I know from frequent experience that the most used of current editions of Dante fall short of the practical needs of today’s reader of good will attempting the daunting task of a first acquaintance with the Comedy. This is not to say that important aids and reflection are not a part of these versions, but rather that such tools are inconvenient and all too often neglected by the reader. Last year, while giving a visiting lecture on translating Dante for a colleague, I had the chance to speak informally with a sample of the students in the class. Almost none of them had ever even looked at the notes at the end of the volume, and some students didn’t even know they were there. In surveying my own students, I know that without great urging, even students of good will are discouraged from significant use of cumbersome endnotes.

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Inferno

I have a colleague at the University of Vermont who is a senior professor in French literature and language. She is a woman of exquisite intelligence and elegance of scholarship, who was amazed on her first reading of Dante at how difficult and challenging the project was. If my colleague, who is the model of the advanced literate and intelligent reader, had difficulty in approaching Dante, what must be the situation of the general reader or student when attempting to learn something of the great poem?

The present translation and commentary are founded on the desire to assist in providing sufficient tools to allow the beginning student of Dante to arrive at an informed first reading of Inferno. The translation attempts to stay as close as possible to the literal meaning of Dante’s Italian text while still suggesting that the work is a poem. I have tried to follow the pattern of Dante’s thought and imagery in a way that is clear and reminiscent of the unfolding narrative and thought of the poem. A straight prose translation seemed to me to fall short of articulating Dante’s rhetorical and poetic impulse. So, while any version of Dante must fall short in English, I have tried to summon aspects of Dante’s thought and language that will suggest aspects of the power and range of the Italian. Needless to say, the idea of a terza rima format was set aside as imposing too violent an effect on Dante’s sense and directness. I have also adjusted the translation for more straightforward English sense and accuracy than in earlier versions, based on the thoughtful comments of two readers for Focus Publishing, who are unknown to me.

The format of this edition is to preface each canto with a short commentary on the narrative and major issues at hand. And most simply, I have placed succinct annotation at the foot of the page of the text. As any perusal of Italian editions will show, virtually every native version of the text is provided with annotation by footnote. I have keyed footnotes with a raised circle next to the passage and with line number at the foot of the page giving the material at hand. In my commentary I have drawn on the Italian editions of Sapegno, di Salvo, and Pasquini and Quaglio. From English language material I have relied on Toynbee’s Dictionary, Lansing’s Dante Encyclopedia, and the commentaries of Grandgent, Sinclair, Singleton, Hollander, and Durling and Martinez in the main. At times I have consulted early commentators through the internet web sites of the Princeton Dante Project and its links to the Dante Dartmouth Project. Of Dante, as of Shakespeare, there is no end to commentary and interpretation.

I have used drafts of this edition over two years in both introductory Western tradition survey courses and senior level majors seminars. I have also reviewed the entire text with the assistance of students from the senior level class to try to find an appropriate degree of annotation and information that meets the needs of today’s students. This edition does not claim to provide Preface

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exhaustive annotation or commentary, but rather to provide a workable level of information and support to allow for that informed reading that will allow the reader to appreciate and then continue study at her or his option.

I am grateful for the encouragement and support of many people. My teachers in Dante were fine guides: David Sices, formerly of Dartmouth College, and Ricardo Quinones of Claremont Graduate School. A half-year sabbatical from the University of Vermont in 2004 allowed me the time and concentration to draft the first version of this edition. And I have received much support from my students. In particular Alex Spadinger, Peter Quigley, and Andrew Nelson aided revisions.