We're nearing the center of the universe, a place where we can feel the weight of everything bearing down on us.

Our pilgrim is showing the strain. Violent. Erratic. Our poet, too. Trying to convince us he really took this journey.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we walk with Dante and (silent!) Virgil across the final ice sheet of hell, the ninth circle, into Antenora, the realm of those who've been treacherous to their own political parties or countries (or even literary forefathers).

Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:48] My English translation of this passage: INFERNO, Canto XXXII, lines 70 - 102. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:27] Two problems: I've divided a single passage into two parts for this podcast and we must make many inferences to make any of these passages make sense.

[06:26] Three translation problems: "cagnazzi," "gravezza," and "se fossi vivo."

[15:26] The poet appears in the passage--and predicts his own future, based on the reality of this journey.

[18:05] Why is this passage so violent? Three answers: 1) the pilgrim's progress (the traditional answer), 2) the poet's frustration, or 3) COMEDY's structure as a series of interlocking and bracketed events and situations which do not offer linear development.

[26:28] The pilgrim is keeping notes, thereby further asserting the "realism" of the journey.

[30:10] Antenora: the second sub-ring of Cocytus, named for a Trojan traitor, Antenor.

[34:24] Dante is being a traitor to his literary party, too.