Stanley Lombardo

Um, so it's much...

I- in the, like so if I were teaching The Odyssey, which I have, I've used like an abridged version, and I know abr- abridging versions is, is, you know, taboo in, in some literary worlds, but I actually think the abridged version of The Odyssey that was edited by Stanley Lombardo was actually pretty good because I do think that there is a lot of [laughs] fluff in The Odyssey, or at least moments where, yeah, where what is happening is important to the sort of overall vibes, but it isn't actually directly important to the plot and the momentum of what is particularly happening.

And so it kind of can be cut, and I don't feel like that could be done as easily with the Aeneid-

So far

This is Purgatorio Canto 18, starting at line 40.

I'm in the Stanley Lombardo translation.

Your words and my wit in following them, I said, so the pilgrim is speaking, have revealed the nature of love to me, but that has filled me with even more doubt.

For if love is offered from outside of us, and if the soul moves on no other foot than love, it has no merit in going straight or crooked.