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Before I start talking about the book proper, I have a confession to make: I wasn't sure I really wanted to read philosophical poetry written seven centuries ago. I had doubts about style, quality of translation and my own lack of literary background in decyphering the numerous Christian and mythological references, not to mention political and cultural trivia from Dante's Florence. Thanks to my Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ friends, I took the plunge and I can report back that it was well worth the effort. Even better, it wasn't an effort, but a joyride, thanks primarily to my lucky pick of the Ciardi translation for my first foray into the phantastical world of Dante. So my answer to the questions: can we still read Dante for pleasure and not for academic study is a resounding yes. Another big Yes is the answer to the relevance of the Commedia for the modern reader. The fundamental soul searching questions about the relationship between spiritual and material life, morality and political power, religious and secular governance, reason and faith remain unchanged over centuries and must still be answered by each of us after our own fashion. Dante is as great a choice as the lightbearer showing the way to redemption, as Virgil was to the poet on his descent into Hell.

Nell mezzo del camin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
che la diritta via era smarrita."

Right from the start it is evident that the poet's major talent is to say so much with such economy of words and with such elegance. Page after page of commentary has been written about these famous opening lines. The key to deciphering the poem is here: an allegorical journey of self discovery and liberation from doubts, uncertainty and fear. Dante is the hero of his own epic poem, and he starts with a confession of how he almost lost his faith in his search for the ultimate truth through the books of ancient philosophers and the myths and legends that have been passed on from antiquity. But Human Reason on its own is not enough, and salvation for Dante can come only by way of Divine intercession. Somebody up there loves him (Beatrice, the love of his life, symbol of purity and innocence, taken away to Heaven in her early youth). She sends a guide to help Dante on his perilous journey: the Roman poet Virgil, the mentor and personal hero of our narrator. Together they must pass through the underground halls of the damned, there to witness the justice administered by a stern God upon sinners of every variety. Only after renouncing and condemning sin, can the upward journey begin.

Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate

Another famous quote that has entered into the world's cultural heritage marks the gate to the depths of eternal torment and despair. I have no intention of enumerating every level of the arhitecture of Hell and every lost soul that Dante and Virgil encounters. What impressed me most though was the rigid organization and the careful planning of each punishment, designed to reflect the gravity of the crime and to correctly assign the torment most appropriate for each category of sinner. For example, thieves must steal from one another the very shapes in which they appear. Nothing is left to chance, and accurate maps can and have been drawn of the allegorical geography of Hell, its nine concentric and descending level, its dark rivers and fiery pits. Instead of chaos and anarchy I discovered an inflexible and merciless order, with Minos as the judge who weights each soul's guilt and then sends them to their correct circle and niche, like with like, crime and punishment linked together for eternity.

There is no place for pity here. Who is more arrogant
within his soul, who is more impious
than one who dares to sorrow at God's judgment.

The escalation of dread and horror is well served by the poet's imagination, who starts the journey with sights and dialogues still anchored and related to the world above, but grows more grim and grotesque as the deeper levels are reached. Monsters and tortures grow more elaborate, more frightening, more inventive with each circle, until the senses are overwhelmed and humbled. The main lesson in Hell is to be aware of the wages of sin:

O endless wrath of God: how utterly
thou shouldst become a terror to all men
who read the frightful truths revealed to me!

And an example of a gargoyle riding a centaur, an image worthy of the brush of Brueghel:

Upon his shoulders, just behind his head
a snorting dragon whose hot breath set fire
to all it touched, lay with its wings outspred.

Coming back to the sinners Dante meets in his downward journey, it should be noticed that he is not above paying back some personal political woes, by placing his contemporaries and adversaries inside particularly gruesome torture chambers. These human foibles, coupled with the apparent vanity and pride of the poet conscious of his worth as an equal of the ancient masters, are a source of humour and gentle irony at his own fallible nature, a more enchanting and entertaining portrait than his pious and hollier than thou alter ego. As a literary device, Dante uses prophecy to warn about the risks of the future of his beloved Florence, from which he was exiled by conspiracies within his own party, aided and abetted by the papal legate:

Two are honest, but none will head them. There,
pride, avarice, and envy are the tongues
men know and heed, a Babel of despair.

I should also mention the major political aspect of the poem, on one hand denouncing the corrupt and venal warring families of Tuscany, and on the other launching impassioned attacks on the degradation of the church in its power games and search for material governance. These ideas will be later developed into a pamphlet (De Monarchia) that was quickly put on the list of forbidden books by the papacy. Dante argues in favor of a secular government coupled with a church that renounces wealth and power and takes care only of the spiritual needs of its flock. He is well ahead of his time in this humanist plea for separation of powers and in his references to the ancient philosophers.

Another major appeal of the journey for me was the recognition of many of the mythological characters residing in Hell. The most often referenced sources are Ovid with his metamorphoses and Virgil with his Aeneid, but the erudition and the variety of Dante's interests (history, cosmology, art, etc) are reason enough to name him among the greatest personalities of a nascent Renaissance movement.

Much has also been said and praised about his liberation of the Italian language from the restrictions and limitations of Church latin, putting his vision into the live and colourful 'vulgata' dialect of the people. John Ciardi has this to say about the style of the poem, and he should know best, as a poet himself and a native speaker of Italian :

I do not imply that Dante's is the language of common speech. It is a much better thing than that: it is what common speech would be if it were made perfect.

Like Cervantes and Shakespeare centuries later, Dante stands as a national idol that defines a culture and makes it universal. I did try to read some of his verses in the original Italian and I was struck by the musicality and the rhythm that is so difficult to translate in another language. Ciardi did an excellent job in keeping the faith with this singsong quality of the poem, even if he is said to have taken liberties with the actual content. Not being a scholar or a purist, I was well satisfied with the result, especially as he kept the introductions and the end of canto notes to a minimum, allowing me to get immersed in the story instead of chasing endless commentaries and interpretations.

The Ciardi translation is also the reason I am reviewing separately the three books that comprise the Commedia (The Divine was apparently an appelation added by later commentators) , as I have them published individually. I should warn though that The Inferno is not a standalone book. In the big concept of Dante's allegory, it is only the first step towards salvation, and the next two books are just as important in the final judgement. I had several more notes and quotes saved, but I'll stop for now, hoping I've managed to convince some of my friends to put Dante on their reading lists. In the words of Arnie:

"I'll be back!" (After Purgatory)