The she-wolf
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Ed una lupa, che di tutte brame sembiava carca ne la sua magrezza, e molte genti fé già viver grame,
And a she-wolf, who in her very gauntness seemed laden with every craving, and who has already made many people live in misery,
Then a she-wolf, gaunt yet laden with all cravings, who has made many live in misery.
The third and worst beast. The <i>lupa</i> is the most disturbing because she is starving and insatiable at once — <i>carca... ne la sua magrezza</i>, loaded with hungers precisely because she is so thin. She is greed that can never be fed, the appetite that keeps its victim lean.
Dante widens the frame: this beast has ruined not just him but <i>molte genti</i>, whole peoples. The she-wolf is usually read as cupidity, avarice, the vice Dante blamed for the corruption of the church and the world. Her gauntness is the point — she consumes everything and remains empty.
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Inferno 1.49 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/dante-inferno/1.49/