Eliot refers us to Dante Alighieri's poem Purgatorio, Canto XXVI one of his favorite passages from Dante and one he used in other poems, titles and epigraphs.
The lines quoted by Eliot can be translated as:
'And so I pray you, by that virtue
which guides you to the top of the stair,
be reminded in time of my pain.'
Then he hid himself in the fire that purifies them.
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