Can you tell me which translation of Dante you're reading? Did you give that issue much thought?...I actually did give this a great deal of thought. The library had translations by Anthony Esolen (the newest translation of Dante if I am not mistaken), Allen Mandelbaum, C.H. Sisson, Jefferson Butler Fletcher, Charles Eliot Norton, and John Ciardi.
The library must have wondered if I was doing a research paper because I checked them all out and then took a look at the first chapters to see which seemed to be the easiest to read. John Ciardi won, hands down. And his rhymed which won many points as some of the other translations did not and I wanted a sense of poetry even while understanding that it would not equal the original.
Then I looked at the notes and, again, John Ciardi won. He had ... would you call them "headnotes" (?) ... which came at the beginning of each Canto to give a sense of what one would read. This was followed by thorough end notes in which he not only clarified many points obscure to us today, but also would not his "work arounds" to make a rhyme happen and then give the exact translation as it would have read.
This is not to say that the other versions weren't good. It is just that Ciardi's felt most like something I would have a chance of continuing to read. As has proven to be the case. I read a canto every morning although it took me a while to fall into that rhythm.
The sad thing is that I have had the library's copy for about a year, renewing it online every three weeks and it has never been requested by anyone else. I know this because if it was, then I would not have been allowed to renew it. Ah well.
Also, I would be remiss in not mentioning the book that made me truly interested in reading the Divine Comedy in the first place. That would be Inferno by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. You can find a partial review here and more thoughts about it here. It is highly recommended, especially to any science fiction lovers (such as The Anchoress' sons!).
