The Sound Of Dante

Its a black December night. Through the floorboards cold air seeps. I scribble pencil to paper. On my desk, Dante’s Inferno lies; the crumbled front cover cleaves the introduction page.

Dante plunged me in a baptismal font, headfirst; flames emerged. My feet thrashed at the other end. Bent at the waist, Dante frowned, peered down on me.

“Languages diverse, horrible dialects,

    Accents of anger, words of agony,

    And voices high and hoarse, with sound of hands,

Made up a tumult that goes whirling on

    Forever in that air forever black,

    Even as the sand doth, when the whirlwind breathes.

I saw upon the sides and on the bottom

   The livid stone with perforations filled,

   All of one size, and every one was round.

Out of the mouth of each one there protruded

   The feet of a transgressor, and the legs

   Up to the calf, the rest within remained…”

-Dante, Inferno, Canto XIX, X

I woke up at 3am, flipped the light switch, journaled.

“Had a nightmare. Dante’s Inferno, canto 19. I was shoved headfirst in a fiery baptismal font. I was the middle one. Dante peered down on me, frowning. Jeff, take Christian Faith claims seriously: investigate them.”

After investigation into the Christian Faith’s truth claims, I converted to Protestantism, and later Catholicism. Pondering my 2020 nightmare, the vowel sounds from Dante’s Inferno gave volume to my dream:

In my dream, the a vowel triggered my mind’s theater: “languages/accents/agony.” I didn’t read Dante’s Inferno. I heard Dante’s Inferno; I heard the vowel a.

Accents of anger, words of agony, the sounds of hands, produced my dream’s sound affect. The sounds in my dream helped convert me to the Catholic Faith.