OCT 20 (2023), singable satire: Leonard Cohen sings "DANTE VIEWS the PAIN OF LUST" (Canto 5b)

PASTICHE WITH PARODY SONG-LYRICS

ORIGINAL POEM:  "Inferno" by Dante Alighieri, the first book in the triad, "The Divine Comedy", written in the early 14th century.
ORIGINAL SONG: "Dance Me To The End Of Love",  Leonard Cohen, 1984.

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, November 2015.

PARODY-SONGLINK: To find ukulele and guitar chord-charts to help you accompany "Dante Meets the Pain of Lust" on your favorite instrument, click HERE.

                                                                                  

Inferno Canto#5b: 

DANTE MEETS THE PAIN OF LUST

(to the tune of "Dance Me To The End Of Love")

Intro: (reprise of Canto#5a)

Dante to the Second Circle warily descends

Dante with companion Virgil, Minos’ censure fends

A swirling flock of moaning souls who mortally
had letched

Choir-like, they are heard to kvetch

Choir-like, they are heard to kvetch.

 

Canto 5 continued:

Intesi che son dannati a così fatto tormento

Peccator che la ragion sommettono al talento

E come li stornei ne portano l’ali

Così quel fiato li spiriti mali

Quel fiato li spiriti mali.

Dante views the fate of those whose burning passion sinned
Buffeted like winter starlings by the smiting wind

Hurricanes that never rest tempestuously thrust,

And lash them with the winds of lust;

Damn them to the winds of lust.

Dante bears the witness, but his eyes he barely trusts,
Classical and literary lovers felled by Lust
Cleopatra, Semiramis, figures he knew well,
Tossing on the winds of Hell
Tossing on the winds of Hell.

Dante feels great pity for a thousand tortured shades

Torn by love from mortal life ‘though none of them had AIDS

Paolo and Francesca stop for coffee and a bite
Time-out from their endless flight

Time-out to describe their plight.

Paolo and Francesca were a pair to break your heart

Paolo and Francesca topped Ravenna’s scandal charts.

(Shakespeare’s sad Verona couple - not invented yet

So no-one knew of Juliet,

No-one heard of Juliet)    
 

Bro-in-law in castle garden, bad case of the hots;

Romance tales they read of Guinevere and Lancelot.

Bro Giovanni pulled his knife when they betrayed his trust
Murdered as revenge for lust

Murdered as revenge for lust.

Essa disse, “Esser basciato da cotanto amante,

Basciò e quel giorno non vi leggemmo avante

Dante, “Io venni men così com’io morisse

E caddi come corpo morto cade.

Caddi com'un morto cade.”

Dante learned how Frankie’d given into earthly bliss

When Paolo got his cue from reading of Sir Lancelot’s kiss 

Dante poet, overwhelmed by anguish, felt so crushed

He fainted with this tale of lust.

Dante felt the pain of lust.

Gianciotto, may he dwell in Caina; Caina, Caina, Caina, Caina, Caina Cai... 
Gianciotto, may he dwell in Caina; Caina, Caina, Caina, Caina, Caina, Cai.. 

Gianciotto ( or Giovanni the lame) - disparaging nickname for Giovanni Malatesta

Caina - a pit in the lowest ring of Hell reserved for those who have committed treachery and violence against family members (named after Cain, Abraham's son)

Italy in the late Medieval Period