DANTE

Inferno 3.46 · 3.46

No hope even of death

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Questi non hanno speranza di morte, e la lor cieca vita è tanto bassa, che ’nvidïosi son d’ ogne altra sorte.

These have no hope of death, and their blind life is so base that they are envious of every other lot.

Word by word

QuestiKWE-steeThesenonnonnothannoAN-nohhavesperanzaspeh-RAN-tsahopedideeofmorteMOR-tehdeath,eehandlalathelorlortheirciecaCHEH-kablindvitaVEE-talifeèehistantoTAN-tohsobassaBAS-salow,chekethat’nvidïosieen-vee-DYOH-zeeenvioussonsonared’dofogneOH-nyeheveryaltraAL-traothersorteSOR-tehfate.

The setting

Their punishment: they have no hope of death, and their blind life is so low that they envy every other fate.

A note on this passage

Here is the weight Dante could not guess: <i>non hanno speranza di morte</i>, they have no hope even of death. For the damned proper, death is already behind them; but these have not the release of ending, nor any prospect of change. Even oblivion is denied them.

Their life is <i>cieca</i>, blind — lived without seeing, and now continued without seeing. So low that they envy <i>ogne altra sorte</i>, every other lot, including the tormented souls deeper in Hell. To covet even damnation is the exact measure of how little they chose to be.

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