Thus the sun unseals an imprint in the snow. New York, NY: Columbia University Libraries, as if conjoinedin such a way that what [3] It has been translated over 400 times into at least 52 different languages. https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/paradiso/paradiso-33/ through perils without number (Nicholls) 1, who . De Sua, Dante into English. 7Nel ventre tuo si raccese lamore, . 122al mio concetto! Good enough, but ho hum. Too over-dramatic, overdone, sort of like a modern adventure movie. . Dante hopes that his efforts will win him the poet's crown of laurel. As you point out, any attempt at terza rima in English is doomed by lack of rhymes. Think on the seed ye spring from! 14che qual vuol grazia e a te non ricorre, One moment is more lethargy to me, When Dante reaches the end of his vision and is granted the sight of the universe bound together in one volume, what entrances him is not plain Oneness but all that multiplicity somehow contained and unified. Or rather, it is being revolved: by the Love that moves everything, including him. Than our discourse, that to such vision yields, Belonging in the immortal company of the great works of literature, Dante Alighieri's poetic masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, is a moving human drama, an unforgettable visionary journey through the infinite torment of Hell, up the arduous slopes of Purgatory, and on to the glorious realm . So it's amazing that Carson, who in 2000 "was almost completely unfamiliar with Dante's work", has produced this version - in terza rima. Thou art the living fountainhead of hope. The poet compares to his own moment of stunned comprehension the moment when Neptune looked up and saw the shadow of the first ship. 17a chi domanda, ma molte fate The Hollander translation offers a clear, untroubled guide to the Commedia. But if you want to read a poem a verbal contraption that captures something of the heft and momentum of the Commedia then youre wise to revert to the blank verse translation by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1867) or the terza rima translation by Laurence Binyon (1933). Im confused by this comment: the three prose translations score highest in terms of fidelity, with Allen Mandelbaum close on their heels as the most accurate of the 12 verse translations. In your evaluation, Longfellows blank verse ranks with Singletons prose as the most accurate. That is defective which is perfect there. Or, if we insert agents into this drama, we could say as follows: we humans who have been forgetting the object of Neptunes wonder, the sight of the Argos shadow, for 2500 years have in all that time lost less of Neptunes vision than Dante has already lost of his. 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 declaration of arrival is situated in a passage whose rhyme words offer a veritable archeology of the Commedias thematics. I didnt see Ms. Sayers among your 15 translators. Consider the Hollanders free verse rendering of a thrilling, poignant moment in the final canto of the Paradiso the moment when Dante, having risen through the nine spheres of heaven to the empyrean, turns to face God. . But then my mind was struck by light that flashed Id recommend Mandelbaums version. From the conceits of mortals, to my mimd David Rigsbee - Canto X - Translation of Dante's Paradiso, the third But the Commedia is above all else a poem, and the Hollander translation obscures this fact not because its scholarly apparatus is vast, but because the translation only fitfully succeeds as English poetry. one of the few truly successful English translations comes from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a professor of Italian at Harvard and an acclaimed poet. 35ci che tu vuoli, che conservi sani, 109, the fifth and most beautiful lightSolomon, whose Song of Songs was considered a wedding hymn of the Church and God. from this point on, in words more weak than those 83ficcar lo viso per la luce etterna, This is a great post!! I have always preferred Mandelbaum. that it would be impossible for him Thank you very much for this most informative post. you were not made to live your lives as brutes, 120che quinci e quindi igualmente si spiri. Robert Pinsky seems to get the strongest rcommendations so far as I can tell. I was unfamiliar with the newer translations. Had it not been that then my mind there smote 114mutandom io, a me si travagliava. Dante believes in a transcendent One, but his One is indelibly characterized by the multiplicity, difference, and sheer otherness embodied in the altre stelle an otherness by which he is still unrepentantly captivated in his poems last breath. This translation preserves the body and intent of Dante's original poem while accessibly and skillfully presenting his work to a modern audience. Paradiso, The Final Cantos - The American Conservative We unlock the potential of millions of people worldwide. Making the terzina even more impossible to hold onto is the fact that its main action is forgetting: active, continual, endlessly accreted forgetting. 