INFERNO CANTO 1 explained

hello everyone this is tom from los angeles i hope you are well so here we are this is uh my first video uh about kanto number one um first of one hundred cantos of the divine comedy by dante alighieri there will be so much to say about it and so much has already been said this is only as i said in my previous video a comment from somebody who's passionate about it my suggestion if you're following these videos would be to um read the um the first canto by yourself maybe maybe pause the video i'm going to use pinsky translation for this particular video um maybe pause the video um really by yourself and then follow my comments and uh descriptions and i'm then gonna read most of it and comment it at least the most important highlights before starting one word about uh the actual title um of the entire work the divine comedy to call it divine was never dante's intention it was actually boccaccio who later came up with that term divine comedy the work itself was probably called the comedy as to distinguish it from a tragedy that was back then uh really the highest form of poetry as opposed to comedy comedia there was the most the lowest four more popular and in dante's intentions he really wanted to make his work this poem accessible to wider audience possible and therefore in fact after he died and the poem became very famous everybody even in the field so when they were working around florence and around italy were singing the poem and repeating the poem in in in the parlance people's parents they were they would call this particular work el dante but it was the comedy the comedy when he wrote when he wrote it only later on defined the divine comedy by boccaccio canto number one is in fact the first cantaloupe uh almost as an introduction to the entire work an introduction to the entire divine comedy as opposed to an introduction only to inferno this is why inferno technically has 34 cantos purgatory has 33 and paradise has paradiso has 33. so the first of inferno is this pro emi or introduction to the entire work this is why and in fact numerology was very important in the middle ages in dante's time and for dante in particular there is a very complex mathematical structure within the divine comedy probably not completely understood even today but certainly in terms of the repetition of number three and nine to reflect some of the perfect numbers and the divine perfect perfection or the trinity and finally um dante himself went on to actually explain in one of his letters uh the four different levels of interpretation that we need to keep in mind when reading the divine comedy the first one is the literal one exactly what the divine community says and just understanding uh word by word the second one is the allegorical one and from the allegorical point of view we can read the comedy as a story of a dante's conversion to christianity with the help of reason you know personified by virgil and faith personified by beatrice beatrice a third level is the moral level and that's really a message to all christianity and all the world about how to live a moral life and the fourth level of fourth interpretation is the highest one which is the anagogical one that's how dante himself called it from the greek root of this world it means really elevation to elevate somebody's soul in the sense of a spiritual journey that's the highest purpose that divine comedy has so we get started with the first lines this first canto is extremely dense there is so much to unpack again we're going to only stop on a few highlights again i'm following pinsky but i also have this italian book that i want to show you only because i know um generally booktube people are really book fetish type of people and it's an enormous divine comedy edition pretty old with all the cantos commented and with a mix of comments from old italian and french commentators i'm basing my comments on that as well of course so we start with the first lines um very famous midway on our live journey i find myself in the dark in dark woods the right road lost as we already seen this is the author in a deep personal crisis when he says on our lives journey the fact that he chooses the word our instead of my life it means two things it means first of all that he's referring to his age our life back in the middle ages was um on average supposed to last 70 years and so he's 35 in 1300 when this story takes place or when the story begins at least and then it also gives the impression the purpose the purposeful impression that the divine comedy has a universality to it and he's not only talking about himself from the first line he's saying i'm talking about something bigger than only myself and the dark woods what are the dark woods dark woods uh stands as an allegory already for everything that is sinful and evil in in our mortal life to tell about those wood is hard so tangle and rough and savage that thinking of it now i feel the old fear stirring this is um this is really uh something peculiar because the english translation takes even longer than dante's in expressing this concept and generally speaking i've always noticed how italian as a language takes longer or takes more words to express the same concept than english in this case you know dante and i would say in general in the divine comedy is so tight and concise to be even quicker than english compared to italian so the sentence that thinking of it now i feel the old fear stirring is rendered by dante in uh in the very quick canelo pencil renova powder and you can see the difference in in terms of length and duration death is hardly more bitter this reminds us that dante must have al almost even have contemplated suicide or at least thought about how dying would not have been much more painful than the situation where he was in and this is a very crucial line and yet to treat the good i found there as well i'll tell what i saw the whole purpose of telling us about hell and all the ugliness that he's seen um in his in his journey and everything that he's seen in in dark wood the evil things um the whole purpose of telling us about that is really to talk to us of the good that he found there that he feels like he's been able to find in his own life i cannot well say being so full of sleep whatever moment it was i began to blunder being full of sleep this is also a form of spiritual concept because he wasn't just sleeping and therefore we can think of the divine comedies dante as a character as somebody who is uh dreaming almost as a as a dream throughout all the hundred cantos but this is also the sleep of his soul the sleep of his spirit his spirit was asleep and this is why he was living a life full of sin and distance from god in his in his opinion and in his assessment but when i came to stop below a hill they marked one end of