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

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, where the direct way was lost.

A mitad del camino de la vida, 1 en una selva oscura me encontraba 2 porque mi ruta había extraviado. 3

When I had journeyed half of our life’s way,
I found myself within a shadowed forest,
for I had lost the path that does not stray.

Midway in the journey of our life → I came to myself in a dark wood, → 3 for the straight way was lost.

In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost. Ah, how hard a thing it is to tell what a wild, and rough, and stubborn wood this was, which in my thought renews the fear!

Midway along the journey of our life
I woke to find myself in a dark wood,
for I had wandered off from the straight path.

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita.

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
che' la diritta via era smarrita.

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...

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

"Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura"

Midway along life's journey
I woke to find myself in a dark wood

Midway in our life’s journey, I went astray from the straight road and woke to find myself alone in a dark wood. How shall I say what wood that was! I never saw so drear, so rank, so arduous a wilderness! Its very memory gives a shape to fear. Death could scarce be more bitter than that place! But since it came to good, I will recount all that I found revealed there by God’s grace. How I came to it I cannot rightly say, so drugged and loose with sleep had I become when I first wandered there from the True Way. But at the far end of that valley of evil whose maze had sapped my very heart with fear! I found myself before a little hill (15) and lifted up my eyes. Its shoulders glowed already with the sweet rays of that planet whose virtue leads men straight on every road, and the shining strengthened me against the fright whose agony had wracked the lake of my heart through all the terrors of that piteous night.