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about the beginning of the "Divine Comedy" of Dante Aleghieri
artwork: Gustave Dore, Dante lost in the dark woods

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A Dark Wood The Dark Wood of Error


Dante astray in the Dusky Wood

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1 When I had journeyed half of our life's way,
2 I found myself within a shadowed forest,
3 for I had lost the path that does not stray.

4 Ah, it is hard to speak of what it was,
5 that savage forest, dense and difficult,
6 which even in recall renews my fear:

7 so bitter death is hardly more severe!
8 But to retell the good discovered there,
9 I'll also tell the other things I saw.

10 I cannot clearly say how I had entered
11 the wood; I was so full of sleep just at
12 the point where I abandoned the true path.

13 But when I'd reached the bottom of a hill
14 it rose along the boundary of the valley
15 that had harassed my heart with so much fear

16 I looked on high and saw its shoulders clothed
17 already by the rays of that same planet
18 which serves to lead men straight along all roads.

19 At this my fear was somewhat quieted;
20 for through the night of sorrow I had spent,
21 the lake within my heart felt terror present.

22 And just as he who, with exhausted breath,
23 having escaped from sea to shore, turns back
24 to watch the dangerous waters he has quit,

25 so did my spirit, still a fugitive,
26 turn back to look intently at the pass
27 that never has let any man survive.

28 I let my tired body rest awhile.
29 Moving again, I tried the lonely slope
30 my firm foot always was the one below.

31 And almost where the hillside starts to rise
32 look there!-a leopard, very quick and lithe,
33 a leopard covered with a spotted hide.

34 He did not disappear from sight, but stayed;
35 indeed, he so impeded my ascent
36 that I had often to turn back again.

37 The time was the beginning of the morning;
38 the sun was rising now in fellowship
39 with the same stars that had escorted it

40 when Divine Love first moved those things of beauty;
41 so that the hour and the gentle season
42 gave me good cause for hopefulness on seeing

43 that beast before me with his speckled skin;
44 but hope was hardly able to prevent
45 the fear I felt when I beheld a lion.

46 His head held high and ravenous with hunger
47 even the air around him seemed to shudder
48 this lion seemed to make his way against me.

49 And then a she-wolf showed herself; she seemed
50 to carry every craving in her leanness;
51 she had already brought despair to many.

52 The very sight of her so weighted me
53 with fearfulness that I abandoned hope
54 of ever climbing up that mountain slope.

55 Even as he who glories while he gains
56 will, when the time has come to tally loss,
57 lament with every thought and turn despondent,

58 so was I when I faced that restless beast
59 which, even as she stalked me, step by step
60 had thrust me back to where the sun is speechless.

61 While I retreated down to lower ground,
62 before my eyes there suddenly appeared
63 one who seemed faint because of the long silence

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from literarisches synthett, released November 26, 2011

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Wolfgang Schweizer image

Wolfgang Schweizer Laucherthal, Germany

I am an abstract acrylic painter and metalsmith. In 2009 I started composing with Ableton Live software.

Impressum: www.wolfgangschweizer.com#!impressum/ot6em
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