Commentary Par XXVI 9

The past participle, smarrita, of the verb smarrire (to confuse, discourage, bewilder) is used to suggest Dante's inner state in [Inf I 3], [Inf II 64], [Inf V 72], [Inf X 125], and [Inf XIII 24] (see C.Inf.X.125). In most of those situations, the protagonist felt sympathy for the damned. Here, in the penultimate occurrence of the word to indicate his inner state, his loss of the faculty of vision is not the result of his sinfulness, but represents only a temporary failing (a result of his remaining tendency to see with carnal eyes?) in his increasing capacity to understand things divine. A final occurrence of the verb to indicate that condition awaits ([Par XXXIII 77]); there it will refer to a rather different (and loftier) 'confusion' on the protagonist's part.