Rick,
    I think we do have to admit that Pound made an error in picking Canto
xxiv rather than xxviii where we do find Bertrand. In re to Vanni Fucci my
notes say he was a bank robber who wasn't caught and kept silent as someone
else took the rap.
    I find Ciardi's translation of contrapasso to "law of Hell" wanting, but
to have to carry your brain around in a trunk is an interesting punishment.
I wonder what Camus could have done with that one.

Charles

----------
>From: Richard Seddon <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: New quiry
>Date: Mon, Feb 3, 2003, 9:53 AM
>

> Charles
>
> "lo contrapasso" are the last two words of Canto 28.  It is the end of a 12
> line statement of Bertrand de Born.
>
> Pinsky and the Temple Classics render it as "retribution"
>
> Ciardi last two lines:
> "an eye for an eye to all eternity:
>    thus is the law of Hell observed in me."
>
> Sayers last line
> "Thus is my measure measured in me again."
>
> Perhaps Pound is seeing the spirit of Bernard de Born's statement in Canto
> 28 expressed in Dante (pilgrim) and Vanni Fucci's  experiences in Canto 24.
> The two form a very interesting ideogram.
>
> Canto 24 can be read as being very much about Dante's self-realization of
> his own sins and weaknesses; even concern for his poetic skills.
>
> Rick Seddon
> McIntosh, NM