Inferno: A New Translation by Anthony Esolen

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More About This Book

Overview

Translated by Anthony Esolen Illustrations by Gustave Doré

A groundbreaking bilingual edition of Dante’s masterpiece that includes a substantive Introduction, extensive notes, and appendixes that reproduce Dante’s key sources and influences.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780812970067
  • Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
  • Publication date: 1/3/2012
  • Pages: 528
  • Sales rank: 209,231
  • Series: Modern Library Classics Series
  • Product dimensions: 5.18 (w) x 8.00 (h) x 1.17 (d)

Meet the Author

Anthony Esolen is a published poet and professor of English at Providence College who has written extensively on Renaissance and medieval literature. His translations include the three volumes of The Divine Comedy—Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise—Lucretius’s De rerum natura, and Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata.

Read an Excerpt

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita

  mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,

  che la diritta via era smarrita.

Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura4

  esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte

  che nel pensier rinova la paura!

Tant' è amara che poco è più morte;7

  ma per trattar del ben ch'i' vi trovai,

  dirò de l'altre cose ch'i' v'ho scorte.

Io non so ben ridir com' i' v'intrai,10

  tant' era pien di sonno a quel punto

  che la verace via abbandonai.

Ma poi ch'i' fui al piè d'un colle giunto,13

  là dove terminava quella valle

  che m'avea di paura il cor compunto,

guardai in alto e vidi le sue spalle16

  vestite già de' raggi del pianeta

  che mena dritto altrui per ogne calle.

Allor fu la paura un poco queta,19

  che nel lago del cor m'era durata

  la notte ch'i' passai con tanta pieta.

E come quei che con lena affannata,22

  uscito fuor del pelago a la riva,

  si volge a l'acqua perigliosa e guata,

Canto One

Lost in a dark wood and threatened by three beasts, Dante is rescued by Virgil, who proposes a journey to the other world.

Midway upon the journey of our life

  I found myself in a dark wilderness,

  for I had wandered from the straight and true.

How hard a thing it is to tell about,4

  that wilderness so savage, dense, and harsh,

  even to think of it renews my fear!

It is so bitter, death is hardly more-7

  but to reveal the good that came to me,

  I shall relate the other things I saw.

How I had entered, I can't bring to mind,10

  I was so full of sleep just at that point

  when I first left the way of truth behind.

But when I reached the foot of a high hill,13

  right where the valley opened to its end-

  the valley that had pierced my heart with fear-

I raised my eyes and saw its shoulders robed16

  with the rays of that wandering light of Heaven°

  that leads all men aright on every road.

That quieted a bit the dread that stirred19

  trembling within the waters of my heart

  all through that night of misery I endured.

And as a man with labored breathing drags22

  his legs out of the water and, ashore,

  fixes his eyes upon the dangerous sea,

° that wandering light of Heaven: Italian pianeta, "planet." It is the sun, considered a planet, or wandering light, revolving about the earth.

così l'animo mio, ch'ancor fuggiva,25

  si volse a retro a rimirar lo passo

  che non lasciò già mai persona viva.

Poi ch'èi posato un poco il corpo lasso,28

  ripresi via per la piaggia diserta,

  sì che 'l piè fermo sempre era 'l più basso.

Ed ecco, quasi al cominciar de l'erta,31

  una lonza leggera e presta molto,

  che di pel macolato era coverta;

e non mi si partia dinanzi al volto,34

  anzi 'mpediva tanto il mio cammino,

  ch'i' fui per ritornar più volte vòlto.

Temp' era dal principio del mattino,37

  e 'l sol montava 'n sù con quelle stelle

  ch'eran con lui quando l'amor divino

mosse di prima quelle cose belle;40

  sì ch'a bene sperar m'era cagione

  di quella fiera a la gaetta pelle

l'ora del tempo e la dolce stagione;43

  ma non sì che paura non mi desse

  la vista che m'apparve d'un leone.

Questi parea che contra me venisse46

  con la test' alta e con rabbiosa fame,

  sì che parea che l'aere ne tremesse.

Ed una lupa, che di tutte brame49

  sembiava carca ne la sua magrezza,

  e molte genti fé già viver grame,

questa mi porse tanto di gravezza52

  con la paura ch'uscia di sua vista,

  ch'io perdei la speranza de l'altezza.

