The Swimmers

In the poem they throw themselves into the boat «ad una ad una» (Inf. III 116); in the game, which has put a living man in the boat, they throw themselves in behind it. It is not hatred: the place aboard was theirs and somebody who is not dead has taken it. Whoever reaches the side takes hold and climbs, and whoever climbs pulls you down.

Of the crossing the poem says nothing: Dante faints on one bank and wakes on the other, «in su la proda». The game fills that gap with the canto’s own materials, the souls that throw themselves in, the oar that strikes «qualunque s’adagia» (Inf. III 111), and at the end the wind, the red light and the fainting. That is why the chapter does not end when you step aboard: it ends falling onto the far bank, and it says so.

They are not looking for you, they are looking for the boat, which is a thing with a written course; once at the side they look for the middle of the deck, and if you are there they find you the way you find an obstacle, by touching it. The arrow pins them where they are, and one left hanging with the shaft in it lets go after a while and goes under; the censer unmakes them. Astern there is nothing to do, because the oar takes care of it.