A banner that will not rest
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E io, che riguardai, vidi una ’nsegna che girando correva tanto ratta, che d’ ogne posa mi parea indegna;
And I, looking again, saw a banner that ran whirling so fast that it seemed unworthy of any pause;
Looking again, Dante sees a whirling banner racing so fast it seems it could never pause.
The souls have no leader and no cause, so their emblem is an empty banner — <i>una 'nsegna</i> with nothing on it — racing in circles at the head of no one. In life they followed no standard; in death they chase a blank one forever.
<i>D'ogne posa mi parea indegna</i>: it seemed unworthy even of rest. Rest is a thing you earn by having done something, and this flag has done nothing. Its ceaseless motion is the mirror of the souls who will spend eternity running after it: hurrying always, arriving nowhere, deserving no stop.
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Inferno 3.52 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/dante-inferno/3.52/