PURGATORIO, Episode 164. A Shade Appears: PURGATORIO, Canto XXI, Lines 1 - 21

Dante is left wondering why the mountain has shaken when an even deeper mystery occurs: a shade appears seemingly out of nowhere and behind our pilgrim and Virgil.

This shade offers a Christian greeting, Virgil returns it in a darker way, and then this shade assume he's looking at two damned shades, escaped from hell.

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

[01:54] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXI, lines 1 - 21. If you'd like to read along or offer more commentary, please scroll down this page.

[04:43] Introductory material for Canto XXI.

[07:26] Hesitation, the desire to know, and Aristotle.

[10:46] The Samaritan woman and a shift in the nature of thirst.

[13:35] Haste and liminal spaces.

[15:15] Vendetta, justice, and human compassion.

[17:33] The road to Emmaus and the resurrection.

[21:26] The sudden appearance of a shade.

[25:14] Christian greetings, darkened by Virgil.

[28:40] A transfer of "what?" from Dante the pilgrim to this shade.

[30:27] This shade, Virgil, and Dante together.

[31:54] A rereading of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXI, lines 1 - 21.

And here’s my English translation for PURGATORIO, Canto XXI, Lines 1 – 21

Since a natural thirst like this can’t be satisfied

Except through the water for which the Samaritan woman

Requested as an act of grace,

It worked me hard. Haste also prodded me along

Behind my guide and over these obstructions.

I still felt compassion over this just vendetta.

And behold, just as Luke writes

That Christ appeared to the two who were on the road

After he’d risen from the cave-like tomb,

A shade likewise appeared. He was coming along behind us.

Meanwhile, we were trying to get around the throng at our feet

And didn’t hear him until he spoke

And said, “O my brothers, God grant you peace.”

We quickly did an about-face and Virgil

Returned a like-minded gesture to him.

Then [Virgil] began: “May the beautiful court

Give you peace from its truthful council,

Although it does bind me into eternal exile.”

“What?” [the shade] said even as we went along quickly.

“If you’re the sort of shades whom God doesn’t deign worthy,

Who has led you this far up these stairs?”