The Divine Comedy | Page 5

Her Reproof of Foolish and Avaricious
Preachers.
XXX. The Tenth Heaven, or Empyrean. The River of
Light.

The Two Courts of Heaven. The White Rose of Paradise. The great
Throne.
XXXI. The Glory of Paradise. Departure of Beatrice. St.
Bernard. XXXII. St. Bernard points out the Saints in the White Rose.
XXXIII. Prayer to the Virgin. The Threefold Circle of the Trinity.
Mystery of the Divine and Human Nature.
Incipit Comoedia Dantis Alagherii,
Florentini natione, non moribus.
The Divine Comedy
translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

(e-text courtesy ILT's Digital Dante Project)
INFERNO
Inferno: Canto I
Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest
dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage,
rough, and stern,
Which in the very thought renews the fear.
So bitter is it, death is little more;
But of the good to treat, which
there I found,
Speak will I of the other things I saw there.
I cannot well repeat how there I entered,
So full was I of slumber at
the moment
In which I had abandoned the true way.
But after I had reached a mountain's foot,
At that point where the
valley terminated,
Which had with consternation pierced my heart,
Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders,
Vested already with that
planet's rays
Which leadeth others right by every road.
Then was the fear a little quieted
That in my heart's lake had endured
throughout
The night, which I had passed so piteously.

And even as he, who, with distressful breath,
Forth issued from the
sea upon the shore,
Turns to the water perilous and gazes;
So did my soul, that still was fleeing onward,
Turn itself back to
re-behold the pass
Which never yet a living person left.
After my weary body I had rested,
The way resumed I on the desert
slope,
So that the firm foot ever was the lower.
And lo! almost where the ascent began,
A panther light and swift
exceedingly,
Which with a spotted skin was covered o'er!
And never moved she from before my face,
Nay, rather did impede so
much my way,
That many times I to return had turned.
The time was the beginning of the morning,
And up the sun was
mounting with those stars
That with him were, what time the Love
Divine
At first in motion set those beauteous things;
So were to me occasion
of good hope,
The variegated skin of that wild beast,
The hour of time, and the delicious season;
But not so much, that did
not give me fear
A lion's aspect which appeared to me.
He seemed as if against me he were coming
With head uplifted, and
with ravenous hunger,
So that it seemed the air was afraid of him;
And a she-wolf, that with all hungerings
Seemed to be laden in her
meagreness,
And many folk has caused to live forlorn!
She brought upon me so much heaviness,
With the affright that from
her aspect came,
That I the hope relinquished of the height.
And as he is who willingly acquires,
And the time comes that causes

him to lose,
Who weeps in all his thoughts and is despondent,
E'en such made me that beast withouten peace,
Which, coming on
against me by degrees
Thrust me back thither where the sun is silent.
While I was rushing downward to the lowland,
Before mine eyes did
one present himself,
Who seemed from long-continued silence
hoarse.
When I beheld him in the desert vast,
"Have pity on me," unto him I
cried,
"Whiche'er thou art, or shade or real man!"
He answered me: "Not man; man once I was,
And both my parents
were of Lombardy,
And Mantuans by country both of them.
'Sub Julio' was I born, though it was late,
And lived at Rome under
the good Augustus,
During the time of false and lying gods.
A poet was I, and I sang that just
Son of Anchises, who came forth
from Troy,
After that Ilion the superb was burned.
But thou, why goest thou back to such annoyance?
Why climb'st thou
not the Mount Delectable,
Which is the source and cause of every
joy?"
"Now, art thou that Virgilius and that fountain
Which spreads abroad
so wide a river of speech?"
I made response to him with bashful
forehead.
"O, of the other poets honour and light,
Avail me the long study and
great love
That have impelled me to explore thy volume!
Thou art my master, and my author thou,
Thou art alone the one from
whom I took
The beautiful style that has done honour to me.
Behold the beast, for which I have turned back;
Do thou protect me

from her, famous Sage,
For she doth make my veins and pulses
tremble."
"Thee it behoves to take another road,"
Responded he, when he
beheld me weeping,
"If from this savage place thou wouldst escape;
Because this beast, at which thou criest out,
Suffers not any one to
pass her way,
But so doth harass him, that she destroys him;
And has a nature so malign and ruthless,
That never doth she glut her