Description
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.
If you'd like to help underwrite this podcast, please consider a one-time or even monthly donation using this PayPal link right here. Every bit helps with streaming, licensing, hosting, editing, royalty, and domain fees.
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 find this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.
[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.
We've come to the middle of PURGATORIO . . . and indeed the middle of COMEDY as a whole. Let's take a breather and review where we've been in Purgatory since our very slow approach sometimes (or often?) causes us to privilege the trees over the forest.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I walk you...
Published 11/20/24
We come to the end of Virgil's (first) discourse on love, as well as the end of the central canto of PURGATORIO.
But it's a strange end since Virgil admits to what he doesn't know. Having been so certain about how human behavior operates, he concludes by telling Dante the pilgrim he's on his own...
Published 11/17/24