Beautiful and thoughtful. Beautifully written. But the word you refer to in the opening lines of Inferno is “selva” not “silva” (which is not an Italian word).
Brilliant exegesis on Canto XIII. The idea that suicides turned themselves into what shoudve been their salvation (the cross as tree) is kinda haunting. I remember reading Inferno in college and totally missing that inverted sacramental logic. The connection between breaking branches to reveal speech and Christ's broken body giving us the Word feels almost too perfect yet somehow Dante pulls it off without beign preachy.
Thank you very much for reading. I also first read Dante in college and felt stuck with a sense that I was missing some crucial significance to Canto XIII. I've been pondering, on and off for ten years, the enigmatic details in the canto, and decided to finally see if my interpretation made any sense to others.
Beautiful and thoughtful. Beautifully written. But the word you refer to in the opening lines of Inferno is “selva” not “silva” (which is not an Italian word).
Great catch, thank you! My mind went straight to the Latin root and I failed to double check the spelling after quoting it from memory. I’ll fix it.
Brilliant exegesis on Canto XIII. The idea that suicides turned themselves into what shoudve been their salvation (the cross as tree) is kinda haunting. I remember reading Inferno in college and totally missing that inverted sacramental logic. The connection between breaking branches to reveal speech and Christ's broken body giving us the Word feels almost too perfect yet somehow Dante pulls it off without beign preachy.
Thank you very much for reading. I also first read Dante in college and felt stuck with a sense that I was missing some crucial significance to Canto XIII. I've been pondering, on and off for ten years, the enigmatic details in the canto, and decided to finally see if my interpretation made any sense to others.