Where nothing shines
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E vegno in parte ove non è che luca.
And I come into a region where there is nothing that shines.
The closing line: and I come into a region where nothing gives light.
The canto seals with a single line of pure darkness. <i>Ove non è che luca</i> — where nothing shines. After the light of the noble castle, the fire won from the gloom, the green meadow, Dante steps into total dark.
The present tense, <i>vegno</i>, I come, pulls the reader forward with him over the threshold. Limbo, for all its sorrow, was the last lit place. Beyond it lies the true night of Hell, and the line's bare finality lets the darkness fall like a closing door on the whole grave, luminous world of the virtuous pagans.
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Inferno 4.151 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/dante-inferno/4.151/