Italian Translation

"S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse
A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma penciocche gammai di questo fondo
Non torno viva alcun, s'i'odo il vero,
Senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo"

The excerpt is from Dante's Inferno and translated from Italian means:

"If I thought that my reply were given to anyone who might return to the world, this flame would stand forever still; but since never from this deep place has anyone returned alive, if what I hear is true, without fear of infamy I answer thee."

In the poem, Prufock is constantly doubting himself, he over analyses everything, trapping himself in his own personal hell. He is so obsessed with debating that he misses out on reality, therefore he can never truly escape his mind. At the end of the poem he has a metaphorical death,

'We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us and we drown.'

This relates to the ides of no-one returning alive from 'The Inferno'; Prufock's dream-like, entranced world is killed when someone interrupts him at the end of the poem.