by Dante
90
if you are unmindful of your own?’
And he then: ‘Now take comfort, for I must discharge
my debt to you before I go to war.
93
Justice wills it and compassion bids me stay.’
He in whose sight nothing can be new →
wrought this speech made visible,
96
new to us because it is not found on earth.
While I took pleasure in the sight →
of images of such humility,
99
the lovelier to look at for their maker’s sake,
‘Here they come, though with slow steps,’ →
the poet murmured.
102
‘They will direct us to the next ascent.’
My eyes, glad to gaze upon the marble, →
quickly turned in his direction,
105
eager at the promise of new things.
Reader, I would not have you fall away →
from good intentions when you hear
108
the way God wills the debt be paid.
Do not dwell upon the nature of the suffering.
Think what is to follow, think that at the worst
111
it cannot last beyond the final Judgment.
‘Master,’ I began, ‘those that I see →
moving toward us do not look like people—
114
whatever they may be, I cannot make them out.’
And he answered: ‘The grave nature
of their torment contorts their bodies to a crouch,
117
so that at first my eyes were undecided.
‘But look closer, disentangle
the figures bent beneath them from the stones.
120
Then you can see how each one beats his breast.’
O vainglorious Christians, miserable wretches! →
Sick in the visions engendered in your minds,
123
you put your trust in backward steps.
Do you not see that we are born as worms,
though able to transform into angelic butterflies
126
that unimpeded soar to justice?
What makes your mind rear up so high?
You are, as it were, defective creatures, →
129
like the unformed worm, shaped from the mud.
To hold up roof or ceiling, as a corbel does, →
we sometimes see a crouching figure,
132
its knees pushed up against its chest,
and that unreal depiction may arouse
in him who sees it real distress,
135
such were these shapes when I could make them out.
They were indeed hunched over more or less, →
depending on the burdens on their backs,
and even he that showed the greatest patience, →
139
weeping, seemed to say: ‘I can no more.’
OUTLINE: PURGATORIO XI
III. The penitent prideful (continued)
1–24
the Lord’s Prayer as chanted by the prideful
25–30
unequal weights of their burdens as they go along
31–36
the poet considers how we may help these souls
37–45
Virgil’s request for their guidance
46–51
a response: “keep with us to the right”
IV. The penitent prideful tell their former sins
52–72
Omberto Aldobrandesco offers his tale
73–78
Dante humbles himself and is recognized by another
79–81
Dante addresses Oderisi da Gubbio, illuminator
82–90
Oderisi’s “confession” (Franco of Bologna)
91–108
Oderisi’s speech on the vanity of fame:
94–96
Cimabue & Giotto
97–99
Guinizzelli & Cavalcanti (and Dante?)
100–108
the ephemeral wind of fame
109–114
Oderisi prepares Dante to recognize another penitent
115–117
Oderisi’s coda: the fleetingness of fame
118–120
Dante wants to know whom he has indicated just now
121–126
Oderisi tells of Provenzan Salvani’s presumption
127–132
Dante cannot understand how he has got here so quickly
133–138
Oderisi narrates the humbling of Provenzan in Siena
139–142
Oderisi’s prediction of Dante’s humbling exile
PURGATORIO XI
‘Our Father, who are in Heaven, →
circumscribed only by the greater love
3
you have for your first works on high,
‘praised be your name and power →
by every creature, as is fitting
6
to render thanks for your sweet breath.
‘May the peace of your kingdom come to us,
for we cannot attain it of ourselves
9
if it come not, for all our striving.
‘As your angels make sacrifice to you
of their free wills, singing hosanna, →
12
so let men make an offering of theirs.
‘Give us this day the daily manna →
without which he who labors to advance
15
goes backward through this bitter wilderness.
‘And, as we forgive those who have wronged us,
do you forgive us in your loving kindness—
18
measure us not as we deserve.
