Canto III
CANTO III
Dante and Virgil approach the gate of Hell, over which there stands an ominous inscription detailing the woe, pain, and hopelessness within. Pausing apprehensively, the Poet asks about its difficult meaning, but Virgil, brooking no delay, exhorts him to lay aside doubt and fear (1–18). As they cross the threshold, the sounds of anguish move Dante to tears so that he inquires about the shades imprisoned there (19–33). Virgil explains that this Vestibule of Hell contains lukewarm souls and neutral angels, who, since they were neither for nor against God, are rejected by Heaven and Hell alike (34–51). Spying a horde of nude spirits goaded by wasps and hornets as they race behind a shifting banner, Dante recognizes among them the shade of Pope Celestine V (52–69). Next he discovers a crowd waiting anxiously on the banks of the Acheron, a river circling the brim of Hell and dividing it from the Vestibule. His curiosity about the identity and condition of these souls, however, is momentarily squelched by his Master, and he proceeds, shame-faced and silent, up to the river’s shore (70–81). When a ship suddenly scuds up, Charon, its hoary-locked, fiery-eyed helmsman, calls to the waiting souls to ferry them across to eternal darkness, fire, and cold. He soon discerns that the Pilgrim is still living and, in a veiled prophecy of Dante’s final salvation, foretells that he shall be conveyed to shore by a lighter bark. Although Virgil appeases Charon’s rage with a kind of conjuration, the teeth-gnashing pack utters blasphemies and abuse (82–105). Then Charon bats them into his ship with his oar and spirits them off as a new throng assembles, their fear turned into desire by divine justice (106–129). No sooner do they whisk off than the earth is convulsed, lightning flashes, and Dante swoons (130–136).
1 THROUGH ME ONE ENTERS IN THE TOWN OF WOE,
THROUGH ME ONE ENTERS PERMANENT DISTRESS,
THROUGH ME ONE GOES AMONG THE LOST BELOW.
4 FOR JUSTICE MOVED MY HIGHEST MAKER—YES,
DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE HAS MADE ME IN
HIGH WISDOM, AND IN PRIMAL LOVE NO LESS.[41]
7 BEFORE ME, BUT ETERNAL THINGS HAD BEEN
PRODUCED, AND I ENDURE ETERNALLY.
THUS LOSE ALL HOPE, YOU ENTERING WITHIN.
10 These words in darksome colors I could see
Inscribed above a gateway, and I said:
“O Master, how their sense is hard for me!”
13 And like an artful person, thus he pled:
“Here all misgivings must be left behind,
And here must cowardice as well lie dead.
16 For we have reached the place where you will find,
As I have said, the woeful people’s band,
Who all have lost the goodness of the mind.”
19 And when with cheerful face he’d laid his hand
On mine, I felt consoled; then by and by
He drew me forth and in the secret land.
22 And here the sighs, laments, and wailings high
Resounded all throughout the starless airs,
So at the very start I had to cry.
25 The diverse tongues, the horrid speech’s blares,
The words of woe, the tones of rage, the skirls
Of voices hoarse, the sounding hands of theirs,
28 Made such a tumult, which forever whirls
Throughout the turbid and the timeless air,
Like sand that flurries when a whirlwind swirls.
31 And I, with horror round my head of hair,
Said: “Master, what’s this din I hear them raise?
And who seem vanquished by the grief they bear?”
34 And he replied to me: “These wretched ways
Afflict the sorry souls of people who
Once lived with neither infamy nor praise.[42]
37 They mingle with a wicked angel crew,
All those who neither would rebel nor swear
Their faith to God but, by themselves, withdrew.
40 The heavens ban them, not to be less fair,
And they are not received in lower Hell,
Lest guilty souls should glory in them there.”
43 I said: “O Master, say what burden fell
To them that their lament should be so great?”
To which he answered: “I shall briefly tell:
46 These have no hope of death, and in this state
Their blinded lives are so abject that they
Are envious of every other fate.
49 The world does not allow their fame to stay;
Both justice and compassion scorn their woes.[43]
Don’t speak of them, but look and go your way.”
52 I looked and noticed that a banner rose
Which, whirling by, so quickly past me spun
That it appeared unfit for all repose.
55 Behind it such a train of folk had run
I never should have thought there would appear
So many who by death had been undone.
58 When I had recognized some spirits here,
I saw and knew a shade, for one of these
Had made the great refusal out of fear.[44]
61 Made certain instantly, I grasped with ease
That they were but a wicked sect, a thing
Displeasing God and all his enemies.
64 They never were alive, that wretched ring;
Now they were nude and stung most sorely whom
The hornets and the wasps that fly there sting.
67 These made their faces stream with bloody rheum,
Which to their feet admixed with tears would flow
For loathsome worms to gather and consume.
70 Then looking farther still, I saw below
Some people on the bank of a great stream,
At which I said: “O Master, let me know
73 Who these might be; what law has made them seem
So eager for the crossing of the tide,
As I discern despite the feeble beam?”
76 “These things will all be shown you,” he replied,
“As soon as we have felt our footsteps light
Upon the Acheron’s despondent side.”[45]
79 And then with eyes ashamed, with downcast sight,
Full fearing lest my words on him had weighed,
I kept from speech up to the river’s site.
82 And here, approaching us, a ship conveyed
A man whose hair was white, since he was old.[46]
“O woe to you, corrupted souls!” he brayed.
85 “Lose hope of ever seeing Heaven’s fold:
I come to take you to the other strand,
On to eternal darkness, fire, and cold.
88 And you, who as a living soul there stand,
Remove yourself from these, for they are dead.”
But seeing me unparted from that band,
91 He told me: “You will pass to shore ahead,
Not here, but by another way and port;
A lighter bark must carry you instead.”
94 “Rage not, O Charon,” came my Guide’s retort,
“It thus is willed where power can acquire
Its wish—and no more questions of this sort.”
97 At that, the helmsman of the livid mire
Now found his woolly-whiskered cheeks subdued,
Though round his eyes were flaming wheels of fire.
100 But all those souls, who were fatigued and nude,
Changed coloring and gnashed their teeth as soon
As they perceived those words, which sounded rude.[47]
103 And with their blasphemies did they impugn
Our God—nor were mankind, their parents, place
And time their seeds were sown, or birth immune.
106 Then, all together, they withdrew a space,
While weeping loudly, to that evil shore[48]
Which, since they don't fear God, awaits their race.
109 The demon Charon beckoned to the corps,
His eyes like burning coals, and gathered all;
Each one who lagged was beaten with his oar.
112 And as in autumn leaves begin to fall
One after one until upon the ground
The naked bough sees all its sloughings sprawl,
115 So there those evil seeds of Adam bound
Off from the shore at signals, one by one,
As does a falcon when its calls resound.
118 They thus depart upon the waves of dun,
But yet before they reach the other side,
New ranks again on this side have begun.
121 The kindly Master said: “All those who died,
O son of mine, while they were in God’s ire
Come here from every country far and wide.
124 To cross the river here they all aspire,
For godly justice serves as such a goad
To them that fear is altered to desire.
127 The good souls never pass along this road;
And thus if Charon is complaining here,
You understand just what his words forebode.”[49]
130 When he had reached the end, that field of drear
Convulsed so strongly that I still am drenched
From sweating at the mem’ry of my fear.
133 As from the tear-soaked earth a wind was wrenched,[50]
A flash of crimson lightning made its sweep,
By which my senses, all of them, were quenched;
136 And so I fell like someone seized by sleep.