PURGATORIO, Episode 165. Virgil's Classical Schooling And Insistence: PURGATORIO, Canto XXI, Lines 22 - 39

The unknown shade has been gobsmacked by the fact that escapees from hell may be climbing Mount Purgatory.

Virgil explains that the pilgrim is still very much alive. To do so, Virgil uses classical, not Christian, imagery. And Virgil presses for an answer as to "why" the mountain just shook and "why" all the souls sang out with one voice.

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

[01:43] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXI, lines 22 - 39. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please scroll down to the comment section on this page.

[03:49] Doctor Virgil explains the symbols on the pilgrim Dante's forehead . . . or does he?

[08:15] Virgil offers the firm assurance of the pilgrim Dante's redemption.

[10:37] Virgil uses classical imagery to explain life and death

[14:32] Was Virgil fished out of all of hell or just Limbo?

[17:23] Virgil focuses on the "why?"

[20:42] The thread and the thirst wrap the poetry in the canto.

[22:40] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXI, lines 22 - 39.

And here’s my English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXI, Lines 22 – 39

And my professor [said]: “If you look at the symbols

This one carries, the ones the angel traced,

You will well see that he shall govern with those who are good.

“But because she who spins both day and night

Had not yet used up the skein that Clotho

Allocates and stows for each person,

“His spirit, which is a sister to yours and mine,

Couldn’t come up here on its own

Because it doesn’t discern things in our way.

“That’s why I was fished out of hell’s wide maw:

To show him [the way]. And I’ll show him

On ahead, at least as far as my schooling can take the lead.

“But tell me, if you know, why this mountain

Shook so much just now and why all of it seemed

To shout with one voice, right down to its wet feet.”

His question so precisely threaded the needle

Of my desire that my thirst [to know]

Lessened on this very hope.