Hi Erminia, I prefer the free verse translation that goes beyond style but
tries to depict the meaning, also because I usually prefer substance to
outfit. Your article is excellent, compliments, here is the url for those
interested in translating poetry:
http://hello.to/erminia
and here pasted the passage I am referring to:
The authority and power of the sound-system over the graphical and
rhetorical aspects of a word , especially in poetry, finds a perfect example
in Dante's use of terza rima . This is a measure consisting of a series of
interlocking 'terzine' in which the second line of each one rhymes with the
first and third of the succeeding tercet (aba, bcb, cdc). Given its
difficulty, as a form, and its dependence on a specific sound-system, Dante'
s terza-rima has never really become popular outside Italy. Yet, Dante's
Divina Commedia has been translated in every foreign language, world wide.
At present, there are several acknowledge good versions of it, in English.
Which are the criteria that will make us decide who, among all those many
translators, is the one more entitled to render the greatness and complexity
of this work of poetry? Will it be the translator who tried to recreate it,
balancing the two texts in search of a metrical affinity of style. Or will
it be the translator in free verse who, aware of the "enpasse" represented
by the simple and yet unavoidable fact that Italian is the language that, by
virtue of its peculiar phonic, rhythmical and structural features, gave
Dante the perfect tool for his mighty creation? In particular, some literary
works more than others seem to be bound up with being expressions of a given
historical moment or conflict which make them even more difficult to
approach and decode beyond their time and culture. The artistic value of
Dante's Divine Comedy does not rely exclusively on the allegorical and
symbolic power of its time and civilization, but on something specifically
linguistic and aesthetic, a combination of rhythm and style, which along
with history and content, make it utterly irreproducible. Say, its form.
Take care, Anny
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