PURGATORIO, Episode 163. Fear And Trembling On The Mountain: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, Lines 124 - 151

Dante the pilgrim and Virgil have seemingly moved off even as Hugh Capet was still speaking. They're picking their way among the avaricious when they're stopped by an earthquake that rattles Mount Purgatory.

Dante is afraid. Virgil may even be afraid. But he tells the pilgrim to "fear not," much as those angels tell the shepherds at the birth of Jesus.

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

[01:33] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, lines 124 - 151. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please scroll down this page.

[04:13] A return to the plot--or to the "now" (which may be what avarice cannot understand).

[09:49] The third earthquake of COMEDY.

[12:11] Two references to birth with this earthquake.

[15:44] Virgil's "fear not" when he doesn't seem fearless.

[16:56] The pilgrim's possibly faulty memory.

[20:29] INFERNO XX vs. PURGATORIO XX.

[24:27] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XX, lines 124 - 151.

And here’s my English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XX, Lines 124 – 151

We’d already left him behind

And made every effort to pick our way along

As much as we could,

When I felt the mountain tremble

Like something falling down. I was held tight by the freezing cold

That takes hold of someone headed for death.

Certainly Delos didn’t shudder so hard

When Latona made her nest up there

To give birth to the two eyes of heaven.

Then all around us began such a loud shout

That my master drew closer to me,

Saying, “Don’t be afraid so long as I’m guiding you.”

They all said, “Gloria in exclesis deo!”

Or so I understood from those near us,

The ones whose shouting I was able to make out.

We stood stock-still and on tenterhooks,

Like the shepherds who heard that first song—

That is, until both the shaking stopped and the song was over.

Then we again went along our holy way,

Staring at the souls who were lying along the ground

And had returned to their routine laments.

No ignorance ever made such all-out war

With my desire to know [what happened]—

At least if my memory doesn’t slip up at this point—

Or so it seemed to me as I went on pondering.

In my haste, I didn’t dare ask [anything].

I also couldn’t see any possible causes.

So timid and stumped, I just kept going.