divine comedy translation comparison divine comedy translation comparison
The others are in three line verses like the original. ", And that kind of interest is what most translators lack, James adds. Unlike the other author he supposedly shared the world with, Shakespeare, Dante was self-consciously scholarly and intellectual, filling his verses with allusions to ancient, biblical, and contemporary medieval writing, and tackling a range of theological, philosophical, political, and historical issues. The Italian language the Italians speak today is largely Dante's invention. Creator of Dante Explorer The Divine Comedy in translation (what to look for, comparison of Dante Alighieri's great work tells the . Michael Palmas 2003 translation ofInfernobegins this way: Midway through the journey of our life, I found. Exodus Books - Divine Comedy Comparisons Oct 19, 2015 at 21:03 . You can opt-out of the sale or sharing of personal information anytime. John Ciardi (1954) At every mouth he with his teeth was crunching 55. 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. Translated by John Dayman, Longmans, Green, 1865. https://archive.org/details/divinecomedydan00daymgoog, Alighieri Dante. It did not hurt that Longfellow had also experienced the kind of traumatic lossthe death of his young wife after her dress caught firethat brought him closer to the melancholy spirit of Dantes writing, shaped by the lacerating exile from his beloved Florence in 1302. A New Translation of Dante's 'Paradiso' - Books - New York Times with disabilities are encouraged to direct suggestions, comments, or complaints concerning any The Divine Comedy is the most well-known piece in Italian literature. from the straight pathway to this tangled ground. Divine Comedy - Exodus Books A little less structured than the original (although differences in the languages are responsible for that) It's a recent translation, so you don't run into the archaic usages you'd find in Longfellow. 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. As of 2021, Dante's magnum opus has been translated into English . 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. By Liliana Leuzzi | Dante's Commedia. Shortly thereafter, Beatrice died. Dorothy Sayers rendered the first stanza this way: Where the right road was wholly lost and gone. A collection of 100 poems to be exact, one for each canto, some more sublime than others. 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 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. T. S. Eliot called such poetry the most beautiful ever writtenand yet so few of us have ever read it. 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? 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). I'm going to third the choice of John Ciardi. I agree, Dorothy Leigh Sayers translations are done wonderfully. The Divine Comedy, Part 1: Hell (Penguin Classics) In comparing translations, you notice quickly if theres an attempt to duplicate Dantes terza rima, in which the first and third lines rhyme, and the second line rhymes with the first line of the following stanza. with Rutgers web sites to accessibility@rutgers.edu or complete the Report Accessibility Barrier or Also, Anthony Esolen has an interesting article published: Esolen, Anthony. The Books Alexis Patterson Is Loving Right Now, 27 Childrens & YA Books Written by Asian Authors, Browse All Our Lists, Essays, and Interviews. A sinner, in the manner of a brake, So that he three of them tormented thus. 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. For centuries, readers have been isolating greatest hits from The Divine Comedy and swooning over its most memorable characters: muse Beatrice, stalwart guide Virgil, tragic lovers Paolo and Francesca, unbearably eloquent Ulysses, cannibalistic Ugolino. 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. 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. I also prefer Mark Musas version. I'm a bit biased in favor of Sayers' translation, as that's the one that introduced me to Dante in the first place. Rutgers is an equal access/equal opportunity institution. The Divine Comedy is a fulcrum in Western history. The 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. We'll go over the different features and what to look for when you're shopping. 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). Divine Comedy - Exodus Books Math Curriculum Law & Political Theory Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition Suffering & Hope History of Philosophy God & Reality (Metaphysics) Knowledge (Epistemology) Value & Beauty (Axiology) Being & Existence (Ontology) Introspection vs. Contemplation Phonics & Reading Early Readers "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." #4 -- we'll just assume that's tongue-in-cheek. 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! Clive James is both an Officer of the Order of Australia and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. 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. Rutgers is an equal access/equal opportunity institution. He did most of the translation work before becoming seriously ill, "but I could feel the end of my life coming. 