PURGATORIO, Episode 226. No Time For Poetry: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIX, Lines 88 - 105

The parade goes on, now that the pilgrim, Dante, is in a good spot to see it.

After the twenty-four lords in white come four animals with green fronds as crowns. They are like the Cherubim in both the prophecies of Ezekiel and in the Apocalypse of St. John (or the book of Revelation).

Except not really. Or sort of. Well, the poet doesn't have time to explain. Go read the text yourself. And especially the one that doesn't quite agree with what I saw. Dantean irony is alive and well, even during the grand parade of divine revelation.

The segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:20] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXIX, Lines 88 - 105. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, scroll down this page.

[02:56] The naturalistic, lush landscape à la Guido Cavalcanti's pastoral poem.

[04:49] The constellations, Argus, and the peacock.

[06:35] The four "animals" from Ezekiel and the Apocalypse of St. John (or the New Testament book of Revelation).

[09:19] Allegorical interpretations of the four animals.

[11:19] "Unmoored" allegories in COMEDY: here and with the three beasts in INFERNO, Canto I.

[14:02] Dante, the Biblical text, and questions of its inerrancy.

[16:25] The direct address tot he reader, perhaps a wild bit of Dantean irony even here in the divine parade.

[21:34] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIX, lines 88 - 105.

My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXIX, Lines 88 – 105:

When the flowers and the other fresh grasses

On the other bank across from me

Were left free of those chosen people,

Just as light comes after light in the sky,

Four animals came behind them,

Each [animal] crowned with green fronds.

Each was feathered with six wings.

The feathers [were] full of eyes—in fact, the eyes of Argus,

If they were alive, would be like those.

To describe their form, I scatter no more

Rhyme, reader, for further matters altogether constrain me

So that I can’t make more out of this.

Just read Ezekiel, who depicts them

As he saw them coming from the cold regions

With wind and clouds and fire.

As you find them in his pages,

Such were these, except when it comes to those feathers.

Here, John is with me and departs from Ezekiel.