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Authors: Dante

Purgatorio (5 page)

BOOK: Purgatorio
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my master gently spread   

               
his hands upon the grass.

126
         
And I, who understood what he intended,

               
raised my tear-stained cheeks

               
and he restored the color

129
         
hell had obscured in me.

               
Now we came to the empty shore.   

               
Upon those waters no man ever sailed

132
         
who then experienced his return.

               
There he girded me as pleased Another.   

               
What a wonder it was that the humble plant

               
he chose to pick sprang up at once

136
         
in the very place where he had plucked it.

OUTLINE: PURGATORIO II

I. The arrival of a ship

1–9
   
the position of the sun, seen first from the northern hemisphere, then from where the travelers now are
10–12
   
they are, like reticent travelers, still near the ocean
13–18
   
simile: Mars red in dawn sky and light moving over sea
19–24
   
the light grows larger as it approaches: its whiteness
25–30
   
Virgil makes out the steersman and has Dante kneel
31–36
   
Virgil’s enthusiastic appreciation of this angelic being
37–42
   
Dante’s eyes cannot bear the brightness of the angel, but he apparently can see the ship, nearing shore
43–48
   
the angel stands at the stern, the seated “passengers” sing the entirety of the 113th Psalm
49–51
   
the angel signs them with the cross; they come ashore; he departs as swiftly as he had come

II.
Casella
and his song

52–54
   
the crowd’s puzzled reaction to their new surroundings
55–60
   
as the sun rises, they ask for directions to the mount
61–66
   
Virgil: we are pilgrims, too, and came here a hard way
67–69
   
the souls realize, from his breathing, that Dante lives
70–75
   
simile: people crowding to a messenger of peace
76–78
   
one of them (Casella) is so eager to embrace Dante that he feels similarly moved
79–81
   
Dante fails three times to embrace this soul
82–87
   
the interplay between them and Dante’s recognition of him
88–90
   
Casella’s love for him and a question: why is Dante here?
91–93
   
Dante’s journey is prelude to a second; but why has Casella had to wait to come here after his death?
94–105
   
Casella: if God has often denied him this passage, there was no harm in that; but in the last three months all can choose to come from Tiber’s mouth, where the angel has returned
106–111
   
Dante: if no new law forbids it, sing a love song to soothe my soul, wearied with its bodily journey to this place
112–117
   
Casella begins his song, so sweet that Dante can still taste its sweetness; Virgil and the others are all completely rapt

III. Cato’s rebuke

118–123
   
the rapt listeners are rebuked by Cato and told to climb
124–132
   
simile: doves at feeding, frightened, fly away; pilgrims, listening, chastised, run toward hillside
133
   
Dante and Virgil leave just as hastily
PURGATORIO II

               
The sun was nearly joined to that horizon   

               
where the meridian circle at its zenith

3
             
stands straight above Jerusalem,

               
and night, circling on the other side,

               
was rising from the Ganges with the Scales

6
             
she drops when she is longer than the day,

               
so that, where I was,

               
the white and rosy cheeks of fair Aurora

9
             
were turning golden with time’s ripening.

               
As yet we tarried by the seashore, like those   

               
who think about the way and in their hearts go on—

12
           
while still their bodies linger.

               
And now, as in the haze of morning,   

               
Mars, low on the western stretch of ocean,

15
           
sheds reddish light through those thick vapors,

               
there appeared to me—may I see it again!—

               
a light advancing swiftly on the sea:

18
           
no flight can match its rapid motion.

               
And in the moment I had turned away   

               
to ask a question of my leader,

21
           
I saw it now enlarged and brighter.

               
Then on either side of it appeared

               
a whiteness—I knew not what—and just below,

24
           
little by little, another showed there too.

               
Still my master did not say a word

               
while the first whiteness took the shape of wings.

27
           
Then, once he saw the nature of the steersman,

               
he cried: ‘Bend, bend your knees! Behold

               
the angel of the Lord and fold your hands in prayer.

30
           
From now on you shall see such ministers as these.

               
‘Look how he scorns all human instruments   

               
and wants no oar, nor other sail

33
           
beside his wings, between such distant shores.

               
‘Look how those wings are raised into the sky,

               
fanning the air with his eternal pinions

36
           
which do not change like mortal plumage.’

               
Then, as the heavenly bird approached,

               
closer and closer, he appeared more radiant,   

39
           
so that my eyes could not sustain his splendor,   

               
and I looked down as he came shoreward

               
with a boat so swift and light

42
           
the water did not part to take it in.   

               
At the stern stood the heavenly pilot—

               
his mere description would bring to bliss.   

45
           
And more than a hundred souls were with him.   

               
‘In exitu Isräel de Aegypto’
   

               
they sang together with one voice,

48
           
and went on, singing the entire psalm.

               
Then he blessed them with the sign of Holy Cross.   

               
They flung themselves upon the beach,

51
           
and he went off as swiftly as he came.

               
The crowd that stayed there had the look   

               
of strangers to the place, gazing about

54
           
as though encountering new things.

               
Having driven Capricorn down from mid-heaven,   

               
the sun, darting his rays in all directions,

57
           
brought on the day with his unfailing arrows

               
and the new people raised their faces

               
toward us, saying: ‘If you know,

60
           
show us the road that leads up to the mountain.’   

               
Then Virgil answered: ‘Perhaps you think

               
we are familiar with this place,

63
           
but we are strangers like yourselves.   

               
‘We came but now, a little while before you,

               
by another road so rough and harsh   

66
           
that now the climb to us will seem a pastime.’   

               
The souls, who at my taking breath

               
could see that I was still alive,

69
           
turned pale with wonder,   

               
and as people crowd to hear the news   

               
around a messenger who bears an olive-branch,

72
           
and no one minds the crush,

               
so all these fortunate souls

               
kept their eyes fastened on my face,

75
           
as though forgetful of the road to beauty.

               
I saw one of them come forward   

               
with such affection to embrace me

78
           
that I was moved to do the same.

               
Oh empty shades, except in seeming!   

               
Three times I clasped my hands behind him

81
           
only to find them clasped to my own chest.

               
Surprise must have been painted on my face,

               
at which the shade smiled and drew back   

84
           
and I, pursuing him, moved forward.

               
Gently he requested that I stop.   

               
Then I knew him. And I asked him

87
           
to stay a while and speak with me.

               
‘Even as I loved you in my mortal flesh,’ he said,

               
‘so do I love you freed from it—yes, I will stay.

90
           
And you, what takes you on this journey?’

               
‘O Casella, I make this voyage to return   

               
another time,’ I said, ‘here where I’ve come.

93
           
But why did it take you so much time to get here?’   

               
To which he answered: ‘No wrong is done me   

               
if he, who takes up whom it pleases him and when,

96
           
has many times denied me passage,

               
‘for righteous is the will that fashioned his.

               
It is three months now that he has taken,

99
           
acquiescent, all who would embark.

               
‘And I, finally moving toward the shore

               
where Tiber’s waters take on salt,

102
         
was kindly gathered in by him.

BOOK: Purgatorio
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