Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Inferno: The Definitive Illustrated Edition
    The Inferno: The Definitive Illustrated Edition
    The Inferno: The Definitive Illustrated Edition
    Ebook295 pages1 hour

    The Inferno: The Definitive Illustrated Edition

    By Dante Alighieri and Gustave Doré

    3.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    In 1867, when Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published the first American edition of The Inferno, Dante was almost unknown in this country. The New England poet and educator, who taught Italian literature at Harvard, introduced Dante's literary genius to the New World with this vibrant blank verse translation of the first and most popular book of the three-part Divine Comedy. Expressed in haunting poetry of great emotional power, The Inferno chronicles Dante's passage through nine circles of the underworld and his encounters with tormented sinners. Combining Aristotelian philosophy, mythology, Roman Catholicism, and thirteenth-century Italian politics, this landmark of world literature forms a unique synthesis of the Christian, classical, and secular worlds.
    Dante's depictions of hell and its grotesque punishments found their ideal match in the hands of the eminent nineteenth-century illustrator Gustave Doré. Unable to find a sponsor, the artist published his stunning engravings for The Inferno at his own expense. An instant and enduring success, Doré's images made a lasting impression on the public imagination. This volume's enchanting translation and unforgettable illustrations offer readers a perfect blend of literary and artistic skill.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateJun 22, 2016
    ISBN9780486813912
    The Inferno: The Definitive Illustrated Edition
    Author

    Dante Alighieri

    Dante was a major Italian poet of the Middle Ages. His Divine Comedy is widely considered the greatest work of Italian literature.

    Read more from Dante Alighieri

    Related to The Inferno

    Related ebooks

    Classics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Bard In The Woods

      Nov 30, 2020

      Bard In The Woods
      4 min read

    • Article

      Collins Ferry Landing

      Jul 1, 2020

      for my father Only rivers bottom out like this.Only rivers bottom out with this kind of conviction.Not humans, or, at least, not humans asindisputably human as you were,trapped in consciousness’s surplus, exilic,animalized absurdity, writhing in its

      5 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Sep 1, 2019

      before I was one I heard every soundas a sound that had never been heard,before I was one I saw every lightas a light separate from dark, colorhidden in a place I had not been.Before I was one I used feet to wakenin water, to pedal through air,hands

      1 min read

    • Article

      Meet Your New Favorite Poet

      Feb 20, 2019

      Meet Your New Favorite Poet
      6 min read

    • Article

      My Own Personal Herakles

      Sep 29, 2017

      My Own Personal Herakles
      20 min read

    • Article

      Gjertrud Schnackenberg

      Mar 9, 2021

      Poetry’s “impulse, like electricity, crossing the space, leaves its signature.”—W. S. Graham No wonder that a flash of sparksSpills out from what I touch—the LaserJet, Brimming with static shock,Suspends invisible electron-clouds Across the laser-pap

      3 min read

    • Article

      Flicker

      May 6, 2021

      Flicker
      1 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      May 1, 2023

      Let’s be GodFor a moment, Shall we?That which invites Composition,That which is suspended From a great height,The presence Of approximationHeavy in the meadows, I’m not afraid,And yet My shroud vanishesIn these lines, I am so weptPast weeping, And wh

      1 min read

    • Article

      On Grief

      Jul 29, 2019

      On Grief
      5 min read

    • Article

      Echo and Narcissus

      Mar 7, 2022

      Echo and Narcissus
      7 min read

    • Article

      Alive In The Ice And Fire

      Nov 1, 2018

      A Conversation August, 2018 SUSAN STEWART As I read your books, including If You Have to Go, I am struck, as I’m sure any reader would be, by their existential immediacy. You write in time as you undergo time, taking up especially the unfolding of ev

      17 min read

    • Article

      The Writing Wisdom of Derek Walcott

      Mar 20, 2017

      “The future happens,” says the philosopher in Derek Walcott’s stage retelling of Homer’s Odyssey, “No matter how much we scream.” Walcott died on Friday at the age of 87—and instead of screaming, I’m feeling grateful towards this great poet, playwrig

      7 min read

    • Article

      Orpheus and Eurydice

      Dec 25, 2023

      Orpheus and Eurydice
      2 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Nov 1, 2018

