PURGATORIO, Episode 232. The Admiral Comes Into Her Ship: PURGATORIO, Canto XXX, Lines 55 - 78

We finally hear the first words from Beatrice's mouth. (We've heard her before but as told by Virgil in INFERNO, Canto II.) She is certainly not person we expected. She's the admiral controlling her ship.

She names the pilgrim, names herself, and gets very close to blasphemy in a passage that defies our expectations, about as revelation should.

Beatrice takes center stage in Dante's masterwork, COMEDY.

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The segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:33] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXX, Lines 55 - 78. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this episode, please scroll down this page.

[04:41] The pilgrim finally named: Dante.

[09:03] The crux dilemma of orthodoxy: purity versus human feeling.

[13:44] Beatrice's ship, plus other ships in COMEDY.

[15:29] Beatrice, the admiral.

[17:34] Dante's difficulty in naming himself.

[20:20] Beatrice, Minerva, and our (or the pilgrim's?) expectations.

[23:42] Beatrice's curious blasphemy and questions.

[27:09] Dante as a rejuvenated Narcissus.

[30:32] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXX, lines 55 - 78.

My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXX, Lines 55 – 78

“Dante, just because Virgil has gone away,

Don’t cry yet, don’t cry just yet!

You need to cry because of another sword.”

[She was] like an admiral who comes to the stern and the prow

To see the people who work on the other ships

And give them the courage to do well.

When I turned at the sound of my name,

Which I record here out of necessity,

Right at the left wheel of the chariot,

I saw the lady who had just appeared to me

Veiled under the angelic festivities.

She directed her eyes at me across the stream,

Even though the veil that came down over her head,

Circled [as it was] with Minerva’s foliage,

Still didn’t let her appear in full view.

Altogether regal and imperious in her demeanor,

She continued like one who speaks

Yet holds in reserve the hottest part of her speech:

“Look right at me! Indeed I am, indeed I am Beatrice.

How have you dared to ascend this mountain?

Didn’t you know that here is where humans are happy?”

My eyes were cast down to the clear spring—

But, seeing myself in it, I turned [my gaze] back to the grass

[Because] so much shame weighed down my forehead.