INFERNO, Episode 85. A Pilgrim Walking Across Hell? Not Really. More Like A Writer: Inferno, Canto XV, Lines 79 - 99

Brunetto Latini has offered a history lesson on Florence and a prophecy for the pilgrim Dante's future. It's Dante's turn to respond in their back-and-forth conversation.

But the pilgrim doesn't just respond! He recasts their conversation, not in terms of the teacherly voice, but rather one that's more central to the task of COMEDY: he responds as a writer to the emotional demands of the situation.

This response from Dante strikes to the heart of Canto XV. For all of Brunetto's bravado, he has shown Dante the writerly hopes of fame, of a text that's remembered (and glossed). The poet knows the truth because of Brunetto: it's all about being able to put experiences into language and hold them there for others to read.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I slow-walk through Dante's masterpiece, COMEDY, with this podcast episode that's an exploration of Inferno, Canto XV, lines 79 - 99. These are the pilgrim's words. They come after his teacher's rhetorical excess. These, too, are excessive. And gorgeous. And in the end, emotionally true, a state of being that might escape Brunetto.

Here are the segments of this podcast episode:

[01:12] My English translation of Inferno, Canto XV, lines 79 - 99. If you want to follow along, the passage is just below.

[02:49] The pilgrim recasts Brunetto as an exile. What Brunetto has prophesied for the pilgrim is actually Brunetto's own state: exile (that is, from the land of the living). Intriguingly, by redefining Brunetto as an exile, the pilgrim (and the poet behind him) have been linked with the damned. Everyone's an exile.

[04:40] The pilgrim Dante responds to Brunetto's rather boorish racism with a paternalistic connection. Dad?

[07:36] Fame: how to make yourself eternal in this world.

[11:05] Dante's not a pilgrim. He's a writer, taking notes. Notes that will ultimately get glossed "by a lady."

[13:34] Yet there are strange doubts in this passage, as in this entire canto.

[15:56] As well as the pilgrim's bravado: Fortune, bring it on! Is bravado a good response to doubt?

[17:48] As Brunetto, Dante ends with a rhetorical flourish, an almost impenetrable aphorism.

[21:18] Virgil! He's been there all along. Now he actually speaks. (It's his only line in Canto XV.)

Here’s my English translation of INFERNO, Canto XV, lines 79 - 99:

“If all my queries were satisfied,”

I replied to him, “You would not yet be gone

From all that’s human.

“Because my memories are solid, it weighs me down,

The dear and good image of you as a father,

Back when you were in the world, and hour by hour

“Taught me how a man makes himself eternal.

And given how grateful I am, while I’m alive,

I must express all that in my own language.

“I’m writing down the story you tell me about my life’s trajectory

And I’m saving it, with some other texts to be glossed

By a lady who knows how, if I ever get to her.

“And I would like you to know this:

My conscience doesn’t bug me.

I am prepared for whatever fortune brings.

“These sorts of pledges aren’t new to my ears.

Let Fortune spin her wheel

However she likes. Let the deplorable have his hoe.”

Then my master glanced back at me

Over his right cheek and said,

“Well heard is well noted.”