Dante Alighieri

Dante Aligeri - velikij italjanskij poet, myslitel, avtor znamenitoj "Komedii" (pozdnee nazvannoj "Bozhestvennoj"). V gody politicheskogo izgnanija, na "polovine zhiznennogo puti", Dante sozdal bessmertnuju "Bozhestvennuju komediju", velichajshij pamjatnik poeticheskoj kultury i nastojaschuju entsiklopediju srednevekovogo mirovozzrenija. Avtor poemy predstavlen v nej kak chelovek, udostoivshijsja Bozhej milosti sovershit puteshestvie k Gospodu cherez tri tsarstva zagrobnogo mira - puteshestvie ot mrachnogo neblagopoluchija grekhovnosti i somnenij k schastju istiny i svetlogo ideala.

" Halfway tree. The journey of our life found me / there at midnight in a ramshackle state." So begins Lorna Goodison's astonishing new translation of The Inferno by Dante, a poet she once described as " uncompromising as an old testament prophet, stern as a Rastafarian elder." For the last two decades, Goodison has translated and reimagined Dante's cantos, setting the original poem into her native Jamaica and employing Jamaican expressions and sayings. In doing so, she has attempted to do for Caribbean vernacular what Dante did for his Italian language in the fourteenth century-- endow it with an entirely new vocal music and power. In recreating the journey through the " unpaved and rocky road" of Dante's Hell for a contemporary audience, Goodison has given us a dazzling and profound new narrative of spiritual yearning for our era.