Inferno–Canto 1

 

1	When I had journeyed half of our life's way,
2	I found myself within a shadowed forest,
3	for I had lost the path that does not stray.
4	Ah, it is hard to speak of what it was,
5	that savage forest, dense and difficult,
6	which even in recall renews my fear:
7	so bitter death is hardly more severe!
8	But to retell the good discovered there,
9	I'll also tell the other things I saw.
10	I cannot clearly say how I had entered
11	the wood; I was so full of sleep just at
12	the point where I abandoned the true path.
13	But when I'd reached the bottom of a hill
14	it rose along the boundary of the valley
15	that had harassed my heart with so much fear
16	I looked on high and saw its shoulders clothed
17	already by the rays of that same planet
18	which serves to lead men straight along all roads.
19	At this my fear was somewhat quieted;
20	for through the night of sorrow I had spent,
21	the lake within my heart felt terror present.
22	And just as he who, with exhausted breath,
23	having escaped from sea to shore, turns back
24	to watch the dangerous waters he has quit,
25	so did my spirit, still a fugitive,
26	turn back to look intently at the pass
27	that never has let any man survive.
28	I let my tired body rest awhile.
29	Moving again, I tried the lonely slope
30	my firm foot always was the one below.
31	And almost where the hillside starts to rise
32	look there!-a leopard, very quick and lithe,
33	a leopard covered with a spotted hide.
34	He did not disappear from sight, but stayed;
35	indeed, he so impeded my ascent
36	that I had often to turn back again.
37	The time was the beginning of the morning;
38	the sun was rising now in fellowship
39	with the same stars that had escorted it
40	when Divine Love first moved those things of beauty;
41	so that the hour and the gentle season
42	gave me good cause for hopefulness on seeing
43	that beast before me with his speckled skin;
44	but hope was hardly able to prevent
45	the fear I felt when I beheld a lion.
46	His head held high and ravenous with hunger
47	even the air around him seemed to shudder
48	this lion seemed to make his way against me.
49	And then a she-wolf showed herself; she seemed
50	to carry every craving in her leanness;
51	she had already brought despair to many.
52	The very sight of her so weighted me
53	with fearfulness that I abandoned hope
54	of ever climbing up that mountain slope.
55	Even as he who glories while he gains
56	will, when the time has come to tally loss,
57	lament with every thought and turn despondent,
58	so was I when I faced that restless beast
59	which, even as she stalked me, step by step
60	had thrust me back to where the sun is speechless.
61	While I retreated down to lower ground,
62	before my eyes there suddenly appeared
63	one who seemed faint because of the long silence.
64	When I saw him in that vast wilderness,
65	Have pity on me, were the words I cried
66	whatever you may be a shade, a man.
67	He answered me: Not man; I once was man.
68	Both of my parents came from Lombardy,
69	and both claimed Mantua as native city.
70	And I was born, though late, sub Julio, and
71	lived in Rome under the good Augustus the
72	season of the false and lying gods.
73	I was a poet, and I sang the righteous
74	son of Anchises who had come from
75	Troy when flames destroyed the pride of Ilium.
76	But why do you return to wretchedness?
77	Why not climb up the mountain of delight,
78	the origin and cause of every joy?
79	And are you then that Virgil, you the fountain
80	that freely pours so rich a stream of speech? I
81	answered him with shame upon my brow.
82	O light and honor of all other poets, may my
83	long study and the intense love that made me
84	search your volume serve me now.
85	You are my master and my author, you
86	the only one from whom my writing drew the
87	noble style for which I have been honored.
88	You see the beast that made me turn aside;
89	help me, o famous sage, to stand against her, for
90	she has made my blood and pulses shudder.
91	It is another path that you must take,
92	he answered when he saw my tearfulness,
93	if you would leave this savage wilderness;
94	the beast that is the cause of your outcry
95	allows no man to pass along her track, but
96	blocks him even to the point of death;
97	her nature is so squalid, so malicious
98	that she can never sate her greedy will;
99	when she has fed, she's hungrier than ever.
100	She mates with many living souls and shall
101	yet mate with many more, until the Greyhound
102	arrives, inflicting painful death on her.
103	That Hound will never feed on land or pewter,
104	but find his fare in wisdom, love, and virtue; his
105	place of birth shall be between two felts.
106	He will restore low-lying Italy for which
107	the maid Camilla died of wounds, and
108	Nisus, Turnus, and Euryalus.
109	And he will hunt that beast through every city
110	until he thrusts her back again to Hell from
111	which she was first sent above by envy.
112	Therefore, I think and judge it best for you
113	to follow me, and I shall guide you, taking
114	you from this place through an eternal place,
115	where you shall hear the howls of desperation
116	and see the ancient spirits in their pain, as each
117	of them laments his second death;
118	and you shall see those souls who are content
119	within the fire, for they hope to reach
120	whenever that may be the blessed people.
121	If you would then ascend as high as these,
122	a soul more worthy than I am will guide
123	you I'll leave you in her care when I depart,
124	because that Emperor who reigns above,
125	since I have been rebellious to His law,
126	will not allow me entry to His city.
127	He governs everywhere, but rules from there;
128	there is His city, His high capital: o happy
129	those He chooses to be there!
130	And I replied: O poet by that God whom
131	you had never come to know I beg you, that I
132	may flee this evil and worse evils,
133	to lead me to the place of which you spoke,
134	that I may see the gateway of Saint Peter and
135	those whom you describe as sorrowful.
136	Then he set out, and I moved on behind him.