57e cede la memoria a tanto oltraggio. If the original author of this post happens to read this, thank you! Thanks for this post I am organising a reading and am looking for a good translation. Appeared in thee as a reflected light, Dante in Translation | Open Yale Courses you are a living spring of hope. Published as six volumes, with one volume of translation facing Italian text and one volume of commentary for each, Mandelbaum was awarded a Gold Medal of Honor from the city of, Hungary (published and written in the United States), Advertised as a "retelling" rather than direct translation, Contains a total of thirty-three cantos selected from different, Contains only twelve cantos; Schwerner died before he could finish the translation. By any creature bent an eye so clear. [1] Below is a chart of the narrative structure of Paradiso 33 made as a class hand-out. Dante's lifelong love for Beatrice from afar (she died in 1290) also reflects the medieval poetic theme of courtly love, which Dante incorporated into his own literary style (which he called the dolce stil novo, or "sweet new style"). Back in the 1980s Hugh Kenner wrote a review that compared Musa, singleton, sisson and Mandelbaum. 143ma gi volgeva il mio disio e l velle, The instability of the amazing analogy is structural, since the punto solo is analogous both, as object of the vision, to the Argo and, as duration of the vision, to the twenty-five centuries. In you compassion is, in you is pity, ISBN 0873383737. Doubts surface which drive the intellect in its pursuit of truth until it reaches God. Australia (written in the United Kingdom), This page was last edited on 17 April 2023, at 18:11. Its a good story. I'll look out for the Ciardi translation; it sounds great. Ye were made 119parea reflesso, e l terzo parea foco Robert and Jean Hollander have made the whole journey: their "Paradiso" completes their verse translation of the entire "Commedia." Robert Hollander is one of the pre-eminent Dante scholars. For example, for brutish ignorance your mettle was not made; you were made men is reading an awful lot into Dantes fatti non foste a viver come bruti.. Dante's Paradiso: A Summary - Randall Writing That one moment. Afraid to look away lest he be lost smarrito (77) , the pilgrim is daring ardito (79) enough to sustain the light, and so he reaches his journeys end: i giunsi / laspetto mio col valore infinito (my vision reached the Infinite Goodness [80-81]). 100A quella luce cotal si diventa, World we shall find by following the sun. In its profundity I sawingathered A Study of the Translation of the Divine Comedy in Britain and Reading your examples, I invariably prefer Longfellow or Singleton. For this translation rollicks along so fluidly that you will actually be able not only to read the poem but enjoy it. Nicholas Lezard salutes Ciaran Carson's new translation of The Inferno, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. I've been wrestling with Dante for more than 20 years and haven't read so much at one sitting as I have here. The first verse of the canto Vergine madre, figlia del tuo figlio (Virgin mother, daughter of your son) is the very embodiment of the paradoxes that are the constituent feature of Dantes Paradise. 93dicendo questo, mi sento chi godo. He produced one of the first complete, and in many respects still the best, English translations of The Divine Comedy in 1867. But I dont want to stay away from Dante for too long; Ill probably come around to Purgatory before finishing the Iliad (which of course is monumental). so much nobility that its Creator But to pursue and gain wisdom and worth.. Even in this relatively straightforward and linear recounting, we note the slippage that is typical of this canto, as Dante inaugurates the technique of coupling the adversative ma (but) with the time-blurring adverb gi (already) that will be reprised to such effect in the poems conclusion. are unsurpassed. Paradiso ( Italian: [paradizo]; Italian for "Paradise" or "Heaven") is the third and final part of Dante 's Divine Comedy, following the Inferno and the Purgatorio. The poem feels swift because its energy has been artfully stymied, the way well-placed rocks increase the vigor of a stream. English terza rima is practically impossible my hat is off to anyone who attempts it so fudging the rhymes a bit is unavoidable. After so great a vision his affections. so in light leaves cast to the wind were the Sibyls oracles lost. of one whose infant tongue still bathes at the breast. and, with this light, received what it had asked. Carson says his experience of sectarianism in Belfast gave him an insight into what Dante's faction-ridden Florence must have been like; but that can't be the only factor determining the success of his Inferno. "Substantial, Verbatim, (Un)attributed, Misleading?" A Review Article In addition, the translators refer to 73 commentaries compiled over the centuries and available at the Dartmouth Dante Project (dante.dartmouth.edu). Princeton Dante Project (2.0) - Princeton University May your protection curb his mortal passions. 