New Jersey. The poem's imaginative vision of the afterlife is . Dante requires what Nietzsche called slow readingattentive, profound, patient readingbecause Francescas sparse, seemingly innocent-sounding words speak volumes about the kind of sinner she is. The other day I was at a bookstore trying to pick a translation of. Dante wrote his masterpiece on the move, banned from Florence by political enemies. by the love that moves the sun and the other stars. A customizable, digital workspace for scholarly analysis of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. 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. | ISBN 9780679433132 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). It also comes with the Italian text. 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 . In her own time she was better known for her hydrangeas. 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. I had the energy, but not the knowledge, and not the knowledge of myself, because Dante is worried about himself. Sponsored by Phi Beta Kappa I've also heard great thngs about Merwin and Pinsky but they've only done the Purgatorio and Inferno respectively. ". Which in the very thought renews the fear. What is a good translation of Milton's Paradise Lost? For more information about the Divine Comedy, view our Divine Comedy Page Enjoy! September 26, 2019 "But I'm determined to get this message across, because I really had to face this for decade after decade as I thought about how to translate it." Taking a look at two translations that are 120 years apart can shed light on some of the differences that translators have used when interpreting this famously complex and intricate text. You can revive it by posting a reply. Lacqua chio prendo gi mai non si corse; The sea I sail has never yet been passed: Emulating Dantes talent for internal rhymes laced with hypnotic sonic patterns, Longfellow expertly repeats the ss to give his line a sinuous, propulsive feel, which is exactly what Dante aims for in his line, as he gestures toward the originality and joy of embarking on the final leg of a divinely sanctioned journey. Dantes The Divine Comedy is one of Italian Literatures most frequently translated texts, it has literally been being translated for over hundreds of years. This is why one of the few truly successful English translations comes from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a professor of Italian at Harvard and an acclaimed poet. Provide Feedback Form. These lines have the virtue of being faithful to the original content, and then the next line continues with a rhyme (The keening sound . Want to know what people are actually reading right now? Report scam, HUMANITIES, Winter 2017, Volume 38, Number 1, The National Endowment for the Humanities, State and Jurisdictional Humanities Councils, HUMANITIES: The Magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities, SUBSCRIBE FOR HUMANITIES MAGAZINE PRINT EDITION, Sign up for HUMANITIES Magazine newsletter, How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale, Chronicling America: History American Newspapers. the Flesh. Touchstone (2006): 26-32. 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. John Ciardi (1954) Translated by Charles Rogers, London Printed by J. Nichols, 1782. https://archive.org/details/infernoofdantetr00dantuoft. Hence their eternal torment, with Paolo in a silent stream of tears, Francesca pouring out an ocean of self-defense. 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. Comment * document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "a8f4a384ba33ac344b9ce9fe46addd00" );document.getElementById("dbe0089594").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The bottom of hell waits for him who extinguished our lifereferring to her husband, the nasty Gianciotto or John the Lame, who murdered Paolo and her on the spot when he discovered them in flagrante after their fateful reading. 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. Liveright Publishing Thus, Longfellow demonstrates the scholarly chops necessary to convey Dantes encyclopedic learning, and the poetic talent needed to reproduce the sound and spiritthe respiro, breathof the original Tuscan. By clicking Sign Up, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Penguin Random House's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and understand that Penguin Random House collects certain categories of personal information for the purposes listed in that policy, discloses, sells, or shares certain personal information and retains personal information in accordance with the policy. A collection of 100 poems to be exact, one for each canto, some more sublime than others. with disabilities are encouraged to direct suggestions, comments, or complaints concerning any Long translations from the Divine Comedyare provided following the original Italian verse, and where necessary in the analysis the Italian is referenced. During one Spirit was relating this, 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. Dante Alighieri's great work tells the . (Health!). "All this shall be made known to you when we stand, And he said to me: "When we have stopped along, And he responded, "These things will be made. Three passages are from the Inferno, one from Purgatory, and the last from Paradise. Michael Palmas 2003 translation ofInfernobegins this way: Midway through the journey of our life, I found. Hardcover, 527 pages. I also read from the same passage in Mark Musa and Longfellow to compare, as well as thirteen versions of the famous opening twelve lines.Index of Dantean posts: https://carrieannebrownian.wordpress.com/index-of-dantean-posts/Where to find my book and author pages:https://carrieannebrownian.wordpress.com/where-to-find-my-books-and-author-pages/Handy index of my posts by topic: https://carrieannebrownian.wordpress.com/index-of-posts-by-topic/My main blog: https://carrieannebrownian.wordpress.comMy names blog: https://onomasticsoutsidethebox.wordpress.comMy Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ursulasoddsandsods/ It calls upon the reader to ask: What would be our personal hell? I felt the necessity for understanding, for redemption, if you will, and I think some