Purgatorio (The Divine Comedy series Book 2)
Page 3
to the east: Venus in Pisces
22–27
to the south: the four stars (apostrophe: “widowed hemisphere”)
28–30
to the north (direction of Ursa Major)
II. Cato the Younger
31–39
a fatherly figure to be revered, bearded, his face aglow
40–48
the challenge of this old man (Cato) to their presence
49–51
Virgil: Dante must kneel and bow his head
52–84
Virgil’s responses to Cato:
52–57
I come, guiding this man, by agency of a lady
58–66
he is still alive, but was almost dead when I was sent to bring him through hell to here
67–69
my guidance is in turn guided from above
70–75
he seeks liberty, as you once did, dying for it in Utica on your way to heaven
76–80
we break no law, since he is still alive and I am not in hell proper but share your wife’s abode
81–84
for love of Marcia let us proceed; then I will report to her your kindness to us when I return
85–108
Cato’s rejoinder to Virgil:
85–90
I loved Marcia in the life below; now the new law that accompanied my release forbids further feeling
91–93
if a heavenly lady leads you there is no need for flattery
94–99
gird and bathe him so that he may approach the angel with his vision clear
100–108
descend to the edge of the sea to the rushes in the mud; then ascend by an easier path, guided by the sun
109–111
Cato’s departure and Dante’s acquiescence
III. The shore again
112–114
Virgil urges Dante to descend the slope toward the sea
115–117
Dante makes out the waves of the sea
118–121
their going compared to that of a man who finds the path he had lost
122–133
in a place still moist with dew Virgil cleanses Dante’s face and, at the shore, girds Dante as he had been bidden
134–136
a wonder: the plant, once plucked, grows back again
PURGATORIO I
To run its course through smoother water →
the small bark of my wit now hoists its sail,
3
leaving that cruel sea behind.
Now I shall sing the second kingdom, →
there where the soul of man is cleansed,
6
made worthy to ascend to Heaven.
Here from the dead let poetry rise up, →
O sacred Muses, since I am yours.
9
Here let Calliope arise
to accompany my song with those same chords
whose force so struck the miserable magpies
12
that, hearing them, they lost all hope of pardon.
Sweet color of oriental sapphire, →
hovering in the calm and peaceful aspect →
15
of intervening air, pure to the horizon,
pleased my eyes once more
as soon as I had left the morbid air
18
that had afflicted both my chest and eyes.
The fair planet that emboldens love, →
smiling, lit up the east,
21
veiling the Fishes in her train.
I turned to the right and, fixing my attention →
on the other pole, I saw four stars
24
not seen but by those first on earth.
The very sky seemed to rejoice
in their bright glittering. O widowed →
27
region of the north, denied that sight!
Once I had drawn my gaze from them,
barely turning toward the other pole →
30
where the constellation of the Wain had set,
I saw beside me an old man, alone, →
who by his looks was so deserving of respect →
33
that no son owes his father more.
His beard was long and streaked with white, →
as was his hair, which fell
36
in double strands down to his chest.
The rays of those four holy stars →
adorned his face with so much light
39
he seemed to shine with brightness of the sun.
‘What souls are you to have fled the eternal prison, →
climbing against the dark and hidden stream?’
42
he asked, shaking those venerable locks.
‘Who was your guide or who your lantern
to lead you forth from that deep night
45
which steeps the vale of hell in darkness?
‘Are the laws of the abyss thus broken, →
or has a new decree been made in Heaven,
48
that, damned, you stand before my cliffs?’
My leader then reached out to me →
and by his words and signs and with his hands
51
made me show reverence with knee and brow,
then answered him: ‘I came not on my own. →
A lady descended from heaven and at her request
54
I lent this man companionship and aid.
‘But since it is your will that I make plain
the true condition of our presence here,
57
it cannot be that I deny your wish.
