English, he says, is a "rhyme-poor" language compared with Dante's Italian. Scarce the ascent Began, when, lo! A third choice is a translation written in blank verse (iambic pentameter). Such an adoption would have given a modern reader a similar feel Dantes meter gives Italian readers. Two hundred years ago,Pride and Prejudicewas anonymously published. He's seeking a knowledge that his life has been worthwhile. That there have been a lot of translations of the Comedy can be seen by glancing at the Wikipedia page "English translations of Dante's Divine Comedy. While the one spirit said this, the other was so weeping that through pity I swooned as if I had been dying, and fell as a dead body falls. A sinner, in the manner of a brake, So that he three of them tormented thus. Dante is in a spiritual crisis, and I think you have to have been in one of your own to understand what he's talking about. Last year marked the 750th anniversary of Dantes birth in 1265, and as expected for a writer so famousEliot claimed Dante and Shakespeare divide the modern world between them; there is no thirdthe solemn commemorations abounded, especially in Italy where many cities have streets and monuments dedicated to their Sommo Poeta, Supreme Poet. He produced one of the first complete, and in many respects still the best, English translations of The Divine Comedy in 1867. Prose translations are great for communicating the story and its nuances, however any poetical structure is lost. For example Divine Comedy was written around 1308 A.D. to 1321 A.D, in which he has depicted many Popes as suffering eternal damnation in hell namely Pope Anastasius II and Pope Nicholas III. Pinsky does leave you hanging after the Inferno, though. Posted in Books, Dante, Divine Comedy The Divine Comedy in translation. In exile, he paid homage to his true love, Beatrice, and by choosing to write in his Tuscan vernacular instead of Latin, transformed the Italian language. And thats the miracle of Dante: somehow his writing still makes sense seven centuries after it was conceived, so long as we manage to read slowly, between, behind, and around what he called his versi strani, strange verses. I heard it said: "Take heed how thou dost go. The Divine Comedy is also a work of literary beauty that is beyond being antiquated by time or diminished by repeated translation. For the straightforward pathway had been lost. The latest has been undertaken by a writer who is perhaps best known for his pointed and funny criticisms of culture. It proceeds on a journey that, in its intense recreation of the depths and the heights of human experience, has become the key with which Western civilization has sought to unlock the mystery of its own identity. Only a dense cage of leaf, tree, and twig. . My preference for a rhyming attempt wins out over Mary Jo Bangs exuberant rendering, but only by a smidgen. encouraged to direct suggestions, comments, or complaints concerning any accessibility issues You can opt-out of the sale or sharing of personal information anytime. accessibility issues with Rutgers web sites to accessibility@rutgers.edu My favorite version is by Mark Musa (written in blank verse). The Divine Comedy, after all, is a poem, and its meanings are contained as much in sound as in "sense." Verse translations require more courage, and more thinking, because they are generally . His translation of the Divine Comedy (especially Inferno and Purgatorio) is one of my favorite translations of anything. The translation is so similar, the result is a palimpsest, two works, one on top of the other, an original and a performance, difficult to tell apart. Seeing translation in this light, may help decide which Dante to read. I just saw the great discussion about the Iliad and I thought I'd ask my question about. Creator of Dante Explorer The Divine Comedy, finished by Dante Alighieri in 1320, is one of the most famous literary works of all time, and its author is considered the father of the Italian language. While it is true that Rogerss translation is more faithful from a structural standpoint there are some instances in which such an adherence forces other content-related translation loss which is not present in Nortons. In the very first line it is noticed when Dante writes Cos discesi del cerchio primario(34), Rogers translates it to From the first circle we descended down(17), which is a more faithful translation than Dayman writing So I plunged downwards from that upper ring(35), which is a more communicative way of translating. These two lovers, condemned to an eternity in the Circle of the Lustful, pose a heart-wrenching questionone, as I wrote in my In a Dark Wood, that those of us who have lost our earthly loves know all too well: how do you love somebody without a body? like a wheel in perfect motion, Inferno, Canto I. