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Dante's invective against political strife reaches its height by turning its rhetoric toward Dante's own experience--and maybe even his experience in writing COMEDY.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we watch Dante's poetic craft fall apart a bit and then turn back to the poet's own experience, all to find his stance as the prophet-poet he wants to be.

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

[02:40] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VI, lines 127 - 151. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please scroll down this page.

[05:05] The rage-filled sarcasm seems to go off the rails in a loss of good poetic craft.

[09:26] The invective turns to the poet's personal experience and a call-back to a previous moment in PURGATORIO, Canto VI.

[13:12] The invective ends with a terrific image of a feather bed and a sick woman as the summation of the political problems in Florence.

[15:48] PURGATORIO, Canto VI, is directly related to INFERNO, Canto VI.

[20:10] In PURGATORIO, Canto VI, Dante the poet may be learning how to become the prophet-poet he wants to be.

And here’s my English translation of Purgatorio, Canto VI, Lines 127 – 151

My Florence, well may you be contented

With this digression since it doesn’t touch you,

Thanks to the travails of your own people.

 

Many others have justice on their hearts, so much so that they slow down

With great deliberation before letting the arrow fly from the bow—

But your people get it right in their mouths.

 

Many refuse to bear the public good.

But your people respond without even being asked,

Crying out, “I’ll shoulder it!”

 

Now you might as well rejoice, for you’ve good reason to:

You’re rich, you’re at peace, and you’re so wise.

If I speak the truth, the facts can’t hide it!

 

Athens and Sparta, having made

The old laws and created an ordered civic life,

Gave the tiniest hints on how to live a good life,

 

At least when compared to you, who prove so crafty

That what you spin in October

Doesn’t last until the middle of November.

 

How many times, in recent memory, have you changed

Your laws, money, political offices, and fashions

All to rehabilitate your citizenry.

 

After you’ve reflected well, you’ll come to see

That you’re like a sick woman

Who can’t find any rest in her feather bed

But tries to ease her pain by tossing this way and that.