E qual è quei che volontieri acquista,55

  e giugne 'l tempo che perder lo face,

  che 'n tutti suoi pensier piange e s'attrista;

tal mi fece la bestia sanza pace,58

  che, venendomi 'ncontro, a poco a poco

  mi ripigneva là dove 'l sol tace. So too my mind, while still a fugitive,25

  turned back to gaze again upon that pass

  which never let a man escape alive.

When I had given my weary body rest,28

  I struck again over the desert slope,

  ever the firmer foot the one below,

And look! just where the steeper rise began,31

  a leopard light of foot and quick to lunge,

  all covered in a pelt of flecks and spots,

Who stood before my face and would not leave,34

  but did so check me in the path I trod,

  I often turned to go the way I came.

The hour was morning at the break of dawn;37

  the sun was mounting higher with those stars°

  that shone beside him when the Love Divine

In the beginning made their beauty move,40

  and so they were a cause of hope for me

  to get free of that beast of flashy hide-

The waking hour and that sweet time of year;43

  but hope was not so strong that I could stand

  bold when a lion stepped before my eyes!

This one seemed to be coming straight for me,46

  his head held high, his hunger hot with wrath-

  seemed to strike tremors in the very air!

Then a she-wolf, whose scrawniness seemed stuffed49

  with all men's cravings, sluggish with desires,

  who had made many live in wretchedness-

So heavily she weighed my spirit down,52

  pressing me by the terror of her glance,

  I lost all hope to gain the mountaintop.

And as a gambler, winning with a will,55

  happening on the time when he must lose,

  turns all his thoughts to weeping and despair,

So I by that relentless beast, who came58

  against me step by step, and drove me back

  to where the sun is silent evermore.

those stars: the constellation Aries. It is the springtime of the year, recalling the springtime of the universe; see notes. Mentre ch'i' rovinava in basso loco,61

  dinanzi a li occhi mi si fu offerto

  chi per lungo silenzio parea fioco.

Quando vidi costui nel gran diserto,64

  «Miserere di me», gridai a lui,

  «qual che tu sii, od ombra od omo certo!».

Rispuosemi: «Non omo, omo già fui,67

  e li parenti miei furon lombardi,

  mantoani per patrïa ambedui.

Nacqui sub Iulio, ancor che fosse tardi,70

  e vissi a Roma sotto 'l buono Augusto

  nel tempo de li dèi falsi e bugiardi.

Poeta fui, e cantai di quel giusto73

  figliuol d'Anchise che venne di Troia,

  poi che 'l superbo Ilïón fu combusto.

Ma tu perché ritorni a tanta noia?76

  perché non sali il dilettoso monte

  ch'è principio e cagion di tutta gioia?».

«Or se' tu quel Virgilio e quella fonte79

  che spandi di parlar sì largo fiume?»,

  rispuos' io lui con vergognosa fronte.

«O de li altri poeti onore e lume,82

  vagliami 'l lungo studio e 'l grande amore

  che m'ha fatto cercar lo tuo volume.

Tu se' lo mio maestro e 'l mio autore,85

  tu se' solo colui da cu' io tolsi

  lo bello stilo che m'ha fatto onore.

Vedi la bestia per cu' io mi volsi;88

  aiutami da lei, famoso saggio,

  ch'ella mi fa tremar le vene e i polsi».

«A te convien tenere altro vïaggio»,91

  rispuose, poi che lagrimar mi vide,

  «se vuo' campar d'esto loco selvaggio;

ché questa bestia, per la qual tu gride,94

  non lascia altrui passar per la sua via,

  ma tanto lo 'mpedisce che l'uccide;

Now while I stumbled to the deepest wood,61

  before my eyes appeared the form of one

  who seemed hoarse, having held his words so long.

And when I saw him in that endless waste,64

  "Mercy upon me, mercy!" I cried out,

  "whatever you are, a shade, or man in truth!"

He answered me: "No man; I was a man,67

  and both my parents came from Lombardy,

  and Mantua they called their native land.

In the last days of Julius I was born,70

  and lived in Rome under the good Augustus

  in the time of the false and cheating gods.

I was a poet, and I sang of how73

  that just son of Anchises° came from Troy

  when her proud towers and walls were burnt to dust.

But you, why do you turn back to such pain?76

  Why don't you climb that hill that brings delight,

  the origin and cause of every joy?"

"Then are you-are you Virgil? And that spring79

  swelling into so rich a stream of verse?"

  I answered him, my forehead full of shame.

