PURGATORIO, Episode 242. The Revelation Of Beatrice's Hidden, Second Beauty: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, Lines 127 - 145

We finally come to the face-to-face meeting of Beatrice and Dante. We've waited for this moment since INFERNO, Canto II, when Beatrice first stepped into COMEDY.

Neither Dante nor Beatrice speak at their close meeting. Instead, the women around the chariot beg Beatrice to reveal her second, hidden beauty: her mouth.

Let’s explore the complexities the textual difficulties of this passage: a Biblical allusion that has been muddled in commentary, a lost word that's hard to translate, and a question of quotation marks in a medieval manuscript.

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Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:26] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, lines 127 - 145. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please scroll down this page.

[03:11] Textual problems in the first six lines (XXXI: 127 - 132)--a muddled Biblical reference, a moral question of virtues, and a word that's hard to translate.

[07:49] Beatrice's turning and the coming revelation of her mouth.

[10:57] A difficult conclusion to Canto XXXI: Who says these complicated lines that use the informal "you"?

[16:59] Forgetting and remembering your former works to create something new.

[23:10] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, lines 127 - 145.

My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, Lines 127 – 145

While full of awe and happiness

My spirit tasted some of that food,

Which, by finding satiety in itself, makes one thirst for it,

The other trio came forward,

Demonstrating their more noble rank

In their attire and dancing to their angelic rhythms.

Their song was “Turn, Beatrice,

Turn your holy eyes to your faithful one,

Who has taken so many steps to see you!

“Because of grace, do us the grace of unveiling

Your mouth to him, so that he can make out

The second beauty that you hide.”

O splendor of eternal, living light!

Who else has become so pale under the shadow

Of Parnassus or drunk from its well

That he would seem to have a belabored intellect

As he attempts to portray you as you appeared there,

Where, in harmonics, the sky veiled you

When you openly showed yourself in the air?”