Notes.
2 The signs of the zodiac indicate that it is
2:00 P.M..
22 Meleager, son of Althea, would live as
long as a certain log of wood would burn: after he murdered his uncles, his mother in rage
threw the log into the fire and he perished when it was consumed.
37 Statius begins a discourse on the
generation of the body (ll. 37-60), the origin of the soul (ll. 68-75), and the nature of
the soul after death (ll. 79-107).
40 Perfect blood gathers in the heart of the
male, becomes sperm, and joins the female blood for conception, one acting generatively,
the other passively.
52 The human soul develops through the stages
of vegetable, sensual or animal, and rational growth before birth.
63 Averroes gave the rational intellect an
existence of its own apart from the body-soul.
79 Lachesis is a mythological figure who was
in charge of spinning the thread of life for humans. When she ran out of thread, the
person would die.
82 At death the vegetable and animal
faculties of the soul become inactive.
121 "God of the Highest Clemency"
is an Ambrosian hymn which asks God’s help in overcoming lust, the last sin to be
purged.
128 Virum non cognosco was Mary’s answer to Gabriel (Luke 1: 34).
131 Helice, a nymph of Diana, was banished
when Jupiter seduced her, then changed into a bear by Juno (Metamorphoses
II, 453-465). The poison of Venus is carnal
love. |
|
- The
hour came when climbing could not wait:
- The
sun had left the mid-point of its circle
- To
Taurus, and the night to Scorpio.
-
- So,
like a man who does not stop to pause,
- 5
But goes his way no matter what occurs,
- If he
be spurred on by necessity,
-
- We
three each entered, one before the other,
-
Through the gap and took the stairway up,
- So
cramped that climbers squeeze up single file.
-
- 10
And as the fledgling stork that lifts its wings
- In
willingness to fly, but does not dare
- To
leave the nest, and lets them drop back down,
-
- Just
so was I, with eagerness to ask
-
Inflamed and dampened, going through the motions
- 15
Up to the point where one’s prepared to speak.
-
- Nor
did our swift pace keep my gentle father
- From
telling me, "Release your bow of speech
- Which
you have drawn tight to the arrow-tip."
-
- I
opened my mouth confidently then,
- 20
And I began, "How can they grow so thin
- Where
no one has a need for nourishment?"
-
-
"If you will call to mind how Meleager
-
Burned while the firebrand burned out," he said,
-
"This problem won’t prove difficult for you;
-
- 25
"And if you’ll think how, any move you make,
- Your
image in the mirror moves as quickly,
- Then
what seems hard should not be tough to chew on.
-
-
"But now to let you rest in what you long for,
- Look,
here is Statius: I call on him
- 30
And pray he be the healer of your wounds."
-
-
"If I unveil to him eternal views,"
-
Statius replied, "while you are here,
- Let
my excuse be that I can’t refuse you."
-
- Then
he began, "If, son, your mind takes in
- 35
And heeds my words, then they shall be a light
- Upon
the how of what you have inquired.
-
-
"The perfect blood — blood which the thirsty veins
- Never
drink up, but which they leave behind,
- Like
leftovers one clears off from a table —
-
- 40
"Takes, in the heart, the power to inform
- All
of a body’s members, like that blood
-
Flowing through the veins to fill the limbs.
-
-
"Digested further, it descends to what
- Is
best unmentioned, and from there it drips
- 45
Upon another’s blood in nature’s vessel.
-
-
"There one blood mingles with its opposite,
- One
tending to be passive and one active
-
Because of the perfect place from which they flow;
-
-
"And, joined to the other, it begins to work,
- 50
First coagulating, then quickening
- What
it has rendered solid as its matter.
-
-
"The active power, now become a soul
- (Like
that of a plant, but with this difference:
- The
plant’s fulfilled while this is on its way),
-
- 55
"So works then, that now it moves and feels,
- Like
a sea sponge; and then it starts to form
-
Organs for the faculties it seeded.
-
-
"Now, son, this power that comes from the heart
- Of
the begetter swells and now spreads out
- 60
Where nature plans a place for every member.
-
-
"But how the animal becomes a human
- You
do not see yet: this is a point
- That
led astray a wiser man than you,
-
-
"So that he taught the possible intellect
- 65
To be a separate substance from the soul
- Since
he could see no organ suited to it.
-
-
"Open your breast to truth about to come,
- And
know that, as soon as the articulation
- Of
the brain is perfect in the foetus,
-
- 70
"Then the First Mover turns to it with joy
- To
find in nature such fine art, and breathes
- A
newborn spirit in it, filled with power,
-
-
"Which draws what it discovers active there
- Into
its substance and becomes one soul
- 75
That lives and feels and thinks about itself.
-
-
"And that you may be less dazed at my words,
- Look
at the sun’s heat that is turned to wine
- When
it joins with the juice that flows from vines.
-
-
"When Lachesis has run out of her thread,
- 80
This soul is freed from flesh, and virtually
- Takes
with it both the human and divine;
-
-
"But with the faculties of sense now mute,
- The
memory, intelligence, and will
- Are
more acute in action than before.
-
- 85
"Without a pause, the soul falls on its own
-
Wondrously to one shore or the other:
- And
there it first finds out the road to take.
-
-
"As soon as space surrounds it in that place,
- The
informing power radiates around
- 90
In shape and size as in its living limbs.
-
-
"And as the air when it is wet with showers,
-
Through the sun’s outer rays reflected in it,
-
Adorns itself with alternating colors,
-
-
"So there the neighboring air assumes the shape
- 95
Impressed on it by power of the soul
- Which
has come to a stop at that one spot;
-
-
"And then, in the same way a flame will follow
- After
the fire whichever way it moves,
- So
the new form is following the spirit.
-
- 100
"Since it has its visibility from air,
-
It’s called a shade, and out of air it forms
-
Organs for all the senses, even sight.
-
-
"This is how we speak and how we laugh,
- How
we produce the teardrops and the sighs
- 105
Which possibly you heard around the mountain.
-
-
"Just as our longings and our other feelings
-
Affect us here, so the shade takes its shape:
- And
that’s the cause of what amazes you."
-
- And
we had come by now to the last turning
- 110
And wheeled round to the right-hand side again,
- When
we were faced with still a further care.
-
- There
fire flashes straight from out the wall,
- But
from the terrace edge a wind blows upward
- To
push it back and make a pathway through.
-
- 115
So we three had to go on the free side,
- One
by one, and there I feared the fire,
- And
over here I feared that I’d fall off.
-
- My
guide said, "Throughout a place like this
- One
must keep a tight rein upon the eyes,
- 120
For one false step would be an easy matter."
-
-
"Summae Deus Clementiae" I heard then,
- Sung
in the heart of the huge burning blaze,
- And
this made me more ardent to turn to it:
-
- And I
saw spirits walking through the flames,
- 125
So that I looked at them and at my steps,
-
Dividing my gaze between one and the other.
-
- After
that hymn had gone on to the end,
- They
cried in a loud voice, "I know not man!"
- Then
quietly began the hymn again.
-
- 130
When it was once more done, they cried, "Diana
- Kept
to the woods and chased out Helice
- For
having felt the poison lust of Venus."
-
- Then
they returned to singing; then they cried
- In
praise of wives and husbands who were chaste,
- 135
As virtue and the marriage vows require.
-
- And
this way, I believe, they stir themselves
-
During all the time the fire burns them:
- With
such a searing cure and songful diet
-
- Must
the last wound of all be finally healed.
|
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to Purgatorio XXIV