Inferno
Inferno
Dante's descent through the nine circles, tercet by tercet. Longfellow translated it line for line, so every row on the page pairs exactly.
The opening
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, ché la diritta via era smarrita.
Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
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.
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.
Translation
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Boston, 1867Ticknor and FieldsA line-for-line blank-verse translation, made to be read against the Italian.Public Domain
32722 words, about 252 minutes of reading.
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