L ' I N F E R N O

3. THE DIVINE COMEDY
Only when I saw LA DIVINA COMMEDIA in prose translation did it begin to work on me, first on the level of the
literary device: As…so figures occur constantly, not always using those words.
The As and the so are very far apart in some instances but they are not extended metaphors in the usual sense.
I went through the COMMEDIA, colouring frequent figures and other recurrences – THE BOAT, THE BOW/ARROW,
FOOD/EATING, LIGHT, FLAME etc.
Purgatory is in the Southern Hemisphere. Dante might be presented as a notable visitor to modern Australia, in
company with Beatrice and Virgil. They could move in public, quoting in Italian and English from Dante’s great
works. Think how many places Abandon all hope… could be used.
Dante and Beatrice could lecture on physics at a University and present a defence of the Monarchy at the National
Press Club in Canberra. They could give prepared answers to questions asked by guests, including the Italian
Ambassador.
A living Dante would bring his world to life in a way that no reading could. The idea could still be realised in
conjunction with the dramatisation of the entire DIVINA COMMEDIA, which it suddenly occurred to me was possible.
I removed the colours.
DIFFICULTIES:
Impenetrable politics & theology without action; action & actors too monstrous or sublime to show.
No clear progression: Dante called it a Comedy as it begins among the damned & ends among the blessed, but
he damns Pope Boniface in Canto 97 of the 100.
The poem may be picked up and put down at intervals. Its dramatisation may be altogether too much of an
often grim thing.
SOLUTIONS: Music…Muse…Amuse
Music (much of it listed by Dante). Muses to leaven the masculine mass, to support & subvert: the feminine
roles.
Counterpoise of poetry & prose, Italian & English.
Conventional devices: cutting, stylising, humanising of the main characters through humour.
Gifts:
(1) The unconscious humour of Beatrice as Dante’s mouthpiece & chastiser in the tradition of courtly love.
(Who would not have wished to meet the woman in the flesh?)
(2) I gave Dante a book & everybody wanted one.
As a character in the drama, Dante is reduced to a man. but his work, the 14,233 hendecasyllable tower, still stands
magnificent. The vision of Heaven and Hell I once experienced is a few monosyllables high.
DRAMATISATION & TRANSLATION
This dramatisation is for English speakers but will serve for a mixed English-Italian audience.
As much Dante is included as possible because his poetry has no substitute. It introduces and signs off sections.
(See 7 below). It occurs where the passage is particularly well-known; where the action gives the meaning to
English-only speakers; where the meaning is not apparent to English-only speakers but can be done without. (A
little magic is no bad thing – one reason why film-dubbers omit bits.)
In many cases it is desirable to provide both Dante’s Italian and the English prose. This can be done in various
ways, not exclusive of each other:
1. INTERPRETING / TRANSLATING (very common): by the original speaker or another character.
Action between the 2 deliveries makes it more natural. Where the audience is addressed, the character
feigns that the Italian-speakers are in one section, the English-speakers in another. James' Parents
Can't Read__P20__Children's Reviews
2. REDUNDANT (common): using one language for a passage and the other for a passage near it in the
poem and near it in content.
3. ECHOING / QUESTIONING / CONFIRMING (rare): repeating a passage by another character.
4. ELLIPTICAL (common): delivering in one language with key words in the other.
5. (NEAR-)SIMULTANEOUS: delivering in English and Italian at (almost) the same time.
6. SPEAKING - WRITING/READING: speaking one language & writing/reading the other, or vice
versa.
7. SECTIONING (common): beginning and (particularly) ending sections - Cantos etc.- with Italian as a
kind of homage to the original work. This ceremony may strike the drama director as artificial.
8. DANTE VERSIFIES or NOTES (common): following prose delivered by another character, Dante
sometimes thinks aloud or addresses the audience. All DANTE VERSIFIES is optional (but not noted as
such). Dante’s versification naturally enriches or alters the prose. The note or versification
occasionally even anticipates what a character says.
9. DESCRIBING SEPARATELY: 2 characters describing the same scene, in Italian and English.
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