Divine Comedy (Illustrated Edition). Dante Alighieri

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      Broke the deep lethargy within my head

       A heavy thunder, so that I upstarted,

       Like to a person who by force is wakened;

      And round about I moved my rested eyes,

       Uprisen erect, and steadfastly I gazed,

       To recognise the place wherein I was.

      True is it, that upon the verge I found me

       Of the abysmal valley dolorous,

       That gathers thunder of infinite ululations.

      Obscure, profound it was, and nebulous,

       So that by fixing on its depths my sight

       Nothing whatever I discerned therein.

      "Let us descend now into the blind world,"

       Began the Poet, pallid utterly;

       "I will be first, and thou shalt second be."

      And I, who of his colour was aware,

       Said: "How shall I come, if thou art afraid,

       Who'rt wont to be a comfort to my fears?"

      And he to me: "The anguish of the people

       Who are below here in my face depicts

       That pity which for terror thou hast taken.

      Let us go on, for the long way impels us."

       Thus he went in, and thus he made me enter

       The foremost circle that surrounds the abyss.

      There, as it seemed to me from listening,

       Were lamentations none, but only sighs,

       That tremble made the everlasting air.

      And this arose from sorrow without torment,

       Which the crowds had, that many were and great,

       Of infants and of women and of men.

      To me the Master good: "Thou dost not ask

       What spirits these, which thou beholdest, are?

       Now will I have thee know, ere thou go farther,

      That they sinned not; and if they merit had,

       'Tis not enough, because they had not baptism

       Which is the portal of the Faith thou holdest;

      And if they were before Christianity,

       In the right manner they adored not God;

       And among such as these am I myself.

      For such defects, and not for other guilt,

       Lost are we and are only so far punished,

       That without hope we live on in desire."

      Great grief seized on my heart when this I heard,

       Because some people of much worthiness

       I knew, who in that Limbo were suspended.

      "Tell me, my Master, tell me, thou my Lord,"

       Began I, with desire of being certain

       Of that Faith which o'ercometh every error,

      "Came any one by his own merit hence,

       Or by another's, who was blessed thereafter?"

       And he, who understood my covert speech,

      Replied: "I was a novice in this state,

       When I saw hither come a Mighty One,

       With sign of victory incoronate.

      Hence he drew forth the shade of the First Parent,

       And that of his son Abel, and of Noah,

       Of Moses the lawgiver, and the obedient

      Abraham, patriarch, and David, king,

       Israel with his father and his children,

       And Rachel, for whose sake he did so much,

      And others many, and he made them blessed;

       And thou must know, that earlier than these

       Never were any human spirits saved."

      We ceased not to advance because he spake,

       But still were passing onward through the forest,

       The forest, say I, of thick-crowded ghosts.

      Not very far as yet our way had gone

       This side the summit, when I saw a fire

       That overcame a hemisphere of darkness.

      We were a little distant from it still,

       But not so far that I in part discerned not

       That honourable people held that place.

      "O thou who honourest every art and science,

       Who may these be, which such great honour have,

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