We've come through the ten malebolge or evil pouches of fraud, but we're not to the ninth circle of INFERNO yet. Instead, we're walking with Dante the pilgrim and his guide Virgil in one of the strangest spots in all of INFERNO: a liminal space between two circles, a spot where revelation, creativity, and even transgressive behaviors are free to roam.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as take our first steps into this canto of misperceptions and muddled historical references, a canto in which Dante the poet becomes as creative as he can be within the confines of INFERNO.

Here are the segments for this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:

[02:19] My English translation of the passage: INFERNO, Canto XXXI, lines 7 - 27. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this episode, just scroll down this page.

[04:16] Inferno's Canto XXXI involves a series of reversals--with three examples in this short passage.

[08:37] Virgil becomes a natural philosopher in the model of Vitello from his work PERSPECTIVA.

[12:37] Roland's horn and Charlemagne's defeat are the historical nodes in Canto XXXI.

[17:02] Misperception is the repeated motif as Dante the pilgrim approaches the final revelation in each of the three canticles of COMEDY.

[21:14] Inferno's Canto XXXI is a liminal space between two circles of hell.

[26:28] What are the hallmarks of a liminal space?

[30:55] A rereading of this passage: INFERNO, Canto XXXI, lines 7 - 27.

And here’s my English translation of Inferno, Canto XXXI, Lines 7 – 27

 

We gave that suffering valley our backs

By mounting up over the bank that encircles it

And transversing it without a single disquisition between us.

 

At this spot, it was less than night and less than day,

So I could peer only a little ways in front of us—

But I heard a blaring trumpet,

 

So overpowering that it would make any peal of thunder seem feeble.

My eyes were yanked to that spot

Along the way where the noise had stopped.

 

Not even Roland blew such a terrible blast

When Charlemagne lost his holy company,

After that sad rout.

 

I’d turned my head in that direction only for a little bit

When I saw what appeared to be many high towers.

So I said, “Tell me, master, what city is this?”

 

And he to me: “Because you’re still trying to make it out through

The darkness from too far away,

Your ability to discern things isn’t so great.

 

“You’ll see it right when you reach the spot

And understand how your sight was deceived by distance.

So press on with fervor.”