Of Dante,Veins Cut and Sewn, Animals,Earth and Stars

drawing by marguerita

Canto II

Now was the day departing, and the air,

Imbrown'd with shadows, from their

toils released

All animals on earth; and I alone

Prepared myself the conflict to sustain,

Both of sad pity, and that perilous road,

Which my unerring memory shall retrace.

O Muses! O high genius! now vouch safe

Your aid. O mind! that all I saw

hast kept

Safe in a written record, here thy worth

And eminent endowments come to proof.

I thus began: "Bard! thou who art

my guide,

Consider well, if virtue be in me

Sufficient, ere to this high enterprise

Thou trust me. Thou hast told that

Silvius' sire,[1]

Yet clothed in corruptible flesh, among

The immortal tribes had entrance,

and was there

Sensibly present. Yet if Heaven's

great Lord,

Almighty foe to ill, such favor show'd

In contemplation of the high effect,

Both what and who from him should

issue forth,

It seems in reason's judgment

well deserved;

Sith he of Rome and of Rome's

empire wide,

In Heaven's imperial height was

chosen sire:

Both which, if truth be spoken,

were ordain'd

And stablish'd for the holy place,

where sits

Who to great Peter's sacred

chair succeeds.

He from this journey, in thy

song renown'd,

Learn'd things, that to his

victory gave rise

And to the papal robe. In after -

times

The Chosen Vessel[2] also

travel'd there,

To bring us back assurance in

that faith

Which is the entrance to

salvation's way.

But I, why should I there presume?

or who

Permits it? not Aeneas I, nor Paul.

[1: "Silvius' sire." Aeneas.]

[2: "The Chosen Vessel." St. Paul.]

Myself I deem not worthy, and none else

Will deem me. I, if on this voyage then

I venture, fear it will in folly end.

Thou, who art wise, better my

meaning know'st,

Than I can speak." As one, who unresolves

What he hath late resolved, and

with new thoughts

Changes his purpose, from his first intent

Removed; e'en such was I on that dun coast,

Wasting in thought my enterprise, at first

So eagerly embraced. "If right thy words

I scan," replied that shade magnanimous,

"Thy soul is by vile fear assail'd,

which oft

So overcasts a man, that he recoils

From noblest resolution, like a beast

At some false semblance in the

twilight gloom.

That from this terror thou mayst

free thyself,

I will instruct thee why I came,

and what

I heard in that same instant,

when for thee

Grief touch'd me first. I was

among the tribe,

Who rest suspended,[3] when a dame,

so blest

And lovely I besought her to command,

Call'd me;

her eyes were brighter

than the star

Of day; and she, with gentle

voice and soft,

Angelically tuned, her speech

address'd:

'O courteous shade of Mantua!

thou whose fame

Yet lives, and shall live long

as nature lasts!

A friend, not of my fortune

but myself,

On the wide desert in his

road has met

Hindrance so great, that he

through fear has turn'd.

Now much I dread lest he past

help have stray'd,

And I be risen too late for

his relief,

From what in heaven of him

I heard. Speed now,

And by thy eloquent persuasive

tongue,

And by all means for his

deliverance meet,

Assist him. So to me will

comfort spring.

I, who now bid thee on this

errand forth,

Am Beatrice;[4] from a place

I come

Revisited with joy. Love brought

me thence,

Who prompts my speech. When in

my Master's sight

I stand, thy praise to him

I oft will tell.'

[3: The spirits in Limbo,

neither admitted to a

state of glory nor

doomed to punishment.]

[4: "Beatrice." The daughter

of Folco Portinari, who is here

invested

with the character of celestial

wisdom or theology.]

"She then was silent, and I thus began:

'O Lady! by whose influence alone

Mankind excels whatever is contain'd

Within that heaven which hath

the smallest orb,

So thy command delights me,

that to obey,

If it were done already,

would seem late.

No need hast thou further

to speak thy will:

Yet tell the reason, why

thou art not loth

To leave that ample space,

where to return

Thou burnest, for this

centre here beneath.'

