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2171b9b
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There are souls beneath that water. Fixed in slime they speak their piece, end it, and start again: 'Sullen were we in the air made sweet by the Sun; in the glory of his shining our hearts poured a bitter smoke. Sullen were we begun; sullen we lie forever in this ditch.' This litany they gargle in their throats as if they sand, but lacked the words and pitch.
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divine-comedy
inferno
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Dante Alighieri |
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235eabf
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...It is the one time Dante calls such explicit attention to the idea of contrapasso-a word for which we have no exact translation, no precise definition in English, because the word in itself is its definition... Well, my dear Longfellow, I would say countersuffering ... the notion that each sinner must be punished by continuing the damage of his own sin against him... just as these Schismatics are cut apart...
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divine-comedy
sin
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Matthew Pearl |
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e0096fe
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"No, never mind, I didn't think so. Mead, Dante's theme is man-not a man.' Lowell said finally with a mild patience that he reserved only for students. "The Italians forever twitch at Dante's sleeves trying to make him say he is of their politics and their way of thinking. Their way indeed! To confine it to Florence or Italy is to banish it from the sympathies of mankind. We read Paradise Lost as a poem but Dante's Comedy as a chronicle of our inner lives. Do you boys know of Isaiah 38:10"
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divine-comedy
paradise-lost
john-milton
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Matthew Pearl |