The face of Dante, reconstructed

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita

mi ritrovai per una selva oscura

chÃ© la via diritta era smarrita.

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Born when atmospheric carbon was 316 PPM. Settled on MST country since 1997. Parent, grandparent. View all posts by Allegra

nautilus3 says:

January 13, 2007 at 8:16 am

The first line of Italian means “In means of the cammin of our life” which doesn’t make much sense. That’s according to Babelfish, which evidently is vocabulary-deprived.

He looks so sad.
nautilus3 says:

January 13, 2007 at 8:20 am

The rest of the Italian says: “I found again for one dark forest chÃ© the straight way smarrita.” It has a surreal sort of profundity.
info says:

January 13, 2007 at 10:31 am

Hm…. if you’re expecting Babelfish to go mano a mano with 14th C Italian, you are… going to be disappointed. It is the first three lines of the first Canto of Dante’s Inferno. My gloss (as opposed to a technical translation) is as follows:

In the midst of this, our life’s road, I found myself
in a dark wood, having lost the right path.

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