At the heart of Dante's poem is humanity's recognition of its sins and ascent to spiritual life and to God. According to the poet, in order to find peace of mind, it is necessary to go through all the circles of hell and renounce blessings, and atone for sins with suffering. Each of the three chapters of the poem includes 33 songs. “Hell”, “Purgatory” and “Paradise” are the eloquent names of the parts that make up the “Divine Comedy”. A summary makes it possible to comprehend the main idea of the poem.
Dante Alighieri created the poem during the years of exile, shortly before his death. It is recognized in world literature as brilliant creation. The author himself gave it the name “Comedy”. In those days it was customary to call any work that had a happy ending. Boccaccio called it “Divine”, thus giving it the highest rating.
Dante's poem "The Divine Comedy", a summary of which schoolchildren study in the 9th grade, is difficult for modern teenagers to perceive. A detailed analysis of some songs cannot give a complete picture of the work, especially taking into account today’s attitude towards religion and human sins. However, acquaintance, albeit only a review, with Dante’s work is necessary to create a complete understanding of world fiction.
"Divine Comedy". Summary of the chapter "Hell"
Main character works are Dante himself, to whom the shadow appears famous poet Virgil’s proposal to travel through Dante is at first doubtful, but agrees after Virgil informs him that Beatrice (the author’s beloved, long dead by that time) asked the poet to become his guide.
The path of the characters begins in hell. Before entering it there are pitiful souls who during their lifetime did neither good nor evil. The Acheron River flows outside the gates, through which Charon transports the dead. The heroes are approaching the circles of hell:
Having gone through all the circles of hell, Dante and his companion went up and saw the stars.
"Divine Comedy". Brief summary of the part "Purgatory"
The main character and his guide end up in purgatory. Here they are met by the guard Cato, who sends them to the sea to wash themselves. The companions go to the water, where Virgil washes the soot of the underworld from Dante’s face. At this time, a boat sails up to the travelers, ruled by an angel. He lands on shore the souls of the dead who did not go to hell. With them, the heroes travel to the mountain of purgatory. On the way, they meet Virgil's fellow countryman, the poet Sordello, who joins them.
Dante falls asleep and in his sleep is transported to the gates of purgatory. Here the angel writes seven letters on the poet’s forehead, indicating the Hero goes through all the circles of purgatory, cleansing himself of sins. After completing each circle, the angel erases the letter of the overcome sin from Dante’s forehead. On the last lap, the poet must pass through the flames of fire. Dante is afraid, but Virgil convinces him. The poet passes the test by fire and goes to heaven, where Beatrice is waiting for him. Virgil falls silent and disappears forever. The beloved washes Dante in the sacred river, and the poet feels strength pouring into his body.
"Divine Comedy". Summary of the part "Paradise"
Beloved ones ascend to heaven. To the surprise of the main character, he was able to take off. Beatrice explained to him that souls not burdened with sins are light. Lovers pass through all the heavenly skies:
- the first sky of the Moon, where the souls of nuns are located;
- the second - Mercury for ambitious righteous people;
- third - Venus, here the souls of the loving rest;
- the fourth - the Sun, intended for sages;
- fifth - Mars, which receives warriors;
- sixth - Jupiter, for just souls;
- the seventh is Saturn, where the souls of contemplators are located;
- the eighth - for the spirits of the great righteous;
- ninth - here are angels and archangels, seraphim and cherubim.
After ascending to the last heaven, the hero sees the Virgin Mary. She is among the shining rays. Dante raises his head up into the bright and blinding light and finds the highest truth. He sees divinity in its trinity.
"The Divine Comedy" - immortal work with a philosophical meaning. In three parts, the plot is revealed about the purpose of love, the death of the beloved and universal justice. In this article we will analyze the poem “The Divine Comedy” by Dante.
The history of the poem
Analysis of the composition of “The Divine Comedy”
The poem consists of three parts called cantics. Each cantik contains thirty-three songs. One more song was added to the first part; it is a prologue. Thus, there are 100 songs in the poem. The poetic meter is terza.
The main character of the work is Dante himself. But, when reading the poem, it becomes clear that the image of the hero and real personality- not the same person. Dante's hero resembles a contemplator who only observes what is happening. He is different in character: hot-tempered and pitiful, angry and helpless. The author uses this technique to show the whole range of emotions of a living person.
Beatrice is the supreme wisdom, a symbol of goodness. She became his guide to various areas, showing love in all its forms. And Dante, being captivated by the forces of love, obediently follows her, wanting to achieve heavenly wisdom.
In the prologue we see Dante at the age of 35, who stands at a crossroads in his life. An associative series is created: the season is Spring, he met Beatrice also in the spring, and God’s world was created in the spring. The animals he meets on his way are symbolic of human vices. For example, lynx - voluptuousness.
Dante shows through his hero both his own tragedy and the global one. Reading the poem, we see how the hero loses heart, resurrects and seeks consolation.
He also encounters sleepy crowds. These people did neither good nor bad deeds. They look lost between two worlds.
Description of the Circles of Hell by Dante
Analyzing the poem “The Divine Comedy”, one can see that Dante’s innovation occurs already when he passes through the first circle of Hell. The best poets languish there together with old people and babies. Such as: Verligius, Homer, Horace, Ovid and Dante himself.
The second circle of Hell is opened by a half-dragon. How many times will he wrap his tail around a person and he will end up in that circle of Hell.
The third circle of Hell is spiritual torment, which is more terrible than earthly ones.
In the fourth circle are the Jews and spendthrifts, whom the author has endowed with the epithet “vile.”
The fifth circle contains angry people for whom no one feels pity. Afterwards the path to the city of devils opens.
Passing through the cemetery, the path to the sixth circle of Hell opens. It is home to all the political haters, among them there are people who are burning alive.
The seventh circle of Hell is the most terrible. There are several stages in it. Murderers, rapists and suicides suffer there.
The eighth circle is deceivers and the ninth is traitors.
With each lap, Dante opens up and becomes more realistic, rough and reasonable.
We see a significant difference in the depiction of Paradise. It is fragrant, the music of the spheres sounds in it.
Summing up the analysis of Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” it is worth noting that the poem is filled with allegories that allow us to call the work symbolic, biographical, and philosophical.
“The Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri is one of the most famous works of world literature. It was written at the beginning of the 14th century, but people still read it and try to understand the meaning that the famous native of Florence put into it.
I will try to tell you how I understood the first song of the Comedy. The first song is introductory. And, in my opinion, it is the most autobiographical in the entire poem. Like the entire poem, it tells in symbolic images about various events in the real and spiritual life of Dante himself.
Dante's wanderings through the afterlife begin in a dense forest, when the poet himself is already about 35 years old; Around 1300 Dante began to write his great work:
Having completed half my earthly life,
I found myself in a dark forest...
After the death of Beatrice in 1290, whom Dante loved all his life, he, in his figurative expression, became lost, “having lost the right path in the darkness of the valley.” The beginning of the 1300s, when Dante began writing his Comedy, is also associated with political unrest in Florence, as a result of which the poet, who held a high position in the Florentine Republic, was convicted and expelled from his beloved homeland. These years are so difficult for Dante that he does not want to talk about them in detail:
I don’t remember how I got there...
Dante saw a high hill in the middle of the forest and, after resting a little, went there, seeking salvation. After all, from above you can see where to go. And any height brings a person closer to God, that is, to salvation:
When I gave my body a break,
I went up...
But three terrible wild animals prevent Dante from escaping from the “wild, dense and threatening forest”: a lynx, a lion and a wolf. Dante's poem is still more symbolic than realistic. These animals symbolize three human vices that were fully characteristic of Dante himself:
... Agile and curly lynx,
All in bright spots of a motley pattern...
This is the description of the lynx, “an animal with whimsical fur,” which symbolizes lust, the desire to satisfy sexual desire. For Dante, this is a terrible sin, because his beloved Beatrice died, but he could not resist and courted other women. The poet is saved from this sin by “Divine Love”, which manifested itself as the rising sun:
It was early, and the sun was clear in the firmament
Accompanied by the same stars again,
What is the first time when their host is beautiful
Divine Love moved.
Trusting the happy hour and time,
The blood in my heart was no longer so tight
At the sight of an animal with whimsical fur...
Pride, arrogance and love of money and power are much more terrible sins for Dante. They are symbolized by a lion and a she-wolf:
A lion with his mane raised came out to meet him.
It was as if he was stepping on me,
Growling with hunger and becoming furious
And the very air is filled with fear.
And with him a she-wolf, whose thin body
It seemed that he carried all the greed within himself...
Terrible beasts-sins push Dante to the abyss, to the death of his soul. But Beatrice protects Dante throughout his life. And after death, her “most worthy soul” becomes an angel and does not leave Dante in his wanderings on earth. Beatrice, seeing the suffering of the poet, sends to him the help of Virgil, the famous Roman poet, who:
...entrusted with chants,
How the son of Anchises sailed into the sunset
From proud Troy, dedicated to burning.
