PURGATORIO, Episode 25. Virgil's Bitter Distress: Purgatorio, Canto III, Lines 22 - 45

Dante the pilgrim has been shocked by his shadow, the only one against the rock. Is he alone? No, Virgil's there, still his comfort.

Or is he? Virgil sets into an explanation for why bodies cast shadows, then gets lost in his own sorrow in one of the most astounding speeches in all of COMEDY.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we tease out the implications for Virgil's rich but very disconcerting reply.

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

[02:07] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto III, lines 22 - 45. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or leave a comment about this episode, just scroll down this page.

[04:52] The story of Virgil's death and burial--and thus, of his body, which he lacks.

[07:43] Virgil's bitterness: I'm star stuff but damned; I've got divine reason but I can't figure out the workings of the universe.

[12:57] Virgil's address to all of humanity: a final riddle that seems to negate the incarnation while also celebrating it at the same time.

[19:00] The rhymes in this passage further develop our understanding of Virgil's character.

[21:18] Can Virgil be a comfort for Dante?

[25:06] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto III, lines 22 - 45.

And here is my English translation of Purgatorio, Canto III, Lines 22 – 45

Then my comfort [Virgil] turned fully toward me and said,

“Why are you still distrustful?

Don’t you believe that I’m next to you and that I guide you?

“It’s now evening back where the body with which

I used to make a shadow is buried.

Naples has my corpse; it was taken from Brindisi.

“If I don’t cast a shadow now,

Don’t marvel more than you would at the heavens,

Where one celestial sphere doesn’t block the light of another.

“To suffer torments, heat, and cold,

The great power grants us bodies like these.

Even so, it doesn’t grant us the revelation to explain its ways.

“Anybody is crazy who hopes our reason

Has the ability to transverse the infinite path

That the one substance in three persons takes.

“Be happy, o human race, with the quia—

Because if you’d been able to see everything,

There’d have been no need for Mary to have given birth.

“And you’ve seen the fruitless desire

Of that sort whose longing to have their desires fulfilled

Has eternally been the cause of their grief.

“I’m talking about Aristotle and Plato

And a lot of others.” At this point, he lowered his forehead,

Said no more, and remained in distress.