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Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno
Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno
Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno
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Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno

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The Inferno is by far the most popular and well-known of the books in the Divine Comedy trilogy because of its depiction and understanding of the moral and spiritual pitfalls which still plague us today. This edition is illustrated with astonishing artworks, from Hieronymus Bosch's depictions of a surreal, hellish landscapes and other Renaissance visions of the Last Judgement, to Gustave Doré's intricate engravings of the pilgrim's spiritual travails.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMay 3, 2013
ISBN9781782125754
Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno
Author

Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri was an Italian poet of the Middle Ages, best known for his masterpiece, the epic Divine Comedy, considered to be one of the greatest poetic works in literature. A native of Florence, Dante was deeply involved in his city-state’s politics and had political, as well as poetic, ambitions. He was exiled from Florence in 1301 for backing the losing faction in a dispute over the pope’s influence, and never saw Florence again. While in exile, Dante wrote the Comedy, the tale of the poet’s pilgrimage through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. To reach the largest possible audience for the work, Dante devised a version of Italian based largely on his own Tuscan dialect and incorporating Latin and parts of other regional dialects. In so doing, he demonstrated the vernacular’s fitness for artistic expression, and earned the title “Father of the Italian language.” Dante died in Ravenna in 1321, and his body remains there despite the fact that Florence erected a tomb for him in 1829.

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Reviews for Dante's Divine Comedy

Rating: 4.1001029146383265 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A handsome book, but a clunky and awkward translation.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    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 Also, there are plenty of foot and end notes to explain middle age-phrases and historical references many people may not be familiar with.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Gave me nightmares.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    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.

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    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.

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    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.)
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    If you haven't walked through Hell with Dante, I highly recommend you do so immediately. It's quite nice.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Excellent prose translation. The essays at the end of each canto are worth the price of the book,
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This particular translation is interesting because it attempts to retain Dante's original three line rhyming scheme.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Inferno is a classic among classics. Dante's vision, along with Milton's "Paradise Lost", form the very basis for society's concept of HELL. A must read for any literary buff.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A nicely done translation, but at times I sensed the author tried to impose his voice over Dante's, and while he is good, he is no Dante. I still prefer Wordsworth.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    My favorite of all classics. This is a story of loss and retribution, temptation and horror. The imagery is amazing and the voice is strong and full of passion.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I had a collected copy of The Divine Comedy which I gave up for these three volumes. Inferno was excellent. I felt that it lived up to the translation that I read, and surpassed it in some ways. With the addition of contemporary pop-culture references throughout, we have a Hell in a very faithful to the original work. I definitely recommend these books to anyone who’s interested in The Divine Comedy.

Book preview

Dante's Divine Comedy - Dante Alighieri

DANTE AND THE INFERNO

Dante Alighieri (c.1265–1321) was born into a prominent Florentine family. When he was about 20 years old he married the daughter of a local nobleman, Gemma Donati, with whom he had a family. However his muse was a girl called Bice Portinari (Beatrice) whom he first met in 1274 and whom he continued to dote upon even after her death in 1290. Dante was embroiled in the sectarianism of Florence – a city torn apart by rival clans. While feudal aristocracy backed imperial authority (the Ghibellines), the Alighieri family supported the pope (the Guelphs). Their party eventually splintered into hostile White and Black factions. Offended by Pope Boniface VIII’s interference in secular affairs, Dante joined the White Guelphs. He was banished from Florence following the Black Guelph victory of 1302. Although he enjoyed the patronage of powerful northern Italian princes, his future political allegiances were misguided. He died in exile in Ravenna in 1321.

Dante’s Divine Comedy, begun in 1308, was the first book to be written in the Italian vulgare (specifically, the Tuscan dialect) instead of Latin. The complete poem comprises three cantiche – Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory) and Paradiso (Paradise) – written in terza rima, a verse scheme of three-line stanzas with interlocking rhyme patterns (aba, bcb, cdc, and so on). Dante’s influences included the classics, the neo-Platonists, Aristotle, natural philosophy and theology. The Inferno’s opening canto is a microcosm of the entire work and its topography prefigures the three realms of the soul’s afterlife: the dark wood (Hell), the barren slope (Mount Purgatory) and the blissful mountain (Paradise).

