Inferno

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Translated by Anthony Esolen
Illustrations by Gustave DoréA groundbreaking bilingual edition of Dante’s masterpiece that includes a substantive Introduction, extensive notes, and appendixes that reproduce Dante’s key sources and influences. “Professor Esolen’s translation of Dante’s Inferno is the best one I have seen. . . . And his endnotes and other additions provoke answers to almost any question that could arise about the work.” —A. Kent Hieatt, translator of The Canterbury Tales“Crisp and clear, Esolen’s version avoids two modern temptations: a slavish literalness to the Italian or a taking of liberties in the attempt to make this greatest of medieval poems esthetically modern. . . . In addition to his scholarly tact, Esolen is simply one of the most vigorous English translators of Dante ever.”—Crisis magazine
“Esolen’s new translation follows Dante through all his spectacular range, commanding where he is commanding, wrestling, as he does, with the density and darkness in language and in the soul. This Inferno gives us Dante’s vivid drama and his verbal inventiveness. It is living writing.” —James Richardson, professor of creative writing in the Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University“Opening the book we stand face to face with the poet, and when his voice ceases we may marvel if he has not sung to us in his own Tuscan.”—William Dean Howells, The Nation Anthony Esolen is a published poet and professor of English at Providence College who has written extensively on Renaissance and medieval literature. His translations include the three volumes of The Divine Comedy—Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise—Lucretius’s De rerum natura, and Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata. Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
  mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
  che la diritta via era smarrita.
Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura4
  esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte
  che nel pensier rinova la paura!
Tant’ è amara che poco è più morte;7
  ma per trattar del ben ch’i’ vi trovai,
  dirò de l’altre cose ch’i’ v’ho scorte.
Io non so ben ridir com’ i’ v’intrai,10
  tant’ era pien di sonno a quel punto
  che la verace via abbandonai.
Ma poi ch’i’ fui al piè d’un colle giunto,13
  là dove terminava quella valle
  che m’avea di paura il cor compunto,
guardai in alto e vidi le sue spalle16
  vestite già de’ raggi del pianeta
  che mena dritto altrui per ogne calle.
Allor fu la paura un poco queta,19
  che nel lago del cor m’era durata
  la notte ch’i’ passai con tanta pieta.
E come quei che con lena affannata,22
  uscito fuor del pelago a la riva,
  si volge a l’acqua perigliosa e guata,
Canto One
Lost in a dark wood and threatened by three beasts, Dante is rescued by Virgil, who proposes a journey to the other world.
Midway upon the journey of our life
  I found myself in a dark wilderness,
  for I had wandered from the straight and true.
How hard a thing it is to tell about,4
  that wilderness so savage, dense, and harsh,
  even to think of it renews my fear!
It is so bitter, death is hardly more-7
  but to reveal the good that came to me,
  I shall relate the other things I saw.
How I had entered, I can’t bring to mind,10
  I was so full of sleep just at that point
  when I first left the way of truth behind.
But when I reached the foot of a high hill,13
  right where the valley opened to its end-
  the valley that had pierced my heart with fear-
I raised my eyes and saw its shoulders robed16
  with the rays of that wandering light of Heaven°
  that leads all men aright on every road.
That quieted a bit the dread that stirred19
  trembling within the waters of my heart
  all through that night of misery I endured.
And as a man with labored breathing drags22
  his legs out of the water and, ashore,
  fixes his eyes upon the dangerous sea,
° that wandering light of Heaven: Italian pianeta, "planet." It is the sun, considered a planet, or wandering light, revolving about the earth.
così l’animo mio, ch’ancor fuggiva,25
  si volse a retro a rimirar lo passo
  che non lasciò già mai persona viva.
Poi ch’èi posato un poco il corpo lasso,28
  ripresi via per la piaggia diserta,
  sì che ‘l piè fermo sempre era ‘l più basso.
Ed ecco, quasi al cominciar de l’erta,31
  una lonza leggera e presta molto,
  che di pel macolato era coverta;
e non mi si partia dinanzi al volto,34
  anzi ‘mpediva tanto il mio cammino,
  ch’i’ fui per ritornar più volte vòlto.
Temp’ era dal principio del mattino,37
  e ‘l sol montava ‘n sù con quelle stelle
  ch’eran con lui quando l’amor divino
mosse di prima quelle cose belle;40
  sì ch’a bene sperar m’era cagione
  di quella fiera a la gaetta pelle
l’ora del tempo e la dolce stagione;43
  ma non sì che paura non mi desse
  la vista che m’apparve d’un leone.
Questi parea che contra me venisse46
  con la test’ alta e con rabbiosa fame,
  sì che parea che l’aere ne tremesse.
Ed una lupa, che di tutte brame49
  sembiava carca ne la sua magrezza,
  e molte genti fé già viver grame,
questa mi porse tanto di gravezza52
  con la paura ch’uscia di sua vista,
  ch’io perdei la speranza de l’altezza.
