53. Repenting To A Heretic: INFERNO, Canto X, lines 94 - 121a
Farinata’s far future
Our pilgrim’s chat with Farinata turns stranger as the warlord discusses the end of this world. Meanwhile, Dante perhaps ponders the end of his own guilt. Or at least discovers a misdirected way to talk about guilt: not quite clear, not quite evident, and perhaps human.
Farinata brings us to the end of all time, the furthest temporal marker in all of COMEDY. Then our pilgrim repents. Sort of. Repents of what? Do his words make sense of his guilt?
Let’s walk through the final bits of this dialogue with the infamous Farinata.
The segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:06] My English translation INFERNO: Canto X, lines 94 - 121a. If you'd like to read along, find a deeper study guide, or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please scroll down this page.
[03:35] Our pilgrim grants Farinata something that Farinata could never have had in this life: peace.
[09:45] Our pilgrim asks a fundamental question: How can the damned know the future? At the same time, it seems he's misdirecting his real problem. He's asking to solve a metaphysical knot, but isn't there a personal knot that also needs to be untied?
[13:06] Farinata offers a shocking answer about how the damned see time. What's more, the farthest temporal marker ever referenced in COMEDY is put in Farinata's mouth.
[21:05] The pilgrim finally repents--for the first time in COMEDY. But what exactly is he sorry for? And do his words cover his guilt?
[27:24] Who else is in that tomb with Farinata? Two storied figures: one from history, Frederick II; and one with a family tree in COMEDY, Ottaviano degli Ubaldini.
[31:55] Then Farinata withdraws, going as he arrived: in Stoic glory.
My English translation of INFERNO, Canto X, lines 94 - 121a:
“Okay, and so that your heirs may sometime find rest,”
I entreated him, “please untangle the knot
That has confused my ability to judge rightly.”
“If I have heard you right, it seems that you see
In advance what time will bring forward,
Yet the present seems another thing entirely.”
“We see things,” he said, “like someone who is standing in a bad light:
Things that are distant from us,
So much does the high guide still illuminate for us.
“But when they get close, or even come into being, our minds
Are totally empty. Unless someone brings news,
We don’t have any way of knowing about the state of your human affairs.
“Therefore, you can comprehend that our understanding
Will be completely dead at that point
When the door of the future is shut tight.”
Then feeling as if I should repent my faults,
I said, “Will you tell the one who fell down beside you
That his son is still joined up with the living?
“And please explain my silence:
Tell him that at that moment I was still working
Under the error that you just unknotted for me.”
My master was now calling me back,
So without delay I asked the spirit
To let me know who was down in there with him.
He said, “Here I lie with more than a thousand:
The second Frederick is inside,
And the cardinal, too. I will be silent about the rest of them.”
And then he withdrew.
FOR DEEPER STUDY
Three translation issues:
There’s a problem with the “we” in Farinata’s discussion of the future: “We don’t have any way of knowing about the state of your human affairs” (line 105). Most readers assume he’s speaking about all of the damned. However, a minority believe he’s only talking about the heretics. If the latter, then the glutton Ciacco’s ability to see the near future is not a problem. Ciacco is not a heretic, after all. However, I believe COMEDY is a poem in process: We’re seeing it develop its themes and structure on the page. I’m not surprised by contradictions as the poet works out his poem. But I could be wrong, so interpreting the “we” as only the heretics can solve a dilemma in the poem’s schematics.
Tutto è vano/ nostro intelletto (lines 103b - 104a—literally, “All is empty/ our mind”). Except intelletto is not exactly “mind.” It’s more like “reasoning ability” or “deductive faculty.” Perhaps a better if looser way to translate the Florentine is “Our empty reasoning can’t work it out.”
The rhymes become sweeter in this second conversation with Farinata (after Cavalcante’s interruption). Earlier, the rhymes were harsh with lots of grating consonants—for example, altra fïata, scoperchiata, and ginocchie levata at lines 50 - 54. However, in this passage the rhymes are more melodious—for example, adduce, luce, and duce at lines 98 - 102 or lantano, vano, and umano at lines 101 - 105. Does this indicate a softer, sweeter dialogue? (However, note that the rhymes again turn a bit harsh in the pilgrim’s last words to Farinata: pensava, richiamava, and lu’istava at lines 113 - 117. Is there something to this turn as well?)
Three interpretive issues:
Farinata’s claim about how the damned know the future is the reverse of Dante’s claim about how he will write COMEDY. Farinata claims that the further-off things are clearer than present, closer things (lines 100 - 105). He’s saying that his knowledge works in the opposite way from memory, where closer things are clearer. Dante bases his poem on his memory (INFERNO, Canto II, line 6); and we presume that since the walk across the known universe takes about eight days, he’s planning on remembering it the moment he returns to his desk. Does Farinata’s claim mean that the heretics can’t make poetry? Or that their way of seeing is opposed to a poet’s way of seeing?
If we accept the common dating for Dante’s life (born in 1265 CE), he couldn’t have known Farinata (who died in 1264 CE). Although I reject the birth date for Dante (not because I have an alternative but because the favored dating is based on the fictional and imprecise claim about “midway through our life” at INFERNO, I, 1), I concur that Dante could never have met the warlord who did so much to affect our poet’s life. How does a lack of personal connection color the conversations? Dante could well have known Cavalcante. Is that why their conversation is more personal? By contrast, Farinata seems to have no idea who Dante is (line 42). Does that shape what happens in their interchanges?
The claim that “the cardinal” (line 120) is Ottavanio degli Ubaldini is based on the long tradition of COMEDY’s commentary. However, the text is ambiguous, offering little beyond the guy’s title to help us identify him. Given our poet’s rather dim view of the church, there may have been dozens of cardinals who fit the bill. Is there something to the notion that Farinata’s otherwise precise speech ends at a moment of opacity? Or is our poet behind him still not sure about offering a critique of the church? (The many clerics, cardinals, and even popes among the hoarders and wasters are not named at INFERNO, Canto VII, lines 46 - 48; but our poet will be much surer ahead in INFERNO!)
One journaling prompt:
If you met one of your great enemies, who would you put in the tomb with him, her, or them?