John Ciardi
The expressive Italian-American poet in his prime. Like Dante, Ciardi's "baby tongue" was Italian; neither of his immigrant parents in New York were literate in English. A major scholar and poet in 1950s and 1960s at Rutgers, Ciardi was well-placed to transmit The Divine Comedy into vigorous and colorful modern English, sensitive but not slavish to the untransmittable Italian 11 beat "terza rima" of Dante. There are of course many 1st rate translations of the poem, but I still find the Ciardi version best for beginners. "Dante was a drummer" Ciardi perceptively notes -- and so was Ciardi.
John Ciardi
The expressive Italian-American poet in his prime. Like Dante, Ciardi's "baby tongue" was Italian; neither of his immigrant parents in New York were literate in English. A major scholar and poet in 1950s and 1960s at Rutgers, Ciardi was well-placed to transmit The Divine Comedy into vigorous and colorful modern English, sensitive but not slavish to the untransmittable Italian 11 beat "terza rima" of Dante. There are of course many 1st rate translations of the poem, but I still find the Ciardi version best for beginners. "Dante was a drummer" Ciardi perceptively notes -- and so was Ciardi.