Journal of Italian Translation

Book Reviews 299
Pinskey (1994), Mark Musa (1995), Allen Mandelbaum (1980), Michael
Palma, and the one presently under review, Robert Hollander and Jean
Hollander’s, Inferno (2000), Purgatorio (2003).
The collaborative effort of a renowned Dante scholar, Robert Hollander,
and poet, Jean Hollander, this new verse translation with facingpage
Italian text, is a crisp, clear, and graceful rendition of the first two
canticles of Dante’s masterpiece. With an original intent to “clean up”
John D. Sinclair’s prose translation of its archaism, the end result is a harmonious
balance between sense and syntax, accuracy and poetry, a synthesis
between scholarship and grace. Without pretense of replicating the
Italian original, the Hollanders unveil Dante to the English speaking reader
with the least amount of distortion possible, thus, their use of free verse.
Remaining faithful both to the sense and feeling of the original, without
compromising the naturalness of English syntax, the translation accomplishes
the not so easy task of rendering the vitality, force and briskness of
Dante’s idiom, while avoiding forced poetry, dismissing such expressions
as, “the good master said.” A few examples from Inferno and Purgatorio
will serve to convey the clarity and poetic beauty of this translation.
Hollanders’ faultless and emphatic “wretchedness” (miseria) fully
captures Francesca’s moral tragic pathos as she recalls happier times:
“…There is no greater sorrow/than to recall our time of joy/ in wretchedness-
and this your teacher knows.” (Inferno 5, 121-123). Compare
Longfellow’s less pregnant “misery”, and archaic “thy Teacher”: “…There
is no greater sorrow/Than to be mindful of the happy time/ In misery,
and that thy Teacher knows”, and Ciardi’s feeble “pain” and more obscure
“double grief” “The double grief of a lost bliss/ is to recall its happy
hour in pain.”
Farinata’s majestic pride in Inferno X is succinctly exposed with Hollanders’
choice of “utter scorn” (gran dispetto), “chest” (petto), “brow”
(fronte), also depicting a clear image of the deliberate and composed movement
of his rising torso, “was rising” for (s’ergea): “And he was rising,
lifting chest and brow/ as though he held all Hell in utter scorn.” Here
again, Longfellow resorts to a more antiquated “despite” “uprose”, and
rhetorical “breast” “front.” Ciardi’s less weighty “disrespect” diminishes
the sense, requiring him to add “great chest great brow” so as to convey
the depth of Farinata’s pride, just as his less accurate “he rose” leads him
to add “above the flame.” Other such examples are also found in Purgatorio.
In Purgatorio XXX, 139-141, Hollander accurately renders the sense
of the Italian text without sacrificing poetry. Beatrice’s depth of love and
commitment are clearly conveyed as she recounts for the angels her descent
to Limbo for the sake of Dante’s salvation: “And so I visited the
threshold of the dead/ and, weeping, offered up my prayers to the one
who has conducted him this far.” Compare the Italian, “Per questo visitai
l’uscio d’i morti,/e a colui che l’ha qua su’ condotto,/ li preghi miei,
piangendo, furon porti.” Conciseness and naturalness of sound are