By Dante, translated by John Ciardi
Submitted by Kirk
Date: 2007 Apr 03
Comment on this Work
[[2007.04.03.09.56.5817]]

from the Inferno of Dante: Canto V

"On a day for dalliance we read the rhyme
of Lancelot, how love had mastered him.
We were alone with innocence and dim time.

Pause after pause that high old story drew
our eyes together while we blushed and paled;
but it was one soft passage overthrew

our caution and our hearts. For when we read
how her fond smile was kissed by such a lover,
he who is one with me alive and dead

breathed on my lips the tremor of his kiss.
That book, and he who wrote it, was a pander.
That day we read no further."