Abandon all hope ye who enter here (idea)

Per me si va ne la città dolente,
Per me si va ne l'etterno dolore,
Per me si va tra la Perduta Gente.
Giustizia mosse il mio Alto Fattore;
Fecemi la Divina Podestate,
La Somma Sapïenza e 'l Primo Amore.
Dinanzi a me non fuor cose create
Se non etterne, e io etterno duro
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate

-- Dante Alighieri (La Divina Commedia, Canto III.1--9)

Ere from their thought creation rose in flower
Eternal first were all things fixed as they.
Of Increate Power infinite formed am I
That deathless as themselves I do not die.
Justice divine has weighed: the doom is clear.
All hope renounce, ye lost, who enter here.

-- Stephen Fowler Wright

Through me the road to the city of desolation,
Through me the road to sorrows diuturnal,
Through me the road among the lost creation.
Justice moved my great maker; God eternal
Wrought me: the power, and the unsearchably
High wisdom, and the primal love supernal.
Nothing ere I was made was made to be
Save things eterne, and I eterne abide;
Lay down all hope, you that go in by me.

-- Dorothy L. Sayers

Through me the way into the suffering city
Through me the way into the eternal pain
Through me the way through the Lost People
Justice moved my High Artificer
My maker was divine authority
The highest wisdom, and the primal love.
Before me nothing was created
That was not eternal, and I endure eternally.
Abandon all hope, you who enter!

-- compilation of various translations

Wright's translation is somewhat annoying in that, while it has frequent rhymes, it does not have a rhyme scheme per se, much less the strict terza rima of the Tuscan. I find Sayers's version to be just as elegant and readable, while preserving the energy of the rhyme.

If anyone has the first three lines of Fowler's translation of Canto III, please let me know. The text of the Fowler translation above was assimilated from the writeup by dem bones which formerly stood at the top of this node.