69ripresta un poco di quel che parevi. Kent, Ohio:. The Divine Comedy: The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso (John To feel in, stoop not to renounce the quest Because my sight, becoming purified, Pb. In presence of that light one such becomes, Than five and twenty centuries to the emprise Its fun to see how my translation ranks in your scoring system; thanks for adding it in. As a result, the poem seems simultaneously to surge forward and eddy backward. The best crib available is still John D Sinclair's facing-page text from OUP; the best translation of the entire work is Allen Mandelbaum's (published by Everyman). 1.113]). What's the Best Way to Read the Divine Comedy If You Don't Know Italian 109Non perch pi chun semplice sembiante a joy that is more ample. The prayer to the Virgin and the transitional verses that follow it encompass the first 45 verses of the canto: Bernards prayer in the present tense of the journey, verses 1-39, and the coda to the prayer that introduces the narrative past tense (the narrator looking back at the journey), verses 40-45. 102 impossibil che mai si consenta; 103per che l ben, ch del volere obietto, No one said the journey was going to be easy. A New Translation of Dante's 'Paradiso' - Books - New York Times 23. Methinks I saw, since more abundantly so long that I spent all my sight on it! 129da li occhi miei alquanto circunspetta. The first time I read through the Commedia I used Mandelbaum's translation and really enjoyed it. You will come away with the idea that Capaneus, so proud that he refuses to allow God the satisfaction of knowing that hellfire burns him, had an ugly face. Of what thou didst appear relend a little. was in the Living Light at which I gazed "One more tercet," Robert Pinsky would moan in bed, as his wife confiscated his pen. Much has been written about the transcendent stelle with which the Commedia ends. Was of my own accord such as he wished. So was my mindcompletely rapt, intent, So is the snow, beneath the sun, unsealed; The phrase the shadow of the Argo lombra dArgo at the end of this terzina manifests Dantes antiquarian precision and his desire to make the pagan world manifest, even in this highest reach of the Christian universe: What, in synthesis, does this extraordinary passage tell us with respect to the pilgrim? Dante Alighieri was born in 1265. The translation is quite fluent and the notes (a necessity in reading Dante the first time. 74e per sonare un poco in questi versi, By 1906, Dante scholar Paget Toynbee calculated that the Divine Comedy had been touched upon by over 250 translators[10] and sixty years later bibliographer Gilbert F. Cunningham observed that the frequency of English Dante translations was only increasing with time. within the everlasting peacewas love Understandably, some of the rhymes are a little free. In thee magnificence, in thee unites By James Torrens, s.j. More of thy victory shall be conceived! Paradisotogether in one volume.Belonging in the immortal company of the great works of literature, Dante Alighieri's poetic masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, is a . My aspect with the Glory Infinite. Nevertheless, her translation is a poem, and it sounds like one. within itself and colored like itself, By mixing the voice up, I'm potentially sacrificing a sense of the unity of . than speech can show: at such a sight, it fails The eyes that are revered and loved by God, 54de lalta luce che da s vera. through perils numberless (Carson) 1, who through a hundred thousand perils (Ciardi, Lombardo, Longfellow, Sinclair, Singleton) 3, who have borne innumerable dangers (Esolen) 1, who in the course of a hundred thousand perils (Hollander) 3, a hundred thousand perils you have passed (Kirkpatrick) 2, who having crossed a hundred thousand dangers (Mandelbaum) 3, who through a hundred thousand perils have made your way (Musa) 2, who . 38vedi Beatrice con quanti beati Moreover, details of the action which had escaped me before, having been translated into a kind of over-cautious, archaic rhetoric, now become vivid. These translations, while worthy in many respects, and especially in Kirkpatrick's case accompanied by excellent commentary and notes, are rather heavy-handedly set to meter and therefore often feel stiff or stilted. 50perch io guardassi suso; ma io era What I read whetted my appetite for more, but Sayers' translation is archaising and difficult. A Comparative Translation Analysis of Dantes Paradiso Hutton fixed goal decreed from all eternity. Still farther do I pray thee, Queen, who canst Im not a big fan of rhyming stressed and unstressed syllables, either. If we analyze Paradiso 33 by dividing it, searching for the narrative line that it resists, we begin by distinguishing the oratorical prelude of the cantos first third, its first 45 verses, from the ensuing story of the pilgrims final ascent. His aspirations without wings would fly. The terse contemporary feel of the line, unhampered by translator's awe, captures Virgil's character, his no-nonsense, patrician contempt, perfectly. In the deep and bright. Allegorical portrait of Dante, Agnolo Bronzino, c. 1530 The book he holds is a copy of the Divine Comedy, open to Canto XXV of the Paradiso. 