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This article is from the Books FAQ, by
Evelyn C. Leeper eleeper@jaguar.stc.lucent.com with numerous
contributions by others.
20 Which is the best translation of Dante's DIVINE COMEDY?
There is no consensus. Robert Pinsky seems to get the strongest
rcommendations so far as I can tell. The two best known are Dorothy L.
Sayers and John Ciardi. People seem to disagree on whether either
preserved the terza rima, with more consensus that Sayers did, but her
translation is quirky, and the "Paradiso" was finished by Barbara
Reynolds after Sayers's death. Ciardi is more readable, but less
credited with preserving structure.
Others recommend Charles Singleton for a prose translation, or Allen
Mandelbaum for verse.
Other translations recommended by people included Peter Dale, Robert
Durling (accurate and scholarly), and Mark Musa.
http://members.aol.com/vdbshop/d_ed.htm is a "virtual bookshop" which
lists all these with short descriptions.
http://members.aol.com/lieberk/welc_old.html has more Dante links.
[Random note: The first time I saw it was in a *Spanish* translation
that my father had. I couldn't follow much, but it had these *great*
illustrations.... I was quite crushed later when I got out of college
and wanted the book for the Dore illustrations to discover that he had
donated all his Spanish-language books to the university library.]
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