"She then: 'Since thou so

deeply wouldst inquire,

I will instruct thee

briefly why no dread

Hinders my entrance here.

Those things alone

Are to be fear'd whence

evil may proceed;

None else, for none are

terrible beside.

I am so framed by God,

thanks to His grace!

That any sufferance of your misery

Touches me not, nor flame

of that fierce fire

Assails me. In high Heaven

a blessed Dame[5]

Resides, who mourns with

such effectual grief

That hindrance, which I

send thee to remove,

That God's stern judgment

to her will inclines.'

To Lucia,[6] calling, her she

thus bespake:

'Now doth thy faithful servant

need thy aid,

And I commend him to thee.'

At her word

Sped Lucia, of all cruelty the foe,

And coming to the place,

where I abode

Seated with Rachel, her of

ancient days,

She thus address'd me:

"Thou true praise of God!

Beatrice! why is not thy

succour lent

To him, who so much

loved thee, as to leave

For thy sake all

the multitude admires?

Dost thou not hear how

pitiful his wail,

Nor mark the death, which

in the torrent flood,

Swoln mightier than a sea,

him struggling holds?"

[5: "A blessed Dame."

The Divine Mercy.]

[6: "Lucia." The enlightening

Grace of Heaven; as it is commonly

explained.]

Ne'er among men did

any with such speed

Haste to their profit, flee

from their annoy,

As, when these words

were spoken, I came here,

Down from my blessed seat,

trusting the force

Of thy pure eloquence,

which thee, and all

Who well have mark'd it, into honor brings.'

"When she had ended,

her bright beaming eyes

Tearful she turn'd aside;

whereat I felt

Redoubled zeal to serve thee.

As she will'd,

Thus am I come: I saved

thee from the beast,

Who thy near way across

the goodly mount

Prevented. What is this

comes o'er thee than?

Why, why dost thou hang back?

why in thy breast

Harbour vile fear? why hast

not courage there,

And noble daring; since

three maids,[7] so blest,

Thy safety plan, e'en

in the court of Heaven;

And so much certain good

my words forebode?"

[7: "Three maids."

The Divine Mercy, Lucia and Beatrice.]

As forests, by the frosty air of night

Bent down and closed, when

day has blanch'd their leaves,

Rise all unfolded on their spiry stems;

So was my fainting vigor new restored,

And to my heart such kindly courage ran,

That I as one undaunted soon replied:

"O full of pity she, who undertook

My succour! and thou kind, who didst perform

So soon her true behest! With such desire

Thou hast disposed me to renew my voyage,

That my first purpose fully is resumed.

Lead on: one only will is in us both.

Thou art my guide, my master thou, and lord,"

So spake I; and when he had onward moved,

I enter'd on the deep and woody way.

Note: To you my Man, read those words

and allow these words enlighten your path....

Of Dante,The Trio Syndrome and The Wall Of Flies

drawing/collage by marguerita

Canto I

Dante, astray in a wood, reaches the foot of a hill which he begins to ascend; he is hindered by three beasts; he turns back and is met by Virgil, who proposes to guide him into the eternal world.

Midway upon the road of our life I found myself within a dark wood, for the right way had been missed.

Ah! how hard a thing it is to tell what this wild and rough and dense wood was, which in thought renews the fear!

So bitter is it that death is little more. But in order to treat of the good that there I found, I will tell of the other things that I have seen there. I cannot well recount how I entered it, so full was I of slumber at that point where I abandoned the true way. But after I had arrived at the foot of a hill, where that valley ended which had pierced my heart with fear, I looked on high, and saw its shoulders clothed already with the rays of the planet[1] that leadeth men aright along every path. Then was the fear a little quieted which in the lake of my heart had lasted through the night that I passed so piteously. And even as one who with spent breath, issued out of the sea upon the shore, turns to the perilous water and gazes, so did my soul, which still was flying, turn back to look again upon the pass which never had a living person left.

[1] The sun, a planet according to the Ptolemaic system.

After I had rested a little my weary body I took my way again along the desert slope, so that the firm foot was always the lower. And ho! almost at the beginning of the steep a she-leopard, light and very nimble, which was covered with a spotted coat. And she did not move from before my face, nay, rather hindered so my road that to return I oftentimes had turned.

