Purgatorio (The Divine Comedy series Book 2)

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Purgatorio (The Divine Comedy series Book 2) Page 4

by Dante


  78

  that I was moved to do the same.

  Oh empty shades, except in seeming! →

  Three times I clasped my hands behind him

  81

  only to find them clasped to my own chest.

  Surprise must have been painted on my face,

  at which the shade smiled and drew back →

  84

  and I, pursuing him, moved forward.

  Gently he requested that I stop. →

  Then I knew him. And I asked him

  87

  to stay a while and speak with me.

  ‘Even as I loved you in my mortal flesh,’ he said,

  ‘so do I love you freed from it—yes, I will stay.

  90

  And you, what takes you on this journey?’

  ‘O Casella, I make this voyage to return →

  another time,’ I said, ‘here where I’ve come.

  93

  But why did it take you so much time to get here?’ →

  To which he answered: ‘No wrong is done me →

  if he, who takes up whom it pleases him and when,

  96

  has many times denied me passage,

  ‘for righteous is the will that fashioned his.

  It is three months now that he has taken,

  99

  acquiescent, all who would embark.

  ‘And I, finally moving toward the shore

  where Tiber’s waters take on salt,

  102

  was kindly gathered in by him.

  ‘To that estuary he now sets his wings,

  for there the souls collect

  105

  that do not sink to Acheron.’

  And I: ‘If a new law does not take from you →

  memory or practice of the songs of love

  108

  that used to soothe my every sorrow,

  ‘please let me hear one now to ease my soul,

  for it is out of breath and spent,

  111

  joined to my body coming here.’ →

  ‘Love that converses with me in my mind,’ →

  he then began, so sweetly →

  114

  that the sweetness sounds within me still.

  My master and I and all those standing

  near Casella seemed untroubled,

  117

  as if we had no other care.

  We were spellbound, listening to his notes, →

  when that venerable old man appeared and cried:

  120

  ‘What is this, laggard spirits?

  ‘What carelessness, what delay is this?

  Hurry to the mountain and there shed the slough

  123

  that lets not God be known to you.’ →

  As when doves, gathered at their feeding, →

  pecking here and there at wheat or tares,

  126

  without their usual display of pride—

  should something suddenly make them afraid—

  will all at once forget their food

  129

  because they are assailed by greater care,

  thus I saw these new arrivals, their song cut short,

  fleeing toward the mountain’s slope

  like those who take an unfamiliar road.

  133

  And we, with no less haste, departed. →

  OUTLINE: PURGATORIO III

  I. Leaving the shore

  1–4

  the new crowd scatters toward the mountain, leaving Dante and Virgil running behind them

  5–6

  the poet’s reflection on his dependency upon Virgil

  7

  Virgil is stricken with remorse

  8–9

  apostrophe: the poet’s praise of Virgil’s conscience

  10–15

  Virgil and Dante stop running; Dante’s curiosity

  16–21

  the rising sun at Dante’s back and his shadow

  22–24

  Virgil reproves Dante for his lack of faith

  25–30

  Virgil speaks of his body, interred at Naples

  31–33

  Virgil adverts to the mystery of his “aerial body”

  34–45

  Virgil criticizes those who want such things explained

  II. At the foot of the mountain

  46–51

  the cliff is as steep as those near Genoa

  52–63

  Virgil’s doubts about how to ascend; Dante sees souls above them and draws Virgil’s attention to these

  64–66

  Virgil, reassured, suggests they approach the souls

  67–69

  after they walk a mile, those souls are still distant

  70–72

  the souls stop, seeming puzzled by Dante and Virgil

  73–78

  Virgil’s captatio, appealing for their help

  79–87

  simile: the bellwether and his flock

  88–93

  further puzzlement of the souls: Dante’s shadow

  94–96

  Virgil answers their unasked question: Dante is alive

  97–99

  Virgil’s insistence on Dante’s divine authorization

  100–102

  the souls advise the travelers to turn and precede them

  III. Manfred

  103–105

  the “bellwether” asks Dante if he recognizes him

  106–108

  description of his features and his cleft eyebrow

  109–111

  Dante does not know him; he shows a wound in his chest

  112–117

  Manfred reveals his identity and asks that Dante tell his daughter that he is saved once he returns to earth

  118–135

  Manfred’s narrative of his death, burial, and salvation

  136–141

  the sentence of the excommunicate: thirty for one; it may be reduced by agency of prayer from below

  142–145

  Manfred again asks Dante to seek out Constance once he has returned and to enlist her prayers for him

  PURGATORIO III

  Their sudden flight had scattered them →

  along the plain, toward the mountain

  3

  where Justice tries our souls,

  and I drew closer to my true companion.

