Dante Alighieri - PURGATORY: Dantes Divine Trilogy Part Two. Decorated and Englished in Prosaic Verse by Alasdair Gray

PURGATORY DANTES DIVINE TRILOGY PART 2
ENGLISHED IN PROSAIC VERSE
BY
ALASDAIR GRAY CANONGATE BOOKS
EDINBURGH 2019 First published in Great Britain, the USA and
Canada in 2019 by Canongate Books Ltd,
14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE Distributed in the USA by Publishers Group West
and in Canada by Publishers Group Canada canongate.co.uk This digital edition first published in 2019 by Canongate Books Copyright Alasdair Gray, 2019 The right of Alasdair Gray to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 The author gratefully acknowledges the support of Creative Scotland towards the publication of this book British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
on request from the British Library ISBN 978 1 78689 473 1
eISBN 978 1 78689 476 2 TRANSLATORS FOREWORD Hell is underground, Heaven high above. Where on Earth is Purgatory? No heretics believed in it. Thomas Aquinas called it a fact human reason could not locate so should leave to God. Dante never feared imagining more than orthodox Catholics, and by combining their theology with Pagan science he placed Purgatory firmly where we place Australia. Greeks and Romans had no evidence of land outside Europe, Asia and Africa, so thought a vast ocean covered the rest of the globe. Their geographers deduced that the polar regions furthest from the sun were too cold to support life, and the equator nearest the sun was too hot.

Some wondered if the south temperate zone supported life but were sure this could never be known, as the equator would roast or boil explorers trying to cross. This meant Atlantic voyages could discover nothing good, so across the Strait of Gibraltar they imagined a sign: THUS FAR AND NO FURTHER. Dante decided this was a divine prohibition, because shortly before his time Italian merchants sought a faster way than overland to import Indian spices and Chinese silk. They sailed out past Gibraltar meaning to circumnavigate Africa and never returned. This enforced Dantes Catholic cosmography. When God expelled the rebel angels (said theologians) they fell into an underground pit He had prepared for them. Dante described Hell as a conical space, the point at the centre of the world where Satan was stuck like a worm in a bad apple.

Matter that formerly filled Hells cavity had been expelled as an island-mountain in the souths ocean, exactly opposite Jerusalem in the north land mass. This was Purgatory, ringed by terraces with steep cliffs between, the lowest cliff surrounded by a coastal plain for new arrivals. Round the low cliff trudged sinful souls saved from Hell by last-minute repentances, but delayed from climbing to Heaven by excommunication. From a cave in that cliff Virgil led Dante after they ascended from Hell, as my cover design tries to show. LIST OF CANTOS 1: Cato, Warden of the Shore The little ship of my intelligence furls sails, drops anchor, leaves the cruel sea. I stand upon the second kingdoms beach and now can sing of where each sinful soul is purified, made good by reaching up to paradise.

O teach me, poetry! Be with me Calliope, holy muse of epic song who treats voices that sing of lesser things as if unpardonable magpie chattering! In Heavens clear height I saw sweet blueness deepening down to the horizon where that lovers planet Venus gladdened my eyes, shining above the constellation of the fishes, now rising from the sea. To the right I saw a galaxy unknown to living folk except the first, before they came to sin four great stars, points of a brilliant cross. Poor northern sky, to be without that sight! Dropping my eyes I saw beside me one lit by that starlight, bearded and white-haired, his face so full of venerable might I wanted to adore him as his son. What are you, he demanded, you that flee eternal punishment? What guide, what lamp lit your path out? Has Heaven changed its decree, letting the damned souls free? Say by what right you stand below my cliffs! By word and hand my guide made me bow knee and head then said, We have not come by our own will. Hear why. When this man stood in peril of his soul Heaven sent a lady, saying I should lead him through Hell up to the highest good.

Now he has seen the deeps. May I show now those sinners purified upon the steeps where you preside? Be kind to him. He seeks the liberty that you in Utica perished to keep, shedding your coat of clay to proudly wear it on the Judgement Day. Our journey breaks no law. This man still lives. Minos never judged him or me.

I dwell in the virtuous ring of Hell, close to chaste Marcia, the wife who worships you. For her sake let us climb the blessd stairs that lead to Heavens grace. When I return to Limbo she will hear how kind you are. I saw this warden of the purging hill was Cato, Caesars foe, who stabbed himself rather than see the Roman Empire kill the glorious Republic that he loved. Shaking his head he said, Aye, Marcia deserves all kindness, but since she has gone beyond deaths river, Acheron, and I stay here, why mention her? Since you obey Heavens commands you need not use her name for I obey them too. Lead him you guide down to this islands shore.

Above the beach in soft mud grow the reeds that never die. Pluck one of these and tie it round his waist. Wash his face first. Angels hate the sight of grime from Hell. After, dont come back here. Goodbye. Goodbye.

He disappeared. I stood up when my leader said, Dear child, this plain slopes seaward. Lets do as he told. A morning breeze fleeing before the dawn came from the distant glitter of the sea. We crossed that lonely plain like wanderers seeking a path who fear they seek in vain. The low suns level rays began to warm the turf we trod, when my guide paused beside a boulders shadow on a patch of grass still misted with pearls of dew.

I halted, knowing what he would do. He stooped, wet hands, washed my face clean of crusts left by fearful, pitiful tears, restoring how I looked before invading Hell. We reached the shore no living foot had ever touched before. Here, as instructed, Virgil plucked a reed, and as he bound it round my waist I saw a miracle, for where that rush once stood sprang up another, just as tall and good. 2: Newcomers By now the sun had left the northern sky where at high noon it lights Jerusalem, leaving the Ganges in the deepest night. Seen from our shore the sky above the sea took on a rosy glow, into which slid that golden sphere of light.

We stood and gazed like wanderers who tarry on a road before their journey starts. Then I beheld beneath the sun, across the ocean floor a sight I hope to see again brightness speeding so swiftly to us that no flight of bird could equal it. When I gazed back from questioning my master with a look, it had grown brighter. On each side I saw a whiteness I could not make out, above something becoming clearer as it neared. My master did not say a word until the whitenesses appeared as wings, and then seeing who moved that ship he cried, Bend knees, clasp hands, bow down before a cherubim of God, for you will soon meet more of these. See how without a sail or oar the ship is driven by his Heaven-pointing wings by pure eternal plumes that never moult.

The brightness of this dazzling bird of God made me half close my eyes. He stood astern of ship so light that the prow cleft no wave. More than a hundred souls within it sat singing King Davids psalm,