PURGATORIO, Episode 233. The Ice Finally Melts: PURGATORIO, Canto XXX, Lines 79 - 99

Beatrice has offered her first condemnation of Dante, just as his salve and mentor, Virgil, has left the scene. He's stuck across Lethe with the ice sheet encasing his heart. Even the angels surrounding Beatrice in the chariot seem dumbfounded by her vitriol and offer the pilgrim a psalm of consolation . . . which finally makes the ice that has surrounded his heart melt. He ends up wailing.

The segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:34] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXX, Lines 79 - 99. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment on this episode, scroll down this page.

[03:53] One textual reference in the passage: Psalm 30/31: 1 - 8.

[07:46] A second textual reference in the passage: Augustine's CONFESSIONS, Book VIII.

[09:07] One metaphoric rearrangement in the passage: Beatrice as mother and Dante as son.

[11:55] A second metaphoric rearrangement: the melting ice inside of Dante.

[19:28] Allegory as art.

[22:30] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXX, lines 79 - 99.

My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXX, Lines 79 – 99:

Just as a mother seems domineering to her son,

So she appeared to me because the flavor

Of unripe compassion is bitter.

She went silent and the angels

All of a sudden sang, “In te, Domine, speravi”—

However, they didn’t go beyond “pedes meos.”

Just as snow along the living beams

At the back of Italy turns to ice,

When tossed and compressed by the Slavonian winds,

Then liquifies to trickle into itself

When the land that has lost its shadow breathes—

As when a candle is melted by fire—

So I was without tears or sighs

Before the singing of those notes that always

Follow the notes of the eternal circles.

But when I understood their compassion for me

In their sweet harmonies—as if they had said,

“Lady, why do you put him out of tune?”—

The ice that had stayed stuck around my heart

Became spirit and water. With great anguish,

Both gushed from my breast out of my mouth and eyes.