‘Do not put to proof our powers, →
which yield so lightly to the ancient foe,
21
but deliver us from him who tempts them.
‘This last petition, our dear Lord, is made
not for ourselves—for us there is no need—
24
but for the ones whom we have left behind.’
Thus praying for safe haven for themselves and us, →
those shades trudged on beneath their burden,
27
the kind that sometimes weighs us down in dreams, →
as they, unequally distressed, →
plodded their weary round on that first ledge,
30
purging away the darkness of the world.
If good is always said of us up there, →
what can be said and done for them on earth
33
by those whose wills have roots in good?
Surely we should help them wash away the stains
they carried with them, so that pure and light
36
they may approach the star-hung spheres.
‘Please, so may justice and mercy soon →
unburden you and give you wings
39
to lift you up as high as you desire,
‘show us the shortest crossing to the stairs,
and if there is more than one ascent,
42
let us know where the drop is not so steep,
‘for he that comes along with me,
burdened with the weight of Adam’s flesh,
45
though eager to ascend, is slow at climbing.’
It was not clear from whom now came →
words spoken in response to those
48
voiced by the man I followed,
but we heard: ‘Come with us on the bank,
keeping to the right, to find the stairs
51
a living man can climb.
‘If I were not encumbered by the stone
; that serves to bend my stiff-necked pride →
54
so that I cannot lift my face,
‘I would look at this man, still alive
but nameless, to see if he is known to me
57
and make him take pity for my heavy load.
‘I was Italian, a noble Tuscan’s son. →
Guglielmo Aldobrandesco was my father—
60
I do not know if you have ever heard his name.
‘The ancient blood and gallant deeds
done by my forebears raised such arrogance in me
63
that, forgetful of our common mother,
‘I held all men in such great scorn
it caused my death—how, all in Siena know,
66
and every child in Campagnatico.
‘I am Omberto. Pride has undone
not only me but all my kinsmen,
69
whom it has dragged into calamity.
‘And for this pride, here must I bear this burden— →
here among the dead, since I did not
72
among the living—until God is satisfied.’
Listening, I bent down my face, and one of them, →
not he who spoke, twisted himself →
75
beneath the load that weighed him down,
saw me and knew me and called out,
with difficulty keeping his eyes fixed on me,
78
as I, all hunched, trudged on beside them.
‘Oh,’ I said to him, ‘are you not Oderisi, →
the honor of Gubbio and of that art
81
which they in Paris call illumination?’
‘Brother,’ he said, ‘the pages smile brighter →
from the brush of Franco of Bologna.
84
The honor is all his now—and only mine in part.
‘Indeed, I hardly would have been so courteous
while I still lived—an overwhelming need
87
to excel at any cost held fast my heart.
‘For such pride here we pay our debt. →
I would not be here yet, except, while living,
90
and with the means to sin, I turned to God.
‘O vanity of human powers, →
how briefly lasts the crowning green of glory,
93
unless an age of darkness follows!
‘In painting Cimabue thought he held the field →
but now it’s Giotto has the cry,
96
so that the other’s fame is dimmed.
‘Thus has one Guido taken from the other →
the glory of our tongue, and he, perhaps, is born
99
who will drive one and then the other from the nest. →
‘Worldly fame is nothing but a gust of wind, →
first blowing from one quarter, then another,
102
changing name with every new direction.
‘Will greater fame be yours if you put off
your flesh when it is old than had you died
105
with pappo and dindi still upon your lips →
‘after a thousand years have passed? To eternity,
that time is shorter than the blinking of an eye
108
is to one circling of the slowest-moving sphere.
‘All Tuscany resounded with the name— →
now barely whispered even in Siena—
111
of him who moves so slow in front of me.
‘He was the ruler there when they put down
the insolence of Florence,
114
a city then as proud as now she is a whore.
‘Your renown is but the hue of grass, which comes →
and goes, and the same sun that makes it spring
117
green from the ground will wither it.’
