In the translation by John Ciardi, used in the Modern Library Edition of Inferno the first nine lines of Canto III read as follows:
I AM THE WAY INTO THE CITY OF WOE.
I AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN PEOPLE.
I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL SORROW.
SACRED JUSTICE MOVED MY ARCHITECT.
I WAS RAISED HERE BY DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE,
PRIMORDIAL LOVE AND ULTIMATE INTELLECT.
ONLY THOSE ELEMENTS TIME CANNOT WEAR
WERE MADE BEFORE ME, AND BEYOND TIME I STAND.
ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE.
This is inscribed directly on the gate to Hell and does not serve as a warning because all oncoming souls are already damned. It is simply informative and rhetorical to a point. Vergil informs Dante that it does not apply to him.