Clive James’ translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy is far the most entrancing I have read, an entrance-lation. A few quotations will appear here and elsewhere and, in due course, a quote-studded review.Â
Here James highlights Dante’s exuberance even in the face of dread, which is to say an exuberance that is resilient. I am humbled by this capacity to keep singing when something dreadful is happening. Â
‘Dante registers his exuberance even in his most desperate moments. He doesn’t stop singing just because something dreadful is happening. What he says is: something dreadful is happening even as I sing. It’s an interplay of form and content: the most ambitious that any literary artist ever attempted.’
Â
Source: Clive James, Introduction, Dante, The Divine Comedy, trans. Clive James (New York: Liveright Publishing, 2013), p. xviii
Photo credit: Alexandre St-Louis at unsplash.com
0 Comments