the valley that had pierced my heart with terror this hill is just outside the woods and again is another allegory that represents happiness on earth the type of happiness that a man or a woman can find on earth i looked up towards the crest and saw its shoulders already mantled in rays of the bright planet the sun he calls it planet not as a metaphor but because literally in his time the sun was considered to be the fourth planet out of seven within uh taliban astronomy the bright planet that shows the road to everyone whatever your our journey that is really the symbol of the divine grace the sun that is shining from um across the hill top of the hill then i could feel the terror begin to is a churn in my heart's lake all through the night this hearts lake is not only again a metaphor which is very beautiful but it's also referring to medical knowledge of his times there is a lake which is a place in the heart where all the blood is and that's where all the deepest passions and fears of human beings lie that was a the kind of the medical idea of of his times so the churn in my heart's lake all through the night as one still panting ashore from dangerous seas looks back at the deep he has escaped my thought returned still fleeing to regard that grim defile that never left any alive who stayed in it he is uh giving us a great simile in fact the first one in his uh in his book there's going to be so many oh so after i had rested my weary body a while i started again across the wilderness my left foot always lower on the hill and suddenly a leopard near the place the weight grew steep light spotted quick of food blocking the path she stayed before my face etc here we come to the three probably most famous allegories of this canto one which are these three beasts um they are the leopard the lion and the she-wolf there is a consensus overall that from a spiritual point of view for dante they represent uh the leopard lust there's a minority who actually thinks that the leopard represents mv instead of last the lion pride and the she-wolf greed in general at the same time there is also a broader let's say significance or maybe historical significance between behind these three beasts and this refers very much to the reality where dante was living in his times and the powers that be in in his times and under that reading the leopard would signify the florence which was torn between the whites and the blacks and this white and black motif would be represented in the colors of the leopard the color of the leopard skin or fur the lion will represent the royal french powers so the royals of france and the sherwood will represent rome in the sense of the church and the pope um who was in rome and had so much temporal power in in those times now the the fact that uh in the english translation here the leopard is uh is called in the female sense like um he's saying live spot the quick of food she stayed before my face this actually comes from the fact that the italian word lonza lonza is really not immediately or technically translated with leopard but lonza can stay for can stand for any type of uh big feline it could be an ocelot it could be a leopard it could be a lynch or one or one of these uh lion cats and uh and so the the word itself in italian is female this is the re this is the only reason why it's translated as she stayed before my face otherwise there would be any reason to call it he or she or it the lion and as we progress and more than once she the leopard made me turn about to go back down it was early morning still the fair sun rising with the stars attending it as when divine love set those beautiful lights into motion the creations dawn and the time of day and season combined to fill my heart with hope of that beast with festive skin the leopard is pushing dante uh behind is is not allowing dante to to proceed in his uh walk up the hill up the hill towards human happiness where he's trying to go towards because it just came out of the woods and this is the first it could be lust or it could be envy is something of a dysfunction that doesn't really allow him to to proceed he also sets up the time of the year in this paragraph where he says that divine love settles beautiful lights he conforms to the medieval belief that creation god's creation started in spring and therefore the sun is is linked with the aries constellation as he describes here and therefore we are in spring in this moment to fill my heart with hope of that beast with festive skin but not so much that the next side wasn't fearful a lion came at me his head high as he ran there is a lion just coming at dante so even more fearful and this lion really represents pride roaring with hunger so the air appeared to tremble then a grim she-wolf whose leaness seemed to compress all the world's cravings that had made miserable such multitudes here it's really clear how dante yes he is referring to the spiritual sin of greed but at the same time in the next lines as well we can see how he is passionately angry at this she-wolf and the fact itself that this triad of beasts is taken from the bible the biblical um the biblical reference for this triad of beasts is actually jeremiah chapter 5 verse 6 where jeremiah talks about a panther a lion and a wolf but jeremiah didn't talk about a she-wolf dante turns the wolf into a she-wolf on purpose to determine the fact that he's talking about rome as we know that she-wolf has always been the symbol of rome of the city of rome and uh and therefore uh he's really referring to rome in terms of the church and the temporal power of the pope back then and this is why he has so much um anger towards how the pope in his times is using his power and here he expresses it he says she put such heaviness into my spirit i lost hope of the crest like someone eager to win who tested by loss surrenders to gloom and weeps so did that beast the she-wolf make me feel as hurrying toward me at a lope she forced me back to work toward where the sun is lost out of the three beasts the one that really scares dante the most is the she-wolf he is absolutely terrified by this beast and uh he's just running back now this is the crucial moment of kanto first while i was running myself back down to the deep someone appeared one who seemed nearly to fade as though from long silence i cried to his human shape in the great wasteland leaving man or shade have pity and help me whichever you may be in the italian version dante screams misery that's the first word that dante utters in the divine comedy misere which technically i think is translated as have mercy rather than have pity but in pinky's translation comes out as have pity and help me whichever you may be and it's extremely important as a as an exclamation from down to the side because it's not only the fact that he is calling