He was buried in Ravenna, Italy, where a tomb was later erected in his name. Stephen Wyatt is a playwright and dramatist with extensive experience in stage, radio and television. Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in and belonged to a noble but impoverished family. He followed a normal course of studies, possibly attending university in Bologna, and when he was about twenty he married Gemma Donati, by whom he had several children. He had first met Bice Portinati, whom he called Beatrice, in , and when she died in , he sought distraction by studying philosophy and theology and by writing La Vita Nuova.
During this time he became involved in the strife between the Guelfs and the Ghibellines; he became a prominent White Guelf, and when the Black Guelfs came to power in , Dante, during an absence from Florence, was condemned to exile. He took refuge first in Verona, and after wandering from place to place - as far as Paris and even, some have said, to Oxford - he settled in Ravenna.
While there he completed The Divine Comedy, which he began in about Dante died in Ravenna in Dante Dante. Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in Beatrice died in He had at least three children with his wife Gemma di Manetto Donati. His involvement in politics in Florence led to his exile in and he eventually settled in Ravenna where he died in The perfect balance of tightness and colloquialism Search books and authors. Buy from…. View all retailers. Discover Dante's original Inferno - the inspiration for Dan Brown's new novel - in this modern and acclaimed Penguin translation Describing Dante's descent into Hell with Virgil as a guide, Inferno depicts a cruel underworld in which desperate figures are condemned to eternal damnation for committing one or more of seven deadly sins.
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Chrome On the Control button top right of browser , select Settings from dropdown. Of course the poets find their way out of Hell, after passing Satan himself climbing on Satan, even. Dante now must wash the tears from his face. I've actually become rather obsessed and have been sitting around wondering if it's possible to go to Dante School, or become a dedicated Dante scholar. Or to somehow spend the rest of my life reading Inferno.
First though, I must read the other two, before I get carried away. From here the plan is to read the rest of Sayers' beautiful translation though the final one was finished by Barbara Reynolds in following Sayers' death and then read the Ciardi translation.
After that perhaps Clive James, though from what I've read so far, it seems like one to leave for later. Perhaps Hollander before James. I may add more to this review as I inevitably learn more. I will write new reviews for future translations read to compare them with one another and slowly, hopefully, grow a rather complete understanding of this seminal and magnificent work; it is a certain favourite.
But first, Mount Purgatory. View all 14 comments. About Translation It took me a while to decide on the translation to use. After a few days of research and asking around, I shortlisted Musa and Hollander.
Went with Hollander since it seemed better organized. Turned out to be a good choice. The translation is fluid and easy on the ear. The Italian version is also available when you want to just read the Italian purely for the sound of verse.
I am no judge of the fidelity of the various translations, but this was an easy read and that was good. Th About Translation It took me a while to decide on the translation to use. There is enough difficulty in the poem without the translation adding to it. To me the more important consideration in choosing the edition was the quality of the footnotes and the ease of accessing them.
About Footnotes Here the notes are scholarly yet accessible with very little arcane stuff and mind you this is a classic for which proper footnotes are essential to the reading to keep up with the erudition classical, political, geographical, etc displayed by Dante throughout the Comedia.
The greatest poetry in Dante resides in the literal sense of the work, its graphic descriptions of the sinners, their characters, and their punishments. Because of that demand, because of the immense and minute scholarship that has been expended upon Dante, and because too few English readers have been pointed in the right direction to him, Dante has acquired a reputation as an immensely difficult poet.
It is true that Dante writes in depth. Though his language is normally simple, his thought is normally complex. But if the gold of Dante runs deep, it also runs right up to the surface.
A lifetime of devoted scholarship will not mine all that gold; yet enough lies on the surface—or just an inch below—to make a first reading a bonanza in itself.
All one really needs is some first instruction in what to look for. Thereafter he need only follow the vein as it goes deeper and deeper into the core of things. But of course, footnotes is not all. The footnotes are like our Virgil through these pages, the guide that is Reason.
