Dante's Divine Comedy 1

So, I figured I might as well post these for easy access for any international groups that want to use it or something, especially since our release aren't up anymore. Obviously, this is only for use by international groups (although one less-than-legitimate group is already using these without giving credit). First off, let me explain how I went about this. First I translated the script literally, then the literal translation was put into decasyllabic meter to match with the real Divine Comedy. When there were lines that were more or less equitable to lines in the real Divine Comedy, we used the actual lines from the Divine Comedy. There were a few cases where pertinent historic information was added for the sake of accuracy. There is more information posted here. Our group has a special policy regarding usage of these translations which can be found here. With no further ado:

=== Page 1: ===
Text: Dante's Divine Comedy

=== Page 2: ===

=== Page 3: ===
Text: Inferno I

=== Page 4-5: ===
Text: The dark forest of Florence

=== Page 6: ===
Dante: This place

=== Page 7: ===
Dante: Where is this...?

Dante: Aaah! Why...

Dante: In the midway of this our mortal life,
I find me in a gloomy wood, astray
Gone from the path direct; how is this so?

=== Page 8: ===
Dante: My name is... Dante Alighieri.

Dante: A man eternally banished, cruelly so,
From the city of flowers, great Firenze.

Text: Through Firenze, Italy, much trade did flow,
For six centuries through varied ages,
And too, great sediments of wealth collected,
Inciting no less amount of dissent.

=== Page 9: ===

Text: Among those of the city, then emerged
Rival parties: White Guelphs, of the people,
and the Black Guelphs, loyal first to the pope.
Dante, of the White Guelphs, ascended far.
But, while he in Rome acted as envoy,
the White Guelphs to blackened power succumb'd.

=== Page 10: ===

Text: Dante, penalized with fine and short exile,
His punishment, refused, and, from Firenze,
He therefore was eternally banished.

=== Page 11: ===
Sfx: Ha / ha / Dante! Dante!

=== Page 12: ===
Dante: Thrice-damned be it; what is my life? I ask,
In this gloomy forest, shall my life end?

Dante: haaa - haaa / haaa - haaa

Dante: Light!

Dante: 'Tis a star -- the light of so bright a star!

=== Page 13: ===
Dante: Light of the heavens has come to guide me!

Dante: Haa / ah

Dante: Oh! The forest-- the forest has ended!

=== Page 14: ===
Dante: I escaped!

Dante: I escaped!

Dante: Though I thought not I could alive escape,
Now, it seems, from the forest I have pass'd.

Dante: 'Twas the star!

Dante: 'Twas thanks to the star!

Dante: Now, to climb this mountain, the star instructs

Dante: And thus, to where it guides me, I shall go.

=== Page 15: ===
Dante: Ah! / Aaahh...

=== Page 16: ===
Dante: A leopard,

Dante: With distinctive spots, so lithe and so quick...

Dante: Again, from my path I am kept, again, by you.

Dante: I must turn back.

Dante: Hindered thus, how can I keep advancing?

Dante: ah

=== Page 17: ===
Dante: 'Tis morning's prime, and, with it, as it rose,

Dante: So too the sun ascended with those stars

Dante: Which rise with it, when Love divine first moved.

Dante: Within such light, the leopard seems, to me,
Not so dreadful, for the beast's coat does shine
So brilliantly, so beautifully.

Dante: All things seem well, and so, I shall advance.

=== Page 18: ===
Dante: Ah~ / A wolf!

=== Page 19: ===
Dante: Desire takes its form in this starved beast;
For your sake, how many live lives cut short?
And will I, soon, among their numbers count?

Dante: Aah...

Dante: The leopard of unchaste lust, unbridled.
The lion of brutal power, unchecked.
And the wolf of darkest greed, ill-concealed.
All like the forest, so darkly and deep.

Dante: Aaaah, I.....

=== Page 20: ===
Dante: There's no use! I'll be forced back, at this rate,
Into again that dark and gloomy forest!

Dante: Ha!?

Dante: That's...!?

