Canto III
CANTO III
Musing on his indebtedness to Virgil, Dante draws near to his faithful comrade, as if to assuage his Master’s pangs of conscience for permitting the delay. As they slow their pace, he turns his attention from Casella’s music and Cato’s rebuke to the mountain that towers to Heaven in front of him. When he notices his shadow cast by the sun behind him, but not Virgil’s, he panics for a moment, thinking himself abandoned. But the Sage gently chides his lack of trust and explains that though the Divine Power has inscrutably disposed shades to suffer torment, heat, and cold, they do not cast a shadow, being diaphanous like the celestial spheres. Limited human reason must simply accept the fact without seeking to fathom its grounds in the mysterious recesses of God’s will (1–45). On reaching the foot of the mountain, the Travelers find it as steep as the cliffs lining the Ligurian coast, impossible to scale. As Virgil reflects within himself on what to do, Dante raises his eyes and, to his Guide’s relief, spies a band of late-repentant excommunicates inching their way forward. The impatient Pilgrims set out to meet them but still remain more than a stone’s throw away after having stridden a thousand paces. Bewildered, the penitents halt on seeing the two come towards them in a direction opposite to the habitual one of movement in Purgatory (46–72). Virgil enjoins the fortunate souls in the name of the peace that awaits them to say where the mountain slopes to facilitate ascent. With those in back blindly following the lead of those in front, they sheepishly advance but shrink back in marvel on perceiving Dante’s shadow. Virgil spontaneously explains that his charge journeys with his mortal body by the will of Heaven, at which the flock invites the Poets to turn around and assume the lead (73–102). In the hope of being recognized, one of them bids Dante look back as he proceeds. He proves to be Manfred, king of Apulia and Sicily, who, though under the ban of excommunication, surrendered himself in death to God. He asks to be remembered as a poor soul of Purgatory to his daughter, Costanza, that she may make intercession for him since, like all who die in contumacy of Holy Church, he must spend thirty times as long at the mountain’s base as he spent insubmissive to Church authority before being allowed to make his ascent (103–145)
1 And even though the sudden fleeing thus
Dispersed them all across that meadowed site,
Turned towards the mount where Reason searches us,[44]
4 I pressed against my faithful Comrade tight:
What would my course without that one have been?
Who would have brought me up the mountain height?
7 He seemed to feel, though, self-reproach within.
(O dignity of conscience that is chaste,
What bitter stings are yours from little sin!)
10 And when those feet of his gave up their haste,
By which an act’s decorum is denied,
My mind, which formerly restraint had laced,
13 Now curious, made its attention wide;
I turned my visage towards the hill ahead,
Which soars most high to Heaven from the tide.
16 In back of me the sun was flaming red;[45]
In front, though, it was broken, as I found
The shape in which I blocked the rays it shed.
19 I feared, as to my side I turned around,
That I had been abandoned when I spied
In front of me alone the darkened ground.
22 My Comfort, turned about, began to chide:
“What is the reason that you still mistrust?
Don’t you believe I’m with you as your guide?
25 It’s evening now where in the tomb was thrust
The frame by which my shadow once was made,
Removed from Bríndisi to Naples’ dust.[46]
28 If now in front of me there is no shade,
Don’t marvel more than at the spheres so posed
That none obstructs the light another’s rayed.[47]
31 For that is how the Power has disposed
Such frames to suffer torment, heat, and cold,
Yet wills that how this works be undisclosed.
34 How mad to hope our reason can make bold
To cross the ways that infinitely run,
And which three Persons—in one Substance—hold!
37 With quia be content, O human one![48]
Had nothing been beyond your vision’s ken,
No need for Mary to have borne a son.
40 You saw the fruitless longing of such men—[49]
If they had quieted their yearning’s quest,
Eternal grief would not be suffered then.
43 It’s Plato, Aristotle, and the rest
I’m speaking of”—he here inclined his face
And spoke no further, but remained distressed.
46 By now we two had reached the mountain’s base
And found the rocks there steep to the degree
That ready legs were useless in that place.
