Poems (Hooper)/Lines Written in a Copy of the Divina Commedia
TRANSLATIONS
FROM THE FRENCH.
LINES WRITTEN IN A COPY OF THE DIVINA COMMEDIA.
LINES WRITTEN IN A COPY OF THE DIVINA COMMEDIA.
Un soir, dans le chemin je vis passer un homme.
He passed at twilight hour my steps before,Draped in the garb the Roman Consuls wore;Black seemed its folds beneath the twilight skies.This passer stopped, and fixed on me his eyes:So bright, so deep, half savage seemed their ray.He said: "First, in the ages passed away,I was a mountain towering to the stars;Then burst my blinded soul its prison bars,I rose one step on Being's mighty stair.I was an oak—had altars, priests, and prayer,And to the winds I made mysterious moan.A lion next was I, in deserts lone,Speaking to Night in accents fierce as flame.I am a man now—Dante is my name."Victor Hugo.