Walking With Dante

Dante the poet leads us in a slow turn toward Dante the pilgrim, his "fictional" alter ego, who is looking up at the heavens--that is, at Venus, at four new-to-him stars, and at the gorgeous sapphire color of a predawn sky. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we come to see the emotional complexity Dante has learned to encode in this short passage after the craft developed in the writing of INFERNO. The...

These are the opening lines of PURGATORIO, in whcih we start, not with the Dante the pilgrim (as we did in INFERNO), but with Dante the poet, who puts his hubris and his doubts on full display. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we slow-walk through the opening lines of the second canticle, the second third, of Dante's masterwork COMEDY. We'll hear the poet state his intentions and hear him cite a bit o...

As I told you in the previous episode of this podcast, we're taking PURGATORIO in chunks, rather than small bits. Or more like, first chunks, then small bits. And here's our first chunk: cantos 1 - 2 in my English translation. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we begin our exploration of the shores of Purgatory. I'll first read through the first two cantos of the middle canticle from Dante's masterwork...

Support WALKING WITH DANTE to keep it sponsor-free by donating what you can via this PayPal link here . Welcome back! We've been on hiatus for a bit, after we finished INFERNO. (If, that is, you're listening to this podcast IRT.) And now we're ready to start our climb up the next third of the poem: the mountain of purgation, the (perhaps) most human section of Dante's divine masterpiece. Join me,...

We have come to the end of our slow-walk across Dante's INFERNO, the first third (or so) of his masterpiece, COMEDY. But there are admittedly things we missed. Perhaps you'd like to deepen your understanding of INFERNO? Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for some hints about how to further your study of this first (and most famous) part of Dante's poem. Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH...

We've come to the end of our slow-walk through INFERNO, the first third of Dante's masterpiece, COMEDY. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for some final thoughts on this overwhelming poem. No conclusions, really. Just some access points to help you think more about this incredible journey. Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE: [01:28] One negative assessment: There are some awkward...

We finish off INFERNO in my English translation, which you can find on my website: markscarbrough.com. But I hope you don't go there. I hope you sit back and listen to the conclusion of the first piece of Dante's journey across the known universe. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we finish reading INFERNO, one of the final steps before we're ready to move on to PURGATORIO. [01:33] Reading INFERNO, Can...

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we fast-walk (!) through Dante's INFERNO, the first third (or so) of his masterpiece, COMEDY (or "The Divine Comedy," as some insist on calling it--although he never did). We're completed our slow walk through the poem in over 200 episodes of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE. Now we're celebrating by reading straight through my English translation. You can find this tran...

We're continuing to read through my English translation of INFERNO--which you can find on my website: markscarbough.com. But I hope you don't. I hope you sit back and enjoy the work for what it is at its core: a story. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we pass through the eighth and ninth evil pouches of fraud, the vast eighth circle of INFERNO. We'll see Ulysses, Guido da Montefeltro, Mohammed, the po...

We're continuing on our journey, which has become a read-through of INFERNO. Having walked the first third (or so) of Dante's COMEDY passage by passage, even line by line, we're now experiencing this masterwork for what it truly is: a story. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I read through my English translation of INFERNO. You can find these passages on my website: markscarbrough.com . But I wish you...

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we celebrate the conclusion of our slow-walk through INFERNO, the first third of Dante's masterpiece, COMEDY, by reading straight through INFERNO. In this episode, we'll read cantos 21 - 23. This translation is my own. You can find it on my website: markscarbrough.com. But I wish you wouldn't. Especially if you've been on this long walk with us, I wish you'd just sit b...

We're continuing to read INFERNO for what it truly is: a glorious plot, the story of a guy who wakes up lost and walks across the known universe. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we walk with him through the first of the evil pouches of fraud: the panderers/seducers, the flatterers, the simoniacs, and the diviners. This translation is my own. You can find it on my website: markscarbrough.com . But I w...

