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Does Dante walk up the steps to the gate of Purgatory? Not without Virgil's help. And then we get a close view of the angel's ashy robes. And then we hear about letters on the forehead. And then we see the two keys. And it all comes down to a tangled knot, both in the passage and in the thematics.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we listen to the angel at the very gate of Purgatory and witness his strange interchange with our pilgrim Dante.

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

[01:21] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 106 - 129. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with a comment, please scroll down this page.

[03:39] The colorful beauty of the scene vs. the angel's ashy robes.

[05:52] Virgil's effort to get the pilgrim Dante into Purgatory.

[09:44] The two keys: gold and silver.

[13:28] God's forgiveness vs. humanity's capacity to forgive.

[17:20] The seven Ps on Dante's forehead: an essential strangeness.

[19:34] Writing on the forehead in Biblical traditions and in COMEDY.

[22:46] Erring on the side of opening, rather than closing--with an important caveat.

[26:19] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 106 - 129.

And here’s my English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto IX, Lines 106 – 129

Even with my best intentions, my good leader

Pulled me up these three steps and said, “Call out to him

In all humility to undo the door’s bolt.”

 

I devoutly abased myself at [the angel’s] holy feet.

First, I struck my chest three times;

Then I called out for mercy and asked to be let inside.

 

[The angel] traced seven P’s on my forehead

With the tip of his sword and said, “Make sure you wash yourself,

Once you’re inside, of these wounds.”

 

Ashes or dirt dug up dry

Would be the color of his clothes.

He took out two keys out from under them:

 

One was made of gold and the other, of silver.

First with the white, then with the yellow

He touched the door, so that I found my contentment.

 

“Whenever one of these keys doesn’t do the trick,

Doesn’t turn inside of the lock,

This walkway won’t open up,” he said to us.

 

“One [key] is more precious, but the other needs a lot more

Art and ingenuity before it’ll unfasten the lock,

Because it’s only this one that ultimately disentangles the knot.

 

“I got these from Peter, who told me to err

In favor of opening up rather than keeping the thing closed,

If only a person should fall down at my feet.”