The pilgrim Dante and his guide, Virgil, may not know where to go next, but their answer may be arriving more quickly than they could imagine. Something incredibly white is approaching--and revealing both the poet Dante's and the pilgrim Dante's slightly disingenuous tone.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look for the arrival of the first angel in PURGATORIO.

Here are the segments for this episode:

[01:09] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto II, Lines 13 - 24. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or drop a comment, please scroll down this page.

[02:33] Interpreting Mars in the passage: 1) as opposed to Venus in Canto I, 2) as red v. white, and 3) by a passage from Dante's unfinished work, CONVIVIO.

[10:41] "The sea's western edge": another reference to Ulysses (INFERNO XXVI: 29).

[12:08] The appearance of Dante the poet in the passage. Is there a hint of a disingenuous moment?

[13:57] Not a flight of folly but a flight of light.

[14:37] The pilgrim's humanity--once again.

[15:40] Modern notions of perspective and the quality of light.

[16:49] Trinitarian whiteness v. a disingenuous pilgrim.

[19:42] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto II, Lines 13 - 24.

And here’s my English translation of Purgatorio, Canto II, Lines 13 – 24

And behold! Right there, in the mists of the morning,

Like Mars’ glowing red through the fog

And suspended low above the sea’s western edge,

There appeared to me—and I hope I’ll see it again—

A light that was coming so fast across the sea

So that nothing could compare to its flight.

I turned my eyes away for just a moment

To ask a question of my guide [Virgil],

But then I saw it again, seemingly brighter and bigger than before.

Then on either side of it there appeared

Something that seemed so white—I really had no idea what—

And then something even whiter just below it.