49 The most deserted and most broken scree
Between Turbì’ and Lérici is still,[50]
Compared with them, an easy stair and free.
52 “Who knows upon which hand there slopes the hill,”
Once he had stayed his steps, my Master said,
“So one who has no wings can climb at will?”
55 As he was standing, holding low his head,
Examining his mind about the road,
And I looked up around the rock instead,
58 Upon the left a band of spirits showed,
Who moved their feet towards us, yet to the eye
Seemed not to move, their coming was so slowed.
61 “O Master, raise your sight aloft,” said I,
“See those who’ll give us counsel there amassed
If in yourself you find it does not lie.”
64 So he looked up with lightened air at last
And said: “Let’s go there since they move so slow;
And you, dear son of mine, make hope stand fast.”
67 Those people still remained as distant, though,
When we had gone a thousand feet in all
As with the hand the better slingsmen throw.
70 Then, pressed against hard rocks of that high wall,
All firm and close together stood erect
As one will stop to look whom doubts befall.
73 “O you who ended well, O souls elect,”
My Virgil started, “by that peace sublime,
Which waits for all of you, as I suspect,
76 Say where the mountain slopes so that the climb
Is possible for us: the more one knows
The more is one displeased by wasted time.”
79 Just as with sheep, when from the fold one goes,
Then two, then three, while others standing by
Will timidly to earth bend eyes and nose,
82 And what the first one does the others try,
And if it stops they huddle at its side,
Serene and simple, though not knowing why;
85 Just so, now moving to advance, I spied
The ones who headed up that happy flock,
Of modest face, in movement dignified.
88 When, on the ground, the ones who led that stock
Had seen the broken light at my right flank
So that my shadow lengthened to the rock,
91 They made a halt, and towards the rear they sank
A bit, as all who came behind those few,
Not knowing why, then likewise backwards shrank.
94 “Without your asking, I confess to you,
This is a human body you perceive,
So sunlight on the ground is split in two.
97 Do not however marvel, but believe
He would not seek to scale a wall so grand,
Did he not have his strength by Heaven’s leave,”
100 My Master said, at which that worthy band
Replied: “Turn back to go before our clan,”
And signaled with the backside of the hand.
103 “Whoever you may be,” so one began,
“Please turn your face around as on you go;
Think if you ever saw me as a man.”
106 I turned towards him and saw while staring so
A handsome blond, of noble mien possessed,
Although one brow was cloven by a blow.
109 And afterwards, when humbly I confessed
I’d never seen him once, he said: “Now see,”
And showed to me a wound above his chest.
112 “I’m Manfred,” so he smiled and said to me,[51]
“And grandson of the Empress Constance too;
I pray you, when you have returned, agree
115 To go to my fair girl, the mother who[52]
Bore Sicily’s and Aragona’s pride—
If something else is told, tell her what’s true.[53]
118 When by two mortal blows my body died,
I gave myself to Him who will remit
Our failings gladly, as my tears were cried.
121 My sins were ghastly, but the Infinite[54]
In goodness spreads Its arms to the extent
That they take back whoever turns to It.
124 And if Cosenza’s pastor, who was sent[55]
By Clement once to hunt me underground,
Had on that page read well our God’s intent,[56]
127 My body’s bones would even now be found
Near Benevento at the bridgehead, wrenched
Beneath the guard of such a heavy mound.
130 Beyond the Kingdom, swept by winds and drenched[57]
By rains, they’re lying near the Verde’s strand,[58]
Where he transported them with tapers quenched.[59]
133 So lost is no one whom their curse has banned
That the eternal love can not return,
If but on hope some buds of green still stand.
136 If one who’s contumacious dies to spurn
The Holy Church, although he should repent,
It’s true that on this bank he must sojourn
139 For thirty times as long as he had spent
In his presumption there—if the decree
Is not made shorter by good prayers upsent.
142 And now, see whether you can gladden me
By telling my good Constance both the tier
You saw me on and why this ban must be:
145 For those below advance us much up here.”