"Honor and light of every poet, may82

  my long study avail me, and the love

  that made me search the volume of your work.

You are my teacher, my authority;85

  you alone are the one from whom I took

  the style whose loveliness has honored me.

See there the beast that makes me turn aside.88

  Save me from her, O man renowned and wise!

  She sets the pulses trembling in my veins!"

"It is another journey you must take,"91

  replied the poet when he saw me weep,

  "if you wish to escape this savage place,

Because this beast that makes you cry for help94

  never lets any pass along her way,

  but checks his path until she takes his life.

From the Hardcover edition.

Table of Contents

Introduction IX
Acknowledgments XIX
The Plan of Dante's Hell XXI
Inferno I

Interviews & Essays

Conversation with ANTHONY ESOLEN, translator of Dante’s INFERNO
1. What attracted you to Dante’s work?

Dante is arguably the greatest poet who ever lived; I think only Homer and Shakespeare deserve mention in the same breath. It is hard to find a poet whose art is as severe, as precisely chiseled, and as intellectually well-defined as is Dante's, yet at the same time his art possesses a kaleidoscopic complexity that staggers the imagination. Each of these qualities is rare enough. To find them at once in the same author, writing an epic about the ultimate questions, is–well, all I can say is that we will not see his like again.
2. What made you interested in doing translations?

Once, when I was a graduate student attending a party given by a professor of German, I met a young man who said he was studying Georgian, the language spoken by the natives of the Caucasus mountains. "Why on earth would you do that?" I asked, thinking I'd come upon another harmless academic snob. His answer shamed me. "One of the greatest living poets in the world lives in Georgia. He writes epics in Georgian, and I want to translate them into English so that other people can read them." Of all the things that academics do–some good, some bad, many simply vain and useless–I could hardly think of anything of greater value than to devote your talent to so humbling a task. Then, years later, my wife Debra suggested the same thing to me, and that is when I started work on Lucretius.
3. Is Dante difficult to render well in English? What were some of the challenges you faced as a translator, and what are youtrying to achieve with this translation?

Dante is difficult, period. I think, though, that once you get over the issue of rhymes, English is actually a pretty good language into which to translate the Commedia. (I love German, but I do shudder to think of Hell in the Teutonic tongue!) English is a peculiar language, after all: it contains its good stock of short, brusque, German or Middle French words, enriched by an enormous stock of words derived directly from Latin or from the Romance languages. So the vocabulary, with all its subtle semantic and tonal shades, helps a lot, as does that most supple tool, English iambic pentameter.
What was I trying to achieve? I want to make people fall in love with Dante–really fall in love with him, and not just pretend to in order to score points at a literary soiree. For that, you need swift and vigorous but also musical verse. And I'm hoping that that's what I've provided.
4. Why iambic pentameter?
Nothing else will do. Free verse won't do; non-metrical (that is to say, free but not too free) verse won't do, either. Music must somehow be translated into what retains traces of the music. Iambic pentameter is the natural meter of English narrative poetry, imitating most faithfully the rhythms of our speech, and it is capable of extraordinary variation (consider the uses to which Shakespeare put it in his plays). We are fortunate to have it.
5. What kind of research did you do for this translation, and how did you go about doing it?

For the translation, I consulted many Italian editions of Dante, especially those whose notes brought out most clearly the meanings of his coinages or of strange dialectal words. As for the rest of the book, let's just say that for a year I had twenty volumes of Aquinas cluttering up the office.
6. Why has the INFERNO been so influential and admired over the ages and in our own time?

Well, for a while Dante did go out of fashion: too medieval, you know. With the important exceptions of Milton and Blake, he really did not have many admirers among English writers from the Tudors to the end of the eighteenth century. The English Romantics and their Victorian followers rediscovered his greatness–or at least they found the story of Dante and Beatrice to harmonize with their own beautiful, dreamy, half-sickly love of the chivalric past. That was in England; in Italy, Dante has been the poet who defined both language and nationhood. But I think that modern readers are attracted to Dante because they find in him what the modern world cannot offer: a cogent and coherent vision of the universe.
7. Why, in this new translation, did you include the “sourcebook” that presents Dante’s most important religious sources?

I'm a professor by trade and know what sorts of ancillary material I would want, and have wanted, in books I assign the students to read. Also, I think that you miss much of the joy of a work of art when you cannot walk a little way into the world that gave it birth.
8. What do you want readers to take away from this new translation?
A love for Dante, and maybe a clearer view of that great peak of intellectual and artistic achievement: the Middle Ages.
9. What are you working on now?