11/26 Daily What: Which Dante translation is the best one? By almost any standard, Bang's translation is the most liberal interpretation of Dante available in English. 145lamor che move il sole e laltre stelle. As one who sees within a dream, and, later, The 15 translations are those of Ciaran Carson, John Ciardi, Anthony Esolen, Robert and Jean Hollander, Robin Kirkpatrick, Stanley Lombardo, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Allen Mandelbaum, Mark Musa, J. G. Nicholls, Robert Pinsky, Tom Simone, John D. Sinclair, Charles Singleton, and C. H. Sisson. 46E io chal fine di tutt i disii Humble and high beyond all other creature, . Your victory will be more understood. PDF The Divine Comedy Paradise Notes - JSTOR Consider now the seed that gave you birth: . I think the literal translation permits the power and pain and anguish and ambivalence, and later joy of Dantes feelings to come through to the reader more than a poetic twisting of the wording can. the lives of spirits, one by onenow pleads. Not bad but not great. Was in the living light on which I looked, 741 (World's Classics). through thought on thought, the principle he needs, so I searched that strange sight: I wished to see Dantes God is the love that moves the sun and the other stars: lamor che move l sole e laltre stelle. That what I speak of is one simple light. may lift it toward the ultimate salvation. The 15 translations are those of Ciaran Carson, John Ciardi, Anthony Esolen, Robert and Jean Hollander, Robin Kirkpatrick, Stanley Lombardo, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Allen Mandelbaum, Mark Musa, J. G. Nicholls, Robert Pinsky, Tom Simone, John D. Sinclair, Charles Singleton, and C. H. Sisson. Dante's "Divine Comedy". The Hollanders translation of this passage is attentive not only to Dantes meaning but to his syntax: their English sentences generally begin, turn and end where they do in Dantes original tercets. Wherefore my sight was all absorbed therein. 63nel core il dolce che nacque da essa. 105 defettivo ci ch l perfetto. Thanks again. 11di caritate, e giuso, intra mortali, Paradiso - Alighieri Dante: 9780451621696 - AbeBooks Thus the Sibyls oracles, on weightless leaves, lifted by the wind, were swept away. Why Dante's Purgatorio and Paradiso aren't as popular as his Inferno My mind in this wise wholly in suspense, Of charity, and below there among mortals How incomplete is speech, how weak, when set Again, wonderful. While she and Dante both seem to have been orthodox (small O!) After such wise this flower has germinated. 124O luce etterna che sola in te sidi, 41fissi ne lorator, ne dimostraro But I quite enjoyed reading H.R. seemed fire breathed equally by those two circles. The Best Books on Dante - Five Books Expert Recommendations Fastened upon the speaker, showed to us Yourself, and only You know You; Self-knowing, You can find my translation on Amazon. Dante has been translated into prose, free verse, blank verse and a variety of adaptations of terza rima. [4], Though English poets Geoffrey Chaucer and John Milton referenced and partially translated Dante's works in the 14th and 17th centuries respectively,[5][6] it took until the early 19th century for the first full English translation of the Divine Comedy to be published. . With a hundred thousand dangers overcome, As the geometrician, who endeavours The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. Translated and commented by Henry 127Quella circulazion che s concetta but to pursue virtue, knowledge, and worth.. Within itself, of its own very colour Now Carson: "And now, I think we've seen enough of this." I was surprised to see a prose translation (I didnt know there was such a thing) and wanted to find out how Singletons translation was viewed. That circlewhich, begotten so, appeared and memory fails when faced with such excess. Author: Dante Alighieri Translator: Henry Francis Cary Illustrator: Gustave Dor Release Date: August 2, 2004 [eBook #8799] [Most recently updated: January 14, 2023] Language: English Produced by: David Widger *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VISION OF PARADISE *** THE VISION OF PARADISE BY DANTE ALIGHIERI ILLUSTRATED BY GUSTAVE DOR Was now approaching, even as I ought Was entering more and more into the ray And knowing, lovest and smilest on thyself! Robert Pinsky's is obviously the best poetic translation . What little I recall is to be told, "), clich ("once in a blue moon") or bizarre turns of phrase ("scarlet woman"). 48lardor del desiderio in me finii. Rendezvous/hitherto?) 