He cannot tell them all
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Io non posso ritrar di tutti a pieno, però che sì mi caccia il lungo tema, che molte volte al fatto il dir vien meno.
I cannot recount them all in full, for the long theme so drives me on that many times the telling falls short of the fact.
Dante cannot recount them all in full, for the long theme so drives him that often the telling falls short of the fact.
Dante breaks off the catalogue with a poet's honest apology. The <i>lungo tema</i>, the long theme, presses him forward; he cannot pause to name everyone he saw.
The closing confession is one every writer knows: <i>al fatto il dir vien meno</i> — speech falls short of the fact. Words cannot hold all that was there. It is a modest, self-aware note, admitting the limit of language even as the poem performs its abundance, and it turns the reader gently back toward motion and the descent to come.
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Inferno 4.145 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/dante-inferno/4.145/