The Divine Comedy (The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso)

However, the instant I started reading John Ciardi's verse translation of "The Inferno", my hardened heart once again began to beat with the vibrancy it had when I read poems of Wordsworth or Browning.

John Ciardi, with a poetic talent that seems to be unmatched -- except for what I?ve read of W.S. Merwin's "Paradiso XXXIII," -- creates a poetic flow that feels, tastes, and even smells Italian. A poetic flow that delightfully contrasts Fagles', whose poetic flow is limited by popular styles and even phrases of the 20th century.

Instead of trying to lift Dante to the 20th century, Ciardi gracefully carries us to the early 14th century.

Instead of assuming that Dante is arcane, old fashioned, and in need of John's own poetic help, he believes that the original Italian is fresh, exciting, and poetically graceful.

The translation of Dante would have been diluted if Ciardi were to try and bring the 14th century to us through the modernization of the language, symbolism, and even the geography of Dante's world. (Fagles even geographically modified his "Odyssey" at one point to rename a Greek river the Nile because readers may get 'confused'.)

I?m glad that Ciardi tries to bring us back in time when the universe was cosmically full of life, where even the stars were more than the mere byproducts of abstract forces, chance, that can only be systematically analyzed and dissected.

The medieval worldview is far richer than the purely logical and scientific mindset that?s now common. By bringing Dante to us unfiltered by that mindset, Ciardi helps move us towards the bright and vibrant medieval world.

I strongly recommend John Ciardi's poetic translation of "The Divine Comedy," a lot is missed when reading only "The Inferno." The whole work is amazingly balanced.


10 stars would not be enough!!   December 15, 2003
 62 out of 75 found this review helpful

The Divine Comedy" was written in Toscan by the Florentinian Dante Aligheri 700 years ago and is one of the most important texts ever written. Dante Aligheri is, along with Miguel de Cervantes, Willian Shakespeare and the Portuguese Luis de Camoes, one of the most important writers of History, but we have to remember that Dante Alligheri was born some 250 years before each one of the latter.

"The Divine Comedy" was first published in the beginning of the 14th century and narrates a vision Dante Alligheri had of his visit to Hell (Dante's Inferno), the Purgatory and to the Heavens (Paradiso), where he is guided by the Latin poet Virgil and later on by his muse, Beatrice, deceased some years before. His narrative is full of devout catholic sentiments and he spares no expenses in narrating the torments perpetrated in Hell, described in details, where each ring or level is reserved for each different earthly infraction that the penitent has commited when alive. The company of Virgil, a permanent resident of the first hell ring, the Limbo, is a magistral coup by Dante Aligheri and adds lustre to the text.

Virgil leads Dante too through the Purgatory, where, contrary with what happens in the Inferno where there is no salvation, the souls are suffering with a view to a future life in Heaven. Dante is the first and only human being that put his feet into this after life regions, and things get increasingly intense and sometimes dangerous to him. Also to be noted is the disposition of Dante to here and there sting his earthly political opponents, which were not few, banning them to hellish confines.

The final visit to the supreme heavenly region, where he meets Beatrice, is suffused with catholic symbology, fully explained by Dante, who embroiders the descriptions with all the richness of his language. You end the book asking for more, and sensing intensively the powerful richness of Dante's vocabulary. I hope you enjoy the Divine COmedy as much as I did. Good reading.


Solid Yankee Dante for You and Me   October 13, 2005
 28 out of 28 found this review helpful

Ciardi, a noted poet and educator in the post-World War II era --and an Italian American -- remains after many years the most accessible Dante translator to the modern American ear. Of the generation of great American writers who reshaped our language, he was a lively fully engaged fellow and not prisoner of any ivory tower, despite his peerless credentials. Line by line, stanza by stanza, it shows. The Comedy requires many talents and understanding life and people is not the least of them.

"Dante was a drummer," Ciardi aptly notes in his introduction, and Ciardi's meter and rhyme scheme give a good English facsimile of Dante's incessant, intoxicating drum beat -- his famous 11 beat terza rima. You simply cannot do it in English, where most words end in hard consonants, not open vowels as in Italian. Yeah some people have tried -- always a noble aim -- but unless you're Superman don't climb Everest without oxygen. Purism will never get most of us through a first reading of this poem or for that matter through a few readings after. Music is what you need and Ciardi expertly lays it down.

About the poem? I've read it 7 times through, in different translations (Ciardi thrice) over 40 years and am just getting started. I do Ciardi between the others because I love my good modern Yankee language, soon drown without it. Ciardi really understands it -- from the jive of the street punk to the most austere scholar or saint -- its all here -- Dante's whole world talking to you like everybody you ever met.


Tradutore, traditore   October 2, 2004
 26 out of 26 found this review helpful

Which in Italian means, roughly, "To translate is to betray." This review speaks entirely to translations, not to Dante, who is for God to review.
John Ciardi's translation is wonderful. To my taste it is the best verse translation we have. Its notes are just adequate. The Italian text is not supplied.
Now, Dante translations come in various schools: original metre, English metre, prose divided as verse, straight prose. Dante's original metre (terza rima) does not work in English in spite of heroic efforts (Dorothy Sayers, whose Dantean scholarship is superb, attempted it and it is to my mind a waste of time). Nor, to me, does pure prose (such as the magnificent Singleton, work). The Divine Comedy is a poem, and prose does not follow the climaxes, hesitations, and rythms faithfully enough. So we are left with English metre, and with prose structured as verses (cantos). For readers who know some Italian, or Latin, or even French or Spanish, the latter would be my choice, so long as the Italian is supplied on the facing page--you can then hear Dante's own voice while understanding it. For this I would recommend the Durling translation (Oxford). It is wonderfully done and superbly annotated (though Singleton's notes are even more majestic)--which will deal with the common Dante complaint, "Who are all these people?". If you want to read directly in English verse, Ciardi is your man. Additional reading would be Dorothy Sayers' "Further Readings on Dante" (Harper). Or, buy Ciardi for his verse and Singleton for his notes and Italian text. AND, PLEASE don't read JUST the Inferno. Read Purgatorio and Paradiso too. You must! Inferno is just a part. If you dedicate your life's leisure to this poem you will have made a perfectly sound choice.





Excellent for the first time reader...I should know   August 21, 2005
 24 out of 24 found this review helpful

I always felt it a crime that I made it through high school and college without reading this. I recently read The Dante Club which re-ignited my interest in finally reading The Divine Comedy. I looked at all the versions out there and decided on this one. I am so glad I did.
Intro:
There is an introduction on "How to read Dante" which was indispensible for my first time foray.
There is a note from the translator that explains how his translation might differ from others and why.
There is an introduction from a collegue of the translator that puts the Divine Comedy in a historical context.

Text:
So easy to read!
Each Canto begins with a synopsis. If all you wanted to know was the plot of the Divine Comedy you could just read all of these half page summaries (but you'd really miss out.)
Then the canto in beautiful verse.
Then copious notes that explain the minute details about whom you meet in the Canto and relevant events in history. The notes are as interesting as the Cantos themselves.

I am so glad I picked this copy up. I have now read and ENJOYED Dante's Divine Comedy. I highly recommend this as a starting point. It is extremely accessible.