Translation

University of Toronto’s multilingual Dante reading (2021)

April 11, 2021 By Professor Arielle Saiber

Commemorating the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri, Toronto Salutes Dante features more than thirty Canada-based guests who read Dante’s Inferno in various languages, several for the first time. In addition to ten different Italian dialects, there are represented American Sign Language, Anishinaabemowin, Arabic, Bulgarian, English, Farsi, French, German, Latin, Mandarin, Portuguese, Québécois, Russian, Sanskrit, Slovak, Spanish, Stoney Nakoda, Swedish, Thai, and Ukrainian. In 15-minute clips, well-known personalities of Canadian public and cultural life, professors, and students at the University of Toronto, and members of the Italo-Canadian community share their voices and fresh memories of the most important Italian author in world literature. Listen to Dante’s Inferno as you have never heard it before on the Department of Italian Studies’ YouTube channel from March 25th to June 2021.

From an original idea of Elisa Brilli, George Ferzoco, and Nicholas Terpstra, and thanks to the invaluable work of Alice Martignoni and Nattapol Ruangsri (Research Assistants). Sponsored by the Department of Italian Studies, the Emilio Goggio Chair in Italian Studies at the University of Toronto, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Toronto, and Villa Charities. —University of Toronto

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Inferno Translation

April 2, 2021 By Jasmine George, FSU '24

Nineteenth century poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow translates Inferno, featured in this 2013 book. More information about this translation can be found here.

L’italiano è figlio della Commedia?

March 3, 2021 By Laura Chatellier, FSU '23

“A prescindere dall’importanza che ebbe la Scuola Siciliana già negli anni Trenta del XIII° secolo nella creazione poetica in lingua volgare e, quindi, quale spinta allo sviluppo di un italiano scritto, pensiamo a quanto sia bella la nostra lingua quando non ci si fermi all’uso fiorentino di un termine, o a quanti aggettivi possano descrivere il medesimo (s)oggetto o di quale ricchezza si possa godere attingendo a più fonti. La pluralità linguistica, il mischiare alto e basso, l’inventare neologismi, sono del resto tutte caratteristiche che Dante apprezzava e applicò egli stesso nella sua Commedia.

“Pensare di ancorare l’italiano a un testo del Trecento fruibile solamente se acculturati è un’operazione elitaria e borghese, espressione ancora una volta di un’egemonia economica (e/o accademica) che poco si sposa con le necessità storiche e sociali a cui si deve rifare un sano sviluppo linguistico.” [. . .] –Simona Maria Frigerio, The Black Coffee, January 23, 2021.

Dante’s Psychological Comedy

July 7, 2019 By Professor Arielle Saiber

[…] “My own background is in psychoanalysis, and I have recently translated the Purgatorio in an attempt to get as close as possible to the actual movement of Dante’s thought. It is “a psychology” in a certain sense, but not a precursor of the modern science. It differs from what we think of as science in at least two respects…”

D.M. Black, Los Angeles Review of Books, July 7, 2019

How to Cite