PURGATORIO, Episode 155. The Most Bitter Pain Of Purgatory: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, Lines 115 - 124

Pope Adrian V, bound hands and feet to the ground, sets out to answer the pilgrim Dante's second question: What's going on here?

In doing so, the pope unwittingly gives one of the most misunderstood lines in PURGATORIO. 

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

[01:52] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 115 - 124. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please scroll down this page.

[03:43] Punishment v. purification . . . and their contrapasso.

[06:33] The bitterness of the pain.

[09:42] Bitterness and falconry.

[12:53] The transformation of the soul . . . momentarily stopped.

[14:06] The avaricious v. the envious.

[16:17]  Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 115 - 126.

And here’s my English translation of Purgatorio, Canto XIX, Lines 115 – 126

“What avarice does is shown here

In the purification of these turned-over souls.

In fact, this mountain offers no pain more bitter.

“Because our eyes were not lifted up

On high but were fastened to earthly things,

So justice weighs them down to the ground.

“Because avarice put out our love’s fire

For every good thing, which then nullified every other power to act,

So justice keeps us fixed here,

“Bound and captured in both feet and hands.

For just as long as it may please our just Lord,

We will remain stretched out and immobile.”