PURGATORIO, Episode 255. Images, Schools, Obscurities, And The Promise Of Clarity: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 79 - 102

After her final discourse in PURGATORIO, Beatrice and Dante enter into a brief conversation in which he admits he already has images stamped into his brain but he doesn't know what many of them mean, particularly those from her.

She, on the other hand, launches into her final condemnation: the school he followed was too debased to capture the truths she has in hand.

But she doesn't end there. She also promises greater clarity ahead. Thank goodness!

The segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:18] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 79 - 102. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me about this passage, scroll down this page.

[03:15] Questions about brain impressions, perhaps derived from the figurae of Joachim da Fiore.

[09:22] Beatrice's condemnation of the school Dante followed . . . and the questions about which school does she mean.

[17:38] The question of whether Dante fully experiences Purgatory.

[21:02] The hope of greater clarity ahead.

[22:57] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, lines 79 - 102.

My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 79 – 102:

And I [said]: “Like wax marked by a seal,

So that the stamped figure doesn’t undergo a change,

So my brain has now been stamped by you.

“But why do your much-desired words

Fly altogether too high for my sight,

So that the more I work [for them], the more I lose [them]?”

She said, “So that you may truly understand this school

You’ve followed and see how badly

Its doctrines can follow my words,

“You can now see that all your ways are as far

From what’s divine as the heaven that speeds along

The fastest on high is far from the earth.”

Therefore, I replied to her, “I don’t remember

That I ever made myself a stranger to you.

My conscience doesn’t chew me for that.”

“So if you’re not able to remember such things,”

She replied with a smile, “then remember now that

This day you’ve drunk from Lethe.

“What’s more, if fire is signaled by smoke,

This case of obliviousness clearly shows

The guilt of having turned your wants elsewhere.

“Truly now my words will be

Naked, as much as is fitting

To uncover them for your crude sight.”