Until the hound comes
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Molti son li animali a cui s’ ammoglia, e più saranno ancora, infin che ’l veltro verrà, che la farà morir con doglia.
Many are the creatures she couples with, and more there will be, until the greyhound comes that will make her die in agony.
Many creatures mate with her, and more will, until the greyhound comes to make her die in pain.
Here Virgil's speech becomes prophecy. The she-wolf breeds — greed joins itself to every other vice — but a deliverer is coming: the <i>veltro</i>, the greyhound, the hound of destiny who will hunt her to a painful death.
Who the greyhound is has been argued for seven centuries — a coming emperor, a reforming pope, a savior figure left deliberately veiled. Dante wants the prophecy to burn without being pinned down. What matters here is the promise: the reign of the wolf has an end written into it.
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