Scratching at Dante

Canto Five

2005-07-15T10:15:00.000+10:00

Pilgrim descends...

1 So I descended from the first enclosure
2 down to the second circle, that which girdles
3 less space but...
grief more great, that goads to weeping.

The way "selection" works...

7 I mean that when the spirit born to evil
8 appears before him, it confesses all;
9 and he, the connoisseur of sin, can tell

10 the depth in Hell appropriate to it...
14 each soul in turn advances toward that judgment;
15 they speak and hear, then they are cast below.

Cast down to...

31 The hellish hurricane, which never rests,
32 drives on the spirits with its violence:
33 wheeling and pounding, it harasses them.

(Longfellows translation of the same...)

31 The infernal hurricane that never rests
32 Hurtles the spirits onward in its rapine;
33 Whirling them round, and smiting...
...it molests them.

34 When they come up against the ruined slope,
35 then there are cries and wailing and lament,
36 and there they curse the force of the divine.

37 I learned that those who undergo this torment
38 are damned because they sinned within the flesh,
39 subjecting reason to the rule of lust.

This is a place without rest...

44 There is no hope that ever comforts them
45 no hope for rest and none for lesser pain.

A place reserved for those whose lust makes...

56 ...license licit in her laws
57 to free her from the scandal she had caused.

A consuming and selfish "love"...

103 Love, that releases no beloved from loving
104 took hold of me so strongly through his beauty
105 that, as you see, it has not left me yet.

106 Love led the two of us unto one death.

Which in turn led pilgrim to remorse...

113 (Alas) how many gentle thoughts,
how deep a longing,
114 had led them to the agonizing pass!

And query...

118 But tell me, in the time of gentle sighs,
119 with what and in what way did Love allow you
120 to recognize your still uncertain longings?

(Longfellow...
119 By what and in what manner Love conceded,
120 That you should know your dubious desires?)

The "fall"...

127 One day, to pass the time away, we read
128 of Lancelot how love had overcome him.
129 We were alone, and we suspected nothing.

130 And time and time again that reading led
131 our eyes to meet, and made our faces pale,
132 and yet one point alone defeated us.

133 When we had read how the desired smile
134 was kissed by one who was so true a lover,
135 this one, who never shall be parted from me,

136 while all his body trembled, kissed my mouth.

Vicarious vice violates volition!

Thought...

It is possible to temporarily "justify" our habitual vice by internally "legalizing" it, but a "selfish love" is still essentially selfish...and leads to a more realistic assessment and judgement by a more objective judge.

Canto Four

2005-07-12T10:29:00.000+10:00

Pilgrim awakens and proceeds to the abyss...

9 containing thundering, unending wailings.

10 That valley, dark and deep and filled with mist,
11 is such that, though I gazed into its pit,
12 I was unable to discern a thing.

26 there was no outcry louder than the sighs
27 that caused the everlasting air to tremble.

28 The sighs arose from sorrow without torments,

Pilgrim asks about the source...

(of the "thunder of infinite ululations...obscure, profound it was, and nebulous"--9/10 of Longfellow)

...and receives this answer...

34 they (those who) did not sin; and yet, though they have merits,
35 that's not enough, because they lacked baptism,
36 the portal of the faith that you embrace.

Merit is not the criteria for escaping the inferno...

(rather the portal is "faith embraced" or "identification with Christ"--and not [for me at least] Dante's consolation of "baptism".)

37 And if they lived before Christianity,
38 they did not worship God in fitting ways;
39 and of such spirits I myself (the sage) am one.

40 For these defects, and for no other evil,
41 we now are lost and punished just with this:
42 we have no hope and yet we live in longing.

43 Great sorrow seized my heart on hearing him,
44 for I had seen some estimable men
45 among the souls suspended in that limbo.

Pilgrim ponders...

49 did any ever go by his own merit
50 or others'- from this place toward blessedness?
51 And he, who understood my covert speech,

52 replied: I was new-entered on this state
53 when I beheld a Great Lord enter here;
54 the crown he wore, a sign of victory.

55 He carried off the shade of our first father (Adam),
(and other specific Old Testament heros and general...)

61 and many others and He made them blessed;
62 and I should have you know that, before them,
63 there were no human souls that had been saved.

Yet he did see a place possessed of honorable men (72)...

73 O you who honor art and science both,
74 who are these souls whose dignity has kept
75 their way of being, separate from the rest?

76 And he to me: The honor of their name,
77 which echoes up above within your life,
78 gains Heaven's grace, and that advances them.

...and even chatted with them as the moved along...

103 So did we move along and toward the light,
104 talking of things about which silence here
105 is just as seemly as our speech was there.

145 I cannot here describe them all in full;
146 my ample theme impels me onward so:
147 what's told is often less than the event.

Thought...

There are estimable men and women...of honor and dignity...in hell. All those who did not worship God in fitting ways...though they have merits they did not have the "identification with Christ" that is the portal generated by a faith embraced.

Canto Three

2005-07-10T17:00:00.000+10:00

(Allen Mandelbaum)

The Pilgrim reads the warning posted above the gateway...

