Through me is the way to the city of woe. Through me is the way to sorrow eternal. Through me is the way to the lost below. Justice moved my architect supernal. I was constructed by divine power, supreme wisdom, and love primordial. Before me no created things were. Save those eternal, and eternal I abide. Abandon all hope, you who enter.

The ensuing line L'ombra sua torna ch'era dipartita ("his spirit which had left us returns") is poignantly absent from the empty tomb. (The city council of Florence finally passed a motion rescinding Dante's sentence in June 2008. In 2007 a reconstruction of Dante's face was undertaken in a collaborative project.

: /ˈdænti/ US /ˈdɑːnteɪ/; Italian: [ˈdante]; c. His Divine Comedy originally called Commedia and later called Divina by Boccaccio is widely considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature.