PROJECT DANTE

Canto I

When I was near two score years old 1
I found myself in forest cold
For I was lost, from path I'd strayed
In forest dark with shadows frayed
Then from the foot of hill I reached 2
A path that rose through mountain breached
And almost where the hill did rise
I saw a le0pard thin and lithe 3
And then a lion I beheld 4
Full ravenous with fearsome head
And then a she-wold showed herself 5
Her leaness seemed to bring despair
This very sight so frightened me
I lost all sense or so it seemed
And having there abandoned hope
Of climbing up that mountain slope
That restless beast she stalked me down
Retreated I to lower ground
Before my eyes there then appeared
A vision faint of silence speared
A man I saw in vastness wild 6
'Oh pity me,' were words I cried
'Whatever you may be.' I said
He answered me with ghostly breath
'Not man but once before was man
From Lombardy my parent came
Sub Julio I sang the praise 7
Of Anchises and Troy in flames 8
A poet I was born before
The son of one true God was born.' 9
'And you are Virgil,' I replied
'The stream of all fair speach,' I cried
'It is another path you'll take,' 10
He answered as he watched me shake
'I think and judge it best for you
To follow me, I'll lead you through.'
And so the poet moved away
And followed him to my dark fate
On journey deep he guided me
So soul of mine could be complete 11

Just a few notes on where and why I abridged the first Canto.
The Divine Comedy and the Inferno that I'm concentrating on are extremely complex. They contain many images and metaphors of life in Italy in the late 13th and early 14th century. They do not rhyme as they are translated into english and this make them difficult to undertand. Most of the lines and references that I have left out relate to the more difficult images and connections as they appear in the translation.

1 Dante was 35 years old when he started to write the comedy (Fun fact: I'm 35 too, it was my birthday in mid September.)

2 The hill, or mountain refered to is a higher path to salvation from the dark wood where Dante has strayed.

3 Usually interpreted as a symbol of lust.

4 The lion is generally understood to represent pride.

5 The she wolf is thought to represent avarice. In the Canto there are many lines that refer to her appetite and evil will. The wolf is countered by a greyhound, another animal symbol, which was prophetic of a change to come to save the land and church from the she-wolf.

"Wherefore a lion out of the wood hath slain them, a wolf in the evening hath spoiled them, a leopard watcheth for their cities: every one that shall go out thence shall be taken, because their transgressions are multiplied, their rebellions strengthened" (Jeremiah 5:6)

6 The shade or ghost that Dante sees is Virgil, a Roman poet.

7 'Sub Julio I sang the praise,' Beneath the Ceasar lived Virgil.

8 Anchises (Aeneas) from Virgil's Aeneid tells the story of the burning of the city of Troy after its capture by the Greeks. Aeneas was a Trojan prince who escaped the destruction of Troy and escaped to Latium in central Italy where he established a colony whose descendants founded Rome.

9 Virgil was born and lived before the birth of Christianity and so he is condemned to the afterlife beyond the light of God.

10 The other path that Dante must take is the lower road through hell since the path upwards is blocked to him by the she-wolf.

11 The journey that Dante undertakes is for his soul, which relates back to his straying from the path etc.

I'm going to link to the entire first Canto here so that you can compare if you like where I began and where I ended up. I personally think that most of the hardest and most obscure references have been removed to make it more easily understood as a story, and since I intend to illustrate the poem once complete I think that it should work. Stay with me, this could take a lot of time.

Heres the Wikipedia entry on the Divine Comedy, its worth a look and covers most of the major themes of the poem.

Heres another link, to a project called Danteworlds which explores all the major regions of hell as it appears in the Inferno. Lots of usefull reference. Thanks to the fine people at the University of Texas at Austin for this one.