The Divine Comedy

Benny Bunter

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
Just ordered the Binyon verse translation, which I think/hope is supposed to be the best one. My copy won't arrive for a couple of weeks, but anyone here already read it or fancy giving it a proper go?
 
Benny Bunter

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
Anyway, apart from the word 'dreary', what luka said doesn't necessarily put me off. You could say the Iliad is mainly just a load of detailed descriptions of blokes getting hacked to death in battle, but the Chapman translation was lively and vivid enough to keep me enthralled to the end.
 
Benny Bunter

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
The Binyon version begins like this fwiw. Looks nice and clear and flowing, and he's kept the terza rima format. Promising start.

Midway life’s journey I was made aware
That I had strayed into a dark forest,
And the right path appeared not anywhere.

Ah, tongue cannot describe how it oppressed,
This wood, so harsh, dismal and wild, that fear
At thought of it strikes now into my breast.

So bitter it is, death is scarce bitterer.
But, for the good it was my hap to find,
I speak of the other things that I saw there.

I cannot well remember in my mind
How I came thither, so was I immersed
In sleep, when the true way I left behind.

But when my footsteps had attained the first
Slope of a hill, at the end of that drear vale
Which with such terror had my spirit pierced,

I looked up, and beheld its shoulders pale
Already in clothing of that planet’s light
Which guideth men on all roads without fail.
 
sus

sus

Moderator
The Binyon version seems terrible to me. I dunno. Not that I have such a developed sensibility. But it seems like you have to make a lot of sacrifices to meet the terza rima constraint—it'll be less faithful, the diction will be worse, the sentences will be constructed in confusing backwards ways—and why? To hear a rhyme?
 
sus

sus

Moderator
In Naples, I saw these lovely miniature dioramas, made in walnut shells, of the Divine Comedy. Treasured the experience. Have always wanted to read Dante but that made me especially desire it.

museodivinonapoli.it

La Divina Commedia - museodivino

La Divina Commedia L’Inferno, il Purgatorio e il Paradiso di Dante nel guscio di una noce Con il patrocinio e il sostegno di La Divina Commedia in 42 gusci di noce » Sottili gocce di pittura » Un’opera unica al mondo » il cosmo dantesco » per chi non ricorda più » l’arte e lo […]
museodivinonapoli.it museodivinonapoli.it
 
Benny Bunter

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
sus said:
The Binyon version seems terrible to me. I dunno. Not that I have such a developed sensibility. But it seems like you have to make a lot of sacrifices to meet the terza rima constraint—it'll be less faithful, the diction will be worse, the sentences will be constructed in confusing backwards ways—and why? To hear a rhyme?
Click to expand...
Well yeah, all the usual problems of translation apply, but Pound makes a good defence of it there, and the extract I posted there looks clear enough and not overly flowery. Plus, I think the edition I've ordered has notes.

I was looking at a bilingual Italian/Spanish version in the shop the other day, and that looked pretty good - the two texts side by side on facing pages, and it kept the three line stanzas but without rhyming. Obviously Spanish is very close to Italian anyway, so it might be worth getting.

Let's see how it goes. Certainly not gonna let Luka put me off!
 
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