PURGATORIO, Episode 140. Excuse Me, Virgil, I Didn't Quite Get That: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, Lines 1 - 18

Virgil seemed to have come to a resting place in his monumental discourse on love: "Here's all I know . . . and all I don't know."

But the pilgrim is less than satisfied. He wants Virgil to continue on, to show his work for these complex syllogisms.

And Dante the poet is not done with Virgil either, given the mirrored structure of cantos XVII and XVIII.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we move beyond the mid-point of COMEDY and our pilgrim asks for more about how love is the seed of all human actions.

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Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:29] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 1 - 18. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please scroll down this page.

[03:19] Human love, like PURGATORIO itself, is a liminal space.

[06:03] Dante the poet leans heavily into Virgil's truth-telling, scholastic credentials.

[09:24] Canto XVIII is wrapped by the word "new."

[11:28] Dante's interiority gives way to the poem's interiority!

[13:33] The damned Virgil is a source of light, like the angels.

[15:03] The pilgrim asks Virgil to show his work and perhaps overstates Virgil's argument about love.

[19:10] Virgil lambasts the blind guides . . . who may be religious figures or also poets who refuse to write in the vernacular.

[21:27] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 1 - 18.

And here’s my English translation of Purgatorio, Canto XVIII, Lines 1 – 18

My exalted professor had come to the end

Of his rational disquisition and stared fixedly

Into my eyes to see if I seemed satisfied.

I was beset by yet a new thirst.

I held my peace and inside said, “Perhaps

my over-the-top questioning is annoying to him.”

But that truth-filled father was well aware

Of my gun-shy willpower which I refused to open up.

[He] gave me the boldness to speak by speaking.

So I [said], “Master, my sight grows so acute

In your light that I discern the subtle shadings

When your reasoning may divide and define things.

“On that account, I beg you, dear sweet father,

To expound further on love for me. You assign

Every good action as well as its contrary to it.”

He said, “Direct toward me the sharp eyes

Of your intelligence and I will make plain

The error of the blind who deem themselves guides.”