The Battle of Darkness and Light . Джон МильтонЧитать онлайн книгу.

      Canto I. The Dark Forest. The Hill of Difficulty. The Panther, the Lion, and the Wolf. Virgil.

       Table of Contents

      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