"Our Father, thou who dwellest in the heavens,
  Not circumscribed, but from the greater love
  Thou bearest to the first effects on high,

Praised be thy name and thine omnipotence
  By every creature, as befitting is
  To render thanks to thy sweet effluence.

Come unto us the peace of thy dominion,
  For unto it we cannot of ourselves,
  If it come not, with all our intellect.

Even as thine own Angels of their will
  Make sacrifice to thee, Hosanna singing,
  So may all men make sacrifice of theirs.

Give unto us this day our daily manna,
  Withouten which in this rough wilderness
  Backward goes he who toils most to advance.

And even as we the trespass we have suffered
  Pardon in one another, pardon thou
  Benignly, and regard not our desert.

Our virtue, which is easily o'ercome,
  Put not to proof with the old Adversary,
  But thou from him who spurs it so, deliver.

This last petition verily, dear Lord,
  Not for ourselves is made, who need it not,
  But for their sake who have remained behind us."

Thus for themselves and us good furtherance
  Those shades imploring, went beneath a weight
  Like unto that of which we sometimes dream,

Unequally in anguish round and round
  And weary all, upon that foremost cornice,
  Purging away the smoke-stains of the world.

If there good words are always said for us,
  What may not here be said and done for them,
  By those who have a good root to their will?

Well may we help them wash away the marks
  That hence they carried, so that clean and light
  They may ascend unto the starry wheels!

"Ah! so may pity and justice you disburden
  Soon, that ye may have power to move the wing,
  That shall uplift you after your desire,

Show us on which hand tow'rd the stairs the way
  Is shortest, and if more than one the passes,
  Point us out that which least abruptly falls;

For he who cometh with me, through the burden
  Of Adam's flesh wherewith he is invested,
  Against his will is chary of his climbing."

The words of theirs which they returned to those
  That he whom I was following had spoken,
  It was not manifest from whom they came,

But it was said: "To the right hand come with us
  Along the bank, and ye shall find a pass
  Possible for living person to ascend.

And were I not impeded by the stone,
  Which this proud neck of mine doth subjugate,
  Whence I am forced to hold my visage down,

Him, who still lives and does not name himself,
  Would I regard, to see if I may know him
  And make him piteous unto this burden.

A Latian was I, and born of a great Tuscan;
  Guglielmo Aldobrandeschi was my father;
  I know not if his name were ever with you.

The ancient blood and deeds of gallantry
  Of my progenitors so arrogant made me
  That, thinking not upon the common mother,

All men I held in scorn to such extent
  I died therefor, as know the Sienese,
  And every child in Campagnatico.

I am Omberto; and not to me alone
  Has pride done harm, but all my kith and kin
  Has with it dragged into adversity.

And here must I this burden bear for it
  Till God be satisfied, since I did not
  Among the living, here among the dead."

Listening I downward bent my countenance;
  And one of them, not this one who was speaking,
  Twisted himself beneath the weight that cramps him,