Brunetto Latini

In canto XV a company of souls comes along the bank and peers at Dante the way one looks at another under a new moon; one of them, his face baked by the fire, takes him by the hem and cries «Qual maraviglia!». It is Brunetto Latini, «la cara e buona imagine paterna», who taught him «come l’uom s’etterna». Whoever of that flock stops for a moment lies a hundred years under the fire without fanning himself, so he cannot stand still: «Però va oltre: i’ ti verrò a’ panni». In the game he walks on the sand beside the channel of the stream, under the fire that does not touch him, at the pace of the road you have covered, and he runs too when you run; if you stop he turns tightly on the spot, like those who never stop, and if you stay still too long he cuts it short.

His lines come with the road, one after another behind his voice, and at the end of his stretch he asks one thing only: his Tesoro, the book in which he still lives. Promise to carry it and he turns and runs off like the one who wins the green cloth at Verona, not the one who loses: his name goes into the book as promised. Tell him you are staying and he gives you one true thing about the sand: the great one lying on his back and cursing, let him talk, because every blow you give him makes more fire rain on everyone. His name goes in as taken by lying. Walk past in silence and he lets go of your hem and runs off across the sand.