PURGATORIO, Episode 141. The Cognitive, Rational Basis Of Love: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, Lines 19 - 39

In answer to the pilgrim's request that Virgil show his work on the nature of love, Virgil (and the poet Dante behind him) condense and recast the very bases of the thinking in Western culture: Aristotle's notion that the objective world creates a mental picture that forms the basis of any action.

This passage is one of the most complex in PURGATORIO, Let’s take apart its claims and some of the translation problems both from the poetry's concision and the seismic change in thought after the Enlightenment.

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

[01:56] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 19 - 39. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, scroll down this page.

[04:30] A few things to admit before we start.

[08:00] The three steps or stages of love.

[14:01] The problem of translating "anima."

[17:26] Basic claims in Virgil's second discourse.

[23:17] Problems with these claims--and how Dante the poet solves them.

[29:14] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 19 - 39.

Here’s my English translation of Purgatorio, Canto XVIII, Lines 19 – 39

[Virgil contined:] “The human spirit was created to love almost instantaneously.

[It] can move toward anything that pleases it

The moment it’s brought to act [by coming] near that pleasure.

“Your comprehension garners some intention

From something true. It then unfolds [this intention] inside you

So that your spirit hastens toward it.

“And if, in that turning, [the spirit] bends toward it,

That bending is [what is called] love—that is, a natural love

By which pleasure is first formed inside you.

“Next, just as fire then moves upward

Because of its formal properties (it’s born to rise

So it can last longer in its material state),

“So the captivated mind enters into desire.

It’s a spiritual movement. [The spirit] never rests

Until the thing it loves causes it to feel joy.

“Now you can understand how the truth is hidden

From the very people who insist

That any sort of love is a laudable thing—

“Perhaps because its material state always seems to be good.

However, not every seal is good,

Even if the wax itself is good.”