the second address in Purgatorio: Dante’s “art”
II. The gate of purgatory
73–78
the gate, the steps leading to it, and its keeper,
79–84
seated above the top step; his blinding face and sword
85–87
the keeper’s warning to Virgil and Dante
88–93
Virgil’s “passport” is Lucy and the keeper accedes
94–105
the three steps described: white, purple/black, red
106–108
Virgil leads Dante up and tells him to request access
109–111
Dante, after beating his breast, prostrates himself
112–114
the keeper traces seven P’s on Dante’s forehead
115–120
his drab clothing and the keys he applies to the gate
121–126
he explains the differing functions of the two keys
127–129
Peter’s instruction that he err on the side of mercy
130–132
his invitation to enter accompanied by a warning
133–138
the sound made by the portal’s being opened compared to the noise made by the opening of the Roman treasury on the Tarpeian rock, violated by Julius Caesar
139–145
Dante seems to hear the “Te Deum laudamus” sung so that the words are distinct and then indistinct
PURGATORIO IX
The concubine of old Tithonus, →
fresh from her doting lover’s arms,
3
was glowing white at the window of the east,
her forehead glittering with gems
set in the shape of that cold-blooded creature
6
that strikes men with its tail.
Where we were, night had made →
two steps in her ascent and now the wings
9
of the third were already drooping,
when I, who had with me something of Adam, →
lay down, overcome by sleep, there on the grass
12
where the five of us were seated.
At the hour near the verge of morning, →
when the swallow begins her plaintive song,
15
remembering, perhaps, her woes of long ago,
and when our mind, more pilgrim →
from the flesh and less caught up in thoughts,
18
is more prophetic in its visions,
in a dream I seemed to see an eagle, →
with golden feathers, hovering in the sky, →
21
his wings spread wide, ready to swoop.
And to me it seemed I was in the very place →
where Ganymede abandoned his own kind
24
when he was caught up to the highest council.
And I pondered:—‘Perhaps it is its habit →
to strike only here, disdaining to pluck
27
from elsewhere any in its talons.’
Then it seemed to me that after wheeling awhile →
it plunged down terrible as lightning,
30
and carried me straight to the sphere of fire.
There it seemed that it and I were both aflame, →
and the imagined burning was so hot
33
my sleep was broken and gave way.
Not otherwise Achilles started up, →
gazing with startled eyes around him,
36
not knowing where he was
that time his mother carried him,
sleeping in her arms, from Chiron to Scyros,
39
where later the Greeks would take him away—
than I awoke, the sleep gone from my eyes,
and then went deadly pale,
42
like a man frozen in his terror.
At my side there was no one but my comfort, →
the sun more than two hours high.
45
My face was turned toward the sea.
‘Do not be frightened,’ said my lord,
‘have confidence, for all is well with us.
48
Do not hold back, but rally all your strength.
‘Now you have come to purgatory:
there you see the rock wall that encloses it
and, where that seems breached, the entrance.
‘A short time ago, in the early light of dawn, →
when your soul was asleep within you,
54
on the flowers that adorn the place below
‘there came a lady who said: “I am Lucy. →
Let me gather up this sleeping man
57
so I may speed him on his way.”
‘Sordello stayed, as did the other noble souls,
and she took you and, as soon as it was day,
60
went up, and I then followed in her steps.
‘Here she set you down, but first her lovely eyes
showed me that entrance, standing open.
63
Then she and sleep, as one, departed.’
Like a man who comes to see the truth →
when he has been in doubt and now is reassured,
66
confidence replacing what in him was fear,
so was I changed. When my leader saw
that I was free of care, he started up the path,
69
and I behind him, heading for the height.
Reader, you surely understand that I am raising →
the level of my subject here. Do not wonder,
72
therefore, if I sustain it with more artifice.
We drew closer until we reached a place
where what at first had seemed a gap,
75
a breach that rends a wall,
I now saw was a gate, with three steps leading
up to it, each one of a different color.
78
The keeper of that gate as yet said not a word.
And, when my eyes could make him out more clearly,
I saw that he was seated above the topmost step, →
81
his face so bright I could not bear to look. →
In his hand he held a naked sword, →
which so reflected his bright rays
84
I often had to turn my eager eyes away.
‘Say it from there, what do you want,’ →
he began, ‘and where is your escort? →
87
Beware lest your arrival cause you grief.’
‘A lady from Heaven, who knows about such things,’
my master replied, ‘said to us just now,
90
“Go that way, that way lies the gate.” ’
‘And may she speed your steps to good,’
continued the courteous keeper of the gate.
93
‘Come forward, then, to these our stairs.’
At that we moved ahead. The first step → →
was of clear white marble, so polished
96
that my image was reflected in true likeness.
The second was darker than the deepest purple, →
of unhewn stone, looking as if it had been burned,
99
cracked through its length and breadth.
The third, resting its heavy mass above, →
seemed to me porphyry, as flaming red
102
as blood that spurts out from a vein.
On this, seated on the threshold, →
which seemed to be of adamant,
105
the angel of God rested both his feet.
Up the three steps my leader drew me
and I was glad for that. Then he said:
&
nbsp; 108
‘Humbly petition him to slide the bolt.’
Devoutly I cast myself down at his holy feet. →
I begged him for mercy and to let me enter,
111
but first, three times, I smote my breast. →
With the point of his sword he traced seven P’s →
upon my forehead, then said: ‘Once you are inside,
114
see that you wash away these wounds.’ →
Ashes or earth, when it is dug up dry, →
would be the very color of his vestments.
117
Out from under them he drew two keys, →
one of gold, the other one of silver.
He touched the door, first with the white,
120
then the yellow, and thus my wish was satisfied.
‘Any time one of these keys should fail
so that it does not turn inside the lock,’
he said to us, ‘this portal does not open.
