Dante | 2017 | N. 14

The author examines the evolution of Dante’s idea in regard the language as an expressive capacity peculiar only to man, first to his being “by Nature” or “by convention”, secondly if Latin is superior to the vernacular. In the De vulgari eloquentia Dante judges the vernacular able to express the highest feelings and, above all, introduces the concept of languages evolution according the usus. Finally, in Paradiso Dante makes a further step towards a more “secular” vision of the human language, following classical authors of Lucretius and Horace. Particularly, the reading of who see in expression «che vabbella», of xxvi, 132, a clear link to the voluptas epicurean is resized.

In the prose of Dante’s Epistles, the rhythmic constituents make a fixed pattern of invariable sequences and suborders. This configuration, responding with all evidence to a previously elaborated model, is illustrated in the present study with symbolic examples and the analysis of the main constitutive modalities.

Innumerevoli, com’è noto, sono i legami che la creazione letteraria dantesca intrattiene con l’immaginario figurativo medievale. Altrettanto innumerevoli le suggestioni che la Commedia, e la stessa figura di Dante, esercitano sulla produzione artistica coeva o immediatamente successiva all’autore. Basti pensare al contributo pittorico di Giotto, che nel Giudizio universale della Cappella degli Scrovegni dà corpo, con estremo realismo, alla rappresentazione di realtà ultraterrene, o alle visioni di Botticelli, dalla Mappa dell’inferno conservata alla Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana al celebre ritratto del poeta. […]

Starting from the analysis of the various forms of violence found in Inferno’s canto xii and the relationship between viator Dante and the author-sentenced violent individuals, the essay examines the different ways violence is represented throughout the book. The violence that the damned experience as punishment is explicitly described; not so the violence provoked or experienced by the damned throughout their earthly lives and recollected in the canto, which is never depicted as it unfolds.

In this contribution, I re-examine the use of classical sources, namely Lucan and Ovid, in Inferno 24-25 from an innovative point of view. I suggest that the incineration of Vanni Fucci in Inferno 24 and the two double metamorphoses in Inferno 25 should be interpreted separately as regards the use of the classical references. In particular, I demonstrate that the famous boast of Inferno 25, ll. 94-102, is more consistent if referred only to the metamorphoses in the same canto, leaving outside what happens to Vanni in the previous one. This new interpretation also explains why Dante mentions the Ovidian character of Arethusa in the boast, a fact that has never been convincingly explained so far.

The article examines recent French translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy by René de Ceccatty (Points, 2017). It focuses on translator’s formal options and efforts to rephrase the original text in a new, vibrant and concise style. This recreation is mostly based on the innovative choice to transpose Dante’s enclosed tercets in French verses Octosyllabes.

The purpose of this comparative study is twofold: to illustrate the presence of Dante in the works of Seamus Heaney and to trace the significance of his artistic ‘encounter’ with the Italian poet in 1979. This came as a result of his reading of the translation of the Divine Comedy by Dorothy L. Sayers. It provided inspiration for a personal and poetic journey that concluded in a reassessment of the self as citizen and poet. The first literary evidence of this process is present in the free translation of the Ugolino episode (Inf. xxxii-xxxiii). Heaney’s version, through poetic imagery assumes the form of a metaphor for poetry. The intellectual journey manifested through an awareness of the classical sources of Dante’s work and the world of medieval scholasticism served as a means of crossing physical, artistic and symbolic borders. Heaney had already effected a physical descent by relocating to the Irish Republic in 1972. There resulted a newfound recognition and acceptance of the social and moral responsibility of the poet allied to political awareness. The collections Field Work (1979), Station Island (1984), and Seeing Things (1991) are the key stages in his ‘New Life’, marked by a confrontation with violence (Inf. xxxii -xxxiii), and an attempt at its purification (Purg. i). In Flight Path a statement of artistic independence is made. Station Island provides an image, recollection and imagination of a physical journey as both a pilgrimage and an examination of moral and artistic conscience. Dante’s Island of Purgatory is relocated to Ireland where the penitential provides a source for a series of recollections, assessments and associations. Contrasts, conflicts and divisions inhabit a world of realistic mysticism in a framework of local expressions. Beginning with Heaney’s use of the term ‘frutto del cervello’/fruit of the brain’ in his free translation of the Ugolino episode of Inferno, one may follow, through the poet’s association with the Italian poet, the nature of artistic creativity and its reassessment in the light of political issues. All conflicts are reconciled in a renewed perception and sight of poetry.

From the beginning of the 19th century up to today the translations of Dante in the almost infinite linguistic varieties of the Italian-Romance language have increased in geometric progression, and yet there are no rigorous studies on the phenomenon, perhaps because there is a prejudice towards dialects, or because the translation in dialect is considered in itself a reductive fact, or because the extent of the phenomenon is not well known or because it is not possible or advisable to read the whole of Dante’s Comedy in many often incomprehensible dialects. Than we limit ourselves to reading some more known or important passages. Very often the result is disappointing. However, there are some results worthy of attention, especially in the nineteenth century and in the first half of the twentieth century. There are even those who consider making Dante less abstruse and more understandable. The translations are useful when the people do not yet know the Italian language. Translators are often animated by the intent to demonstrate the linguistic potentialities of their dialect, but they end up representing a challenge, an effort, thus eluding the criteria of Nida on translation as the closest and most natural equivalent.

