PURGATORIO, Episode 145. Speaking Truth To Power: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, Lines 97 - 129

At last, the slothful penitents arrive. They're a roiling horde in a crazy rush, whipped around the terrace to make up for the ways they were negligent in life.

As these frantic souls pass by, one of them speaks a brave truth about Dante the poet's primary patron, a fierce warlord who has sheltered the poet on the run but whose family may not be all they're cracked up to be.

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

[01:32] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines n97 - 129. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please scroll down this page.

[04:09] There are two admonitions for purposeful haste: Mary and Julius Caesar.

[09:46] An address to the penitents . . . from Virgil.

[11:00] Virgil clouds our definition of sloth . . . and perhaps our understanding of his place in PURGATORIO.

[15:47] The Abbott of San Zeno tells of the fall of his monastery into chaos (as well as Milan's fall into chaos).

[21:00] Hurry up and speak truth to power.

[24:12] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 97 - 129.

And here’s my English translation of Purgatorio, Canto XVIII, Lines 97 – 129

Almost immediately, they were on top of us, for that

Whole roiling horde ran at full speed.

Weeping all the while, the two in front called out:

“Mary ran with all speed to the mountain”

And “Caesar punched Marseilles

Before racing to Spain to subdue Lèrida.”

“Hurry up, hurry up, so that time isn’t lost because of

Too little love,” cried the ones in the rear.

“May [our] fervor for the good make grace green again!”

“O people, this overwhelming enthusiasm perhaps

Makes recompense for your types of negligence or indolence

Which turned your good works lukewarm!

“This guy, who’s alive—and I’m certainly not lying to you—

Wishes to head on up the moment the sun shines on us again.

So tell us how to get to the closest opening.”

These were the words of my leader.

And one of those spirits said, “Come along

Behind us and you’ll find the cleft.

“We’re so full of the desire to move

That we’re not able to stop. So forgive us

If our [sense of] justice seems like impertinence to you.

“I was the abbot of San Zeno in Verona

Under the reign of the worthy Barbarossa.

Milan still speaks in grief about him.

“What’s more, one of my sort, who already has one foot in the ditch,

Will soon enough weep over that monastery.

He’ll be sorry he ever had power over it.

“You see, he placed his son—diseased in his entire body,

And even worse in his mind, plus a bastard to boot—

In the post of the true shepherd.”

I don’t know if he said more or held his peace

Because he’d already bolted so far ahead of us.

But I heard this much and was happy to preserve it.