depth

40	Of Hell receives them, lest th' accursed tribe
41	Should glory thence with exultation vain.
42	I then: Master! what doth aggrieve them thus,

43	That they lament so loud? He straight replied:
44	That will I tell thee briefly. These of death
45	No hope may entertain: and their blind life

46	So meanly passes, that all other lots
47	They envy. Fame of them the world hath none,
48	Nor suffers; mercy and justice scorn them both.

49	Speak not of them, but look, and pass them by.
50	And I, who straightway look'd, beheld a flag,
51	Which whirling ran around so rapidly,

52	That it no pause obtain'd: and following came
53	Such a long train of spirits, I should ne'er
54	Have thought, that death so many had despoil'd.

55	When some of these I recogniz'd, I saw
56	And knew the shade of him, who to base fear
57	Yielding, abjur'd his high estate. Forthwith

58	I understood for certain this the tribe
59	Of those ill spirits both to God displeasing
60	And to his foes. These wretches, who ne'er lived,

61	Went on in nakedness, and sorely stung
62	By wasps and hornets, which bedew'd their cheeks
63	With blood, that mix'd with tears dropp'd to their feet,

64	And by disgustful worms was gather'd there.
65	Then looking farther onwards I beheld
66	A throng upon the shore of a great stream:

67	Whereat I thus: Sir! grant me now to know
68	Whom here we view, and whence impell'd they seem
69	So eager to pass o'er, as I discern

70	Through the blear light? He thus to me in few:
71	This shalt thou know, soon as our steps arrive
72	Beside the woeful tide of Acheron.

73	Then with eyes downward cast and fill'd with shame,
74	Fearing my words offensive to his ear,
75	Till we had reach'd the river, I from speech

76	Abstain'd. And lo! toward us in a bark
77	Comes on an old man hoary white with eld,
78	Crying, Woe to you wicked spirits! hope not

79	Ever to see the sky again. I come
80	To take you to the other shore across,
81	Into eternal darkness, there to dwell

82	In fierce heat and in ice. And thou, who there
83	Standest, live spirit! get thee hence, and leave
84	These who are dead. But soon as he beheld

85	I left them not, By other way, said he,
86	By other haven shalt thou come to shore,
87	Not by this passage; thee a nimbler boat

88	Must carry. Then to him thus spake my guide:
89	Charon! thyself torment not: so 't is will'd,
90	Where will and power are one: ask thou no more.

91	Straightway in silence fell the shaggy cheeks
92	Of him the boatman o'er the livid lake,
93	Around whose eyes glar'd wheeling flames. Meanwhile

94	Those spirits, faint and naked, color chang'd,
95	And gnash'd their teeth, soon as the cruel words
96	They heard. God and their parents they blasphem'd,

97	The human kind, the place, the time, and seed
98	That did engender them and give them birth.
99	Then all together sorely wailing drew

100	To the curs'd strand, that every man must pass
101	Who fears not God. Charon, demoniac form,
102	With eyes of burning coal, collects them all,

103	Beck'ning, and each, that lingers, with his oar
104	Strikes. As fall off the light autumnal leaves,
105	One still another following, till the bough

106	Strews all its honours on the earth beneath;
107	E'en in like manner Adam's evil brood
108	Cast themselves one by one down from the shore,

109	Each at a beck, as falcon at his call.
110	Thus go they over through the umber'd wave,
111	And ever they on the opposing bank

112	Be landed, on this side another throng
113	Still gathers. Son, thus spake the courteous guide,
114	Those, who die subject to the wrath of God,

115	All here together come from every clime,
116	And to o'erpass the river are not loth:
117	For so heaven's justice goads them on, that fear

118	Is turn'd into desire. Hence ne'er hath past
119	Good spirit. If of thee Charon complain,
120	Now mayst thou know the import of his words.

121	This said, the gloomy region trembling shook
122	So terribly, that yet with clammy dews
123	Fear chills my brow. The sad earth gave a blast,

124	That, lightening, shot forth a vermilion flame,
125	Which all my senses conquer'd quite, and I
126	Down dropp'd, as one with sudden slumber seiz'd.

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