poetry

Inferno is a book that I believe should be read by everyone. College students, parents, movie buffs, etc., will all be able to pull something from this book. At face value, this book can be just a simple adventure of a man through Hell. It can also be a stepping stone into the world of Christian and Greek mythologies.

Inferno is the story of Dante (same as the author) who becomes lost (spiritually/mentally) at the age of 35 and finds himself at the base of a path leading him on a long and wonderous journey. Dante meets Virgil (see the Aeneid) and Virgil becomes Dante's guide through Hell. Along the way Virgil explains why certain people are being punished and Virgil will communicate with his contempories (as Dante will communicate with his own.)

Ciardi's translation keeps in touch with Dante's terza rima rhyming scheme. This is a strict translation, where some words may seem slightly out of place. There are liberal translations out there, but not in such a wonderful rhyming pattern. Ciardi also ends each Canto (chapter) with infomation as to characters and information that readers may not know. (As Inferno was written in the 1300s.)

And, if nothing else and you're really bored from reading this, try to figure out where you would fit in Dante's Hell.

This review relates to the volume -Dante: Inferno-; Translated,
Edited, and with an Introduction by Anthony Esolen. The Modern
Library. 2002/2003 paperback. 491 pp. [Dual language version,
Italian on left pages, English translation on right pages.]
What makes one English translation of Dante's -Inferno-
better than another? That is a question that each reader,
with his or her own educational background, tastes,
understandings, and desires to account for must answer.
I, personally, knew that I would like this version very
much when I picked it up, read the Modern Library's biographical
piece about Dante, and then began to read Anthony Esolen's
"Introduction." The Modern Library has given any reader
the solid, but brief, background to proceed on this
quest or pilgrimage with Virgil and Dante through the
Inferno, or Hell. The biographical piece immediately
tells the reader that "Dante Alighieri, the Italian poet,
whose great allegory -The Divine Comedy- has exerted
profound effect on Western literature and thought, was born
in Florence in May 1265. He came from a noble though
impoverished family, descendants of the city's Roman
founders. *** Dante probably received his early schooling
from the Franciscans and the Dominicans; later, he studied
rhetoric with the Guelph statesman and scholar Brunetto Latini.
Another significant mentor was the aristocratic poet Guido
Cavalcanti, who strongly influenced his early work." The
piece goes on to say that for the young Dante, writing
poetry became an important expression of his passion for
art and learning, and of his abiding concern with the nature
of love and spiritual fulfillment. That is surely a very
succinct and marvelous beginning, though there is much
more in the biographical piece.
But it is the "Introduction" by Anthony Esolen, which
entrances in this version, along with his translation
itself which is clear, compelling, easily understood,
and marvellously absorbing.
One knows the nature of the translation and the translator's
quality when he begins an "Introduction" to the -Inferno-
(the first section of -The Divine Comedy-) in this fashion:
"In Plato's -Phaedrus-, Socrates explains that true love
is a passion to behold not just a beautiful face or body,
but the eternal Form of Beauty itself. To make his point
he compares the soul to a charioteer and a team of horses,
one obedient and the other unruly. While the unruly horse,

representing appetite, strains to leap upon the beloved as
soon as he is in sight, the obedient horse, the 'spirit'
or 'ambition,' heeds the reins and the whip of the shuddering
driver, who recalls that eternal Beauty and beholds its
image with awe and reverence. Dante never read the -Phaedrus-,
but in a deep sense he is at one with Plato, for he too
believes that the goal of human life is to behold Beauty,
and he too believes that the way to that beholding is
traversed by love." Truly that is a wondrous way to
begin the journey, even to Hell -- or, perhaps, especially
to -- and through -- Hell ... toward, ultimately, Paradise.
This translation is excellent. The illustrations in the
volume are by Gustave Dore. There are 7 Appendices:
(a) Virgil, from the -Aeneid-; (B) From the -Visio sancti
Pauli- (The Vision of Saint Paul); (C) Thomas Aquinas,
from the -Summa Theologiae- (On free will; On the distinction
between mortal and venial, or pardonable, sins; On sins

