The Inferno

by Dante Alighieri

Then how faint and frozen I became,’ → reader, do not ask, for I do not write it, 24 since any words would fail to be enough. I did not die, nor did I stay alive. Imagine, if you have the wit, 27 what I became, deprived of either state. The emperor of the woeful kingdom rose from the ice below his breast, 30 and I in size am closer to a giant → than giants are when measured to his arms. Judge, then, what the whole must be 33 that is proportional to such a part. If he was fair as he is hideous now, and raised his brow in scorn of his creator, → 36 he is fit to be the source of every sorrow. Oh, what a wonder it appeared to me → when I perceived three faces on his head. 39 The first, in front, was red in color. → Another two he had, each joined with this, above the midpoint of each shoulder, 42 and all the three united at the crest. The one on the right was a whitish yellow, while the left-hand one was tinted like the people 45 living at the sources of the Nile. Beneath each face two mighty wings emerged, → such as befit so vast a bird: 48 I never saw such massive sails at sea. They were featherless and fashio...