of that went into my reading and my writing. . It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of world literature. Body & Soul Uplifted: Dantes Magnificent Vision of Resurrection of Talking about a translators approach and methodology can help answer the question. Dante Alighieri's great work tells the tale of the author's trail through hell each and every circle of it purgatory and heaven. To him in front the biting was as naught. It may also soften the oft repeated and harsh judgmenttraduttore, traditoreor translator, traitor.. When, out of nowhere, I heard: "Watch your step! The Best Books to Get Your Finances in Order, Books Based on Your Favorite Taylor Swift Era, Cook a Soul Food Holiday Meal With Rosie Mayes, Aug 01, 1995 But Clive James is also a novelist, humorist, essayist, memoirist, and radio and television host who has been called his own one-man renaissance. And lo and behold, that's what we were doing. ", He calls the quatrains a "nice, easily flowing rhythmic grid on which to mount the individual moments. Copyright 2021 Here are Clive Jamess first lines: At the mid-point of the path through life, I found. That link is to the hardcover that contains all three works, but even though that one is in my bookcase I never read it. But Longfellows English can sound flowery to our contemporary ears. 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. Not only are constant rhymes difficult to translate, but Dante also uses rich and ambiguous language in his poems. or complete the Report Accessibility Barrier or You can opt-out of the sale or sharing of personal information anytime. The Divine Comedy. Many have translated the work, and there are many ways to go about translating Dante. The Pinsky is usually (maybe exclusively) sold parallel to the original, so you'll get a sense of that as you go along. And he said to me: "The whole shall be made known; And he: "All this will be made plain to you. #4 -- we'll just assume that's tongue-in-cheek. Rutgers is an equal access/equal opportunity institution. By clicking SIGN UP,I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Penguin Random Houses, certain categories of personal information, discloses, sells, or shares certain personal information. Provide Feedback Form. My preference for a rhyming attempt wins out over Mary Jo Bangs exuberant rendering, but only by a smidgen. Another example would be in line 7 8, Dico che quando lanima mal nata li vien dinanzi, tutta si confessa, which it s quite fully translated in Nortons, I mean, that when the ill born soul comes there before him, it confesses itself wholly whereas in Rogerss, Wheneer a guilty soul before him comes It all confesses :: (He the proper place). The verse. What, for us, would really be paradise? The Divine Comedy is also a work of literary beauty that is beyond being antiquated by time or diminished by repeated translation. Im using Allen Mandelbaums translation while writing my Masters thesis. for I had lost the path that does not stray. There are a lot of different Best Dantes Divine Comedy Translation in the market, and it can be tough to decide which one is right for you. This provides the reader with the sounds of the original as well as Musa's translation, which captures the meaning but reads with a different spirit. 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). The critic Walter Benjamin wrote that a great translation calls our attention to a works original language even when we dont speak that foreign tongue. 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. They never confess their guilt, the one thing necessary for redemption from sin. Dante Alighieri (12651321), Italys greatest poet, was born in Florence and belonged to a noble but impoverished family. Choosing which translation of Dantes Divine Comedy to read is a very subjective and personal decision. And its hard enough to read Dante without throwing in the additional challenge of 19th-century poetic diction. encouraged to direct suggestions, comments, or complaints concerning any accessibility issues 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. It brings together literary and theological expression, pagan and Christian, that came before it while also containing the DNA of the modern. This page allows you to compare five passages from seven verse translations side by side. By Paul Bruckman . Such extreme faithfulness can make the language of the translation feel unnaturalas though the source were shaping the translation into its own alien image. The latest has been undertaken by a writer who is perhaps best known for his pointed and funny criticisms of culture. The translators scored as follows: Longfellow, Singleton (27) Sinclair (26) Mandelbaum (25) Simone, Sisson (23) Hollander, Kirkpatrick (22) Lombardo (21) A major consideration is the topic of rhyme. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our, http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/09/03/070903crbo_books_acocella, Dante; (Translators) Jean & Robert Hollander. Heres Dantes original: Even without an Italian dictionary at hand, most of the words in these lines can be puzzled out by English speakers, except, perhaps smaritta, which means something along the lines of obliterated or just lost from view. An amateur literal translation can go a long way but doesnt sing. Sayers adds bound upon (not, strictly speaking, in the original), which allows her to make the rhyme in the third line with gone. But Mandelbaum is more faithful to the directness of the original, not stretching the meaning or introducing words to make the rhyme. Mandelbaums astonishingly Dantean translation, which captures so much of the life of the original, renders whole for us the masterpiece of that genius whom our greatest poets have recognized as a central model for all poets. from the straight pathway to this tangled ground. I heard it said: "Take heed how thou dost go. Dante's The Divine Comedy is one of Italian Literature's most frequently translated texts, it has literally been being translated for over hundreds of years. A third choice is a translation written in blank verse (iambic pentameter). Oddly enough, and at least in the United States, we seem to know more about Dante the manhis exile, his political struggles, his eternal love for Beatricethan his poetry. You dont need to know the background, backstory, allusions, sources. New Jersey. Any other translations you'd like to recommend are fine with me. Mandelbaum: seen as the scholarly translation and is used in many university classes on The Divine Comedy but some consider it dry and unpoetic. "If you're going to do it in English, you need, I think, another approach, and I used quatrains. But in English, he writes, the word stars has very few words with which to rhyme. Inferno, Canto I. 