We'll go over the different features and what to look for when you're shopping. Dante Alighieri's great work tells the tale of the author's trail through hell each and every circle of it purgatory and heaven. Dantes The Divine Comedy is one of Italian Literatures most frequently translated texts, it has literally been being translated for over hundreds of years. But 'Purgatory' and 'Heaven' have mainly just got theology. The translators scored as follows: Longfellow, Singleton (27) Sinclair (26) Mandelbaum (25) Simone, Sisson (23) Hollander, Kirkpatrick (22) Lombardo (21) Ultimately, its great to read a few and decide which version you like best, each has strengths and weaknesses. 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. Im using Allen Mandelbaums translation while writing my Masters thesis. It has become perhaps the world's most cited allegorical epic about life, death, goodness, evil, damnation and reward. (Health!). Your email address will not be published. My favorite version is by Mark Musa (written in blank verse). 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 . . You dont need to know the background, backstory, allusions, sources. 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. Copyright 2023, Rutgers, The State University of His translation of the Divine Comedy (especially Inferno and Purgatorio) is one of my favorite translations of anything. I could feel that there was a closure on its way, and I was examining my life, and I wasn't particularly satisfied with what I saw when I examined it. Shortly thereafter, Beatrice died. Although Roger chose to remain faithful to the source text, some lines were more poetically translated by Dayman. "They're faithful, they're accurate, they're scholarly, but the actual raw poetic thrill of the verse doesn't get through, and that's what I think the translator must try to do if he or she can. 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). Yes, it was the right time. 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. Both translations by Rogers and Dayman, are kept in poem style. 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 . Required fields are marked *. Divine Comedy translation samples 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. I heard it said: "Take heed how thou dost go. The Autumn of the Middle Ages: Chaucer and Dante THE DIVINE COMEDY - Project Gutenberg io venni men cos com io morisse. ", He calls the quatrains a "nice, easily flowing rhythmic grid on which to mount the individual moments. Hence their eternal torment, with Paolo in a silent stream of tears, Francesca pouring out an ocean of self-defense. When I reconciled myself to that, I was off and running. Long translations from the Divine Comedyare provided following the original Italian verse, and where necessary in the analysis the Italian is referenced.

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divine comedy translation comparison