divine comedy translation comparison

He combined a lot of dialects into the thing we now know as Italian. With pity swooned, and fell like a dead corpse. 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. Which leadeth others right by every road. 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 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. 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. (Health!). I don't remember ever reading Mandelbaum but I believe my daughter used both Mandelbaum and Hollander in College and she preferred the Hollander. It has become perhaps the world's most cited allegorical epic about life, death, goodness, evil, damnation and reward. 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). My favorite version is by Mark Musa (written in blank verse). Rutgers is an equal access/equal opportunity institution. 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. Norton . Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to direct suggestions, comments, or complaints concerning any accessibility issues The Divine Comedy is a 14th century poem that has never lost its edge. To redeem, copy and paste the code during the checkout process. "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. 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. And go from well-read to best read with book recs, deals and more in your inbox every week. Perhaps nowhere is this economy of expression more evident than in the justly celebrated canto of the star-crossed lovers, Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta. Translated by Charles Rogers, London Printed by J. Nichols, 1782. https://archive.org/details/infernoofdantetr00dantuoft. Again, it might come down to your trust in a translators skill in keeping up the rhyme pattern. Copyright 2021 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). 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. But Clive James is also a novelist, humorist, essayist, memoirist, and radio and television host who has been called his own one-man renaissance. She is beloved for her sweeping Wolf Hall trilogy, for which she won two Booker Prizes. But Longfellows English can sound flowery to our contemporary ears. Many have translated the work, and there are many ways to go about translating Dante. I heard somebody say: "Watch where you step! 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. 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. 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. purchase. The contemporary reader would do well to follow this ancient practice, for it leads to the most important aspect in approaching Dante: the need to read him closely. or complete the Report Accessibility Barrier or s come rota chigualmente mossa, Im using Allen Mandelbaums translation while writing my Masters thesis. Two hundred years ago,Pride and Prejudicewas anonymously published. Then one day, the young woman, Beatrice, in reaction to rumors of the poets increasingly worldly ways, refrained from the greeting, causing anguish in the young Dante. Such an adoption would have given a modern reader a similar feel Dantes meter gives Italian readers. 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. Rutgers is an equal access/equal opportunity institution. Henry Boyd produced one of the early English-language translations of The Divine Comedy; it was published in 1802.Notable translations of the 20th and early 21st centuries include those by John D. Sinclair (1939-48), Dorothy L. Sayers and . (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.). I really loved Robert Pinsky's translation of the Inferno, for readability. ". The Divine Comedy. 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. 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. View all posts by Dave. 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? 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 Of what we call our life, I looked up and saw no sky. With six eyes did he weep, and down three chins. Michael Palmas 2003 translation ofInfernobegins this way: Midway through the journey of our life, I found. Hence their eternal torment, with Paolo in a silent stream of tears, Francesca pouring out an ocean of self-defense. Copyright 2023, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Report Accessibility Barrier or You can opt-out of the sale or sharing of personal information anytime. 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. "That will, of course, be clear to you," he said. Love absolves no beloved from loving, she explains, adding: Love brought us to one death. And the challenge for the translator is to reproduce Dante's fascination with theology, which for him was just as exciting as all that action that he left behind in 'Hell.' Mandelbaum, will, in fact, interject rhyme if its not forced (as he does with way and stray). Allen Mandelbaums translation goes like this: When I had journeyed half of our lifes way. 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? For more information about the Divine Comedy, view our Divine Comedy Page Enjoy! I really enjoy the extra insights I receive from his notes, summaries, and essays. "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. About the Author. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Scarce the ascent Began, when, lo! Dante asks her why such a courteous and well-spoken creature as shea highborn lady who had fallen for Paolo innocently enough one day when they were alone together readingcould find herself among the damned. 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). 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. 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. Charles Singletons translation for his understanding of textual nuance and its outstanding notes is strongly recommended. 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. She is beloved for her sweeping. The Italian language the Italians speak today is largely Dante's invention. 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. But Hugos attack suggests the particular challenge in reading Dante, whose writing can seem remote and impenetrable to modern tastes. Mandelbaum: seen as the scholarly translation and is used in many university classes on The Divine Comedy but some consider it dry and unpoetic. Daymans translation reads When that we read so true-hearted/ Kissing the smile so coveted before,/ And he who wrotethat day we read no more which is a more romantic way of writing the story, and it feels to be more in the spirit of the source text. The Divine Comedy is the most well-known piece in Italian literature. 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. This particular translation is characterized by a rather faithful adherence to the the original source texts physical structure. laltro pianga; s che di pietade Canto V is when Dante has descended into the second circle of hell. "If you're going to do it in English, you need, I think, another approach, and I used quatrains. " It took nearly five hundred years from Dante's death for there to be a translation of all three parts of the poem. For example, he translates Dantes beautifully compact Paradiso 2.7. 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. 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). These breathtaking lines conclude Dante's Divine Comedy, a 14,000-line epic written in 1321 on the state of the soul after death.

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