Don't tell my editor, but I'm taking a break! Actually, I'm going to be writing the introduction and the notes to my translation of Paradiso, while revising the completed translation. Purgatorio is finished and ready to be printed.
10. What other languages do you speak fluently and/or translate?

How fluently I speak it, I'd best let the natives judge, but I do speak German too, and read French, Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and some (New Testament, which is the easy stuff) Greek. I've translated Lucretius (De Rerum Natura; Latin) and Torquato Tasso (Gerusalemme Liberata; Italian), and one of these days I'm going to make good on a threat to translate into English verse a passel of Anglo-Saxon poems not named "Beowulf".
Customer Reviews
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  • Anonymous

    Posted November 19, 2005

    You can see why it is a classic

    Yes, once again, Aaron actually reads a classic. The last time this happened was, ummm..., a few years ago. Anyway, this time I tackled the famous recounting of one man's journey to Hell. The version I read used the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow translation from the nineteenth century, which might have made things harder then they needed to be, as there were definitely some archaic words used. Not that the subject wasn't hard enough, considering that the book was written around 750 years ago. What I wasn't prepared for was how personal everything would be (for the author, not for me). See, Dante used this book (and most likely all of the Divine Comedy, of which The Inferno is just the first part) to take some rather serious pot shots at various people he didn't like, as well as showing favor to people that he did like. For example, many of Dante's political enemies find themselves in some rather interesting situations in hell, undergoing some rather perverse tortures for their sins in life. A number of classical philosphers and poets show up in Hell, too, which only makes sense considering that they died without acknowledging the Lordship of Jesus Christ. However, because Dante likes these guys, they are only in the first circle of Hell, where things relatively aren't all that unpleasant (like Judas Iscariot, who gets eaten by Lucifer for all eternity. Lovely.). Lastly, I would like to note that the preface, the footnotes, and the endnotes were very helpful in getting a proper understanding for what was going on and putting it in the proper context. Props to whoever put that all together.

    7 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted November 29, 2007

    Excellent

    The writing in Dante¿s Inferno is beautiful, powerful, and effective. It was a little hard to comprehend, but I understood much of it. I thought the book was very excellent and fun to read. I would recommend it to anyone who finds fantasy interesting. The way God/Dante punishes the people in Hell is weird/interesting, but I loved it.

    6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted September 27, 2009

    I Also Recommend:

    JUST READ IT

    If your looking at this as a possible book to reread, get it. If you've never read The Inferno, BUY THIS COPY. Its the greatest poem in history, arguably the greatest work of art in history. It is epic, beautiful, amazing, and stimulating, intellectualy and emotionally. In ways, it is beyond flawless. Everything about this work: the writing, the story, the characters, the presentation, eben the preface is masterful. Buy it, and never sell it unless you can get another copy cheaper.

    4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 20, 2008

    Great book......

    I really enjoyed this book. It was great I L.O.V.E a book with symbolizism in it. This book is always misrepresented as one thing when its talking about something else. Dante biography is amazing. N his L.O.V.E for Beatrice was incredible. I had decided to do farther research on his life. From start to finish the book his life....both very wonderful. I enjoyed it...it is a MUST READ!!!

    2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted March 27, 2010

    Very intellectual

    Dante takes a journey through the 9 levels of hell with incredible dipictions of the tortures of each level... yeah if you can understand it. This was written in 1300 so obviously the writting is much different. I found it incredibly hard to read and if it hadnt been for the endnotes i would have finished and had no idea what i just read. The idea behind the book is briliant, i loved it, i just couldnt follow along very well. I learned a lot and it was interesting enough, but it is just a tough book to follow along with. If you have lots of time, READ IT, and good luck.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted May 12, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    donna911

    ...and I read this because I wanted to. And enjoyed it so much more than in college. The professors were generous with their dialogue and had easy to follow commentaries. It resparked my enjoyment of the original by guiding me line by line through this great work. The translation from the Italian enhanced not only the understanding of the original, but provided a rich understanding and guide. The guide on the opposing page to the original was so useful, as well as extensive. The Hollender translation truly raises the bar.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted January 9, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    There is a reason this book has stood the test of time.