And I to him: ‘Your true words pierce my heart →
with fit humility and ease a heavy swelling there.
120
But who is he of whom you spoke just now?’
‘That,’ he replied, ‘is Provenzan Salvani,
and he is here because in his presumption
123
he sought to have Siena in his grasp.
‘Thus burdened he has gone, and goes on without rest,
ever since he died. Such coin he pays,
126
who is too bold on earth, in recompense.’ →
And I said: ‘If the spirit that puts off →
repentance to the very edge of life
129
must stay below, before he comes up here,
‘as long as he has lived—
unless he’s helped by holy prayers—
132
how was his coming here allowed?’
‘While he was living in his greatest glory,’ he said, →
‘he willingly sat in the marketplace
135
of Siena, putting aside all shame, →
‘and there, to redeem his friend
from the torment he endured in Charles’s prison,
138
he made himself tremble in every vein.
‘I say no more, and know my speech obscure. →
It won’t be long before they act, your townsmen,
in such a way that you’ll know how to gloss it.
142
It was that deed which brought him past those confines.’
OUTLINE: PURGATORIO XII
IV. The penitent prideful (continued)
1–9
Virgil urges Dante to turn his mind to new things, something he, engrossed in Oderisi’s talk, is able to do only with difficulty
10–15
Virgil prepares Dante for his next experience
V. Exemplars of Pride
16–24
simile: images on gravestones and carvings on the path
25–63
the acrostic of Pride:
1.
[Lucifer]
2.
Briareus
3.
the defeated giants
4.
Nimrod
5.
Niobe
6.
Saul
7.
Arachne
8.
Rehoboam
9.
[Eriphyle]
10.
Sennacherib
11.
Cyrus
12.
Holofernes
summarizing exemplar: Troy
64–69
the poet’s wonder at the artwork he gazed upon
70–72
his ironic apostrophe of all living sinners
73–78
Virgil directs Dante’s attention forward
VI. The angel of Humility
79–84
Virgil urges Dante to prepare himself to meet an angel
85–87
Dante’s acquiescence
88–96
the angel’s greeting; he apostrophizes all sinners
97–99
the cleft in the rock; Dante’s first “P” removed
VII. Farewell to Pride
100–108
simile: steps leading to San Miniato and to next terrace
109–114
music of first Beatitude as coda to Pride
115–126
conversation as the travelers mount: Dante’s new sense of lightness with the removal of his first “P”
127–136
simile: touching one’s head because of the glances of others
PURGATORIO XII
As oxen go beneath their yoke →
that overladen soul and I went side by side
3
as long as my dear escort granted.
But when he sai
d: ‘Leave him and hurry on, →
for it is fitting here, with all your strength,
6
to speed your ship with wings and oars,’
I straightened up, erect, →
as one should walk, but still my thoughts
9
remained bowed down and shrunken.
I set out, following gladly
in my master’s steps, and our easy stride
12
made clear how light we felt. →
And he to me: ‘Cast down your eyes. →
It will be good for you and calm you on your way
15
to look down at the bed beneath your feet.’
As gravestones set above the buried dead →
bear witness to what once they were,
18
their carven images recalling them to mind,
making us grieve with frequent tears
when recollection pricks and spurs
21
the faithful heart with memories,
so were these figures sculpted there →
along that road carved from the mountainside,
24
but in their artistry more true in their resemblance.
My eyes beheld the one, created nobler → →
than any other creature, fall like lightning
27
from the sky, over to one side.
My eyes beheld Briarèus, on the other, →
transfixed by the celestial bolt,
30
now heavy on the earth in chill of death.
My eyes beheld Thymbraeus, Pallas, and Mars, →
still armed, together with their father,
33
astounded by the giants’ scattered limbs.
My eyes beheld Nimrod at the base of his great work, →
as though bewildered, and the people,
36
who in Shinar shared his pride, all looking on.