Guido da Montefeltro is trapped in a tongue of fire in the eighth of the malebolge (evil pouches) that make up the eighth circle of hell, the landscape of fraud. But rather than bemoan his fate, he wants to know the fate of his beloved Romagna, where he was a mercenary for years.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look over this elliptical and opaque passage, which is the pilgrim's response to Guido's question of whether his home is at war or peace these days.

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

[02:57] My English translation of the passage: Inferno, Canto XXVII, lines 31 - 57. If you''d like to read along or drop a comment, please do so on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[05:16] The pilgrim's eager desire is still intact toward the figures in the eighth evil pouch of fraud.

[06:32] Two nice details in the opening tercet (or three-line stanza).

[09:08] The big word for this passage: "tyrants."

[11:03] Rationales for the opaque and elliptical complications in Dante the pilgrim's response.

[14:34] The fate of seven cities in Romagna. The peace in 1) Ravenna and 2) Cervia, thanks to the Polenta family.

[17:06] The bloodbath at 3) Forlí (and the victory for Guido da Montefeltro) in the late 1200s.

[18:48] The defeat of the Ghibellines in 4) Rimini in the late 1200s.

[21:58] The fates of 5) Faenza and 6) Imola in 1300.

[24:23] The uneasy freedom in 7) Cesena in 1300.

[25:46] Something intriguing: Dante is careful to give this history lesson as of 1300, the date of the action (but not the writing) of the poem.

[28:08] After all this bloody political history, Dante appeals to Guido's personal vanity.

[30:11] Reading the passage once again, all the way back to the start of Canto XXVII.