    The Inferno is one of the best books I have read. Once I began reading it, I could not stop. Normally books written in this time period do not hold my interest, but Dante did.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 28, 2008

    Inferno is a Must

    The Inferno is an epic poem, rather than a novel. Written in the first person, Dante takes the reader through his version of Hell. As he descends, the sins become increasingly catastrophic. Comical at times, serious at times, but all around a great read.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 23, 2007

    The good, the bad, and the poorly told

    I had rather mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand the actual plot is fascinating. One man¿s chance to walk through hell and report what it¿s like. This is what actually drew me to the book in the first place. I also liked Dante¿s interpretations of the punishments of hell, with each punishment being symbolic of the actual offense committed: poetic justice. However, I didn¿t care for the manner in which Dante narrated the story. When he is in Limbo, he describes how the great poets of the world accepted him into their numbers, and he describes how angels in heaven weep for him so that they sent him a guide to bring him safely through hell. This undertone, which is found throughout the novel, I think make Dante sound rather arrogant and preachy. This ¿holier than tho¿ attitude, I find, distracts from the story. Also, while I like Dante¿s use of poetic justice, I thought he might have played down hell. Hell is supposed to be a place of eternal torment, but for many of the punishments he lists I found myself thinking, ¿Yeah that would suck for the first couple decades¿but then you¿d get used to it.¿ Being devoured by the Cerberus on level 3 would be torture, but you have an eternity of it ahead: you would learn to live with it. Even all the way down on level 9 where you are frozen in ice for committing treason. You would eventually become accustomed to the cold. In conclusion, I would say that The Inferno by Dante is a good story told poorly. It has no real climax, no conflict to speak of, it seems to contradict itself in being something interesting portrayed in an uninteresting way. I¿m afraid I must admit that I did not enjoy reading The Inferno.

    1 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 29, 2005

    great transltion

    I have wanted to read the Inferno on my own for quite a while. However, not reading it in an English class somewhat concerned me. I thought that perhaps not having a professor explaining all of the symbolism and historical background might cheat me of the Dantean experience. Ciardi's translation, summary at the beggining of each canto, and notes on the text at the end of the canto were amazing! But let's not forget the genius that was Dante here. I thought that his work was highly creative and imaginative. I would not only recommend this to someone who wishes to read a great classic, (that everyong one should atleast be aware of)but to those that simple like horror novles.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 3, 2003

    John Ciardi's translation is by far the best!

    Virgil guides Dante through the torturing of Hell. Dante gives his readers a great and scary vision through the eternal misery of Hell.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted September 26, 2011

    Love this book

    This book is one of my favorites, the translation is excellent especially if you are a first time reader of this book. Very easy to read and understand.

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  • Posted September 17, 2011

    good news

    Get a free $5.00 discount code in BN Books! Get in website: loveBN.tk

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  • Posted July 5, 2011

    O

    Oh my gosh sooo awsome

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  • Posted February 27, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    could be better for the price

    This translation is much easier to read than the traditional Longfellow. I really enjoyed it. However, it could really use an interactive TOC and footnotes.

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  • Posted January 27, 2011

    leave a better sample

    Sample review gives you no idea how the book is laid out, just talks about why he translates the way he does, and creds to his family. No example of the actual text of the story which is what lead me to purchase from another author.

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  • Posted February 20, 2010

    more from this reviewer

    I Also Recommend:

    Best Translation Out There

    Quite simply, this is the best modern translation of Inferno. If you are interested in medieval Italian, you are in luck, because this is a bilingual edition with facing pages of Italian and English. The notes work amazingly well and the text flows very easily. It'd be good to invest in all of the translations of The Comedy by the Hollanders, but so far only Inferno and Purgatorio are in paperback; Paradiso is still only a hardcover and is on the higher price end.

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  • Posted February 20, 2010

    Intellectually Challenging

    Interesting book, but the writing stile makes it a slow read. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time and ability to absorb what you are reading.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 23, 2010

    My son loves it.

    My fifteen year old son bought this to read for pleasure, and he enjoyed it very much.

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  • Posted January 1, 2010

    more from this reviewer

    I Also Recommend:

    review

    An excelent first part in this trilogy. Dante is a genious. This epic is fascinationg and also scary in its depiction of Hell. I was, at first, reluctant to read it because of how graphic it sounded, but I did and it was worth it. The only bad thing is the use of archaic words and the fact that, I know its poetry, but the way things are worded sometimes gets confusing. Other than that, well done.

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