CANTO I
Halfway down life's road
I found myself in a dark
jungle,
lost off the straight
path.
It's hard to describe
this jungle, so savage
and harsh and strong
that just thinking about
it again scares me!
Death is only a little
more bitter;
but to tell you about the
good I found there
I have
to tell you what else I discovered.
I don't know how I got
there;
I was so out of it
when I wandered off the
right road.
But then I was at the
foot of a hill,
there at the end of the
valley
where fear shot through
my heart;
I looked up to its
shoulders
wearing rays of light
from that planet
that leads everyone on
every path right.
The fear calmed,
in the lake of my heart
where all
that night I'd been so
stressed.
And like people out of
breath
who rise from the sea to
the shore
and then turn back to the
dangerous water,
so my mind, still running
away,
turned to look back
where no other person had
ever gotten through alive.
I rested my tired body
and started again up the
desert hillside,
the foot lowest down
always on firmest ground.
And there, at the bottom
of the highest point,
a leopard lightweight and
very fast,
its fur all spotted,
wouldn't back off from me
and blocked my path,
so I kept turning to go
back down.
It was early in the
morning,
and the sun rose with
those stars
that were with it when
divine love
first stirred up
beautiful things;
I felt I could still hope
for the best,
despite that furred cat
because of the hour and
the sweet season;
until the fear that
struck me
at the sight of a lion.
He came at me
with his head high and
crazy hungry,
so the air itself
trembled.
And a she-wolf, all bony,
ravenous in her
skinniness
-so many people live
hungry-
so weighed me down
with fear at the sight of
her
that I lost hope of
reaching the top.
And like the man who's
happy to win,
but when the time comes
to lose, he does it
all crying and sad,
that's how the restless
beast
coming at me, little by
little,
drove me down to where
the sun is silent.
While I went down low,
to my eyes was offered
the sight of
a figure in the long
silence.
When
I saw him in the huge desert,
"Have
pity on me," I shouted to him,
"whatever
you are, ghost or real man!"
He
answered me: "Not a man, though I was a
man,
my
parents from Lombardy,
both from Mantua.
I was born at the end of
the reign of King Julius
and lived in Rome under good King
Augustus
with false and lying
gods.
I was a poet and sang of
Aeneas who came from Troy
after Ilium
burned down.
But you, why are you
going back to so much pain?
Why not just go up this
delightful hill
of joy?"
"So you're that Virgil
who is a fountain
of speech like a river?"
I asked, shamefaced.
"Honored
light of poets,
value the long study and
great love
that made me search your
volume.
You are my teacher and my
author,
the one whose beautiful
style I took
that brought me honor.
You see the beast that
forced me back;
help me, famous wise man,
because she makes my
blood tremble in my veins."
"It would be better for
you to go another way,"
he said when he saw my
tears,
"if you want to get out
of this crazy jungle;
that beast that makes you
want to scream
doesn't let anyone pass,
but stops him and kills
him;
her nature is so evil
she never satisfies her
desire,
and after she feeds she's
hungrier than ever.
She mates with lots of
animals
and will keep on, until
the one
will come who'll make her
die in pain.
He won't feast on earth
and wealth
but on wisdom, love and virtue,
and his nation will be
between Messiahs.
He'll save humble Italy
that virgin Cammilla died
for,
Euralyus
and Turnus and Niso, who died of their wounds.
He'll hunt for her in
every town
until he's sent her back
to Hell,
where jealousy set her
loose.
So I think you should
follow me,
and I'll be your guide
and take you to a place
that lasts forever,
where you'll hear
desperate cries,
see ancient spirits
suffer
as if they're crying for
the Second Death,
and you'll see those
content
to burn,
because they hope to
be with the blessed.
When you want to rise up there,
I'll leave you with a
soul more worthy than I am,
when I go.
The ruler up there,
because I rebelled
against his laws,
doesn't want me in his
city.
He rules everywhere;
here's his city and
there's his throne;
his chosen ones are
happy!"
I said to him: "Poet, I ask you
for the sake of that god
you didn't know,
help me escape this harm
and worse,
lead me where you've
talked about going,
so I can see St. Peter's
gate
and those people you say
are so sad."
He
moved, and I kept behind him.