You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
PROLOGUE<br />
There is a world full of partitions and borders. This world is self-destructive.<br />
It is inhabited by individuals whose luck and prosperity in life<br />
are determined by their place of birth. Some of them are lucky, some<br />
of them are not. And that is their biggest sin.<br />
The sinners find themselves in a dark forest. The darkness they are<br />
surrounded with is colored with bloody combats or demonstrations of<br />
the cataclysmic power of nature. They must not stay there anymore,<br />
but there is hardly a way out. Remaining trapped, they turn to Virgil,<br />
their inner instinct and a guide to salvation to show them the way to<br />
Heaven, a better life.<br />
106 REFUGIUM<br />
‘‘In the middle of the<br />
journey of our life, I<br />
came to myself in a<br />
dark forest where the<br />
straight way was lost’’<br />
Nel mezzo del cammino<br />
di nostra vita mi<br />
ritrovai per una selva<br />
oscura ché la diritta via<br />
era smarrita.<br />
Dante Alighieri<br />
Divina Commedia<br />
Canto I, lines 1–3<br />
‘‘In the middle of the journey of our life, I came to myself in a dark forest<br />
where the straight way was lost’’ /Nel mezzo del cammino di nostra<br />
vita mi ritrovai per una selva oscura ché la diritta via era smarrita./<br />
But Virgil knows no other way to Heaven than through Hell and Purgatory.<br />
Yet the sinners’ Journey begins, on the banks of the dark rough<br />
waters, where souls await passage into Hell proper.<br />
The journey through hell is unpredictable, hardly bearable, the circles<br />
are measured in kilometers passed. Reaching each gate gives a little<br />
bit of hope whispering that the pain, sweat and tears were not in vain<br />
and that Heaven is closer than it seems.<br />
But self-proclaimed Gods have closed the gates. They have built towering<br />
fences and walls around their heavens, leaving the sinners out<br />
and allowing only the chosen ones in.<br />
The state of flux becomes the state of congestion. Stuck in their Purgatory,<br />
left feeling unfulfilled, due to their unfinished journey, they want<br />
to enter the heaven they are prohibited from. As long as hope still has<br />
its bit of green /Mentre che la speranza ha fior del verde/ they remain<br />
permanently in this temporary limbo of their own salvation.<br />
Gustave Doré - Purgatorio , illustration from Dante’s Divine Comedy
Change language