The Avaricious

The Purgatorio - Canto XIX

"Just as our eyes, attached to worldly goods,
would never leave the earth to look above,
So Justice, here, has forced them to the ground.

Since Avarice quenched all our love of good,
without which all our labors were in vain,
so here the force of Justice holds us fast,

Our feet and hands tight within its grip;
as long as it shall please the righteous Lord,
so long shall we lie stretched out, motionless."

translation by M. Musa