And so on this night I’ve read one of the classics of epic literature, that being Dante Alighieri’s “Inferno”. “Inferno” is the first book of Dante’s sprawling epic poem “The Divine comedy”, with the other two books being “Purgatory” and “Paradise”.
Here Dante places himself as the character of this epic and is guided through hell to heaven by an individual known as Virgil. And here in “Inferno” the journey begins in the darkest realms of hell.
In the first book is where Dante envisions the nine circles of hell, each one designated for very specific sins. And in these circles the punishments for these particular sins become more and more brutal the deeper Dante and Virgil go until they reach the cold center of hell where the devil resides imprisoned.
“Inferno” is the most imaginative of the three books of “The Divine Comedy”. And also the most famous of course, even the name alone is bound to pop up in modern pop culture today, even including the nine circles of hell.
Dante includes many historical and mythological figures and references in this poem. The poem itself was written in colloquial Italian. Why? Well, Dante wanted “Inferno” to be a work of poetry for the common reader. I can only imagine the dismayed look on Dante’s when he saw stilted and solemn translations of his work, even though I’ve never come across them.
The one translation that I have is the one from Irish poet Ciaran Carson who does justice to it. And I’m certain Dante himself would agree and nod his head in approval!
by i-the-muso-1968
1 Comment
Paradiso is the most imaginative book of the Divine Comedy, not Inferno, because to a large extent Inferno is a repurposed Greek mythological construct, whereas Paradiso envisions travel through space and time, it imagines the creation of the universe and everything in it, and pantheons of higher beings. The scope of Paradiso is truly immense. It’s also the most obtuse and difficult, so it doesn’t get the love that Hell gets.