The opening lines of Dante’s Inferno have been, with the rest of his poem, both translated and reimagined by poets and artists for centuries: “Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita / mi ritrovai per una selva oscura / ché la diritta via era smarrita.” When it comes to writing in English, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s stately, nineteenth-century version —“Midway upon the journey of our life / I found myself within a forest dark, / For the straightforward pathway had been lost”— held sway until the twentieth century brought efforts by the likes of Dorothy Sayers, Charles Singleton, John Ciardi, Allen Mandelbaum, and Robert Pinsky, among many others. The past two decades have seen fresh translations by Robert and Jean Hollander, Robin Kirkpatrick, and Clive James. And, as I discovered on a recent Sunday morning, the narrative poem that ventures into the afterlife is also being adapted by artificial intelligence these days. Whatever program lurks in my Safari browser...
Randy Boyagoda is a professor of English literature at the University of Toronto. His novels include Original Prin, Dante’s Indiana, and, most recently, Lords of Serendipity.
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