Purgatorio

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Note on Using This eBook

Note on the Translation

Table of Abbreviations and List of Commentators

Map of Dante’s Purgatorio

Introduction

Notes

Index of Names and Places

Index of Subjects Treated in the Notes

About the Translators

Acclaim for the Translators

Other Books by Robert and Jean Hollander

In this eBook edition of
The Purgatorio
, you will find two types of hyperlinks.

The first type is embedded in the line numbers to the left of the text: these links allow you to click back and forth between the English translation and the original Italian text while still holding your place.

The second type of link, which is indicated by an arrow (→) at the end of a line of poetry, will bring you to an explanatory a note.

You can click on an arrow to navigate to the appropriate note; you can then use the links at the end of each note to return to your location in either the English translation or the original Italian text. You can also click on the note number to return to your location in the English translation.

Since our goals in translating the second
cantica
of Dante’s poem are not in substance different from those that animated our translation of the first, the reader is asked to consult the similar notice that precedes our translation of
Inferno
(Doubleday 2000; Anchor 2002).
Purgatorio
presents some challenges different from those encountered in
Inferno
, but we have again attempted to give as accurate a sense of the poetry and meaning of the Italian text as English allows. The language and style of this part of the poem is, in many respects, different from that to which we have become accustomed in the previous
cantica
. The “harsh and rasping” verse (
Inf
. XXXII.1) used to describe in particular the bottom reaches of hell is mainly lacking here, for the most part replaced by a more harmonious tone and diction. And the themes we encounter now are by and large quite different, as, entering the realm of the saved, we might expect. We need but think of the opening images of sunlight (unseen in
Inferno
), of the sense of divine grace operating before our eyes, of the fraternal love that replaces the hatred found in hell, of the light of the stars, of the singing so often heard and the smiling so often seen in this place, and, in general, of the theological virtue of hope (and its color, green), missing in even the best part of hell, Limbo (where, in Virgil’s words, “without hope we live in longing” [
Inf
. IV.42]).

At the same time, things are not entirely different. The pain undergone by the penitents, it is true, is suffered to a joyous purpose, as Forese Donati makes plain: “I speak of pain but should say solace” (
Purg
. XXIII.72). Nonetheless, in form it is much as that suffered by the damned; all of these souls, too, have their
contrapasso
(
Inf
. XXVIII.142), the punishment that fits their crime, and it functions just as it did in hell, either by mirroring the sin it punishes (as in the choking smoke of wrath) or by being its opposite (as in upward-surging pride being crushed beneath a heavy burden). Also similar to those we found in
Inferno
are the narratives told by former sinners. The attitudes of these speakers and the resolutions of their lives are vastly different (we might compare Francesca [
Inf
. V] and Pia de’ Tolomei [
Purg
. V], as many in fact do); however, the way in which their stories are presented is essentially the same, brief narratives, perhaps best considered Ovidian in origin, of the defining moment in a person’s life. Perhaps no other feature of the
Comedy
is as reflective of the poetic essence of Dantean art as this one, as Robert Browning realized when he wrote his series of Dantesque monologues.

While surely we must acknowledge that
Inferno
and
Purgatorio
are very different poetic places, they nonetheless maintain some arrestingly similar elements. From the vantage point of
Paradiso
the second canticle looks much more like its predecessor than like its successor. But that is another story.

We are grateful to two friends born in Italy and born to Dante for their willingness to sample our translations and my comments with a knowing eye. Margherita Frankel, formerly a professor of Italian at New York University, was her usual careful and exacting self as she examined our materials. The same must be said of Simone Marchesi, who has studied with me as a graduate student at Princeton and now is about to begin teaching Dante in his own courses to fortunate students. We are pleased to be able here to express our gratitude to them both.

Gerald Howard, in addition to his more significant titles and duties at Random House, has been our editor for some years now. His support made publication of our work possible, and his continuing clearheaded and keen-eyed editorial supervision has helped keep the project on an even keel. And we are grateful as well to all at Random House and Anchor Books (including three former students of mine at Princeton) who have taken such pleasure in their association with this project.

March
2000
(Florence)–January
2002
(Tortola)

This printing includes over one hundred brief and minor emendations.

7 November
2010
(Hopewell)

1.  Dante’s works:

2. Commentators on the
Commedia
(these texts are all either currently available or, as in the case of Bennassuti and Provenzal, should one day be available, in the database known as the Dartmouth Dante Project; dates, particularly of the early commentators, are often approximate):

Jacopo Alighieri (1322) (
Inferno
only)

Graziolo de’ Bambaglioli (1324) (Latin) (
Inferno
only)

Jacopo della Lana (1324)

Anonymus Lombardus (1325[?]) (Latin) (
Purgatorio
only)

Guido da Pisa (1327) (Latin) (
Inferno
only)

L’Ottimo (1333)

L’anonimo selmiano (1337) (
Inferno
only)

Pietro di Dante (1) (1340) (Latin)

Pietro di Dante (2) (1344–55?) (Latin)

Pietro di Dante (3) (1359–64) (Latin)

Il codice cassinese (1350?) (Latin)

Chiose Ambrosiane (1355?) (Latin)

Guglielmo Maramauro (1369–73) (Italian) (
Inferno
only)

Chiose Cagliaritane (1370?) (Italian)

Chiose Ambrosiane (1355[?])

Guglielmo Maramauro (1369–73)

Chiose Cagliaritane (1370[?])

Giovanni Boccaccio (1373–75) (
Inferno
I–XVII only)

Benvenuto da Imola (1380) (Latin)

Francesco da Buti (1385)

Chiose Vernon (1390?) (Italian)

“Falso Boccaccio” (1390[?])