Dante's contemporaries revered Virgil, and for the poet himself he was “a teacher, a beloved example”:
You are my teacher, my beloved example;
You alone gave me my inheritance
A wonderful style, praised everywhere.
It is Virgil who will protect Dante on his travels through the world of the dead:
Follow me and to the eternal villages
I will bring you from these places,
And you will hear screams of frenzy
And the ancient spirits in distress there,
Vain prayers for a new death...
There are many versions of why Dante chose Virgil as his guide. For example, the reason, perhaps, was that Virgil described in his “Aeneid” the wanderings of the hero Aeneas through the underground kingdom of the dead. It seems to me that this is not the only reason. After all, Odysseus’s wanderings through Hades were also described by Homer, who was always a very revered poet. But Virgil is also Dante’s fellow countryman, a Roman, and therefore an ancestor of the Italians:
I am bringing down my family from the Lombards,
And Mantua was their dear land...
The Divine Comedy, Dante's crowning work, began to emerge when the great poet had just experienced his exile from Florence. "Hell" was conceived around 1307 and was created over the course of three years wanderings. This was followed by the composition “Purgatory,” in which Beatrice occupied a special place (the poet’s entire work is dedicated to her).
And in recent years life of the creator, when Dante lived in Verona and Ravenna, “Paradise” was written. The plot basis of the vision poem was the afterlife journey - a favorite motif of medieval literature, which received its artistic transformation under the pen of Dante.
Once upon a time, the ancient Roman poet Virgil depicted the descent of the mythological 3ney into the underworld, and now Dante takes the author of the famous “Aeneid” as his guide through hell and purgatory. The poem is called a “comedy”, and unlike the tragedy, it begins anxiously and gloomily, but ends with a happy ending.
In one of the songs of “Paradise,” Dante called his creation a “sacred poem,” and after the death of its author, descendants gave it the name “Divine Comedy.”
In this article we will not outline the content of the poem, but will dwell on some features of its artistic originality and poetics.
It is written in terzas, that is, three-line stanzas in which the first verse rhymes with the third, and the second with the first and third lines of the next terza. The poet relies on Christian eschatology and the doctrine of hell and heaven, but with his creation he significantly enriches these ideas.
In collaboration with Virgil, Dante steps beyond the threshold of a deep abyss, above the gates of which he reads the ominous inscription: “Abandon hope, all who enter here.” But despite this grim warning, the satellites continue their march. They will soon be surrounded by crowds of shadows, which will be especially interesting for Dante, since they were once people. And for a creator born of a new time, man is the most fascinating object of knowledge.
Having crossed the hellish river Acheron in Heron's boat, the companions end up in Limbo, where the shadows of the great pagan poets count Dante among their circle, declaring him sixth after Homer, Virgil, Horace, Ovid and Lucan.
One of the remarkable features of the poetics of a great creation is the rare recreation of artistic space, and within its limits, the poetic landscape, that component which, before Dante, European literature didn't exist. Under the pen of the creator of The Divine Comedy, the forest, the swampy steppe, the icy lake, and steep cliffs were recreated.
Dante's landscapes are characterized, firstly, by bright depiction, secondly, permeation with light, thirdly, their lyrical coloring, and fourthly, natural variability.
If we compare the description of the forest in “Hell” and “Purgatory”, we will see how the terrible, frightening picture of it in the first songs is replaced by a joyful, bright image, permeated with the green of the trees and the blue of the air. The landscape in the poem is extremely laconic: “The day was passing, And the dark air of the sky / The earthly creatures were led to sleep.” He reminds me a lot earthly pictures, which is facilitated by detailed comparisons:
Like a peasant, resting on a hill, -
When he hides his gaze for a while
The one by whom the earthly country is illuminated,
and mosquitoes, replacing flies, circle, -
Sees the valley full of fireflies
Where he reaps, where he cuts grapes.
This landscape is usually inhabited by people, shadows, animals or insects, as in this example.
Another significant component in Dante is the portrait. Thanks to the portrait, people or their shadows turn out to be alive, colorful, vividly conveyed, and full of drama. We see the faces and figures of giants sitting chained in stone wells, we peer into the facial expressions, gestures and movements of former people who came to the afterlife from the ancient world; we contemplate and mythological characters, and Dante's contemporaries from his native Florence.
The portraits sketched by the poet are distinguished by their plasticity, which means they are tactile. Here is one of the memorable images:
He carried me to Minos, who, entwining me
The tail eight times around the mighty back,
Even biting him out of anger,
Said …
The spiritual movement reflected in the self-portrait of Dante himself is also distinguished by great expressiveness and vital truth:
So I rose up, with the courage of grief;
The fear in my heart was decisively crushed,
And I answered, boldly saying...
There is less drama and dynamics in the appearance of Virgil and Beatrice, but the attitude of Dante himself towards them, who worships them and loves them passionately, is full of expression.
One of the features of the poetics of the Divine Comedy is the abundance and significance of numbers in it, which have a symbolic meaning. A symbol is a special kind of sign, which already in its external form contains the content of the representation it reveals. Like allegory and metaphor, a symbol forms a transference of meaning, but unlike these tropes, it is endowed with a huge variety of meanings.
A symbol, according to A.F. Losev, has meaning not in itself, but as an arena for the meeting of known constructions of consciousness with one or another possible object of this consciousness. The above also applies to the symbolism of numbers with their frequent repetition and variation. Researchers of literature of the Middle Ages (S.S. Mokulsky, M.N. Golenishchev-Kutuzov, N.G. Elina, G.V. Stadnikov, O.I. Fetodov, etc.) noted the huge role of number as a measure of things in the Divine Comedy » Dante. This is especially true for the numbers 3 and 9 and their derivatives.
However, when talking about these numbers, researchers usually see their meaning only in the composition, the architectonics of the poem and its stanza (three cants, 33 songs in each part, 99 songs in total, three times repetition of the word stelle, the role of the xxx song of “Purgatory” as a story about the poet's meeting with Beatrice, three-line stanzas).
Meanwhile, the entire system of images of the poem, its narration and descriptions, the disclosure of plot details and detailing, style and language are subordinated to mystical symbolism, in particular the trinity.
The trinity is revealed in the episode of Dante’s ascent to the hill of salvation, where he is prevented by three animals (the lynx is a symbol of voluptuousness; the lion is a symbol of power and pride; the she-wolf is the embodiment of greed and selfishness), while depicting the Limbo of Hell, where beings of three kinds reside (the souls of the Old Testament righteous , the souls of infants who died without baptism, and the souls of all virtuous non-Christians).
Next we see three famous Trojans (Electra, Hector and Aeneas), a three-headed monster - Cerberus (having the features of a demon, a dog and a man). Lower Hell, consisting of three circles, is inhabited by three furies (Tisiphone, Megaera and Electo), three gorgon sisters. 3 Here three ledges are shown - steps representing three vices (malice, violence and deception). The seventh circle is divided into three concentric zones: they are notable for their reproduction of three forms of violence.
In the next song, we, together with Dante, notice how “three shadows suddenly separated”: these are three Florentine sinners who “all three ran in a ring” when they found themselves on fire. Next, the poets see three instigators of bloody strife, the three-body and three-headed Geryon and the three-peaked Lucifer, from whose mouth three traitors (Judas, Brutus and Cassius) stick out. Even individual objects in Dante's world contain the number 3.
So, in one of the three coats of arms there are three black goats, in the florins there are 3 carats of copper mixed in. The tripartite pattern is observed even in the syntax of the phrase (“Hecuba, in grief, in distress, in captivity”).
We see a similar trinity in “Purgatory”, where the angels have three lights (wings, clothes and faces). Three holy virtues are mentioned here (Faith, Hope, Love), three stars, three bas-reliefs, three artists (Franco, Cimabue and Giotto), three types of love, three eyes of Wisdom, which looks at the past, present and future with them.
A similar phenomenon is observed in “Paradise”, where three virgins (Mary, Rachel and Beatrice) sit in the amphitheater, forming a geometric triangle. The second song tells of three blessed wives (including Lucia) and speaks of three eternal creatures
(heaven, earth and angels).
Three generals of Rome are mentioned here, the victory of Scipio Africanus over Hannibal at the age of 33, the battle of “three against three” (three Horatii against three Curiatii), the third (after Caesar) Caesar, three angelic ranks, three lilies in the coat of arms of the French dynasty.
The named number becomes one of the complex adjective definitions (“triple-shaped” fruit,” “triune God”) and is included in the structure of metaphors and comparisons.
