Canto IV
Repentance KIV
Scene II
“Do tell me why thou art
seated here? Dost, thou await a guide, or has only thy wonted mood recaptured
thee?” Dante reached out to his lost acquaintance. His arms made no contact
with the other and embarrassing there, he withdrew his arms.
“Brother, what avails
the going up?” Belacqua brightened upon seeing Dante there. “For the bird of
God that sits at the gate would not let me go to the torments. It behooves that
heaven first circles around me outside the gate as long as it did in life
because I delayed my good sighs --- until the end unless before then, the
prayer assisted me which rises from a heart that lives in grace.”
Belacqua was like the
others; late in the repentance of his sins and to accept God he felt was his
punishment to be denied entry.
“Belacqua, you may
---” Dante was stopped by Cato. The latter told him to step aside and Cato
spoke to him.
“Your friend, Belacqua need not be
told that this is not the real Purgatory but a construct to break his hold on
his soul. If you reveal anything that may trigger his thoughts, he set to lose
his mind and thus his soul. Unlike the theory of Plato, all of you hold only
one soul. If that is destroyed, then the mind dies, and life may have ended.
For all we know, none of the ones we met are dead. There are no conclusive shreds
of evidence. You are the walking example now.”
“Are you telling me Belacqua may be
alive? What was he doing in the war? He was a maker of musical instruments. He
has no ails except for his foul mouth and amorous fornication.” Dante looked to
his old associate.
“There may a reason that he is here.
The Doctor could have selected them on some criteria to be imprisoned here.”
Cato replied. “We can ask of him.”
Belacqua was questioned and his
confession baffled Dante.
“I am a maker of the instrument and
it allowed me to go to many places but I held a different reason. I am an
informer of the Empire and was caught. I was executed for my action. Here I am
now to redeem my soul to go to Heaven.”
Dante was taken aback by the
admission of his associate.
“Help me, Dante. I have killed no
one.” Belacqua pleaded with the poet. “I am not a sinner. I just did not
believe in God. My God is inside of me. I am who I am.”
Dante stepped aside to give his mind
some space to think. He heard Belacqua's confession and yet the man may not be
dead but in a state of limbo here.
“Belacqua was my explanation to what
was said to have two different souls from what I comprehend from Plato’s work.”
Cato raised the issue again. “He held them in him; we will merely refer to them
as souls. His logos which is his head made him take on a war that affected his
well-being to be an informer, where his eros retained in him his desire to
create musical tools. The two souls drove him to be what he did.”
“Then what of his thymos? His heart
if Plato was right, should have affected him.” Dante looked at Cato.
“Perhaps, it was his thymos which
decided the action. It may be an action that only one soul makes him do the
task.” Cato replied.
“The argument for it can be debated
but I desire not to for now. I do have to express one view of mine. Plato in
his time had his view and so was many after him but no one to now truly knows
if we do have a soul. Socrates spoke of the body may terminate but the soul
remains immortal and could move to different bodies. If it’s true, then
immortality exists in that form.”
“It’s understood, Poet. We will not
discuss this issue now.” Cato relented to Dante’s call.
“Thank you, God, and to you Dante. The
Poet had spoken. We will survive another day in Purgatory without a Poet and
Mechanical entity to assault each other’s mind.” Virgil reverted to his
sarcastic side. “No offense to you, Cato.”
“None taken. It was just my routine
---” Cato was cut off by Dante.
“Cato, all those who are here may
not be dead. I have to help them. We have to complete the task here.”
“Get us out of Purgatory,” Cato told
him. Dante was seen walking off then.
“Can we move on from here or be like
them, the indolent souls there?” Dante called out.
“There goes the Poet with his opinion
of the situation.” Virgil sighed. “It was there in Hell, and now in Purgatory.
Have mercy on my soulless self.”
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