The Divine Comedy - Inferno

Dante Alighieri

Midway upon the journey of our lifeI found myself within a forest dark,For the straightforward pathway had been lost.Ah me! how hard a thing it is to sayWhat 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 momentIn 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 raysWhich leadeth others right by every road.Then was the fear a little quietedThat in my heart's lake had endured throughoutThe night, which I had passed so piteously.And even as he, who, with...