1 THROUGH ME THE WAY INTO THE SUFFERING CITY,
2 THROUGH ME THE WAY TO THE ETERNAL PAIN...
9 ABANDON EVERY HOPE, WHO ENTER HERE.

10 These words their aspect was obscure I read
11 inscribed above a gateway, and I said:
12 Master, their meaning is difficult for me.

13 And he to me, as one who comprehends:

16 For we have reached the place of which I spoke,
17 where you will see the miserable people,
18 those who have lost the good of the intellect.

He hears a clamoring cacaphony of regret and sorrow...

22 Here sighs and lamentations and loud cries
21 were echoing across the starless air,
22 so that, as soon as I set out, I wept.

25 Strange utterances, horrible pronouncements,
26 accents of anger, words of suffering,
27 and voices shrill and faint, and beating hands...

31 And I my head oppressed by horror said:
32 Master, what is it that I hear? Who are
33 those people so defeated by their pain?

Who are the suffering masses?

34 And he to me: This miserable way
35 is taken by the sorry souls of those
36 who lived without disgrace and without praise.

37 They now commingle with the coward angels,
38 the company of those who were not rebels
39 nor faithful to their God, but stood apart.

These are those who took a middle road regarding God.

40 The heavens, that their beauty not be lessened,
41 have cast them out, nor will deep Hell receive them
42 even the wicked cannot glory in them.

Because they were lukewarm neither heaven or hell wants them.

43 And I: What is it, master, that oppresses
44 these souls, compelling them to wail so loud?
45 He answered: I shall tell you in few words.

46 Those who are here can place no hope in death,

47 and their blind life is so abject that they
48 are envious of every other fate.

But hell will take them...the ferryman comes...

85 Forget your hope of ever seeing Heaven:
86 I come to lead you to the other shore,
87 to the eternal dark, to fire and frost.

Why are they are strangely ready to cross over to hell...

121 My son, the gracious master said to me,
122 those who have died beneath the wrath of God,
123 all these assemble here from every country;

124 and they are eager for the river crossing
125 because celestial justice spurs them on,
126 so that their fear is turned into desire.

Thought...

No one wants the "luke-warm"...neither heaven nor hell. Yet hell will take them by default...and they will go eagerly, if only to satisfy celestial justice. Their former fear (of hell) is turned into "desire" because their hope is gone.

Canto Two

2005-07-08T21:46:00.000+10:00

This time mostly from Allen Mandelbaum...

The pilgrim's fears almost prevent him from engaging in the journey...

34 Therefore, if I consent to start this journey,
I fear my venture may be wild and empty.
You're wise; you know far more than what I say.

37 And just as he who unwills what he wills
and shifts what he intends to seek new ends
so that he's drawn from what he had begun,

40 so was I in the midst of that dark land,
because, with all my thinking, I annulled
the task I had so quickly undertaken.

The sage counsels...

43 If I have understood what you have
said (replied the shade of that great-heartedone)
your soul has been assailed by cowardice,

46 which often weighs so heavily on a man
distracting him from honorable trials as
phantoms frighten beasts when shadows fall.

Input from the heavenly lady...

88 One ought to be afraid of nothing other
than things possessed of power to do us harm,
but things innocuous need not be feared.

The sage continues...

121 What is it then? Why, why do you resist?
Why does your heart host so much cowardice?
Where are your daring and your openness

The pilgrim's response...

127 As little flowers, which the chill of night has
bent and huddled, when the white sun strikes
grow straight and open fully on their stems,

130 so did I, too, with my exhausted force;
and such warm daring rushed into my heart
that I as one who has been freed began:

136 You, with your words, have so disposed my heart
to longing for this journey I return
to what I was at first prepared to do.

139 Now go; a single will fills both of us:
you are my guide, my governor, my master.
These were my words to him; when he advanced

142 I entered on the steep and savage path.

Thought...

The encouragement of a godly perspective can empower us to renew our resolve and enter the steep and savage path.

Inferno Revisited--Canto One

2005-07-08T21:35:00.000+10:00

A few thoughts via Henry Wadworth Longfellow...

The pilgrim's plea...

88 Behold the beast, for which I have turned back;
89 Do thou protect me from her, famous Sage,
90 For she doth make my veins and pulses tremble.

'The sage's (Virgil) answer...

91 Thee it behoves to take another road,
92 Responded he, when he beheld me weeping,
93 If from this savage place thou wouldst escape;

94 Because this beast, at which thou criest out,
95 Suffers not any one to pass her way,
96 But so doth harass him, that she destroys him;

96 And has a nature so malign and ruthless,
97 That never doth she glut her greedy will,
98 And after food is hungrier than before.

Thought...

When facing insatiable beasts of mighty power and cunning it might behove me "to take another road".

Herewith I enter the steep and savage path...

2005-07-08T21:17:00.000+10:00

My personal pilgrimage in wading through Inferno to Paradise.

Being my thoughts (however inaccurate) from the English translations of Dante's Divine Comedy by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Allen Mandelbaum (mostly), and H.F. Cary.

My tracking thoughts are in bold font and the phrases that particularly stand out to me (for no particular reason) are in italics. I have concluded each canto with a personal concluding thought...also in bold font.