Canto XVI
Third Terrace; I need to
know
Scene II
“You
claimed that God is with you, and yet you trekked your journey through here.
You are a living soul and not an Angel with God. How can you place yourself to
the level of the Angels?” Marco looked at Dante. “Are you not with a soul and
the free will to do the journey, and why must you claim to be with God to make
it. Does it help you at all?”
“I
---” Dante looked for words to rebuke but Marco went on.
“Were
we not given the free will as in our thoughts to make our decision? That is why
I felt my wrath will not be lifted even though I am here in Purgatory. I pray
thou point out to be the cause, so that I may see it, and that I may show it to
others, for one set in the heaven and the one here below.”
“Then
why don’t you move till you are purged?” It was Virgil who cut in. “Then you
may be purged.”
“No,
Virgil. Let him speak. He has much in him. What is your wrath?” Dante looked to
the one named Marco. “Explain your wrath. I will listen.”
“Brother
who still holds the living, the world is blind, and thou truly comest from it.
You who are living refer every cause upwards to the heavens only, as though
they moved all things with them of necessity. If this were so, free will be
destroyed in you, and there would be no justice in having joy for good and grief
for evil.” Marco motioned around him. “The Heaves initiate your movements I do
not say all of them”
Virgil
saw in Dante the expression of deep thoughts. Marco went on with his words.
“Supposing
that I said it, light for good.” Marco motioned to the darkness that was around
them, yet where he stood with Dante, it was light. “And for the darkness which
represents evil is given to you ---- ours sins, and free will, which though it
may endure fatigue in the first battles with the heavens, afterward, it will be
well nurtured, overcomes everything.”
“It’s
here, we are purged before we go to Heaven.” Dante cut in.
“Well
can’t thou see that the evil guidance is the cause which made the world guilty,
and not nature is corrupt in you?”: Marco went on with his explanation.
“To
a greater force, and a better nature, free it will be, that creates the mind in
you, which the heavens have not in their charge, therefore if the present world
goes astray, the cause is in you, in you to be sought; and of I will be a true
informant for thee,” Marco spoke of the free will in the living.
“As
in Rome of the ancient time, have had two Suns, which made visible both one
road and the other, that of the world and that of God. One had extinguished the
other, and the sword is joined to the crozier; and those two together must
perforce go ill, because being joined, one fears no other.” Dante quoted the
original works of his idol, Dante Alighieri.
“Marco,
I heed thee,” Dante said to Marco.
“Behold
the brightness which rays already whitening through the smoke, and I must need
depart --- the Angel is there --- before I become apparent to him.” Marco
turned and walked to the sudden clearing of the darkness and was not seen
anymore after that.
Dante
stood there with Virgil with the latter inquiring on what had transpired
between the two.
“Marco
explained to me the role I was to embark here. I am not of this place and here
on my free will. I must not succumb myself to the happenings here to believe
God created all this but take my journey in my free will. When I co-joined my
thoughts and beliefs, I was taken in by the program --- that’s where we are
here now. I become imprisoned in the program. The designed program was to break
down our will to adhere to the settings in the program but I can defy it with
my own will. I am not its prisoner. I hold the freedom to think and with it, I
shall not be subdued.” Dante looked at Virgil.
“We
are the odd ones here. We can get through the task.” Dante smiled. “I shall not
be bound by the program.”
“You
mean Marco explained all that to you just now when I was talking about it ---
and even Cato was doing the same since we met you here. Are you truly mad,
Poet?” Virgil turned away. “I am wasted here as your companion.”
“Let’s
us move on, Virgil. We have to challenge the program, not for our free will but for the others.”
“Indeed,
my creator Virgil. Dante here is mad.” Virgil then followed on.
Note:
Purgatory Canto XVI here was a real challenge. Unlike Inferno, I stuck to the
script translated (there were many to find one I could relate to), and then
doing the write-on Inferno was knocking ten pins at the lanes. I may have
missed some and then took the next ball to do my best. It may end with shouting
‘howzat’; pardon me there, that was cricket hooray. I think is the gentle way
of saying ‘you know what I mean but more decently said to avoid any embarrassing
looks, after all, it’s a gentlemen’s game.
So,
they were rabbit holes but these rabbit holes led me onto a series of
connectivity in my digs. It took me some readings to come up with my writing. I
learned more understanding at the depth of Dante’s words here.
There
are two parts to the passages here.
The
first one was simple; wrath is a sin to be purged but when you come to the
second part, wrath is in us. It’s inside us and unlike the sins of Hell, we can
serve out in ‘penance’ for it by the punishment. As wrath represents pain and
anger in us, any form of punishment may be contrary to ‘purging’ the wrath.
Punishment may be considered as retaliation instead of redeeming the peace
inside us. As a child may be given the cane may feel that pain was to not do
what caused the canning, but in some instances, it may strengthen the child to
fight the pain with more defiance.
Hence
came Marco’s passages. I read the many interpretations of the passages and like
a dedicated decipherer (pardon the self-praise here. I will serve my penance in Hell later). I
tried to link the meanings of Marco’s words to the discourse and the
segregation of laws (Marco was an insistence to be heard) and finally ----
finally I have done it. (I did have bronchial irritation then and drank the
soothing syrups).
I
think the passages were written herewith. It was about Dante’s mind on free will and
not to be controlled like the others in the program. The main plot of the tale
was the program created to keep the thoughts of the prisoner that they are in
Purgatory (or Hell previously).
It
does rhyme with the words Dante’s. I darn hope I got it right. Or was it ‘bonne
chance'. (Good luck).
I just to share with you some of the links I went through in my ‘daze’.
(https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Checks_and_balances)
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_retribution)
(http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/purgatory/05wrath.html)
(https://1000wordphilosophy.com/2018/11/26/descartes-i-think-therefore-i-am/)
(https://www.businessinsider.com.au/why-people-dont-follow-directions-2013-8)
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