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. Mandelbaum, will, in fact, interject rhyme if its not forced (as he does with way and stray). Speak will I of the other things I saw there. So whats the contemporary reader to dohow best to approach Dante 750 years after his birth? These things are always hard, choosing between manner and matter , Your email address will not be published. Jorge Luis Borges said that a modern novel requires hundreds of pages for us to get to know a character, while Dante can lay bare a characters soul in 20 or 30 lines. Hollander: a more contemporary translation of The Divine Comedy that I've heard great things about but it can get pricey with each section in a separate book. Ultimately, its great to read a few and decide which version you like best, each has strengths and weaknesses. Scam Advisory: Recent reports indicate that individuals are posing as the NEH on email and social media. I'm going to third the choice of John Ciardi. The standard critical Italian edition of the poem, La commedia secondo l'antica vulgata (1966-67; rev. We are experiencing technical difficulties. "There is no young man's version of this translation. Longfellows English indeed comes across as Italianate: in surrendering to the letter and spirit of Dantes Tuscan, he loses the quirks and perks of his mother tongue. Canto V is when Dante has descended into the second circle of hell. I found it easy to use. T. S. Eliot called such poetry the most beautiful ever writtenand yet so few of us have ever read it. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri: 9780679433132 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books This Everyman's Library edition-containing in one volume all three cantos, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso-includes an introduction. . Of what we call our life, I looked up and saw no sky. Any translation involves balancing the meaning, feel, and artistry of the work, normally at the expense of at least one of these qualities. And its a very famous poem, Al cor gentil rempaira sempre amore, Love always returns to the gentle heart, a gorgeous medieval lyric by Guido Guinizelli, one of Dantes poetic mentors in the Sweet New Style, a movement in the late 1200s that nurtured Dantes emerging artistic sensibilities. purchase. The others are in three line verses like the original. He produced one of the first complete, and in many respects still the best, English translations of The Divine Comedy in 1867. His translation keeps the nel mezzo element up frontandduplicates the terza rima, continuing the next stanza with, How hard it is to tell of, overlaid . 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. Thanks! Alighieri Dante. Mentre che luno spirto questo disse, So, which translation should you read? By starting with Midway this way of life were bound upon, she remains faithful to the starting point, nel mezzo, while Mandelbaum pushes this to the middle of the first line. So in order to get Dante, a translator has to be both a poet and a scholar, attuned to the poets vertiginous literary experimentalism as well as his superhuman grasp of cultural and intellectual history. Take, for example, the last few lines of the the fifth Canto, the famous: Dante Although Roger chose to remain faithful to the source text, some lines were more poetically translated by Dayman. This Canto is most noteworthy because it is the canto where Francesca di Rimini tells the story of how she got to hell with her husbands brother, and lover, Paolo. Provide Feedback Form. His metered language often seems more natural than Sayers and more in keeping with the diction of Dante, which favored solid vocabulary and straight-forward syntax. 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 are the impressions I have of each: Ciardi: uses rhyming three line stanza (ABA) convention and is generally seen as a poetic translation but not necessarily a faithful translation. Rutgers is an equal access/equal opportunity institution. T. S. Eliot called such poetry the most beautiful ever writtenand yet so few of us have ever read it. Lets start a comparison of translations with the first three lines of Canto I of theInferno(theres no hiding for the poor translator, with the original Italian usually on the facing page). SUBSCRIBE FOR HUMANITIES MAGAZINE PRINT EDITION Browse all issuesSign up for HUMANITIES Magazine newsletter. Please try again later. This Everymans Library editioncontaining in one volume all three cantos, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradisoincludes an introduction by Nobel Prizewinning poet Eugenio Montale, a chronology, notes, and a bibliography. 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. TheDivine 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. Even though The doctrine of Papal infallibility was defined dogmatically in the First Vatican Council . From Inferno 1 to Paradiso 33, scores of different literary personaesome real, some invented, some famous, some obscuretake the stage to plead their case or expound on their joy before the autobiographical character Dante as he journeys from hell to heaven. Francesca tells Dante that she and Paolo, began reading Lancelott, and when they got to the part where the characters in the story finally kissed, Francesca committed adultery towards her husband. The Divine Comedy (Italian: Divina Commedia; Italian pronunciation: [divina kommdja]) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c. 1308 and completed around 1321, shortly before the author's death. His translation of the Divine Comedy (especially Inferno and Purgatorio) is one of my favorite translations of anything.