Conclusion: The most faithful translations are those of Longfellow, Singleton, Mandelbaum, and Sinclair. Esolen, Carson, Binyon, and Ciardi are the worst.
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8 comments:
Do you have a comment on which are the best 'reading experience' - in terms of this being poetry?
I haven't read Dante's Comedy, but have glanced through Longfellow (which we own) and I thought it read convincingly as a poem - albeit in blank rather than rhyming verse. (Longfellow happens to be a favourite poet of mine.)
Sayers has been, I believe, the best-seller since it came-out - and she tries to reproduce the rhyme scheme of the original - and I don't doubt that sacrifice of linguistic fidelity was needed to achieve this.
I haven't actually read most of these; I just looked up the sample passage. The only translations I have read in their entirety are Ciardi, Mandelbaum, and Sayers.
I don't recommend Ciardi at all. He tries to approximate Dante's terza rima (not quite) but lacks the technical skill, leading to lots of terrible forced rhymes. And it's one of the least semantically faithful versions as well.
Sayers does full terza rima, a bit better than Ciardi, but a lot of it is still awkward and unpoetic. Sayers's Dante is valuable primarily for its notes, which are very informative and insightful.
Mandelbaum is mostly blank verse, adding rhymes opportunistically when it can be done unobtrusively, and I think it works very well. (English is just too rhyme-poor for terza rima to be anything other than a gimmick, except perhaps in the hands of a Byron-caliber virtuoso.) Mandelbaum is a top-notch interpreter of Virgil and Homer as well, and just generally one of my all-time favorite translators.
I have Esolen's but it's on the "to-read" tower still.
I enjoy his writing, have seen good reviews and his politics suit me. I speak enough Italian to compare things should I need to (though old fashioned Italian poetry is outside my comfort zone).
@Sam
Keep in mind that my only criterion in this analysis is strict, literal fidelity. I want to be able to quote even the shortest passages and feel confident that I am quoting Dante. Of course that is not the only desideratum in a translation.
William,
Interesting the number 19.
Sorry to disappoint, Debbie, but I've already added another translation, so it's an even 20 now!
William,
Hmmmm........
William,
I meant to say that I'm not disappointed, just curious ;-)
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