The Inferno of Dante Bilingual Edition

by Dante; Pinsky, Robert; Mazur, Michael; Freccero, John

• ISBN13: 9780374524524
• ISBN10: 0374524521
• Edition: Bilingual
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-03-30
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Summary

This widely praised version of Dante's masterpiece, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award of the Academy of American Poets, is more idiomatic and approachable than its many predecessors. Former U.S. Poet Laureate Pinsky employs slant rhyme and near rhyme to preserve Dante'sterza rimaform without distorting the flow of English idiom. The result is a clear and vigorous translation that is also unique, student-friendly, and faithful to the original: "A brilliant success," as Bernard Knox wrote inThe New York Review of Books. A former Poet Laureate of the United States,Robert Pinskywas born and raised in Long Branch, New Jersey. He teaches in the graduate writing program at Boston University and has also taught at the University of California at Berkeley. His books includeHistory of My Heart: Poems,The Sounds of Poetry: A Brief Guide,Jersey Rain: Poems, andThe Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems, 1966-1996. Winner of the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award of the Academy of American Poets and theLos Angeles TimesBook Prize On theInferno Whether you are approaching Dante Alighieri'sInfernofor the first time, for the first time since college, or as a teacher or scholar, you will discover in Robert Pinsky's award-winning translation not merely a fascinating work of medieval Christendom but a psychologically acute vision of sin and suffering with surprising resonance for our times. By conceiving of a fresh, unique way to maintain fidelity to Dante's poetic structure without distorting English usage or idiom, Pinsky conveys not just the literal meaning of Dante's words but their music and spirit, their subtext and emotional import. The result is a timeless, eerily recognizable Helland a poem that speaks to our own souls and renews our appreciation of Dante's greatness. TheInfernois the first part of a three-part epic poem by Dante called theCommedia, orComedy, and later dubbedCommedia DivinaorThe Divine Comedyby others. Written in the early fourteenth century, in a world poised between the theological worldview of the Middle Ages and the philosophical expanse of the Renaissance, it presents us with one of the essential human narratives: the journey of the self through the darkest side of existence toward the redemption and affirmation of the soul, from the "dark woods" of human life toward God's light. On one level, the poem tracks the particular spiritual journey of its author. Set in the year 1300, theCommediafollows Dante the character on a pilgrimage from Hell to Paradise, re-creating metaphorically the course of Dante's life and the development of his ideas. Dante the poet, writing seven years after his fictional pilgrimage, depicts Dante the pilgrim as he is guided throughInfernoandPurgatorioby the Latin poet Virgil, and throughParadisoby the Lady Beatrice, or Beatrice Portinari, Dante's true-life beloved who died in 1290 and for whom he was in mourning. Dante had been passionately involved in Florentine politics as a member of the radical Catholic wing of the Guelph party which favored the separation of church and state. When the Guelphs lost power to another faction at the turn of the century, Dante was falsely accused of crimes against the state and exiled from his beloved Florence. InInferno, he takes the opportunity to name names and assign positions in Hell to the false counselors, errant colleagues, self-interested politicians, misguided clerics, and other morally reprehensible contemporaries whose actions, he believed, led to his exile. At the same time, he revisits his own intellectual and moral life, comes to understand his sins, and in the poem's third part,Paradiso, emerges redeemed. With an irony that animates the poem for the cont

Author Biography

A former Poet Laureate of the United States, Robert Pinsky was born and raised in Long Branch, New Jersey. He teaches in the graduate writing program at Boston University and has also taught at the University of California at Berkeley. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

"Splendid . . . Pinsky's verse translation is fast-paced, idiomatic, and accurate. It moves with the concentrated gait of a lyric poem . . . It maintains the original's episodic and narrative velocity while mirroring its formal shape and character . . . Pinsky succeeds in creating a supple American equivalent for Dante's vernacular music where many others have failed."--Edward Hirsch, The New Yorker

"Pinsky's rare gifts as a poet, a wild imagination disciplined by an informed commitment to technical mastery, are superbly well suited to the Inferno's immense demands. Pinsky has managed to capture the poem's intense individuality, passion, and visionary imagery. This translation is wonderfully alert to Dante's strange blend of fierceness and sympathy, clear-eyed lucidity and heart-stopping wonder. It is now the premier modern text for readers to experience Dante's power."--Stephen Greenblatt

"A new translation of Dante's classic poem uses slant rhyme and near rhyme to preserve the original terza rima form without distorting the English meaning, providing a lively and faithful rendition of the poem. " --Ingram