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri is an epic poem in Italian written between 1308 and 1321 that describes its author's journey through the Christian afterlife. She is beloved for her sweeping. Its not easy to break the code of The Divine Comedy, a work steeped in a medieval Christian vision that can cause readers like Victor Hugo to avert their eyes from its more celestial passages. So I'm interested in doing a first read of Dante Alighieri's La Divina Commedia and I'm not sure which English translation I should choose. Just for joining youll get personalized recommendations on your dashboard daily and features only for members. purchase. When translating the Divine Comedy, the translator often has to choose between capturing the original meaning or capturing the poetry, often choosing an intermediate between the two. What, for us, would really be paradise? Noticeably missing in Rogerss version is Dantes comio morisse which had to be dropped to stay within the meter however was able to be kept Nortons prose-style translation along with the repetition of falling in the final line. I've only read one, but Mark Musa's Penguin classics translation seemed pretty good to me What's the consensus on Allen Mandelbaum's translation? It is technically prose; however he decides to invoke quite a lot of poetic structure throughout the translation, such as, I understood that to such torment are condemned the carnal sinners Postponing the subject (as is done in the originals) is not normally allowed in English prose, thus lending to the fusion-like feeling of this translation. Francesca, by citing the poem and the Sweet New Style, is saying: it wasnt my fault, blame it on love. Famed translators Pevear and Volokhonsky reach another milestone. io venni men cos com io morisse. Available in two English translations as well as the original Italian on the EDSITEment-reviewed Digital Dante site, Dante's The Comedy (or "Divine Comedy") begins with lines that suggest it will be a pilgrimage of a rather different sort than the festive trip to Canterbury: "When I had journeyed half of our life's way, / I found myself . He first met Bice Portinari, whom he called Beatrice, in 1274; she inspired his most famous poetry, including the Vita Nuova, which More about Dante Alighieri, The English Dante of choice. Hugh KennerExactly what we have waited for these years, a Dante with clarity, eloquence, terror, and profoundly moving depths. Robert Fagles, Princeton UniversityA marvel of fidelity to the original, of sobriety, and truly, of inspired poetry. Henri Peyre, Yale University, Sign up for news about books, authors, and more from Penguin Random House, Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network. On the 750th birthday of Dante Alighiericomposer of the dizzyingly epic medieval poem the Divine ComedyEnglish professor John Kleiner pointed to one way of helping undergraduate students understand the Italian poet's importance: an "obvious comparison" with Shakespeare. I'm going to third the choice of John Ciardi. But Hugos attack suggests the particular challenge in reading Dante, whose writing can seem remote and impenetrable to modern tastes. (And wood is rhymed with rude at the end of the first line of the next stanza, so we know Sayers is attempting to replicate Dantes rhyme pattern ofaba,bcb,cdc, et cetera.). The others are in three line verses like the original. While Rogers does not maintain a rhyme scheme, nor Dantes famous hendecasyllable structure per se, he does opt for using a classical English poetic meter, the iambic pentameter. I couldn't have done it when I was younger. Hardcover, 527 pages. Permission required for reprinting, reproducing, or other uses. Which leadeth others right by every road. They also both have good notes (a necessity). In conclusion, Nortons translation may have radically dropped the poetic format of The Divine Comedy, however writing in prose allowed him to stay more faithful with the content in the work whereas Rogerss translation is better suited if the reader would like to experience reading Dantes work as a poem, that being said even the structure used by Norton alludes many times to poetic verse. But the musicians performance doesnt look anything like a score; the two couldnt be any more different. This nineteenth-century blank-verse version by Longfellow sounds surprisingly modern: For the straightforward pathway had been lost. Out of the two I've read (Charles Sisson. The Divine Comedy in translation (what to look for, comparison of opening lines) - YouTube The vlog form of a blog I did in July 2021, discussing translations of The Divine Comedy. Sinclair's is a prose translation from the thirties. Not only are constant rhymes difficult to translate, but Dante also uses rich and ambiguous language in his poems. Compare translation samples from the Divine Comedy, specifically Inferno, Canto I: 1-12 blank tercets blank verse defective terza rime free verse prose terza rime Dante Alighieri John Ciardi Robert Durling Anthony M. Esolen Robert and Jean Hollander Robin Kirkpatrick Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Allen Mandelbaum Mark Musa Robert Pinsky Dorothy L . Mandelbaum: seen as the scholarly translation and is used in many university classes on The Divine Comedy but some consider it dry and unpoetic. Hilary Mantel, one of Britains most revered novelists, died last year at the age of 70. New Jersey, Report Accessibility Barrier or The grading is as follows: 3 = perfectly faithful, 2 = defensible paraphrase (same basic meaning), 1 = dodgy paraphrase, 0 = unforgivable paraphrase (putting words in Dante's mouth). 