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Dante undergoes a total transformation: from the scared guy who burned up in his dream to the fully confident pilgrim who walks right up to the gate of Purgatory.

And in the meantime, he asks his reader to change, too: to read the poem as fearlessly as he journeys on across the known universe.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the first approach to the gate of Purgatory itself.

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

[01:55] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 64 - 78. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please scroll down this page.

[03:55] The passage opens with a curious simile that doesn't need to be a simile.

[06:48] The change in the pilgrim is found in a reflexive verb.

[10:53] The apparently open gate is actually shut, in contrast to the gate of hell.

[12:53] The second address to the reader in PURGATORIO: Dante asks his reader to commit fearlessly to the more difficult material ahead.

[18:40] Rereading PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 64 - 78.

And here’s my English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto IX, Lines 64 – 78

Like a man who finds reassurance in his doubts

And finds his fear transformed into confidence

When the truth is revealed to him,

I myself changed. And when my guide

Saw that I was outside of worries, he started moving up the path

And I came along right behind him, headed for the heights.

Reader, you’ll certainly see how I’m raising the bar

Of my material. Don’t marvel

If I have to shore it up with more art.

We pressed on until we got to the spot

Where at first it had seemed there might be a gap in the rocks,

Or maybe a breach in a wall.

I now saw a door with three steps

That led up to it, each one a different color.

The keeper of the gate hadn’t yet uttered a word.