out to this uh vague human figure that he's seen along the path but which we're going to find out is virgil but it's very important because it tells us something about the very beginning of the spiritual journey not only dantes but everybody else's which has to begin with an act of humility the act of humility of of asking for mercy doesn't matter to whom because at this point in the in the divine comedy dante doesn't know who this figure is he has no idea that's going to be virgil without knowing who this person is the first cry out of his heart is have mercy on me have mercy of me because he feels that he needs help as i mentioned in my previous video it has a lot to do with the spiritual journeys let's take the 12 steps of aea as an example to acknowledge that you are in a crisis you you have a problem and you need help is the very very first step in his fundamental in order to begin no living man the ones i was he replied my parents both were mantuans from lombardy here virgil introduces himself he says that he's the famous virgil he was born super giulio under julius caesar when he was born and i lived in good augustus rome and during his life augustus was the emperor of rome in the day of the false gods who lied obviously the pagan gods that virgil worshipped a poet by him ankies noble son which is anes hennes who came from troy when superb ilium in its pride was burned he's referring obviously to the nade which is the poem that above any other poem dante adored he adored the innate and he adored virgil as a poet dante expresses his surprise then are you virgil are you the fonte poor so overwhelming a river of human speech he's uh he's going crazy with uh with surprise and joy at this point dante because it's as if we met our um our i don't know favorite celebrity he was the the absolute uh most loved poet uh for dante's virgin and he expresses that love here he also says the graceful style whose model has done me honor acknowledging that he modeled his own style poetry style along the lines of virgil or at least using virgil as a as a base see this beast driving me backward he's referring to the she-wolf help me resist for she makes all my veins and pulses shudder a translation note here instead of all my veins and pulses shudder the italian version says what is shattering are the veins in my wrists in my poles my the veins in my wrists so it's a little bit different this beast the cause of your complaint lets no one pass her away but hair is all to death her nature is so malign and vicious she cannot appease her veracity for feeding makes her hungrier many are the beasts she mates we can really see here this is virgil speaking but obviously it's dante writing and we can really see here the passion the hate that dante had for the church he's talking about the she-wolf and therefore rome and therefore the pope uh being very careful about what they're saying as well because obviously the pope was still around um many are the beasts she makes there will be more until the hound comes who will give this creature a painful death until the hound comes is one of the many uh prophecies within the containing divine communist comedy however is the only prophecy that refers to a time after or in the future of the time when dante is writing many other prophecies uh are prophecies that uh happened you know that refer to moments before the time when dante is writing but this one is the only one for the future and while there is no clarity about who exactly this hound would be there is a general sense that it would be somebody of great moral standing maybe a new emperor or even a new pope um who will turn the political scenario in the italian peninsula let's call it that obviously was not a country yet was still very fragmented and turned things towards the good government and and for the best instead of the corrupt uh uh powerful people that they were governing in downtowns he will be fed by wisdom goodness and love high moral standing born between filtering velcro he shall restore low italy as nissus fought to achieve and turner's ira urilus camilla and the maiden all dead from once in war these names are all uh taken from the nade from virgil's poem and they refer to characters of dna and aid who were all dead in the war between the trojans and the latins therefore i judge you best that you should choose to follow me and i will be your guide away from here and through an eternal an eternal place this is really virgil announcing his role as mentor and not only that but also virtually is giving us almost a description of what the divine comedy is going to be about again to the point that this is the premiere of the introduction not only to inferno but to the entire work and this is the summary that virgil gives dante to hear the cries of despair and to behold ancient tormented spirits as they lament in courage the second death they must abide we're gonna go to hell basically then you shall see those souls who are content to dwell in fire because they hope someday to join the blessed this is purgatorio purgatory towards whom if your ascent continues your guide will be one worthier than i a guide worthy than virgil he's referring to beatrice who will replace virgil as dante's guide to take him up and to guide him up to paradise to paradiso when i must leave you you will be with her for the emperor who governs from on high god wills i not enter his city where none may appear who lived like me in rebellion to his law because virgil technically is in hell for having worshiped pagan gods is not allowed in paradise his empire is everything and everywhere but that is his kingdom his city his seat of all paradise happy is the soul he chooses for that place and this is the end of uh of the canto then he set out and i followed where he led it's the very beginning i i hope i could give you a little bit of help in unpacking and understanding what this first country is about but if there are things that were not clear or maybe even the sound incorrect from among everything that i said please do let me know i would love to discuss about it because there is a to discuss forever about every one of these beautiful cantos thank you so much for watching

Channel: Tom LA Books

Views: 7,204

Keywords: book, books, booktube, book review, review, whales, whale, nonfiction, bookreview, reading, literary fiction, booktube newbie, new to booktube, booktube newbie tag, new to booktube tag, new booktube channel, booktube channel, dante, divine comedy, inferno, purgatory, paradise, the divine comedy, divine comedy explanation, divine comedy lesson, dante lesson, inferno canto 1, inferno canto i, dante in english, divine comedy translation, inferno translation, inferno english translation

Id: OOw7xcne6zA

Length: 27min 44sec (1664 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 03 2020