meriting eternal punishment; On sins of weakness and passion;
Whether sins of deliberate will-to-evil are graver than sins
committed in a state of passion; Whether pride is the beginning
of all sin; Whether one beyond the age of discretion can be
guilty of original sin but not mortal sin; On grace as the
only remedy for sin; On the sinfulness of unbelief; On
whether unbelievers may be saved; On the proper object of
human hope; On hope in the damned; Peace as the proper
effect of charity; The lawfulness of vengeance; The
relationship of zealous love and vengeance; On the support
which anger gives to fortitude; On magnanimity and honor;
and others); from -The Compendium of Theology- (Chap. 104;
"The End of the Intellectual Creature"); (D) Dante, from
-De monarchia-; (E) Dante, from -Il convivio-; (F) Boniface
VIII, -Unam sanctam (1302); (G) Bertram de Born; "Be'm
platz lo gais temps de pascor."
There are also notes to the various cantos from pp. 407-490.
For myself, there are two touchstones of the poetry and
the quality of the translation which I particularly
pay close attention to: the beginning stanzas of the
-Inferno- and Canto Five, which deals with Paolo and
Francesca. Here is Anthony Esolen's beginning:
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,
that wilderness so savage, dense, and harsh,
even to think of it renews my fear!
It is so bitter, death is hardly more --
but to reveal the good that came to me,
I shall relate the other things I saw.
----------------------
-- Robert Kilgore.

"Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here" reads an inscription above Hell's Gate. May be true for xians, but horror-loving Satanists will find this literature most stimulating, with the graphic descriptions of mutilated souls, perverse debaucheries, morbid environments, & imaginative demonic monsters. Many great great suggestions for the torture chambre as well!

Throughout the Gothic & Renaissance perionds, daemons of the Imagination creeped forth from the shadows of The Darkside of the mind like never before, thus producing some of the most compelling & attractive monsterpieces the world had ever had the misfortune or fortune to see, hear, & read.

It was this written work that really ingrained the standards for the popular depictions of Hades, as well as paintings by artists like Jon Von Eyck, Heironymous Bosch, Peter Breughel, & Albrecht Durer. In the musickal genre, Bach, Wagner, Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, & Chopin, to name but a few, were realeasing tempestuous, monolithic, & eerie symphonies into the ether, which are now universally employed to set an eerie embiance.

In THE INFERNO, Dante Alighieri, an Italian poet, meets with a mysterious & etheric host named Virgil, who takes him down to witness the terrors of The Great Abyss, so it may be recorded, & that mankind may wish not to go there. Heavy-duty guilt-trip. Throughout the sick, gnarled, blood-soaked, & freezing crevasses of Dante's brain, there are brief, but memorable encounters with the damned souls.

There are seven {sic} circles in the first section of Hell, each populated by a different class of "sinners". On the way, we take a ride upon the back of a winged beast named Geryon, around a waterfall {nice to know there's water in Hell!}. The Ninth {of course} Circle is where Satan Himself is entrenched in the frozen lake Cocytus. The only escape from this abode of lost souls is by climbing down the devil's leg hairs {that's got to hurt}, which then leads to Purgatory. Obviously, this work was written at the height of the catholic church's oppression.

There have been rumours, that Dante was secretly commissioned by church papacy to write the book, to better gain control of the peasants, who were taken to revolting quite often. Dante, being a starving poet at the time, could not refuse the offer. Cleverly, Dante was at first reviled by the church, & threatened with ex-communication, but was vindicated when he demonstrated his loyalty to the church by writing 'El Paradiso', which deals with Dante's journeys in the wonderful mystical world of Heavenland. This clever technique has been used over & over again to enslave minds, turning the unwary catholic & xian zombies, who blindly give their rations away to church & state {which at the time, were one in the same}. By first guilt manipulating someone into fear, you render them vulnerable, & they seek salvation wherever they can get it. Conveniently, 'El Purgatorio' & 'El Paradiso' were published not too far apart from The Inferno, attaining an essential balance, that their distribution may keep the populace in line. Needless to say, these three opuses caused the simpletons to flock back to church in record numbers. The pope became very fat, very fast.

What I found most interesting about this abysmal field-trip, is that Dante's Hell is icey cold, instead of the typical scorching. That in itself makes it all less threatening.

Dante's Inferno is one of the most colorful books I have ever read. It is filled with such wonderfully elaborate words that manifest magnificently morbid spectacles of diabolic delight. Use your own filtration wisdom as far as any foolosophy is concerned.