      In a hotel in a small town in Norfolk I am listening to someonethrowing glass bottles into a metal bin: toss-shatter, toss-shatter.There are no other sounds; it’s a quiet afternoonbut the one tossing them has a sense of rhythm and I havea sense that

      5 min read

    • Article

      Read a (Love) Letter From Herman Melville to Nathaniel Hawthorne

      Mar 16, 2017

      167 years ago today, Ticknor, Reed & Fields published The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel of repentance and slut-shaming. But actually, this isn’t about The Scarlet Letter—it’s about one of the most fascinating friendships in lite

      5 min read

    • Article

      La Globalizzazione In Versi / Globalisation In Verses

      Nov 25, 2022

      Non dico: sono uscito, se ho camminato. Se cammino, cammina con me il mio interno. Il mio interno è esterno, il mio esterno è interno – quando cammino. È l'unità del volto, del cuore e dei piedi: un'altra inclinazione senza come o dove? La magia del

      6 min read

    • Article

      Love Is Not a Destination: The Millions Interviews Kaveh Akbar

      Jul 21, 2021

      Without some physiological sublimation of the inert font into a living poem—whether via breath or the movement of ocular muscles along a line, fingers across Braille—the poem remains ink on a page. If a poem augurs any holiness, it begins in the body

      6 min read

    • Article

      from 36 WAYS OF WRITING A VIETNAMESE POEM

      Feb 28, 2023

      You can’t go far wrong with violence.You’ll go far, my boy.You’ll cross oceans, my boy. Start with the Fall, go back or forth,Through bombs or boats,Across all the killing fields of thought. You can’t make it upBecause it’s all yours—by blood.By righ

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Island (catullus 64)

      Mar 1, 2022

      Back then the evergreens tumbled downriverfrom the glaze-white runoff to the boot-stirred puddlesof amber young men who fulfilled our destiny,who clambered into ships, on horses, and in wagonspainting the newfound landscapes ours.Our calling was nobl

      9 min read

    • Article

      Six Poems

      Jul 1, 2018

      When I said, to my mother, What was a goodthing about me as a child?, my mother’sface seemed to unfurl from the center,hibiscus in fast motion, the anthersand flounces springing out with joy. Oh you wereenchanting, she breathed. What do you mean—craz

      5 min read

    • Article

      Mountain Time

      Jan 1, 2021

      In the air you don’t know who you are or where My own self feels it is in wind being born These are currents a man made one eighth of smokeless fire fears but chooses A path south from Anchorage to a Mountain House Ungovern the northern land to pass

      10 min read

    • Article

      Demeter

      Apr 7, 2022

      Demeter
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Season Of Lamentation

      Mar 23, 2022

      EVERY month for the past six months, my friend Guy and I have been taking a band of pilgrims through the streets of London, starting from All Hallows by the Tower to end with Evensong at Westminster Abbey. Guy sings and I talk about Trojan kings and

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Inferno

    3.5/5

    39 ratings86 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      A handsome book, but a clunky and awkward translation.
    • 5/5
      Dante's journey through Hell ranks in my top 5 favorite books. I especially like this translation, as it keeps the language modern enough to be readable, but is still beautiful. Also, there are plenty of foot and end notes to explain middle age-phrases and historical references many people may not be familiar with.
    • 4/5
      Amazing and bizarre. To have lived in a time awhen the fires and ice of hell were as real as the sun rising each day. The horrors of The Inferno were certainly cautionary, but not exactly in keeping with what modernity would deem the correct weight of sins. On to Purgatorio.
    • 3/5
      Gave me nightmares.
    • 4/5
      I read the Longfellow translation and despite a huge lack of historical knowledge about Dante's contemporary Florence I really enjoyed Inferno.

      The imaginative punishments are gruesome enough to capture your attention and the whole poem is successful in painting quite a visual image of Dante's incarnation of hell.

