Into the deep, wild road
Read the full text in our reader
intrai per lo cammino alto e silvestro.
I entered upon the deep and wild road.
The single closing line of Canto II: the pilgrim follows his guide and enters the journey proper.
Canto II ends on a single, quiet line of action. All the hesitation, all the heavenly machinery, resolves into one step taken: <i>intrai</i>, I entered.
<i>Alto e silvestro</i> — deep and wild — names what lies ahead without flinching, the descent into Hell figured as a steep, forested road. The word <i>cammino</i> echoes the opening of the whole poem, closing the prologue and opening the journey. From here on, Dante walks.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Inferno 2.142 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
You are reading a page of the Inferno — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Inferno 2.142 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/dante-inferno/2.142/