Throughout the past two hundred years, many linguists have attempted to translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy into English. While all have been successful in conveying the general meaning of various passages, diction and wordiness have varied wildly; no two translations are identical. This can be attributed to two factors: normal translational variation and the intent of the linguist. Taking both of these into account, John Ciardi's 1954 translation is far superior to the others.
Unlike previous literary works, The Comedy (divine was added to the title some two hundred years after Dante), written between 1307 and 1320, was originally published in vernacular Italian. This threatened Dante's legitimacy: all other `great' works of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and New Science were written in Latin. Even Isaac Newton published his scientific works in Latin: it was the international language of scholars and philosophers. Another linguistic aspect of Dante's epic was its peculiar rhyme scheme. Dante wrote it his own terza rima (ABABCBCDC, etc.), a pattern based, like so many other facets of The Comedy, on the number three. Relatively easy to accomplish in Italian--most words rhyme with each other, ending in vowels--terza rima is difficult to achieve in English while preserving the meaning of a passage. Ciardi's translation manages to do this, all the while using modern language and clear pronouns and verbs. The other translator to attempt this, Dorothy L. Sayers, writing in 1949, preserves terza rima but sinks into excessive cliché use and dated expressions. She also appears to have put little thought into the contextual meaning of words. For example, the Italian noun dottore can mean doctor or professor; Sayers is the onl...
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...tempting to preserve Dante's difficult rhyme scheme.
To conclude, Ciardi's translation of Dante's Divine Comedy is superior the other English attempts. He uses modern, easy-to-understand diction while preserving both the original Italian word choice and the terza rima rhyme scheme. Unlike Sayers, his translation is not `ruled' by the difficult pattern. In the last stanza, following terza rima in English would have been very difficult. Instead of `forcing' his translation to be totally conformant, he instead opts to preserve readability by eliminating the need to rhyme `trembling' (tremante) and `more (further)' (avante). His result was a beautiful passage: "the tremor of his kiss/...we read no further." Ciardi's mix of the original rhyme scheme, modern language, and sonorous, passionate diction makes his translation of The Divine Comedy superior to all others.
In Dante’s Inferno, Dante takes a journey with Virgil through the many levels of Hell in order to experience and see the different punishments that sinners must endure for all eternity. As Dante and Virgil descend into the bowels of Hell, it becomes clear that the suffering increases as they continue to move lower into Hell, the conical recess in the earth created when Lucifer fell from Heaven. Dante values the health of society over self. This becomes evident as the sinners against society experience suffering greater than those suffer which were only responsible for sinning against themselves. Dante uses contrapasso, the Aristotelian theory that states a soul’s form of suffering in Hell contrasts or extends their sins in their life on earth, to ensure that the sinners never forget their crimes against God. Even though some of the punishments the sinners in Hell seem arbitrary, they are fitting because contrapasso forces each sinner to re-live the most horrible aspect of their sin to ensure they never forget their crimes against God.
Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Inferno. Trans. Allen Mandelbaum. Notes Allen Mandelbaum and Gabriel Marruzzo. New York: Bantam Books, 1980
.... An Introduction to Vulgar Latin,. Boston: D.C. Heath &, 1907. Google Scholar. 21 Nov. 2011. Web. 4 Nov. 2015.
The characters of Lewis, Ed, and the hillbilly rapists can be examined in terms of the circles of Hell found in Robert Pinsky's translation of "The Inferno of Dante." Each circle of Hell is reserved for a particular type of sinner with very specific punishments. When the characters from James Dickey's "Deliverance" are viewed from the perspective of Dante's nine circles of Hell, their actions seem to be much more sinister then when they are taken in the context of Dickey's novel alone. What could be viewed as justifiable homicide in Dickey's world suddenly places Lewis and Ed in the pits of Hell, right alongside the rapist, murdering hillbillies.
The Divine Comedy, written in the 14th century by Dante Alighieri, is a heroic epic. Throughout Dante’s literary work, he outlines his scientific understandings of the world, his political views and provides the reader with a moral compass and spiritual map of which to follow. This poem is written in three parts, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradisio, each of which is broken down into individual cantos. Inferno includes 34 cantos, whereas Purgatrio and Paradiso each contain 33 cantos, however, the first canto of Inferno is really an introduction to the poem.
In The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri there are two main guides who help Dante on his journey to salvation. These guides help demonstrate the consequences of sin and teach him how to overcome the temptation of it. These guides are each a crucial part in Dante’s transformation to allow him to fully grow and learn to be pure on his own.
Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy is said to be the single greatest epic poem of all time. The opening story of the character of Dante the Pilgrim is told in the first of the three divisions: The Inferno. The Inferno is a description of Dante’s journey down through Hell and of the several degrees of suffering and many mythical creatures that he encounters on the way. Throughout his travel Dante displays many different feelings and actions but the emotion that summarizes the entire poem is fear. While some of his character traits change as his mind matures and acknowledges the justice being carried out, from the very beginning until the final Canto, his fear does not subside. This does well to reinforce the symbolism of Dante as Everyman and serves to direct the reader to the moral purpose of Divine Comedy, because of the humility and dependence upon God that fear produces. In the first Canto, which serves as an introduction to the entire comedy, Dante encounters the three beasts which impede his progress out of the dark woods. Coming upon the She-Wolf he writes: "This last beast brought my spirit down so low / with fear that seized me at the sight of her, / lost all hope of going up the hill" (I.52-54). Dante is so shaken by the appearances of the three beasts that he rushes headlong into the dark woods he has just come out of. This is only the first obstacle Dante encounters, but it proves an insurmountable one.
