Redefining The Terms Of What Seems To Be: PURGATORIO, Canto XV, Lines 25 - 33

Walking With Dante

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.

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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.