2 “Through me is the way into the woeful city; through me is the way into the eternal woe; 3 through me is the way among the lost people. Justice moved my lofty maker: the divine Power, the supreme Wisdom 6 and the primal Love made me. Before me were no things created, save eternal, and I eternal last. 9 Leave every hope, ye who enter !” These words of obscure color I saw written at the top of a gate; 12 whereat I: “Master, their meaning is dire to me.” And he to me, like a person well advised: “Here it behoves to leave every fear; 15 it behoves that all cowardice should here be dead. We have come to the place where I have told thee that thou shalt see the woeful people, 18 who have lost the good of the understanding.” And when he had put his hand on mine with a cheerful look, wherefrom I took courage, 21 he brought me within to the secret things. Here sighs, laments, and deep wailings were resounding through the starless air; 24 wherefore at first I wept thereat. Strange tongues, horrible utterances, words of woe, accents of anger, 27 voices high and faint, and sounds of hands with them,
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