Tu lascerai ogne cosa diletta

più caramente; e questo è quello strale

che l'arco de lo essilio pria saetta.



Tu proverai sì come sa di sale

lo pane altrui, e come è duro calle

lo scendere e 'l salir per l'altrui scale.



E quel che più ti graverà le spalle,

sarà la compagnia malvagia e scempia

con la qual tu cadrai in questa valle.



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You shall leave everything you love most dearly:

this is the arrow that the bow of exile

shoots first.



You are to know the bitter taste

of others' bread, how salt it is, and know

how hard a path it is for one who goes

descending and ascending others' stairs.



And what will be most hard for you to bear

will be the scheming, senseless company

that is to share your fall into this valley."



The prophecy of Cacciaguida in La Divina Commedia of Dante Alighieri, Paradiso, Canto XVII, 55-63 (translated by Allen Mandelbaum).



Dante was sentenced to death, in absentia, by the magistrates of his city of Florence on November 6, 1315. He avoided the penalty only by continuing in exile from what he called in Inferno XXIII his birthplace and home on "the fair river of Arno, at the great town."