INFERNO, Episode 89. Brunetto Is Gone But Not Forgotten On The Burning Sands: Inferno, Canto XVI, Lines 1 - 27

Brunetto may have run off like the winner of a foot race but he's far from gone from the text. In fact, the next canto of INFERNO, XVI, is in many ways a mirror of Brunetto's canto, XV.

Dante and Virgil are still on the embankment, protected from the snowfall of fire, still looking out across the burning sands when three runners peel off and come over to them, attracted to the pilgrim by (of all things) his clothes.

Canto XVI of INFERNO is often overlooked, but it may well be one of the most challenging cantos of the entire canticle of pain. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we meet three guys who will give Dante a history lesson he won't ever forget.

Here are the segments of this episode:

[00:51] My English translation of this passage. You can find it below.

[03:13] An brief overview of Canto XVI--and a discussion of why it's so often overlooked. (Because the last lines are seen as so much more dramatic than the opening lines--which is too, too bad.)

[05:11] A brief diversion to a discussion of Dante's notion of politics. Our understanding of what the poet means by "politics" will inform our understanding of this difficult canto.

[08:07] The opening three lines and the noise of the waterfall ahead. We're getting a view of the landscape ahead of us. It's one of the first times this has happened. Yes, in INFERNO, Canto XI, Virgil gave us a thematic and theological view of the journey ahead. But now we're getting naturalistic details of what's to come far on down the line. The narrative is stretching out.

[11:51] Three oiled and naked guys, burned hairless, too, run up to our pilgrim and Virgil. They first notice the pilgrim's clothes. And recognize him as a Florentine. Which tells you a lot about their priorities.

[15:33] Virgil stops to tell the pilgrim, Dante, that these men are worthy of courtesy, the prime medieval civic virtue.

[18:53] The three Guelphs are described as wrestlers, circling each other. But there's plenty of symbolic import here. It's not just homoerotic. Or maybe not homoerotic at all. Instead, they're going nowhere, round and round, and in each other's footprints.

Here’s my English translation of Inferno, Canto XVI, Lines 1 - 27:

At this point I was in a spot where I could hear the thrum

Of the water that fell into the next circle,

Like the hum that beehives make,

When three shades all together peeled off

At a run from a company that was passing by

Under that rain of acrid torture.

They came toward us, eaching of them shouting out:

“Hey, you, stop! Your clothes don’t fool us.

You must be from our unprincipled city.”

Oh my, the open sores I saw all over their bodies,

Old and new wounds, seared into them by the flames.

It hurts me still, just to remember them.

My teacher held back at their cries,

Then turned to face me and said, “Now hold on.

These are worthy of courtesy.

“And if it weren’t for the fire that’s part of

The very nature of this place, I would say

That haste is more your problem than theirs.”

As we came to a stop, the three started again

Their old lines. When they got up to us,

All three had fashioned themselves into a single wheel.

As oiled and naked athletes are taught to do—

That is, to look out for their grappling holds and attack positions,

 Before they set in with lunges and punches—

So they turned round and round, each one keeping his face

Diverted back to me, so that their necks turned back

In a contrary direction to how their feet were going.