I've traveled through Hell both far and wide

Viewing all manner of punishment

With Virgil my mentor at my side

 

At the rim of hell the Opportunists went

Chasing a banner in pain and strife

They neither left God nor did repent

They only sought their own good in life

Alongside them flew a dreadful corps

Angels whom wasps stung like a knife

Their lukewarm spirits all did abhor

They only sought their own good in life

Now let's forget them forevermore

 

In circle one stood a citadel

Where virtuous pagans did reside

They had lived their lives both pure and well

No damning sin they once had to hide

Poets and scholars filled those great halls

Even great Aeneas there I spied

Virgil, “Prince of Poets” a herald calls

No higher title could he have known

The sole light in Hell shone from those walls

Minos of Crete sat on his throne

Sentencing damned souls to their torment

Only me and guide he left alone

 

To circle two the lustful were sent.

By turbulent winds they all were blown

Passion had overcome good judgment

Francesca was there, whom I had known

Foolish as I was I pitied her

Her “tragic tale” cut me to the bone

Those love-birds flew through stormy weather

Having lost the “good of intellect”

Despised by man and God forever.

 

Next the gluttons lay their bodies wrecked

By the vicious jaws of Cerberus

His ripping maws by blood and phlegm flecked

Those gobblers sat in cold putrid pus

Ciacco the Hog was there amidst them

In Florence he had walked among us

Their souls were bloated from head to stem

In life whose stomachs had been masters

For incontinence God did condemn

 

Further down were hoarders and wasters

Heaving their useless wealth round and round

Some were the misers others the tasters

But both were driven into the ground

After each crash their debt crushing them

All that they heard was that dismal sound

Whether lowly or crème de la crème

They each owed to God their lives' earning

It would be wiser to flip the “m”

 

Before lay a swamp water churning

The wrathful and sullen stuck within

Their hearts were boiling, bursting, burning

The sullen souls sank deep therewithin

Their mournful sighs weighed heavy with gloom

The wrathful above them dark souls akin

Each spelled out their fellow sinner's doom

To rip and claw each other apart

Their true wish in life I would presume

 

But when I wished from thence to depart

My way was blocked by the gates of Dis

Sensing my fear, my guide said “Take heart

I have endured such trials as this”

Furies wish to freeze me where I stand

By face of one with hair of hiss

But lo, an angel of God so grand

Did put those three foul furies to flight

And burst the gate by wave of his wand.

 

Tortured screams fill the city of night

Of those heretics destined to burn

Those fires though raging gave off no light

The immortal soul they chose to spurn

Equal to the lie flames reached for skies

A fiery tomb each soul lived to earn

Only future they see with warped eyes

This new sight brings no joy to them for

Perfecting pain they will once more rise

 

We stopped due to the foulest odor

Of the vile sins of violence and fraud

Virgil told me of what lay before

 

On rocky ground the Minotaur trod

Blocking our path with furious rage

With shoes of violence his feet were shod

Once more for aid I turned to my sage

To find a way past that dreadful one

No sweet word could its hatred assuage

Insults made its rage hot as the Sun

Foul blood bursting behind flaming eyes

While it was blind my guide said to run

 

Centaurs our nearing figures did spy

And raising sharp bows to our flesh skew

Said we must state our purpose or die

Virgil spied a centaur that he knew

Who interceded on our behalf

He persuaded them to let us through

They provided one to guide our path

Around the banks of the Phlegathon

To see the souls in that loathsome bath

 

In that river of blood-soaked Hell-spawn

Suffered all of those merchants of pain

To their sin's height the river was drawn

They remained there held by no chain

None but the wrath of a centaur's bow

By that threat alone forced to remain

Finally our bloody trek ceased and lo

Before us stood a wood so tangled

Its secrets soon I had wished to know

 