What explains this trinity? Firstly, the teaching of the Catholic Church about the existence of three forms of other existence (hell, purgatory and heaven). Secondly, the symbolization of the Trinity (with its three hypostases), the most important Christian teaching. Thirdly, the influence of the chapter of the Templar Order, where numerical symbolism was of paramount importance, had an impact. Fourthly, as the philosopher and mathematician P.A. Florensky showed in his works “The Pillar and Statement of Truth” and “Imaginary in Geometry”, trinity is the most general characteristic of being.
The number “three,” the thinker wrote. manifests itself everywhere as some basic category of life and thinking. These are, for example, the three main categories of time (past, present and future), the three-dimensionality of space, the presence of three grammatical persons, the minimum size of a complete family (father, mother and child), (thesis, antithesis and synthesis), the three main coordinates of the human psyche (mind , will and feelings), the simplest expression of asymmetry in integers (3 = 2 + 1).
There are three phases of development in a person’s life (childhood, adolescence and adolescence or youth, maturity and old age). Let us also recall the aesthetic pattern that encourages creators to create a triptych, a trilogy, three portals in a Gothic cathedral (for example, Notre Dame in Paris), build three tiers on the facade (ibid.), three parts of an arcade, divide the walls of the naves into three parts, etc. d. Dante took all this into account when creating his model of the universe in the poem.
But in the “Divine Comedy” we find subordination not only to the number 3, but also to the number 7, another magical symbol in Christianity. Let us remember that the duration of Dante’s unusual journey is 7 days, they begin on the 7th and end on April 14 (14 = 7+7). Canto IV remembers Jacob serving Laban for 7 years and then another 7 years.
In the thirteenth song of “Hell,” Minos sends the soul to the “seventh abyss.” Song XIV mentions 7 kings who besieged Thebes, and song XX mentions Tiriseus, who experienced the transformation into a woman and then, after 7 years, the reverse metamorphosis from woman to man.
The week is most thoroughly reproduced in “Purgatory,” where 7 circles (“seven kingdoms”) and seven stripes are shown; here it talks about seven deadly sins (seven “R” on the forehead of the hero of the poem), seven choirs, seven sons and seven daughters of Niobe; a mystical procession with seven lamps is reproduced, 7 virtues are characterized.
And in “Paradise” the seventh radiance of the planet Saturn, the seven star of the Big Dipper, is conveyed; speaks of the seven heavens of the planets (Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) in accordance with the cosmogonic concepts of the era.
This preference for the week is explained by the prevailing ideas in Dante’s time about the presence of seven deadly sins (pride, envy, anger, despondency, avarice, gluttony and voluptuousness), about the desire for seven virtues, which are acquired through purification in the corresponding part of the afterlife.
Life observations of the seven colors of the rainbow and the seven stars of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the seven days of the week, etc. also had an impact.
Played an important role biblical stories, associated with the seven days of the creation of the world, Christian legends, for example, about the seven sleeping youths, ancient stories about the seven wonders of the world, seven wise men, seven cities arguing for the honor of being the birthplace of Homer, about seven fighting against Thebes. Images had an impact on consciousness and thinking
ancient folklore, numerous tales about seven heroes, proverbs such as “seven troubles - one answer”, “there is room for seven, but cramped space for two”, sayings like “seven spans in the forehead”, “sipping jelly seven miles away”, “a book with seven seals” ", "seven sweats came off."
All this is reflected in literary works. For comparison, let’s take later examples: playing with the number “seven”. In “The Legend of Ulenspiege” by S. de Coster and especially in Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” (with its seven wanderers,
seven eagle owls, seven big trees etc.). We find a similar effect in the presentation of the magic and symbolism of the number 7 in the Divine Comedy.
The number 9 also acquires a symbolic meaning in the poem. After all, this is the number of the celestial spheres. In addition, at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, there was a cult of nine fearless ones: Hector, Caesar, Alexander, Joshua, David, Judah Maccabee, Arthur, Charlemagne and Godfrey of Bouillon.
It is not at all accidental that there are 99 songs in the poem, before the pinnacle xxx song “Purgatory” there are 63 songs (6+3=9), and after it there are 36 songs (3+6=9). It is curious that the name Beatrice is mentioned 63 times in the poem. The addition of these two numbers (6+3) also forms 9. And this special name - Beatrice - rhymes 9 times. It is noteworthy that V. Favorsky, when creating a portrait of Dante, placed a huge number 9 above his manuscript, thereby emphasizing its symbolic and magical role in the “New Life” and “The Divine Comedy”.
As a result, numerical symbolism helps to consolidate the framework of the “Divine Comedy” with its multi-layered and multi-populated nature.
It contributes to the birth of poetic “discipline” and harmony, forms a rigid “mathematical structure”, saturated with the brightest imagery, ethical richness and deep philosophical meaning.
Dante's immortal creation amazes with its very frequently encountered metaphors. Their abundance is closely related to the peculiarities of the poet’s worldview and artistic thinking.
Starting from the concept of the Universe, which was based on the Ptolemaic system, from Christian eschatology and ideas about hell, purgatory and paradise, pushing the tragic darkness and bright light afterlife kingdoms, Dante had to broadly and at the same time succinctly recreate worlds full of acute contradictions, contrasts and antinomies, containing a grandiose encyclopedic knowledge, their comparisons, connections and their synthesis. Therefore, movements, transfers and rapprochements of compared objects and phenomena became natural and logical in the poetics of “comedy”.
To solve the problems, the best approach was a metaphor, connecting the concreteness of reality and the poetic fantasy of man, bringing together the phenomena of the cosmic world, nature, the objective world and the spiritual life of man by similarity and relatedness to each other. This is why the language of the poem is so powerfully based on metaphorization, which contributes to the knowledge of life.
The metaphors in the text of the three cantikas are unusually diverse. Being poetic tropes, they often carry a significant philosophical meaning, such as “a hemisphere of darkness” and “enmity rages” (in “Hell”), “pleasure rings”, “souls rise” (in “Purgatory”) or “the morning is on fire " and "the song rang" (in "Paradise"). These metaphors combine different semantic plans, but at the same time each of them creates a single indissoluble image.
Showing the afterlife as a frequently encountered plot in medieval literature, using theological dogma and conversational style as necessary, Dante sometimes introduces commonly used linguistic metaphors into his text
(“the heart is warmed”, “his eyes are fixed”, “Mars is burning”, “the thirst to speak”, “the waves are beating”, “a golden ray”, “the day has passed”, etc.).
But much more often the author uses poetic metaphors, characterized by novelty and great expression, so essential in the poem. They reflect the variety of fresh impressions of the “first poet of the New Age” and are designed to awaken the recreative and creative imagination of readers.
These are the phrases “the depth howls”, “crying hit me”, “a roar broke in” (in “Hell”), “the firmament rejoices”, “the smile of the rays” (in “Purgatory”), “I want to ask for light”, “the labor of nature "(in "Paradise").
True, sometimes we encounter an amazing combination of old ideas and new views. In the juxtaposition of two judgments (“art... God’s grandson” and “art... follows nature”) we are faced with a paradoxical combination of traditional reference to the Divine principle and the interweaving of truths, previously learned and newly discovered, characteristic of “comedy”.
But it is important to emphasize that the above metaphors are distinguished by their ability to enrich concepts, enliven the text, compare similar phenomena, transfer names by analogy, contrast the direct and figurative meanings of the same word (“crying”, “smile”, “art”), identify the main, permanent feature of the characterized object.
In Dante’s metaphor, as in comparison, features (“overle” and “picks”) are compared or contrasted, but comparative connectives (conjunctions “as,” “as if,” “as if”) are absent in it. Instead of a binary comparison, a single, tightly fused image appears (“the light is silent,” “screams fly up,” “the prayer of the eyes,” “the sea beats,” “enter my chest,” “running in four circles”).
The metaphors found in the “Divine Comedy” can be divided into three main groups depending on the nature of the relationship between cosmic and natural objects and living beings. The first group includes personifying metaphors, in which cosmic and natural phenomena, objects and abstract concepts are likened to the properties of animate beings.
These are Dante’s “a friendly spring ran,” “earthly flesh called,” “the sun will show,” “vanity will turn away,” “the sun lights up.” etc. The second group should include metaphors (for the author of the “comedy” these are “splashing hands”, “towers in formation”, “mountain shoulders”, “Virgil is a bottomless spring”, “beacon of love”, “sign of embarrassment”, “fetters”) evil").
In these cases, the properties of living beings are likened natural phenomena or objects. The third group consists of metaphors that unite multidirectional comparisons (“the face of truth”, “words bring help”, “the light shone through”, “a wave of hair”, “the thought will disappear”, “the evening has fallen”, “the distances are on fire”, etc.).
It is important for the reader to see that in the phrases of all groups there is often an author’s assessment, which allows one to see Dante’s attitude to the phenomena he captures. Everything that has to do with truth, freedom, honor, light, he certainly welcomes and approves (“he will taste honor”, “the shine has grown wonderfully”, “the light of truth”).
