PURGATORIO, Episode 256. At Long Last, Matelda: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 103 - 123

The procession continues away from Lethe and farther into the Garden of Eden until they come to a dark, frigid spot that stops them . . . a curious moment in this innocent landscape.

And it gets more curious as we discover rivers named and then renamed before we come to the most difficult naming of them all: Matelda, the fair lady who has been with us since PURGATORIO, Canto XXVIII.

We'll talk cosmology, geography, and even poetic rhyme sequences before we turn to the thorny question of exactly who Matelda is. I’ll offer you lots of options, tell you my own stance, and leave you to sort it out as you will!

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The segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:26] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 103 - 123. If you'd like to read along or continue the discussion with me, scroll down this page.

[03:25] Cosmological references that help set (and even bookend) PURGATORIO.

[06:24] Stopping the procession at a dark, frigid spot (somehow in Eden!).

[08:56] The Tigris and Euphrates rivers: how and why?

[14:27] A beautiful rhyme sequence that encodes the fall into Eden.

[17:10] Matelda: the difficult and long-standing interpretive questions about who this fair lady is.

[31:06] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, lines 103 - 123.

My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 103 – 123

Both flaring more and [yet] with slower steps,

The sun held the circle of its meridian [although]

It could move here and there for the one who gazes [at it].

At which point we stopped, as someone guiding people

Stops who goes in front whenever he finds

Something new or the signs of something new.

The seven ladies [stopped] at the edge of a pale shadow,

Like those under green foliage and black branches

Over a frigid stream in the mountains.

In front [of them] I saw that the Euphrates and Tigris

Appear to come out of one spring

And then, like good friends, separate slowly.

“O light, O glory of the human population,

What water is this that is dispensed from

One source and then from itself distances itself?”

To this petition an answer was made: “Petition

Matelda to tell you.” And here, like one

Who frees herself from culpability, the beautiful lady

Replied, “This and other things

Were said to him by me. I’m sure

The waters of Lethe haven’t hidden them.”