E qual è quei che volontieri acquista,55
  e giugne ‘l tempo che perder lo face,
  che ‘n tutti suoi pensier piange e s’attrista;
tal mi fece la bestia sanza pace,58
  che, venendomi ‘ncontro, a poco a poco
  mi ripigneva là dove ‘l sol tace. So too my mind, while still a fugitive,25
  turned back to gaze again upon that pass
  which never let a man escape alive.
When I had given my weary body rest,28
  I struck again over the desert slope,
  ever the firmer foot the one below,
And look! just where the steeper rise began,31
  a leopard light of foot and quick to lunge,
  all covered in a pelt of flecks and spots,
Who stood before my face and would not leave,34
  but did so check me in the path I trod,
  I often turned to go the way I came.
The hour was morning at the break of dawn;37
  the sun was mounting higher with those stars°
  that shone beside him when the Love Divine
In the beginning made their beauty move,40
  and so they were a cause of hope for me
  to get free of that beast of flashy hide-
The waking hour and that sweet time of year;43
  but hope was not so strong that I could stand
  bold when a lion stepped before my eyes!
This one seemed to be coming straight for me,46
  his head held high, his hunger hot with wrath-
  seemed to strike tremors in the very air!
Then a she-wolf, whose scrawniness seemed stuffed49
  with all men’s cravings, sluggish with desires,
  who had made many live in wretchedness-
So heavily she weighed my spirit down,52
  pressing me by the terror of her glance,
  I lost all hope to gain the mountaintop.
And as a gambler, winning with a will,55
  happening on the time when he must lose,
  turns all his thoughts to weeping and despair,
So I by that relentless beast, who came58
  against me step by step, and drove me back
  to where the sun is silent evermore.
those stars: the constellation Aries. It is the springtime of the year, recalling the springtime of the universe; see notes. Mentre ch’i’ rovinava in basso loco,61
  dinanzi a li occhi mi si fu offerto
  chi per lungo silenzio parea fioco.
Quando vidi costui nel gran diserto,64
  «Miserere di me», gridai a lui,
  «qual che tu sii, od ombra od omo certo!».
Rispuosemi: «Non omo, omo già fui,67
  e li parenti miei furon lombardi,
  mantoani per patrïa ambedui.
Nacqui sub Iulio, ancor che fosse tardi,70
  e vissi a Roma sotto ‘l buono Augusto
  nel tempo de li dèi falsi e bugiardi.
Poeta fui, e cantai di quel giusto73
  figliuol d’Anchise che venne di Troia,
  poi che ‘l superbo Ilïón fu combusto.
Ma tu perché ritorni a tanta noia?76
  perché non sali il dilettoso monte
  ch’è principio e cagion di tutta gioia?».
«Or se’ tu quel Virgilio e quella fonte79
  che spandi di parlar sì largo fiume?»,
  rispuos’ io lui con vergognosa fronte.
«O de li altri poeti onore e lume,82
  vagliami ‘l lungo studio e ‘l grande amore
  che m’ha fatto cercar lo tuo volume.
Tu se’ lo mio maestro e ‘l mio autore,85
  tu se’ solo colui da cu’ io tolsi
  lo bello stilo che m’ha fatto onore.
Vedi la bestia per cu’ io mi volsi;88
  aiutami da lei, famoso saggio,
  ch’ella mi fa tremar le vene e i polsi».
«A te convien tenere altro vïaggio»,91
  rispuose, poi che lagrimar mi vide,
  «se vuo’ campar d’esto loco selvaggio;
ché questa bestia, per la qual tu gride,94
  non lascia altrui passar per la sua via,
  ma tanto lo ‘mpedisce che l’uccide;
Now while I stumbled to the deepest wood,61
  before my eyes appeared the form of one
  who seemed hoarse, having held his words so long.
And when I saw him in that endless waste,64
  "Mercy upon me, mercy!" I cried out,
  "whatever you are, a shade, or man in truth!"
He answered me: "No man; I was a man,67
  and both my parents came from Lombardy,
  and Mantua they called their native land.
In the last days of Julius I was born,70
  and lived in Rome under the good Augustus
  in the time of the false and cheating gods.
I was a poet, and I sang of how73
  that just son of Anchises° came from Troy
  when her proud towers and walls were burnt to dust.
But you, why do you turn back to such pain?76
  Why don’t you climb that hill that brings delight,
  the origin and cause of every joy?"
"Then are you-are you Virgil? And that spring79
  swelling into so rich a stream of verse?"
  I answered him, my forehead full of shame.
"Honor and light of every poet, may82
  my long study avail me, and the love
  that made me search the volume of your work.
You are my teacher, my authority;85
  you alone are the one from whom I took
  the style whose loveliness has honored me.
See there the beast that makes me turn aside.88
  Save me from her, O man renowned and wise!
  She sets the pulses trembling in my veins!"
"It is another journey you must take,"91
  replied the poet when he saw me weep,
  "if you wish to escape this savage place,
Because this beast that makes you cry for help94
  never lets any pass along her way,
  but checks his path until she takes his life. MX