The metaphors of the author of the “Divine Comedy” convey various properties of the captured objects and phenomena: their shape (“the circle lies at the top”), color (“accumulated color,” “black air torments”), sounds (“a roar burst in,” “the chant will rise,” “the rays are silent”) the location of parts (“into the depths of my slumber”, “the heel of the cliff”) lighting (“the dawn has overcome”, “the gaze of the luminaries”, “the light calms the firmament”), the action of an object or phenomena (“the lamp rises”, “ the mind soars", "the story flows").
Dante uses metaphors of different designs and composition: simple, consisting of one word (“petrified”); forming phrases (the one who moves the universe, “a flame that fell from the clouds”): expanded (metaphor of the forest in the first song of “Hell”).
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Dante Alighieri
Divine Comedy
Hell
Translated from the Italian size of the original
Dmitry Min.
Preface
More than ten years have passed since I first decided to try my hand at translation. Divina Commedia Danta Alighieri. At first I had no intention of translating it completely; but only in the form of experience did he translate into Russian those passages that, when reading the immortal poem, most struck me with their greatness. Little by little, however, as you study Divina Commedia, and feeling that I was able to overcome, at least in part, one of the most important obstacles in a difficult task - the size of the original, within two years I managed to complete the translation of the first part of Dante's Poem - Inferno. More than anyone aware of the weakness of my work, I hid it under a bushel for a long time, until finally the encouraging judgments of my friends, to whom I read excerpts from my translation, and the even more unusually flattering review of Mr. Professor S.P. Shevyrev forced me in 1841, for the first time, presented to the public with the V song of Hell, published in the same year in Moskvityanin. After that, I published another excerpt in Sovremennik, published by Mr. Pletnev, and finally, in 1849, songs XXI and XXII in Moskvityanin.
Having made sure that my work is not completely insignificant and if it does not have any special merits, then at least it is quite close to the original, I now decide to fully present it to the judgment of lovers and connoisseurs of such a colossal creation as Divna Socialtia Danta Alighieri.
I consider it necessary to say a few words about the publication of my translation itself.
A poet like Dante, who reflected in his creation, as in a mirror, all the ideas and beliefs of his time, filled with so many relationships to all branches of the then knowledge, cannot be understood without explaining the many hints found in his poem: historical, theological, philosophical, astronomical, etc. Therefore, all the best editions of Dante's Poem, even in Italy, and especially in Germany, where the study of Dante has become almost universal, are always accompanied by a more or less multifaceted commentary. But compiling a commentary is an extremely difficult task: in addition to a deep study of the poet himself, his language, his views on the world and humanity, it requires a thorough knowledge of the history of the century, this extremely remarkable time, when a terrible struggle of ideas arose, the struggle between spiritual and secular power. Moreover, Dante is a mystical poet; The main idea of his poem is understood and explained differently by different commentators and translators.
Not having so much extensive information, having not studied the poet to such depth, I in no way take upon myself the responsibility, passing on a weak copy from the immortal original, to be at the same time his interpreter. I will limit myself to adding only those explanations without which the non-connoisseur reader is unable to understand a highly original creation, and, consequently, is unable to enjoy its beauties. These explanations will consist mostly of historical, geographical and some other indications related to the science of that time, especially astronomy, physics and natural history. My main leaders in this matter will be German translators and interpreters: Karl Witte, Wagner, Kannegiesser and especially Kopish and Philalethes (Prince John of Saxony). Where necessary, I will quote from the Bible, comparing them with the Vulgate - the source from which Dante drew so abundantly. As for the mysticism of Dante's Poem, I will give, as briefly as possible, only those explanations that are most accepted, without going into any of my own assumptions.
Finally, most of the publications and translations of Dante are usually preceded by the life of the poet and the history of his time. No matter how important these aids are for a clear understanding of the wonderfully mysterious creation, I cannot currently add them to the publication of my translation; however, I would not refuse this work if the interest aroused by my translation required it from me.
I consider myself quite happy if my translation, no matter how colorless it is in front of the unattainable beauties of the original, will retain so much of its greatness that in the reader who did not enjoy the beauties Divina Commedia in the original, will arouse the desire to study it in the original. Studying Dante for people who love and comprehend the graceful and great gives the same pleasure as reading other poets of genius: Homer, Aeschylus, Shakespeare and Goethe.
I leave it to people who are more knowledgeable than me to judge whether I was able to retain in my translation even a faint spark of that divine fire with which the gigantic building is illuminated - that poem that Philalethes so successfully compared with a Gothic cathedral, fantastically bizarre in detail, marvelously beautiful, majestic and solemn overall. I am not afraid of the strict verdict of learned criticism, who amused myself with the thought that I was the first to decide to translate a part of the immortal creation into the Russian language, so capable of reproducing everything great. But horrified by the thought that with a daring feat I offended the poet’s shadow, I address her in his own words:
Vagliami "l lungo studio e "l grande amore,
Che m"han fatto cercar lo tuo volume.
Inf. Cant I, 83–84.
Canto I
Content. Having turned away from the straight road in deep sleep, Dante awakens in a dark forest, with the faint flickering of the moon he goes further and, before the day dawn, reaches the base of a hill, the top of which is illuminated rising sun. Having rested from fatigue, the poet ascends the hill; but three monsters - a Leopard with a motley skin, a hungry Lion and a skinny Wolf - block his way. The latter frightens Dante so much that he is ready to return to the forest, when Virgil’s shadow suddenly appears. Dante begs her for help. Virgil, to console him, predicts that the She-Wolf, who frightened him there, will soon die from the Dog, and, to lead him out of the dark forest, offers herself to him as a guide on his journey through Hell and Purgatory, adding that if he wishes to ascend later to Heaven, he will find a counselor who is a hundred times more worthy of him. Dante accepts his offer and follows him.
1. In the middle of our life's path, 1
According to the monk Gilarius, Dante began to write his poem in Latin. The first three verses were as follows:
Ultima regna canam, fluido contermina mundo, Spiritibus quae lata patent, quae praemia solvuut Pro meritis cuicunque suis (data lege tonantis). - “In dimidio dierum meorum vadam adportas infori.” Vulgat. Biblia.
In the middle of the and. roads, i.e., at the 35th year of life, an age that Dante in his Convito calls the pinnacle of human life. By all accounts, Dante was born in 1265: therefore, he was 35 years old in 1300; but, moreover, from the XXI canto of Hell it is clear that Dante assumes the beginning of his pilgrimage in 1300, during the jubilee declared by Pope Boniface VIII, on Holy Week on Good Friday - the year in which he was 35 years old, although his poem was written much later; therefore, all incidents that happened later than this year are given as predictions.
Overwhelmed by sleep, I entered the dark forest, 2
Dark forest according to the usual interpretation of almost all commentators, means human life in general, and in relation to the poet - his own life in particular, that is, a life filled with delusions and overwhelmed by passions. Others, by the name of the forest, mean the political state of Florence at that time (which Dante calls trista selva, Clean XIV, 64), and, combining all the symbols of this mystical song into one, give it political meaning. For example: as Count Perticari (Apolog. di Dante. Vol. II, p. 2: fec. 38: 386 della Proposta) explains this song: in 1300, in the 35th year of his life, Dante, elected prior of Florence, was soon convinced of the troubles , intrigues and frenzies of parties, that the true path to the public good is lost, and that he himself is in dark forest disasters and exiles. When he tried to climb hills, the pinnacle of state happiness, he was presented with insurmountable obstacles from his native city (Leopard with a motley skin), pride and ambition of the French king Philip the Fair and his brother Charles of Valois (Leo) and the self-interest and ambitious plans of Pope Boniface VIII (She-wolf). Then, indulging in his poetic passion and placing all his hope in the military talents of Charlemagne, Lord of Verona ( Dog), he wrote his poem, where, with the assistance of spiritual contemplation (donna gentile) heavenly enlightenment (Luchia) and theology ( Beatrice), guided by reason, human wisdom, personified in poetry (Virgil), he goes through places of punishment, purification and reward, thus punishing vices, consoling and correcting weaknesses and rewarding virtue by immersion in the contemplation of the highest good. From this it is clear that the ultimate goal of the poem is to call a vicious nation, torn apart by strife, to political, moral and religious unity.
The true path is lost in the hour of alarm.4. Ah! it's hard to say how scary it was
This forest, so wild, so dense and fierce, 3
Fierce – an epithet not peculiar to the forest; but just as the forest has a mystical meaning here and means, according to some, human life, and according to others, Florence, agitated by the discord of parties, then this expression, I think, will not seem entirely inappropriate.
That in his thoughts he renewed my fear. 4
Dante escaped this life, full of passions and delusions, especially the discord of the party, into which he had to plunge as the ruler of Florence; but this life was so terrible that the memory of it again gives birth to horror in him.7. And death is only a little more bitter than this turmoil! 5
In the original: “It (the forest) is so bitter that death is a little more painful.” – The eternally bitter world (Io mondo senia fine amaro) is hell (Paradise XVII. 112). “Just as material death destroys our earthly existence, so moral death deprives us of clear consciousness, the free manifestation of our will, and therefore moral death is slightly better than material death itself.” Streckfuss.
