Purgatorio
Canto XVII
Dante gets clear of the smoke, as the sun is setting. And again he falls into a trance, in which appear examples of wrath (Procne, Haman, Amata) and is waked by an angel who shows the way of ascent to the next terrace. The poets mount and reach the terrace, but cannot go farther, because it is night. Dante asks Virgil what sin is purged there. It is the sin of spiritual Sloth. Virgil takes the opportunity to expound the system of Purgatory. In the three circles through which they have passed are punished Pride, Envy, and Anger—all perversions of love or desire. Above, in three circles, are those whose desire for temporal goods was in excess and whose sins were Avarice, Gluttony, and Lust.
READER, if in the mountains you have been
Caught ever in a cloud, through which you saw
Not otherwise than moles do through the skin,[i]3. According to Aristotle, the eye of the mole is covered by a membrane which prevents it from seeing.
Remember, when the vapours thick and raw
Begin to thin themselves, how the sun’s sphere
Enters among them weakly as they withdraw,
And easily will your fancy make appear
How I was by the sun revisited
That now unto his setting was full near.
So, measuring with my master’s faithful tread [10]
My steps, from such a cloud did I come out
To rays on the low shore already dead.
O Fantasy, that dost at times so rout
Our senses that a man stays negligent
Although a thousand trumpets sound about,
Who moves thee, if senses naught to thee present?
There moves thee a light which of itself is shaped
In heaven, or by a will wherefrom ’tis sent.
The sin of her who from her form escaped[ii]19. “The sin of her . . .”: Progne, who became a nightingale.
Into the bird which most delights to sing, [20]
Printed its traces on my fancy rapt;
And here within its own imagining
So closeted my mind was, it could then
Receive the imprint of no outer thing.
Within my lofty fancy I next saw rain
One crucified, upon whose visage showed,[iii]26. The “one crucified” is Haman, minister of King Ahasuerus.
In the act of dying so, a fierce disdain.
Beside him great Ahasuerus stood,
Esther his wife, and Mordecai, he
Who in speech and act was incorruptly good. [30]
And as this image broke spontaneously,
Like to a bubble when it findeth fail
The water, under which it came to be,
Rose in my vision, making grievous wail,
A maiden, saying: “Queen, why didst thou choose[iv]35. The “Queen” is Amata, wife of King Latinus, who hanged herself on hearing a premature report of the death of her daughter Lavinia’s intended husband.
To become naught, letting thy wrath prevail?
Thou hast slain thyself, Lavinia not to lose;
Me now thou hast lost; I am she that sadly cries,
Mother, for no death but thy life’s dark close.”
As when strikes of a sudden on closed eyes [40]
The day’s new light, and sleep breaks at a blow
And broken flutters ere it wholly dies,
Did my imagination even so
Collapse, soon as a light smote on my face
Greater by far than is our wont to know.
I turned me to discover where I was,
When a voice saying: “Here is the ascent”
Caused every other thought from me to pass.
And this made my desire so vehement
To see who it was that spoke, as longing is [50]
Which only face to face can be content.
But as the sun which presses on our eyes
And by excess veileth his form, so here
All of their virtue failed my faculties.
“This is a heavenly spirit that, without prayer
On our part, up the path directeth us,
And in his own light hideth himself there.
He deals with us as with himself one does;
For he who awaits the prayer and sees the need
Already is with the unkind ones who refuse. [60]
Now let us match our feet to such God-speed
And hasten, ere the dark come, to ascend:
After, we could not, till day dawn, proceed.”
Thus spoke my Leader, and we turned to bend
Our footsteps to the rising of a stair.
And soon as the first step I had attained
Near me I felt as ’twere a wing in the air
And my face fanned, and “Beati,” I heard,[v]68-69. Matt. 5:9. “Blessed are the peacemakers.”
“Pacifici, who evil wrath forswear.”
Now far above us were the rays upreared, [70]
The last rays, whereupon the night ensues;
So that the stars on many sides appeared.
Why, O my virtue, dost thou me disuse?
I said within me, for I felt the power
Of my legs fail me, being put in truce.
We stood where the steps mounted up no more
And remained fixt, just as a ship embayed
And onward driven is stranded on the shore.
And listening for a little while I stayed,
If aught in the new circle I might hear; [80]
Then turned me to my Master round, and said:
“O sweet my Father, tell what trespass here
Within this present circle is purified?
If our feet halt, let thy speech persevere.”
And he to me: “Love of the good, that did[vi]85-86. The sin punished is sloth.
The scantling of its duty, is here restored:
Here the ill-slackened oar again is plied.
But that unto thy reason all be bared,
Turn unto me thy mind, and thou shalt get
From our delay some good fruit for reward.” [90]
“Nor creature nor creator ever yet,
My son, was without love,” continued he,
“Natural; or of the mind: thou knowest it.
The natural always is from error free;
But the other may, through a bad object, err
By too much force or its deficiency.
While to the prime good ’tis resolved to steer,[vii]97-98. “The prime good”: heavenly blessings; “the second”: worldly blessings.
And in the second keepeth measure due,
Of sinful joy it cannot be the spur.
But should it swerve to evil, or pursue [100]
The good with too strong or too feeble intent,
The creature to his Maker is untrue.
Hence may’st thou understand how love is meant
To be in you the seed of virtue pure
And of all works deserving chastisement.
Now, since love’s gaze nothing can ever lure
From weal of that which is its nature’s seat,
All things are from self-hatred made secure.
And since none can conceive that separate
From God, and self-subsisting, any stay, [110]
Him, its first cause, his creature cannot hate.
If rightly this division I assay,
Remains that the ill loved is other’s woe;
And this love springs in three modes from your clay.[viii]114. “In three modes”: the vices of pride, of envy, and of anger.
There is, who through his neighbour's overthrow
Hopes to excel, and only for that cause
Longs that he may from greatness be brought low.
There is, who fears power, favour, fame to lose
Because another mounts; wherefore his lot
So irks, he loves the opposite to choose. [120]
And there is, who through injury grows so hot
From shame, with greed of vengeance he is burned,
And so must needs another’s ill promote.
This three-formed love down under us is mourned.
Now would I have thee the other comprehend,
Which to the good speeds, but with order spurned.[ix]126. “With order spurned”: too sluggishly toward heavenly good, too eagerly toward worldly good.
Each one confusedly doth apprehend
A longed-for good, wherein the mind may rest;
And therefore each one strives to attain that end.
If laggard be the love that makes the quest [130]
For sight of it or winning it, this zone
Chastises you therefor, the sin confest.
Another good there is which blesses none.
Tis not felicity, ’tis not the Good
Essence, of all good, fruit and root alone.
The love that this good hath too hotly wooed
Is mourned above us in three circles: how
’Tis reckoned as tripartite, since I would
Thou seek it out thyself, I tell not now.”