| Notes
1
It was Good Friday morning
in 1300, a Jubilee year proclaimed by Pope Boniface VIII. Since Dante was
born in 1265, he is now thirty-five old, halfway through the biblical span
of seventy years.
17 In the Ptolemaic system, the sun is a
planet.
32 The allegorical
meaning of the three beasts is not clear. One tradition maintains that the leopard is
probably symbolic of fraud; the lion (l .45) of violence; and the she-wolf (l. 49) of
incontinence. Since these make up the three chief divisions of hell, the poet first
encounters them in reverse order.
-
64 Virgil (70-19 B. C.), born in the time of
Julius Caesar, is the author of the Aeneid which describes Aeneas, son of Anchises,
journeying through the underworld (Book VI) before battling to found Rome. Camilla,
Turnus, etc. (ll. 107-08) are characters in the poem.
101 The Greyhound may refer to Dante's patron
Can Grande della Scala, lord of Verona, which lies between two towns of Feltro in Northern
Italy. Another interpretation considers the appearance of the Greyhound as the second
coming of Christ who will deliver humankind from evil (the she-wolf).
115-120 In these lines the poet is anticipating his journey
through hell, purgatory, and paradise.
124 Virgil refers to himself as a rebel of
the Emperor's (God's) laws since he was not consciously aware of Christ as the Redeemer of
humanity (see Canto IV, and Purgatorio XXII). |
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-
Halfway through the journey we are living
- I
found myself deep in a darkened forest,
- For I
had lost all trace of the straight path.
-
- Ah
how hard it is to tell what it was like,
- 5
How wild the forest was, how dense and rugged!
-
To think of it still fills my mind with panic.
-
- So
bitter it is that death is hardly worse!
- But
to describe the good discovered there
- I
here will tell the other things I saw.
-
- 10
I cannot say clearly how I entered there,
- So
drowsy with sleep had I grown at that hour
- When
first I wandered off from the true way.
-
- But
when I had reached the base of a hill,
- There
at the border where the valley ended
- 15
That had cut my heart to the quick with panic,
-
- I
looked up at the hill and saw its shoulder
-
Mantled already with the planet's light
- That
leads all people straight by every road.
-
- With
that my panic quieted a little
- 20
After lingering on in the lake of my heart
-
Through the night I had so grievously passed.
-
- And
like a person who with panting breath
-
Struggles ashore out of the wide ocean
- Only
to glance back at the treacherous surf,
-
- 25
Just so my mind, racing on ahead,
-
Turned back to marvel at the pass no one
- Ever
before had issued from alive.
-
- After
resting awhile my worn-out body,
- I
pressed on up the wasted slope so that
- 30
I always had one firm foot on the ground.
-
- But
look! right near the upgrade of the climb
-
Loomed a fleet and nimble-footed leopard
- With
coat completely covered by dark spots!
-
- He
did not flinch or back off from my gaze,
- 35
But blocking the path that lay before me,
- Time
and again he forced me to turn around.
-
- The
hour was the beginning of the morning,
- And
the sun was rising with those stars
- That
first attended it when divine Love
-
- 40
Set these lovely creations round in motion,
- So
that the early hour and the pleasant season
- Gave
me good reason to keep up my hopes
-
- Of
that fierce beast there with his gaudy pelt.
- But
not so when — to add now to my fears —
- 45
In front of me I caught sight of a lion!
-
- He
appeared to be coming straight at me
- With
head held high and furious for hunger,
- So
that the air itself seemed to be shaking.
-
- And
then a wolf stalked, ravenously lean,
- 50
Seemingly laden with such endless cravings
- That
she had made many live in misery!
-
- She
caused my spirits to sink down so low,
- From
the dread I felt in seeing her there,
- I
lost all hope of climbing to the summit.
-
- 55
And just as a man, anxious for big winnings,
- But
the time comes instead for him to lose,
- Cries
and grieves the more he thinks about it,
-
- So
did the restless she-beast make me feel
- When,
edging closer toward me, step by step,
- 60
She drove me back to where the sun is silent.
-
- While
I was falling back to lower ground,
-
Before my eyes now came a figure forward
- Of
one grown feeble from long being mute.
-
- When
I saw him in that deserted spot,
- 65
"Pity me!" I shouted out to him,
-
"Whoever you are, a shade or living man."
-
-
"Not a man," he answered. "Once a man,
- Of
parents who had come from Lombardy;
- Both
of them were Mantuans by birth.
-
- 70
"I was born late in Julius's reign
- And
dwelt at Rome under the good Augustus
- In
the period of false and lying gods.
-
-
"A poet I was, and I sang of the just
- Son
of Anchises who embarked from Troy
- 75
After proud Ilium was burned to ashes.
-
-
"But why do you turn back to so much grief?
- Why
not bound up the delightful mountain
- Which
is the source and font of every joy?"
-
-
"Are you then Virgil and that wellspring
- 80
That pours forth so lush a stream of speech?"
-
Shamefacedly I responded to him.
-
-
"O glory and light of all other poets,
- May
the long study and the profound love
- That
made me search your work come to my aid!
-
- 85
"You are my mentor and my chosen author:
- Alone
you are the one from whom I have taken
- The
beautiful style that has brought me honor.
-
-
"Look at the beast that drove me to turn back!
-
Rescue me from her, celebrated sage,
- 90
For she causes my veins and pulse to tremble."
-
-
"You are destined to take another route,"
- He
answered, seeing me reduced to tears,
-
"If you want to be clear of this wilderness,
-
-
"Because this beast that forces you to cry out
- 95
Will not let anyone pass by her way
- But
harries him until she finally kills him.
-
-
"By nature she is so depraved and vicious
- That
her greedy appetite is never filled:
- The
more she feeds, the hungrier she grows.
-
- 100
"Many the animal she has mated with,
- And
will with more to come, until the Greyhound
- That
shall painfully slaughter her arrives.
-
-
"He shall not feast on property or pelf
- But
on wisdom, love, and manliness,
- 105
And he shall be born between Feltro and Feltro.
-
-
"He shall save low prostrated Italy
- For
which Nisus, Turnus, and Euryalus,
- And
the virgin Camilla died of wounds.
-
-
"He shall hunt the beast through every town
- 110
Until he chases her back down to hell
- From
which envy first had thrust her forth.
-
-
"I think and judge it best for you, then,
- To
follow me, for I will be your guide,
-
Directing you to an eternal place
-
- 115
"Where you shall listen to the desperate screams
- And
see the spirits of the past in torment,
- As at
his second death each one cries out;
-
-
"And you shall also see those who are happy
- Even
in flames, since they hope to come,
- 120
Whenever that may be, among the blessed.
-
-
"If you still wish to ascend to the blessed,
- A
soul worthier than I shall guide you:
- On my
departure I will leave you with her.
-
-
"For the Emperor who rules there above,
- 125
Since I lived in rebellion to his law,
- Will
not permit me to enter his city.
-
-
"Everywhere his kingdom comes: there he reigns,
- There
his heavenly city and high throne.
- Oh
happy the one elected to go there!"
-
- 130
And I said to him, "Poet, I entreat you,
- By
the God whom you have never known,
- So
may I flee from this and from worse evil,
-
-
"Lead me to the place you just described
- That
I may come to see Saint Peter's gate
- 135
And those you say are deeply sorrowful."
-
- Then he moved on and I walked straight behind.
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