PURGATORIO, Episode 40. The Prisoners Of Hope: PURGATORIO, Canto V, Lines 22 - 36

We come to a second scene, certainly sequential, almost contemporaneous with the previous scene among Belacqua's cohorts.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we come to one of the great contrasting moments in PURGATORIO: the lazy souls with Belacqua vs. these souls, traversing the slope, singing, running, shouting, and making an all-around ruckus.

The key here, as always (so far), is Virgil. His response seems the opposite in this scene to his response just a few lines earlier. What gives?

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

[01:16] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto V, lines 22 - 36. If you'd like to read along, print it off to make notes, or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please scroll down this page.

[03:03] We hear the second song in PURGATORIO--and the second "miserere" of COMEDY.

[04:51] The pilgrim's body stops not only the sunlight but also the "miserere." Surely there's a moral point afoot here!

[07:54] Why is Virgil's attitude so different from just a few lines back? Three possible answers.

[13:20] Where are we? In Ante-Purgatory, according to the commentators, although Dante's been pretty quiet about the specifics of our geography. What is this place if it's not Purgatory itself? And who are these souls, the prisoners of hope?

And here’s my English translation of Purgatorio, Canto V, Lines 22 – 36

 At the same time, some other people were traversing

The slope a little ways ahead of us.

They were singing the miserere line by line.

When they realized that my body

Stopped the sun’s rays from passing through,

Their chant wound down to a long and rattling “oh.”

Morphed into messengers, two of them

Ran over to us and demanded,

“Make us understand your condition.”

And my master [replied], “You can turn around

And go back to the ones who sent you over here, reporting

That this man’s body is made of true flesh.

“If those guys stopped because they saw his shadow,

As I suspect, they’ve got enough of an answer.

Let them do him honor and it may turn to their profit.”