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OT: Divine Comedy in translation - Printable Version

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OT: Divine Comedy in translation - nest0r - 2010-01-15

Anyone here read Dante? (Translated into English.) What translation do you prefer? I heard Pinsky's was decent. I'm looking for someone who has done with the Inferno what Fagles did with The Iliad.

OT: Divine Comedy in translation - shirokuro - 2010-01-15

I have Louis Biancolli's translation into blank verse. It has the English on one side, and the Italian facing. I just read through a few pages, but it seems pretty good....

Edit: I should probably read it for real soon. I always miss so many references to it. XD

OT: Divine Comedy in translation - nest0r - 2010-01-15

shirokuro Wrote:I have Louis Biancolli's translation into blank verse. It has the English on one side, and the Italian facing. I just read through a few pages, but it seems pretty good....

Edit: I should probably read it for real soon. I always miss so many references to it. XD
I wish I knew enough Italian to compare. Alas. Perhaps I'll just say screw accuracy and skim through Google Books to find the most readable. ;p

I spun off on a Dante tangent via this: http://kotaku.com/5445824/dantes-inferno-the-official-novelization-of-the-book

I really owe Milton's Paradise Lost a read before this, though.

OT: Divine Comedy in translation - shirokuro - 2010-01-15

nest0r Wrote:I wish I knew enough Italian to compare.
Oh yeah, definitely, if you can compare the translation, it's really worth it. And of course, if you can read books in the original, it's almost always better to. (None of the books that I've read in French were ever as good when translated into English.) But having the translation facing is always really cool. Smile

Quote:Alas. Perhaps I'll just say screw accuracy and skim through Google Books to find the most readable. ;p
You might just want to check Amazon and look at the customer and editorial reviews. Or just go with one put out by a publishing house you trust. (Personally, I think that Penguin and Oxford both do world literature really well.) You could also just get out a bunch of different editions from your public library and just start reading them all, and see which one you like best.

Quote:I spun off on a Dante tangent via this: http://kotaku.com/5445824/dantes-infern … f-the-book
Hehe, I've been meaning to read Commedia ever since reading House of Leaves. That book made me feel like I'm really not very well-read at all. And also like I should learn about a dozen more languages. And morse code, braille, and semaphore. ;p

Quote:I really owe Milton's Paradise Lost a read before this, though.
Ah, right. I need to read that, too. XD

OT: Divine Comedy in translation - nest0r - 2010-01-15

shirokuro Wrote:Hehe, I've been meaning to read Commedia ever since reading House of Leaves. That book made me feel like I'm really not very well-read at all. And also like I should learn about a dozen more languages. And morse code, braille, and semaphore. ;p
I'd like to see the folks who did Paranormal Activity do a film of the Navidson documentary.

OT: Divine Comedy in translation - shirokuro - 2010-01-15

nest0r Wrote:
shirokuro Wrote:Hehe, I've been meaning to read Commedia ever since reading House of Leaves. That book made me feel like I'm really not very well-read at all. And also like I should learn about a dozen more languages. And morse code, braille, and semaphore. ;p
I'd like to see the folks who did Paranormal Activity do a film of the Navidson documentary.
I haven't seen that movie, but it would be awesome if The Navidson Record was turned into a movie.

By the way, did you know that House of Leaves has been translated into Japanese? I really wonder how successful a translation that could have been.

OT: Divine Comedy in translation - nest0r - 2010-01-15

shirokuro Wrote:
nest0r Wrote:
shirokuro Wrote:Hehe, I've been meaning to read Commedia ever since reading House of Leaves. That book made me feel like I'm really not very well-read at all. And also like I should learn about a dozen more languages. And morse code, braille, and semaphore. ;p
I'd like to see the folks who did Paranormal Activity do a film of the Navidson documentary.
I haven't seen that movie, but it would be awesome if The Navidson Record was turned into a movie.

By the way, did you know that House of Leaves has been translated into Japanese? I really wonder how successful a translation that could have been.
If they can translate Finnegans Wake into Japanese, I'm not surprised. I think House of Leaves would have worked easily enough, since there's lots of possible layers.

OT: Divine Comedy in translation - shirokuro - 2010-01-16

nest0r Wrote:If they can translate Finnegans Wake into Japanese, I'm not surprised. I think House of Leaves would have worked easily enough, since there's lots of possible layers.
I don't get what you mean by "lots of possible layers." But if Finnegans Wake can be translated into Japanese, probably anything can. :lol:

OT: Divine Comedy in translation - nest0r - 2010-01-16

shirokuro Wrote:
nest0r Wrote:If they can translate Finnegans Wake into Japanese, I'm not surprised. I think House of Leaves would have worked easily enough, since there's lots of possible layers.
I don't get what you mean by "lots of possible layers." But if Finnegans Wake can be translated into Japanese, probably anything can. :lol:
I meant using different politeness levels and scripts and suchlike in Japanese to reflect different narrators and the typographic play in House of Leaves.

OT: Divine Comedy in translation - shirokuro - 2010-01-16

Oh, OK, that makes a lot of sense. I can see how that would work.

EDIT: How all of the wordplay, deliberate mistakes, and hidden messages would be handled still confuses me, though.

OT: Divine Comedy in translation - nest0r - 2010-01-16

shirokuro Wrote:Oh, OK, that makes a lot of sense. I can see how that would work.

EDIT: How all of the wordplay, deliberate mistakes, and hidden messages would be handled still confuses me, though.
That's the best part! They can just make mistakes and chalk it up to meta-translation decay: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?pid=37732#pid37732

OT: Divine Comedy in translation - shirokuro - 2010-01-16

nest0r Wrote:
shirokuro Wrote:Oh, OK, that makes a lot of sense. I can see how that would work.

EDIT: How all of the wordplay, deliberate mistakes, and hidden messages would be handled still confuses me, though.
That's the best part! They can just make mistakes and chalk it up to meta-translation decay: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?pid=37732#pid37732
"Meta-translation decay," ahaha! Amazing. :lol:

OT: Divine Comedy in translation - pm215 - 2010-01-16

nest0r Wrote:Anyone here read Dante? (Translated into English.) What translation do you prefer? I heard Pinsky's was decent. I'm looking for someone who has done with the Inferno what Fagles did with The Iliad.
I read and liked the Dorothy L Sayers translation, but the notes are probably considered a little out of date now, and having skimmed a bit of Fagles' Iliad I suspect the style is not what you're after anyway.

OT: Divine Comedy in translation - nest0r - 2010-01-16

pm215 Wrote:
nest0r Wrote:Anyone here read Dante? (Translated into English.) What translation do you prefer? I heard Pinsky's was decent. I'm looking for someone who has done with the Inferno what Fagles did with The Iliad.
I read and liked the Dorothy L Sayers translation, but the notes are probably considered a little out of date now, and having skimmed a bit of Fagles' Iliad I suspect the style is not what you're after anyway.
Supposedly the original was written in vernacular language? I think that will be my main qualification, and I'll probably try to avoid any overly structured attempts to mimic the terza rima or whathaveyou. The notes I am not very interested in, I avoid that sort of thing until I've finished and assimilated a work for the first encounter, though I read at Amazon that for future reference Durling and/or Hollander have nice notes for their editions.