The Divine Comedy COMPLETE with Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso by Dante Alighieri in it's original Italian with a line by line English Translation by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This edition has been carefully edited with an easy to use ACTIVE Table of Contents linking you to each Canto. Also included is a short synopsis at the beginning of each Canto. 135 original illustrations by Gustave Dore are inserted throughout.
This is a sample of the easy to read dual language format used in this issue. Dante wrote The Divine Comedy in 3 line stanzas with triple rime and this format has been maintained throughout.
1. Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
1. Midway upon the journey of our life
2. mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
2. I found myself within a forest dark,
3. che' la diritta via era smarrita.
3. For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
4. Ahi quanto a dir qual era e' cosa dura
4. Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
5. esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte
5. What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
6. che nel pensier rinova la paura!
6. Which in the very thought renews the fear.
7. Tant'e' amara che poco e' piu' morte;
7. So bitter is it, death is little more;
8. ma per trattar del ben ch'i' vi trovai,
8. But of the good to treat, which there I found,
9. diro' de l'altre cose ch'i' v'ho scorte.
9. Speak will I of the other things I saw there.
