PURGATORIO, Episode 237. At Long Last, Dante's Confession: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, Lines 22 - 48

Ever since INFERNO, Canto I, we've never fully understood why Dante woke up lost in that dark wood.

Now, in the Garden of Eden, Beatrice brings him to the point where he can voice what he did wrong. He can finally offer his confession.

It was all about her all along. And maybe about what he wrote. And maybe about another woman who caught his eye. Or maybe all of it at once.

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The segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:12] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, Lines 22 - 48. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, scroll down this page

[03:16] An easy outline of this passage.

[04:27] Recasting Dante's faults into metaphoric language.

[09:18] Dante's confession.

[12:40] Beatrice and the formal form of "you."

[14:34] Her acceptance of Dante's confession, leading him to contrition.

[18:15] Beatrice: allegory v. realism.

[23:15] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, lines 22 - 48.

My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, Lines 22 – 48:

That’s why she [said] to me, “Inside your desires for me—

Which were leading you to love [all that is] good

[And] beyond which there’s no more aspiration—

“What ditches cut up your path and what chains

Did you find that you should now strip yourself

Of the hope of passing beyond them?

“And what cushy comforts and what advantages

Were shown in the faces of others,

That you needed to parade yourself in front of them?”

After expelling a bitter sigh,

I hardly had the voice to reply

And my lips formed [my response] with much difficulty.

Weeping, I said, “Things of the present with their

False beauty turned my steps [aside]

As soon as your face was obscured.”

And she [said], “If you had been silent or denied

What you confess, your guilt would be

No less noted. That sort of judge knows it all!

“But when the accusation of the sin sprouts up

On the sinner’s cheek, the whetstone

Turns against the blade’s edge in our court.

“In any event, so that you will still carry

The shame of your error, and so that, at another time,

When you hear the sirens, you’ll be stronger,

“Put aside the seeds of weeping and listen:

You’ll hear how the burial of my body

Should have turned you in the opposite direction. . . .”