/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.19438200]

If you dont read Dante in original, dont bother. If you go and see for yourself the original and the English translation side by side...my God, the English is terrible and nothing alike those balmy verses of Dante.

[Anonymous No.19438214]

>>19438200
YOUR English is terrible. I don't trust your opinion.

[Anonymous No.19438215]

>>19438200
Why do you think the original and English translations are the only two choices available?

[Anonymous No.19438225]

>>19438215
You cant read Dante in translation.
>>19438200
My English is excellent.

[Anonymous No.19438233]

>>19438225
How do you know? Have you read every translation there is?

[Anonymous No.19438240]

>>19438233
I dont need to read a single one, reading the original is enough to know this not as a matter of opinion but fact.

[Anonymous No.19438254]

>>19438200
Anything besides meaningless fiction does not work translated.
Poetry turns into poetry inspired by the one made, with few exceptions (like romance languages getting to keep some style), philosophy gets extremely dense, and prose is muddled.

[Anonymous No.19438293]

>shakespeare is beloved across the world in translation
>dante has to be read in the original or is shit
Really makes you think.

[Anonymous No.19438300]

>>19438293
Shakespeare is inferior to Dante. The more inferior the poetry, the easier to translate and retain popularity.

[Anonymous No.19438305]

>>19438200
I can read and speak Italian you mongoloid anglo.

Shakespeare is shit, stop seething and accept than Dante is The poet.

[Anonymous No.19438316]

>>19438300
Shakespeare's poetry isn't translated (translating any poetry is impossible). His characters, themes and ideas are.
Why are the translatable aspects of literature so bad in Dante?

[Anonymous No.19438340]

>>19438316
Its the peculiarity of language and its intonations which Dante used to a much higher level than say Shakespeare. Dante sounds Divine and this is only possible by the exact language he was using and the manner by which he did it.

[Anonymous No.19438341]

>>19438233
>Have you read every translation there is?
Yes

[Anonymous No.19438342]

Are Spanish and Italian close enough to make a more seamless translation?

[Anonymous No.19438344]

>>19438293
>shakespeare is beloved across the world in translation
People's poet
>dante has to be read in the original or is shit
Poet's poet

Both are universal, but Dante is not for the groundlings. You can't compare Shakespeare classless universalism to the glorious Dante elitist universalism, Dante is not for the masses, that's why so many retards on /lit/ love Shakespeare, because they are anglos who haven't take a course in basic Italian. (I know Italian btw here is my comment >>19438305)

[Anonymous No.19438368]

>>19438340
So his themes, characters, plots and ideas are all shit in translation but at least his language is good. OK lmao.
How do you know there isn't a poet better than dante in Abkhaz, Korean or Navajo who achieves superior effects?
>>19438344
>Shakespeare is loved by elites in every language
>Dante needs to be read by elites in italian to be good
is this supposed to be a recommendation?

[Anonymous No.19438385]

I can't read Italian but I enjoyed Sayers, Ciardi and Mandelbaum's translations, Ciardi the most. Longfellow is meh and I read the inferno by Mary Jo Bang and it was bad.

[Anonymous No.19438433]

>>19438200
If a work of literature can only be considered good in it's mother's tongue I would argue that it might not be as GREAT as people think. But that's besides the point, the Divine Comedy is good and it's English translations are good. Your English skills are likely conversational at best and you are incapable of understanding the same level of nuance as you would in Italian.

[Anonymous No.19438438]

It would be no great exaggeration to say that any couple of verses plucked out of Dante's opus at random are superior to anything Shakespeare ever wrote, even if one were carefully perusing Shakespeare's texts to find him at his best. Dante finished poetry like Bach finished music, Aquinas philosophy and John of the Cross mysticism (incidentally, he too, is a better poet than Shakespeare). Everyrhing else is either a lead-up or a reaction and lacking the fullness that is superabundant in said men and their works. This is no slight to anyone else, a culture eventually finds its completion and there is nothing to be done beyond that.

[Anonymous No.19438446]

>>19438433
Cope.

[Anonymous No.19438495]

>>19438433
>Your English skills are likely conversational at best
>the Divine Comedy is good and it's English translations
kys
Not even the same anon btw

[Anonymous No.19438515]

I just read it in French and it's kino

[Anonymous No.19438529]

>>19438515
Post incipit

[Anonymous No.19438531]

>mfw these lit posters question OP's English skills, not realizing he used very clearly Bible-influenced syntax, cadences and repetition in a Dante thread

Do you guys even read?

[Anonymous No.19438540]

>>19438368
>Dante needs to be read by elites in italian to be good
Dante is good in translation.

[Anonymous No.19438558]

>>19438531
It could very easily be read as a psalm.

If you dont read Dante
in original,
dont bother.
If you go and see
for yourself
the original and the English
translation side by side...
my God,
the English is terrible
and nothing alike
those balmy verses
of Dante.

[Anonymous No.19438586]

>>19438529

[Anonymous No.19438591]

>>19438586

[Anonymous No.19438599]

>>19438591

[Anonymous No.19438603]

>>19438599

[Anonymous No.19438611]

>>19438599
Quite bad desu

[Anonymous No.19438843]

>>19438200
Dante is honestly overrated. It's hundreds of pages of:
>And then I saw Buppo di Beppe and Beppi di Buppo suffering an extremely ironic torture because they once did something that made me want to post a basedjak face
>Then I found my oneitis and she took me to see Jeebus and Mary and it was super cool and now I'm not gonna be an incel anymore
>Thank you Virgil
The End

[Anonymous No.19438928]

>>19438200
The fact that people really admire religious fanfiction capeshit like this is a testament to how pathetic we are as a species

[Anonymous No.19438956]

>>19438843
Never happened, cope, kys, etc

[Anonymous No.19438967]

>>19438956
Literally, 100% the exact plot of the Comedy.

Seethe and dilate Francesco.

[Anonymous No.19439005]

>>19438240
It is conceivable that a translator could be possessed of such talent so as to create translation of the Commedia than which no greater can be conceived.

If this greatest possible poem exists in the mind, it must also exist in reality, because if it existed only in the mind, then an even greater poem must be possible—one which exists both in mind and in reality. Therefore, this greatest possible poem must exist in reality.

[Anonymous No.19439023]

>>19438843
FILTERED

[Anonymous No.19439044]

>>19438200
An English translation of Dante might as well be an original work. And because it's an original work, it doesn't have to be compared it with the original anymore. It can stand on its own legs and be good regardless of its relationship to the original

[Anonymous No.19439470]

>>19438340
>Its the peculiarity of language and its intonations which Dante used to a much higher level than say Shakespeare

Shakespeare is far more imagery-dense and metaphoric-creative than Dante. He was being original almost non-stop with his use of language, while most of Dante it’s just like prose, but with metric and rhyme. Dante is mostly a simile guy, but even his similes are of a more normal and traditional kind.

[Anonymous No.19439477]

>>19438200
It’s still a beautiful story of a man trying to make sense of his life and his faith. I can’t read Italian, but obviously Dante’s legacy speaks for itself. There are still beautiful renditions in English. Ultimately it’s up to the reader to decide what is beautiful and worthwhile

[Anonymous No.19439553]

>>19438344
>Dante elitist universalism
He literally decided to write, in opposition to nearly all serious poets for over a millennium before him, in the non-elitist, "vulgar" Italian language, rather than elitist, learned Latin. Did you even read his letter to Cangrande?

>>19438928
>>>/tv/