  How would I have come this far without him?

  6

  Who would have led me up the mountain?

  He seemed beside himself with self-reproach. →

  O pure and noble conscience,

  9

  how bitter is the sting of your least fault!

  When he had slowed the hectic pace →

  that mars the dignity of any action,

  12

  my mind, at first withdrawn into itself, →

  now eagerly took in the wider landscape.

  I fixed my gaze upon the highest hill

  15

  rising from the sea into the sky. →

  The sun, its rays like red flames at my back, →

  was cut off by my body

  18

  and threw the shadow of my shape before me.

  Quickly I turned to look beside me, →

  afraid that I had been abandoned,

  21

  since the ground was dark in front of me alone.

  And my comfort, turning, then began to speak: →

  ‘Why are you still distrustful?

  24

  Do you not believe I am with you and guide you?

  ‘Evening has fallen there, where the body →

  that cast my shadow while I lived is buried.

  27

  Taken from Brindisi, Naples holds it now. →

  ‘Do not wonder if I cast no shadow, →

  no more than that the heavenly spheres

  30

  do not cut off their rays from one another.

>   ‘The Power that fits bodies like ours →

  to suffer torments, heat, and cold

  33

  does not reveal the secret of its working.

  ‘Foolish is he who hopes that with our reason →

  we can trace the infinite path

  36

  taken by one Substance in three Persons.

  ‘Be content, then, all you mortals, with the quia, →

  for could you, on your own, have understood, →

  39

  there was no need for Mary to give birth,

  ‘and you have seen the fruitless hope of some, →

  whose very longing, unfulfilled,

  42

  now serves them with eternal grief—

  ‘I speak of Aristotle and of Plato

  and of many others.’ And here he lowered his brow,

  45

  said nothing more, and seemed perturbed.

  We now had come to the mountain’s base. →

  There we found the cliff so steep

  48

  that nimble legs could not have climbed it.

  The roughest, most deserted landslide →

  between Lèrici and Turbìa, compared with it,

  51

  seems a wide and easy stairway.

  ‘Who would know where the hill slopes gently,’ →

  mused my master, coming to a halt,

  54

  ‘where someone without wings might climb?’

  And while, his eyes cast down,

  he was searching in his mind to find the way,

  57

  and I was looking up among the rocks,

  there to the left I saw a company of souls →

  moving their steps in our direction,

  60

  not seeming to approach, they came so slow.

  ‘Raise your eyes, master,’ I said, ‘look, →

  there are some who can offer us advice

  63

  if you can’t puzzle out the way yourself.’

  He looked up then and, reassured, replied:

  ‘Let us go toward them, for they come slowly,

  66

  and you, dear son, hold to that hope.’

  Even after we had walked a thousand steps

  these souls were still quite far away—

  69

  about the distance a strong arm could throw—

  when they all pressed against the solid wall

  of the high bank, standing still and close together,

  72

  as men stop, taking stock, when they are puzzled. →

  ‘O you who have come to a happy end, →

  spirits already chosen,’ Virgil began,

  75

  ‘by that peace which, I think, awaits you all,

  ‘tell us where the mountain rises gently

  so that we may begin the long ascent.

  78

  The more we know, the more we hate time’s waste.’

  As sheep come from the fold, first one, →

  then two, then three, and the rest stand timid,

  81

  bending eyes and muzzle to the ground,

  and what the first one does the others copy,

  pressing up behind it if it stops,

  84

  simple and quiet, not knowing why,

  so, of that fortunate flock, I saw

  the ones in front move shyly forward,

  87

  with solemn bearing and with modest looks.

  As soon as those in front could see the light

  upon the ground was broken to my right, so that

  90

  my shadow stretched up to the cliff,

  they stopped, drew back a little,

  and all the rest that came behind,

  93

  not knowing why, did just the same. →

  ‘Without your asking I declare to you →

  this is a human body that you see,

  96

  which now divides the sun’s light on the ground.

