PURGATORIO, Episode 115. Redefining The Terms Of What Seems To Be: PURGATORIO, Canto XV, Lines 25 - 33

Dante the poet is playing a very crafty game. He's been pulling out all the stops with two metaphors to help us understand the weight, meaning, and timing of the light . . . and then he redefines that source of light right underneath all those metaphors.

And just as the poet pulls off that trick, Virgil also redefines the very terms on which PURGATORIO, Canto XIV, ended, as he undertakes a reassessment of "pleasure" or "delight."

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at this key passage in the on-going struggle to translate what seems into what is.

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

[01:27] My English translation of this short passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XV, lines 25 - 33. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please scroll down this page.

[02:29] Virgil redefines "pleasure" or "delight," a word from the end of Canto XIV.

[04:28] The passage also redefines the source (or refraction?) of the light.

[07:22] Virgil remains the central redefinition in all of PURGATORIO.

[08:24] A three-step structural notion of spiritual progress in PURGATORIO: "outside us," "inside us," and "above us."

[14:00] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XV, lines 25 - 33.

And here’s my English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XV, Lines 25 – 33

“What is that, sweet father, from which I don’t seem able

To shield my sight at all?” I asked.

“It seems to be moving toward us.”

“Don’t be shocked if the family of heaven

Still astonishes you,” he replied to me.

“This messenger comes to invite us to ascend.

“In due time, seeing things like this won’t be quite so weighty

For you but will bring you the pleasure

That nature intended you to feel.”