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We’ve come to the end of PURGATORIO, Canto XI . . . and the end of the artist Oderisi’s monologue. He ends, not with himself, but with the tale of the third penitent we meet on the first terrace after the gate: Provenzan Salvani.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore some of the gorgeous poetry in this passage and try to come to terms with how Dante is constructing this very new bit of theology: Purgatory.

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

[01:31] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 109 - 139. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please scroll down this page.

[04:30] Echoes in the opening lines of this passage: from the Bible, from INFERNO.

[08:59] Back to the Battle of Montaperti in 1260 CE.

[11:04] The kinds of pride on this first terrace of Purgatory.

[12:58] A gorgeous passage in the Florentine.

[15:36] Provenzan Salvani, a Ghibelline tyrant from Siena who plotted Florence's demise.

[18:09] "Contrapasso" or "debt"?

[20:24] The logistics of Dante's Purgatory.

[23:37] A murky repentance.

[26:52] Another prophecy of Dante's exile.

[28:50] The gloss life gives to art.

[31:09] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 109 - 139.

And here’s my English translation of Purgatorio, Canto XI, Lines 109 – 139

“As to the one who’s going along so slowly

In front of me, all of Tuscany resounded with his fame

Although he’s now barely whispered about in Siena.

 

“He was a ruler there when they knocked apart

The Florentine insolence, a city

As full of pride at the time as she is a whore now.

 

“Your name recognition is the color of the grass,

Which comes and goes. It loses its color

Because of the very one that makes it spring from the earth.”

 

And I [replied] to him: “The truth you speak truly infuses my heart

With benevolent humility. It lances a great swelling there.

But who is the guy you talked about right now?”

 

“That guy,” he replied, “is Provenzan Salvani.

He’s here because he was so presumptuous

That he thought he’d get all of Siena in his hands.

 

“That’s why he walks on without rest,

Just as he has since he died. He pays back his debt

In similar coinage to the way he was back in the day.”

 

And I [said]: “If a spirit who holds off 

Praying for his repentance until the edge of life

Has to stay down below and cannot come up here

 

“For as many hours as he had on earth—

Unless good prayers help him ascend—

How was that guy allowed to get up here?”

 

“When he was alive in his greatest glory,” [Odirisi] said,

“He willingly sat in Siena’s campo

And put aside all of his shame.

 

“There, to pay the price for his friend

Who was held in Charles’s prison,

He was reduced to quaking in every vein of his body.

 

“I won’t say anything else. Understand that what I’ve said is obscure.

But it won’t be long before your townsmen

Will act in a way that you’ll be able to gloss my words.

This deed brought him beyond those confines.”