The time was at the beginning of the morning, and the Sun was mounting upward with those stars that were with him when Love Divine first set in motion those beautiful things;[1] so that the hour of the time and the sweet season were occasion of good hope to me concerning that wild beast with the dappled skin. But not so that the sight which appeared to me of a lion did not give me fear. He seemed to be coming against me, with head high and with ravening hunger, so that it seemed that the air was affrighted at him. And a she-wolf,[2] who with all cravings seemed laden in her meagreness, and already had made many folk to live forlorn,—she caused me so much heaviness, with the fear that came from sight of her, that I lost hope of the height And such as he is who gaineth willingly, and the time arrives that makes him lose, who in all his thoughts weeps and is sad,—such made me the beast without repose that, coming on against me, little by little was pushing me back thither where the Sun is silent.

[1] According to old tradition the spring was the season of the creation.

[2] These three beasts correspond to the triple division of sins into those of incontinence, of violence, and of fraud. See Canto XI.

While I was falling back to the low place, before mine eyes appeared one who through long silence seemed hoarse. When I saw him in the great desert, "Have pity on me!" I cried to him, "whatso thou art, or shade or real man." He answered me: "Not man; man once I was, and my parents were Lombards, and Mantuans by country both. I was born sub Julio, though late, and I lived at Rome under the good Augustus, in the time of the false and lying gods. Poet was I, and sang of that just son of Anchises who came from Troy after proud Ilion had been burned. But thou, why returnest thou to so great annoy?

Why dost thou not ascend the delectable mountain which is the source and cause of every joy?"

"Art thou then that Virgil and that fount which poureth forth so large a stream of speech?" replied I to him with bashful front: "O honor and light of the other poem I may the long seal avail me, and the great love, which have made me search thy volume! Thou art my master and my author; thou alone art he from whom I took the fair style that hath done me honor. Behold the beast because of which I turned; help me against her, famous sage, for she makes any veins and pulses tremble." "Thee it behoves to hold another course," he replied, when he saw me weeping, "if thou wishest to escape from this savage place; for this beast, because of which thou criest out, lets not any one pass along her way, but so hinders him that she kills him! and she has a nature so malign and evil that she never sates her greedy will, and after food is hungrier than before. Many are the animals with which she wives, and there shall be more yet, till the hound [1] shall come that will make her die of grief. He shall not feed on land or goods, but wisdom and love and valor, and his birthplace shall be between Feltro and Feltro. Of that humble

Allegorically, the Inferno represents the soul seeing sin for what it really is,

and the three beasts represent three types of sin: the self-indulgent, the violent, and the malicious.^[9] These three types of sin also provide the three main divisions of Dante's Hell:

Pensamentos Noturnos 9 1/2- che piangea in vano

collage by marguerita

Then he who was my escort took my hand;

he led to the lacerated thorn

that wept in vain where it was bleeding, broken.

" O Jacob," it said da Santo Marco,

what have you gained by using me as screen?

Am I to blame for your indecent life?''

Presemi allor al respuglio che piangea

per le rotture sanguinenti in vano.

" O Jacopo," dicea da Santo Marco,

che t'e giovato di me fare schermo?

che colpa ho io de la tua vita rea?"

from Canto XIII 119

 by Dante Alighieri

Divina Comedia

INFERNO

Pensamentos Noturnos 9 1/4

wire sculpture

                      by marguerita

and photo

And then looking beyond them,I could see a crowd 

along the bank of a great river;

at which I said:

"Allow me now to know

who are these people -master- and what law

has made them so eager for the crossing,

as I can see despite the feeble light".

E poi ch'a riguardar oltre mi diedi,

vidi genti a la riva d'un gran fiume;

per ch'io dissi: Maestro, or mi concedi

ch,i' sappia quali sono, e qual costume

le fa di repassar parer si pronte,

com'i' discerno per lo fioco lume."

from Canto III 25

The Divine Comedy

Of Dante Alighieri

INFERNO