Go to Hell
By Fr Dwight Longenecker
Did the title catch your eye? Good. I’m not recommending that you go to hell forever, just that you pay a visit during Lent. It’s been my personal Lenten tradition for many years to re-read Dante’s Divine Comedy. I have a tattered copy of the Penguin edition of Dorothy Sayers’ translation, and starting on Ash Wednesday I start the long journey which begins in the midst of a dark wood, meanders down the circles of hell and ends in the celestial heights.
Easter usually arrives before I make it all the way to the final circle of heaven, but it doesn’t matter. The journey is always worth it. The reader gets poetry, history, culture, theology, humor and spiritual depth all in one package. A read through Dante gives you all this, and a good look at the depths of your own heart. Reading The Divine Comedy can become a Lenten discipline because, as in all good heroic tales, you travel with the hero. As Dante descends into the pit of hell and climbs mount Purgatory, you go with him on the purgative path, and as he finally ascends into heaven and is guided to the love the moves the sun and the other stars you ascend with him and share in the glory.
Born in 1265, Dante wrote his theological travel trilogy at the turn of the fourteenth century. Writing in common Italian, rather the classical Latin, the poem is populated with characters from Dante’s tumultuous political and religious landscape. Written in three line stanzas with an interlocking rhyme scheme called terza rima, the Divine Comedy is tricky to translate into English. For the first time reader, the poetry is difficult, the characters are unfamiliar, and the philosophical, cosmological and theological understandings of the Middle Ages need explication. Wading through it all can be a bit of a penance in itself, but a good translation with ample explanatory notes can unlock it for you.
Dorothy Sayers’ translation, although over fifty years old, is still fast-paced and easy to read. She is probably the only translator who attempts to translate the terza rima rhyme scheme successfully. In my opinion, Sayers’ notes are the best. Classical English translations are by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and H.F.Carey. Their translations are online complete with illustrations by Dore at HYPERLINK "http://www.divinecomedy.org/divine_comedy.html" http://www.divinecomedy.org/divine_comedy.html. James Finn Carter’s translation is also available online at HYPERLINK "http://www.italianstudies.org/comedy/index.htm" http://www.italianstudies.org/comedy/index.htm Allen Mandelbaum’s translation avoids the pitfalls of trying to replicate the terza rima opting for dignified blank verse, while John Ciardi’s translation is solid and pure, and is accompanied by excellent explanatory notes.
However, in this digital age there are some other options—which are especially engaging for younger or new readers. There is a cool interactive, online tour of Dante’s hell at HYPERLINK "http://web.eku.edu/flash/inferno/" http://web.eku.edu/flash/inferno/ and the University of Texas has an excellent website which allows you to learn your way around hell at HYPERLINK "http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/utopia/index2.html" http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/utopia/index2.html A less professional, but fun website that helps you interact with Dante’s whole work is found at HYPERLINK "http://www.angelfire.com/ak/Nyquil/Dante.html" http://www.angelfire.com/ak/Nyquil/Dante.html
Finally, Paul Thigpen’s book My Visit to Hell is a fantastic version of The Inferno written as a modern novel. The hero enters hell through a storm sewer in the slums of modern day Atlanta. Dante’s infernal architecture is kept as a form for the story, and all the important characters are present in an up to date form. Thigpen’s book is imaginative and well executed. He keeps the depth and emotion of the work, while keeping you turning the pages.
As an example of Thigpen’s updating: when we enter the circle of the Hoarders and Wasters we see the damned are mocked by demons wearing hideous cheap Santa Claus costumes. In a brilliantly satirical stroke Thigpen shows the Seducers and Panderers to be populated with souls from the Hollywood entertainment industry, while souls from the advertising industry have the circle of Flatterers reserved for them. In this circle they wallow in excrement while the demons mock them with their own advertising jingles, “Have it your way!” laughs a demon as he hurls a turd at the damned. “Good to the last drop, Melts in your mouth not in your hand. Breakfast of champions!”
Spiritual reading during Lent doesn’t have to be a worthy, but dull book on prayer. Once you get into it, Dante’s Divine Comedy captivates you and takes you on a thrilling journey of self examination, penitence and hope. Why not make a change this Lent? Give it a try. Go on. Go to Hell.
Fr Dwight Longenecker is the chaplain of St Joseph’s Catholic School in Greenville, South Carolina.
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