PURGATORIO, Episode 195. Hesitancy Is The Deadly Sin Of Art: PURGATORIO, Canto XXV, Lines 1 - 21

Dante the pilgrim, Virgil, and Statius begin the ever-quickening ascent to the final terrace of Mount Purgatory. As he climbs, the pilgrim has a question about the gluttons on the previous terrace . . . but it's really a question that's been brewing since almost the opening of COMEDY itself.

Let’s look at the opening lines of PURGATORIO, Canto XXV, a canto that was often treated as a scientific treatise in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance but that is now too often dismissed as a medieval curiosity: Statius's wild discussion of embryology.

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

[01:29] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXV, lines 1 - 21. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:33] PURGATORIO's Canto XXV is a bridge between gluttony and lust, as well as a bridge between two important discussions of poetry.

[07:04] We get a brief glimpse of Jerusalem as we hurry up the stairs.

[09:42] Is there symbolism or even allegory in the notion that the narrow stairs "unpairs" the travelers?

[11:48] The pilgrim is a baby stork--he wants to fly but still needs parental protection.

[15:30] The pilgrim Dante finally asks the central problem of corporeality that has troubled COMEDY almost since its beginning.

[18:43] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXV, lines 1 - 21.

And here’s my English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXV, Lines 1 – 21

It was a time when advancement permitted no hindrance,

Because the sun had left the meridian of its arc

Within Taurus and night had done the same in Scorpio.

Therefore, like a guy who doesn’t stick around

But goes on his way no matter what appears before him,

Goaded by the spurs of necessity,

We went right into the alley,

Taking the stairs one after another.

The narrowness of the climb forces people to unpair.

And as a baby stork may raise its wing

When it wishes to fly but is still hesitant to forsake

Its nest and puts its wing down again,

So was I, my desire first kindled, then extinguished,

When it came to my questions. At last, I came to look like a guy

Who is always getting ready to speak.

Even with the speed of our footsteps,

My sweet father didn’t leave well enough alone but said to me, “Let

The bow of your speech go slack. It’s stretched right to the arrow’s iron notch.”

At that, I opened my mouth with all confidence

And began, “How is someone able to lose weight

In a place where there’s no need for sustenance?”