Ma poi ch’i’ fui al piè d’un colle giunto,là dove terminava quella valleche m’avea di paura il cor compunto,guardai in alto e vidi le sue spallevestite già de’ raggi del pianetache mena dritto altrui per ogne calle.
(Dante Alighieri, Inferno, Canto I)
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Right in the beginning of the greatest poem ever written by a Christian, Dante's "Commedia", the reader is faced with a terrifying scene: a blighted valley, a wild and suffocating jungle so deep and impenetrable that the very rays of the Sun cannot reach within. We are, "nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita" ("halfway through the journey of our life"), so deep in sin we cannot even see our own selves, Light being nowhere.
