What is the meaning of selva oscura?

Answer 1

i believe it means something like 'obscure forest/ tree' More accurately, "dark forest". It is a reference to a phrase from Dante's Divine Comedy: Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, che la diriitta via era smarrita. Which has been translated many times, in many ways, but means, more or less:

In the middle of the journey of my life, I found myself in a dark forest, In which I'd wholly lost my way.

Answer 2

Selva Oscura is Italian for "dark forest" and is a term used in Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy" to describe the tangled and threatening forest that represents the state of confusion and sin in the journey towards spiritual enlightenment.