Darwin8u's Reviews > The Divine Comedy

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
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it was amazing
bookshelves: 2014, aere-perennius
Read 2 times. Last read February 6, 2014 to March 4, 2014.

Plumbing the crucible of happenstance.

I should give a quick intro and say that I rarely EVER, EVER re-read a book. I should also mention that 3 years ago I had never cracked Dante's Divine Comedy. Now, I am finishing the Divine Comedy for the 3rd time. I've read Pinsky's translation of the Inferno. I've read Ciardi. I've flirted with Mandelbaum and danced with Hollander, but from Canto 1 of Inferno/Hell to Canto XXXIII of Paradiso/Heaven, I can't say I've read a better version than the Clive James translation. He replaced the terza rima (**A-B-A, B-C-B, C-D-C, D-E-D-E-E** a measure hard to write without poetic stretch marks in English) with the quatrain, and in doing so made the English translation his own. It gives the Divine Comedy the verbal energy and the poetry that makes inferior translations a slog and makes Dante so damn difficult to translate well. A mediocre translation might capture the stripes but lose the tiger. Clive James pulled off a master translation of one of the greatest works of art in any medium -- ever.
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Reading Progress

Started Reading (Other Hardcover Edition)
March 2, 2011 – Finished Reading (Other Hardcover Edition)
March 5, 2011 – Shelved (Other Hardcover Edition)
March 5, 2011 – Shelved as: 2011 (Other Hardcover Edition)
May 31, 2013 – Shelved as: aere-perennius (Other Hardcover Edition)
February 6, 2014 – Started Reading
February 6, 2014 – Shelved
February 6, 2014 –
page 20
3.8% "CANTOS 1 - III of HELL."
March 2, 2014 –
page 100
18.98%
March 3, 2014 –
page 143
27.13% "'But everything is real in Hell.'"
March 3, 2014 –
page 171
32.45% ""A sight more wonderful than anything -- Some of the loveliness revealed to men By Heaven. We could see the stars again." Now, onto Book II: Purgatory."
March 3, 2014 –
page 300
56.93%
March 4, 2014 –
page 350
66.41% "Book III: Heaven Bound."
March 4, 2014 – Shelved as: 2014
March 4, 2014 – Shelved as: aere-perennius
March 4, 2014 – Finished Reading

Comments Showing 1-10 of 10 (10 new)

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message 1: by Sorento62 (new) - added it

Sorento62 Wow. You are a Divine Comedy aficionado,

Have you seen Manny Rayner's online tool for reading Dante aloud in Italian? I'll see if I can find a link to it and post it here in these comments.


Darwin8u Sorento62 wrote: "Wow. You are a Divine Comedy aficionado,

Have you seen Manny Rayner's online tool for reading Dante aloud in Italian? I'll see if I can find a link to it and post it here in these comments."


Love, love, love Dante. And no, I'd love to see Rayner's Italian Tool for Dante. I'm a fan, but I imagine I miss a helluva lot because I'm always staring at Dante THROUGH a translaton.


message 3: by Sorento62 (new) - added it

Sorento62 Here's a link to Manny's review of The Inferno, in which he describes the poetry appreciation assistant.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

"If you have a headset and you're on Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Explorer - I'm afraid we don't yet have it available for mobile devices - try going here.
http://www.issco.unige.ch/en/research...
Log in as 'guest' (no password required) and click 'Allow' on the popup to let the app access your microphone.
On the right, there's a scrollable pane with the first 30 lines of the Inferno in slightly modernised Italian orthography. You can hover your mouse over any line to see it in Longfellow's English translation - we chose Longfellow since he's both a great poet in his own right and translates very literally. At the top, there's an embedded audio file where you can hear Sabina reading the text aloud. Italians who've tried out the app have been complimentary about her interpretation.

On the left, we have an area where you can practise reading yourself. You're shown the poem one line at a time. If you press the Help button (question-mark icon), you'll get Longfellow's translation and hear Sabina reading just that line. The intention is that you should listen a few times, then press on the Record button (microphone icon), keep it pressed down while speaking, and release. You should hear your voice echoed back, and the app will let you know if you said it approximately right: you'll get a green border for "okay", red for "try again". You use the arrows to move to the next and previous lines. We currently have six extracts loaded, taken from Canti I (opening), III (the Gates of Hell), V (Paolo and Francesca), X (Farinata), XXVI (Ulisse) and XXXIII (Ugolino). You can find the other extracts by using the Lesson tab on the left.

Speaking just for myself, I've found the app very helpful for developing my appreciation of the beautiful language; I've soon got to the point where I want to learn pieces by heart, and find myself repeating them mentally. We're curious to hear what people think - please let us know!"


message 4: by Caterina (last edited Jun 25, 2017 04:13AM) (new) - added it

Caterina Now that’s interesting--replacing terza rima with quatrains! It seems outrageous but "It gives the Divine Comedy the verbal energy and the poetry that makes inferior translations a slog and makes Dante so damn difficult to translate well” is a great recommendation especially given your experience with so many translations. “Capture the stripes but lose the tiger" is a great way to put the experience of an inadequate translation. Years ago, I asked my mom, a native Italian, poet, translator (of modern Italian poetry) and retired professor of translation theory to recommend a good translation and she never succeeded in coming up with one that she cared for -- in part because what passes for terza rima in English captures only the end-rhymes -- the stripes -- not the rhythm (which is untranslatable) nor the density of meaning and interior patterns of the Italian lines -- the tiger escapes. Very curious about this now! Thank you for the recommendation.


message 5: by Daniel (new)

Daniel Chaikin Appreciate this comment. Had in mind using Hollander when I here for the first time (theoretically later this year). Noting Clive James.


message 6: by Steve (new) - added it

Steve Dig As someone about to embark on Dante and unsure of what translation to read, your review of Clive James makes me think I will get the James translation.
As an aside I accidentally asked about the Clive Palmer translation by accident. Now Clive Palmer is a businessman and (former) politician and is the Australian version of Donald Trump - now there is an image to think about - what would a translation of Divine Comedy, by Donald Trump look like !!


Darwin8u Steve wrote: "As someone about to embark on Dante and unsure of what translation to read, your review of Clive James makes me think I will get the James translation.
As an aside I accidentally asked about the C..."


Not sure about the translation, but you can be sure that if Dante wrote Inferno today, Trump would at least have been called out in Canto XXXII.


Keith [on semi hiatus] Just bought the Allen Mandelbaum translation (via Everyman's) this morning, cancel the order and look out a Clive James copy instead?


Keith [on semi hiatus] So, the seller of the Allen Mandelbaum translation sent me a message saying they didn't actually have it in stock, perfect excuse to now go and get the Clive James copy - XD - should be arriving this Saturday.


Markus Hi, Darwin. I admire your patience for reading a book three times.
Also to subtly distinguish the different translations. I have read a French translation, a language closer to the original. But I have experienced the translation differences with Virgils Aeneid. It is an important factor of reading pleasure and understanding.
Happy New Year.


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