making your will and mine a single will.
Guide, Lord and Master, come! Let us go hence.”
121 The wild path that we followed led downhill.
3: Hell’s Entry. Doom of Moderates. Charon’s Ferry
ENTER THROUGH ME, CITY OF ENDLESS WOE, 1
ENTER THROUGH ME ETERNAL AGONY
ENTER TO JOIN THE WHOLLY LOST BELOW
CREATIVE LOVE, CREATIVE INTELLECT, 4
ESTABLISHED ME FOR ALL ETERNITY.
INFINITE JUSTICE IS MY ARCHITECT.
NOTHING EXISTED BEFORE I WAS MADE. 7
NOTHING EXISTING WILL ESCAPE MY SCOPE.
ALL YOU WHO ENTER HERE, ABANDON HOPE!
10 These fearful words carved deeply I could see
above a great dark doorway, so I cried,
“O Master, do these words apply to me?”
13 Like a good teacher giving calm advice,
“Don’t think that I mislead you,” he replied.
“By now you should have lost your cowardice.
16 I am assigned (recall) to help you view
the final state of those dead sinners who
chose to corrupt the goodness of their minds.”
19 Smiling to cheer me on, he took my hand
and led me in beside a dreadful band
who hurt my ears with horrid lamentation.
22 Screams, wails, howls, groans and other ugly cries
went blasting by us in a starless dark
with skirls of rancorous denunciation,
25 wild curses yelled in tongues of every nation
or hoarsely growled, or hissed in execration,
mingled with bitter moaning, sobs and sighs
28 that had me weeping too in emulation.
This madly squealing, roaring, snarling throng
arms flailing, clutching hands and trampling feet,
31 went reeling, shambling, charging, tumbling by,
like sands in whirlwinds, birling round and round
until their foggy billows hid the sky.
34 This ghastly crowd and din so filled my head
I gazed upon my guide and whispered, “Why?”
“These timid sinners stand aside,” he said,
“when strong oppressors tyrannise and slay. 37
They may feel sympathetic to the weak
but think it wise to keep out of the way.
When Satan, God’s prime minister, first planned 40
to rule the universe, he raised a band
of rebels who split Heaven in two, it seemed,
till moderates united in a team 43
to stay aloof from holiness and sin
until they saw which side was bound to win.
They were the foremost damned when virtue won. 46
Outcasts of Hell and Heaven, here they run.”
“But Master,” I asked, “why do they yell so loud?”
He said, “This sorry crowd have the distress 49
of being altogether meaningless.
They envy now the fate of anyone
whose deeds and misdeeds will preserve their name 52
in memory, through good or evil fame.
Justice and mercy both reject them, so
we’ll speak no more of them. Look, and let’s go.” 55
I looked and saw a whirling flag ahead,
chased by these multitudes. I never knew
such millions had been numbered with the dead, 58
but one I knew, that cowardly pope, who,
elected to reform the Church’s sins,
fearing to foul his hands by that, withdrew, 61
true to himself, but to our God untrue.
Hornets that stung like daggers sped this race
64 of frantic nudity, so tears, sweat, blood
splashing the ground from every limb and face
were sucked by worms wriggling in trampled mud.
67 Beyond that rushing rabble I could see,
though dimly lit, a mighty river’s shore
with quite a different crowd congesting it,
70 pressing and jostling. They seemed to me
like people keen to reach the other side.
I asked my guide, “What are they eager for?”
73 “Wait and you’ll see,” was all that he replied.
We reached the river. From the other shore
I saw a ferry-boat come shooting out,
76 rowed by a hoary ancient with white hair
who, when he neared our side, began to shout,
“Welcome to grief and welcome to despair,
79 you wicked ghosts! No glimpse of heavenly light
for you again, condemned to endless night,
with
