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Dante – The Divine Comedy INFERNO I
CANTO XII

But fix your eyes on that valley, we are approaching
The river of blood in which everyone boils
Who does harm to his neighbour by violence

O blind cupidity and senseless anger
Which so goads us in our short life here
And in the eternal life, drenches us miserably

I saw a wide ditch bent like a bow
Like that which held the whole plain in its embrace
Just as my guide had indicated

Around the ditch they go, thousand after thousand
Loosing arrows at any spirit which rises
Further out of the blood that its guilt allows of.

…..........

Then we moved on with our faithful escort
Along the edge of the boiling red liquid
From which came the shrill cries of the scalded

I saw people who were in it to the eyebrows,
And the great centaur said 'These are the tyrants
Who gave themselves over to blood and rapine

A little further on the Centaur stopped
Above a group of shadows whose throats
Were just emerging out of the boiling liquid

He showed us one, who was set apart by himself
Saying 'That one, in the bosom of God, pierced
The heart which still bleeds beside the Thames'

Then I saw those who kept out of the river
Not only their heads but also the whole thorax;
And I could recognise many of them.