16. When Crossing Acheronte Into The First Rings Of Hell, Don't Faint: INFERNO, Canto III, Lines 109 - 136
Dante and Virgil stand on the shore of Acheronte, the river that borders the first rings of hell. Here, Virgil finally answers Dante’s question: Why do the damned seem so eager to cross into hell?
Virgil’s answer is shocking. Modern. Human. But is it enough? Because our pilgrim collapses. And the poem seems to break down.
Something happens: the canto ends abruptly. What?
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The segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[00:50] A summary of Canto III to this point.
[02:06] Reading my translation of INFERNO, Canto III, Lines 109 - 136. If you’d like to read along, find a more in-depth study guide, or continue the conversation with me by a comment on this episode, scroll down this page.
[03:55] Two problems: the problem of pain in the afterlife and the problem of the demon Charon.
[09:18] The big simile in the passage (all about leaves, falcons, falling, casting, and lures): its problems, its dissonances, and its resonances.
[17:50] Virgil's explanation: Their fears have morphed into their desires. It's one of the most modern statements in INFERNO.
[23:34] Dante collapses. What happens here? Something fails. I'll give you three possible answers: The pilgrim fails, Virgil fails, or the poet fails.
My English translation of INFERNO, Canto III, lines 109 – 136:
The demon Charon, with eyes of burning coals,
Motioned to them and collected all of them,
Beating those who hesitated with his oar.
As leaves in autumn let go and fall
One after another, until the branch
Sees all of its tatters on the ground,
So also did these, the bad seed of Adam,
Cast themselves one by one from that shore
When the sign was given, like a falcon to its lure.
And so they started to go across the dark water,
But before they even got out on the other shore,
A new crowd gathered on this bank.
“My son,” my courteous master said,
“All these who die under the God’s wrath
Come together here from every country,
“All ready to cross the river,
Because divine justice goads them
So that their fears morph into their desires.
“No good soul ever comes this way,
So if Charon whines about you,
You now know exactly what he means.”
As he was finishing up, the dark plain
Shook so forcefully that even now
The memory bathes me in sweat.
A wind came up from the tear-soaked ground
Flashing a scarlet light
Which overpowered my feelings.
And I collapsed like a person suddenly asleep.
FOR MORE STUDY
Two translation issues:
At times, it’s almost impossible to render the harshness of the Florentine into English. Take, for example, the description of Charon at ll. 109 - 110: “Caron dimonio, con occhi di bragia/ loro accennando, tutte le raccoglie” (literally: “Charon demon, with eyes like embers them beckons, [and] all of them herds . . .”). But rather than the meaning, look how ugly some of those sounds are, something like “kohn oh-key dee brah-gee-ah” and “too-tay lay rah-kkkoglee-eh.” The rhythm and sound are jarring. Medieval Florentine readers would probably find these bits nigh unto grating.
So what exactly is Virgil’s explanation for the behavior of the damned. At line 126, it’s “sì che la tema si volve in disio.” First off, since we just talked about the sound of the lines above, this one is much more melodic: “SEE kay lah TAY-mah SEE vohl-vay een DEE-see-oh.” It almost sings itself. If you’re musical, you can see how the “een” elides quickly into the “DEE” and you end up with a four-beat melody. But secondly, its sense: “so that the fear turns itself into desire.” The verb “si volve” involves, yes, a metamorphosis but also a physical turning, as in to the left (or right). Maybe we could say “so that fear makes a left turn into desire.” That’s awkward but close. Yet there’s still that larger question: Why is the motivation of damnation given such a melodic cadence?
Three interpretive issues:
At line 115, the damned are called “il mal seme d’Adamo” (“the evil seed of Adam”). We’ve already had a reference to semen at line 104 when the damned curse their own generation. There are two questions we might want to ask at this juncture. One, with the repeated word “seme” so close together, is Dante linking personal birth (their curse at their parents) to original sin (Adam)? Later in the poem, he’s going to seem to want to save an infant from the taint of original sin. But in this passage, he might be much closer to an orthodox idea, given the double placement of the word “seme.” And two, notice how coarse the language becomes. It’s unabashedly about bodily fluids. Dante didn’t have the Victorian Age over his shoulder. He’s much less finicky than we are. And this passage begins the bodily (ultimately, vulgar) diction of INFERNO. Why does the poet insist on such human physicality here and throughout hell?
Virgil only explains the scene after the pilgrim Dante has seen it for himself. Remember: Virgil had been rather impatient over the pilgrim’s question (at lines 76 - 78). But now he’s more willing to offer up rationales. Is this structure also the poet’s art? Is Virgil a model of poetic craft? Is Dante the poet intent on letting us, his readers, see the scene before he explains it to us? What does that delay gain him?
When Virgil begins his Sibyl-like explanation for what’s happening, the line is quite interesting: “‘Figliuol mio,’ disse l’maestro cortese . . .” (literally, “‘Son my,’ said the master courteous”—or “‘My son,’ said the courteous master . . .”). There’s a dissonance in that line that we modern readers might not hear. “My son” is affectionate; but “courteous,” particularly in a medieval context, is formal. Courtesy is the noble virtue of knowing one’s place, showing deference to one’s superiors, and stooping from a height to offer camaraderie or love. If Lancelot bows to King Arthur and King Arthur comes down from his throne to talk to Lancelot, they are both showing “courtesy,” because they are both indicating they know their rightful places and Arthur is being gracious toward his knight by lowering himself to Lancelot’s level. So the line expresses both a familial affection and a social hierarchy. (And by the way, which is Virgil in this passage? Lancelot or King Arthur?)
One journaling prompt:
When have your fears transformed into your desires? How scary was that? Are they still your desires?