Hey /lit/, what is the best English translation for La Comedia?

what you should be asking is what's the best italian translation of the culture of critique

The one by Kevin McDonald is really good.

Any serious answers tho?

Try a bilingual version, since it is sort of poetry.

I think /lit/ likes the Mandelbaum transaltion tho.

>>9912891
Longfellow by a long shot.

>>9912941
>>9912952
Thanks for the replies, will check them out.

Also, since the Comedia in its core resembles an epic poem (in the way of a long narrative structure, or at least that's what they say), do you think it will be ok to go for a translation that predominates content over style? or you think this is a poem which more important aspect is based on the aesthetic experience

bumperino

>>9912891
There's a /lit/ chart I saw a long time ago which actually goes through all of them. Does anyone have it?

File: 1499713665621.jpg (891KB, 1400x5316px) Image search: [Google]

891KB, 1400x5316px

>>9912891
>>9914012

>>9912891
If you don't read Esolen you're a moron. The translation is extremely elegant and readable, especially as you get further through the trilogy (hell is almost entirely non-rhyming, but "the music gets sweeter" as the reader ascends). The Italian is displayed on the facing page, which is always nice, and his footnotes are useful, even if his appendices are a bit stupid. If you sit down and compare selected passages from Mandelbaum (as suggested by anon above) and Esolen you will ALWAYS find that Esolen's translation is significantly smoother and more pleasant to read, without losing any of Mandelbaum's accuracy. Compare this passage from Purgatorio canto 27:

Mandelbaum:
"Await no further word or sign from me:
your will is free, erect, and whole—to act
against that will would be to err: therefore
I crown and miter you over yourself.”

Esolen:
"No longer wait for what I do or say.
Your judgment now is free and whole and true;
to fail to follow its will would be to stray.
Lord of yourself I crown and miter you."

>>9912891
learn italian you dingus

>>9915126
esolen appears to fail to understand Dante's emphasis on perception and the self, where you see him saying, and also seems to have less flow toward the end desu.

>>9912999
make your own mind up

>>9915202
brb undertaking major life experience for several years to read a single book

>>9912891
he was a Chadino

>>9915022
I unironically find Cary the best.

>>9915022
I've only ever read the Ciardi, but the Singleton is appealing to me for the notes.

And there is something that I'm really digging about the Clive James translation,

>>9912891
"The Comedy."
You're welcome.

I've read Mandelbaum, Kirkpatrick, and am currently 1/3 through Hollander. Really they all seemed to be decent enough to a casual reader, although i'd recommend hollander for the detailed commentary.

>spend countless hours and thousands of dollars on an embarrassing FAILED prank that you actually fucked with society for

>call it a comedy as damage control

>>9916731
huh? I'm not asking for you to tell me what to think about the book nor tell me what is it about (I already have a fair grasp on that desu), I'm asking for advice in regard of choosing the best translation since there's people here who already read it and even better tried already several versions of it. This is what /lit/ is for buddy, or at least was before it turned into the shithole that allowed pol-niggers shitposting their unfunny memes (see first two comments)

>>9915022
Thanks anon, this is very helpful