tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29676463.post4186513483432305106..comments2024-03-29T14:45:32.326+13:00Comments on The Imaginary Museum: Divine Comedies (3): A Dante Translator's PrimerDr Jack Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01805945600952222957noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29676463.post-45262714201305108952012-12-15T21:05:02.677+13:002012-12-15T21:05:02.677+13:00I'll take the bait. It's hardly fair thoug...I'll take the bait. It's hardly fair though since you've done 99.99% of the work. <br /><br />Actually after having a go, I wonder if so many people try to translate it because of the personal quest aspect, as if grappling with it will yield some mystery that connects them with something higher. Like the Nazca labyrinths http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2247410/Perus-spiral-Nazca-lines-path-spiritual-enlightenment.html<br /><br />I don't know why anyone would think that though. Dante's just a garrulous old Italian isn't he? <br /><br /> <br />In the middle of my life’s road<br />I ended up in a dark wood<br />having somehow gotten off-track. <br /><br />Oof, it’s so hard to describe<br />that feral bush – bleak, hard<br />the thought brings back the shakes.<br /><br />It was just less worse than death;<br />leaving out everything good I found<br />I’ll say what I found -- the rest! <br /><br />I can’t rightly say how I got there<br />I was so full of sleep at the time<br />I left the proper way behind.<br /><br />But gaining the foot of a high hill<br />which terminated the valley<br />that had stabbed my heart with fear<br /><br />I looked up and saw its shoulders<br />now draped in rays of the planet<br />that rights others on every road.<br /><br />So my fear settled down a bit<br />that in my self's mere had endured<br />the awful night I’d passed.<br /><br />And just like one who, gasping,<br />spat up from the sea on the shore,<br />turns to the breakers and stares,<br /><br />so my soul, still a runaway, <br />turned back to look on the pass<br />that never let out a living soul. <br /><br />I let my body sit for a little,<br />then resumed the barren slope<br />keeping my firmest foot behind.<br />Katherine Dolanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01831799082347506550noreply@blogger.com