Canto Three

(Allen Mandelbaum)

The Pilgrim reads the warning posted above the gateway...

1 THROUGH ME THE WAY INTO THE SUFFERING CITY,
2 THROUGH ME THE WAY TO THE ETERNAL PAIN...
9 ABANDON EVERY HOPE, WHO ENTER HERE.

10 These words their aspect was obscure I read
11 inscribed above a gateway, and I said:
12 Master, their meaning is difficult for me.

13 And he to me, as one who comprehends:

16 For we have reached the place of which I spoke,
17 where you will see the miserable people,
18 those who have lost the good of the intellect.

He hears a clamoring cacaphony of regret and sorrow...

22 Here sighs and lamentations and loud cries
21 were echoing across the starless air,
22 so that, as soon as I set out, I wept.

25 Strange utterances, horrible pronouncements,
26 accents of anger, words of suffering,
27 and voices shrill and faint, and beating hands...

31 And I my head oppressed by horror said:
32 Master, what is it that I hear? Who are
33 those people so defeated by their pain?

Who are the suffering masses?

34 And he to me: This miserable way
35 is taken by the sorry souls of those
36 who lived without disgrace and without praise.

37 They now commingle with the coward angels,
38 the company of those who were not rebels
39 nor faithful to their God, but stood apart.

These are those who took a middle road regarding God.

40 The heavens, that their beauty not be lessened,
41 have cast them out, nor will deep Hell receive them
42 even the wicked cannot glory in them.

Because they were lukewarm neither heaven or hell wants them.

43 And I: What is it, master, that oppresses
44 these souls, compelling them to wail so loud?
45 He answered: I shall tell you in few words.

46 Those who are here can place no hope in death,

47 and their blind life is so abject that they
48 are envious of every other fate.

But hell will take them...the ferryman comes...

85 Forget your hope of ever seeing Heaven:
86 I come to lead you to the other shore,
87 to the eternal dark, to fire and frost.

Why are they are strangely ready to cross over to hell...

121 My son, the gracious master said to me,
122 those who have died beneath the wrath of God,
123 all these assemble here from every country;

124 and they are eager for the river crossing
125 because celestial justice spurs them on,
126 so that their fear is turned into desire.

Thought...

No one wants the "luke-warm"...neither heaven nor hell. Yet hell will take them by default...and they will go eagerly, if only to satisfy celestial justice. Their former fear (of hell) is turned into "desire" because their hope is gone.