Purgatorio

In Purgatorio, Dante calls out for poetry to “rise again from the dead / oh holy muses, for yours I am.” The most rewarding—yet the least celebrated—book of Dante’s Divine Comedy is brought to the twenty-first century for English language readers by master poet W.S. Merwin, whose reverence for the text imbues his translation with rich music and emotional resonance. Following Inferno, Purgatorio takes place on Earth: a journey towards paradise, beginning with emergence and propelled by hope. Led by Virgil and inspired by his legendary love for Beatrice, Dante scales the terraces of Mount Purgatory. Along the way our sympathetic hero relates allegories and dialogues with characters from history, literature, and the author’s own life, exploring vice and virtue, illuminating the great moral questions of the fourteenth century—which are not so different than our own. When asked why he translated this book, as opposed to the Inferno or Paradiso, Merwin responded, “Those books have a finality I found less attractive. The Purgatorio is more like life.” Presented in a bilingual edition with the translator’s notes and commentary, Merwin’s Purgatorio is work of art that will add depth, complexity, and song to every reader’s library.