Purgatorio (The Divine Comedy series Book 2)
Page 18
93
by moving at your pace, slow step by step.’
As sometimes a horseman dashes at a gallop →
from a troop of riders to attain
96
the honor of the first encounter,
he went away from us with longer strides,
and I continued on with those two souls
99
who were such noble leaders of the world.
And when he became a distant sight, →
my eyes kept following him,
102
just as my mind hung on his words.
Suddenly a second tree, its branches green →
and weighted down with fruit,
105
caught my eye as we came nearer.
I saw a crowd beneath it raising up their hands →
and calling—I don’t know what—up at the foliage,
108
like headlong, foolish children
who beg, but he from whom they beg does not reply
and, to make their longing even stronger,
111
holds the thing they want aloft and does not hide it.
Then they went away as if enlightened, →
and it was our turn to approach the lofty tree
114
that turns away so many prayers and tears.
‘Pass on, do not come any closer. →
This is the offshoot of that tree above
117
from which Eve plucked and ate the fruit.’
I do not know whose voice spoke out among the leaves.
Virgil and Statius and I drew closer to one another,
120
moving on beside the rising cliff.
‘Remember,’ the voice went on, ‘those accursèd creatures, →
formed in the clouds, their chests both beast and man,
123
who, drunk with wine, made war on Theseus,
‘and those Hebrews whose thirst revealed them slack,
so that Gideon would not take them with him
126
when he charged from the hills on Midian.’
Thus, staying close to one edge of the path,
we passed on, hearing sins of gluttony
129
that long ago received their wretched wages.
Then, farther apart along the road now empty,
we moved ahead at least a thousand paces,
132
each of us silent, deep in his thoughts.
‘What are you thinking as you walk along, →
you three there by yourselves?’ a sudden voice inquired,
135
at which I started, as do timid, drowsy beasts.
I raised my head to make out who it was,
and never was glass or metal in a furnace →
138
ever seen so glowing and so red
as the one I saw who said: ‘If you wish
to mount above, here is where you turn.
141
This is the road for those who would find peace.’
His shining face had blinded me,
so that I turned and walked behind my teachers
144
like someone led by only what he hears.
And as, announcing dawn, the breeze of May →
stirs and exudes a fragrance
147
filled with the scent of grass and flowers,
just such a wind I felt stroking my brow
and I could feel the moving of his feathers,
150
my senses steeped in odor of ambrosia.
I heard the words: ‘Blessed are they →
whom grace so much enlightens that appetite
fills not their breasts with gross desires,
154
but leaves them hungering for what is just.’
OUTLINE: PURGATORIO XXV
1–108
the ascent (between the terraces of Gluttony and Lust):
1–3
the sun has moved to Taurus (it is about 2 PM)
4–9
simile (1): man so purposeful nothing can distract him and poets in single file moving up through the narrow passage
10–15
simile (2): baby stork, wishing to fly but not to leave the nest, lifting its wing but letting it fall and Dante beginning to speak but thinking better of doing so
16–18
Virgil encourages him to speak
19–21
Dante’s question: how can shades grow lean if they require no nourishment?
22–30
Virgil: the story of Meleager and the principle of reflection would clarify this; but let Statius explain
31–33
Statius agrees to do so, even in Virgil’s presence
34–108
Statius’s lecture on embryology:
34–36
he is able to explain how the aerial body is formed:
37–66
(1) after the “perfect blood” is “digested” (the fourth digestion) in the heart, having now the power to inform all parts of the body, it is “digested” once again and descends into the testicles; (2) it now falls upon the “perfect blood” in the vagina; the former is “active,” the latter “passive”; (3) the male blood now informs the soul of the new being in the female; (4) but how this soul becomes a human being is not yet clear;
67–78
once the fetal brain is formed, God, delighted with Nature’s work, breathes into it the [rational] soul, which blends with the already existent soul and makes a single entity, as wine is made by the sun;
79–108
at the moment of death the soul leaves the body but carries with it the potential for both states, the bodily one “mute,” the rational one more acute than in life, and falls to Acheron (if damned) or Tiber (if saved), where it takes on its “airy body,” which, inseparable as flame from fire, follows it wherever it goes; insofar as this new being “remembers” its former shape, it takes on all its former organs of sense and becomes a “shade”
I. The setting of the seventh terrace
109–111
their arrival
112–117
the narrow path alongside the flame; they go singly
118–120
Virgil warns Dante to watch his steps
II. Exemplars of Chastity
121–126
the penitents sing “Summae Deus clementiae,” while Dante alternately looks at them and down at his feet
127–139
they call on Mary and Diana; after returning to the hymn, they call out the names of chaste wives and husbands
PURGATORIO XXV
It was the hour when the ascent did not permit delay, →
for the sun had left the meridian to the Bull,
3
and night had left it to the Scorpion.
