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alexlubertozzi 's review for:
The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Volume 2: Purgatorio
by Robert M. Durling, Ronald L. Martinez, Dante Alighieri
Okay, I only read the Inferno, but I really enjoyed the translation by John Ciardi--both as poetry and (with his comprehensive notes) as commentary. I looked around at various editions to get a sense of how the verse was handled and ended up buying this complete ebook version for the iPad. I thought Ciardi handled the rhyming pattern and meter really well (basically employing an ABA BAB scheme). It's impossible to use Dante's AAA rhyme scheme in English, but Ciardi's simple pattern seemed like a good adaptation. Also Ciardi's language is closer to what I think the author intended (albeit for our era and language), as Dante wrote in Italian when almost all scholarly works and serious poetry would have been written in Italian.
I'm glad I finally read this, both for getting to understand the source from which so many of our ideas about hell came, and for getting some of the interesting historical tidbits, which usually had to be explained in the notes. But being able to read an engaging translation made this a surprisingly enjoyable tour of hell, instead of the slog I'd feared.
Even though I skipped over Purgatory and Paradise, I'd recommend this Ciardi translation for whatever circle of the afterlife you're planning on visiting. But if you ask me, go straight to hell.
I'm glad I finally read this, both for getting to understand the source from which so many of our ideas about hell came, and for getting some of the interesting historical tidbits, which usually had to be explained in the notes. But being able to read an engaging translation made this a surprisingly enjoyable tour of hell, instead of the slog I'd feared.
Even though I skipped over Purgatory and Paradise, I'd recommend this Ciardi translation for whatever circle of the afterlife you're planning on visiting. But if you ask me, go straight to hell.