Your soul is hurt by cowardice
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« S’ i’ ho ben la parola tua intesa», rispuose del magnanimo quell’ ombra, « l’ anima tua è da viltade offesa;
“If I have understood your words rightly,” answered that shade of the great-souled one, “your soul is wounded by cowardice;
The great-souled shade answers. If he has understood Dante's words rightly, the pilgrim's soul is wounded by cowardice.
Virgil's diagnosis is blunt and merciful at once. He does not argue the metaphysics; he names the disease. The trouble is not the difficulty of the road but <i>viltade</i> — cowardice, smallness of soul — a wound in Dante himself.
Virgil is called here <i>il magnanimo</i>, the great-souled: the exact opposite of the vice he has just named. The scene is set as a contest between magnanimity and pusillanimity, and the guide's whole speech will be an effort to enlarge the shrunken heart in front of him.
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Inferno 2.43 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/dante-inferno/2.43/