Good, but not the best The greatest strength of Dorothy Sayers's translation of The Divine Comedy is its notes. Sayers considered this translation her finest work and spent years of her life on it, though she died before she could complete Paradise. Having read The Comedy dozens of times myself, along with many books on Dante and his work, I liked Sayers for her dedication, but her translation--and even her notes--has some problems.
The biggest flaw of the translation is that it's just not literal enough, due mainly to Sayers's attempt at rhyming. Dante invented terza rima ("threefold rhyme") for his Comedy, and trying to use the same rhyme in English is a noble effort but ultimately hopeless. She frequently strays from the original or, worse, obscures something very clear in the original so that she can fit the lines into her rhyme scheme. Her English is also littered all over with strange syntax and archaic words, some of which worked while others left me scratching my head and, in at least one case, laughing out loud.
But for all that, her translation is entertaining and still allows Dante to speak, if through an imperfect medium. There were some sections in which the wording and rhyme worked so well I was thrilled as I read it--most of the work, however, is not up to that standard.
As I said at the beginning, though, this translation's greatest strength is its notes. Sayers shows years of dedicated study in the introduction, notes, and appendices she prepared for this work. One of the most helpful parts of her work are the breakdowns of difficult sections, which she analyzes in the four levels of interpretation at which Dante wrote. These sections are very good and offered even a seasoned reader of Dante like me something to sink my teeth into.
Some of her notes are misguided or flawed, but the book is still worthwhile to the new student of Dante for the wealth of good information they contain. I give one star for the translation and three for the notes.
If the notes are not what you're after and you want to read something more literal the first time around, check out the Mark Musa translation, also available from Penguin Classics, or that of Anthony Esolen from the Modern Library.
Recommended.
Golden Oldies First of all, a warning: the "Comedy" is a complex work, and we are constantly updating our understanding of it. However, once one has finished whatever annotated and/or translated version is currently at the apex of knowledge, it is well worth going back to Sayers. I would dare to say that this is one of the classic translations, one of the best from that phase of Dante studies (for example, though she is obviously tempted towards a Freudian reading, she actually tries to resist its more absurd results). Its funny how many Danteans still do not get beyond the Inferno...
Sayers Meets Dante: Interpreting the Poet's Voice... This review relates to the volume 1 of Dante Alighieri's -The Divine Comedy-, Hell; Translated by Dorothy L. Sayers, Penguin Classics, 1949. 346 pp. Other reviewers have spoken to the perceived weaknesses and problems with this particular translation and volume, with Ms. Sayers' "Introduction" and "Notes." Perhaps one should be warned before entering its portals, as constructed by Ms. Sayers, that this is not an "easy" Hell to assimilate. Yet, at the beginning of her "Introduction," she presents the offering in an inviting fashion: "The ideal way of reading -The Divine Comedy- would be to start at the first line and go straight through to the end, surrendering to the vigour of the story-telling and the swift movement of the verse, and not bothering about any historical allusions or theological explanatios which do not occur in the text itself. That is how Dante himself tackles his subject." Some readers may not find Ms. Sayers' translation to be one that lends itself to "swift movement of the verse." The value here, however, is the wealth of information provided in both the "Introduction", the Notes, and in the map drawings which clearly help the mind's eye understand the "lay-out" of Hell as depicted by Dante. The value of Ms. Sayer's "Introduction" is its clear presentation of HER view of Dante, his work, his value, his meaning, and his emphases. She concentrates on the Images of Hell and on the Christian doctrine implicit in the work. This translation is in keeping with that emphasis, for it is structured, somewhat restricted, and presents "Dante's" voice as more attuned to the didactic and lecturing. Even the voices of the denizens of Hell have the tones of stern lesson-learning rather than evoking pity for their failed virtue and blind human proclivities. The problem with some readers, and some viewers of Christianity, is trying to reconcile the idea of stern, unrelenting, eternal Judgment and damnation for sins with the idea of God's eternal Love, or as Ms. Sayers translates the second tercet of Dante's *terza rima* on the lintel of the entrance to Hell: Justice Moved My Great Maker; God Eternal Wrought Me: The Power, And The Unsearchably High Wisdom, And The Primal Love Supernal. Ms. Sayers will have no human shilly-shallying with Dante's intent or the purpose of Hell. And that, though it may appall some readers, is to the good; for it forces the reader to confront whether or not he or she accepts or does not the Christian doctrinal views -- and helps the reader to understand the serious nature of choosing one's faith and one's religion, or not. After each Canto, Ms. Sayers uses the same very helpful devices for explaining the preceding Canto: first, she discusses the main Images to be found in that particular Canto in a very clear, full, doctrinal way -- and then, she has the numbered notes which explain allusions and phrases which Dante uses in the work. For instance, after Canto I, we find: "The Images. -The Dark Wood- is the image of Sin or Error -- not so much of any specific act of sin or intellectual perversion as of that spiritual condition called "hardness of heart", in which sinfulness has so taken possession of the soul as to render it incapable of turning to God, or even knowing which way to turn." Similarly, after Canto III, we find this note concerning the phrase "the good of intellect": "In the -Convivio- Dante quotes Aristotle as saying: 'truth is the good of the intellect'. What the lost souls have lost is not the intellect itself, which still functions mechanically, but the -good- of the intellect: i.e., the knowledge of God, who is Truth." This is an excellent edition for the scope of Ms. Sayers' medieval scholarship and doctrinal insights. Though it may be hard sledding for the tender-hearted. There have always been several ways of seeing the road to Hell -- in this version, once one strays from the straight and narrow, there is only the crooked and pit-full, not pitiful. -- Robert Kilgore.
