Canto XVII
CANTO XVII
Emerging from the smoke as if from a dissipating mountain fog to view the setting sun, Dante is now able to walk beside, instead of behind, his Guide (1–12). An apostrophe to imagination, which must receive light infused from above if not informed by the senses, introduces the examples of punished wrath, each of which rages vainly against the order of creation or providence. First is Procne’s murder of her own flesh and blood, fed to her adulterous husband; second, Haman’s attempted extermination of the Chosen People; and third, Amata’s suicide at the divinely decreed marriage of her daughter and Aeneas (13–39). As the splendor of the angel of gentleness disperses the Pilgrim’s visions, he invites the Travelers to the stairs before they have even asked the way. No sooner do they begin to mount than the Poet feels the angel’s pinion sweep the P of wrath from his forehead and hears the beatitude “Blessed are the peacemakers.” When they reach the terrace of sloth, however, his strength fails him, and they halt (40–78). Hearing nothing upon this level, Dante asks Virgil to discourse on the sin purged here, and the Master avails himself of the opportunity to expound the system of Purgatory (79–90). All human actions and passions proceed either from the natural appetite for perfection, which cannot err, or from the rational will, which can choose either a true or a merely apparent good. When free choice tends towards the heavenly Good above all else and towards earthly goods in due measure, it does not sin. But when it chooses an evil object or loves a good object excessively or deficiently, it goes awry. Since one naturally desires the good for oneself, no one can fall into self-hate. And since God is the universal Good, no one who sees correctly can hate God. But one can hate one’s neighbor in three ways: by pride, which wills another’s abasement for the sake of one’s own exaltation; by envy, which sorrows at another’s good fortune; and by wrath, which plots an unjust revenge. It is by a deficient love of the divine Good that one commits the sin of sloth, and by an excessive love of earthly goods that one becomes guilty of avarice, gluttony, and lust. Thus, sins of the spirit stemming from the perverted love of an evil object (pride, envy, wrath) are atoned for on the first three terraces. The part spiritual, part fleshly sin of deficient love of the infinite Good (sloth) is cleansed on the fourth terrace. And the sins of the flesh bred by excessive love of finite goods (avarice, gluttony, lust) are expiated on the last three terraces of Purgatory (91–139).
1 Remember, Reader, if you’ve ever been
Caught up in mountain fog through which you’d gaze
No differently than moles do through their skin,[271]
4 How when the vapors’ moist and murky haze
Begins to dissipate, the solar sphere
Will enter through that mist with feeble rays;
7 And you will quickly come to see with clear
Imagination how once more ahead
I saw the sun, which now was setting here.[272]
10 My footsteps matched my Master’s steady tread,
On coming from such clouds to rays aglow,
Which on the shores below by now were dead.
13 (O fantasy, which sometimes steals us so[273]
From outward things we give them no more thought
Although a thousand trumpets round us blow,
16 What moves you if the senses show you naught?
Light formed in Heaven moves you, either willed
By One who sends it down, or else star-brought.)[274]
19 The trace of one’s impiety now filled
My fancy—one who was (transformed throughout)
A bird that most delighted when it trilled.[275]
22 My mind was so restrained within, no doubt,
That therefore it could not receive inside
Whatever might have reached it from without.
25 In my high fantasy one crucified
Was next rained down, a man of scornful mood
And fierce appearance, even as he died.
28 Near him were great Ahásuërus viewed,
Wife Esther, and just Mordecai, one known
For words and actions of such rectitude.[276]
31 And as this image ruptured on its own,
Like bubbles with the water film burst through
Beneath which they had risen, there was shown
34 To me a vision of a maiden who,[277]
While weeping loudly, said: “Why did you will
From wrath, O Queen, to be no more? You slew
37 Yourself so as to keep Lavinia—still
You have lost me! O Mother, it’s my plight
To mourn your fall before another’s ill.”[278]
40 When suddenly closed eyes are struck by light,
Our sleep is broken off though it may be
It wavers some before it dies outright;
43 So my imaginations fell from me
No sooner than a light had struck my face—
Far greater light than we are wont to see.
