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...

“I say that of all the follies the most foolish, the basest, and the most pernicious is the belief that beyond this life there is no other”