PURGATORIO, Episode 207. French Poetry Doesn't Have To Condemn You: PURGATORIO, Canto XXVI, Lines 136 - 148

Guido Guinizzelli has pointed to another figure in the purifying flames of Purgatory's seventh terrace. And now he steps forward, one of the greatest troubadour poets, a model of high-brow poetry and a writer of the sort of lusty verses that led to Francesca's downfall.

Arnaut Daniel breaks COMEDY in some ways. He speaks in (a version of) medieval Provençal. But he also gives the final triplicate rhyme by any penitent on the mountain--and these words sum up the action of poetry.

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The segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:32] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXVI, lines 136 - 148. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me by dropping a comment on this episode, scroll down this page.

[02:56] Lines in Provençal--that is, French poetry, the very thing that was a catalyst for Francesca's fatal choice.

[04:51] Ornate rhetoric that leads to one of the most renowned troubadour poets of the Middle Ages.

[09:02] The possibility of complex irony in Arnaut's speech.

[11:07] The final triplicate rhyme from any penitent in PURGATORIO: folly, power, sorrow.

[14:42] Refining: the action of penance.

[16:46] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXVI, lines 136 - 148.

My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXVI, Lines 136 – 148:

I made myself get a little closer to the other guy

And I said that my desire had prepared

A gracious location for his name.

He readily started to answer:

“Your courteous question pleases me so much

I neither have the ability nor the will to hide myself from you.

“I am Arnaut, who weep and go along singing.

With grief, I see my past follies

And with rejoicing, I see the joy I hope is on its way.

“I now beg you, by that power

Which guides you to the top of these stairs,

And when it’s the right time, to remember my pain.”

Then he faded into the flames that refine them.