頌詩譯選
黑森林
Dante in the Dark Wood
by Gustave Doré
在我們行程的中途
我發現自己在黑森林中間，
迷失了向前的正路。
啊呀！那真是難以形容
這森林是那麼蠻荒，艱險，可怖，
一想到就使我害怕。
那樣的難受，比死好不了多少；
不過，敘述我在那裏所看到的，
另外的事也會有些好處。
我不清楚記得怎地進到那裏。
因為當時我十分困倦，
以至於失去了正路。
但我到了一個山腳之後，
山谷就終止於此，
所受的驚恐刺破我的心，
向上望去，我看到了山肩，
已經在那星光之下，
照引着每條道路。
我的心湖稍微平靜了些
忍受着整夜的懼怕
我那麼悽慘的經過，
就像人喘息掙扎着，
從海裏爬上了岸，
迴望那危險的波浪，
我的靈魂，仍然向上飛翔，
迴顧所經過的
從沒有活人如此經歷。
In The Dark Wood
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 英譯
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