« American Metal Detectorists Vacation in England | Main | Talk about a public resource! British Library Sound Archive goes online. »
September 4, 2009
Dante Blogging - Inferno Canto XIII
I just noticed something odd about the Esolen Inferno from the Modern Library - no map! I don't think I've ever had a translation of Dante that didn't have a diagram of each place in each volume (the rings of Hell for the Inferno, the Mountain for Purgatorio, etc).
This sprang to mind because of this bit:
"Before you enter farther, you should know
that you are now within the second round,"
said my good Teacher..."
E 'l buon maestro "Prima che più entre,
sappi che se' nel secondo girone",
mi cominciò a dire...
I find it impossible to believe that Dante himself didn't have a sheet of something pinned to the wall with a diagram on it. What wouldn't we give for that! I'll have to look into the tradition of mapping Hell and figure out who did the earliest known version after Dante.
There's also a fine touch in the first two lines quoted that doesn't really come through in the translation -- the word Esolen renders as "Before," which is going to go with an "until" further down, is prima. In the next line comes secondo. Even though one of these is a time marker and the other is an ordinal, they're still "first" and "second," "before" and "after."
So in answer to a question my father asked last weekend, I'm trying to get through this once well in English, but I am looking at the Italian when something catches my eye.
Canto XIII is about the most self-absorbed of all the damned, the Suicides. Let's not indulge them by talking about them any more.
Click here for all the Danteblogging and none of my other ramblings.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at September 4, 2009 7:44 AM