But to talk about the goodness of heaven,
I’ll tell you everything I saw in those minutes. 6
About those visions that the poet talks about from verses 31–64.10. And I myself don’t know how I entered the forest:
I fell into such a deep sleep 7
Dream means, on the one hand, human weakness, darkening of the inner light, lack of self-knowledge, in a word - sleep of the spirit; on the other hand, sleep is a transition to the spiritual world (See Ada III, 136).
At that moment when the true path disappeared.13. When I woke up near the hill, 8
Hill, according to the explanation of most commentators, it means virtue, according to others, ascent to the highest good. In the original, Dante awakens at the foot of a hill; base of the hill- the beginning of salvation, that minute when a saving doubt arises in our soul, the fatal thought that the path along which we have followed until this moment is false.
Where is the limit of that vale? 9
The limits of the vale. The vale is a temporary area of life, which we usually call the vale of tears and disasters. From the XX Song of Hell, Art. 127–130, it is clear that in this vale the flickering of the month served as the poet’s guiding light. The month signifies the faint light of human wisdom. You save.
In which horror entered my heart, -16. I looked up and saw the head of the hill
In the rays of the planet that is on the straight road 10
The planet that leads people on a straight path is the sun, which, according to the Ptolemaic system, belongs to the planets. The sun here has not only the meaning of a material luminary, but, in contrast to the month (philosophy), it is complete, direct knowledge, divine inspiration. You save.
Leads people to accomplish good deeds.19. Then my fear, so much, fell silent for a while.
Over the sea of hearts raging into the night,
Which proceeded with so much anxiety. 11
Even a glimpse of divine knowledge is already able to reduce in us partly the false fear of the earthly vale; but it completely disappears only when we are completely filled with the fear of the Lord, like Beatrice (Ada II, 82–93). You save.22. And how, having managed to overcome the storm,
Stepping barely breathing onto the shore from the sea,
WITH dangerous waves does not take his eyes off:25. So I, still arguing with fear in my soul,
He looked back and fixed his gaze there, 12
That is, he looked into the dark forest and this vale of disasters, in which to remain means to die morally.
Where no one alive walked without grief.28. And having rested in the desert from labor,
I went again, and my stronghold is strong
It was always in the lower leg. 13
When climbing, the leg on which we rely is always lower. “Ascending from the lower to the higher, we move forward slowly, only step by step, only then, as we firmly and truly stand on the lower: spiritual ascent is subject to the same laws as physical.” Streckfuss.31. And now, almost at the beginning of the steep mountain,
Covered with motley skin, circling,
Leopard rushes both light and agile. 14
Leopard (uncia, leuncia, lynx, catus pardus Oken), according to the interpretation of ancient commentators, means voluptuousness, Leo - pride or lust for power, She-Wolf - self-interest and stinginess; others, especially the newest ones, see Florence and the Guelphs in Leo, France and especially Charles Valois in Leo, the Pope or the Roman Curia in She-Wolf, and, according to this, give the entire first song a purely political meaning. According to Kannegiesser's explanation, Leopard, Leo and She-Wolf mean three degrees of sensuality, moral corruption of people: Leopard is awakening sensuality, as indicated by its speed and agility, motley skin and persistence; The lion is a sensuality that has already awakened, prevailing and not hidden, demanding satisfaction: therefore he is depicted with a majestic (in the original: raised) head, hungry, angry to the point that the air around him shudders; finally, the She-Wolf is the image of those who have completely given themselves over to sin, which is why it is said that she has already been the poison of life for many, and therefore she completely deprives Dante of peace and constantly drives him more and more into the vale of moral death.34. The monster did not run away from sight;
But before that my path was blocked,
I thought about escaping downstairs more than once.
37. The day was already dawning, and the sun was setting out on its journey
With a crowd of stars, as in the moment when it
Suddenly I felt a sense of divine love40. Your first move, illuminated with beauty; 15
In this terzina the time of the poet’s journey is determined. It, as stated above, began on Good Friday in Holy Week, or March 25: therefore, around the spring equinox. However, Philalethes, based on the XXI canto of Hell, believes that Dante began his journey on April 4. – Divine love, according to Dante, there is a reason for the movement of celestial bodies. – A crowd of stars denotes the constellation Aries, into which the sun enters at this time.
And everything flattered me with hope then:
Animal luxurious fleece,43. The hour of morning and the young star. 16
The poet, enlivened by the radiance of the sun and the season (spring), hopes to kill Leopard and steal his motley skin. If Bars means Florence, then the calm state of this city in the spring of 1300, when the White and Black parties were in apparently perfect agreement with each other, could indeed give rise to some hope for the duration of peace in a superficial observer of events. But this calm was only apparent.
But again fear awakened in my heart
The ferocious Lion, appearing with proud strength. 17
As a symbol of France, which “darkens the entire Christian world” (Pur. XX, 44), the Lion here represents violence, a terrifying material force.46. He seemed to come out to me,
Hungry, angry, with a majestic head,
And, it seemed, the air was trembling.49. He walked with the She-Wolf, lean and crafty, 18
Dante turned the wolf of Scripture into a she-wolf (lupa) and even more harshly outlined the greed of the Roman Curia (if it should be understood under the name She-Wolf), for lupa in Latin has another meaning. Dante's entire poem is directed against the Roman Curia (Ada VII, 33 et seq., XIX, 1–6 and 90-117, XXVII, 70 et seq.; Pur. XVI, 100 et seq., XIX, 97 et seq., XXXII , 103–160; Raya IX, 125, etc., XII, 88, etc., XV, 142, XVII, 50, etc., XVIII, 118–136, XXI, 125–142, XXII, 76, etc. , XXVII, 19 126).
What, in thinness is full of everyone’s desires,
For many, this life was poison.52. She was such a hindrance to me,
What, frightened by the stern appearance,
I was losing hope of going up.55. And like a miser, always ready to save,
When the terrible hour of loss comes,
Sad and crying with every new thought:58. So the beast in me shook the calm,
And, coming to meet me, he drove all the time
Me to the land where the sun's ray has faded.61. While I was falling headlong into terrible darkness,
An unexpected friend appeared before my eyes,
From long silence, speechless. 19
Mute, in the original: fioco hoarse. This is a clever hint at the indifference of Dante's contemporaries to the study of Virgil's works.64. “Have mercy on me!” I suddenly cried out 20
In the original: Miserere de me, and there is an appeal not to Virgil alone, but also to divine goodness. At the foot of Mount Purgatory, the souls of those violently killed sing the same thing. (Pure V, 24.)
When I saw him in a deserted field,
“O whoever you are: a man or a spirit?”67. And he: “I am a spirit, I am no longer a man;
I had Lombard parents, 21
68. Virgil was born in the town of Andes, the present village of Bande, otherwise Pietola, near Mantua, on the Mincio. His father, according to some reports, was a farmer, according to others, a potter.
But in Mantua those born into poverty.70. Sub Julio I saw the light late 22
He was born in 684 AD. Rama, 70 years BC, under the consuls M. Licinius Crassus and Prince. Pompey the Great, on the Ides of October, which, according to the current calendar, corresponds to October 15. – Virgil, poet of the Roman Empire (princeps poetarum), saying that he was born under Julius Caesar, wants to glorify his name: Dante looks at Caesar as a representative of the Roman Empire; those who betrayed Caesar, Brutus and Cassius, are punished by him with cruel execution (Ada XXXXV, 55–67). – Sub Julio there is one of those Latin expressions, of which there are so many found in Dante’s poem, according to the general custom of not only poets and prose writers of that time.
And in Rome he lived in the happy age of Augustus;
In the days of the gods I became numb in false faith. 23
With these words, Virgil seems to want to justify himself in his paganism.73. I was a poet, and I sang the truthful
Ankhiz's son, who built a new city,
When the arrogant Ilion was burned.76. But why are you running back into this darkness?
Why are you not in a hurry to the joyful mountains,
To the beginning and cause of all joy? 24
Virgil asks why Dante, being a Christian, did not rush to the true path leading to a happy mountain or hill? - Dante, without answering him to this, pours out animated praise to the poet. This seems to express the desire of the poet, who has experienced the sorrows of life, to find solace in poetry.79. – “Oh, are you Virgil, that stream that
The waves of words roll like a wide river?”
I answered, bowing my eyes shyly. 25
Virgil in the Middle Ages was in great respect: the common people looked at him as a sorcerer and soothsayer, enthusiasts as a semi-Christian, the reason for which, in addition to his fame, passed down from antiquity, was his famous fourth eclogue. He was the favorite poet of Dante, who taught him for a long time and valued him unusually highly, as can be seen from many places in his poem. However, Dante’s Virgil is not only his favorite poet, but also a symbol of human wisdom, knowledge, and philosophy in general, in contrast to Beatrice, who, as we will see in her place, personifies divine wisdom - Theology.82. “O wondrous light, oh the honor of other singers!
