The divine comedy of Dante Alighieri : a poetic translation in iambic pentameter and terza rima

Description

The Divine Comedy, the greatest epic of the Middle Ages and perhaps of all time, tells the story of Dante�s journey through the afterlife. After descending through all the circles of hell, Dante climbs the tiers of Mount Purgatory and then rises through the celestial spheres until he attains the beatific vision of God. Stephen Wentworth Arndt has produced a unique translation of this classic of world literature, using iambic pentameter for Dante�s eleven-syllable line, his interlocking triplet rhyme pattern (terza rima), modern diction, and normal word order in a translation highly faithful to the sense of the original. Furthermore, he employs perfect rhymes throughout�a feat one prominent Dante translator declared �apparently impossible.� To the best of our knowledge, he is the first and only translator to have done so in the 400-year history of Dante translations into English. This masterful translation comes with a prose summary of each canto and concise notes to identify the numerous persons and places mentioned in the poem but unfamiliar to the modern reader.