‘One is more precious, but the other one requires
much skill and understanding before it will unlock,
126
for it is this one that unties the knot.
‘From Peter do I hold them, and his instruction was
to err in opening rather than in keeping locked,
129
if but the soul fall prostrate at my feet.’
Then he pushed one door of the sacred portal open,
saying: ‘Enter, but I warn you →
132
he who looks back must then return outside.’
And when the hinges of that sacred door, →
which are of heavy and resounding metal, →
135
were turning in their linchpins,
the Tarpeian rock roared not so loud
nor proved so strident when good Metellus
138
was drawn away and it was then left bare.
I turned, intent on a new sound, →
and thought I heard ‘Te Deum laudamus’
141
in voices mingled with sweet counterpoint,
giving me the same impression
one has when listening to singers
accompanied by an organ when the words
145
are sometimes clear and sometimes lost.
OUTLINE: PURGATORIO X
Introduction: arrival in purgatory
1–6
retrospective opening: the clanging closing gate at which Dante does not look back
7–12
Virgil helps Dante make his way up along a passage veering at sharp angles through the rock
13–16
the difficult path takes roughly an hour to traverse
I. The architecture of the first terrace
17–21
Dante and Virgil now find themselves higher up the mountainside and entirely alone
22–27
between its outer edge and the mountainside the terrace runs in a smooth ribbon a little more than fifteen feet wide
28–33
Dante realizes that the steep wall is of white marble bearing extraordinarily beautiful carvings:
II. Exemplars of Humility
34–45
the archangel Gabriel and Mary: the Annunciation
46–54
Virgil encourages Dante not to keep his attention fixed on one carving alone; Dante goes by him to see another:
55–69
David dancing before the Ark of the Covenant while Michal looks on in disdain
70–72
Dante moves again to the right to view another scene:
73–93
Trajan and the widow
94–96
the Poet’s comment on God’s art (“visible speech”)
III. The penitent prideful
97–105
Dante, delighting in these images of humility, hears Virgil murmur that people are coming from their left
106–111
address to reader (3rd): be not disheartened by the pain of the penitents, which is only temporary
112–114
Dante: these shapes do not resemble people
115–120
Virgil: look beneath the stones and see the creatures beat their breasts
121–129
address to prideful Christians in the world who, looking backward, fail to become “angelic butterflies”
130–139
simile: the prideful as figures in corbels
PURGATORIO X
Once we had crossed the threshold of the gate →
not used by souls whose twisted love
3
attempts to make the crooked way seem straight,
I knew that it had shut by its resounding.
And had I turned my eyes to look,
6
how could I have excused my fault?
We were climbing through a crevice in the rock, →
which first bent one way, then another,
9
like a wave that ebbs and then comes rushing back,
when my leader said: ‘Here we must use skill
in keeping close to one side or the other,
12
hewing to the side where the rock gives way.’
This so hindered our slow steps
the waning moon had gained its bed
15
and sunken to its rest
before we issued from that needle’s eye.
But free above, out in the open
18
where the cliff draws back to leave a space—
I weary and both of us uncertain of our path— →
we stopped at a flat and open spot
21
more solitary than a desert track.
From its edge, which borders on the void, →
to the foot of the lofty bank in its sheer rise,
24
would measure thrice the body of a man.
And as far as my eye could wing its flight,
now toward the left, now toward the other side,
27
the terrace stretched before me.
Our feet had not yet stepped on it
when I perceived that the encircling bank,
30
steep and impossible to climb, →
was of white marble carved with so much art →
that Polycletus and Nature’s very self
33
would there be put to shame.
The angel who came to earth with the decree of peace →
that had been wept and yearned for all those years,
36
which opened Heaven, ending God’s long ban,
appeared before us so vividly engraved
in gracious attitude
39
it did not seem an image, carved and silent.
One would have sworn he was saying: ‘Ave,’
for she as well was pictured there
42
who turned the key to love on high.
And in her attitude imprinted were
the words: ‘Ecce ancilla Dei’
45
as clearly as a figure stamped in wax.
‘Do not fix your mind on one part only,’ →
said the kind master, who had me
48
on that side of him where we have our hearts.
At that I turned my face
and, looking beyond Mary, saw,
51
on the same side as he that prompted me,
another story set into the rock.
I went past Virgil and drew near
54
so that my eyes might better take it in.
There, carved into the marble, were the cart →
and oxen, drawing the sacred ark that makes men fear →
57
to assume an office not entrusted to them.
The f
oreground, peopled by figures grouped
in seven choirs, made one sense argue ‘No’
60
and the other: ‘Yes, they sing.’ →
In just this way, the smoke of incense
sculpted there put eyes and nose
63
in discord, caught between yes and no.
There the humble psalmist leaped in dance
before the blessèd vessel with his robe hitched up— →
66
and was at once both more and less than king.
Opposite, a figure at the window →
of a splendid palace, Michal looked on,
69
like a woman vexed and scornful.
I moved some steps from where I stood
to look more closely at another story
72
that I saw gleaming white beyond Michal.
Depicted there was the glorious act → →
of the Roman prince whose worth
75
urged Gregory on to his great victory— →
I speak of the emperor Trajan, →
with the poor widow at his bridle, weeping, →
78
revealed in her state of grief—
the soil all trampled by the thronging knights.
Above, the eagles fixed in gold
81
seemed to flutter in the wind.
In their midst, one could almost hear the plea →
of that unhappy creature: ‘My lord, avenge
84
my murdered son for me. It is for him I grieve,’
and his answer: ‘Wait till I return,’
and she: ‘My lord,’ like one whose grief is urgent,
87
‘and if you don’t return?’ and his answer:
‘He who will take my place will do it,’
and she: ‘What use to you is another’s goodness