Mary Jo Bang and Kevin Young on Purgatorio, The New Yorker (2019)
“I think that the other aspect of the note is my trying to rationalize my own translation decisions. So, for instance, in in one of the cantos, in one of the early cantos in Purgatorio, Dante and Virgil encounter Belacqua, who is lounging in a shadow and being very sarcastic about Dante’s hurry to get up to the top of Mount Purgatory. He says, Fine, Mr. Lightning Bolt, you go right on up to the top. And at that point, Dante realizes who he is. And commentators link this to a bookseller that Dante used to know who would sit around all day. And Dante was always teasing him about his laziness. And so he’s using him as an example. But this. You go right on up, Mr. Lightning Bolt.” —Mary Jo Bang, in conversation with Kevin Young, The New Yorker, December 23, 2019
Sighting Citation:
“Mary Jo Bang and Kevin Young on Purgatorio, The New Yorker (2019).” Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante’s Works in Contemporary Culture. Elizabeth Coggeshall and Arielle Saiber, eds. January 30, 2020. https://www.dantetoday.org/sightings/mary-jo-bang-and-kevin-young-on-purgatorio-the-new-yorker-2019/.Related Sighting
Mary Jo Bang, Purgatorio (2021)