I’m hoping to go to a seminar on Dante next Saturday so I floated around on the web looking for something entertaining, in Dante land. I landed in Canto 8 in Purgatorio in a different translation from those I’m most familiar with. 

Dante is still in the ante-Purgatory, discussing his journey and why he still has a body. If he gets through his travels, he will be able to come back to Purgatory for real when he dies, as opposed to being damned permanently. Malaspina wishes Dante good luck. 

So may the lantern leading you above

Have ample wax in the candle of your will

To bring you to the enameled summit,

[Currado Malaspina] said, (to Dante)

Canto 8, line 112-114  Robert Hollander 

Hmm….  For fun I went and checked Dorothy Sayers

So may thy guiding light in thy free will

Find wax enough to feed on till thou stand

Safe on the flower-bright summit of the hill…”

And Anthony Esolen

So may the lamp which leads you still to rise

Find in your own free will sufficient wax

To reach the glittering heights of Paradise…

Esolen’s booknotes point to line 90 where the word lamp is used first. Dante asks about those 

“three lamps whose brilliance makes the pole all burn Here in the south.” Esolen

Dante is looking at three stars in the sky, which all the other translators call torches.

“… three torches With which this hither pole is all on fire.” Longfellow

The stars are usually considered to represent faith, hope, and charity. I assume Esolen used same word, lamp, for the stars and for Dante’s will, on purpose, to tie the two ideas together. Further, the light in Dante’s lantern/lamp/will seems to be related to the light of the wise virgins, whose fuel is good deeds. 

The enameled summit is the flower-strewn earthly Paradise on top of Mount Purgatorio, as Sayers’ translation makes clear.  The ‘heavenly’ Paradise is not a mountain and is not strewn with flowers, being a flower in itself. 

It is striking then to remember that the valley where Dante is resting is described as beyond beautiful, in Canto 7. Perhaps it is a preview of the earthly Paradise. Most of Mount Purgatory is rather desolate.

Gold leaf and silver, ruby-grain, pure white,

Deep indigo and amber of the wood,

Fresh emerald flashing when it’s split in flakes —

If these were set among the flowers and grass

In the lap of that glade, their hues would be 

vanquished…    

(Esolen Purgatorio, Canto 7 lines 73-78)

** More translations… 

So may the lamp, which leads thee up on high,

Find, in thy destin’d lot, of wax so much,

As may suffice thee to the enamel’s height.”  Henry Cary

“So may the lantern that leads you on high

discover in your will the wax one needs—

enough for reaching the enameled peak,”   Mandelbaum

“So may the light that leadeth thee on high

Find in thine own free—will as much of wax

As needful is up to the highest azure,”   Longfellow