DANTE ALIGHIERI - Wyoming Catholic College

1 DIVINECOMEDY- INFERNODANTEALIGHIERIHENRYWADSWORTHLONGF ELLOWENGLISHTRANSLATION ANDNOTESPAULGUSTAVEDOR EILLUSTRATIONSJOSEFNYGRINPDF PREPARATION ANDTYPESETTINGENGLISHTRANSLATION ANDNOTESH enry Wadsworth LongfellowILLUSTRATIONSPaul Gustave Dor eReleased underCreative are free:to share to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work;to remix to make derivative the following conditions:attribution you must attribute the work in the manner specified by the authoror licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your useof the work);noncommercial you may not use this work for commercial of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission fromthe copyright translation and notes byH.

2 W. Longfellowobtained of illustrations byP. G. Dor eobtained , scanned byDan Short, used LATEX typesetting byJosef Nygrin, in Jan & Feb rights reservedc 2008 Josef NygrinContentsCanto 11 Canto 29 Canto 316 Canto 423 Canto 530 Canto 638 Canto 744 Canto 851 Canto 958 Canto 1065 Canto 1171 Canto 1277 Canto 1385 Canto 1493 Canto 1599 Canto 16104 Canto 17110 Canto 18116 Canto 19124 Canto 20131 Canto 21136 Canto 22143 Canto 23150 Canto 24158 Canto 25164 Canto 26171 Canto 27177 Canto 28183 Canto 29192 Canto 30200 Canto 31207 Canto 32215 Canto 33222 Canto 34231 DANTE Alighieri239 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow245 Paul Gustave Dor e251

3 Some rights reservedc 2008 Josef 1: Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within aforest 1 MIDWAY upon the journey of our life1I found myself within a forest dark,2 For the straightforward pathway had been me! how hard a thing it is to sayWhat was this forest savage, rough, and stern,Which in the very thought renews the 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 cannot well repeat how there I entered,So full was I of slumber at the momentIn which I had abandoned the true after I had reached a mountain s foot,3At that point where the valley terminated,4 Which had with consternation pierced my heart,Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders1 The action of the poem begins on Good Friday of the year 1300, at which time DANTE ,who was born in 1265.

4 Had reached the middle of the Scriptual threescore years and ends on the first Sunday after Easter, making in all ten dark forest of human life, with its passions, vices, and perplexities of all kinds;politically the state of Florence with its fractions Guelf and , in hisPilgrim s Progress, which is a kind of Divine Comedy in prose, says: Ibeheld then that they all went on till they came to the foot of the hill But thenarrow way lay right up the hill, and the name of the going up the side of the hill is They went then till they came to the Delectable Mountains, which mountainsbelong to the Lord of that hill of which we have spoken before.

5 4 Bunyan,Pilgrim s Progress But now in this valley of Humiliation poor Christianwas hard put to it; for he had gone but a little way before he spied a foul fiend comingover the field to meet him; his name is Apollyon. Then did Christian begin to be afraid,and to cast in his mind whether to go back or stand his ground..Now at the end of thisvalley was another, called the valley of the Shadow of Death; and Christian must needsgo through it, because the way to the Celestial City lay through the midst of it. 12 already with that planet s rays5 Which leadeth others right by every was the fear a little quietedThat in my heart s lake had endured throughout6 The night, which I had passed so piteouslyAnd even as he, who, with distressful breath,Forth issued from the sea upon the shore,Turns to the water perilous and gazes.

6 So did my soul, that still was fleeing onward,Turn itself back to re-behold the passWhich never yet a living person my weary body I had rested,The way resumed I on the desert slope,So that the firm foot ever was the lo! almost where the ascent began,9A panther light and swift exceedingly,10 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 time was the beginning of the morning,And up the sun was mounting with those stars12 That with him were, what time the Love Divine5 The sun, with all its symbolical meanings.

7 This is the morning of Good Friday. In thePtolemaic system the sun was one of the deep mountain tarn of his heart, dark with its own depth, and the shadowshanging over ii. 6: That led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and ofpits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no manpassed through, and where no man dwelt. In his note upon this passage Mr. Wrightquotes Spenser s lines,Faerie Queene, I. v. 31, there creature never passed That backreturned without heavenly grace.

8 8 Climbing the hillside slowly, so that he rests longest on the foot that is v. 6: Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, a wolf of the eveningshall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thenceshall be torn in pieces. 10 Wordly Pleasure; and politically Florence, with its factions of Bianchi and `u volte volto. DANTE delights in a play upon words as much as stars of Aries. Some philosophers and fathers think the world was created ALIGHIERI - Divine Comedy, Inferno3 Figure 2: And lo!

9 Almost where the ascent began, a panther light and 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 fearA lion s aspect which appeared to seemed as if against me he were comingWith head uplifted, and with ravenous hunger,So that it seemed the air was afraid of him;14 And a she-wolf, that with all hungerings15 Seemed to be laden in her meagreness,And many folk has caused to live forlorn!

10 13 Ambition; and politically the royal house of editions readtemesse, ; and politically the Court of Rome, or temporal power of the brought upon me so much heaviness,With the affright that from her aspect came,That I the hope relinquished of the 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 degreesThrust me back thither where the sun is silent16 While I was rushing downward to the lowland.