The best Italian Poetry: Reddit reviews

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The John Ciardi one.

It keeps the original rhyming structure, which must have been really hard to do when translating from Italian to English. It isn't really rigid English like some of the other translations that can make your brain get tired after reading for a while. And most importantly it has notes for each chapter. Dante himself is the main character, and he writes in a bunch of actual people from in and around Italy during his lifetime, so reading the notes really helps understand a lot of the references to people/places/things in the book. I just read the notes before I read each chapter so I knew as I read it what was going on.

There's a really good translation available on Amazon that I read once in a library. It has the original text alongside the English translation, with extensive notes on the context of the poem and why the translator chose to translate the text the way he did.

I'm not sure if it always rhymes the same, since different translators can make different choices about how best to honor the original prose while staying true to the meaning of the text, but there are parts that do rhyme in it.

The version I'm reading now reads like the King James Bible and is hard follow at times, but it was free for my Kindle sooooo -_- So far, the poem's got a lot more depth to it than the video game did.

Yeah, thankfully the version I have is full of annotations explaining the symbolism and references.

I think this is the one I have (from Amazon). ISBN 978-0-451-20863-7

I honestly think I enjoyed Purgatorio more than Inferno, probably mostly because I love the idea of redemption and purification and the imagery of angels.

I am currently reading aversion translated by John Ciardi, and it’s easier to understand than I expected. There are some phrases that are more flowery or oblique, but I just read them carefully.

The start of every Canto has a summary of what you’re about to read, the text of the Canto, then footnotes that explain references in the text or idioms of the region & time. I haven’t even needed to read the summaries because the translation is easy enough to understand. I’m barely into the Inferno, but if you’re looking for accessible, I can recommend this one.

For the Purgatorio? If you're looking to check out the Divine Comedy, my favored translation is this one. Note that this is the second of three parts, so you may want to get at least the first one as well (Inferno) for everything to make sense. You can also just search "Divine Comedy" on Amazon or other bookstores in order to find other options.

I believe that is the same version that I read, but my version didn't have the second two books in the trilogy. Here is the version I have: The Inferno (Signet Classics) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0451531396/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_WKYCAbM8M328J. If I had to bet, I would say that the version you linked has the chapter summaries as well.

Here's a Latin-English edition of <em>De Vulgari Eloquentia</em> which claims to have notes, but I haven't seen it.

Edit: Also an 1874 Latin edition of the De Monarchia with sparse Latin notes.

What about this one? https://www.amazon.com/Divine-Comedy-Divina-Commedia-Translation/dp/1781393192

I'm not sure if Longfellow's translation is the best, but he was both an accomplished poet and a professor of Italian, so that's encouraging. Plus, this professor from Bard claims his is one of the best: https://theamericanscholar.org/how-to-read-dante-in-the-21st-century/#

It's two related fragments from a 2000-page complete notebooks (yes, English-language publishing is that stupid now) I'm only 120 pages into. Ex*cus*e me if the author didn't put it into it's most polished possible form as he was transcribing thoughts as they came to him.

To answer your question, I highly recommend. It's not very long and it's a classic story. It is a poem but there are very many English translations, some of which are straight prose if you'd prefer. I think it's important to read it in it's original terza rima structure, which (if I remember correctly) is a poem structure composed of 3-line stanzas where the 1st and 3rd lines rhyme. I recommend the John Ciardi translation, which keeps the terza rima structure but he doesn't handcuff himself to try and rhyme perfectly every time, focusing instead on providing the most accurate vision of Dante's Italian original. It's a very popular translation (this edition also provides a plot summary before each canto or chapter).

Hey, I haven't read that book but I just had a look online. I don't really know of anything similar, myself! You could check out the "what other customers bought" on Amazon or something.

Based entirely on the fact that I think it's just a great book of poetry, I recommend Here by Wisława Szymborska, who won the Nobel prize for literature. It's short but really good.

If you can give more more ideas of poets she likes I might be able to give a better suggestion!

Going on a 20 day trip to Europe this summer! Officially confirmed date is June 24!

Going to visit various towns in Italy, France and England, as well as live with local families several nights! Super excited!

So, I've been looking around for a book to read while I'm there, and I've settled on getting a single-volume of Dante's Divine Comedy with all cantos. I wanted something that's a good long read, and is influential to European culture.

What's the best translation/copy at an affordable price? Preferably hardback.

So far, I'm thinking of this copy by Freeman's Library. Love the company. Read a copy of 1984 and Catch-22 from them and they've got quality, beautiful products, would recommend. The translation is Mandelbaum’s, which is supposed to be pretty good.

Any books that are better? Like I said, a good long read that's influential.

Here's a contemporary translation of Inferno (not the whole Divine Comedy) by former US Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky. I haven't read this translation, but I like Pinsky's poetry, so I bet it would be worth reading.

For Paradise Lost, go with the Oxford World Classics edition. The notes are really clear, at least in the edition I used last year.

As for The Divine Comedy, Robert Hollander's translation, while unrhymed, is immaculate and captures a lot of the subtleties lost in other, more strict translations.

I read the Hollander edition and I really enjoyed it. Like the other versions mentioned, it has the original Italian next to the translation, allowing for direct comparison.