Therefore, like one who does not stop →
but, urged on by the spur of need,
6
plods along his way no matter what,
we thrust into the gap, one before the other,
single file, up stairs so narrow
9
they separate those who climb them.
And as a baby stork may raise a wing,
longing to fly, but does not dare
12
to leave its nest and lowers it again,
such was I, my desire to question kindled
and then put out, moving my mouth
15
like a man who prepares himself to speak.
Despite our rapid pace, my gentle father said:
‘Relax the bent bow of your speech, →
18
now stretched to the arrow’s iron point.’
At that, with confidence I opened my mouth to ask:
‘How can it be that one grows thin →
21
here where there is no need for nourishment?’
&nb
sp; ‘If you recall how Meleager was consumed →
in the time it took to burn a log-end,’ he said,
24
‘this will not be difficult for you to understand.
‘And if you consider how at your slightest motion →
your image moves within the glass,
27
a concept that seems hard would then seem easy.
‘But, to soothe you and to grant your wish, →
here is Statius. I call on him, I beg him,
30
to be the healer of your wounds.’
‘If I unfold the eternal plan before him →
in your presence,’ answered Statius,
33
‘let my excuse be that I can’t refuse you.’
Then he began: ‘Son, if your mind treasures →
and takes in my words,
36
they will explain how what you ask may be.
‘The perfect blood, which is never drunk →
by the thirsty veins and remains untouched,
39
like the food one removes from the table,
‘gathers in the heart and carries
formative power to all members, like the blood
42
that, flowing through, becomes a part of them.
‘Again digested, it descends where silence
is more fit than speech and from there later
45
drops into the natural vessel on another’s blood.
‘There the one is mingled with the other,
one fitted to be passive and the other active,
48
owing to the perfect place from which it springs, →
‘and this one, so conjoined, begins to function,
first coagulating, then quickening that which,
51
as its future matter, it has already thickened.
‘The active force, having now become a soul— →
like a plant’s but differing in this: it is still
54
on the way, while the plant has come to shore—
‘next functions, moving now and feeling,
like a sea-sponge, and from that goes on, producing →
57
organs for the faculties of which it is the seed.
‘Now unfurls, now spreads the force, my son,
that comes straight from the heart of the begetter,
60
there where nature makes provision for all members.
‘But how from animal it turns to human →
you do not see as yet. This is the point →
63
at which a wiser man than you has stumbled
‘in that his teaching rendered separate
the possible intellect from the soul,
66
because he could not find the organ it could live in.
‘Open your heart to the truth that follows →
and know that, once the brain’s articulation
69
in the embryo arrives at its perfection,
‘the First Mover turns to it, rejoicing
in such handiwork of nature, and breathes
72
into it a spirit, new and full of power,
‘which then draws into its substance
all it there finds active and becomes a single soul
75
that lives, and feels, and reflects upon itself.
‘And, that you may be less bewildered by my words, →
consider the sun’s heat, which, blended with the sap
78
pressed from the vine, turns into wine.
‘When Lachesis runs short of thread, the soul →
unfastens from the flesh, carrying with it
81
potential faculties, both human and divine.
‘The lower faculties now inert,
memory, intellect, and the will remain
84
in action, and are far keener than before.