    • 4/5
      Peter Thornton's verse translation of the first book of the Divine Commedy, The Inferno, is certainly readable. To the extent that that was an (the?) intention it succeeds. I think for a general reader who just wants to know why The Inferno has remained influential this will serve them well. There are plenty of contextualizing notes, a must for just about any translation, which will make understanding why certain people are where they are comprehensible to a contemporary reader.For study purposes I have my doubts but I have my own favorite translations so am doing more of a comparison than simply an isolated assessment. First, my preferred verse translation is still Ciardi's version (plus, if for study purposes, he translated all of the Comedy not just one book so you don't have to change translations when you leave the Inferno). Part of my favoritism here is likely because it was the third version I had read and the first with a professor who made it come alive for me, so I do want to acknowledge that. Part of it for me is how the translators try to solve the issue of form. Some compromise is necessary to make an English translation and I am not sure there is a right vs a wrong way, they will all fall well short of Dante in Italian. I just think that wrestling with a form closer to Dante's helps students to slow down and do a better close reading while making it too easy to read turns Dante's work into simply a story that can be read quickly and easily. Again, this is personal opinion and preference. The necessary notes will keep the work from being read like a contemporary novel and could, with the right effort from an instructor, keep the reading close. I just have a hard time imagining The Inferno as an easy read and hope not to see this type of translation of Purgatorio or Paradiso since those should be more difficult to grasp in keeping with Dante's apparent intentions.I would certainly recommend this to general readers who just want to read it and maybe for high school classes that want to get through it with just a few areas of closer reading. I would also recommend instructors look at it and decide if this translation would serve their purposes for what they hope to achieve in their courses. It is a good translation even though I would personally choose not to use it.Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via Edelweiss.
    • 3/5
      I kinda didn't love this as much as I wanted to. The fault might be Pinsky's; he uses a lot of enjambment, which makes the poem a more graceful, flowing thing than Dante's apparently was. It might also be Dante's fault; there are a ton of allusions to contemporary politics, none of which I got at all, so I did a lot of flipping to the end notes. And, y'know, it's a little...religious. I know, who woulda thought?

      I liked it okay, I guess, but I've been reading a ton of epic poetry over the last year, and this hasn't been one of my favorites.
    • 2/5
      This translation replaced names- so many names! Added modern phrases.

      I appreciate that I may not have been able to real the original(or earlier translation) so easily (well, I'm not sure, but this is the only translation I've read) but I could not accept the replacement of the names. South Park's Cartman? Please. I prefer purer translations. The the addition of modern phrases and names stuck out like a sore thumb. I would be reading easily, then get so thrown off that I had to stop.

      Now, I've read this, and I don't know how much of it was from the original, and how much the translator replaced. Now I feel like I have to re-read it, with a different translation.

      It wasn't written in 2013, so don't translate it like it was. Please.

      What was intact, the messages and the stories, all that makes this a classic, earns my four stars. Since I'm rating this particular translation, however, I'm giving it two. If I find out later that earlier translations are written in a way that I can easily read, then I'll come back and only give it one star.

    • 3/5
      Only three stars for Dante's classic? It was a difficult read/listen and required concentration as the translation from old italian poetry into english. I also wondered about the parallel between Inferno and A Christmas Carol...both contain scarey beasties.
    • 5/5
      If you haven't walked through Hell with Dante, I highly recommend you do so immediately. It's quite nice.
    • 3/5
      Mildly amusing, though this ostensibly pure Christian author clearly has a perverse streak running through him. (As does the Christian God, so not surprising.)
    • 5/5
      Not entirely sure what translation this was, as it was a free ebook. In any case, it was a little difficult to read at times, but it seemed okay as a translation. The text itself is beautiful: I wish I could read it in the original.
    • 5/5
      I never would have understood this book if my professor hadn't guided the class through it. Regardless, it became one of the most interesting piece's of literature I have ever read. I frequently think about. 'Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here," says the sign above the entrance to hell. Now, that's cool . . . I mean hot. Whatever.
    • 4/5
      I listened to this book on CD instead of actually reading it. The version that I had had an explination at the beginning of each verse to help you understand and then read the verse.

      In this book, you travel with Dante through the 9 circles of hell.

      I really liked this book. I forgot how much I liked Greek Mythology (which I did not expect in this book at all). It has pushed me to look into more mythology again.
    • 3/5
      Basically, Dante made a list of people he didn't like and put them all in Hell. Disturbing imagery abounds and there are loads of interesting references to mythology. But it's not exactly summer reading. Glad I read it from an academic perspective, but to be honest it was a little bit of a slog. Perhaps if I knew more about Italian history I would have appreciated it a little more.
    • 5/5
      This is an amazing translation of the Inferno. It is by far the best translation of the text that I have encountered, and it is far superior to the version included in the World Literature textbook that I use. I always share some of this translation with my students particularly when we are discussing Dante's terza rima. Translations are never ideal, but this translation is the best available.
    • 5/5
      For years I had wanted to read Dante's Divine Comedy, but every time I thought of reading this epic poem it just seemed to be too daunting of a task. It wasn't until I visited Florence, Italy and saw the same mosaic on the ceiling of the baptistery of San Giovanni that Dante saw (which inspired him to eventually write the Divine Comedy) that I felt it the time had come to read Dante's epic work.