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. Report Accessibility Barrier or Rogers maintains a more faithful translation throughout the canto than Dayman. . How? The Divine Comedy, translated by John D. Sinclair: This was recommended by a fellow reader on Twitter and I am so glad I bought the complete set. Many have translated the work, and there are many ways to go about translating Dante. 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. A major consideration is the topic of rhyme. 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. Individuals with disabilities are 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. 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. Dante Alighieri (12651321), Italys greatest poet, was born in Florence and belonged to a noble but impoverished family. Dante's Beauty Rendered In English In A Divine 'Comedy' - NPR ". "Which is that of the three books of the Comedy that's 'Hell,' 'Purgatory' and 'Heaven, 'Hell' is the most fascinating, in the first instance, 'cause it's full of action, it's got a huge three-headed dog, it's got a flying dragon, it's got men turning into snakes and vice versa, it's got centaurs beside a river of blood; you name it, 'Hell' has got it. s come rota chigualmente mossa, It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of world literature. 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. 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. He produced one of the first complete, and in many respects still the best, English translations of The Divine Comedy in 1867. Dante Alighieri's great work tells the tale of the author's trail through hell each and every circle of it purgatory and heaven. That's why we've put together this ultimate guide to help you make a decision. The content of Dantes writing presents an even bigger problem. (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.). Trickled the tear-drops and the bloody drivel. Mandelbaum is writing in blank verse (although here the first and third lines rhyme, that is not indicative of the whole), so youre faced with a choice: Do you trust the efforts, strained at times, of the translator who remains loyal to the form, or opt for a more natural-sounding version? Breaking the code of The Divine Comedy with patient reverence. It may be grossly unfair, I admit, to try to judge merely on the first canto or even the first or second stanza, but decisions made in the first few stanzas determine the shape of the rest of the work. 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. Want to know what people are actually reading right now? 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. 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 . "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. 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. Best English Translations of The Divine Comedy. Born in 1265 in Florence, from which he was banished in 1302, dying in Ravenna in 1321, Dante set the Divine Comedy in the year 1300, when he was thirty-five years old and 'in the middle of our mortal life'. Hear Dante's Inferno Read Aloud by Influential Poet & Translator John lamor che move l sole e laltre stelle. 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. 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 Dorothy Sayers and John Ciardis are two reliable translations for me; Mandlebaum also works, though it is not my favorite. 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. This particular translation is characterized by a rather faithful adherence to the the original source texts physical structure. Three passages are from the Inferno, one from Purgatory, and the last from Paradise. Nichols, Hollander and Sinclair are the best translations I have come across, They all combine accuracy with poetry and readability. 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. We'll go over the different features and what to look for when you're shopping. His translation of the Divine Comedy (especially Inferno and Purgatorio) is one of my favorite translations of anything. New Jersey, Report Accessibility Barrier or ", "I can say this much for sure, for certain, right here on the air," James continues. With pity swooned, and fell like a dead corpse. Which Dante Translation Is Best? - Plough ", He calls the quatrains a "nice, easily flowing rhythmic grid on which to mount the individual moments. 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. That interlocking pattern continues throughout the cantos and is one of the works most distinctive aspects. Body & Soul Uplifted: Dantes Magnificent Vision of Resurrection of What's the Best Way to Read the Divine Comedy If You Don't Know Italian 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. My preference for a rhyming attempt wins out over Mary Jo Bangs exuberant rendering, but only by a smidgen. Any other translations you'd like to recommend are fine with me. How to Read Dante in the 21st Century - The American Scholar She is beloved for her sweeping Wolf Hall trilogy, for which she won two Booker Prizes. gi volgeva il mio disio e l velle, 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. 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? 