Dear friends,
I'm looking for good, recent and commercially available English translation
of Dante's works for my students here at Syracuse University Florence
Program. We are already using Mandelbaum's Comedy and Botterill's De
Vulgari Eloquentia, and they both work very nicely, but problems arise
when I need to quote a passage from one of Dante's other works. A facing
text is essential: poetry is often what gets lost in the translation, and,
on the other hand, a good translation is often the best commentary on a
complex poetic text. But, e.g., I wasn't able to get Tusiani's edition of
the Rime from the book distributor. Why? I thought it came out just now.
And what about Convivio? I wasn't able to get Lansing's translation either.
Vita Nova perhaps requires a new translation based on Gorni's text and
paragraphing. Dante's Rime of doubtful attribution haven't been translated
yet, if I'm not mistaken. Most editions lack adequate footnotes. And what
about the Eclogues and the Quaestio (often unjustly overlooked)? Then...
Shaw's new and excellent translation of the Monarchia has unfortunately no
facing text, and so on... What's more, law regulations (rightly) prohibit
massive photocopying of books (even of those books that are no longer in
print but still very useful), and thus make it even harder. So, in the end,
the currency is generally the studying of Inferno only, of which there are
on the contrary even too many translations (with and without facing text).
Now: what does your ideal complete-Dante-in-English look like? Is it within
the realm of the existing book world?
Massimiliano Chiamenti
PS: "Nam totum quod ab hostiis Danubii sive Meotidis paludibus usque ad
fines occidentales Anglie Ytalorum Francorumque finibus et Oceano
limitatur, solum unum obtinuit ydioma, licet postea per Sclavones, Ungaros,
Teutonicos, Saxones, Anglicos et alias nationes quamplures fuerit per
diversa vulgaria dirivatum, hoc solo fere omnibus in signum eiusdem
principii remanente, quod quasi predicti omnes io' affirmando respondent"
DVE I viii 3.
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