Dante, an Italian poet during the late middle ages, successfully parallels courtly love with Platonic love in both the La Vita Nuova and the Divine Comedy. Though following the common characteristics of a courtly love, Dante attempts to promote love by elevating it through the lenses of difference levels. Through his love affair with Beatrice, although Beatrice has died, he remains his love and prompts a state of godly love in Paradiso. Dante, aiming to promote the most ideal type of love, criticizes common lust while praises the godly love by comparing his state of mind before and after Beatrice’s death. PJ Klemp essay “Layers of love in Dante’s Vita Nuova” explains the origins of Dante’s love in Plato and Aristotle themes that designate
“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.” This maxim applies to the poet Dante Alighieri, writer of The Inferno in the 1300s, because it asserts the need to establish oneself as a contributor to society. Indeed, Dante’s work contributes much to Renaissance Italy as his work is the first of its scope and size to be written in the vernacular. Due to its readability and availability, The Inferno is a nationalistic symbol. With this widespread availability also comes a certain social responsibility; even though Dante’s audience would have been familiar with the religious dogma, he assumes the didactic role of illustrating his own version of Christian justice and emphasizes the need for a personal understanding of divine wisdom and contrapasso, the idea of the perfect punishment for the crime. Dante acts as both author and narrator, completing a physical and spiritual journey into the underworld with Virgil as his guide and mentor. The journey from darkness into light is an allegory full of symbolism, much like that of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, which shows a philosopher’s journey towards truth. Therefore, Dante would also agree with the maxim, “Wise men learn by others’ harms; fools scarcely by their own,” because on the road to gaining knowledge and spiritual enlightenment, characters who learn valuable lessons from the misfortunes of others strengthen their own paradigms. Nonetheless, the only true way to gain knowledge is to experience it first hand. Dante’s character finds truth by way of his own personal quest.
Movement is a crucial theme of the Divine Comedy. From the outset, we are confronted with the physicality of the lost Dante, wandering in the perilous dark wood. His movement within the strange place is confused and faltering; `Io non so ben ridir com'io v'entrai'. Moreover, it is clear that the physical distress he is experiencing is the visible manifestation of the mental anguish the poet is suffering. The allegory of the image is one of mid-life crisis, but it is physically represented by the man losing his way in a dark wood. Such an observation may seem far too simple and obvious to be worthy of comment. However, I would argue that it is from this primary example of the deep connection between the physical and the mental, that one can begin to categorise and explain the varying types of movement in the work. The first section of this essay will be a close analysis of several important moments of physical activity or the absence of such. The final section will be an overview of the whole and a discussion of the general structure of the Comedy, how movement is governed and the implications of this.
Poetry played a vital role in the dissemination of information during the Crusade period. It provided a compact, easily memorized way of spreading news in a time bereft of the benefit of mass printing. According to Michael Routledge, who penned a chapter on Crusade songs and poetry in The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades, poetry was not only a way of recording and spreading news of current events, but also served to record and extoll the virtues and values of the ruling Medieval aristocracy. These values included commitment to one's lord, and an acceptance of the feudal duties of auxilium (armed help in time of attack by enemies) and consilium (counsel and rendering of justice) (Routledge 97). A fine example of poetry's use in the above context can be found in Paul Blackburn's translation of the medieval Spanish epic Poem of the Cid. The poem is a fictional account of the life of the eleventh-century adventurer and military commander Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar. The poem's title derives from Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar's Arabic title, Sayyidi (the Cid) or "My Lord". The poem's content describes a series of events transpiring after the main character, the Cid, is exiled from his homeland. Within the body of the poem, situations extolling the medieval virtues of commitment to one's lord, auxilium, and consilium are revealed. The theme of commitment to one's lord is prevalent throughout the Poem of the Cid. Initially, the Cid is exiled because his enemies have turned his lord, King Alfonso, against him. Despite being banished from his home and family, the Cid uses every opportunity that comes his way to show his valor and loyalty to Alfonso. In reality, being exiled should have turned a man li...
Dante’s work Inferno is a vivid walkthrough the depths of hell and invokes much imagery, contemplation and feeling. Dante’s work beautifully constructs a full sensory depiction of hell and the souls he encounters along the journey. In many instances within the work the reader arrives at a crossroads for interpretation and discussion. Canto XI offers one such crux in which Dante asks the question of why there is a separation between the upper levels of hell and the lower levels of hell. By discussing the text, examining its implications and interpretations, conclusions can be drawn about why there is delineation between the upper and lower levels and the rationale behind the separation.
Alighieri, Dante. "The Inferno." The Divine Comedy. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: First New American Library Printing, 2003.
Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy, Inferno. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009. Print.
Conflict can be found in many stories and it is one of the key pieces to making a story. Without a central conflict in a story the story will seem generic or boring. Writers like to put a conflict in the story to add life to their work and keep the reader interested in what they are reading. It is a way to keep the reader wondering what happens next. In the Divine Comedy, Dante’s Inferno, the main character in the story, Dante, encounters all five types of the different conflicts on his journey through Hell. Some of these conflicts include: person against self, people against people, and Dante against Society.