PURGATORIO, Episode 146. Fear, New Thoughts, And Dreams: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, Lines 130 - 145

The zealous slothful have run on, although there are still two coming in the rear, "biting" the penitents from behind with warnings about sloth.

After that, the pilgrim Dante has a new thought--curiously undefined--which leads him into his second dream in PURGATORIO.

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

[01:30] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 130 - 145. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please scroll down this page.

[03:16] Virgil, but only in periphrasis.

[07:27] Two warnings: one Biblical and one classical (from The Aeneid!).

[11:27] The connection between fear and sloth.

[13:41] The pilgrim's new thought: possibly Beatrice?

[18:01] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 1130 - 145.

And here’s my English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, Lines 130 – 145

Then the one who’d always helped me [when I was] in need

Said, “Turn back this way! See how two come along

Biting at sloth.”

Behind all the others, they said, “First,

All the people for whom the sea drew back died

Before Jordan ever saw its heirs.”

And “Those women who did not bear

Their troubles to the end with the son of Achises

Chose a life without any glory.”

Then when those shades had departed from us so far

That we weren’t able to see them anymore,

A new thought came to me

From which many other and diverse [thoughts] were born.

From one to the other I wandered on

Until I closed my eyes in utter weariness

And morphed my thoughts into dreams.