But at some point we have to surrender to the Poet to truly fathom its depth of feeling. Earlier I had read the Inferno with Longfellow, and sad to say I had been left as scared as Dante at the beginning of his own journey after that encounter. Overall the Ciardi translation is grander and more familiar - since a good chunk of the famous quotes and phrases come from it, and Ciardi also tries to force us into looking at the symbolism of the poetry overtly by pointing it out at the very beginning of his cantos.
This is helpful, but in the final analysis, the Hollander is the better choice for the new reader. So in case you are searching for the right translation and using that as an excuse to procrastinate like me , you can go with Hollander and get down to it.
How shall I say what wood that was! I never saw so drear, so rank, so arduous a wilderness! Its very memory gives a shape to fear. Death could scarce be more bitter than that place! How I came to it I cannot rightly say, so drugged and loose with sleep had I become when I first wandered there from the True Way. But at the far end of that valley of evil whose maze had sapped my very heart with fear! I found myself before a little hill and lifted up my eyes. Its shoulders glowed already with the sweet rays of that planet whose virtue leads men straight on every road, and the shining strengthened me against the fright whose agony had wracked the lake of my heart through all the terrors of that piteous night.
Ah me! So bitter is it, death is little more; But of the good to treat, which there I found, Speak will I of the other things I saw there. I cannot well repeat how there I entered, So full was I of slumber at the moment In which I had abandoned the true way. Ah, how hard it is to tell the nature of that wood, savage, dense and harsh— the very thought of it renews my fear!
It is so bitter death is hardly more so. But to set forth the good I found I will recount the other things I saw. How I came there I cannot really tell, I was so full of sleep when I forsook the one true way.
But when I reached the foot of a hill, there where the valley ended that had pierced my heart with fear, looking up, I saw its shoulders arrayed in the first light of the planet that leads men straight, no matter what their road. Then the fear that had endured in the lake of my heart, all the night I spent in such distress, was calmed. View all 15 comments. This is such an interesting book, though definitely very hard to get through.
I think if I was able to read it in Italian it would be a little easier as it would actually be read like Dante intended, but it's still really cool to see all the concepts!
This is such an influential piece of literature and is referenced SO MUCH in culture that it is really cool to have a basis for it. I think I may reread this in a different rhyming translation next time to see what that would be like, though I know the rhyming translation leaves a lot of the content out, or I may read a more modern translation so it will be easier for me to understand.
Either way, I'm really glad I read this! Dante's version of hell is so interesting and poetic har har that it's hard not to like it. If you would rather NOT read old english, pick something else.
I read Longfellow's translation the whole way through and just looked at another why i waited this long I have no idea and the other was a lot easier to read! Give us one of those sultry little smiles and say you're surprised! Say you can't get over it! Say it's just what you've always wanted and it's even more fun than a day at the spa because, let's face it, hunny honey, on my salary I couldn't afford to give you a day at the spa. Because it's all yours-- Because we think And wouldn't old E.
Shepard just have a fit if he could see us all together now! Oh, wait a minute Here's a note from the Poet too. He just wants to say: To see your face is like a foretaste of Paradise. Isn't that sweet? His friend Piglet was with him to keep him company. After they had been walking for some time, they looked around and noticed there was a Man walking along beside them. He had rather strange clothes on and looked lost.
Piglet worried that perhaps this was Trespassers William come to reclaim his house and his sign. You see, Pooh's little friend had told everyone that Trespassers was his grandfather, but it wasn't really true! And I don't really want to live with Owl.
He tells such long stories about his relations! Oh dear! Christopher Robin comes to visit too--when he's not Bisy Backson, that is, or imagining adventures in his room. You see, he'd already noticed being pretty clever for such a little Piglet that the Man tended to talk in poetry.
But it wasn't in songs or hums, like the ones Pooh made up, which was rather refreshing for a change. The Man eyed them quizzically.
Perhaps he was surprised that they had never heard of him. He was a VIP after all. That means a Very Inflooenshul Poet. But he was polite, so he merely said that he had met some other Animals earlier that day. Did he Bounce at you? They are more stripedy-looking. So does his cousin Hobbes, for that matter. Oh Pooh, I don't like Jagulars! Couldn't we go home?
