"Midway this way of life we're bound upon,

I woke to find myself in a dark wood,

Where the right road was wholly lost and gone.

Ay me! How hard to speak of it that rude

And rough and stubborn forest! The mere breath

Of memory stirs the old fear in the blood;

It is so bitter, it goes nigh to death;

Yet there I gained such good, that, to convey

The tale, I'll write what else I found therewith."

Dark wood - Maundy Thursday Night

Dante The Inferno Canto I Lines 1-9 

Dorothy Sayers Translation