‘Without pausing, the soul falls, miraculously, →
of itself, to one or to the other shore.
87
There first it comes to know its road.
‘As soon as space surrounds it there,
the formative force radiates upon it,
90
giving shape and measure as though to living members.
‘And as the air, when it is full of rain,
is adorned with rainbow hues not of its making
93
but reflecting the brightness of another,
‘so here the neighboring air is shaped
into that form the soul, which stays with it,
96
imprints upon it by its powers.
‘And, like the flame that imitates its fire,
wherever that may shift and flicker,
99
its new form imitates the spirit.
‘A shade we call it, since the insubstantial soul →
is visible this way, which from the same air forms
102
organs for each sense, even that of sight.
‘Through this we speak and through this smile.
Thus we shed tears and make the sighs
105
you may have heard here on the mountain.
‘And, as we feel affections or desires,
the shade will change its form, and this
108
is the cause of that at which you marvel.’
But now we had come to the final circling →
and, turning to the right,
111
we were attentive to another care.
There the bank discharges surging flames →
and where the terrace ends, a blast of wind shoots up
114
which makes the flames recoil and clear the edge,
so that we had to pass along the open side,
one by one, and here I feared the fire
117
but also was afraid I’d fall below.
My leader said: ‘Along this path
a tight rein must be kept upon the eyes,
120
for here it would be easy to misstep.’
‘Summae Deus clementiae’ I then heard sung →
in the heart of that great burning,
123
which made me no less eager to turn back,
and I saw spirits walking in the flames,
so that I watched them and my footsteps,
126
dividing my attention, now there, now here.
After the hymn was sung through to its end
they cried aloud: ‘Virum non cognosco,’ →
129
then, in softer tones, began the hymn again.
When it was finished, next they cried: →
‘Diana kept to the woods and drove Callisto out
132
for having felt the poisoned sting of Venus.’
Then they again began to sing, →
calling on wives and husbands who were chaste,
135
even as virtue and matrimony urge.
And this way they go on, I think,
for as long as the fire burns them.
With such treatment and with just such diet →
139
must the last of all the wounds be healed.
OUTLINE: PURGATORIO XXVI
III. The penitents in Lust
1–3
Virgil’s only spoken words in the canto: “be careful”
4–6
from the angle of the lowering sun, it is late afternoon
7–15
the shades are drawn to Dante’s shadow, which darkens the flame between them and the sun
IV. The speakers
16–24
Guido Guinizzelli’s question: “are you alive?”
25–30
Dante would have answered, except that he sees
a second group of penitents moving in a counter direction
31–36
simile: ants touching faces with others in their band and kissing visages of all in these two bands
V. Exemplars of Lust
37–42
homosexuals: Sodom and Gomorrah; heterosexuals: Pasiphaë
43–48
simile: cranes flying north and south and sinners moving on in former directions; they all sing “Summae Deus clementiae” and of Mary and Diana, while each group also cries out either “Sodom and Gomorrah” or “Pasiphaë”
IV. The speakers (continued)
49–51
the souls return their attention to Dante
52–66
Dante says he is here in body, protected by a lady, and wants to know who these present and the others are
67–70
simile: the peasant from the mountains wondering at the city and the penitent heterosexuals looking at Dante
71–81
Guido: blessèd are you who, to die better, visit our realm; the other group shared in Caesar’s homosexuality
82–87
these, on the other hand, were “hermaphrodite”
88–93
Guido: it would take too long to say who the others are; he identifies himself, saying he repented before he died
94–96
simile: two sons finding Hypsipyle and Dante finding Guido
97–105
Dante is greatly moved, seeing his “father” in poetry
106–111
Guido will remember his love past Lethe; but if he is Dante and here in body, why does he care about Guido?
112–114
Dante: because of Guido’s sweet poetry
115–126
Guido: [Arnaut Daniel] was a better craftsman in the vernacular than I, but not Giraud de Borneil, nor Guittone
127–132
Guido: if you are really going to heaven, say a Paternoster there for me