PURGATORIO, Episode 154. A Pope In Purgatory For (Surprise!) Avarice: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, Lines 91 - 114

Dante the pilgrim has asked Virgil--at least with a look in the eyes--if he could speak to one of the avaricious penitents, lying face down on the ground.

On Virgil's okay, the pilgrim walks up to Pope Adrian IV . . . or at least so Dante the poet thinks. Sources vary. And interpretations, too.

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

[01:19] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 91 - 114. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me in the comments, please scroll down this page.

[03:47] Two interpretive knots: what exactly you must ripen to return to God and why anyone would want to stop that ripening process.

[08:13] Dante, an architectural poet, who gives his reader three structuring questions for this conversation.

[09:31] Four possible interpretive answers to the line of Latin from the penitent.

[14:28] The identity of the speaker's family: the Fieschi from east of Genoa.

[17:00] The identity of the speaker himself: Ottobono de' Fieschi, aka Pope Adrian V (c.1215 - 1276 CE).

[20:12] Dante's possible historical mistake: Pope Adrian IV or Pope Adrian V?

[23:00] Punishment v. purification: a difficult balance in PURGATORIO.

[26:43] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, lines 91 - 114.

And here’s my English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XIX, Lines 91 – 114

I said, “Spirit, in whom laments mature

That without which a person can’t turn back to God,

For a little while suspend your greatest care for my sake.

“Who were you? And why do you all have your backs

Turned upwards? Tell me! And let me know if you want me

To get you anything from back there—[that is,] where I, still alive, come from.”

And he [said] to me: “Why heaven turns our

Backsides toward itself, you’ll soon know. But first off,

Scias quod ego fui successor Petri.

“A beautiful river spills down between Sestri

And Chiavari. My bloodline

Takes its name as the titled summit of its crest.

“For a month, plus a little more, I felt how the

The great mantle bears down on anyone who keeps it out of the muck—

Such that all other burdens seem like feathers.

“My conversion—alas!—was late.

But when I became the Roman shepherd

I found out how life could be a lie.

“I saw that neither was my heart peaceful there,

Nor could I rise any higher in that life.

That’s how the love of this [life] was kindled in me.

“Until that point, I was a wretch. I was separated

From God. I was wholeheartedly greedy.

As you can see, I’m now punished for it here.”