‘This man has not yet seen his final sunset, →
but through his folly was so close to it
60
his time was almost at an end.
‘I was sent to him, as I have said,
for his deliverance. No other way
63
but this could he be saved.
‘I have shown him all the guilty race
and now intend to let him see those spirits
66
who cleanse themselves within your charge. →
‘How I have led him would take long to tell.
Descending from on high a power aids me →
69
to bring him here that he may see and hear you.
‘May it please you to welcome his arrival,
since he’s in search of liberty, which is so dear, →
72
as he well knows who gives his life for it.
‘You know this well, since death in Utica
did not seem bitter, there where you left
75
the garment that will shine on that great day. →
‘Not by us are the eternal edicts broken,
for this man lives and Minos does not bind me, →
78
but I am of the circle where your Marcia →
‘implores with her chaste eyes, O holy breast,
that you still think of her as yours.
81
For love of her, then, I beseech you,
‘allow us passage through your seven kingdoms.
I will report to her your kindness—
84
if you deign to be mentioned there below.’
‘Marcia so pleased my eyes while I still lived,’ →
he said, ‘that whatever favor
87
she sought of me, I granted.
‘Now that she dwells beyond the evil stream
she cannot move me any longer,
90
according to the law laid down at my deliverance.
‘But if, as you say, a lady from Heaven
moves and directs you, there is no need of flattery.
93
It is enough you ask it in he
r name.
‘Go then, make sure you gird him →
with a straight reed and bathe his face,
96
to wipe all traces of defilement from it,
‘for it would not be fitting to appear,
his eyes still dimmed by any mist,
99
before the minister, the first from paradise.
‘This little island, at its lowest point, →
there where the waves beat down on it,
102
grows reeds in soft and pliant mud.
‘There no other plant can leaf,
or harden to endure,
105
without succumbing to the battering waves.
‘After you are done, do not come back this way.
The sun, now rising, will disclose →
108
an easier ascent to gain the peak.’
With that he vanished, and I stood up, →
speechless. Coming closer to my leader,
111
I turned my eyes to him.
He began: ‘My son, follow my steps.
Let us turn around, for this plain slopes
114
from here, down to its lowest edge.’
Dawn was overtaking the darkness of the hour, →
which fled before it, and I saw and knew
117
the distant trembling of the sea.
We went along the lonely plain, →
like someone who has lost the way
120
and thinks he strays until he finds the road.
When we came to a place where the dew →
can hold its own against the sun
123
because it is protected by a breeze,
my master gently spread →
his hands upon the grass.
126
And I, who understood what he intended,
raised my tear-stained cheeks
and he restored the color
129
hell had obscured in me.
Now we came to the empty shore. →
Upon those waters no man ever sailed
132
who then experienced his return.
There he girded me as pleased Another. →
What a wonder it was that the humble plant
he chose to pick sprang up at once
136
in the very place where he had plucked it.
OUTLINE: PURGATORIO II
I. The arrival of a ship
1–9
the position of the sun, seen first from the northern hemisphere, then from where the travelers now are
10–12
they are, like reticent travelers, still near the ocean
13–18
simile: Mars red in dawn sky and light moving over sea
19–24
the light grows larger as it approaches: its whiteness
25–30
Virgil makes out the steersman and has Dante kneel
31–36
Virgil’s enthusiastic appreciation of this angelic being
37–42
Dante’s eyes cannot bear the brightness of the angel, but he apparently can see the ship, nearing shore
43–48
the angel stands at the stern, the seated “passengers” sing the entirety of the 113th Psalm
49–51
the angel signs them with the cross; they come ashore; he departs as swiftly as he had come
II. Casella and his song
52–54
the crowd’s puzzled reaction to their new surroundings
55–60
as the sun rises, they ask for directions to the mount
61–66
Virgil: we are pilgrims, too, and came here a hard way
67–69
the souls realize, from his breathing, that Dante lives
70–75
simile: people crowding to a messenger of peace
76–78
one of them (Casella) is so eager to embrace Dante that he feels similarly moved
79–81
Dante fails three times to embrace this soul
82–87
the interplay between them and Dante’s recognition of him
88–90
Casella’s love for him and a question: why is Dante here?
