PURGATORIO, Episode 152. Look Up To The Heavens: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, Lines 52 - 69

Dante the pilgrim has had a "P" wiped off his forehead by the angel at the stairs. He's started his climb to the next terrace. All seems well, but he's still sad, bent over with worry, troubled about his dream.

Virgil again comes to the rescue. He reinterprets the dream for the pilgrim (leaving us with quite a few questions!) and commands the pilgrim to direct his eyes up to the heavens, the ultimate lure to God. 

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

[01:35] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 52 - 69. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please scroll down this page.

[03:23] Possible structural changes in the canto breaks in PURGATORIO.

[05:51] Dante the pilgrim as the mourner.

[07:02] The dream as a "new vision."

[09:39] The question of what exactly is "above us."

[12:22] The open interpretative space in Virgil's interpretation of Dante's dream.

[17:00] Virgil's impatience, the workings of desire, and the rocky landscape of Purgatory.

[20:02] The second major instance of falconry imagery in COMEDY.

[22:31] The heavens as the ultimate lure.

[25:10] Rereading this passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 52 - 69.

And here’s my English translation of Purgatorio, Canto XIX, Lines 52 – 69

“What’s up that you’re looking vacantly at the ground?”

My guide commenced saying to me

When we’d ascended a little ways from the angel.

And I [replied]: “I’m forced to go along so perplexed

Because of a new vision that bends me toward it.

In fact, I can’t take my leave from those thoughts.”

“You saw,” he said, “that ancient witch

Who is the sole thing lamented above us here.

You’ve seen how a guy rids himself of her.

“Enough! Strike the earth with your heels!

Raise your eyes to the lure that

The eternal king spins on those tremendous wheels.”

Like the falcon that first looks down at its feet,

Then turns to the cry and stretches out

With its desire for the food that draws it on,

So I made myself. In this way, through the part

Of the rock that’s split to make a path,

I went on up to where the circles begin anew.