INFERNO, Episode 11. The Way You Get Saved Is With A Story: Inferno, Canto II, Lines 76 - 114

Virgil and Beatrice are at war! Well, not really. A war of words. Rhetoric. They have to use language to get what they want. Like Dante, both poet and pilgrim. Who’s also strangely missing from this scene in THE DIVINE COMEDY.

Curiouser and curiouser, Alice. We’re headed down the rabbit hole.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I take a look at the next-to-the-last passage in Canto II of Dante’s INFERNO. Walk with us. We’re just headed across the universe.

Here’s my rough English translation of the passage for his episode:

Inferno Canto II: 76 – 114

“Lady of virtue, through whom alone

Humankind goes beyond what is contained

In the smallest circle of heaven,

Your command pleases me so much

That instant obedience would seem tardy.

You have to do no more than reveal your desire.

But tell me the reason you don’t guard yourself

When you descend to this central point

From the expansive place where you long to be?”

“’Since you have such a deep yearning to know,’

She replied, “I will briefly tell you

Why I am not afraid to come here.

“’You should fear only those things

That have the power to harm you. Other things, not so much.

Those don’t cause fear.

“’I am made by God, by his grace,

So that your pain doesn’t touch me,

Nor can I these flames hurt me.

“’In heaven, there is a gracious lady,

Moved with a great deal of pity for the one I’m sending you to—

In fact, firm decrees have been broken by her.

“’This lady summoned Lucy and said,

“’”Your faithful one now needs you,

And I turn him over to your hand.”

“Lucy, the enemy of all cruelty,

Got up and came to where I sat

With the ancient Rachel,

“’And said, ”Beatrice, truly praiseworthy of God,

Why do you not aid the one

Who left the common crowd because of his full love for you.

“’”Do you not hear his sorrowful anguish

Or see how he is beset by death

In a flood that swells larger than the sea?”

“’No one on earth was ever so fast

To gain an advantage or escape from loss

As I was when those words were spoken.

“’I came down here from my blessed throne,

Placing my trust in your noble [or virtuous] speech

Which honors you and everyone who pays attention to it.’”