To him in front the biting was as naught. Required fields are marked *. I heard a voice cry: "Watch which way you turn: I heard this said to me: "Watch how you pass; I heard a voice cry out, "Watch where you step! Compare translation samples from the Divine Comedy, specifically Inferno, Canto I: 1-12 blank tercets blank verse defective terza rime free verse prose terza rime Dante Alighieri John Ciardi Robert Durling Anthony M. Esolen Robert and Jean Hollander Robin Kirkpatrick Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Allen Mandelbaum Mark Musa Robert Pinsky Dorothy L . Since childhood they had exchanged in passing the one word their families would allowSalute! The Divine Comedy, finished by Dante Alighieri in 1320, is one of the most famous literary works of all time, and its author is considered the father of the Italian language. Rather than write a strained couplet to close each book, I wrote a final line in which the stars indeed show up, but not as the last word. Bang is led in another direction, hewing to a definition of translation by Walter Benjamin: A translation, instead of resembling the meaning of the original, must lovingly and in detail incorporate the originals mode of signification, thus making both the original and the translation recognizable as fragments of a greater language., Translator Robert Wechsler observed that the foreign writers work looks like gibberish, or would if we ever saw it. Rogers maintains a more faithful translation throughout the canto than Dayman. Yet Dante has the unenviable fate of having become more known than read: his name is immediately recognizable, his achievements justly acknowledged, but outside the classroom or graduate seminar, only the hardiest of literary enthusiasts pick up his Divine Comedy. 1994), was edited by Giorgio Petrocchi. Provide Feedback Form. But the musicians performance doesnt look anything like a score; the two couldnt be any more different. I felt the necessity for understanding, for redemption, if you will, and I think some of that went into my reading and my writing. But Longfellows English can sound flowery to our contemporary ears. Alighieri Dante. Any other translations you'd like to recommend are fine with me.