46 As I was turning round to see my place,
A voice cried out: “Through here one makes ascent,”
Removing all my thoughts, for in this case
49 It gave my longing quite an eager bent
To see the one who spoke (an appetite
That never rests—till face to face—content).
52 But as before the sun, which burdens sight
And veils its figure from us by excess,
So here my power also lacked in might.
55 “This spirit is divine; though none should press,
He shows the upward pathway to our feet,
And yet he hides within his light no less.
58 He treats us just as any man would treat
Himself—he’s set to say a cruel ‘no’
Who sees the need but waits till we entreat.
61 Let feet accord with such a bidding so
That we may strive to climb before it’s dim,
When no one can till day returns aglow.”
64 Thus spoke my Guide; with me abreast of him,
We turned our footsteps towards a stairway where,
As on the lowest step I set a limb,
67 It seemed I felt a wing nearby move air
And fan my face; “Beati” came the cry,
“Pacifici, no evil wrath you bear!”[279]
70 The final rays already were so high
Above us that the night soon followed, whence
The stars appeared all over in the sky.
73 I said within: “My strength, why do I sense
Your melting?” for as I became aware,
The power of my legs was in suspense.
76 We’d reached a point at which the upward stair
No longer climbed; like ships that run aground
Upon the shore, so we were halted there.
79 I listened for a bit to hear some sound
Upon that newest rung and, to beseech
My Master, said, on having turned around:
82 “Sweet Father, what is the offense that each
Must purge upon this circle we’ve come to?
Although our feet must stop, don’t stop your speech.”
85 “The love of good, when short of what is due,
Finds restoration here,” he came to say,
“And so ill-slackened oars are plied anew.
88 That you may understand more clearly, pray,
Just turn your mind to me and when we’re done
You will have reaped good fruit from our delay.
91 Of our Creator and of creatures, none
Has failed to love by nature,” he began,
“Or by the mind; and this you know, my son.
94 The natural shall never err in man;
By wrongful objects, though, the other might,
Just as by force too great or small it can.
97 Directed towards the Primal Good aright,
And measure in all lesser goods obeyed,
There cannot be a cause of wrong delight.
100 But having turned to evil or betrayed
More care or less for good than what should be,
Against its Maker works the thing He made.
103 Hence, you can grasp that of necessity
Love is the seed of every virtue’s trait
And every deed deserving penalty.
106 Because, then, from its subject’s good estate
No love can ever turn away its eye,
All things are made secure against self-hate.
109 Since beings can’t be thought as standing by
Themselves alone, cut from the First away,
Effects are stopped from hating Him. If I
112 Distinguish rightly, we can therefore say
The evil loved is but our neighbor’s woe,
Which love is born three ways in mortal clay.
115 There’s one who through his neighbor’s overthrow
Seeks excellence, and therefore has the will
That from his greatness he may be cast low.[280]
118 One fears to lose his might, his honor’s fill,
His favor, and his fame, should others rise,
And, thus made sad, he loves the counter-ill.[281]
121 One feels, when wronged, resentful in such wise
That he is greedy for revenge, and so
It is another’s hurt he must devise.[282]
124 This threefold love is wept for here below
Now I would have you hear how others tend
To run to good, corrupting order, though.
127 Each one confusedly will apprehend
And want the Good that rests the mind, whereat
Each one of us will strive to reach that End.
130 If languid love should move your looking at
Or gaining it, with just repentance would
The present terrace punish you for that.[283]
133 There is another goodness, but it could
Not make man glad—it’s not felicity,
True Essence, fruit and root of every good.
136 The love that yields to it excessively
Is wept for on three rings above our shelf;[284]
But why it is distinguished into three,
139 I will not say, so you may search yourself.”