Now it pains me to criticize Pooh, who is one of my very bestest friends. After all, I've known him almost as long as Christopher Robin. But I have to admit it is rather bad manners to do this kind of thing. But let us get back to our story. Pooh had just laughed, as I said, at his little joke. But Piglet looked startled. And the Very Inflooenshul Poet looked not only startled, but confused and offended. It's about time I had a little something anyhow. But you'll have to be careful coming into my house.
You're rather big and tall, and I'd hate for you to get stuck in my doorway. It had turned out to be a very bewildering day. He was sad because he was missing his little friend Beatrice. She doesn't come into this Story until later, but I just thought it might be a helpful kind of thing to know.
And when Pooh mentioned having a little something--well, that made him feel even worse , because he was getting hungry too. He didn't ask for much, but the thing he really liked best was Italian food.
And somehow he doubted he was going to get very hearty fare at Pooh's. He was starting to abandon hope of finding anything at all to eat, let alone making his way out of the Hundred-Acre Wood and back to Florence. Then he froze in his tracks. Pooh and Piglet looked back, wondering why he had stopped. Pooh even made an impatient little gesture with one paw not the faux one, the other one , to tell him to stop dawdling and come along. But he could not move, for he was very, very frightened.
Wave after wave of terror was washing over him. In fact, he looked nearly as terrified as Piglet the day he'd been introduced to Kanga's bathtub! For the Very Inflooenshul Poet had just realized that he was starting to talk like Pooh. View all 19 comments. Before I start talking about the book proper, I have a confession to make: I wasn't sure I really wanted to read philosophical poetry written seven centuries ago. I had doubts about style, quality of translation and my own lack of literary background in decyphering the numerous Christian and mythological references, not to mention political and cultural trivia from Dante's Florence.
Thanks to my Goodreads friends, I took the plunge and I can report back that it was well worth the effort. Even be Before I start talking about the book proper, I have a confession to make: I wasn't sure I really wanted to read philosophical poetry written seven centuries ago.
Even better, it wasn't an effort, but a joyride, thanks primarily to my lucky pick of the Ciardi translation for my first foray into the phantastical world of Dante. So my answer to the questions: can we still read Dante for pleasure and not for academic study is a resounding yes. Another big Yes is the answer to the relevance of the Commedia for the modern reader. The fundamental soul searching questions about the relationship between spiritual and material life, morality and political power, religious and secular governance, reason and faith remain unchanged over centuries and must still be answered by each of us after our own fashion.
Dante is as great a choice as the lightbearer showing the way to redemption, as Virgil was to the poet on his descent into Hell. Nell mezzo del camin di nostra vita mi ritrovai per una selva oscura che la diritta via era smarrita. Page after page of commentary has been written about these famous opening lines. The key to deciphering the poem is here: an allegorical journey of self discovery and liberation from doubts, uncertainty and fear. Dante is the hero of his own epic poem, and he starts with a confession of how he almost lost his faith in his search for the ultimate truth through the books of ancient philosophers and the myths and legends that have been passed on from antiquity.
But Human Reason on its own is not enough, and salvation for Dante can come only by way of Divine intercession. Somebody up there loves him Beatrice, the love of his life, symbol of purity and innocence, taken away to Heaven in her early youth. She sends a guide to help Dante on his perilous journey: the Roman poet Virgil, the mentor and personal hero of our narrator. Together they must pass through the underground halls of the damned, there to witness the justice administered by a stern God upon sinners of every variety.
Only after renouncing and condemning sin, can the upward journey begin. Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate Another famous quote that has entered into the world's cultural heritage marks the gate to the depths of eternal torment and despair.
I have no intention of enumerating every level of the arhitecture of Hell and every lost soul that Dante and Virgil encounters. What impressed me most though was the rigid organization and the careful planning of each punishment, designed to reflect the gravity of the crime and to correctly assign the torment most appropriate for each category of sinner.
For example, thieves must steal from one another the very shapes in which they appear. Nothing is left to chance, and accurate maps can and have been drawn of the allegorical geography of Hell, its nine concentric and descending level, its dark rivers and fiery pits. Instead of chaos and anarchy I discovered an inflexible and merciless order, with Minos as the judge who weights each soul's guilt and then sends them to their correct circle and niche, like with like, crime and punishment linked together for eternity.
