Abandon hope all ye who enter here.

Through me the way is to the city dolent;
  Through me the way is to the eternal dole;
  Through me the way among the people lost.

Through every city shall Veltro hunt her,
  Until he hath driven her back to Hell,
  There from whence envy first released her.

Solve for me that knot,
  Which has entangled my conceptions here.
  It seems you can see, if I hear rightly,
  Beforehand whatsoe'er time brings with it.

O me, Agnello, how thou changest!
  Behold, thou now art neither two nor one.

Indeed he lives, and thus alone
  Me it behoves to show him the dark valley;
  Necessity, and not delight, impels us.

Aye to that truth with a face of falsehood,
  A man should close his lips until shut,
  Because without his fault it causes shame.

Tow'rds the reins, countenance was turned,
  And backward it behoved them to advance,
  As to look forward had been taken from them.

But if my words be seed that may bear fruit
  Of infamy to the traitor whom I gnaw,
  Speaking and weeping shalt thou see.

Because two natures never front to front
  Has he transmuted, so that both the forms
  To interchange their matter ready were.

For who repents not cannot be absolved,
  Nor can one both repent and will at once,
  Because of contradiction which consents not.

But night is reascending, and 'tis time
  That we depart, for we have seen the whole.