“Midway along the journey of our lifeI woke to find myself in a dark wood,for I had wandered off from the straight path.How hard it is to tell what it was like,this wood of wilderness, savage and stubborn(the thought of it brings back all my old fears),a bitter place! Death could scarce be bitterer.But if I would show the good that came of itI must talk about things other than the good.”

“In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself within a dark woods where the straight way was lost.”

“I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightfoward pathway had been lost. Ah me! How hard a thing is to say, what was this forest savage, rough, and stern, which in the very thought renews the fear. So bitter is it, death is little more...”

“Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost.”

“In the middle of the journey of our life, I came to myself in a dark wood.”

“If i thought i was replying to someone who would every return to the world, this flame would cease it's flickering. But since no one has returned from these depths alive, if what I've heard is true, I will answer you without fear of infamy.”

“The broken branch hissed loudly, and then thatwind was converted into these words: "Briefly willyou be answered.When the fierce soul departs from the body fromwhich it has uprooted itself, Minos sends it to theseventh mouth.It falls into the wood, and no place is assigned toit, but where chance hurls it, there it sprouts like agrain of spelt.It grows into a shoot, then a woody plant; theHarpies, feeding on its leaves, give it pain and awindow for the pain.Like the others, we will come for our remains, butnot so that any may put them on again, for it is notjust to have what one has taken from oneself.Here we will drag them, and through the sadwood our corpses will hang, each on the thornbrushof the soul that harmed it.”