The Divine Comedy ~ English Edition, translated by H.F. Cary - Inferno

Canto I
English Edition, translated by H.F. Cary

A Dark Wood

The Dark Wood of Error

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1	IN the midway of this our mortal life,
2	I found me in a gloomy wood, astray
3	Gone from the path direct: and e'en to tell

4	It were no easy task, how savage wild
5	That forest, how robust and rough its growth,
6	Which to remember only, my dismay

7	Renews, in bitterness not far from death.
8	Yet to discourse of what there good befell,
9	All else will I relate discover'd there.

10	How first I enter'd it I scarce can say,
11	Such sleepy dullness in that instant weigh'd
12	My senses down, when the true path I left,

13	But when a mountain's foot I reach'd, where clos'd
14	The valley, that had pierc'd my heart with dread,
15	I look'd aloft, and saw his shoulders broad

16	Already vested with that planet's beam,
17	Who leads all wanderers safe through every way.
18	Then was a little respite to the fear,

19	That in my heart's recesses deep had lain,
20	All of that night, so pitifully pass'd:
21	And as a man, with difficult short breath,

22	Forespent with toiling, 'scap'd from sea to shore,
23	Turns to the perilous wide waste, and stands
24	At gaze; e'en so my spirit, that yet fail'd

25	Struggling with terror, turn'd to view the straits,
26	That none hath pass'd and liv'd. My weary frame
27	After short pause recomforted, again

28	I journey'd on over that lonely steep,
29	The hinder foot still firmer. Scarce the ascent
30	Began, when, lo! a panther, nimble, light,

31	And cover'd with a speckled skin, appear'd,
32	Nor, when it saw me, vanish'd, rather strove
33	To check my onward going; that ofttimes

34	With purpose to retrace my steps I turn'd.
35	The hour was morning's prime, and on his way
36	Aloft the sun ascended with those stars,

37	That with him rose, when Love divine first mov'd
38	Those its fair works: so that with joyous hope
39	All things conspir'd to fill me, the gay skin

40	Of that swift animal, the matin dawn
41	And the sweet season. Soon that joy was chas'd,
42	And by new dread succeeded, when in view

43	A lion came, 'gainst me, as it appear'd,
44	With his head held aloft and hunger-mad,
45	That e'en the air was fear-struck. A she-wolf

46	Was at his heels, who in her leanness seem'd
47	Full of all wants, and many a land hath made
48	Disconsolate ere now. She with such fear

49	O'erwhelmed me, at the sight of her appall'd,
50	That of the height all hope I lost. As one,
51	Who with his gain elated, sees the time

52	When all unwares is gone, he inwardly
53	Mourns with heart-griping anguish; such was I,
54	Haunted by that fell beast, never at peace,

55	Who coming o'er against me, by degrees
56	Impell'd me where the sun in silence rests.
57	While to the lower space with backward step

58	I fell, my ken discern'd the form one of one,
59	Whose voice seem'd faint through long disuse of speech.
60	When him in that great desert I espied,

61	Have mercy on me! cried I out aloud,
62	Spirit! or living man! what e'er thou be!
63	He answer'd: Now not man, man once I was,

64	And born of Lombard parents, Mantuana both
65	By country, when the power of Julius yet
66	Was scarcely firm. At Rome my life was past

67	Beneath the mild Augustus, in the time
68	Of fabled deities and false. A bard
69	Was I, and made Anchises' upright son

70	The subject of my song, who came from Troy,
71	When the flames prey'd on Ilium's haughty towers.
72	But thou, say wherefore to such perils past

73	Return'st thou? wherefore not this pleasant mount
74	Ascendest, cause and source of all delight?
75	And art thou then that Virgil, that well-spring,

76	From which such copious floods of eloquence
77	Have issued? I with front abash'd replied.
78	Glory and light of all the tuneful train!

79	May it avail me that I long with zeal
80	Have sought thy volume, and with love immense
81	Have conn'd it o'er. My master thou and guide!

82	Thou he from whom alone I have deriv'd
83	That style, which for its beauty into fame
84	Exalts me. See the beast, from whom I fled.

85	O save me from her, thou illustrious sage!
86	For every vein and pulse throughout my frame
87	She hath made tremble. He, soon as he saw

88	That I was weeping, answer'd, Thou must needs
89	Another way pursue, if thou wouldst 'scape
90	From out that savage wilderness. This beast,

91	At whom thou criest, her way will suffer none
92	To pass, and no less hindrance makes than death:
93	So bad and so accursed in her kind,

94	That never sated is her ravenous will,
95	Still after food more craving than before.
96	To many an animal in wedlock vile

97	She fastens, and shall yet to many more,
98	Until that greyhound come, who shall destroy
99	Her with sharp pain. He will not life support

100	By earth nor its base metals, but by love,
101	Wisdom, and virtue, and his land shall be
102	The land 'twixt either Feltro. In his might

103	Shall safety to Italia's plains arise,
104	For whose fair realm, Camilla, virgin pure,
105	Nisus, Euryalus, and Turnus fell.

106	He with incessant chase through every town
107	Shall worry, until he to hell at length
108	Restore her, thence by envy first let loose.

109	I for thy profit pond'ring now devise,
110	That thou mayst follow me, and I thy guide
111	Will lead thee hence through an eternal space,

112	Where thou shalt hear despairing shrieks, and see
113	Spirits of old tormented, who invoke
114	A second death; and those next view, who dwell

115	Content in fire, for that they hope to come,
116	Whene'er the time may be, among the blest,
117	Into whose regions if thou then desire

118	T' ascend, a spirit worthier then I
119	Must lead thee, in whose charge, when I depart,
120	Thou shalt be left: for that Almighty King,

121	Who reigns above, a rebel to his law,
122	Adjudges me, and therefore hath decreed,
123	That to his city none through me should come.

124	He in all parts hath sway; there rules, there holds
125	His citadel and throne. O happy those,
126	Whom there he chooses! I to him in few:

127	Bard! by that God, whom thou didst not adore,
128	I do beseech thee (that this ill and worse
129	I may escape) to lead me, where thou saidst,

130	That I Saint Peter's gate may view, and those
131	Who as thou tell'st, are in such dismal plight.
132	Onward he mov'd, I close his steps pursu'd.

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