A readable translation with helpful notes and introduction Having wanted to read Inferno for a long time, I was glad to find Dorothy Sayers' translation since I value her own writing. I'm no scholar, so I can't compare this critically to the numerous other translations available. I just come looking to enjoy reading and understanding great classic literature on occasion. It takes a great deal of background information to appreciate this work. The Divine Comedy can be examined from many different angles: Poetry, allegory, theology, a spiritual journey, a love story. Sayers' introduction and notes, and the diagrams and drawings in this book were a great help to me. Some may argue that the scholarship is a bit dated, but Sayers clearly loved The Divine Comedy and wanted her readers to appreciate it also. The result of her work was a very interesting reading experience for me, better than I expected. I particularly enjoyed the insights she incorporated into the notes from Charles Williams' book, The Figure of Beatrice. (Sayers dedicated her translation of The Divine Comedy to Williams.) The verse might make it a little more difficult to get the meaning until you get used to it, but I think it's worth the effort. Once I found a good reading pace, I didn't find the rhyming forced as some readers have. (It might seem that way if you look for it.) It must be a difficult thing to try to give readers of English the same experience that Dante's Italian readers had and I think that was Dorothy Sayers' goal. She got me interested enough to take seriously her claim that readers of Dante are cheating themselves if they stop after Inferno. On through Purgatory to Paradise ... It must only get better from here.
A very outdated translation Dorothy Sayers was a fine mystery author and a knowledgable scholar of medieval literature. And once upon a time, this *was* one of the best available translations in English. Times change, however, and new English translations have come along that do a far better job than Sayers' does.
The biggest problem with Sayers translation, in my humble opinion, is her attempt to preserve Dante's rhyme scheme. In her introduction, The fact of that matter is that Italian is a language in which rhymes are frequent, easy, and melodious. In English, having every other line rhyme just sounds cloying and contrived. It also makes the reading more difficult, because of the inverted syntax, archaic vocabulary, and awkward rhythmsand that Sayers has to use in order force the rhymes in there. Oh sure, the fact that she was able to it at all is impressive. But it still doesn't make for a palatable rendition Dante's supple language (which, even to modern Italians reads smoothly and vernacularly, and not at all awkward.) Those who really want some retention of Dante's rhymes would do far better with Robert Pinsky's translation (which uses 'soft rhymes' and doesn't force them when they won't fit). Alan Mandelbaum's and John Ciardi's translations are good too.
Another problem with Sayers edition are the notes. While, on the one hand, they can very helpful to a first-time reader, they are also outdated. If you want to know what Oxford scholars thought about Dante a half-century ago, Sayers notes are great for that. And I don't say that to be dismissive, those 1940's Oxford medievalists had a lot of very good things to say. However, the fact of the matter is that Dante studies-- and medieval scholarship have changed a lot in the past half-century-- and reading her notes is something like reading a half-century old textbook of American history. They leave out a lot of things that probably ought to be discussed.
An even bigger problem with the notes here, I think, is that the author too readily presents her notes as "The Truth" (with a capital "T") about the poem-- as if there were only one correct way to interpret it and its details. Her interpretations are often insightful, suggestive, and they will greatly help the first-time reader-- but they are so didactic in their style that they may overlyy contrain the reader's freedom of interpretation. It's more like she's trying to use her notes to tell you, "The poem means this", rather than using them to background information and context so that you can figure out what *you* think it means on your own.
And, at the risk of sounding like I'm "politically correct", the fact of the matter is that there also are some biases in her notes that, to me, seem rather glaring today. This is particularly evident where she explains why Dante places Mohammed in the part of Hell with the schismatics. Rather than simply pointing out that medieval Christians erroneously believed that Islam began from a schism within Christianity, Sayers uses the occasion to make a few denigrating comments about Islam (which she insists upon referring to as "Mohammedism"). Again, I don't hold this against Sayers per se... She wrote this book among and for a coz y community of Oxford Christians over a half-century ago.... and it's naturally going to be show its colors in that regard. But, for us folks who are reading it today, in the 21st century, well... maybe the notes just need to be updated a bit.
Anyway, when all's said and done, Dante's work is masterful, and even Sayers' awkward translation and outdated notes can't completely conceal that. However, I really think readers would be better off sticking to the Ciardi, Mandelbaum, or Pinsky translations of the _Inferno_. (My preference is for the Pinksy, but to each his own...)
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