There is no place for pity here. Who is more arrogant within his soul, who is more impious than one who dares to sorrow at God's judgment. The escalation of dread and horror is well served by the poet's imagination, who starts the journey with sights and dialogues still anchored and related to the world above, but grows more grim and grotesque as the deeper levels are reached.
Monsters and tortures grow more elaborate, more frightening, more inventive with each circle, until the senses are overwhelmed and humbled. The main lesson in Hell is to be aware of the wages of sin: O endless wrath of God: how utterly thou shouldst become a terror to all men who read the frightful truths revealed to me!
And an example of a gargoyle riding a centaur, an image worthy of the brush of Brueghel: Upon his shoulders, just behind his head a snorting dragon whose hot breath set fire to all it touched, lay with its wings outspred.
Coming back to the sinners Dante meets in his downward journey, it should be noticed that he is not above paying back some personal political woes, by placing his contemporaries and adversaries inside particularly gruesome torture chambers. These human foibles, coupled with the apparent vanity and pride of the poet conscious of his worth as an equal of the ancient masters, are a source of humour and gentle irony at his own fallible nature, a more enchanting and entertaining portrait than his pious and hollier than thou alter ego.
As a literary device, Dante uses prophecy to warn about the risks of the future of his beloved Florence, from which he was exiled by conspiracies within his own party, aided and abetted by the papal legate: Two are honest, but none will head them. There, pride, avarice, and envy are the tongues men know and heed, a Babel of despair.
I should also mention the major political aspect of the poem, on one hand denouncing the corrupt and venal warring families of Tuscany, and on the other launching impassioned attacks on the degradation of the church in its power games and search for material governance.
These ideas will be later developed into a pamphlet De Monarchia that was quickly put on the list of forbidden books by the papacy. Dante argues in favor of a secular government coupled with a church that renounces wealth and power and takes care only of the spiritual needs of its flock. He is well ahead of his time in this humanist plea for separation of powers and in his references to the ancient philosophers.
Another major appeal of the journey for me was the recognition of many of the mythological characters residing in Hell. The most often referenced sources are Ovid with his metamorphoses and Virgil with his Aeneid, but the erudition and the variety of Dante's interests history, cosmology, art, etc are reason enough to name him among the greatest personalities of a nascent Renaissance movement.
Much has also been said and praised about his liberation of the Italian language from the restrictions and limitations of Church latin, putting his vision into the live and colourful 'vulgata' dialect of the people.
John Ciardi has this to say about the style of the poem, and he should know best, as a poet himself and a native speaker of Italian : I do not imply that Dante's is the language of common speech. It is a much better thing than that: it is what common speech would be if it were made perfect. Like Cervantes and Shakespeare centuries later, Dante stands as a national idol that defines a culture and makes it universal.
I did try to read some of his verses in the original Italian and I was struck by the musicality and the rhythm that is so difficult to translate in another language. Ciardi did an excellent job in keeping the faith with this singsong quality of the poem, even if he is said to have taken liberties with the actual content. Not being a scholar or a purist, I was well satisfied with the result, especially as he kept the introductions and the end of canto notes to a minimum, allowing me to get immersed in the story instead of chasing endless commentaries and interpretations.
The Ciardi translation is also the reason I am reviewing separately the three books that comprise the Commedia The Divine was apparently an appelation added by later commentators , as I have them published individually. I should warn though that The Inferno is not a standalone book.
In the big concept of Dante's allegory, it is only the first step towards salvation, and the next two books are just as important in the final judgement. I had several more notes and quotes saved, but I'll stop for now, hoping I've managed to convince some of my friends to put Dante on their reading lists. In the words of Arnie: "I'll be back! Former U. Poet Laureate Pinsky employs slant rhyme and near rhyme to preserve Dante's terza rima form without distorting the flow of English idiom.
