In all
the years that he spent in the composition of the Divina Commedia there
was no flagging of interest, no indication of weakness. No one ever
applied himself with more complete absorption or with greater power
of unfaltering concentration, just as no one ever felt more deeply
the outrageous arrows of fortune or the transcendent supremacy of love.
It is precisely because of this intensity that his thoughts and feelings
affect us so profoundly six centuries later.
Intense in his own life Dante had no sympathy with slackers or the
lukewarm whom he characterizes as never having been alive, i.e. of never
having awakened to responsibility to take part in good or evil. As a
consequence they never contributed anything to society. Because in this
life they shifted from one side to another, they are now depicted
running perpetually after an aimlessly dodging banner. Here is the
description of the punishment of the lukewarm:
"Now sighs, cries, and shrill shrieks rang through the starless air:
Whereat at first I began to weep, strange tongues, hurried speech, words
of pain, accents of wrath, voices loud and weak, and the sound of hands
accompanying them, made a tumult which revolves forever in that air
endlessly dark, like sands blowing before a whirlwind.
Pages:
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74