PURGATORIO, Episode 206. Sweet Becomes Truth Becomes Poetry: PURGATORIO, Canto XXVI, Lines 115 - 135

Dante has found his poetic father, Guido Guinizzelli, burning in the fires of lust on the final terrace of Mount Purgatory. Our pilgrim-poet has praised his poetic father for the sweet art that will last.

Then Guinizzelli takes the discussion further, morphing that sweetness into truth, offering a metaphysical meaning to a physical sensation. He proceeds to speak exactly in this sort of poetry, which our poet Dante picks up and uses to conclude this fascinating conversation.

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The segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:28] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXVI, lines 115 - 135. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, scroll down this page.

[05:00] Corporeal and airy manifestations of the body.

[07:55] Girard de Borneil, having been praised, now dismissed.

[10:25] High and low poetry v. Dante's synthesis.

[12:29] Unpacking too-tight lines about poetry.

[15:00] The sweet morphed into the truth.

[19:44] Dante's possible hesitation over his own poetic fame and his wild invocation to the truth of it.

[23:53] Guinizzelli's validation and expansion into metaphoric space.

[28:01] The ending of the conversation: a great example of the sweet new style.

[29:50] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXVI, lines 115 - 135.

My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXVI, Lines 115 – 135:

“O brother,” he said, “that one whom I point out

To you with my finger”—and he indicated a spirit ahead of him—

“Was a better craftsman of our maternal language.

“[When it comes to] love lyrics and romance stories,

He went beyond everybody else. So let those idiots

Talk about the one from around Limoges whom [they think] was more advanced.

“They turn toward a slight report, rather than the truth.

In this way, they fix their opinions

Without first paying attention to craft or reason.

“The same was the case with Guittone: Many in the older generation

Offered cry upon cry in praise of him alone,

Until finally the truth vanquished most people’s opinions.

“Now if you have such ample privileges

That you are lawfully allowed into the cloisters

Where Christ is the abbot of the college,

“Be sure to say a paternoster for me,

Only as much of it as we need in our world here,

Where we no longer have the capability to sin.”

After that, and perhaps to make room for a second person

Who was close by, he disappeared into the fire,

As a fish glides through the water into its depths.