      I started with the traditional English translation by Longfellow. At the encouragement of of a colleague, I quickly changed to Dorothy Sayers's translation from 1949. Sayers provides great commentary plus follows "Dante's terza rima stanzas."

      There are numerous translations available but I'm glad I stuck with the Sayers translation. Having said that, I think it would be wise to read the traditional Longfellow translation at some point in time. Next up I'm looking forward to trying Robert and Jean Hollander's dual-language and more modern translations of the Divine Comedy.
    • 4/5
      Obviously an amazing work. I just got bogged down in the middle, and it took me forever to finish. I think I would have gotten far more out of it in the context of a class that dealt with the many layers of references, or if I had simply taken more time to read the notes...but as it was, I just didn't really commit to it on a level that could remotely do it justice. I still look forward to reading Purgatorio and Paradiso, though.
    • 2/5
      Almost totally pointless to read without an extensive grounding in 13th century Italian political history. I'm not surprised that Dante took the narrative of exploring hell as an opportunity to portray the supposedly deserved suffering of various recent historical figures he hated but I was not prepared for the extent to which he single-mindedly devoted the Inferno to this purpose and nothing else, just one long catalog of medieval Italians I'd never heard of and what a just God would posthumously wreak on them. Also Simon told me there's a cute fan-fictioney current to the relationship with Virgil, and I thought he was exaggerating but no, it's definitely there - there's one point where Dante talks about how one of his slams on these dead Italian assholes was so on target that Virgil decided to show how happy he was with it by carrying Dante around in his big strong poet arms for a while. Anyway this is cute and gay but it's not enough to carry my interest through the book.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic, even though the Sayers translation may give up too much in the battle to stick to the terza rima scheme. It's not a fatal flaw by any means, but the tendency is particularly noticeable in some of the classic lines: "I could never have believed death had undone so many" becomes "It never would have entered my head / There were so many men whom death had slain" in order to cram the square English into the round Italian.
    • 3/5
      I read the Ciardi translation in college, and this had a similar feel. It read a little more like prose than poetry--it's unrhymed, though it still has a nice rhythm. Really drags when you get closer to the end, though.
    • 5/5
      This past spring I took a class on Dante in which we read the entirety of The Commedia. After taking some time to think through and digest this massive poem, I think I am finally ready to write my review.At the opening of the poem, Dante awakes to find himself lost in a dark wood. Unable to leave the valley, he is greeted by the shade of Virgil, who tells him that he has been sent by Mary and Dante's dearly departed Beatrice to guide Dante through Hell, Purgatory, and eventually to the highest parts of Heaven. Although Dante is initially reluctant to go, he eventually follows Virgil down into the mouth of Hell. While the idea of reading such a long old poem seems daunting, the language and imagery that Dante uses makes it as compelling and fresh as if it were written yesterday. It is, first and foremost, a journey, and the sights the pilgrim sees on his journey to the bottom of Hell are described in vivid and sometimes gross detail. Hell is a very physical place, full of bodies and bodily functions, and Dante doe snot skimp on the imagery. But as often as his language is crude, it is at times stunningly beautiful. There were similes that absolutely stopped me in my tracks with their perfection and beauty. If you want to read the Inferno for the first time, read it like a novel. Jump in, enjoy the story, gawk at the imagery, and stop to relish the beautiful passages.Just as Dante the pilgrim takes Virgil as his guide through Hell, Dante the poet uses Virgil as a poetic guide in his attempt to write an epic that encompasses religion, politics, history, and the human experience. In each circle, Dante meets a new group of sinners who are in Hell for different reasons. The first thing to note about the damned is that they seem to be mostly from Florence. Seriously, sometimes I think Dante wrote this just so he could shove everyone he didn't like into the fiery pit. But in all seriousness, Dante's goal wasn't just to describe the afterlife, he was also trying to describe life on earth. By putting people from Florence in Hell or Heaven, Dante was commenting on what was happening in Italy at the time. Most important for Dante was the corruption he saw in the church, so there are entire cantos of the Inferno devoted to religious leaders, especially Popes, and especially Boniface, who was Pope at the time Dante was writing.The other thing to note about the damned is how relatable they are, at least in the beginning. When you meet Paolo and Francesca in Canto V and listen to Francesca's story, you can't help but be drawn in and pity her. Dante the pilgrim pitied her too, and swoons (again, seriously, he spends like the first 10 cantos swooning left and right) due to his empathy for them. Again and again the pilgrim pities the damned, but as the canticle goes on this happens less and less. By the end of the canticle he has stopped pitying the shades at all, and instead feels that their damnation is deserved. Why did Dante the poet make the pilgrim transforming such a way? Just as the description of Hell also serves as a description of Earth and of the nature of the human soul, the pilgrim's journey through the afterlife mirrors the soul's journey from the dark wood of sin and error to enlightenment and salvation. Dante is at first taken in by the sinners because he is not wise enough to see through their excuses. He is too much like them to do anything other than pity them. As he goes through Hell, he learns more and shakes off the darkness of the wood, so that by the time he gets to the bottom he no longer pities the damned. Still, even in the lowest circles, the shades are all deeply human, and their stories of how they ended up in Hell are incredibly compelling.Dante the poet shows again and again how similar the pilgrim and the damned really are. He constantly explores sins that he could have committed or paths that he could have taken, exposing his own weaknesses and