Be kind to me for my long study
And for the love for the beauty of your poems.85. You are my author, my mentor in song;
You were the one from whom I took
A wonderful style that has earned me praise. 26
That is, the style is Italian. Dante was already famous for his Vita Nuova and poems (Rime).88. Look: here is the beast, I ran before him...
Save me, O wise one, in this valley...
It’s in my veins, it stirs the blood in my heart.91. – “You must take a different path from now on,”
He answered, seeing my sorrow,
“If you don’t want to die here in the desert.94. This fierce beast that has troubled your chest,
On his way he does not let others through,
But, having stopped the path, he destroys everyone in battle.97. And he has such a harmful property,
That greed is not satisfied by anything,
Following the food, he pushes even harder.100. He is associated with many animals,
And with many more he will copulate;
But the Dog is near, before whom he will die. 27
Under the name of the Dog (in the original: greyhound - veltro) most commentators mean Cana Grande (Great) della Scala, ruler of Verona, a noble youth, a stronghold of the Ghibellines and subsequently the representative of the Emperor in Italy, on whom Dante and his party had great hopes, but who while Dante's hopes began to be realized, he died in 1329 at the age of 40. But since Kan was born in 1290, and in 1300, the year of Dante’s journey in the grave world, he was 10 years old, it must be thought that Dante inserted this prediction about him later, or completely redid the beginning of the poem. Troya(Veltro allegorlco di Dante. Fir. 1826) in this Dog they see Uguccione della Fagiola, the leader of the Canov troops, the same one to whom he dedicated his Hell (Paradise is dedicated to Can), and who even before 1300 and before 1308, when Can was still young , rebelled for the Ghibellines in Romagna and Tuscany against the Guelphs and the temporal power of the popes. Be that as it may, Dante hid with them the one who should be understood by the symbol of the Dog: perhaps the state of political affairs of that time required this.103. Not copper and earth will turn into food for the Dog, 28
Copper is used here instead of metal in general, as in the original: peltro (in Latin peltrum), a mixture of tin and silver, instead of silver or gold. The meaning is this: he will not be seduced by the acquisition of possessions (land), or wealth, but by virtue, wisdom and love.
But virtue, wisdom and love;
Between Feltro and between Feltro the Dog will be born. 29
Between Feltro and between Feltro. If we mean Cana the Great by the name of the Dog, then this verse defines his possessions: all of Marcha Trivigiana, where the city of Feltre is located, and all of Romagna, where Mount Feltre is: therefore, all of Lombardy.106. He will save Italy again for the slave, 30
In the original: umile Italia. It seems that Dante here imitated Virgil, who said in canto 3 of the Aeneid: humllemque videmus Italiam.
In whose honor the maiden Camilla died,
Turnus, Euriades and Nisus shed blood.109. The strength of the She-Wolf will rush from city to city,
Until she is imprisoned in hell,
Where did envy let her into the world? 31
"Invidia autem diaboli mors introivit in orbem terrarum." Vulg.113. So believe me, not to your detriment:
Follow me; to the fatal region,
Your leader, I will lead you from here.115. You will hear desperate, evil grief; 32
The souls of the great men of antiquity, kept, according to the concepts of the Catholic Church, on the eve of Hell or Limbo and not saved by baptism. They died in body, but desire a second death, that is, the destruction of the soul.
You will see a host of ancient souls in that country,
Those who vainly call for a second death.118. You will see the quiet ones who are on fire 33
Souls in Purgatory.
They live in hope that to the empyrean
Someday they too will ascend.121. But I don’t dare bring you into the empyrean:
There is a soul there that is a hundred times more worthy; 34
An allusion to Beatrice appearing to Dante in the earthly paradise (Pure XXX) and leading him to heaven.
When I am separated, I will leave you with her.124. Zane Monarch, whose power is like an adversary 35
In the original: Imperadore. The Emperor, as the highest judge on earth, seems to the poet the most worthy likeness of the Supreme Judge in heaven.
I did not know, now it forbids me
To bring you into His holy city. 36
God does not want human reason (Virgil) to achieve the highest heavenly bliss, which is a gift from above. You save.127. He is the King everywhere, but there He rules: 37
According to Dante, the power of God dominates everywhere, but His throne is in the highest heaven (empyrean), in which the other nine circles of heaven revolve around the earth, which, according to the Ptolemaic system, constitutes the center of the universe.
There is His city and unapproachable light;
O happy is he who enters His city!”130. And I: “I pray to you, poet,
That Lord, you did not glorify Him, -
May I avoid this and greater troubles, 38
Greater troubles, that is, hell, through which I will go.133. Lead to the land where you directed the path:
And I will ascend to the holy gates of Peter, 39
The Holy Gates of Petrov are the gates described in Pure. IX, 76. The mourners are the inhabitants of hell.
And I will see those whose sorrow you presented to me.”136. Here he went, and I followed him.
Canto II
Content. Evening is coming. Dante, calling on the muses for help, tells how at the very beginning of the journey a doubt arose in his soul: whether he had enough strength for a bold feat. Virgil reproaches Dante for his cowardice and, encouraging him to perform a feat, explains to him the reason for his coming: how, on the eve of hell, Beatrice appeared to him and how she begged him to save the dying man. Encouraged by this news, Dante accepts his first intention, and both wanderers set off on their destined path.
1. The day was passing and darkness fell in the valleys, 40
Evening of March 25, or, according to Philalethes, April 8.
Allowing everyone on earth to rest
From their labors; I'm the only one4. Prepared for battle - on a dangerous journey,
For work, for sorrow, what is the true story about?
I dare to draw from memory.7. O highest spirit, O muses, calls to you!
O genius, describe everything that I have matured,
May your proud flight appear!10. I began like this: “With all the power of my soul
Measure first, travel poet;
Then hurry with me on a brave journey. 41
The whole day passes in fluctuations of the mind; night comes and with it new doubts: the determination excited by reason has disappeared, and faith wavers. Dante asks himself: is he capable of accomplishing a brave feat?13. You said that Silvius is the parent, 42
Aeneas, the son of Venus and Anchises, the father of Silvius from Lavinia, led by the Sibyl of Cumae, descended into Tartarus (Enemda VI) in order to learn from the shadow of his father, Anchises, how he could defeat Turnus, the king of the Rutuli.
Still alive and decaying, he descended
Witness to the underground monastery.16. But if the lot decreed this for him,
Then remembering how much fame he gained
And who is this husband? How truthful was he?19. A sound mind will consider him worthy:
He was chosen in order to create
Great Rome and to be the father of the state, -22. The powers of the one where – truly speaking – * 43
To truly say - a hint that the Ghibelline spirit is prompting him to hide the truth, or to say the opposite. Lonbardi.
The Lord himself set the sacred throne
The Petrov governors should sit down.25. In this journey - you glorified him with them -
He learned the way to victory over the enemy
And he gave the tiara to the popes.28………………… …………………………..
………………… ………………………………
………………… ………………………………31. But should I go? who gave me permission?
34. And so, if I perform a daring feat,
I'm afraid he'll blame me for madness.
Sage, you will understand more clearly than I say.”37. Like someone who wants, but begins to fear,
Full of new thoughts, changing his plan,
Rejecting what I wanted to decide:40. So I languished in that dark jungle,
And, having thought it over, he threw it again,
At least he was devoted to her alone at first.43. “Since I have fully penetrated the meaning of the word,”
The shadow said to the generous one,
“Your soul is ready to experience fear.46. Fear of people takes away every day
From honest deeds, like a false ghost
It frightens the horse when a shadow falls.49. But listen - and dispel the anxious fear, -
What is my coming wine
And what the immutable lot revealed to me.52. I was with those whose lot is not complete; 44
That is, in Limbo, where the great men of antiquity are placed (see note to Hell. I, 115). – Whose fate is not complete in the original: che son sospesi. The pagans imprisoned in Limbo remain in doubt about their final fate; they are in a middle state between torment and bliss and are awaiting the Last Judgment (Ada IV, 31–45, and Pure III, 40 etc.).
There, hearing the voice of the beautiful Messenger, 45
Beautiful messenger(in the subtext donna beata e bella) - Beatrice, a symbol of divine teaching, theology (see below article 70, note). - “Divine teaching descends to the languid human mind, which once did not listen to God, so that it fulfills its true purpose - to lead man.” You save.
I asked: what will she command?55. Brighter than a star, a clear ray burned in my eyes, 46
Under the name stars here of course the sun, which is primarily called a star (Daniello, Landino, Velluteno, etc.). Heavenly wisdom in the Bible is often compared to the sun; so about her in the book. Wise VII, 39, it is said: “There is something more beautiful than the sun, and more than any arrangement of stars, the first is found equal to light.”
