PURGATORIO, Episode 257. All The Hopeful Ambiguity Of The Second Canticle: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 124 - 145

We come to the end of the second canticle, of PURGATORIO . . . and it includes all the ambiguity and humanness we've come to expect, plus hopeful notes for the journey ahead into Paradise.

Dante complicates his ending of PURGATORIO with notes about his own dark mind and the incomplete work of this second part of his masterpiece COMEDY.

At the same time, we're ready for the stars.

The segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:22] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 124 - 145. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, scroll down this page.

[03:26] Dante, ever the medieval poet, no matter how modern we try to make him.

[05:28] The final address to the reader in PURGATORIO and the tricky question of the "woven bridle."

[10:58] Matelda, apparently doing what she's always done . . . which only makes her character more complex.

[12:49] The threat to memory, the threat to COMEDY as a whole.

[15:23] Four hopeful notes that conclude PURGATORIO.

[17:55] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, lines 124 - 145.

My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 124 – 145:

And Beatrice [replied]: “Perhaps a greater strain,

Which often robs memory,

Has darkened the eyes of his mind.

“But look how Eünoé pours out there.

Lead him to it—and as you always do,

Revive his languishing powers.”

As a chivalrous spirit doesn’t make excuses

But makes the will of another its own

The moment any signal discloses it;

So, having urged me on,

The beautiful lady moved forward. And to Statius

She sweetly but commandingly said, “Come with him.”

Reader, if I had more space

To write, I could keep on singing at least in part

About the sweet drink that could never satisfy me;

But because all the pages

That have been bound for the second canticle are full,

The bridle of art lets me go no further.

I returned from that most holy wave

Refreshed, as new plants

Are restored with new leaves.

[I was] pure and ready to ascend to the stars.