by Dante
85–93
Forese: it was his wife’s prayers that freed him from ante-purgatory and then all the other circles
94–111
Forese’s prophecy of new sumptuary laws in Florence
112–114
Forese now wants to know of Dante’s condition, not only for himself, but for his companions as well
115–117
Dante reminds his friend of their shared boisterous life
118–130
Dante gives a brief history of Virgil’s role as his guide
131–133
Dante identifies Statius as the shade who caused the recent earthquake when he regained his freedom
PURGATORIO XXIII
While I was peering through green boughs,
even as do men who waste their lives
3
in hunting after birds, →
my more than father said to me: ‘My son, →
come along, for the time we are allowed →
6
should be apportioned to a better use.’
I turned my face, and my steps as quickly,
to follow the two sages, whose discourse →
9
made my going on seem easy,
when with weeping we heard voices sing →
‘Labïa mëa, Domine’ in tones
12
that brought at once delight and grief.
‘O sweet father, what is that I hear?’ I asked, →
and he: ‘Shades, perhaps, who go their way
15
loosening the knot of what they owe.’
Just as pilgrims, absorbed in thought,
overtaking strangers on the road,
18
turn toward them without coming to a halt,
so, coming up behind us at a quicker pace than ours
and passing on, a group of souls,
21
silent and devout, gazed at us with wonder.
Their eyes were dark and sunken, →
their faces pale, their flesh so wasted
24
that the skin took all its shape from bones.
I do not believe that Erysichthon had become →
so consumed, to the very skin, by hunger
27
when he was most in terror of it.
I said to myself in thought:
‘Behold the people who lost Jerusalem
30
when Mary set her beak into her son!’
The sockets of their eyes resembled rings
without their gems. He who reads ‘omo’ →
33
in men’s faces would easily make out the ‘m.’
Who, if he did not know the reason, would believe →
the scent of fruit and smell of water
36
could cause such craving, reducing shades to this?
I was wondering what makes them so famished,
since what had made them gaunt, with wretched,
39
scaling skin, was still unknown to me, →
when out of the deep-set sockets in his head
a shade fixed me with his eyes and cried aloud:
42
‘What grace is granted to me now!’ →
I never would have known him by his features,
but the sound of his voice made plain to me
45
what from his looks had been erased.
That spark relit the memory
of his changed features
48
and I knew Forese’s face.
‘Ah,’ he begged, ‘pay no attention
to the withered scab discoloring my skin
51
nor to this lack of flesh on me,
‘but give me news about yourself
and tell me of those two souls over there,
54
escorting you. Do not hold back your answer.’
‘Your face, over which I wept when you were dead,
now gives me no less cause for tears,
57
seeing it so disfigured,’ I responded.
‘In God’s name, tell me what so withers you away.
Don’t make me speak while I am so astounded,
60
for a man intent on other things speaks ill.’
And he to me: ‘From the eternal counsel →
a power falls onto the tree and on the water
63
there behind us. By it am I made so thin.
‘All these people who weep while they are singing
followed their appetites beyond all measure,
66
and here regain, in thirst and hunger, holiness.
‘The fragrance coming from the fruit
and from the water sprinkled on green boughs
69
kindles our craving to eat and drink,
‘and not once only, circling in this space,
is our pain renewed.
72
I speak of pain but should say solace, →
‘for the same desire leads us to the trees
that led Christ to utter Elì with such bliss
75
when with the blood from His own veins He made us free.’
And I to him: ‘Forese, from that day →
when you exchanged the world for better life,
78
five years have not wheeled by until this moment.
‘If your power to keep on sinning ended
just before the hour of blessèd sorrow
81
that marries us once more to God,
‘how did you come so far so fast?
I thought that I might find you down below,
84
where time must be repaid with equal time.’
And he answered me: ‘It is my Nella →
whose flooding tears so quickly brought me
87
to drink sweet wormwood in the torments.
‘With her devoted prayers and with her sighs,
she plucked me from the slope where one must wait
90
and freed me from the other circles.