And in a quiet, harmonious tongue in response
She spoke like a sweet-voiced angel:58. “O Mantua, affable poet,
Whose glory filled the light far away
And it will be there as long as the light lasts! 47
The light will last. I followed here the text of the Nidobeatan manuscripts, the libraries of Corsini, Chigi, etc., which is followed by Lombardi and Wagner (Il Parnasso Ilaliano), where: quanto "I mondo (in others: moto) lontana*61. My favorite, but not the favorite of rock,
I met obstacles on the empty shore
And he runs back, frightened and cruel.64. And I am afraid: so he went astray on him,
Isn’t it too late that I came with salvation?
How in heaven there was news of this to me.67. Move forward with wise conviction
Prepare everything for his salvation:
Deliver him and be my consolation,70. I, Beatrice, beg again...... 48
Beatrice, the daughter of a wealthy Florentine citizen Folco Portinari, whom Dante, still 9 years old, met for the first time on the first day of May 1274. According to the custom of that time, the first of May was celebrated with songs, dances and festivities. Folso Portinari invited his neighbor and friend, Allighiero Allighieri, Dante's father, and his whole family to his holiday. Then, during children's games, Dante fell passionately in love with the eight-year-old daughter of Folco Portinari, however, in such a way that Beatrice never knew about his love. This is Boccaccio's story about Dante's love - a story, perhaps somewhat embellished with poetic fiction. However, Dante himself spoke about his love in sonnets and canzones (Rime) and especially in his Vita Nuova. Beatrice, who later married her husband, died in 1290 at the age of 26. Despite the fact that Dante retained the feeling of first love throughout his life, soon after Beatrice’s death he married Gemma Donati and had six sons and one daughter from her. He was not happy in his marriage and even divorced his wife. – By the symbol of Beatrice, as we have repeatedly said, Dante means theology, the favorite science of his time, a science that he studied deeply in Bologna, Padova and Paris.
………………… ………………………………
………………… ………………………………73. There, before my Lord, with compassion,
Poet, I will often boast about you.”
I fell silent here, I began with an appeal76. “O grace, by which alone
Our mortal race has surpassed all creation
Under the sky that completes a smaller circle! 49
Look at the sky that makes a circle. Here, of course, is the moon, which, belonging to the planets in the Ptolemaic system, rotates closer than all other luminaries to the earth and, therefore, makes a smaller circle (see note to Hell. I, 127). The meaning is this: man, by divine teaching, surpasses all creatures in the sublunary world.79. Your commands to me are so sweet,
That I am ready to accomplish them immediately;
Don't repeat your prayer.82. But explain: how can you descend
Without trembling into the universal middle 50
World Middle(original: in queeto centro). The earth (see note to Hell I, 127), according to Ptolemy, is located in the middle of the universe. Dante's hell is located inside the earth, as we will see below: therefore, according to his concepts, it constitutes the real center of the whole world.
From the mountainous countries, where are you going to soar? -85. – “When you want to know the reason for it,”
She advertised, “I’ll give you a short answer,
Almost without fear I will go down to you into the abyss.88. One should only fear that harm
Inflicts on us: what a fruitless fear,
How is it not fear of something in which there is no fear? 51
Only then do we not feel fear not only of earthly horrors, but also of hell, when, like Beatrice, we are imbued with divine wisdom, the fear of the Lord. (See note Ad. I, 19–21).91. Thus I was created by the goodness of the Lord,
That your sorrow does not burden me
And the flames of the underworld do not harm me. 52
Although Virgil and other virtuous pagans are not punished with any torment and although there is no hellfire in Limbo, nevertheless, Beatrice’s words are true, because Limbo is still part of hell.94 There a certain Intercessor mourns
About who I am sending you to,
And for her the cruel trial is broken. 53
Cruel judge(original: duro giudicio). The poet meant: “Judicium durissimum iis, qui praesunt, fiet” Sapient IV, 6.97. She, having raised Lucia…. 54
Lucia(from lux, light), as a martyr of the Catholic Church, is called to the aid of those who suffer from bodily eyes. This seems to have led Dante to choose her preferentially for the role she plays in his poem. She is mentioned in Pure. IX, 55, and Rae, XXVII.
Advertisement: Your faithful one is waiting for you in tears,
And from here I entrust it to you.100. And Lucia, the hard-hearted enemy,
Having moved forward, she spoke to me where forever
With ancient Rachel I will sit in the rays: 55
Rachel is a symbol of contemplative life (Pur. XVXII, 100–108), like her sister, Leah, of active life. – Dante very thoughtfully places the divine teaching (Beatrice) near Rachel, eternally immersed in the contemplation of the ineffable Good of Landino.103. “Oh Beatrice, a heartfelt hymn to the Creator!
Save the one who loved you so much
What has become alien to you to the careless crowd. 56
With his love for Beatrice Portinari, Dante rose above the crowd, on the one hand, indulging in poetry, on the other, studying theology, which Beatrice personifies.106. Do you not hear how sad his crying is?
Can't you see the death he fought?
In the river, in front of it is the ocean without strength?109. No one in the world has strived so quickly 57
Under the name rivers(in the original: fiumana, whirlpool, gurges, aquaram congeries, Vocab. della Crueca) refers to the worries of life; the storms of everyday misfortunes surpass all the turbulence of the ocean.
From destruction, or to one’s own gain,
How my flight accelerated from those words112. From the bench of the blessed to the abysses of the earth -
You gave me faith with wise words,
And honor to you and to those who listen to them!”115. Then, having told me this, with tears
Grief raised a radiant gaze,
And I flowed in the fastest steps.118. And, as desired, he arrived at that time,
When this beast stopped in a deserted field
Your short path to that beautiful mountain.121. So what? why, why does he hesitate longer?
What kind of low fear do you harbor in your heart?
What happened to courage, to good will...124. ……………………………………………………
………………… ………………………………
…………………………………………………?»127. And like flowers, in the cold of the night
Bent over, in the silver of the day's rays
They stand with their heads open on the branches:130. Thus I was raised by my valor;
Such wondrous courage poured into my chest,
What did I begin, as if I had thrown off the burden of chains:133. “Oh glory to her, giver of goodness!
O honor to you, that right words
He believed and did not slow down!136. So my heart longs for your footsteps
You kindled your journey with your wise words,
That I return to the first thought myself.139. Let's go: hope is strong in the new heart -
You are the leader, the teacher, you are my master!”
So I said, and under his cover142. Descended through a wooded path into the darkness of the abyss.
Canto III
Content. Poets come to the door of hell. Dante reads the inscription above it and is horrified; but, encouraged by Virgil, he follows him into the dark abyss. Sighs, loud cries and screams deafen Dante: he cries and learns from his leader that here, still outside the bounds of hell, the souls of insignificant people, those who did not act, and cowards, with whom the choirs of angels are mixed, are being punished in the midst of eternal darkness. who did not take the side of His adversary. Then the poets come to the first hellish river - Acheron. The gray-haired Charon, the helmsman of hell, does not want to accept Dante into his boat, saying that he will penetrate into hell in a different way, and transports a crowd of the dead to the other side of the Acheron. Then the banks of the infernal river shake, a whirlwind rises, lightning flashes and Dante falls unconscious.
1. Here I enter the mournful city to torment,
Here I enter into the eternal torment,
Here I enter the fallen generations.4. My eternal Architect has been moved by truth:
The Lord's power, the omnipotent mind
And the first loves of the Holy Spirit7. I was created before all creation,
But after the eternal, and I don’t have a century.
Abandon hope, everyone who comes here! 58
The famous inscription above the door of hell. The first three verses express the teaching of the church about the infinity of hellish torment, the fourth indicates the reason for the creation of hell - the Justice of God. The last verse expresses the hopelessness of the condemned. – There is no way to fully convey this marvelous inscription in all its gloomy grandeur; after many futile attempts, I settled on this translation as being closer to the original.10. In such words, which had a dark color,
I matured the inscription above the entrance to the execution area
And he said: “The meaning of it is cruel to me, poet!”13. And like a sage, he spoke, full of affection:
“There is no room for any doubts here,
Here let all the vanity of fear die.16. This is the land where, as I said, we will see
An unfortunate race that has lost its soul
The light of reason with the most holy good. 59
Light of the mind(in the original il ben dello "ntelletto) there is God. The wicked have lost the knowledge of God, the only good of souls.19. And took my hand with your hand*
With a calm face my spirit was encouraged
And he entered with me into the secrets of the abyss. 60
Virgil introduces Dante under the arch of the earth, which, according to the poet’s idea, covers the huge funnel-shaped abyss of hell. We will say more about the architecture of Dante's Inferno in its own place; Here we will only note that this abyss, wide at the top, gradually narrows towards the bottom. Its sides consist of ledges, or circles, completely dark and only in places illuminated by underground fire. The uppermost outskirts of hell, directly under the arch of earth that covers it, constitutes the dwelling of the insignificant ones that Dante speaks of here.22. There in the air without sun and luminaries
Sighs, cries and screams rumble in the abyss,
And I cried as soon as I entered there.25. A mixture of languages, speeches of a terrible cabal,
Gusts of anger, groans of terrible pain
And with a splash of hands, now a hoarse voice, now wild,28. They give birth to a roar, and it swirls throughout the century
In the abyss, covered with timeless darkness,
Like dust when the aquilon spins.31. And I, with my head twisted in horror, 61
With a head twisted in horror. I followed the text adopted by Wagner; (d"error la testa cinta; in other publications; d"error la testa cinta (by ignorance of the midwife).
