The Carnal

"Upon the Warring Winds"

The Inferno - Canto V - Circle Two

" I came to a place stripped bare of every light
and roaming on the naked dark like seas
wracked by a war of winds. Their hellish flight

of storm and counterstorm through time foregone,
sweeps the souls of the damned before its charge.
Whirling and battering it drives them on..."

translation by J. Ciardi

About the Drawing...

I first read this passage from an old Harvard Classic edition. Dantes places these
adultrous souls in a black windswept environment for as they flirted from lover to lover,
now they are forever blown by the winds of hell never to rest in one place.
Through Dante's vision, we are permitted a glimpse into this place of perpetual agony.

So beautiful were the words...the story of Paolo and Francesca. These two historic lovers
are depicted together in an eternal embrace.

Copyright 2002-2005, Jennifer Strange