PARADISO (THE DIVINE COMEDY) by DANTE ALIGHIERI (translated by Allen Mendelbaum)

081712. friday.

hi there! HAHA. if ever you noticed, many of my posts lately are about the recent books i’ve read. spare me the blame ‘coz i haven’t been doing anything else aside from reading. i’m too broke to go out often and squander money! HAHA. well, hope this doesn’t bore you. :)

time for this blogpost’s subject.

i had to make some adjustments since this Paradiso came from a collection(Bantam Classics) different from where the first two(Signet Classics) were taken. unlike the first two books, this doesn’t have a longer and more comprehensive introduction which i found very helpful when i read Inferno and Purgatorio. Paradiso was more challenging to me since i had to depend on the poem and the notes solely. this time i’d really know whether or not i have a mind capable  of understanding poetry. HAHA.

the final ascent of Dante, the culmination of all that he’s been through is found in Paradiso.

what the last part of The Divine Comedy contains is quite different from what i expected. i thought there’d be no more voyage. then again, the whole story revolved on Dante’s journey to the top, but that, according to his narration, there really are no lower or higher points here. this is the case only because this is as far as human-like capacity is able to grasp. everyone is equal in heaven, and that wherever an angel/seraphim/cherubim can be is where that being wished to be. and because the phenomena here are not something human can easily perceive, Dante has had more questions compared with Inferno and Purgatorio. and as a reader, i was even more confused. HAHA.

Paradiso follows the same pattern as the first two - exploration of different stages, accounts of stories from notable beings, Dante’s comprehension of the many puzzles.

for me, the moving parts were  found in the last chapters of the book only, when he’s already in the Empyrean where all the beatified and blessed are truly placed, together with Mary and God.

this is an illustration (provided by the book)  of how Dante  perceived the universe in the epic poem. 

as a whole, i guess the The Divine Comedy has become too complex and too serious that i didn’t find anything astonishing about it. not that it’s not good, it is great actually. it’s just that these books(Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso) are less on emotions, more on details and reasons. the many clarifications took over the whole story. i don’t know with other people, but that’s how i see it. HAHA.

nonetheless, there are still a lot of essential lessons that can be extracted from what i’ve read. here, it was all about contentment and achievement of desire. i also mentioned some lessons in my posts about Inferno and Purgatorio. the learning is what made the reading worth it. :)

again, THANK YOU for the books, ate delee! HAHA.