PURGATORIO, Episode 240. Washed Clean In Lethe: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, Lines 91 - 111

Dante wakes up in the arms of the young woman who first welcomed him to the Garden of Eden. She's dragging him through Lethe before she forcefully pushes him underwater.

This scene is deeply symbolic and allegorical . . . although it raises many more questions than it answers. In fact, it seems to want to leave many things open-ended, a cue that Dante wants us in the poem, working on solutions to the many puzzles he has set.

In any event, Dante is now cleansed and ready to dance with the seven virtues around Beatrice's chariot.

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The segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:29] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, Lines 91 - 111. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website: markscarbrough.com.

[03:43] Two notes on the first nine lines: the heart and the shuttle.

[06:33] Is this a baptism?

[09:46] Three questions that surround the Latin line from the Psalms.

[13:43] Why is the dunking so forceful?

[15:45] What sign do the four women make over Dante?

[17:41] The seven women fill in the details from PURGATORIO, Cantos I and VIII.

[19:56] The four women are linked to the classical world; the three women, to the contemplative life.

[22:43] Does everything happen to Statius, too? And to other penitent souls?

[26:23] How do you express the inexpressible?

[28:28] Must our poet forget the CONVIVIO in Lethe?

[29:39] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, lines 91 - 111.

My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, Lines 91 – 111

After that, when my heart returned my external powers to me,

I saw the lady who I’d found alone

Above me and she said, “Hold me, hold me!”

She had drawn me into the river up to my throat

And pulling me behind her, she was walking

On the water, light as a shuttle.

When I got close to the blessed bank,

I heard “Asperges me” so sweetly

That I can remember nothing else, nor even write it down.

The beautiful lady opened her arms,

Embraced my head, and submerged me,

So that I had to swallow the water.

She then took me and, now bathed,

Stuck me into the dance of the four beautiful women.

Each of them covered me with an arm.

“We are nymphs here and in the sky we are stars.

Before Beatrice descended to the earth,

We were ordained to be her handmaidens.

“We will lead you to her eyes but to see the joyous

Light held in them, your own [eyes] will be sharpened

By the three over there, who see more deeply into things.”