The result is a clear and vigorous translation that is also unique, student-friendly, and faithful to the original: "A brilliant success," as Bernard Knox wrote in The New York Review of Books. Today's prompt is the twenty-fourth, a book that reminds you of your English teacher. Ninth grade, or freshman high school year, was The Odyssey , and tenth was The Inferno. We used, in , the then-newish Ciardi translation, made in ; it was quite an event, since Ciardi a poet of some renown translated it as poetry instead of as Italian-to-English words.
Pinsky's translation attempts the damn-near impossible feat of preserving the terza rima aba, bcb, cdc, etc. The result is a noble experiment, one marked by many successes.
There are some weird things like quotes flowing over multiple stanzas, and there are some But hell, the man tried a damned near impossible feat! So what is any reviewer to say about a year-old poem? Nothing hasn't been said by now. I am anti-christian. The theology behind the entire Divine Comedy appalls and repulses me. I speak rudimentary Italian. Pinsky's efforts to reproduce terza rima are, to my ears, clunky and unnecessary.
But in the end, rating a book like this is about what the take-away is for the reader. I take away a sense of Dante as an intelligent, desperately lonely man, attempting to make a Universe in which his existence matters and is of some moment. I stand in awed amazement at his gloriously baroque imagination. I am gobsmacked by the sheer audacity of a medieval poet writing in the vernacular. If Dante was alive today, he'd be writing raps. Horrible thought. But nonetheless, I am wowed at a root level by the joyous, exuberant viciousness and the unapologetic cruelty of Dante's score-settling fates for his enemies.
What a guy! Those raps he'd be writing today? They'd inspire Wes Craven to make movies and Clive Barker to write gore-fests!
Try this exercise: Imagine a beat-box under the terza rima stanzas. Read a piece aloud imagining hand-claps at the end of each stanza. This is what I think we, in this relativistic age, should strive for: to interpret the classics of literature and poetry by standards relevant to today, in addition to the standards that we know were applied at the time of the work's creation. Many more layers to this work that way. After all, a literary classic is a work that's never finished saying what it has to say.
And here one is. View all 4 comments. This one has chronology, introduction, map of Italy, plan of Hell plus commentaries and notes at the end. The main text itself is shown with Italian text on the left side, English on the right side. Commentaries include many comments on the linguistic details that I don't remember the paperback Penguin version having.
There is al review to cover - hardback, red devils cover art: I didn't read the main text of this one, but I think I will read the English half at some point.
There is also a cord for bookmarking one's place. I don't know exactly why I would want another copy of this book, but it just looked good. The Inferno edit: I mean, Hell is not my favorite of the three, but I can see why it would be the most popular - it certainly can feel exciting and the religion part is less in the front.
And also you can feel the climb from how especially the Paradise can feel like a place where air is thin : So getting this was more about liking the whole, not just this part. But it is enjoyable kind of a book. View all 6 comments. May 27, Sara rated it it was amazing Shelves: classics , gutenberg-download , literary-fiction , poetry , religion.
In the journey of my life I found myself in a dark wood, for I had lost the right path. Even in the upper levels, the punishments seem horrendous, but each is cleverly designed to fit the sin itself and, while I might have ranked the seriousness of the sins in a different way, the justice of the punishment is always evident.
There is no need for me In the journey of my life I found myself in a dark wood, for I had lost the right path. Time has established that beyond doubt. And, his work is still alive and allusions to it are all around us. Heck, I ran into a crossword puzzle two days ago with a Dante inspired clue.
He has become a part of our collective consciousness, even for those who have not read him for themselves. The translation was quite beautiful, the descriptions vivid.
I am now on to read Purgatorio. The Comedy will no doubt take me the better part of this year, but I am hoping to enjoy the rest as much as I have enjoyed The Inferno. I realize that I need to edit one particular part, but this review means a lot to me and I would like for it to stay the way it was written, regardless of the revalations and events that took place later.
Beautifully written and emotionally draining. However, this isn't simply a tale of terror. It is a philosophical and, I suppose, historical work as well. I learned interesting historical facts. Who among us are sinners?
Who are the righteous ones? Are people and deeds simply right or wrong, go I realize that I need to edit one particular part, but this review means a lot to me and I would like for it to stay the way it was written, regardless of the revalations and events that took place later.
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