Considerate la vostra semenza
Fatti non foste a viver come bruti,
ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza

- Dante Alighieri, La Commedia (Inferno – Canto XXVI)


“ Nelle intenzioni di Dante la Commedia è un “poema sacro”, e, come la Sacra Scrittura, non ha un unico significato: “il soggetto di tutta l’opera, preso soltanto nel suo senso letterale, è lo stato delle anime dopo la morte [...]. Se invece si vuol prendere l’opera nel suo significato allegorico, il soggetto è l’uomo, in quanto meritando o demiertando nell’esercizio del suo libero arbitrio, è soggetto al giusto premio o alla giusta pena” (Lettera a Cangrande).

Così il viaggio di Dante nei tr regni simboleggia una sua esperienza spirituale di conoscenza e di redenzione, ma traccia anche il cammino che l’intera umanità deve compiere per liberarsi dalla miseria e dalla corruzione e per raggiungere la felecità e la pace.”

- ARMELLINI Guido , COLOMBO Adriano , Guida alla letteratura Italiana , Zanichelli editore , Bologna 1995.


An attempt shall be made to provide the best English equivalents for the previous Italian passages. Find as follows the content in that language.

Consider what origin you had;
You were not created to live like brutes,
But to seek virtue and knowledge
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy (Inferno – Canto XXVI), adopted from H. R Huse translation.
Here’s my humble translation of the Italian text above.

Dante’s intention for The Divine Comedy was to present it as a “sacred poem”. Like the Holy Writ, it does not have only one interpretation: “ The subject of the totality of the work, taken in its literal sense alone, is the state of the spirit after death. If, instead of that, one wants to regard the work in its parables, then the subject is Man, who by excising his Free Will, is worthy or unworthy of the right reward or the right punishment” (Letter to Cangrande)

In this manner, Dante’s trip in the three realms symbolizes his spiritual experience of knowledge and redemption. But it also traces the walk that all humanity will have to complete to liberate itself from misery and from corruption, and to arrive to happiness and peace.
For a detailed map of Dante’s Inferno, visit this link. And should you be interested in knowing where in Hell (Inferno) you will reside, kindly click here.

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