Tree branches were with death thorns spangled

Those black trees produced no wholesome fruit

By harpies their limbs were e'er mangled

Souls that inhabit trees black as soot

In life had committed suicide

No sooner done then their souls took root

I wrenched a thorn from a tree's dark hide

At the urging of my wise mentor

 

The twisted soul both wailed and cried

Pity my state for mine is a poor

Tale of senseless injustice and woe

To listen to him he did implore

“In better days for me long ago

I held the keys to Fredrick's heart

His inmost thoughts only I did know

Others soon grew jealous of my art

Conspiring to turn king against me

All those vile counselors played a part

Vicious brutes destroyed my dignity

Turning my eyes into bloody bowls

Suicide, the sole escape could be

 

Suddenly, the forest filled with howls

Of demon wolves rushing through the night

The apex they were of all that prowls

Two fleeing wretches to their delight

succumbed to their raging teeth and claws

That bloody scene soon had left our sight

 

At edge of wood, Virgil took pause

And observed the plain of flaming sand

Screams cut my ears like grinding saws

Near lay a man struck down by God's hand

Blasphemy was Capaneus' sin

Defying Jove, he had made a stand

Nothing he adds to that awful din

Refusing God the sound of his pain

Burns from above beneath and within

 

Burnt souls trek across that blazing plain

Who defied nature through sodomy

Forever running through flaming rain

My former teacher came beside me

Ser Brunneto was that poet's name

Overjoyed I was to my friend see

I have him to thank for my great fame

Then we talked for a joyous short while

Then he had gone, swift as he came

 

Near to our path, I saw a great pile

Of sinners whining like bitten dogs

Each bore a purse that gave him no smile

In life they were as gluttonous hogs

Earning their wages from others' toil

Now they suffer like smoldering logs

Then we came to the edge of black soil

Below us a dark sooty abyss

At Virgil's command I flung my coil

 

Reader I tell you the truth of this

Terror that I am soon to detail

Inferno is false if aught's amiss

 

A beast of Hell towards us did sail

He bore the face of an honest man

The rest was beast fur or serpent scale

Mustering all the courage that one can

When meeting such a great fearsome beast

I climbed atop and our flight began

 

Of that flight my scared eyes saw the least

Those dizzying turns and frightful soaring

On the monster's back my eyes did feast

My open ears still heard the roaring

Of tainted waters cascading down

Pained screams began as we were low'ring

Those agonized cries all else did drown

As we neared fires of God's righteous wrath

Geryon shot up having set us down

 

As a shepherd with a guiding staff

Virgil led my soul through Malebolge

Without pause we set out on our path

 

We approached nearer the evil gulge

Filled with pand'rers and seducers who

In evil forced others to indulge

In two great lines sinners formed a queue

Spurred on by the whips of demon hordes

As one was whipped his screams began anew

Jason was one of those sinful lords

Who led their subjects to their demise

Words wounded their victims worse than swords

 

The next ditch of flat'rers filled with lies

The stench of falsehood to them still clung

Like pigs they were sunken in their stys

Wallowing in a river of dung

They never hope to be rid of it

Those stinking flat'ries at others flung

Thais sank in that most wretched pit

Odious words said to her lover

Now dragged her deeper into that s***

 

Further along we did discover

Damned sinners guilty of simony

All but feet did their foul pits cover

They had hoped to gain God with money

Now they lie crammed in dismal holes

Their feet in flame like bread in honey

Many popes were among those damned souls

Who harmed the church they were to defend

Assassin and pope reversed their roles

 

The next ditch holds backs which God did bend

In folly those dismal wretches sought

To know the events which fates portend

Their figures now like the wife of Lot

Could only view that which was behind

Their sight Hell-twisted saw the rot

Of all those who cast God far from mind

Time in Hell had granted their great wish

But no joy in it could they now find

 

The grafters filled a ditch same as fish

Stuck in a river of Boiling glue

All that rose, foul demons would punish

Virgil drew near to that fearsome crew

Save for God's will they would have struck

But bowed to God's will and led us through

A luckless soul demons chanced to pluck

from the grasp of the still-clinging broth

It tricked the foul ones into the muck

 

