Divine Comedy: Inferno | Page 3

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THE VISION?OR,?HELL, PURGATORY, AND PARADISE?OF?DANTE ALIGHIERI
TRANSLATED BY?THE REV. H. F. CARY, A.M.
HELL
CANTO I
IN the midway of this our mortal life,?I found me in a gloomy wood, astray?Gone from the path direct: and e'en to tell?It were no easy task, how savage wild?That forest, how robust and rough its growth,?Which to remember only, my dismay?Renews, in bitterness not far from death.?Yet to discourse of what there good befell,?All else will I relate discover'd there.?How first I enter'd it I scarce can say,?Such sleepy dullness in that instant weigh'd?My senses down, when the true path I left,?But when a mountain's foot I reach'd, where clos'd?The valley, that had pierc'd my heart with dread,?I look'd aloft, and saw his shoulders broad?Already vested with that planet's beam,?Who leads all wanderers safe through every way.
Then was a little respite to the fear,?That in my heart's recesses deep had lain,?All of that night, so pitifully pass'd:?And as a man, with difficult short breath,?Forespent with toiling, 'scap'd from sea to shore,?Turns to the perilous wide waste, and stands?At gaze; e'en so my spirit, that yet fail'd?Struggling with terror, turn'd to view the straits,?That none hath pass'd and liv'd. My weary frame?After short pause recomforted, again?I journey'd on over that lonely steep,?The hinder foot still firmer. Scarce the ascent?Began, when, lo! a panther, nimble, light,?And cover'd with a speckled skin, appear'd,?Nor, when it saw me, vanish'd, rather strove?To check my onward going; that ofttimes?With purpose to retrace my steps I turn'd.
The hour was morning's prime, and on his way?Aloft the sun ascended with those stars,?That with him rose, when Love divine first mov'd?Those its fair works: so that with joyous hope?All things conspir'd to fill me, the gay skin?Of that swift animal, the matin dawn?And the sweet season. Soon that joy was chas'd,?And by new dread succeeded, when in view?A lion came, 'gainst me, as it appear'd,?With his head held aloft and hunger-mad,?That e'en the air was fear-struck. A she-wolf?Was at his heels, who in her leanness seem'd?Full of all wants, and many a land hath made?Disconsolate ere now. She with such fear?O'erwhelmed me, at the sight of her appall'd,?That of the height all hope I lost. As one,?Who with his gain elated, sees the time?When all unwares is gone, he inwardly?Mourns with heart-griping anguish; such was I,?Haunted by that fell beast, never at peace,?Who coming o'er against me, by degrees?Impell'd me where the sun in silence rests.
While to the lower space with backward step?I fell, my ken discern'd the form one of one,?Whose voice seem'd faint through long disuse of speech.?When him in that great desert I espied,?"Have mercy on me!" cried I out aloud,?"Spirit! or living man! what e'er thou be!"
He answer'd: "Now not man, man once I was,?And born of Lombard parents, Mantuana both?By country, when the power of Julius yet?Was scarcely firm. At Rome my life was past?Beneath the mild Augustus, in the time?Of fabled deities and false. A bard?Was I, and made Anchises' upright son?The subject of my song, who came from Troy,?When the flames prey'd on Ilium's haughty towers.?But thou, say wherefore to such perils past?Return'st thou? wherefore not this pleasant mount?Ascendest, cause and source of all delight?"?"And art thou then that Virgil, that well-spring,?From which such copious floods of eloquence?Have issued?" I with front abash'd replied.?"Glory and light of all the tuneful train!?May it avail me that I long with zeal?Have sought thy volume, and with love immense?Have conn'd it o'er. My master thou and guide!?Thou he from whom alone I have deriv'd?That style, which for its beauty into fame?Exalts me. See the beast, from whom I fled.?O save me from her, thou illustrious sage!?For every vein and pulse throughout my frame?She hath made tremble." He, soon as he saw?That I was weeping, answer'd, "Thou must needs?Another way pursue, if thou wouldst 'scape?From out that savage wilderness. This beast,?At whom thou criest, her way will suffer none?To pass, and no less hindrance makes than death:?So bad and so accursed in her kind,?That never sated is her ravenous will,?Still after food more craving than before.?To many an animal in wedlock vile?She fastens, and shall yet to many more,?Until that greyhound come, who shall destroy?Her with sharp pain. He will not life support?By earth nor its base metals, but by love,?Wisdom, and virtue, and his land shall be?The land 'twixt either Feltro. In his might?Shall safety to Italia's plains