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      1 In middle age I wholly lost my way,

      finding myself within an evil wood

      far from the right straight road we all should tread,

      4 and what a wood! So densely tangled, dark,

      jaggily thorned, so hard to press on through,

      even the memory renews my dread.

      7 My misery, my almost deadly fear

      led on to such discovery of good,

      I’ll tell you of it, if you care to hear.

      I cannot say how I had wandered there, 10

      when dozy, dull and desperate for sleep

      my feet strayed out of the true thoroughfare,

      till deep among the trees an upward slope 13

      gave to my fearful soul a thrill of hope

      as rising ground at last became a hill,

      and looking up I saw a summit bright 16

      with dawn – the rising sun that shows us all

      where we should travel by its heavenly light.

      This quieted a little while the fright 19

      that churned the blood within my heart’s lagoon

      through the long journey of that gloomy night.

      Like shipwrecked swimmers in a stormy sea 22

      who, tired and panting but at last ashore,

      look back on swamping breakers thoughtfully,

      I turned to view, though wishing still to leave, 25

      the terrifying forest in the glen

      no living soul but mine had struggled through.

      My weary body rested then until, 28

      rising, I climbed the sloping wilderness,

      so that each footstep raised me higher still.

      But see! The uphill climb had just begun 31

      when suddenly a leopard, light, quick, gay

      and brightly spotted, sprang before my feet,

      dodging from side to side, blocking the way 34

      so swiftly and with such determination

      she sometimes nearly forced me to retreat.

      37 The sun had reached a height dimming the stars

      created with him on the second day,

      after the birth of time and space and light,

      40 and this recalled God’s generosity,

      letting me feel some good at least might be

      within the leopard’s carnival ferocity,

      43 so dappled, bright and jolly was that beast,

      but not so bright to stop me shuddering

      at a fresh shock – a lion came in sight,

      46 his mighty head held high, his savage glare

      fixed upon me in such a hungry way

      it seemed to terrify the very air.

      49 A wolf beside him, rabid from starvation,

      horribly hungry, far more dangerous,

      has driven multitudes to desperation,

      52 me too! For she established my disgrace,

      (that worst of beasts) by killing my desire

      to climb up higher to a better place.

      55 A millionaire made glorious by gain

      then hit by sudden loss of all he has,

      cries out in vast astonishment and pain.

      58 So did I, shoved down backwards, foot by foot,

      by pressure of that grim relentless brute

      till forced into the sunless wood again.

      61 Appearing in its shade a human shape

      both seemed and sounded centuries away,

      murmuring words almost beyond my hearing,

      therefore I yelled, “Pity and help me, please, 64

      whether you be a living man or ghost!”

      and pleaded, crouching down before his knees.

      “Not man – though once I was, in Lombardy, 67

      where both my parents dwelled in Mantua,

      and I was born in Caesar’s reign,” said he,

      “but educated in Augustan Rome 70

      when the false gods were worshipped everywhere.

      I sang the epic of Anchises’ son,

      pious Aeneas, who fled blazing Troy 73

      and founded Rome. I was a poet there.

      Why are you here? Why turn back from your climb

      towards the bright height of eternal bliss 76

      and come again to a bad place like this?”

      “You must be Virgil!” Awestruck, I replied,

      “Fountain of all our pure Italian speech!” 79

      Rising, I bowed and told him, “All I know

      of poetry derives from what you teach!

      The style which makes me famed in Italy 82

      I learned from you who are my dominie!

      Help me again, for see at the hill foot

      the brute whose threats have rendered me distraught! 85

      Master, please save me – show me the right way.

      That rabid wolf has driven me so mad

      my pulse and every sense have gone agley.” 88

      I wept and, “Take another road,” he said,

      “and leave this wasteland, leave that wolfish whore

      91 who lets none pass before she bites them dead.

      Her starving greedy lust is never sated.

      Her appetite increases as she feasts.

      94 Mated with many beasts, she’ll mate with more

      till one great greyhound comes to hunt her down

      whose fangs will end her life in deadly pain.

      97 Wisdom, love, courage are his nourishment,

      not gold nor land nor any earthly gain.

      From birth among the lowly he will rise,

      100 bringing new glory to the Italian plain

      like the old Trojan colonists and kings

      whose wars created Rome’s establishment.

      103 Out of each city state he will expel

      the wolf before he fixes her at last

      back in the place she came from, which is Hell.

      106 That is not yet; so now you’ll