In Dante\u2019s frightful underworld, sinners face a descending funnel of worsening torments keyed to their sins. The lustful are blown about in a whirlwind; the violent boil in a river of blood. But betrayers, alone at the bottom, are savaged by the one called emperor of the realm of grief, in person.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re buried in ice, because you\u2019ve buried yourself in ice,\u201d\u009d Mr. Pinsky, the nation\u2019s poet laureate from 1997 to 2000 and a Dante scholar, said in an interview on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Poetic justice, indeed.<\/p>\n
It is fitting, Mr. Pinsky says. Betrayal destroys the trust that binds humanity, and with it, the betrayer himself. Dante was consumed by the sadness and mystery of sin \u201d\u201d and what it did to the sinner:<\/p>\n
How is it that we choose to sin and wither?
\nLike waves above Charybdis, each crashing apart
\nAgainst the one it rushes to meet …<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a poem about \u201d\u02dcyou did this, you get this,\u2019 \u201d\u009d Mr. Pinsky says. \u201cIt\u2019s about the mystery of how you hurt yourself. It\u2019s like the Talmud says: the evils others do to me are as nothing compared to the evils I do to myself.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n