Fliss, Allen, Susan, and Roger: thank you.
Allen, in an earlier draft of this I did have a couple of sentences on the Ciardi translation, but I cut them for space. In general I think the Ciardi is OK but not very exciting or energetic. What I find interesting is his use of the “imperfect” terza rima—not rhyming the middle line of each tercet, but rhyming the first with the third—to keep some sense of the rhyme pattern without cramping the language too much.
Roger, as I say in the essay I now take C. H. Sisson’s translation of the whole Divine Comedy for the poetry and Hollander’s for the accuracy, clarity, and notes. For just Inferno and Purgatorio, the Pinsky for the former and the Merwin for the latter are very good.
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