Inferno · Canto 3
Inferno 3 · 1–21
‘Per me si va ne la città dolente,
1
per me si va ne l’etterno dolore,
per me si va tra la perduta gente.
Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore;
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fecemi la divina podestate,
la somma sapïenza e ’l primo amore.
Dinanzi a me non fuor cose create
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se non etterne, e io etterno duro.
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate’.
Queste parole di colore oscuro
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vid’ ïo scritte al sommo d’una porta;
per ch’io: «Maestro, il senso lor m’è duro».
Ed elli a me, come persona accorta:
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«Qui si convien lasciare ogne sospetto;
ogne viltà convien che qui sia morta.
Noi siam venuti al loco ov’ i’ t’ho detto
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che tu vedrai le genti dolorose
c’hanno perduto il ben de l’intelletto».
E poi che la sua mano a la mia puose
19
con lieto volto, ond’ io mi confortai,
mi mise dentro a le segrete cose.
gated draft
1
Through me you go into the city of grief,
2
through me you go into eternal pain,
3
through me you go among the people lost.
4
Justice moved my maker high above;
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divine power fashioned me, and highest wisdom,
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and sovereign wisdom and the primal love.
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Before me nothing was created
8
but eternal things, and I endure eternal.
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Abandon every hope, you who enter.
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These words I saw, their color dark and bitter,
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inscribed above the lintel of a gate;
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so I said: "Master, their sense is hard to me."
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And he, like one who understands such things:
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"Here it is fit to leave behind all doubt;
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all cowardice it is fit should die here.
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We have come to the place where I have told you
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that you will see the people full of grief
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who have lost the good of the intellect."
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And after he placed his hand in mine
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with cheerful face, which comforted me,
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he led me in among the secret things.
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7sub. · firstunlicensed "before" (needs source prin, uncertain reading)
9sub. · firstunlicensed "who" (needs source hos)
13sub. · firstunlicensed "who" (needs source hos)
16sub. · firstunlicensed "where" (needs source hos)