INFERNO, Episode 5. Beasts On That Hopeful Slope And The Slide Into Despair: Inferno, Canto I, Lines 28 - 66
A gawdy leopard, a roaring lion, and a ravenous she-wolf block our pilgrim on his way up that hopeful slope and send him sliding back down to the dark wood . . . where a ghostly presence materializes in front of him.
Dante, our pilgrim, is underway! Except not really. As we’ve established, he sets out to go the way he already knows. It’s naturally the way he’d choose. It looks right. It’s lit up by the sun.
But he’s limping. Oh, and there are three beasts in the way. A lion, a leopard, and a she-wolf! They block his way and send him falling back to the scary place, the dark wood.
And then it gets weirder yet, as a shade, a ghost, a presence, something wild materializes in front of our pilgrim.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we start to climb a hill with our pilgrim, as we find our first complex allegory in the poet’s poem, and as we discover the beginnings of the beautiful poetry that makes COMEDY so compelling.
If you’re tuning in for the first time, it’s best to find the first episode (scroll or page down) and start there. You gotta walk with the pilgrim. And you gotta get going in the wrong direction with him. All before you can head in the right direction with him. In other words, down to hell.
Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[00:28] My English translation of this passage: INFERNO, Canto 1, Lines 28 - 66. If you'd like to read along, print it off, make notes, or drop a comment, please scroll down this page.
[03:12] Our first glimpse of the poem's incredible complexity--that is, a bit about the pilgrim's feet, all sieved through St. Augustine and a commentary written by Dante's own son, plus lots more.
[09:19] Three beasts! Here they come, the terrors on the slope. I'll offer lots of interpretations for them. They've generated 700 years of answers!
[20:50] And so it goes: The pilgrim slips back down the mountain, almost lost, until a figure appears out of the mist. Sure, a ghost is surprising. Even more so, what the pilgrim says to this shade.
[24:29] A final bit about a clue in the passage that helps us date the poem--not in terms of when it was written but rather when it's taking place. It seems to be Easter weekend in 1300. Seems to be March 25. Problem is, March 25 didn't fall on Easter weekend in the year 1300.
Here’s my rough English translation of INFERNO, Canto I, lines 28 - 66:
After I rested my tired body a little,
I continued my way along the deserted slope,
So that my firmer foot was always the lower one.
Then look out! Near the beginning of the climb
A leopard, light and very fast,
Covered with a spotted coat,
Refused to get out of my face
But so blocked my way at every turn,
That again and again I had to go back.
The time was early morning,
And the sun was rising with those stars
That shone with it when divine love
First set in motion all those gorgeous things.
Because of the hour of the day and the sweet season,
I still held on to hope,
Despite the beast with the gaudy pelt.
But then I was struck with fear
At the sight of a lion that appeared.
He looked as if he was coming right at me,
His head held high with insane hunger
So that the air seemed to tremble at him.
What’s more, a she-wolf, so emaciated
That she seemed stricken with every kind of craving
That had made many to live in wretchedness,
Threw such a heavy weight of terror over me,
Terror that overwhelmed me at the sight of her,
That I lost all hope of getting up that hill.
And like someone who eagerly counts his gains
But weeps and gets sad
When the time comes for him to lose,
So did that restless beast make me feel—
Coming against me, little by little,
Driving me back to where the sun was silent.
While I was falling down the slope toward a low spot,
A figure presented itself before my eyes,
Someone who seemed barely perceptible in that long silence.
When I saw him in that vast wilderness,
I cried out to him “Miserere on me,
No matter what you are, either shade or true man!”