FullReads

According to Cary:–

“Here sighs, with lamentations and loud moans
Resounded through the air pierced by no star,
That e’en I wept at entering.”

According to Parsons:–

“Mid sighs, laments, and hollow howls of woe,
Which, loud resounding through the starless air,
Forced tears of pity from mine eyes at first.” [8]

[Footnote 8:
“Quivi sospiri, pianti ed alti guai
Risonavan per l’ ner senza stelle,
Perch’ io al cominciar ne lagrimai.”]

Canto V., line 84:–

LONGFELLOW.–“Fly through the air by their volition borne.”
CARY.–“Cleave the air, wafted by their will along.”
PARSONS.–“Sped ever onward by their wish alone.” [9]

[Footnote 9:
“Volan per l’ aer dal voler portate.”]

Canto XVII., line 42:–

LONGFELLOW.–“That he concede to us his stalwart shoulders.”
CARY–“That to us he may vouchsafe
The aid of his strong shoulders.”
PARSONS.–“And ask for us his shoulders’ strong support.” [10]

[Footnote 10:
“Che ne conceda i suoi omeri forti.”]

Canto XVII., line 25:–

LONGFELLOW.–
“His tail was wholly quivering in the void,
Contorting upwards the envenomed fork
That in the guise of scorpion armed its point.”
CARY.–
“In the void
Glancing, his tail upturned its venomous fork,
With sting like scorpions armed.”

PARSONS.–“In the void chasm his trembling tail he showed,
As up the envenomed, forked point he swung, Which, as in
scorpions, armed its tapering end.” [11]

[Footnote 11:
“Nel vano tutta sue coda guizzava,
Torcendo in su la venenosa forca,
Che, a guisa di scorpion, la punta armava.”]

Canto V., line 51:–

LONGFELLOW.–“People whom the black air so castigates.
CARY.–“By the black air so scourged.” [12]

[Footnote 12:
“Genti che l’ aura nera si gastiga.”]

Line 136:–

LONGFELLOW.–“Kissed me upon the mouth all palpitating.”
CARY.–“My lips all trembling kissed.” [13]

[Footnote 13:
“La bocca mi bacio tutto tremante.”]

“Purgatorio,” Canto XV., line 139:–

LONGFELLOW.–
“We passed along, athwart the twilight peering
Forward as far as ever eye could stretch
Against the sunbeams serotine and lucent.” [14]

[Footnote 14:
“Noi andavam per lo vespero attenti
Oltre, quanto potean gli occhi allungarsi,
Contra i raggi serotini e lucenti.”]

Mr. Cary’s “bright vespertine ray” is only a trifle better; but Mr. Wright’s “splendour of the evening ray” is, in its simplicity, far preferable.

Canto XXXI., line 131:–

LONGFELLOW.–“Did the other three advance Singing
to their angelic saraband.”

CARY.–“To their own carol on they came Dancing,
in festive ring angelical “

WRIGHT.–“And songs accompanied their angel dance.”

Here Mr. Longfellow has apparently followed the authority of the Crusca, reading

“Cantando al loro angelico carribo,”

and translating carribo by saraband, a kind of Moorish dance. The best manuscripts, however, sanction M. Witte’s reading:–

“Danzando al loro angelico carribo.”

If this be correct, carribo cannot signify “a dance,” but rather “the song which accompanies the dance”; and the true sense of the passage will have been best rendered by Mr. Cary. [15]

[Footnote 15:
See Blanc, Vocabolario Dantesco, s. v. “caribo.”]

Whenever Mr. Longfellow’s translation is kept free from oddities of diction and construction, it is very animated and vigorous. Nothing can be finer than his rendering of “Purgatorio,” Canto VI., lines 97-117:–

“O German Albert! who abandonest
Her that has grown recalcitrant and savage,
And oughtest to bestride her saddle-bow,

May a just judgment from the stars down fall
Upon thy blood, and be it new and open,
That thy successor may have fear thereof:

Because thy father and thyself have suffered,
By greed of those transalpine lands distrained,
The garden of the empire to be waste.