‘So much more precious and beloved of God
is my dear widow, whom I greatly loved,
93
the more she is alone in her good works.
‘For the Barbagia of Sardegna →
shelters many more modest women
96
than does that Barbagia where I left her.
‘O sweet brother, what would you have me say?
In my vision even now I see a time, →
99
before this hour shall be very old,
‘when from the pulpit it shall be forbidden
for the brazen ladies of Florence
102
to flaunt their nipples with their breasts.
‘What barbarous women, what Saracens,
have ever needed spiritual instruction
105
or other rules, to walk about in proper dress?
‘But if these shameless creatures knew
what the swift heavens are preparing, even now
108
their mouths would be spread open in a howl.
‘For if our foresight here does not deceive me
they shall be sorrowing before hair grows
111
on cheeks of babes still soothed by lullabies.
‘Pray, brother, conceal your tale no longer.
Look, not only I but all these people
114
gaze in wonder where you veil the sun.’
At that I said to him: ‘If you recall →
what you were with me and I was with you,
117
that memory now would still be painful.
‘He who precedes me made me renounce
that life but several days ago, when the sister
120
of him’—and I
pointed to the sun— →
‘appeared round back then. It is he who led me
through the deep night of the forever dead
123
in this my very flesh that follows him.
‘With his support I have left all that behind,
climbing and circling each terrace of the mountain
126
that straightens those made crooked by the world. →
‘He promises to keep me company
until I shall encounter Beatrice. →
129
Then must I be left without him.
‘It is Virgil who tells me this’—I pointed to him—
‘and the other is the shade for whom just now
your kingdom quaked in all its slopes,
133
shaking him from itself to set him free.’
OUTLINE: PURGATORIO XXIV
IV. The speakers (continued)
1–6
the happy condition of their discourse as Dante and Forese walk and talk; the amazement of the other shades
7–12
Dante notes that Statius proceeds more slowly than he would otherwise out of affection for Virgil and asks after Piccarda (Forese’s sister) and whether there are people here of note
13–15
Forese says that Piccarda rejoices at being in Paradise
16–24
Forese points out Bonagiunta and Pope Martin IV
25–33
Forese names Ubaldino, Bonifazio, Marchese, and others
34–36
comparison: as one who singles out the person whom he most esteems in a group, so Dante fixes on Bonagiunta
37–39
amidst Bonagiunta’s murmuring Dante hears “Gentucca”
40–42
Dante asks him to speak, since he seems so eager to
43–48
Bonagiunta refers to a woman who will one day make Lucca seem pleasing to Dante
49–51
Bonagiunta asks Dante if he wrote the new poems, beginning with “Ladies who have intelligence of love”
52–54
Dante: “I am one who, when Love inspires me, take note”
55–63
Bonagiunta says he understands what separated his poetry and that of others from Dante’s
64–69
simile (1): cranes gathering in the air, then forming their line of flight as gluttons, now leaving, flock around Dante
70–75
simile (2): tired runner lets companions go ahead as Forese lets fellow gluttons proceed and accompanies Dante
76–81
Dante does not know how long he has yet to live in the wretched world before he will return to purgatory
82–90
Forese’s prophecy of death of his brother, Corso Donati
91–93
Forese must get back to his purging and leaves Dante
94–99
simile (3): cavalryman leaving troop to have the honor of the first encounter and Forese leaving Dante in the company of two “marshals” (Virgil and Statius)
100–105
the second tree
106–112
simile (4): children begging a gift from an adult who holds it aloft and gluttons begging for fruit and departing
113–114
Dante, Virgil, and Statius arrive at the tree
115–120
its voice: “this a shoot of the tree from which Eve ate”
V. Exemplars of Gluttony
121–126
the voice reminds them of centaurs (vs. Theseus) and of the Hebrews (opposing Gideon)
127–135
Dante, Virgil, and Statius walk a mile in silent meditation after they have skirted the tree
VI. The Angel of Temperance
136–144
the angel, red as molten metal, calls to them
145–150
simile (5): the angel’s wings and the breeze of May
151–154
the angel’s Beatitude
PURGATORIO XXIV
Walking did not slow our talk, nor did the talking →
slow our motion, as conversing we moved swiftly,
3
like ships that are driven by favoring winds.
