DANTE'S LANCIALLOTTO

Speranza

Inferno V

Francesca speaks

Noi leggiavamo un giorno per diletto
Di LANCIALLOTTO come amor lo strinse;
Soli eravamo e sanza alcun sospetto.

"Paolo and I were reading for pleasure about Lanciallotto & how he was swept away by love. Alone we were innocently reading"

Per piu’ fiate li occhi ci sospinse
Quella lettura e scolorocci il viso,
Ma solo un punto fu quel che ci vinse.

While we were reading we began to glance at one and other
The colour drained from our face and we became pale
But there was one point in the story that overwhelmed us

Quando leggemmo il disiato riso
Esser baciato da cotanto amante,
Questi, che mai da me non fia diviso,

Once reading about Ginevra’s smile After she was kissed by her dearly beloved Paolo and I became inseparable

La bocca mi bascio tutto tremante,
Galeotto fu ‘l libro e chi lo scrisse.
Quel giorno piu’ non vi leggemmo avante.”

Paolo kissed my mouth and he was trembling
The book was our Galeotto, our go between and what brought us together, like Galeotto was for Lanciallotto and Ginevra
From that day on we didn’t read on

*Dante speaks

Mentre che l’uno spirto questo disse,
L’atro piangea si che di pietade
Io venni men, cosi com’ io morisse;

While Francesca was telling us her story;
Paolo was crying desperatly for the compassion I felt for him
I started to lose consciousness

E caddi come corpo morto cade.
And I fainted like a dead body falls.

context of the selected passage
Dante Alighieri’s – La Divina Comedia
Inferno V – terza rima

the infernal circle
The second circle of hell where the souls are punished for those who committed the sin of Lust.
the contrapasso

Contrapasso is Dante Alighieri’s own technique which is used as a punishment device in hell (each circle has its own particular punishment).

However in the second circle of Lust he uses "La bufera infernal" which is a stormy wind that is a mirror image of lust, that stops people being rational and reasonable.