We fled from Hell-wrath into a trough

filled with sinners cloaked in gold, who

At their sins in others loved to scoff

Their false cloaks of dark lead were filled through

The greatest of them was Caiaphas

He called our Lord false for staying true

Over his prone body the souls now pass

Who now lies crucified for his deed

He now must bear hypocrisy's mass

 

The next ditch held those servants of greed

Who pilfered the others' goods on earth

Now bound by Satan's reptil'yan seed

A beast with flames above any hearth

Converted a doomed soul into ash

In pain he endured a violent rebirth

Together man and beast ever mash

Transforming themselves forevermore

To regain humanity serpents clash

 

Erelong, we at last reached the dark shore

Of the ditch of flame-clothed Hell-reborns

Who used God's gifts to raise themselves more

I saw among them twin flaming horns

Cov'ring Ulysses and Diomede

A fitting garment those men adorns

Those men who broke every law and creed

They turned their backs on all other men

Seeking godhood, they died for their greed

 

Next strode men with bodies so broken

Like dead of Troy and Ceperano

Their bodies healed as they rounded again

Rounding the circle they took a blow

From a demon red fiery with hate

The Christian church they had split like so

There I saw Mohamed Muslim great

Whose words became the truth of liars

By no means shall he reach Heaven's gate

 

Before lay the pit of falsifiers

This sin encapsulates crimes fourfold

In all four zones burn God's wrathful fires

In zone one itched perverters of gold

Who turned to the art of alchemy

Crusted scabs their skins now do enfold

Zone two held those who by mimicry

Sought to take on another's likeness

They now shred others by God's decree

Zone three held those who lived in excess

By counterfeiting legal tender

Now they thirst, but naught aids their distress

Each in zone four was a word-bender

Who forsook the truth and dealt in lies

Now endure fever without mender

 

Ahead, I saw giants of great size

Who stood on the final plane of Hell

Set us down before the king of lies

In the last circle, all traitors dwell

Who betrayed both their allies and friends

To this dark pit foul Lucifer fell

 

Evil are they whose pain never ends

Frozen up to their shoulders in ice

Towards family their evil tends

They practiced harm by any device

Whether in jealousy, pride, or greed

They betrayed their own not thinking twice

In truth, they are as Caina's foul seed

Who slew his brother to heal his pride

Now they are stuck fast for their foul deed

 

Up to sinful necks the ice does hide

Those who forsook both king and nation

Now in Satan's foul layer did reside

One told the tale of children's starvation

betrayed by his crooked co-traitor

Starved with them no hope of salvation

Pitiable 'bove those in the crater

Yet he brought no tear to my blank eyes

In deceit he fought his Creator

 

Next shivered hosts whom all men despise

Their necks were frozen, heads locked in place

Thoughtless they were of their guest's death-cries

Among them I saw a well-known face

Of one man who still walked on the earth

His soul on earth demons did replace

Now all lay frozen cold as their hearth

To unlucky guests who needed heat

They ascribed their needy guests no worth

 

The ice grasped many from eyes to feet

Who had in life betrayed their masters

Their service to God so incomplete

Frozen tears one's eyelids plasters

Who shed no tears for their lord's downfall

Their selfish deeds begin disasters

In folly they think themselves above all

The scum of Hell they now sink so low

Amid'st the throng Satan towers tall

 

A freezing wind from his wings does blow

Holding him fast as he tries to flee

From almighty God he hates Him so

Above his neck perch wicked heads three

Each crushes a sinner in its maw

Of all sinners they are trinity

 

My Guide directed me to its paw

Instructing me to climb down its hide

Escaping Hell's ever-gripping jaw

We clambered down him who schemed and lied

Leaving at last Hell's dark flaming bars

At last we had reached the other side

“And we walked out once more 'neath the stars”

(Canto XXXIV.143)