The Divine Comedy: The Inferno

The Holy Grail of Epic Literature



By Brian Waldorf



The Divine Comedy: The Inferno, Dante Alighieri, (Translator) Robert M. Durling, Oxford University Press, March 1997, 672 Pages

Dante’s Inferno is one of the most graphically striking epics of our time where his travels take him through the dark abhorred regions of the insufferable landscapes of hell, and tortured souls.



I assessed several editions of Dante’s human drama to find a neatly detailed adaption but it almost seems impervious to produce an author who can capture the witch-craft of his words. Perhaps deciphering the Torah codes and its hidden prophecy would be a less intricate task to accomplish. Robert M. Durling’s contemporary prose translation would be a perfect example of an inept interpretation. He tried despondently to transfigure Dante’s Tuscan vernacular into a comprehensible edition but proved undeserving of the poet’s magnum opus.



His adaption of this perpetually compelling epic was unforgivably rendered and fell flat with impossibilities like it was under the influence of gravity. Durling kept an unbending grip on the chains that enslaved Dante’s terza rima instead of emancipating his poetry with a strong command of the English translation. He handicapped the pulse behind the rhyming verse rather than captured his infinite rhythm, with a hopeless attempt to re-tell one of literature's most famous works in prose.



I would have rather been forged in to the lake of fire burning in brimstone then to have read this excruciating translation of the Inferno. Durling’s writing is elementary, comes stiff and often dispirits every aspect of a classic that has captivated the hearts and imaginations of a broad American audience.  He removed himself from a firm adhering of the original and hampered Dante’s inconceivable visions of the chronicles of hell. More so the editing and translation of the Italian text was so poorly adapted into prose English Durling should write an apology letter to everyone who read it.