| Midway in the journey of our life
I came to myself in a dark wood,
for the straight way was lost.
| 3 |
| Ah, how hard it is to tell
the nature of that wood, savage, dense and harsh --
the very thought of it renews my fear!
| 6 |
| It is so bitter death is hardly more so.
But to set forth the good I found
I will recount the other things I saw.
| 9 |
| How I came there I cannot really tell,
I was so full of sleep
when I forsook the one true way.
| 12 |
| But when I reached the foot of a hill,
there where the valley ended
that had pierced my heart with fear,
| 15 |
| looking up, I saw its shoulders
arrayed in the first light of the planet
that leads men straight, no matter what their road.
| 18 |
| Then the fear that had endured
in the lake of my heart, all the night
I spent in such distress, was calmed.
| 21 |
| And as one who, with laboring breath,
has escaped from the deep to the shore
turns and looks back at the perilous waters,
| 24 |
| so my mind, still in flight,
turned back to look once more upon the pass
no mortal being ever left alive.
| 27 |
| After I rested my wearied flesh a while,
I took my way again along the desert slope,
my firm foot always lower than the other.
| 30 |
| But now, near the beginning of the steep,
a leopard light and swift
and covered with a spotted pelt
| 33 |
| refused to back away from me
but so impeded, barred the way,
that many times I turned to go back down.
| 36 |
| It was the hour of morning,
when the sun mounts with those stars
that shone with it when God's own love
| 39 |
| first set in motion those fair things,
so that, despite that beast with gaudy fur,
I still could hope for good, encouraged
| 42 |
| by the hour of the day and the sweet season,
only to be struck by fear
when I beheld a lion in my way.
| 45 |
| He seemed about to pounce --
his head held high and furious with hunger --
so that the air appeared to tremble at him.
| 48 |
| And then a she-wolf who, all hide and bones,
seemed charged with all the appetites
that have made many live in wretchedness
| 51 |
| so weighed my spirits down with terror,
which welled up at the sight of her,
that I lost hope of making the ascent.
| 54 |
| And like one who rejoices in his gains
but when the time comes and he loses,
turns all his thought to sadness and lament,
| 57 |
| such did the restless beast make me --
coming against me, step by step,
it drove me down to where the sun is silent.
| 60 |
| While I was fleeing to a lower place,
before my eyes a figure showed,
faint, in the wide silence.
| 63 |
| When I saw him in that vast desert,
'Have mercy on me, whatever you are,'
I cried, 'whether shade or living man!'
| 66 |
| He answered: 'Not a man, though once I was.
My parents were from Lombardy --
Mantua was their homeland.
| 69 |
| 'I was born sub Julio, though late in his time,
and lived at Rome, under good Augustus
in an age of false and lying gods.
| 72 |
| 'I was a poet and I sang
the just son of Anchises come from Troy
after proud Ilium was put to flame.
| 75 |
| 'But you, why are you turning back to misery?
Why do you not climb the peak that gives delight,
origin and cause of every joy?'
| 78 |
| 'Are you then Virgil, the fountainhead
that pours so full a stream of speech?'
I answered him, my head bent low in shame.
| 81 |
| 'O glory and light of all other poets,
let my long study and great love avail
that made me delve so deep into your volume.
| 84 |
| 'You are my teacher and my author.
You are the one from whom alone I took
the noble style that has brought me honor.
| 87 |
| 'See the beast that forced me to turn back.
Save me from her, famous sage --
she makes my veins and pulses tremble.'
| 90 |
| 'It is another path that you must follow,'
he answered, when he saw me weeping,
'if you would flee this wild and savage place.
| 93 |
| 'For the beast that moves you to cry out
lets no man pass her way,
but so besets him that she slays him.
| 96 |
| 'Her nature is so vicious and malign
her greedy appetite is never sated --
after she feeds she is hungrier than ever.
| 99 |
| 'Many are the creatures that she mates with,
and there will yet be more, until the hound
shall come who'll make her die in pain.
| 102 |
| 'He shall not feed on lands or lucre
but on wisdom, love, and power.
Between felt and felt shall be his birth.
| 105 |
| 'He shall be the salvation of low-lying Italy,
for which maiden Camilla, Euryalus,
Turnus, and Nisus died of their wounds.
| 108 |
| 'He shall hunt the beast through every town
till he has sent her back to Hell
whence primal envy set her loose.
| 111 |
| 'Therefore, for your sake, I think it wise
you follow me: I will be your guide,
leading you, from here, through an eternal place
| 114 |
| 'where you shall hear despairing cries
and see those ancient souls in pain
as they bewail their second death.
| 117 |
| 'Then you will see the ones who are content
to burn because they hope to come,
whenever it may be, among the blessed.
| 120 |
| 'Should you desire to ascend to these,
you'll find a soul more fit to lead than I:
I'll leave you in her care when I depart.
| 123 |
| 'For the Emperor who has his seat on high
wills not, because I was a rebel to His law,
that I should make my way into His city.
| 126 |
| 'In every part He reigns and there He rules.
There is His city and His lofty seat.
Happy the one whom He elects to be there!'
| 129 |
| And I answered: 'Poet, I entreat you
by the God you did not know,
so that I may escape this harm and worse,
| 132 |
| 'lead me to the realms you've just described
that I may see Saint Peter's gate
and those you tell me are so sorrowful.'
| 135 |
| Then he set out and I came on behind him.
| 136 |
|
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