# Dante's Divine Comedy **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 9, 2002, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dantes-divine-comedy/127636 "2002-09-09T12:18:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dantes-divine-comedy/127636/21 "2002-09-11T12:20:11Z")
I think I just really get into stories about journeys of some kind. And Dante is so good of a storyteller that he’s able to make me completely empathize with his plight - tough to do, considering he’s from a different culture and time. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dantes-divine-comedy/127636/22 "2002-09-11T12:52:14Z")
I love how Dante swoons with sympathy for certain souls (Paolo e Francesca?) at the beginning of the Inferno, but by the end he’s become a hard ass. **Katisha** , thanks for supporting Pinsky’s translation. 🙂 I misplaced my copy a few years ago and haven’t replaced it yet. I’ll put that on my to-do list. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dantes-divine-comedy/127636/23 "2002-09-11T12:59:10Z")
At the end, he’s no longer the flawed hero - he’s been able to atone for his sins. What a masterful piece of work. Hell, it held my attention. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dantes-divine-comedy/127636/24 "2002-09-11T14:41:54Z")
Oops, I meant at the end of the Inferno. I confess I’ve never read Paradiso in its entirety, though **slortar** ’s comment has intrigued me… ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dantes-divine-comedy/127636/25 "2002-09-11T14:44:02Z")
Through Inferno, Dante is shown the sins of others, but he’s not really touched personally. But when he and Virgil are ascending the Mount of Purgatory, he is shown his sins and is thus changed. ---
**Author:** ![merrily](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@merrily](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/merrily)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2002, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dantes-divine-comedy/127636/26 "2002-09-12T02:17:12Z")
I want to second **FriarTed** – you should get Dore’s illustrations. They are usually in a big book by themselves, found in the art section of a library. Don’t look at them late at night by yourself, if you need sleep. But it will help you visualize the story. What also helped me was one of those series books called something like The Life and Times of Dante. (This book described Pia in Purgatorio as like a deer in the headlights. I’ve always thought of her like that since, and was reminded of it by the little seamstress at the end of A Tale of Two Cities.) I reread Hell and Purgatory every couple of years. Only did Paradise once. (straight line there for the taking) But you should read about Paolo and Francesca, and weigh in with your view of them. One of those classic stories that gets mentioned in other classics. ---
**Author:** ![Forbin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5e9695/32.png) [@Forbin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Forbin)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2002, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dantes-divine-comedy/127636/27 "2002-09-12T05:29:46Z")
I share **gallows fodder’s** enthusiasm for the work. Others have given good advice too, re:classes/lectures. I read it myself, without the benefit of either, and loved it. I wish I knew more. I should mention that I tried to read and enjoy it for fifteen years before I was ready. It was one of those books that “you just can’t seem to get into.” When I finally did get around to reading more than a few cantos (15 yrs later), I think it was because I had changed enough to appreciate it. I’d describe it as literature one must be worthy of. That doesn’t seem to make sense, but that’s how it was for me. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dantes-divine-comedy/127636/28 "2002-09-13T05:58:12Z")
My fiance’s read all the way through to half-way through Paradise- In the Dorothy L. Sayers translation- he got sidetracked into reading… _Brave New World_? . I have the _Inferno_ on my floor, and I will read it soon- after I finish the _Pensees_. Anyway, said fiance and also my best friend love it. The fiance liked _Inferno_ the least of all three. It’s layered, it’s complex, and it requires some knowledge of Catholic theology. It’s not supposed to be easy to read. Sorry if this is incoherent. I’m going to bed. G’night. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dantes-divine-comedy/127636/29 "2002-09-13T10:46:08Z")
Dorothy L. Sayers translated Dante??! ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dantes-divine-comedy/127636/30 "2002-09-13T14:25:45Z")
Yup. (SHuffles through books on floor.) \* Dante: The Divine Comedy- Book 1\*, translation, Dorothy L. Sayers. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dantes-divine-comedy/127636/31 "2002-09-13T14:27:29Z")
The mystery writer? Whoa. ---
**Author:** ![tullius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tullius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tullius)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dantes-divine-comedy/127636/32 "2002-09-13T15:27:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dantheman \* > \*\*Dorothy L. Sayers translated Dante??! \*\* Dorothy Sayers was first and foremost a medievalist, at least in her mind, and only wrote the Peter Wimsey mysteries to pay the rent. Her translation actually follows the _terza rima_ rhyme scheme of the original (aba bcb cdc . . .). (Ciardi rhymes the first and third line of each stanza, but doesn’t attempt to tie the stanzas together the way Dante and Sayers do.) As a result, it can be a bit contorted and often departs considerably from the Italian in order to meet her ambitious rhyming requirements. In addition, she often chooses archaic-sounding constructions, either to fit the rhyme or just out of personal taste. For example, here’s how she starts the _Inferno_ : * * * Midway this way of life we’re bound upon, I woke to find myself in a dark wood, Where the right road was wholly lost and gone. Ay me! how hard to speak of it - that rude and rough and stubborn forest! the mere breath Of memory stirs the old fear in the blood; It is so bitter, it goes nigh to death; Yet there I gained such good, that, to convey The tale, I’ll write what else I found therewith. * * * While I find the Sayers translation a little strained, she wrote a lengthy introduction about Dante and about her experience in translating him that’s worth the price of her book. (It’s in the old Penguin edition I found from the 50s; presumably they still include it.) For my money, the translation that’s both the most readable and the most faithful to the Italian is that of **Robert Hollander** (my Italian professor in college) and his wife Jean (a published poet in her own right). Here’s their version of the same lines: * * * Midway in the journey of our life I came to myself in a dark wood, for the straight way was lost. 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. * * * The Hollanders have translated the _Inferno_ and, in a few months, will release their _Purgatorio_. A _Paradiso_ is in the works and is supposed to come out in antoher year or so. ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dantes-divine-comedy/127636/33 "2002-09-13T19:33:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dantheman \* > \*\*Dorothy L. Sayers translated Dante??! \*\* She also translated the _Chanson de Roland._ I can’t speak to its quality as a translation, not having read _Roland_ in French, but as English it reads well… ---
**Author:** ![kitarak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kitarak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitarak)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dantes-divine-comedy/127636/34 "2002-09-13T23:05:11Z")
Hmm. It would appear that the version I have is in fact the Dorothy L. Sayers translation. I’m not entirely sure how I missed the part where it says that last time I looked… ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2002, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dantes-divine-comedy/127636/35 "2002-09-14T02:41:08Z")
Nifty. I’ll have to read it. [total non-sequitor] I like the Seamus Heaney tranlation of _Beowulf_ [/total non-sequitor]… ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2002, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dantes-divine-comedy/127636/36 "2002-09-14T02:59:21Z")
It’s interesting: I despised Dorothy Sayers’ Inferno (I read a different one for school. My Humanities professor was a Dante scholar and encouraged us to read other translations.), but the mention of\* Chanson de Roland\* got me to look at the book I had. It was Ms. Sayers, and it was wonderful. ---
**Author:** ![monica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@monica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monica)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dantes-divine-comedy/127636/37 "2002-09-15T18:45:56Z")
It’s funny that I saw this particular thread today, because I just decided yesterday that I have to read that book. Being in tenth grade Honors English, I’m not exactly challenged in the literature selected for us to read. In studying my AP European History book, I was reading a section about how Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy was one of first things to be written in the vernacular, and right then and there went to the library website to see if they had it available. I’ll let you all know what I think. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dantes-divine-comedy/127636.md?page=1)