PURGATORIO, Episode 193. The Compensations Of Contemplation: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIV, Lines 130 - 145

Virgil, Statius, and our pilgrim, Dante, walk along in contemplation, together but also alone with their thoughts.

They're interrupted by the angel at the stairs who shows them the way up to the final terrace of Mount Purgatory.

Our pilgrim loses his sight but gains precision in his other sense. And our poet gains the daring to rewrite one of Jesus's beatitudes.

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

[01:31] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIV, lines 130 - 154. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation about this passage, please scroll down this page.

[03:48] The growing importance of the contemplative life.

[07:46] The color in the holy glare (red) and the point of this journey (peace).

[11:07] The "blind" simile of the May breeze at dawn.

[16:11] The rewritten and tricky beatitude that ends Canto XXIV.

[21:22] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIV, lines 130 - 154.

And here’s my English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXIV, Lines 130 – 154

After that, let loose onto the open road,

Our well-placed thousand paces and more took us farther along,

Each of us engaged in contemplation without saying a word.

“What are you guys thinking about as you three walk along in solitude?”

A voice said out of the blue. And I was startled

Like a frightened, sleepy beast.

I raised my head to see who it could be.

Never has glass or metal appeared so

Shiny and red in a furnace

As the one I saw who said, “If it’s your wish

To go on up, here’s where you should turn in.

This is the path for those who want to walk toward peace.”

His appearance had robbed my vision,

So I turned and went behind my professors

As one who goes in a direction based [only] on what he hears.

And thus, just like at the annuciation of the dawn,

When the May breeze moves along and smells so fresh,

Fully impregnated by the grasses and the flowers,

So I felt a breeze tap against my forehead

And felt the movement of those feathers,

Which gave the air the fragrance of ambrosia.

I even sensed what was said: “Blessed are those

Who grace so fully illuminates that the love of gustatory delights

Does not bring the bad fumes of too much desire into their chests

And so they always hunger for whatever is just!”