INFERNO, Episode 92. Stopping The Mouth Of History With The Words Of A Prophet: Inferno, Canto XVI, Lines 64 - 78

Dante the pilgrim is still looking down on the three Florentine, Guelph heroes, circling each other on the burning sands. They've got no forward momentum. But he does! The pilgrim is about to undergo a major change. He's about to begin his transformation into a prophet.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we slow-walk through Dante's masterpiece, COMEDY. We're in Canto XVI of Inferno, out on the burning sands of the seventh circle of hell, among the violent--and specifically, the homosexuals. And even more specifically, with three of Dante's Guelph heroes from the 1200s.

This short passage is about civic virtues. And their emptiness. And the false reasons to do good. And rejecting Brunetto's explanation of Florence's troubles in favor of a prophetic voice that tells the truth clearly and plainly.

In other words, a packed, small passage. Here are the segments of this episode:

[00:59] My English translation of Inferno, Canto XVI, lines 64 - 78. If you want to follow along, you can find this passage below.

[03:23] Rusticucci's reply to the pilgrim's confession of himself as one of their countrymen. Rusticucci wants to know how things are going up on earth. He flatters the pilgrim--ever the oily orator--then offers an explanation for his own good deeds: the hope for fame. But is fame a proper motivation for doing good? Many medievals would say so. Most of us wouldn't. And Dante stands in the gap between.

[11:31] Who is this Borsiere fellow they mention?

[14:11] The pilgrim morphs into a prophet with an oracular pronouncement that 1) rejects Brunetto Latini's explanation for the ills of Florence and 2) begins to become the spokesperson for God.

[18:19] Where is the pilgrim looking when his face is lifted up? Believe it or not, this question has bedeviled the commentary for 700 years.

Here is my English translation for Inferno, Canto XVI, Lines 64 – 78:

“So that you spirit may long guide

The parts of your body,” that one then replied,

“And so that your fame may still give light after you’re gone,

“Let us know if valor and courtesy

Still make a habitation in our city as they once did,

Or if they have completely left everything behind.

“Because Guiglielmo Borsiere, who has only grieved with us

And gone along with our company for a short while now,

Stabs us well and enough with his words.”

“The new people with all their quick riches

Have engendered such arrogance and dissipation,

In you, Florence, such that you already weep over it.”

I cried out like this with my face uplifted,

And those three, who understood this as my answer,

Looked at each other the way men do who come upon the truth.