Dante the pilgrim and Virgil are in the third circle of hell, among the gluttons, where they’ve encountered Ciacco, a strange future-teller, a prophet really, who sits up out of the muck to confront them. He just wants to be remembered in the up-top world. But Dante demands more.

Ciacco seemed to have come to a halt in the last episode--but Dante's not had enough. He prompts the damned shade for more—until he finds out the future of Florence. The very near future, just weeks after his journey across the known universe and extending on for the next couple of years.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I walk slowly through Dante's masterwork, COMEDY. We're in canto VI of INFERNO, in the third circle of hell, about the gluttons--where Dante just can't get enough of a fellow named Ciacco.

Here’s my translation of Inferno, Canto VI, Lines 58 – 93:

 

I [the pilgrim] replied to him, “Ciacco, your affliction

So weighs on me that it has pushed me to tears.

But tell me, if you know, what will happen

 

To the citizens of the partioned city?

If there are any who are just? And explain

Why all that discord has struck it.”

 

And he to me: “After much antagonism

They will come to blood, and the forest party

Will force the other out with great carnage.

 

But then this party will fall

Within three summers, and the other rise, because of the force

Of the one who is waiting in the wings.

 

For a long time with high foreheads [in sheer arrogance]

These will hold the other down with a ponderous weight,

Despite the tears and despite the shame.

 

Two are just and no one pays attention.

Pride, envy, and avarice are

The three sparks that have ignited their hearts.”

 

That’s how he finished his lamentations.

And I to him, “I would like you to keep on teaching me

And give me the gift of more words.

 

Farinata and Tegghiaio, who are so valued,

Jacopo Rusticucci, Arrigo and Mosca,

And the others who turned their minds to doing good,

 

Tell where they are and make me understand,

For I am burdened by a great desire to know

Whether heaven sweetens them or hell curdles them.”

 

And he: “They are among the blacker souls;

Diverse sins push them far down to the bottom.

If you go down that far, you’ll be able to see them.

 

But when you are back in the sweet world,

I pray that you bring me to the minds of others.

I tell you no more and won’t respond to you again.”

 

His clear eyes twisted into a squint.

He stared at me a little, then bent his head down

And fell prone among the other blind shades.