颂诗译选
黑森林
Dante in the Dark Wood
by Gustave Doré
在我们行程的中途
我发现自己在黑森林中间，
迷失了向前的正路。
啊呀！那真是难以形容
这森林是那么蛮荒，艰险，可怖，
一想到就使我害怕。
那样的难受，比死好不了多少；
不过，敘述我在那里所看到的，
另外的事也会有些好处。
我不清楚记得怎地进到那里。
因为当时我十分困倦，
以至於失去了正路。
但我到了一个山腳之后，
山谷就终止於此，
所受的惊恐刺破我的心，
向上望去，我看到了山肩，
已经在那星光之下，
照引着每条道路。
我的心湖稍微平靜了些
忍受着整夜的惧怕
我那么悽惨的经过，
就像人喘息掙扎着，
从海里爬上了岸，
回望那危险的波浪，
我的灵魂，仍然向上飞翔，
回顾所经过的
从沒有活人如此经历。
In The Dark Wood
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 英译
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 renewed my 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 the 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 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.
--Trans. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Dante Alighieri （1265-1321）
The Inferno canto I