=== Page 21: ===
Dante: Oh, phantom or ghost, or whate'er you be,
I beg you, help me, whether real or mist!

Virgil: I am not a human! / But...

Virgil: I was, before, of mortal flesh like you,
And born of Lombard parents, both Mantuan.

Virgil: I lived when the power of Julius, yet,
Was scarcely firm. At Rome my life was passed
Beneath fair Augustus, in the time

Virgil: Of false and fabled deities. A bard
Was I, who made Anchises' upright son*
The subject of my song, who came from Troy,
when the flames preyed on Illium's** haughty towers.

* He's referring to Aeneas, hero of the Aeneid, Virgil's famous poem.
** Illium is another name for Troy.

Dante: Oh!? Then you are...

Dante: Virgil!

=== Page 22: ===
Dante:
And you are famous Virgil, that well-spring,
From which such copious flood of eloquence
Have sprung? Aren't you whom all so freely praise?

Dante: So enchanted was I, as I read your work,
That I took you as my master and guide!

Text: Above all the poetic descendants
of lordly Romulus, Virgil alone stood.
Aeneas, hero of his epic poem,
The Aeneid, witnessed the fall of Troy
and wandered from Dido's* court to Hades',
and laid in Italy the seeds of Rome.

* Dido was the queen of Carthage.

Virgil: Why to sorrow have you resigned yourself?

Virgil: Why the blissful mountain do you not climb?

Virgil: All of bliss and joy, the source of all things,
All of these, the mountain is, is it not?

Dante: Save me, Virgil!

=== Page 23: ===
Dante: Virgil, see the beast, from whom I flee:
Oh, save me from her, illustrious sage!

Dante: For every vein and pulse throughout my frame
She has made tremble and quiver with fright!

Virgil: From this darkened and savage wilderness

Virgil: Another way pursue, if you would escape.

Dante: Another way?

Virgil: Since these beasts will let none pass, it is clear,
So bad and so accursed in their kind,

That never sated is their ravenous will,
Still after food more craving than before.

To many an animal in wedlock vile,
They fasten, and shall yet to many more.

=== Page 24: ===
Dante: When shall that greyhound come, who will destroy
Her with sharp pain? He not nourished by food
Of earth nor its base metals, but by love,
Wisdom, and virtue, and whose land shall be
All the land between Feltro and Feltro?

Virgil: When for this wolf, that hound comes, from his might

Shall safety to Italia's plains arise,

That realm for whom Camilla, virgin pure,
Nisus, Euryalus, and Turnus fell**.

** These are characters from Virgil's Aeneid.

=== Page 25: ===
Virgil: Through every city shall he hunt her down,
Until he shall have driven her back to Hell.

Dante: Was therefore the wolf / itself loosed from hell?

Virgil: She, from snarling envy and jealousy,
By hearts of men, from hell was summoned thus!

Virgil: So then it seems the only path is clear!
That you follow me, and I, as your guide,
Will lead you hence through an eternal space.

Dante: Hell!

=== Page 26: ===
Virgil: I shall guide you through the fires of Hell,
Where thou shalt hear despairing shrieks, and see
Spirits of old tormented, begging death!

=== Page 27: ===
Virgil: Sinners, burdened by their weighty misdeeds,
Their screams to die once more shall cross your ears!

Virgil: Dante!
So well shall you see the true face of Hell!

Virgil: And yet...

=== Page 28: ===
Virgil: If upon the mountain of supreme bliss
You furthermore desire to gaze, then

After you view those who dwell within fire,

Virgil: To that higher place,

Virgil: You then wish to go...

=== Page 29: ===
Virgil: Then to those noble souls, among the blest,

Virgil: Only can a soul chosen divine go.

Virgil: Dante,

Virgil: You, I shall take as far as is allowed.

=== Page 30: ===
Dante: Maestro!

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=== Page 32: ===
Dante: I...

Dante: Shall my path record and remember well,
With every trifling detail made note of.

Dante: Watch over me, oh Muse of highest art,

Dante: And all that I see shall be written down.
Poetry beautiful and elegant
I hope not beyond my ability.