The Gate of Hell — Canto III

Canto 3 of Inferno by Dante Alighieri

"Through me the way is to the city dolent; Through me the way is to eternal dole; Through me the way among the people lost. Justice incited my sublime Creator; Created me divine Omnipotence, The highest Wisdom and the primal Love. Before me there were no created things, Only eterne, and I eternal last. All hope abandon, ye who enter in!"

These words in sombre colour I beheld Written upon the summit of a gate; Whereat I: "Master, their sense is hard to me."

And he to me, as one experienced: "Here all suspicion needs must be abandoned, All cowardice must needs be here extinct. We to the place have come, where I have told thee Thou shalt behold the people dolorous Who have foregone the good of intellect."