Here is the opening passage of The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, as translated by Robert Durling:
In the middle of the journey of our life, I came to
myself in dark wood, for the straight way was lost.
Ah, how hard a thing it is to say what that wood
was, so savage and harsh and strong that the
thought of it renews my fear!
It is so bitter that death is little more so!
But to treat of the good that I found there, I will tell of
the other things I saw.