Dante and Virgil are standing outside the walls of Dis when Virgil is summoned forward by the demons, leaving the pilgrim all alone. Alone for the first time since he came to himself in a dark wood way back in Canto I.

This is a terrifying sequence in INFERNO. But it’s more than that: it may be the moment the poet decides to let his own internal landscapes and doubts enter the plot, riding as a drone under the characters and the allegory.

In other words, this passage shows an astounding shift in the poem. Virgil gets a backstory. Virgil gets interiority (or emotional space). Virgil shows conflict between his inner and outer spaces. And all the while, the poet is unifying the point of view to the pilgrim—and letting the pilgrim’s fears mirror the poet’s own.

Here’s my English translation of INFERNO, Canto VIII, Lines 97 - 130:

“Oh, my dear leader, who more than seven times

Has brought me back to safety and saved me

From the deep dangers that have pressed against me.

 

“Do not leave me,” I said. “How I am undone!

If the further passage is barred for us,

Let us quickly go back in our own footprints together.”

 

And that lord who’d led me there

Said, “Fear not! No one can stop our passage

Since it’s been granted by such a one.

 

But wait here for me. Let your tired soul

Be comforted and fed with good hope,

For I will never leave you in the underworld.”

 

So my sweet father went off and abandonned me,

And I bandied myself around

So much that yea and nay fought in my head.

 

I wasn’t able to hear what he proposed to them,

But he was not long among them there

Before they tried to knock each other out of the way to get back inside.

 

Our adversaries then closed the gates

In my lord’s face. He stayed outside

And turned back to me with faltering steps.

 

His eyes were on the ground and his brow, shaved

Of all its boldness, and he spoke in sighs:

“Who has confounded me at the houses of sorrow?”

 

And he said to me, “You, because I am irritated,

Don’t get dismayed,

No matter how they busy themselves inside to prevent our way.

 

“There is nothing new in their insubordination,

For they showed it once before at a less secret gate,

That to this day is without any defenses.

 

“You already saw the dead writing.

On this side, already down the slope,

Passing through the circles without an escort,

Comes one who will open the city for us.”