"THROUGH ME THE WAY TO THE CITY OF WOE,
THROUGH ME THE WAY TO ETERNAL PAIN,
THROUGH ME THE WAY AMONG THE LOST.

JUSTICE MOVED MY MAKER ON HIGH.
DIVINE POWER MADE ME,
WISDOM SUPREME, AND PRIMAL LOVE.

BEFORE ME NOTHING WAS BUT THINGS ETERNAL,
AND I ENDURE ETERNALLY.
ABANDON ALL HOPE, YOU WHO ENTER HERE.

These words, dark in hue, I saw inscribed
over an archway. And then I said:
'Master, for me their meaning is hard.'

And he, as one who understood:
'Here you must banish all distrust,
here must all cowardice be slain.

'We have come to where I said
you would see the miserable sinners
who have lost the good of the intelect.'

And after he had put his hand on mine
with a reassuring look that gave me comfort,
he led me toward things unknown to man."





Dante Alighieri, Inferno, Canto III





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