And to a place I come where nothing shines.
The Commedia, it must be remembered, is a vision of the progress of man’s soul toward perfection.
As once I loved you in my mortal flesh, without it now I love you still.
Wisdom is earned, not given.
Here all suspicion must be abandoned, All cowardice must be extinct.
So, now, with me. That brute which knows no peace came ever nearer me and, step by step, drove me back down to where the sun is mute.
And my Guide to me: “He will not wake again until the angel trumpet sounds the day on which the host shall come to judge all men.
Love rules me. It determines what I ask.
I come from a place, I long to return to:.
Ecce deus fortior me, qui veniens dominabitur michi.
And what is laughter but a flashing of the soul, that is, a light appearing externally as it is within.
Through me you go to the grief wracked city; Through me you go to everlasting pain; Through me you go a pass among lost souls. Justice inspired my exalted Creator: I am a creature of the Holiest Power, of Wisdom in the Highest and of Primal Love. Nothing till I was made was made, only eternal beings. And I endure eternally. Surrender as you enter, every hope you have.
Come on, shake off the covers of this sloth, for sitting softly cushioned, or tucked in bed, is no way to win fame.
I learnt that the carnal sinners are condemned to these torments, they who subject their reason to their lust.
Could I have everything for which I long, You would not still endure this banishment way from human nature,” I replied. “Your image – dear, fatherly, benevolent – Being fixed inside my memory, has imbued My heart: when in the fair world, hour by hour You taught me, patiently, it was you who showed The way man makes himself eternal; therefore, The gratitude I feel toward you makes fit That while I live, I should declare it here. And what you tell me of my future, I write.
A heavy thunder shattered the deep sleep in my head, so that I came to myself, like someone woken by force, and standing up, I moved my eyes, now refreshed, and looked round, steadily, to find out what place I was in. I found myself, in truth, on the brink of the valley of the sad abyss that gathers the thunder of an infinite howling. It was so dark, and deep, and clouded, that I could see nothing by staring into its depths.
Three dispositions adverse to Heaven’s still, – Incontinence, malice, and mad brutishness.
Thy soul is by vile fear assailed.
He did what any hero must: set sail. But you, you turn back. Tell me why.
Behave like men, and not like witless sheep...