confronting what would have been his fate if Beatrice and Mary had not sent Virgil to save him. I think it speaks to his bravery as a poet that he insisted on exposing not just the weaknesses in society, but also the weaknesses in his own character.Dante the poet is also brave, I think, for tackling some very serious theological, political, and psychological issues. When Dante the pilgrim walks through the gate of Hell, the inscription on the gate says that the gate and Hell itself were made by "the primal love" of God. Here, Dante tackles one of the greatest theological questions; how can a just and loving God permit something as awful as Hell? While the real answer doesn't come until the Paradiso, Dante was brave to put that question in such stark and paradoxical terms. Dante's constant indictments of the political and religious leaders of his day show bravery, intelligence, and a good degree of anger on his part. Before writing the Inferno, Dante had been exiled from his home city of Florence for being on the wrong side of a political scuffle. He was never able to return home, and his anger at the partisanship that caused his exile mixed with his longing for his home make the political themes of the poem emotionally charged and interesting to the reader, even now.Lastly, Dante shows both bravery and a great deal of literary skill in his treatment of Virgil. Virgil is Dante's guide through Hell and, later, Purgatory. He leads Dante every step of the way, teaching him like a father would, protecting him from daemons and even carrying him on his back at one point. It is clear that Dante admires Virgil, and in some ways the poem is like a love song to him. Virgil, living before Christ, was obviously not Christian, so Dante's choice of Virgil as a guide through the Christian afterlife is really quite extraordinary. It shows that wisdom can be attained from the ancient world, and that the light of human reason, which Virgil represents, is necessary for the attainment of enlightenment and salvation. Dante believed strongly that reason and faith were not opposites, but partners, and his choice of Virgil as a guide is a perfect illustration of that principle.But, despite Dante's love of Virgil, Virgil is, to me, one of the most tragic characters in literature. Virgil, as a pagan, cannot go to Heaven. He resides in Limbo, the first circle of Hell, home of the virtuous pagans. There, he and the other shades (including Homer, Plato, and others) receive no punishment except for their constant yearning for Heaven and the knowledge that they will never see the light of God. Virgil, at the request of Mary and Beatrice, leads Dante toward a salvation that he can never have. Human reason can only lead a soul so far; to understand the mysteries of Heaven one has to rely on faith and theology. Virgil's fate is the great tragedy of this otherwise comic poem, and the knowledge of that fate haunts the first two canticles. And while it makes sense thematically and in terms of the plot, Dante makes you love Virgil so much that his departure in the Purgatorio never really feels fair. I still miss him.The Inferno is a long and complex poem, filled with vivid imagery, vast psychological depth, scathing social commentary, and deep theological questions. It is also a journey, a real adventure in a way, and a pleasure to read. Though the real fulfillment of Dante's themes does not come until the Paradiso, the Inferno is well worth reading on its own. Even if you don't go on to read the other two canticles, reading The Inferno is time well spent.
    • 5/5
      Excellent prose translation. The essays at the end of each canto are worth the price of the book,
    • 5/5
      This is an amazing achievement. I spent so much time and energy researching this book during undergrad. So many hidden meanings, so many codes and metaphors. This translation is superior to anything else I've seen and is well bound. Its nice to have Italian right next to the English. The notes are excellent, not the penguin edition is bad, its you can tell that the Hollanders have done their homework with a passion. I can't wait to read again, but first I think some more thorough reading on the popes first.
    • 4/5
      The first time I read this was in high school. At the time, it was a 2½ star book...nothing special, the teacher didn't do as much with it as she might have done, I got through it and moved on.The second time I read this was in college in a course I was auditing (therefore, no grade pressure) from a professor who not only was a well-known authority but...more important...lived, breathed, ate and slept Dante. It made a world of difference. The book becomes much more alive if you understand the political situation of the day, the personal relationships in Dante's life, the references to other things going on in the world at that time.I recommend reading this to anyone with any interest. However, if you can't do it under the tutelage of someone who knows this stuff, I would recommend a well-annotated edition.
    • 4/5
      This was my favourite thing I've read for school this semester. Vivid and fascinating.
    • 5/5
      gotta love dante...he made a synthetic world in what 1200 or so? there are maps of the inferno, even, but not in this edition. the inferno is the midlife crisis to end all midlife crises, although no red sportscars were involved.
    • 5/5
      Dante's Divine Comedy is a strange puzzle to sort out. I feel it was written for highly personal reasons. One that is evident is his love of Virgil and the Homeric Greek epics. He also crafted this poem as a cathartic release, as a means to slander his enemies. And man, if the measure of a man is his enemies (choose them carefully) then Dante is quite the fellow. Don’t read Divine Comedy as poetry, get the whole picture as it is more fascinating than fiction.That's what makes this edition so handy, you're tempted to read it as epic poem but this edition offers all the contextual clues you need from reliable experts.I need to read this one again, damn...
    • 4/5
      i had trouble with this one. i did not know who many of people Dante wrote about seeing on his journey, and if it were not for the notes in the back i would not have understood much at all. if you really want to experience this book as it was meant be, be prepared to do some research.
    • 5/5
      An excellent (rhyming) translation of Dante's epic by Dorothy L. Sayers. Very easy to read. The commentaries between cantos (by Sayers and heavily influenced by Charles Williams) are of great value for understanding both the social setting of the work and the deep philosophical and mythological imagery.

