INFERNO, Episode 16. When Crossing The River Into Hell, Don't Faint: Inferno, Canto III, Lines 109 - 136

Dante and Virgil, standing on the shore of the river that borders hell. Here, Virgil finally answers Dante’s question: why do the damned seem so eager to cross into hell?

The answer is shocking. Modern. Human. But is it enough? Because our pilgrim collapses.

Something happens: the canto ends abruptly. What? Find out some answers as you walk with me, Mark Scarbrough, across the known universe in this podcast, WALKING WITH DANTE.

Here’s my own rather inelegant but workaday translation of the passage, the one I read in the podcast episode:

Inferno Canto III: 109 – 136

The demon Charon, with eyes of burning coals,

Motioned to them and collected all of them,

Beating those who hesitated with his oar.

As leaves in autumn let go and fall

One after another, until the branch

Sees all of its tatters on the ground,

So also did these, the bad seed of Adam,

Cast themselves one by one from that shore

When the sign was given, like a falcon to its lure.

And so they started to go across the dark water,

But before they even got out on the other shore,

A new crowd gathered on this bank.

“My son,” my courteous master said,

“All these who die under the God’s wrath

Come together here from every country,

“All ready to cross the river,

Because divine justice goads them

So that their fears morph into their desires.

“No good soul ever comes this way,

So if Charon whines about you,

You now know exactly what he means.”

As he was finishing up, the dark plain

Shook so forcefully that even now

The memory bathes me in sweat.

A wind came up from the tear-soaked ground

Flashing a scarlet light

Which overpowered my feelings.

And I collapsed like a person suddenly asleep.