50+ Dante's Inferno Quotes From The Epic Divine Comedy Poem That startled Neptune with the shade of Argo! Very grateful for your work. Alighieri, Dante (1265-1321) - The Divine Comedy: Paradiso 29-33 Sinclair: "And with that let our sight be satisfied." To him who asketh it, but oftentimes Bound up with love together in one volume, Described by The Cambridge Companion to Dante as the first "powerful, accurate, and poetically moving" translation. you yet deny what little we have left experience (Ciardi, Lombardo) 3, do not deny yourselves the chance to know (Hollander) 1, Do not deny your will to win experience (Kirkpatrick) 2, be ye unwilling to deny, the experience (Longfellow) 3, you must not deny experience (Mandelbaum) 2, do not deny yourself experience (Musa) 2, you should not choose to deny it the experience (Pinsky) 2, do not be content to deny yourselves experience (Simone) 2, choose not to deny experience (Sinclair) 3, wish not to deny the experience (Singleton) 3, following the sun (Hollander, Longfellow, Singleton) 2, that lies beyond the setting sun (Lombardo) 0, of that which lies beyond the sun (Mandelbaum) 3, of what there is beyond, behind the sun (Musa) 2, following the track of Phoebus (Nicholls) 1, behind the sun leading us onward (Pinsky) 0, Follow the sun into the west (Simone) 0, following the course of the sun (Sission) 1, the world where no one dwells (Esolen) 2, the land where no one lives (Hollander) 2, of worlds where no man dwells (Kirkpatrick) 2, of the unpeopled world (Lombardo, Nicholls, Sinclair) 3, of the world that hath no people (Longfellow) 3, and of the world that is unpeopled (Mandelbaum) 3, in the world they call unpeopled (Musa) 0, of the world which has no people in it (Pinsky) 3, of the world that has no people (Singleton) 3, of that world which has no inhabitants (Sisson) 2, Think well upon your nation and your seed (Esolen) 1, Consider how your souls were sown (Hollander) 1, Hold clear in thought your seed and origin (Kirkpatrick) 1, Consider the seed from which you were born (Lombardo) 2, Consider well the seed that gave you birth (Mandelbaum) 2, Consider what you came from: you are Greeks (Musa) 0, Call to mind from whence we sprang (Nicholls) 2, Consider your seed and heritage (Simone) 1, Take thought of the seed from which you spring (Sinclair) 2, Consider then the race from which you have sprung (Sisson) 1, what you were made for: not to live like brutes (Carson) 2, You were not born to live like brutes (Ciardi) 2, For you were never made to live like brutes (Esolen) 2, you were not made to live like brutes or beasts (Hollander) 2, You were not made to live as mindless brutes (Kirkpatrick) 2, You were not made to live like brute animals (Lombardo) 2, ye were not made to live as brutes (Longfellow, Singleton) 3, you were not made to live your lives as brutes (Mandelbaum) 2, You were not born to live like mindless brutes (Musa) 2, Ye were not formd to live the life of brutes (Nicholls) 2, You were not born to live as a mere brute does (Pinsky) 2, you were not made to live like brutes (Simone) 3, You were not born to live as brutes (Sinclair) 2, You were not made to live like animals (Sisson) 3, but for the quest of knowledge and the good (Carson) 1, but to press on toward manhood and recognition (Ciardi) 0, but to pursue the good in mind and deed (Esolen) 0, but to pursue virtue and knowledge (Hollander, Singleton) 3, but go in search of virtue and true knowledge (Kirkpatrick) 3, but to live in pursuit of virtue and knowledge (Lombardo) 2, but for pursuit of virtue and of knowledge (Longfellow) 3, but to be followers of worth and knowledge (Mandelbaum) 2, but to follow paths of excellence and knowledge (Musa) 1, but virtue to pursue and knowledge high (Nicholls) 1, but for the pursuit of knowledge and the good (Pinsky) 2, but to follow virtue and knowledge (Simone, Sinclair) 3, but to pursue virtue and know the world (Sisson) 2. Eternal Light, You only dwell within The Divine Comedy. Robert Hollander is a Dante scholar of unmatched reputation and his wife, Jean, is an accomplished . Lady. Especially for a long narrative poem, I think it sounds a little more natural in English than full rhymes every time. Robert Hollander is one of the pre-eminent Dante scholars of our time. When somewhat contemplated by mine eyes. Self-known, You love and smile upon Yourself! Again, it begins with a moment of plot, which contains an even more unequivocal and straightforward statement of arrival than the one in verse 48. Of what I yet remember, than an infants I can recall that I, because of this, Thou art the one who such nobility There is no consensus. He is the author of Peppers, a book of poetry, and his translations include Lucretius's De rerum natura and Torquato Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata, along with Dante's Inferno and Purgatory, published by the Modern Library. the Love that moves the sun and the other stars. Supplicate thee through grace for so much power (I dont actually know much Italian, but I do have a dictionary and 15 different translations of the passage in question.) 71chuna favilla sol de la tua gloria For instance, the phrase such am I appears at the beginning of the tercet, just as the Italian does (cotal son io).