« Talk about a year for former Democratic hopefuls.... | Main | Symbol of America Terroizes Isle of Wight! »
July 26, 2010
Dante Blogging - Canto XXIX
Canto XXIX
Before the Pilgrims move on to the Tenth Whatever of the Malebolge (Pocket? Pouch? Ditch? Translations differ.) there is a brief glimpse of Italian family life inside the city - Dante has spotted one of his relatives among the schismatics and feels a pang of regret. As Esolen puts it in his note: "The spirit here is Geri del Bello, Dante's cousin, about whose discord-sowing and death we know little except that he provided occasion for decades of strife between the Alighieri family and the Sacchetti" (478). Dante is not immune to the code of violence.
We then pass to the Ditch of the Fraudulent - every kind of con man, including alchemists.
I spotted an oddity of the translation here - when Vergil addresses the souls looking for someone to talk to, he asks
dinne s'aclun Latine รจ tra costoro
che son quinc' entro...
And Esolen gives us
Tell us if an Italian in this ditch
is to be found ... (29, 88-89)
I flipped back into Canto XXVIII and found the same thing at line 71. I hadn't noticed that before. Hmm. Talk about making Italy into a locution rather than a location - even Dante uses something else.
Click here for all the Danteblogging and none of my other ramblings.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at July 26, 2010 9:19 AM