  ‘Do not be amazed, but think

  that not without a power sent from Heaven

  99

  does he attempt to scale this rocky wall.’

  Thus the master. And those worthy souls replied:

  ‘Turn, then, and go on before us,’ →

  102

  showing the way with the backs of their hands.

  And one of them began: ‘Whoever you are, →

  as you continue walking, turn to look at me,

  105

  and think if ever you have seen me in the world.’

  I turned and fixed my gaze on him.

  He was blond, handsome, and of noble aspect, →

  108

  but a blow had cleft one of his eyebrows.

  When I had courteously disclaimed

  ever to have seen him, ‘Look here!’ he said,

  111

  and showed me a wound high on his breast, →

  then, smiling: ‘I am Manfred, →

  grandson of the Empress Constance. →

  114

  Therefore I beg of you, when you return,

  ‘make your way to my fair daughter,

  mother of the pride of Sicily and Aragon,

  117

  and tell the truth if another tale is told. →

  ‘After my body was riven

  by two mortal blows, I turned

  120

  in tears to Him who freely pardons.

  ‘Horrible were my sins, →

  but Infinite Goodness with wide-open arms

  123

  receives whoever turns to it.

  ‘If the pastor of Cosenza, sent by Clement →

  on the hunt to take me down,

  126

  had read that page in God with greater care,

  ‘my body’s bones would still be sheltered

  at the head of the bridge near Benevento

  129

  under the cairn of heavy stones.

  ‘Now the rain washes and the wind stirs them, →

  beyond the Kingdom, near the Verde’s banks, there →

  132

  where he brought them with his torches quenched.

  ‘By such a curse as theirs none is so lost

  that the eternal Love cannot return

  135

  as long as hope maintains a thread of green.

  ‘It is true that one who dies in contumacy

  of Holy Church, even though repentant at the end,

  138

  must still endure outside this wall—

  ‘for every year he spent in his presumption— →

  thirty, unless that sentence

  141

  is reduced by holy prayers.

  ‘Now you know how you can make me happy:

  reveal to my good Constance where you’ve seen me →

  and how long I am excluded—

  145

  for here much can be gained from those on earth.’

  OUTLINE: PURGATORIO IV

  I. Introductory retrospection

  1–12

  sense impressions and the human soul: a Scholastic introduction

  13–18

  three hours and more have passed since they arrived and only now have the travelers reached ante-purgatory

  II. The ascent

  19–24

  pseudosimile: the cleft in the rock as hole in a hedge

  25–30

  pseudosimile: the steepness of the path upward compared to that of mountainous sites in Italy

  31–35

  the narrow, rising path through the rock

  36–39

  Dante’s question and Virgil’s answer: hoping for aid

  40–45

  on the steep, Dante is outpaced by Virgil and wants rest

  46–51

  Virgil urges him to make a final effort

  52–60

  a moment of repose; view of the shore and the sun�
��s path

  61–75

  Virgil clarifies the astronomical situation

  76–84

  Dante’s understanding of their relation to the equator

  85–87

  Dante wants to know how much farther they must climb

  88–96

  Virgil says that this mountain gets easier as it rises

  III. Belacqua

  97–99

  a voice of one who has been listening to Virgil’s words

  100–108

  the travelers find souls at rest behind a boulder

  109–111

  Dante’s gently mocking remark about one soul’s sloth

  112–114

  the soul’s return shot

  115–120

  Dante recognizes Belacqua, approaches him, and is greeted by the soul’s laconic, if friendly, rebuke

  121–126

  Dante names Belacqua, whom he is surprised to find here, and chides him for his customary laziness

  127–135

  Belacqua explains his unhurried attitude

  IV. Coda: Virgil’s urgency

  136–139

  Virgil notes the time (noon) and wishes to move on

  PURGATORIO IV

  When one of our faculties is given over →

  to pleasure or to pain,

  3

  our soul will focus on that one alone

  and seem to pay no mind to any of its other powers—

  revealing the error in the doctrine that maintains

  6

  among the souls within us one is more aflame.

  And therefore when we see or hear a thing

  that concentrates the soul,

  9

  time passes and we’re not aware of it,

  for the faculty that hears the passing time

  is not the one that holds the soul intent:

  12

  the one that hears is bound, the other free.

  This I truly understood,

 

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