Dante vs. Dante

Midway upon the journey of life

I found myself within a forest dark,

For the straightforward pathway had been lost.

 So begins Canto I of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, written in Italian during the fourteenth century.  The above is a translation by famed poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, published in 1867. 

Read below a 1980 translation of the same section, by Allen Mandelbaum:

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.

Both are translated from the same original text and express a common condition of middle-aged life.  For me, the first provides exceptionally beautiful language and evokes deep inner stirrings.

In a similar way, experience Psalm 107:4, first from a 1610 English translation and then a 1970s version.

They wandered in a wilderness, in a place without water: they found not the way of a city for their habitation. 
(Douay Rheims Version 1610)

Some wandered in the trackless desert and could not find their way to a city to live in.

(Good News Translation 1970)

 What thinkest thou?

Lord, when I find myself lost in the forest of life, allow me to hear Your words in such a way that my heart is stirred.