Dante the pilgrim and Virgil have arrived at the gate of hell. One thing’s strange: those words over the gate. Abandon hope! Also, orthodox theology. St. Thomas Aquinas would not be pleased. But then there’s something stranger: Virgil’s reaction. A cheerful look on his face.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I walk with the Dante the pilgrim across the known universe, passage by passage through INFERNO and on into the whole of the THE DIVINE COMEDY

Here’s my English translation of the passage in this episode:

Inferno Canto III: 1 – 21

Through me is the way to the city of lamentation.

Through me is the way to eternal sorrow.

Through me is the way among the lost people.

Justice moved my high maker.

I was made by divine power,

The sum of all wisdom, and primordial love.

Before me nothing created was made

Except for the eternal things, and I endure eternally.

Abandon every hope, you who come in.

I saw these words, etched in shadowy colors,

Written above the gate,

At which I said, “Master, the sense of it all is tough for me.”

And he to me, as someone on the watch for what to say:

“Here, you must put all doubt away.

You must put to death whatever makes you afraid.

“We have come to the place where I told you

You will see the sorrowing people

Who have lost the good of their minds.”

And when he had placed his hand in mine,

With a cheerful look that comforted me,

He led me to the things that are unknown.