Best Translation of the Divine Comedy??

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Francis1636

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I am a high-school senior interested in reading the divine comedy. I typically read more non-fiction, but am fairly interested in reading the poem. I speak English and no Italian, and was wondering if any literature gurus had an opinion on the best translation. I am partial to Anthony Esolen from reading all of his opinion pieces on the web, but would appreciate some more objective recommendations. Thanks.
 
I don’t know who wrote my translation.

But I will say I greatly enjoy having the translation and the Italian side by side. I read the English for a bit, then read the same part in Italian. I don’t speak Italian, but one picks up some things, and one notices little differences. Also, the Italian has a certain melody to it; a sort of secondary meaning strictly imparted by the language that I doubt any translation would have.

Would an Italian translation of Shakespeare really and fully be Shakespeare? I have my doubts.

I recall reading that an Argentine writer of considerable fame who was also very familiar with English literature maintained that one could not translate Kipling’s “Harp Song of the Dane Women” into Spanish and retain the full meaning. It is, in fact, nearly impossible to translate it at all. I said that to a Puerto Rican friend who is fully fluent in both English and Spanish. He didn’t believe me, so I sent him the poem. About a week later, he agreed that it couldn’t be done with any justice at all.
 
Ridgerunner said:
I don’t know who wrote my translation.

But I will say I greatly enjoy having the translation and the Italian side by side. I read the English for a bit, then read the same part in Italian. I don’t speak Italian, but one picks up some things, and one notices little differences. Also, the Italian has a certain melody to it; a sort of secondary meaning strictly imparted by the language that I doubt any translation would have.

Would an Italian translation of Shakespeare really and fully be Shakespeare? I have my doubts.

I recall reading that an Argentine writer of considerable fame who was also very familiar with English literature maintained that one could not translate Kipling’s “Harp Song of the Dane Women” into Spanish and retain the full meaning. It is, in fact, nearly impossible to translate it at all. I said that to a Puerto Rican friend who is fully fluent in both English and Spanish. He didn’t believe me, so I sent him the poem. About a week later, he agreed that it couldn’t be done with any justice at all.
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Right - no person has been able to translate both the meaning and keep the rhyming pattern of the Italian. The Divine Comedy is a poetic trilogy, after all.
 
Tarpeian_Rock said:
I’ve always liked the Ciardi translation.
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Yes, I am a senior as well and we read the Ciardi translation of The Inferno in October. It was a very good translation that I would highly recommend. He does a good job of keeping up a nice rhyming pattern. He also puts nice summaries of each Canto before each begins, which was good help for understanding exactly what was going on.

May God bless you abundantly and forever! 🙂
 
On his blog Fr Z (Fr John Zuhlsdorf) recommends the translations by Anthony Esolen and Dorothy Sayers (who knew? I thought she was a mystery writer). Also, he says read all three books!

I also heard that John Ciardi’s translation is good BUT he didn’t keep the same rhyme scheme as the Italian.
 
didymus said:
On his blog Fr Z (Fr John Zuhlsdorf) recommends the translations by Anthony Esolen and Dorothy Sayers (who knew? I thought she was a mystery writer). Also, he says read all three books!
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Yes, Dorothy Sayers was a mystery writer (and quite successful). At a certain point with the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, she felt she had reached the limit of what she could do in that genre, and turned to non-fiction. She did some good work in apologetics, as well as translations of Dante and of the anonymous Song of Roland.

When Father Z says “read all three books” I expect that he says it because many readers pick up the Inferno out of curiosity and enjoy it, but get bored or discouraged somewhere during the Purgatorio. Those that make it through to the beginning of the Paradiso are few, and those that make it to the end are even fewer.

Which is a shame, because the Paradiso is the most beautiful and the most inspiring section of the whole work. The virtues of faith, hope and love all resonate powerfully throughout it. But it is not easy reading, and having a good commentary is important. The best commentaries are by Dorothy Sayers and Anthony Esolen because they are themselves believers (Sayers was an Anglican but a fairly conservative one) and they are fully in tune with the message Dante is trying to convey.
 
Francis 1636

When I decided, a few years ago, that the time had come to read the 100 cantos of the Divine Comedy all the way through, I dipped into three or four translations and settled for Dorothy L. Sayers. What she has, in one word, is readability. Dante writes entertainingly in Italian, but most of the translators have evidently decided, for whatever reason, not to follow his lead. Sayers does. If you’re interested, I’ll copy out a few lines comparing her translation with Mandelbaum and the others, to show you what I mean.
 
I’d also cast a vote for the Sayers translation.

After you work your way through it, you might enjoy reading the modern scifi novel Inferno by Jerry Pournelle (a Catholic convert) and Larry Niven. In it, a midlevel science fiction author dies after falling from a hotel window during a stupid drinking game. He awakens within the first circle of Dante’s Hell, after being rescued by a mysterious benefactor who wants to help him try to escape from Hell - by traveling down through all the levels, just as Dante supposedly did.

Along the way, they meet many people who were damned after Dante’s time, including not a few celebrities (and authors!) you’ll recognize, and a running theme is how old sins would be interpreted in the light of new behavior. The author, having been an atheist in life, continues to deny that he is actually in Hell and continues to try to explain his experiences as being in a massive virtual reality simulation run by sadistic extraterrestrials. It’s a good and thought-provoking novel (there’s a good sequel as well), which you’d probably appreciate after reading Dante’s original.
 
I ordered the Sayers translation from Amazon and it just arrived, will report back.
 
I found a 1948 edition by Lawrence Grant White that I really like; found it at a used book store. I love the Gustav Dore etchings that it reprinted. The binding is starting to break because it’s been so well-read. I assume. But I still use it for inspiration and such for my writings.
 
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