The Violent yet Elliptical End to Piccarda Donati's Story: PARADISO, Canto III, Lines 88 - 108

Piccarda Donati finally answers the question about who she is. She's given her name but not much else about her. In twelve lines (or four tercets) she brings her personal story to its violent yet elliptical conclusion.

Before that the poet has to explain what he's learned, the pilgrim has to express what his time with her has felt like, and then she gets to take center stage . . . and not fully answer the question.

Piccarda Donati is one of the strongest feminist characters in COMEDY. Her voice is an essential part of the puzzle that includes Francesca from INFERNO and Pia from PURGATORIO.

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The segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:12] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto III, Lines 88 - 108. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please scroll down this page.

[03:13]  Unity is expressed in diversity (at least as far as grace goes).

[06:15] A Latin word in the pasage--for one-upmanship or to elevate the sweet new style?

[08:32] The mixed metaphoric space of the pilgrim Dante and Piccarda Donati.

[12:38] The monastic prelude to Piccarda's personal story.

[18:56] The violent yet elliptical end of her story.

[25:45] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto III, lines 88 - 108.

My English translation of PARADISO, Canto III, Lines 88 - 108:

It was clear to me how truly each “where”

In heaven is paradise, etsi the grace

Of the highest well-being doesn’t rain in equal measure.

But as it can happen, if one [food] satisfies us

Yet the hunger for another still sticks around,

We ask for one while offering thanks for the other,

So I did with gesture and with words

In order to learn about her from [her] weaving,

Although she hadn’t drawn her shuttle to completion.

“Perfect life and a higher merit

Inheaven a lady farther up,” she said to me. “By her standards,

[Women] take the robe and the veil down in your world,

“So that until death, they wake and sleep

With the groom who accepts each vow

That love molds to his pleasure.

“To follow her, I fled the world

As a young girl, closing myself in her habit

And promising [to keep] the way of her order.

“Then men, more accustomed to bad than good,

Had me kidnapped from the sweet cloister.

Only God knows what my life was thereafter. . . .”