TRANSLATIONS

The first complete translation of The Divine Comedy into English was completed in 1802 by Irishman Henry Boyd (1748/9-1832). He had previously published a translation of The Inferno in 1785. The first translation of The Divine Comedy by an American was completed in 1867 by Henry Wadsworth

Longfellow (1807-1882). Longfellow spent several years translating this work and recruited the aid of friends in perfecting the translation and reviewing early drafts. He invited friends to weekly meetings, which came to be known as the “Dante Club” starting in 1864. Novelist Matthew Pearl’s 2003 novel titled The Dante Club tells the story of various American poets translating The Divine Comedy in post-Civil War Boston. Longfellow’s full three-volume translation was eventually published in 1867, but Longfellow continued to revise the translation; it went through four printings in its first year. Longfellow also wrote a poem titled “Mezzo Cammin” (1845) alluding to the first line of The Divine Comedy, and a sonnet sequence (of six sonnets) under the title “Divina Commedia” (1867), published as flyleaves to his translation of Dante’s work.

American poet and critic John Ciardi (1916-1986) published a translation of The Divine Comedy that is considered to be one of the more accessible translations available. His translation of The Inferno was published in 1954, The Purgatorio in 1961, and The Paradiso in 1970. It is his translation that is now widely used in university literature courses.