5 Rodgers translation reads When, reading that her captivating smile/ Was by the Lover she adored kissd;/ But from that day we never read int more, which is awkward to read for a modern day English speaker. John Ciardi (1954) I don't remember ever reading Mandelbaum but I believe my daughter used both Mandelbaum and Hollander in College and she preferred the Hollander. Translated by Charles Rogers, London Printed by J. Nichols, 1782. https://archive.org/details/infernoofdantetr00dantuoft. Rogers The vlog form of a blog I did in July 2021, discussing translations of The Divine Comedy (what to look for, general issues, best-known versions). with Rutgers web sites to accessibility@rutgers.edu or complete the Report Accessibility Barrier or In other words: treat the poem as Dante the character treated his journey, something to be undertaken step by step. Long translations from the Divine Comedyare provided following the original Italian verse, and where necessary in the analysis the Italian is referenced. "So there we were, actually duplicating the situation in the canto, because the two lovers are reading a book that's what brought them together. Copyright 2023, Rutgers, The State University of gi volgeva il mio disio e l velle, Liveright Publishing Having been a bookseller for more than a decade, I know that one of the most frequently asked questions from readers is, Which translation should I read of DantesDivine Comedy? Provide Feedback Form. Allen Mandelbaums translation goes like this: When I had journeyed half of our lifes way. ", Clive James is both an Officer of the Order of Australia and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. I'm a bit biased in favor of Sayers' translation, as that's the one that introduced me to Dante in the first place. Any other translations you'd like to recommend are fine with me. During one Spirit was relating this, The three parts of the Divine Comedy - Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso - are an expression of faith undertaken to the glory of God, and a demonstration of the use to which God's gifts can be put. from the straight pathway to this tangled ground. View all posts by Dave. Talking about a translators approach and methodology can help answer the question. For more information about the Divine Comedy, view our Divine Comedy Page Enjoy! Phi Beta Kappa This page allows you to compare five passages from seven verse translations side by side. encouraged to direct suggestions, comments, or complaints concerning any accessibility issues A collection of 100 poems to be exact, one for each canto, some more sublime than others. Her methodology comes from picking up a book of poems by Caroline Bergvall and reading Via (48 Dante Variations), a found poem, she writes, composed entirely of the first three lines of theInfernoculled from forty-seven translations archived in the British Library as of May 2000). T. S. Eliot called such poetry the most beautiful ever writtenand yet so few of us have ever read it. Start earning points for buying books! As Victor Hugo wrote about The Divine Comedys blessed realms, The human eye was not made to look upon so much light, and when the poem becomes happy, it becomes boring.. These breathtaking lines conclude Dante's Divine Comedy, a 14,000-line epic written in 1321 on the state of the soul after death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of world literature. Three passages are from the Inferno, one from Purgatory, and the last from Paradise. I really loved Robert Pinsky's translation of the Inferno, for readability. The Divine Comedy has a complex rhyme scheme that suits itself well to the rhyme-rich language of Italian (where, unlike English, many words end in vowels). When I reconciled myself to that, I was off and running. Since childhood they had exchanged in passing the one word their families would allowSalute! " It took nearly five hundred years from Dante's death for there to be a translation of all three parts of the poem. Looking specifically at Canto V, we will examine that there are different methods that go into translation, as seen in the translations by Charles Rogers (1782) and John Dayman (1865). I felt the necessity for understanding, for redemption, if you will, and I think some of that went into my reading and my writing. The Divine Comedy is a 14th century poem that has never lost its edge. ", James was diagnosed in 2010 with both leukemia and lung disease, and he jokes that both conditions are conspiring to kill him even as he speaks. I heard a voice cry: "Watch which way you turn: I heard this