“Midway on our life’s journey, I found myself
         In dark woods, the right road lost. To tell
         About those woods is hard- so tangled and rough…..

Off the true path.  But when I came to stop
Below a hill that marked one end of the valley
         That pieced my heart with terror, I looked up

Toward the crest and saw its shoulders already
Mantled in rays of that bright planet that shows
         The road to everyone, whatever our journey.

— Excerpt from The Inferno of Dante,
            translated by Robert Pinsky, 1994