Like one who unwills
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E qual è quei che disvuol ciò che volle e per novi pensier cangia proposta, sì che dal cominciar tutto si tolle,
And as one who un-wills what he had willed and, on second thoughts, changes his purpose, so that he draws right back from starting,
A simile begins. As a man who un-wills what he had willed and, on new thoughts, changes his plan, so that he takes himself wholly off the start,
Virgil has not yet answered; first Dante the poet stops to describe Dante the pilgrim from outside, in a simile. The subject is a mind reversing itself — <i>disvuol ciò che volle</i>, un-wills what it willed — the exact motion of the last three tercets.
The verse enacts irresolution: it keeps qualifying, doubling back, until the man in the simile has talked himself out of even beginning. Dante is naming his own fault precisely so that Virgil's cure can land.
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Inferno 2.37 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/dante-inferno/2.37/