    Book preview

    The Inferno - Dante Alighieri

    XXXIV

    THE 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.

    Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark.

    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

    And lo! Almost where the ascent began. / A panther light and swift exceedingly, Which with a spotted skin was covered o’er!

    A lion’s aspect which appeared to me.

    He seemed as if against me he were coming

    With head uplifted, and with ravenous hunger.

    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 honor 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 hath done honor 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 greedy will,

    And after food is hungrier than before.

    Many the animals with whom she weds,

    And more they shall be still, until the Greyhound

    Comes, who shall make her perish in her pain.

    He shall not feed on either earth or pelf,

    But upon wisdom, and on love and virtue;

    ’Twixt Feltro and Feltro shall his nation be;

    Of that low Italy shall he be the saviour,

    On whose account the maid Camilla died,

    Euryalus, Turnus, Nisus, of their wounds;

    Through every city shall he hunt her down,

    Until he shall have driven her back to Hell,

    There from whence envy first did let her loose.

    Therefore I think and judge it for thy best

    Thou follow me, and I will be thy guide,

    And lead thee hence through the eternal place,

    Where thou shalt hear the desperate lamentations,

    Shalt see the ancient spirits disconsolate,

    Responded he, when he beheld me weeping.

    Who cry out each one for the second death;

    And thou shalt see those who contented are

    Within the fire, because they hope to come,

    Whene’er it may be, to the blessed people;

    To whom, then, if thou wishest to ascend,

    A soul shall be for that than I more worthy;

    With her at my departure I will leave thee;

    Because that Emperor, who reigns above,

    In that I was rebellious to his law,

    Wills that through me none come into his city.