said to me: "Watch how you pass; I heard a voice cry out, "Watch where you step! In which I had abandoned the true way. Compare limitless combinations of the poem, translations, and commentaries; Filter over 300,000 lines of text; Perform up to four individual searches simultaneously; Browse 700 years' worth of commentaries; Read the poem with facing-page translation That's why we've put together this ultimate guide to help you make a decision. Rutgers is an equal access/equal opportunity institution. The following version appears to be in Terza Rima: La Divina Commedia / The Divine Comedy - A Translation into English in Iambic Pentameter, Terza Rima Form. And I was so fascinated with what she told me, about how Dante's verse worked, that the idea never left me, that I should try to make my own poetry as interesting as that. Yet Dante has the unenviable fate of having become more known than read: his name is immediately recognizable, his achievements justly acknowledged, but outside the classroom or graduate seminar, only the hardiest of literary enthusiasts pick up his Divine Comedy. Canto V is when Dante has descended into the second circle of hell. Privacy Policy, Photo-illustration from Sandro Botticelli's portrait of Dante by Stephanie Bastek (Wikimedia Commons), Hilary Mantel, one of Britains most revered novelists, died last year at the age of 70. [1] The three cantiche [i] of the poem, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, describe hell, purgatory, and heaven respectively. lamor che move l sole e laltre stelle. #4 -- we'll just assume that's tongue-in-cheek. Missing is Dantes dico or I mean which is crucial to the meaning of him clarifying what he has already said. Many have translated the work, and there are many ways to go about translating Dante. Since the poem appeared, and especially in modern times, those readers intrepid enough to take on Dante have tended to focus on the first leg of his journey, through the burning fires of Inferno. In addition, its well suited for English (Shakespeare wrote much of his work in blank verse). Mandelbaum, will, in fact, interject rhyme if its not forced (as he does with way and stray). In honor of Mantels enormous contributions to literature, dive back into her Tudor world with Penelope Rowlandss essay about one of the key power dynamics Mantel explored: that between Cromwell and Sir Thomas More. Again, it might come down to your trust in a translators skill in keeping up the rhyme pattern. Also included are forty-two drawings selected from Botticellis marvelous late-fifteenth-century series of illustrations.Translated in this edition by Allen Mandelbaum, The Divine Comedybegins in a shadowed forest on Good Friday in the year 1300. Provide Feedback Form. Thanks! It can be overwhelming to see so many versions all lined up, spine to spine, along a shelf in a literary bookstore, or to scroll through pages and pages of different editions online. In truth, some of the most sublime moments in The Divine Comedy, indeed in all of literature, occur after Dante makes his way out of the Infernos desolation. Excellent notes, too! September 26, 2019 Nichols, Hollander and Sinclair are the best translations I have come across, They all combine accuracy with poetry and readability. In spite of first impressions favoring Sayers, most readers who choose to make the entire journey from inferno to purgatory and finally paradise ultimately find the Mandelbaum translation more satisfying. ", "I can say this much for sure, for certain, right here on the air," James continues. Choosing which translation of Dantes Divine Comedy to read is a very subjective and personal decision. Dorothy Sayers translation is, in my opinion, one of the finest translations that maintains the original ryhme scheme, is imminently readable and classic and is blessed further by knowledgeable, interesting and useful notes. I agree, Dorothy Leigh Sayers translations are done wonderfully. ed. We'll go over the different features and what to look for when you're shopping. I believe there are many points on which Dante had disagreed with the Church teachings of his times. A major consideration is the topic of rhyme. Any translation involves balancing the meaning, feel, and artistry of the work, normally at the expense of at least one of these qualities. But the miracle of literature is that its insights can somehow remain fresh and relevant centuries after they were written and far from where they first appeared. "Back in 1964, when we first knew each other in Florence, before we were married, there was a romantic scene by which she took me through the actual great love affair between Paolo and Francesca in Canto Five of 'Hell,' and showed me how the verse worked in Italian, because her Italian of course was perfect already and mine was rudimentary," he remembers. I heard somebody say: "Watch where you step! .. Three passages are from the Inferno, one from Purgatory, and the last from Paradise.

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