1. Midway in our life's journey, I went astray/from the straight road and woke to find myself/alone in a dark wood.
2. He will rise between Feltro and Feltro, and in him/shall be the resurrection and new day/of that sad Italy for which Nisus died . . .
3. "Are you there already, Boniface? Are you there/already?" he cried. "By several years the writ/has lied.
4. Joy to you, Florence, that your banners swell,/beating their proud wings over land and sea,/and that your name expands through all of Hell!
5. "Why do you kick me? If you were not sent/to wreak a further vengence for Montaperti,/why do you add this to my other torment?"
6. And I did not keep the promise that I had made,/for to be rude to him was a curtesy.
7. If he was once as beautiful as now/he is hideous, and still turned on his Maker,/well be he the source of every woe!
8. You are under the other hemisphere where you stand;/the sky above us is the half opposed/to that which canopies the great dry land.