    He governs everywhere, and there he reigns;

    There is his city and his lofty throne;

    O happy he whom thereto he elects!"

    And I to him: "Poet, I thee entreat,

    By that same God whom thou didst never know,

    So that I may escape this woe and worse,

    Thou wouldst conduct me there where thou hast said,

    That I may see the portal of Saint Peter,

    And those thou makest so disconsolate."

    Then he moved on, and I behind him followed.

    CANTO II

    Day was departing, and the embrowned air

    Released the animals that are on earth

    From their fatigues; and I the only one

    Made myself ready to sustain the war,

    Both of the way and likewise of the woe,

    Which memory shall retrace, that erreth not.

    O Muses, O high genius, now assist me!

    O memory, that didst write down what I saw,

    Here thy nobility shall be manifest!

    And I began: "Poet, who guidest me,

    Regard my manhood, if it be sufficient,

    Ere to the arduous pass thou dost confide me.

    Thou sayest, that of Silvius the parent,

    While yet corruptible, unto the world

    Immortal went, and was there bodily.

    But if the adversary of all evil

    Was courteous, thinking of the high effect

    That issue would from him, and who, and what,

    Then he moved on, and I behind him followed.

    To men of intellect unmeet it seems not;

    For he was of great Rome, and of her empire

    In the empyreal heaven as father chosen;

    The which and what, wishing to speak the truth,

    Were stablished as the holy place, wherein

    Sits the successor of the greatest Peter.

    Upon this journey, whence thou givest him vaunt,

    Things did he hear, which the occasion were

    Both of his victory and the papal mantle.

    Thither went afterwards the Chosen Vessel,

    To bring back comfort thence unto that Faith,

    Which of salvation’s way is the beginning.

    But I, why thither come, or who concedes it?

    I not Æneas am, I am not Paul,

    Nor I, nor others, think me worthy of it.

    Therefore, if I resign myself to come,

    I fear the coming may be ill-advised;

    Thou’rt wise, and knowest better than I speak."

    And as he is, who unwills what he willed,

    And by new thoughts doth his intention change,

    So that from his design he quite withdraws,

    Such I became, upon that dark hillside,

    Because, in thinking, I consumed the emprise,

    Which was so very prompt in the beginning.

    If I have well thy language understood,

    Replied that shade of the Magnanimous,

    "Thy soul attainted is with cowardice,

    Which many times a man encumbers so,

    It turns him back from honored enterprise,

    As false sight doth a beast, when he is shy.

    That thou mayst free thee from this apprehension,

    I’ll tell thee why I came, and what I heard

    At the first moment when I grieved for thee.

    Among those was I who are in suspense,

    And a fair, saintly Lady called to me

    In such wise, I besought her to command me.

    Her eyes were shining brighter than the Star;

    And she began to say, gentle and low,

    With voice angelical, in her own language:

    ‘O spirit courteous of Mantua,

    Of whom the fame still in the world endures,

    And shall endure, long-lasting as the world;

    Day was departing.

    A friend of mine, and not the friend of fortune,

    Upon the desert slope is so impeded

    Upon his way, that he has turned through terror,

    And may, I fear, already be so lost,

    That I too late have risen to his succor,

    From that which I have heard of him in Heaven.

    Bestir thee now, and with thy speech ornate,

    And with what needful is for his release,

    Assist him so, that I may be consoled.

    Beatrice am I, who do bid thee go;

    I come from there, where I would fain return;

    Love moved me, which compelleth me to speak.

    When I shall be in presence of my Lord,

    Full often will I praise thee unto him.’

    Then paused she, and thereafter I began:

    ‘O Lady of virtue, thou alone through whom

    The human race exceedeth all contained

    Within the heaven that has the lesser circles,

    So grateful unto me is thy commandment,

    To obey, if ’t were already done, were late;

    No farther need’st thou ope to me thy wish.

    But the cause tell me why thou dost not shun

    The here descending down into this centre,

    From the vast place thou burnest to return to.’

    ‘Since thou wouldst fain so inwardly discern,

    Briefly will I relate,’ she answered me,

    ‘Why I am not afraid to enter here.

    Of those things only should one be afraid

    Which have the power of doing others harm;

    Of the rest, no; because they are not fearful.

    God in his mercy such created me

    That misery of yours attains me not,

    Nor any flame assails me of this burning.

    A

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1