91–93
Dante’s journey is prelude to a second; but why has Casella had to wait to come here after his death?
94–105
Casella: if God has often denied him this passage, there was no harm in that; but in the last three months all can choose to come from Tiber’s mouth, where the angel has returned
106–111
Dante: if no new law forbids it, sing a love song to soothe my soul, wearied with its bodily journey to this place
112–117
Casella begins his song, so sweet that Dante can still taste its sweetness; Virgil and the others are all completely rapt
III. Cato’s rebuke
118–123
the rapt listeners are rebuked by Cato and told to climb
124–132
simile: doves at feeding, frightened, fly away; pilgrims, listening, chastised, run toward hillside
133
Dante and Virgil leave just as hastily
PURGATORIO II
The sun was nearly joined to that horizon →
where the meridian circle at its zenith
3
stands straight above Jerusalem,
and night, circling on the other side,
was rising from the Ganges with the Scales
6
she drops when she is longer than the day,
so that, where I was,
the white and rosy cheeks of fair Aurora
9
were turning golden with time’s ripening.
As yet we tarried by the seashore, like those →
who think about the way and in their hearts go on—
12
while still their bodies linger.
And now, as in the haze of morning, →
Mars, low on the western stretch of ocean,
15
sheds reddish light through those thick vapors,
there appeared to me—may I see it again!—
a light advancing swiftly on the sea:
18
no flight can match its rapid motion.
And in the moment I had turned away →
to ask a question of my leader,
21
I saw it now enlarged and brighter.
Then on either side of it appeared
a whiteness—I knew not what—and just below,
24
little by little, another showed there too.
Still my master did not say a word
while the first whiteness took the shape of wings.
27
Then, once he saw the nature of the steersman,
he cried: ‘Bend, bend your knees! Behold
the angel of the Lord and fold your hands in prayer.
30
From now on you shall see such ministers as these.
‘Look how he scorns all human instruments →
and wants no oar, nor other sail
33
beside his wings, between such distant shores.
‘Look how those wings are raised into the sky,
fanning the air with his eternal pinions
36
which do not change like mortal plumage.’
Then, as the heavenly bird approached,
closer and closer, he appeared more radiant, →
39
so that my eyes could not sustain his splendor, →
and I looked down as he came shoreward
with a boat so swift and light
42
the water did not part to take it in. →
At the stern stood the heavenly pilot—
his mere description
would bring to bliss. →
45
And more than a hundred souls were with him. →
‘In exitu Isräel de Aegypto’ →
they sang together with one voice,
48
and went on, singing the entire psalm.
Then he blessed them with the sign of Holy Cross. →
They flung themselves upon the beach,
51
and he went off as swiftly as he came.
The crowd that stayed there had the look →
of strangers to the place, gazing about
54
as though encountering new things.
Having driven Capricorn down from mid-heaven, →
the sun, darting his rays in all directions,
57
brought on the day with his unfailing arrows
and the new people raised their faces
toward us, saying: ‘If you know,
60
show us the road that leads up to the mountain.’ →
Then Virgil answered: ‘Perhaps you think
we are familiar with this place,
63
but we are strangers like yourselves. →
‘We came but now, a little while before you,
by another road so rough and harsh →
66
that now the climb to us will seem a pastime.’ →
The souls, who at my taking breath
could see that I was still alive,
69
turned pale with wonder, →
and as people crowd to hear the news →
around a messenger who bears an olive-branch,
72
and no one minds the crush,
so all these fortunate souls
kept their eyes fastened on my face,
75
as though forgetful of the road to beauty.
I saw one of them come forward →
with such affection to embrace me