PURGATORIO, Episode 181. Gluttons For Poetry: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIII, Lines 28 - 48

Dante now walks with the skeletal gluttons who have God's writing on their faces.

Along the way, there are increasingly complex and almost gaming literary references that litter the text until Dante the pilgrim suddenly is recognized by a fellow, contemporary, vernacular poet who is not known for any high style but is instead a champion of a low, vulgar poetry in this hip, new form of the sonnet.

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

[01:22] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIII, lines 28 - 48. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me in the comment section at the bottom of this page, please scroll on down.

[03:23] Internal thoughts--less revelatory than just rehearsed--about the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE.

[09:27] The potential blasphemy of the pelican in her piety.

[12:50] Three references to other texts in increasing opacity: from Dante's VITA NUOVA, from Ovid's METAMORPHOSES, and from Josephus' history (sort of).

[15:30] Starved enough to see God's writing in the human face: a felix culpa?

[21:31]  A misplaced tercet in COMEDY?

[22:52] Forese Donati and Dante v. Statius and Virgil.

[31:18] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIII, lines 28 - 48.

And here’s my English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXIII, Lines 28 – 48

I said to myself in my thoughts, Behold

The people who lost Jerusalem

When Mary put her beak into her son.

Their eye sockets appeared to be rings without jewels.

Those who read the word omo in the human face

Could have well recognized the M [in them].

Unless he knew how [it worked], who would have believed

The aroma of the fruit and even of the water

Could have been so effective at generating hunger?

I already wondered what made them so hungry,

Because the reason for their hunger and their

Sad flaking skin wasn’t immediately apparent.

And behold! One shade turned his eyes in the

Depths of his head toward me to fix his gaze on me.

Then he cried loudly, “What grace is this for me?”

I wouldn’t have recognized him by his face,

But his voice made me realize

What had been ruined in his features.

This spark fully set ablaze

My memory of his changed countenance—

That’s how I discerned the face of Forese.