The Doomed Souls embarking to cross the Acheron View Annotations Image Gallery
1	THROUGH ME THE WAY INTO THE SUFFERING CITY,
2	THROUGH ME THE WAY TO THE ETERNAL PAIN,
3	THROUGH ME THE WAY THAT RUNS AMONG THE LOST.
4	JUSTICE URGED ON MY HIGH ARTIFICER;
5	MY MAKER WAS DIVINE AUTHORITY,
6	THE HIGHEST WISDOM, AND THE PRIMAL LOVE.
7	BEFORE ME NOTHING BUT ETERNAL THINGS
8	WERE MADE, AND I ENDURE ETERNALLY.
9	ABANDON EVERY HOPE, WHO ENTER HERE.
10	These words their aspect was obscure I read
11	inscribed above a gateway, and I said:
12	Master, their meaning is difficult for me.
13	And he to me, as one who comprehends:
14	Here one must leave behind all hesitation;
15	here every cowardice must meet its death.
16	For we have reached the place of which I spoke,
17	where you will see the miserable people,
18	those who have lost the good of the intellect.
19	And when, with gladness in his face, he placed
20	his hand upon my own, to comfort me,
21	he drew me in among the hidden things.
22	Here sighs and lamentations and loud cries
23	were echoing across the starless air,
24	so that, as soon as I set out, I wept.
25	Strange utterances, horrible pronouncements,
26	accents of anger, words of suffering,
27	and voices shrill and faint, and beating hands
28	all went to make a tumult that will whirl
29	forever through that turbid, timeless air,
30	like sand that eddies when a whirlwind swirls.
31	And I my head oppressed by horror said:
32	Master, what is it that I hear? Who are
33	those people so defeated by their pain?
34	And he to me: This miserable way
35	is taken by the sorry souls of those
36	who lived without disgrace and without praise.
37	They now commingle with the coward angels,
38	the company of those who were not rebels
39	nor faithful to their God, but stood apart.
40	The heavens, that their beauty not be lessened,
41	have cast them out, nor will deep Hell receive them
42	even the wicked cannot glory in them.
43	And I: What is it, master, that oppresses
44	these souls, compelling them to wail so loud?
45	He answered: I shall tell you in few words.
46	Those who are here can place no hope in death,
47	and their blind life is so abject that they
48	are envious of every other fate.
49	The world will let no fame of theirs endure;
50	both justice and compassion must disdain them;
51	let us not talk of them, but look and pass.
52	And I, looking more closely, saw a banner
53	that, as it wheeled about, raced on so quick
54	that any respite seemed unsuited to it.
55	Behind that banner trailed so long a file
56	of people I should never have believed
57	that death could have unmade so many souls.
58	After I had identified a few,
59	I saw and recognized the shade of him
60	who made, through cowardice, the great refusal.
61	At once I understood with certainty:
62	this company contained the cowardly,
63	hateful to God and to His enemies.
64	These wretched ones, who never were alive,
65	went naked and were stung again, again
66	by horseflies and by wasps that circled them.
67	The insects streaked their faces with their blood,
68	which, mingled with their tears, fell at their feet,
69	where it was gathered up by sickening worms.
70	And then, looking beyond them, I could see
71	a crowd along the bank of a great river;
72	at which I said: Allow me now to know
73	who are these people master and what law
74	has made them seem so eager for the crossing,
75	as I can see despite the feeble light.
76	And he to me: When we have stopped along
77	the melancholy shore of Acheron,
78	then all these matters will be plain to you.
79	At that, with eyes ashamed, downcast, and fearing
80	that what I said had given him offense,
81	I did not speak until we reached the river.
82	And here, advancing toward us, in a boat,
83	an aged man his hair was white with years
84	was shouting: Woe to you, corrupted souls!
85	Forget your hope of ever seeing Heaven:
86	I come to lead you to the other shore,
87	to the eternal dark, to fire and frost.
88	And you approaching there, you living soul,
89	keep well away from these they are the dead.
90	But when he saw I made no move to go,
91	he said: Another way and other harbors
92	not here will bring you passage to your shore:
93	a lighter craft will have to carry you.
94	My guide then: Charon, don't torment yourself:
95	our passage has been willed above, where One
96	can do what He has willed; and ask no more.
97	Now silence fell upon the wooly cheeks
98	of Charon, pilot of the livid marsh,
99	whose eyes were ringed about with wheels of flame.
100	But all those spirits, naked and exhausted,
101	had lost their color, and they gnashed their teeth
102	as soon as they heard Charon's cruel words;
103	they execrated God and their own parents
104	and humankind, and then the place and time
105	of their conception's seed and of their birth.
106	Then they forgathered, huddled in one throng,
107	weeping aloud along that wretched shore
108	which waits for all who have no fear of God.
109	The demon Charon, with his eyes like embers,
110	by signaling to them, has all embark;
111	his oar strikes anyone who stretches out.
112	As, in the autumn, leaves detach themselves,
113	first one and then the other, till the bough
114	sees all its fallen garments on the ground,
115	similarly, the evil seed of Adam
116	descended from the shoreline one by one,
117	when signaled, as a falcon called will come.
118	So do they move across the darkened waters;
119	even before they reach the farther shore,
120	new ranks already gather on this bank.
121	My son, the gracious master said to me,
122	those who have died beneath the wrath of God,
123	all these assemble here from every country;
124	and they are eager for the river crossing
125	because celestial justice spurs them on,
126	so that their fear is turned into desire.
127	No good soul ever takes its passage here;
128	therefore, if Charon has complained of you,
129	by now you can be sure what his words mean.
130	And after this was said, the darkened plain
131	quaked so tremendously the memory
132	of terror then, bathes me in sweat again.
133	A whirlwind burst out of the tear-drenched earth,
134	a wind that crackled with a bloodred light,
135	a light that overcame all of my senses;
136	and like a man whom sleep has seized, I fell.

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