All The Light Ends With The Stars: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, Lines 40 - 72

Dante the poet is having great fun with light. He's playing with its various meanings: illumination, revelation, sunrise, sunset, concealment, power--all this as we approach the middle of PURGATORIO and even find ourselves in the middle of COMEDY as a whole.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore these last moments on Purgatory's terrace of the wrathful before we find ourselves again among the stars.If you'd like to help with the many fees associated with this podcast, you can offer a small, monthly stipend or even a one-time gift using this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:41] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, lines 40 - 72. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:16] A dizzying interplay about light: physical/metaphysical, imaginary/revelatory, sunrise/sunset, illuminating/concealing.[06:46] Desire and the necessary (physical) fulfillment: a lead-in to what's ahead on the journey.[08:37] Virgil's reply, a pastiche of Biblical and classical sources.[12:37] The beatitude that ends this terrace, plus a non-Biblical addition to it that then complicates our notion of anger.[16:51] Stars and the center of COMEDY.[17:39] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, lines 40 - 72.

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Ever wanted to read Dante's Divine Comedy? Come along with us! We're not lost in the scholarly weeds. (Mostly.) We're strolling through the greatest work (to date) of Western literature. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I take on this masterpiece passage by passage. I'll give you my rough English translation, show you some of the interpretive knots in the lines, let you in on the 700 years of commentary, and connect Dante's work to our modern world. The pilgrim comes awake in a dark wood, then walks across the known universe. New episodes every Sunday and Wednesday.