New ranks forever gathering
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Così sen vanno su per l’ onda bruna, e avanti che sien di là discese, anche di qua nuova schiera s’ auna.
So they go off across the dark water, and before they have landed on the far side, already on this side a new throng gathers.
So they go off across the dark water, and before they have landed on the far side, a new throng already gathers on this one.
The scene reveals its endlessness. The souls cross <i>l'onda bruna</i>, the dark water, and the moment the boat empties, a fresh crowd has already massed on the near bank — <i>nuova schiera s'auna</i>, a new throng gathers itself. There is no lull, no bottom to the supply.
Dante wants the reader to feel the machinery of damnation running without pause, day after day, age after age. The individual souls we have watched blanch and curse are only one boatload among numberless boatloads. Hell is never fuller and never emptier; the river of the dead simply keeps flowing.
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Inferno 3.118 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/dante-inferno/3.118/