The Inferno v, specifically lines 98-142, is a memorable, celebrated section of Dante Alighieri’s Divina Commedia. Lord Byron challenged each and every translator of this passage; he considered them ‘traitors’ and bestowed his English public – and himself, of course – with an inimitable, unique poetic rendition: a chef d’oeuvre. This paper addresses some crucial questions regarding Byron’s work as translator: To what extent was his translation loyal to the original version? Were there, at a certain level, some grave betrayals? This paper tackles Byron’s knowledge of the Italian language, his familiarity with its origins, his mastering of its structures and his possession of its literary style. Most people readily agree that it requires a poet to translate a poet; thus, my main objective is to examine Byron’s work, evaluate it as a translator – regardless of my subjective leaning to Byron – and discuss the problematic issue raised by Byron himself: «tradotto o tradito». Byron’s insight and play on words brought to my attention a well-known French linguist and translator, Georges Mounin, who in his book Les Belles Infidèles discusses this similar notion of betraying while translating. My main purpose is to exhibit whether Byron’s ego interfered not only in his writings but also in his translation attempt, especially that Byron’s process of translation, transculturalization, and transplantation reached its climax during his stay in Italy. This paper also discusses, from a stylistic perspective, Byron’s transmission into English the Italian ‘terza rima’. In this respect, this paper conducts a cultural and linguistic scrutiny concerning the merits of Byron as translator.

This study aims to investigate the intertextual relationships of the katabasis in Hades and of the episode of the meeting with the underworld judge Minos between the protagonist of the byzantine dialogue Timarion, Dante Alighieri in Divine Comedy and Odysseus from the Homeric texts.

The metaphor of ‘seal’ is used by Dante with different shades and purposes: as an apocalyptic signaculum and symbol of sin to remove; as a sign on the waxy and figure of memory; as a signum of character and destiny that the stars impress on every life at birth. It becomes with Aristotle properly seal of union between form and power. The article highlights the occurrences of that metaphor in the Divine Comedy and studies the semantics.

The last of the words addressed to Beatrice by the Poet in the “Commedia” mark a discontinuity with the rest of the Poem. The increasing praises of the heavenly beauty of the smile, that only the Almighty can fully appreciate, turn into a thankful acknowledgement of the debts to a protective saint. We propose an explanation which supports the double role of Beatrice, as allegory of Theology and, in the first place, direct manifestation of Jesus.

The research is about the presence of Dante’s Divina Commedia in the translation of Virgilio’s Eneide edited by Annibal Caro. We have four text to collate – after the historical data work made by Casa in his residence in Frascati, a few years before his death. 1) The Eneide’s verse translated in vernacular by Caro and edited posthumous in 1581, where we find the cross reference to the Dante’s poem; 2) The text of the Commedia’s verse that appears in this translation; 3) The corresponding latin text of Aeneidos libri; 4) The modern version of Virgilio’s work by Luca Canali.

The article analyzes Dante’s citations from the tale Un treno per l’inferno (published in the journal «Novella 2000» on 25 June 1967) by Giorgio Scerbanenco (1911-1969). The quotes, all taken from The Inferno (cantos iii, v, xiii, xxxiv), are used to punctuate the different stages of the infernal descent of characters in a more engaging way.

The great poet represents a continuous and unavoidable challenge that the Italian school is steered toward, in order to compare and examine itself. These times make it more difficult. Sure enough, Dante and his masterpiece “Commedia” are an anchorage, the classic to end all classics, the book of books. Teachers are rallied to carry out a demanding task, mostly to all appearances, seeing as, since the previous words are pronounced to introduce the work, in the coldness of a classroom, a laic miracle comes true: a world apart, so different from ours. Maybe is exactly for its otherness what captured the young minds of the students so that they launched themselves into an imaginary dimension.
If the work written by Dante endure immutable, what has changed is the overture, the methodology used in order to develop in students proper skills and to make them aware of the important value of this work as the heritage of the whole humanity. A contest offered an incredible chance to reflect on the correct method to read and to study Dante in the school activities and in the academic research nowadays. It is the contest “Dante come lo vorrei”, announced in February of the school year 2016/17, in the background of the project “Tre motivi per dire Novecento. Compita 2.0” – with whom the university “La Sapienza” in Rome won the announcement miur. aoodgosv. registro ufficiale (u). 001277614-11-2016 concerning the Italian teaching in the Secondary Scholl of second grade – in collaboration
with “The University of studies of Siena” (Linguistics and Ancient and Modern Literary Critique), “The University for foreigner of Siena”, “The Orientation University of Studies of Siena, the international Doctorate in Linguistics and Critique, the adi, Compìta 2.0, l’adi-sd and its headquarters in Siena. The possible tracks were three: 1) the creative writing in Dante and his masterpiece; 2) Dante as man and character of the work; 3) literature as testimonial document of an age. Infected by the enthusiasm of their Italian teacher and by the sacred fury that flows through the pages of the “Commedia”, a group composed of five volunteers from the class ivd of the High School “R. Canudo”, in Gioia del Colle, near Bari, forthwith shared this project. Being inspired from Dante’s works, the students gave evidence of their creative attitude, carrying out an e-book, entitled “Junayd, l’uomo che disse grazie a Dante”, then reinterpreted at the base of their cultural experiences and skills. Then, late at night, on 2 March 17, in Siena, at the end of the Conference, the five students with their teacher have been proclaimed the winners of the contest.