He asked: “My teacher, what do I hear?
Who are these people, so killed by grief? -34. And he answered: “This vile execution
That sad family is punishing………………..
……………………………………………………………….62
Sad kind(in the original: l "anime triste; tristo has the meaning of sad and evil, dark), who has not deserved either blasphemy or glory in life, there is a countless crowd of insignificant people who did not act, who did not distinguish their memory with either good or evil deeds. That is why they will forever remain unnoticed even by justice itself: there is no destruction for them, there is no judgment for them, and that is why they envy every fate. How, people who did not act, who never lived, as the poet puts it, the world forgot about them; they are not worth participating; they are not even worth talking about. Eternal darkness hangs over them, as over dark forest in the first song (also coll. Ada IV, 65–66), who is their faithful representative. Just as in life they were occupied by petty worries, insignificant passions and desires, so here they are tormented by the most useless insects - flies and wasps. The blood now shed by them for the first time can only serve as food for vile worms. You save and Streckfuss.37. Those choirs of evil angels are mixed with him,
That they stood up for themselves,
……………………………………………………………….40. ………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………»43. – “Teacher,” I asked, “what is the burden
Are they being forced to complain like this?” -
And he: “I won’t waste time for them,46. The hope of death does not shine for the blind,
And blind life is so unbearable,
That each fate is enviable to them,49. Their trace in the world disappeared faster than smoke;
There is no compassion for them, the court despised them,
What do they say about them? take a look and pass by!”52. And I looked and saw the banner there:
It was soaring as it ran,
That, it seemed, rest was not his destiny. 63
Among the insignificant, Dante also places cowards, whose banner, cowardly abandoned by them in life, is now doomed to eternal flight, so fast that it seems he will never stop. – Not for him- in the original it is even stronger: Che d "ogni posa mi pareva indegna (unworthy of any peace).55. Behind him ran a line of dead so abundant,
That I could not believe that the lot would overthrow
Such a multitude in the darkness of the grave.57. And I, recognizing some there, went up
I looked and saw the shadow of the one who
Out of baseness he rejected the great gift, 64
No matter how colorless or dark the life of the people condemned here is, Dante recognizes some of them, but who exactly, he does not consider worthy to say. He especially points to the shadow of someone who has rejected a great gift. Commentators guess in her that Esau, who ceded the right of birthright to his brother Jacob; then the Emperor Diocletian, who in old age resigned his imperial dignity; then Pope Celestine V who, through the machinations of Bonaiface VIII, refused the papal tiara in favor of the latter. Finally, some see here a timid fellow citizen of Dante, Torregiano dei Cerchi, a supporter of the Whites, who did not support his party.61. I instantly understood - my eyes were convinced of that -
What is this mob……………………….
……………………………………………………………….64. A despised race that never lived,
Kicked and pale, was wounded by swarms
And the flies and wasps that flocked there.67. Blood rolled down their faces in streams,
And mixed with a stream of tears, in the dust,
At the feet, eaten by vile worms.70. And I, straining my eyesight, far away
I saw a crowd on the shore of the great
Rivers and said: “Leader, favor73. Explain to me: what does a host mean?
And what attracts him from all sides,
How can I see through the darkness in the wild valley? -76. – “You will find out about this,” he answered me,
When we reach the shore of Krutovo,
Where Acheron flooded with swamp 65
Dante places the Acheron of the ancients on the uppermost edge of the funnel-shaped abyss of hell in the form of a stagnant swamp.79. And I lowered my embarrassed gaze again 66
Throughout the poem, Dante portrays with extraordinary tenderness his attitude towards Virgil as a student to a teacher, achieving an almost dramatic effect.
And, so as not to offend the leader, to the shores
I walked along the river without saying a word.82. And now the boat is rowing towards us
A stern old man with ancient hair, 67
The old man is stern– Charon, to whom Dante in Art. 109 gives the appearance of a demon with wheels of fire around his eyes. We will see below that Dante turned many mythical figures of antiquity into demons: this is exactly what the monks of the Middle Ages did with the ancient gods. Mythological figures in Dante's Poem mostly have a deep allegorical meaning, or serve a technical purpose, giving plastic roundness to the whole. However, the habit of mixing pagan with Christian was common in medieval art: the exterior of Gothic churches was often decorated with mythological figures. – Charon in Last Judgment Michele Angelo wrote based on Dante's idea. Ampere.
Shouting: “Oh woe, you evil ones, woe to you!85. Here say goodbye to heaven forever:
I'm going to throw you over the edge
Into eternal darkness and into heat and cold with ice. 68
Darkness, heat and cold characterize the general outline And correct sequence three main sections of hell, in which ice is located on the very two. (Ada XXXIV).88. And you, living soul, in this order,
Part with this dead crowd!
But seeing that I was standing motionless:91. “In another way,” he said, “in another wave,
Not here, you will penetrate into the sad land:
The lightest boat will rush you like an arrow. 69
Dante is not a light shadow like other souls, and therefore the weight of his body would be too burdensome for the light boat of shadows.94. And the leader said to him: “Harom, do not forbid!
So there want where every wish is
There is a law: old man, don’t ask! 70
That is, in the sky. With these same words, Virgil tames the wrath of Minos, the infernal judge (Ada V, 22–24).97. The swaying of the shaggy cheeks has died down here 71
A plastically faithful image of a toothless old man who, when he speaks, makes his cheeks and beard move violently.
At the helmsman, but the wheels of fire
The sparkle around the eyes intensified.100. There is a host of shadows, agitated chaos, 72
These are the souls of other sinners who do not belong to the host of insignificant ones and must hear a sentence from Minos, according to which they will take their places in hell.
His face became confused, his teeth chattered,
As soon as Charon pronounced the menacing judgment, 73
Charon's words plunge sinners into horror and despair. Their state at this decisive moment is presented in an inimitably terrible way.103. And he cursed his parents with blasphemies,
The whole race of people, place of birth, hour
And the seed of the seed with their tribes.106. Then all the shadows, crowding into a single host,
They burst into tears on the cruel shore,
Where will there be everyone in whom the fear of God has faded away?109. Charon, the demon, has a sparkling eye like coal,
Alluring, he drives a host of shadows into the boat,
Strikes the stragglers over the stream with an oar. 74
Imitation of Virgil, although Dante’s comparison is incomparably more beautiful:
Quam multa in silvis antumni frigore primoLapsa cadunt folia. Aeneid. VI, 309–310.112. How the bore circles in the forest in autumn
Behind the leaf is a leaf, until its impulses
They will not throw all the luxury of the branches into dust:115. Like the wicked race of Adam,
Behind the shadow is a shadow, rushing from the banks,
To the rower's sign, like a falcon to calls.118. So everyone floats through the muddy darkness of the shafts,
And before they go ashore sleepy,
In that country a new host is already ready.121. “My son,” said the benevolent teacher,
“Before the Lord those who died in sins
From all lands they soar to the bottomless river 75
This is Virgil’s answer to the question asked of him by Dante above (vv. 72–75).124. And through it they hurry in tears;
God's justice motivates them
So fear turned into desire. 76
Justice, which prompted God to create a place of execution, encourages sinners, as if of their own free will, to occupy the monastery prepared for them.127. A good soul does not penetrate into hell,
And if here you are greeted like this by a rower,
Then you yourself will understand what this cry means.” -130. Silenced. Then the whole gloomy valley is all around
I was so shaken that I'm still in cold sweat
It sprinkles me, as soon as I remember it.133. A whirlwind rushed through this tearful valley,
The crimson ray flashed from all sides
And, having lost my senses, in a desperate abyss136. I fell like one who is overcome by sleep. 77
Dante covered his crossing of the Acheron with an impenetrable secret. The poet falls into a sleep, during which he is miraculously transported to the other shore, just as in the first canto (Ada I, 10–12) he enters a dark forest in deep sleep. In the same mystical dream he ascends to the gates of purgatory (Pur. IX. 19ff.). He also falls asleep before entering the earthly paradise (Pur. XXVII, 91 et d).