The Divine Comedy

The Divine Comedy

Dante Alighieri

Inferno

Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a darkened forest, For the straight path had been lost.

Ah, how difficult it is to tell What that wild, harsh, and tangled forest was, Whose very memory renews my fear!

So bitter was it that death is scarcely more; Yet to speak of the good I found within it, I shall tell of the other things I saw there.

I cannot clearly say how I entered it, So full of sleep was I at that moment When I abandoned the true way.

But when I reached the foot of a hill, There where the valley ended That had pierced my heart with fear,

I looked upward and saw its shoulders Already clothed in the rays of the planet That guides all people straight along every road.

Then the fear grew somewhat quiet That had endured within the depths of my heart Throughout the night I spent in such distress.

And like one who, with laboring breath, Has escaped from the sea onto the shore And turns to gaze upon the dangerous waters,

So my spirit, still fleeing, Turned back to contemplate the passage That never yet permitted a living soul to pass.

After resting my weary body a little, I resumed my way across the deserted slope, So that my supporting foot was always the lower.

And behold, almost at the beginning of the ascent, A leopard, light and exceedingly swift, Covered with a spotted coat,

Would not depart from before my face, But obstructed my path so persistently That many times I turned to go back.

It was the beginning of the morning, And the sun was rising with those stars That accompanied it when divine love

First set those beautiful things in motion; Thus the hour and the gentle season Gave me reason to hope for the best

Concerning that beast with its gaudy skin; Yet not so much that I did not fear The sight of a lion that appeared before me.

He seemed to be coming against me, With head held high and ravenous hunger, So that the very air seemed to tremble.

And a she-wolf, whose leanness Seemed burdened with every craving, And who had already made many people miserable,

Filled me with such heaviness Through the terror of her appearance That I lost all hope of reaching the summit.

And like one who gladly acquires riches, But when the time comes that makes him lose them, Weeps and grieves in all his thoughts,

So that restless beast made me, For as she came toward me, little by little She drove me back where the sun is silent.

While I was falling toward the lower ground, Before my eyes there appeared someone Who seemed faint from long silence.

When I saw him in that vast wilderness, "Have mercy on me!" I cried to him, "Whoever you may be, shade or living man!"

He answered, "Not a man, though once I was; My parents were Lombards, Both natives of Mantua.

I was born under Julius, though late in his reign, And lived in Rome under good Augustus, In the days of the false and lying gods.

I was a poet, and I sang of that righteous Son of Anchises who came from Troy After proud Ilium had been burned.

But why do you return to such misery? Why do you not climb the delightful mountain That is the source and cause of every joy?"

"Are you then that Virgil, that fountain From which so broad a river of eloquence flows?" I answered him, my forehead bowed in reverence.

"O honor and light of all other poets, May the long study and great love That made me search your volume now avail me.

You are my master and my author; You alone are the one from whom I learned The beautiful style that has brought me honor.