We've finished our slow-walk through INFERNO, passage by passage, bit by bit, allusion by allusion, across over two hundred episodes of WALKING WITH DANTE. Now, we're "simply" taking the canticle of pain for its plot--which may well be the heart of the work's genius. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we read through my English translation of INFERNO, Cantos 14 - 17. I'm reading my own English translati...

We have finished our slow-walk through the first canticle of Dante's masterwork, COMEDY. And we're celebrating by reading the cantos straight through in my English translation--because we must remember, above all else, that Dante's work is a story, a narrative, the journey of one human across the known universe. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I read through INFERNO, Cantos 11 - 13. Sit back and enjo...

We're continuing our read-through of Dante's INFERNO, the first canticle of COMEDY, as we conclude our long study of this first third (or so) of Dante's medieval poem and contemporary masterpiece. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I read through INFERNO, Cantos 8 - 10: across Styx, before the walls of Dis, into the city of Dis, and to the heretics in their tombs. [01:24] Reading INFERNO, Cantos 8 - 10

We've finished our walk across INFERNO, passage by passage, interpretive knot by interpretive knot. It's now time to see Dante's INFERNO for what it is: a story of one person's walk across the known universe. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I read through INFERNO, Cantos 4 - 7. Sit back and enjoy the story. Because at the end of it all, that's what it is: a story. [02:05] Reading INFERNO, Cantos 4 -...

We're not ready to finish our walk across hell. Instead, there's one more thing to do: hear the walk for what it is. A story. A narrative through-line. An adventure. A journey. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore INFERNO, not as a series of interpretive points, but as a whole, as a story, as an incredible product of the human imagination. Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH...

Can you believe we got here? The final lines of the first canticle of Dante's masterwork, COMEDY. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we climb out of hell to see the most gorgeous things we know: the stars in the heavens above. Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE: [00:58] My English translation of the passage: INFERNO, Canto XXXIV, lines 127 - 139. If you'd like to read long, drop...

We've come beyond Satan and are standing in a giant, empty, baronial hall, waiting to get out of hell. But not before our pilgrim, Dante, gets some answers. And from whom would he get those answers if not from Virgil--who remains true to himself to the end of INFERNO, despite all the ribbing and drubbing he's been through. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the next to the last passage of INF...

There's much more to be said about this problem of up, down, and spin after Dante the pilgim and Virgil pass the center of the earth. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I explore this problem: the world upside-down and the enforced rereading of INFERNO to turn it into COMEDY, the dominant form of Western civilization. Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE: [01:28] Once more, a read...

We've seen it all. Now we just have to get out. And to do that, we have to make a big turnaround on Virgil's shoulders. Right at Satan's butt. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we pass the center point in the universe, a place where the action of grace suddenly comes into focus. Satan is the way out of hell. Satan is the pivot for the entire universe. The way down has been the way up all along. Here ar...

We've come to our last moments in hell. Here, our pilgrim Dante sees the three worst sinners in human history: Judas Iscariot, Brutus, and Cassius. Wait . . . what? Brutus and Cassius. Indeed, being gnashed by Satan at the center of the earth. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we walk through this difficult passage and try to figure out its many tricky implications . . . and its little bit of bawdy hum...

Dante the pilgrim has seen the final vision of INFERNO: Satan, looked in the ice sheet of Cocytus. Perhaps it's wise to step back and think about where this figure of Satan comes from--and how it exists as a concept in Dante's day. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I try to clear away modern notions of Satan to see what's so unusual about Dante's portrayal. Here are the segments of this episode of WALK...

We're about to get a good look at Satan, closer and closer, until we can see the color of his faces. Yes, faces. Three of them. Some trinitarian perversion lies at the center of the universe. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we walk up to Satan with Dante, our pilgrim, and Virgil, his guide. We're nearing the end of the infernal landscape. And we're finding out what will replace it: awe. Here are the...

This episode is an interpolated one in the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE. We've just gone beyond the last of the seven direct addresses to the reader in INFERNO. Let's look back over all seven of them to discover what sort of reader Dante imagines for his poem and what Dante wants out of that reader. Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE: [01:15] The direct addresses to the read...