THE DIVINE COMEDY: Inferno, Purgatorio & Paradiso (3 Classic Translations in One Edition). Dante Alighieri

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       Wherefore I know not, are exempt from pain,"

       Thus he began, "attentively regard

       Adamo's woe. When living, full supply

       Ne'er lack'd me of what most I coveted;

       One drop of water now, alas! I crave.

       The rills, that glitter down the grassy slopes

       Of Casentino, making fresh and soft

       The banks whereby they glide to Arno's stream,

       Stand ever in my view; and not in vain;

       For more the pictur'd semblance dries me up,

       Much more than the disease, which makes the flesh

       Desert these shrivel'd cheeks. So from the place,

       Where I transgress'd, stern justice urging me,

       Takes means to quicken more my lab'ring sighs.

       There is Romena, where I falsified

       The metal with the Baptist's form imprest,

       For which on earth I left my body burnt.

       But if I here might see the sorrowing soul

       Of Guido, Alessandro, or their brother,

       For Branda's limpid spring I would not change

       The welcome sight. One is e'en now within,

       If truly the mad spirits tell, that round

       Are wand'ring. But wherein besteads me that?

       My limbs are fetter'd. Were I but so light,

       That I each hundred years might move one inch,

       I had set forth already on this path,

       Seeking him out amidst the shapeless crew,

       Although eleven miles it wind, not more

       Than half of one across. They brought me down

       Among this tribe; induc'd by them I stamp'd

       The florens with three carats of alloy."