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CANTO
I
versi 1-9
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
ché la diritta via era smarrita.
Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura
esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte
che nel pensier rinova la paura!
Tant’è amara che poco è più morte;
ma per trattar del ben ch’i’ vi trovai,
dirò de l’altre cose ch’i’ v’ho scorte.
CANTO
V
versi 97-108
Siede la terra
dove nata fui
su la marina dove ’l Po discende
per aver pace co’ seguaci sui.
Amor, ch'al cor
gentil ratto s'apprende,
prese costui de la bella persona
che mi fu tolta; e 'l modo ancor m'offende.
Amor, ch'a nullo
amato amar perdona,
mi prese del costui piacer sì forte,
che, come vedi, ancor non m'abbandona.
Amor condusse noi ad una morte.
Caina attende chi a vita ci spense.
Queste parole da lor ci fuor porte.
CANTO XXVI
versi
112-120
O frati",
dissi "che per cento milia
perigli siete giunti a l’occidente,
a questa tanto picciola vigilia
d’i nostri sensi ch’è del rimanente,
non vogliate negar l’esperienza,
di retro al sol, del mondo sanza gente.
Considerate la vostra semenza:
fatti non foste a viver come bruti,
ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza".
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CANTO
I
verses 1-9
When I had
journeyed half of our life’s way,
I found myself within a shadowed forest,
for I had lost the path that does not stray.
Ah, it is hard to speak of what it was,
that savage forest, dense and difficult,
which even in recall renews my fear:
so bitter-death is hardly more severe!
But to retell the good discovered there,
I’ll also tell the other things I saw.
CANTO
V
verses 97-108
The land where I was born lies on
that shore
to which the Po together with the waters
that follow it descends to final rest.
Love, that can
quickly seize the gentle heart,
took hold of him because of the fair body
taken from me-how that was done still wounds me.
Love, that releases no beloved from loving,
took hold of me so strongly through his beauty
that, as you see, it has not left me yet.
Love led the two of us unto one
death.
Caina waits for him who took our life.”
These words were borne across from them to us.
CANTO XXVI
verses
112-120
‘Brothers,’ I
said, ‘o you, who having crossed
a hundred thousand dangers, reach the west,
to this brief waking-time that still is left
unto your senses, you must not deny
experience of that which lies beyond
the sun, and of the world that is unpeopled.
Consider well the seed that gave you birth:
you were not made to live your lives as brutes,
but to be followers of worth and knowledge.’
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Ahi serva Italia,
di dolore ostello,
nave sanza nocchiere in gran tempesta,
non donna di province, ma bordello!
Quell'anima gentil fu così presta,
sol per lo dolce suon de la sua terra,
di fare al cittadin suo quivi festa;
e ora in te non stanno sanza guerra
li vivi tuoi, e l'un l'altro si rode
di quei ch'un muro e una fossa serra.
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Ah, abject Italy,
you inn of sorrows,
you ship without a helmsman in harsh seas,
no queen of provinces but of bordellos!
That noble soul had such enthusiasm:
his city’s sweet name was enough for him
to welcome-there-his fellow-citizen;
But those who are alive within you now
can’t live without their warring-even those
whom one same wall and one same moat enclose
gnaw at each other.
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Qual
è 'l geomètra che tutto s'affige
per misurar lo cerchio, e non ritrova,
pensando, quel principio ond'elli indige,
tal era io a quella vista nova:
veder voleva come si convenne
l'imago al cerchio e come vi s'indova;
ma non eran da ciò le proprie penne:
se non che la mia mente fu percossa
da un fulgore in che sua voglia venne.
A l'alta fantasia qui mancò possa;
ma già volgeva il mio disio e 'l velle,
sì come rota ch'igualmente è mossa,
l'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle.
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As the geometer
intently seeks
to square the circle, but he cannot reach,
through thought on thought, the principle he
needs,
so I searched that strange sight: I wished to
see
the way in which our human effigy
suited the circle and found place in it-
and my own wings were far too weak for that.
But then my mind was struck by light that
flashed
and, with this light, received what it had
asked.
Here force failed my high fantasy; but my
desire and will were moved already-like
a wheel revolving uniformly-by
the Love that moves the sun and the other stars.
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