Here's the second episode on the pilgrim's second dream in PURGATORIO. Things get wilder after the ugly lady becomes beautiful under the pilgrim Dante's gaze.

She begins to sing. She identifies herself as a siren. She mentions Ulysses (incorrectly?). Another lady appears and begs Virgil for help. And Virgil saves Dante (yet again).

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

[01:23] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 16 - 33. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please scroll down this page.

[03:18] Questions about free will in the dream state.

[05:27] Questions about singing (and therefore, about poetry).

[07:03] Ulysses back in Purgatorio again!

[10:30] The siren's song and her possible identification.

[14:05] The holy, speedy lady.

[15:15] Her possible identifications: Beatrice, Saint Lucy, the second lady in Dante's VITA NUOVA, a whore/virgin cliché, or the holy lady of Philosophy from Boethius's CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY.

[22:37] Virgil in and out of Dante's dream.

[23:51] Medieval medical remedies for lust.

[25:10] A grammatical problem in the passage.

[28:39] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 16 - 33.

And here’s my English translation of Purgatorio, Canto XIX, Lines 16 – 33

Once she’d loosened up enough to speak,

She started singing in such a way

That it would have been hard to turn my attention away from her.

 

“I am,” she sang, “I am a sweet siren

Who holds sailors spellbound in the middle of the sea.

It’s utterly a pleasure to hear my cry!

 

“I turned Ulysses with my song, although he was

Eager to be on his way. Whoever gets accustomed to me

Rarely leaves me because I totally satisfy him.”

 

Her mouth wasn’t even shut yet

When a lady appeared. Holy and speedy,

She came alongside me to confound that [other] woman.

 

“O Virgil, Virgil, who is this?”

She stridently said. And he came forward

With his eyes set on this virtuous lady.

 

He grabbed the other woman and opened her up,

Tearing her clothes apart. He showed me her midsection.
I woke up because of the stench that came from it.