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. September 26, 2019 She may have only translated the Inferno Im not certain on that. (Health!). These things are always hard, choosing between manner and matter , Your email address will not be published. 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/ Hardcover, 527 pages. Copyright 2023, Rutgers, The State University of When he hears Francescas words, Dante faintscaddi come corpo morto cade, I fell as a dead body falls. A friend of mine once said of Shakespeare that everything you need to read him is right there on the surface, in the language of his plays. Unto the clawing, for sometimes the spine. 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. One Final Dante Post: A List of Helpful Resources Not only are constant rhymes difficult to translate, but Dante also uses rich and ambiguous language in his poems. Individuals with disabilities are These breathtaking lines conclude Dante's Divine Comedy, a 14,000-line epic written in 1321 on the state of the soul after death. 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. This page allows you to compare five passages from seven verse translations side by side. I have no vested interest in selling a particular authors work, my recommendations are just my personal opinion. I was lost. Although Roger chose to remain faithful to the source text, some lines were more poetically translated by Dayman. I wondered how else one could say Midway through our life, I found myself in a dark wood; the right way was lost., Both James and Bang are poets. So whats the contemporary reader to dohow best to approach Dante 750 years after his birth? But 'Purgatory' and 'Heaven' have mainly just got theology. by the love that moves the sun and the other stars. 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. Dayman kept the terza rima, but in doing so he had to be more free with his translation. The translators scored as follows: Longfellow, Singleton (27) Sinclair (26) Mandelbaum (25) Simone, Sisson (23) Hollander, Kirkpatrick (22) Lombardo (21) But Longfellows English can sound flowery to our contemporary ears. Longfellow succeeded in capturing the original brilliance of Dantes lines with a close, sometimes awkwardly literal translation that allows the Tuscan to shine through the English, as though this foreign veneer were merely a protective layer added over the still-visible source. Theirs is the one that keeps coming up when looking for a good verse translation. with Rutgers web sites to accessibility@rutgers.edu or complete the Report Accessibility Barrier or 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. The latest has been undertaken by a writer who is perhaps best known for his pointed and funny criticisms of culture. It has become perhaps the world's most cited allegorical epic about life, death, goodness, evil, damnation and reward. Francesca, by citing the poem and the Sweet New Style, is saying: it wasnt my fault, blame it on love. It calls upon the reader to ask: What would be our personal hell? I believe there are many points on which Dante had disagreed with the Church teachings of his times. He wrote in an intensely idiomatic, rhyme-rich Tuscan with a surging terza rima meter that gives the poem its galloping energya unique rhythm thats difficult to reproduce in rhyme-poor English separated from Dantes local vernacular by centuries. [1] The three cantiche [i] of the poem, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, describe hell, purgatory, and heaven respectively. Individuals Dante's Inferno -The Webpage of Author David Lafferty. I'm going to be reading The Divine Comedy soonactually, re-reading Inferno and re-starting Purgatorio and finally getting to La Paradiso.I've opted to go with the Robert and Jean Hollander translation. List of English translations of the Divine Comedy - Wikipedia Mandelbaum, will, in fact, interject rhyme if its not forced (as he does with way and stray). English, he says, is a "rhyme-poor" language compared with Dante's Italian. Norton Please try again later. 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). Rutgers is an equal access/equal opportunity institution. View all posts by Dave. She is beloved for her sweeping. List of Top Ten Best Dantes Divine Comedy Translation Top Picks 2023 I wasn't aware of Benigni's TuttoDante -- sounds very interesting. I've also heard great thngs about Merwin and Pinsky but they've only done the Purgatorio and Inferno respectively. A tough call. Many have translated the work, and there are many ways to go about translating Dante. The night, which I had passed so piteously. That's why we've put together this ultimate guide to help you make a decision. Individuals Charles Singletons translation for his understanding of textual nuance and its outstanding notes is strongly recommended. 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. accessibility issues with Rutgers web sites to accessibility@rutgers.edu 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. Alighieri, Dante (1265-1321) - The Divine Comedy - Poetry In Translation 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.
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