The epic poem juxtaposes human privation, injustice and imperfection with divine freedom, justice and perfection. Dante’s allegorical theme of God’s gradual revelation to an unsuspecting, unprepared pilgrim beautifully illustrates the concept of the rational human soul choosing salvation of its own free will. The use of real-life characters, autobiographical detail, personal failures and triumphs, sophisticated eschatological discourse and the denunciation of contemporary politics renders the poem unique. The imagery remains unsurpassed – galloping centaurs, devils, chained giants, cannibalism, dazzling angels, supernatural rivers and trees, configurations of lights and a heavenly stadium.

Inferno begins in the year 1300 when, at the age of thirty-five, Dante is lost in a dark forest, having missed the ‘straightforward way’. The way to salvation is symbolized by the sun behind the mountain but it is barred by three beasts – a Leopard, a Lion and a She-Wolf, each representing different sins. After Dante’s love, Beatrice (his real-life muse) intercedes on his behalf he is joined by the classical poet Virgil, who becomes his guide through the underworld. They cross the Acheron on Charon’s ferry and reach the Gate of Hell. Located under the city of Jerusalem in the Northern Hemisphere, Hell extends funnellike into the earth’s core. Dante and Virgil then descend through the nine Circles of Hell where they witness the torments of the damned.

The punishments of the damned are chillingly appropriate to their sins. Here are a few examples of contrapasso (the logical relationship between punishment and offence). The Suicides severed ties with their body so they will be denied human form on Judgment Day (Canto XIII). The Profligates, who were violently wasteful, are chased through trees and torn by dogs, because property was seen as an extension of the body and this kind of violence was tantamount to suicide (Canto XIII). The Flatterers are immersed in their verbal diarrhoea (Canto XVIII). The Simonists are given inverted baptisms with fire to illustrate their ecclesiastical perversion (Canto XIX). The Benedictine garb of the Hypocrites condemns their false piety (Canto XXIII) whilst the Thieves’ multiple transformations parody reincarnation and reflect their inability to separate ‘mine’ from ‘thine’ (Canto XXV). Fraudulent, silver-tongued rhetoric is condemned by the flaming tongues that consume the evil counsellors (Cantos XXVI–XXVII) while those who divided institutions, communities and families are ripped open (Canto XXVIII). The corrosive influence of falsification on metals (Alchemists), money (Counterfeiters), identity (Imposters) and truth (Liars) is fittingly expressed through the diseased state of their bodies and minds (Cantos XIX–XXX).

Dante categorizes sin as being without malice (Incontinence) or with malicious intent (Violence or Fraud). Cowardice and indecisiveness escape this dichotomy and are marginalized within Limbo. Heresy is in a kind of no-man’s land as it refutes Christian reality and the soul’s immortality yet does not involve sinful action.

The pilgrim’s behaviour sometimes mirrors that of the damned – for example, he chooses not to interact with the Indecisives (Canto III); he compares his excusable vandalism of church property with Boniface’s inexcusable destruction of the Church’s foundations (Canto XIX); and the language he uses when conversing with the Thieves suggests that he is contributing to the transformations themselves (Canto XXIV).

When they have travelled through all nine circles, Dante and Virgil finally reach the lake of ice where the three-headed Lucifer resides. Each head is chewing a sinner (Judas Iscariot, Brutus and Cassius). The pair escapes by climbing down Lucifer’s furry legs – down because Mount Purgatory lies in the opposite (Southern) hemisphere. After passing through the centre of the Earth, they emerge to ‘rebehold the stars’.

CANTO I

In the middle of his life, Dante has left the ‘straightforward pathway’ and is lost in a dark forest. He tries to regain the path by climbing a mountain but his way is barred by a Leopard, a Lion and a She-Wolf. Each creature represents a different sin. Virgil appears and offers to show him another way, one that leads through Hell and Purgatory. After that, a ‘more worthy’ guide (Beatrice) will lead him to Paradise: Virgil, as a Pagan, is not allowed to go there. Dante gladly adopts Virgil as his leader.

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.

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

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 honour 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 has done honour 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,

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

The end of the day has come and Dante is having doubts. He does not feel worthy enough to undertake his journey. Virgil accuses him of cowardice and tells of how the Virgin Mary turned to Saint Lucia, who in turn asked for Beatrice, Dante’s love, to go down into Limbo, where Virgil resides. There Beatrice, with ‘voice angelical’, asked Virgil to assist Dante, whose way was impeded. At this, Dante is heartened, and declares to Virgil that ‘one sole will is in us both’.

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