Sordello leads Dante down three steps into the valley of the kings. There, the pilgrim meets Judge Nino, perhaps a figure from Dante's own past, certainly a figure tied to a major character in INFERNO, and a figure who helps the poet "prove" that his journey was real, not imagined.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this descent into the valley of the negligent rulers in the final bits of our time before the gate of Purgatory proper.

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

[01:53] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 46 - 63. If you'd like to read long or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please scroll down this page.

[03:39] The further irony of sight in the dimness.

[06:46] Noble Judge Nino of Pisa, a throwback to INFERNO.

[10:48] Self-reflexivity and bolstered reality claims in COMEDY.

[12:58] Fellowship after warfare: the nature of Purgatory.

[14:39] Gaining the higher life by this journey--but how?

[17:53] Being lost in Purgatory.

[20:48] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 46 -63.

And here’s my English translation of Purgatorio, Canto VIII, Lines 46 – 63

I think I’d only gone down three steps

To reach the floor of the dale, when one of them stared

At me as if he wanted to remember who I was.

 

Now was the time when the air dims,

But it wasn’t so dark that it didn’t reveal to his eyes and mine

What had been obscured up till now.

 

He made for me—and I, for him.

Noble Judge Nino, how it pleased me

When I saw that you weren’t among the damned.

 

No hail-fellow-well-met was left out between us.

Then he asked, “How long ago did you come

To the foot of the mountain from across those far-flung waters?”

 

“Oh,” I said to him, “I only came out of the places of sorrow

This morning. I’m still in my first life,

Although I gain the higher one by this journey.”

 

When they heard my answer,

Both Sordello and he recoiled from me,

Like people who are suddenly lost.