And the shades, that seemed things dead twice over, →
stared at me, amazed, from the sockets of their eyes,
6
once they saw I was alive.
And I, continuing, remarked:
‘Perhaps he climbs more slowly than he’d like →
9
because someone else is with him.
‘But tell me, if you know, where Piccarda is. →
And tell me if I am seeing anyone of note
12
among these people who are staring at me so.’
‘I cannot say whether my sister was more virtuous →
than she was beautiful. On high Olympus
15
she already triumphs, rejoicing in her crown.’
This he said first and then: →
‘Here it’s not forbidden to call us by our names,
18
since our features are sucked dry by fasting.
‘He there’—and he pointed with his finger—‘is →
Bonagiunta, Bonagiunta of Lucca, and that one
21
just beyond him, the face more cracked and scaly →
‘than the rest, held Holy Church within his arms.
He was from Tours and now by fasting purges
24
eels from the Bolsena served alla vernaccia.’
He named many another, one by one,
and each seemed happy to be named— →
27
I did not see a scowl on any face.
I saw, gnashing his teeth on nothing in his hunger,
Ubaldino dalla Pila, and Bonifazio, → →
30
who with his crozier led and fed a multitude.
I saw Messer Marchese, who once took his leisure, →
drinking in Forlì with less cause for thirst
33
and still could not be satisfied.
But as a man might look around and take more note →
of one than of another, so I did with him from Lucca,
36
who clearly seemed to know me.
He was muttering and all I could make out →
was a word like ‘Gentucca’ coming from his mouth,
39
where he felt most the justice that so wastes them.
‘O soul,’ I said, ‘who seem so keen to speak with me, →
speak in a manner I can understand
42
and with your speech thus satisfy us both.’
‘A woman is born and wears not yet the wimple,’ →
he said. ‘She shall make my city please you,
45
however men revile it.
‘Take your way with this prophecy in mind
and, if you have mistook my muttering,
48
events themselves will make it plain to you.
‘But tell me if I see before me →
the one who brought forth those new rhymes
51
begun with Ladies that have intelligence of love.’
And I to him: ‘I am one who, when Love →
inspires me, take note and, as he dictates
54
deep within me, so I set it forth.’
‘O my brother,’ he said, ‘now I understand the knot →
that kept the Notary, Guittone, and me →
57
on this side of the sweet new style I hear.
‘I clearly understand that your pens follow
faithfully whatever Love may dictate,
60
which, to be sure, was not the case with ours.
‘And he who takes the next step sees in this
what separates t
he one style from the other.’
63
Then, as though with satisfaction, he was silent.
As birds that spend the wintertime along the Nile →
sometimes gather in a flock high in the air,
66
then, flying faster, form a line,
so all the people gathered there
turned from us, hurrying away,
69
light as they were through leanness and desire.
And, as one exhausted by his run
lets his companions race ahead while he but walks
72
until the heaving of his chest is eased,
so Forese let the holy flock pass by
and came along with me behind them. He asked:
75
‘How long until I see you here again?’ →
‘I do not know,’ I said, ‘how long I’ll live. →
But my return could not occur so soon
78
that I will not in thought return before,
‘since the place where I was put to live
day by day despoils itself of every good
81
and seems disposed to certain ruin.’
‘How true,’ he said, ‘and I see him who bears →
the greatest blame dragged behind a beast
84
toward the valley where there is no absolution.
‘The beast goes faster with each step,
and faster, until it hurls him to the ground
87
and leaves his body horribly disfigured.
‘Those wheels do not have long to turn’—
and he looked skyward—‘until that which my speech
90
has left obscure shall be made plain to you.
‘Now I must leave you here, for time
is precious in this realm so that I lose too much