Dante Alighieri · Italian · verse
The hardest of the three and the one translators disagree about most, because its difficulty is not vocabulary but light. Dante keeps saying that what he saw cannot be said, and then says it anyway, so the translator has to decide how much strangeness to keep. The final canto is the test: every English version of the last line reads differently, and the differences are the whole argument.
Compared here in full: Longfellow (1867) and Cary (1814), both public domain. They diverge more here than anywhere else in the Comedy, and the Piccarda passage is the clearest example on this site of why the choice matters: where Longfellow writes “his will is our peace”, Cary writes “his will is our tranquillity”. Same line, different theology. The modern verse translations are listed below but are NOT yet excerpted on this page.
Keeps Dante’s order and plainness where Cary elevates. Free and complete.
Sonorous blank verse; grander, and further from the literal. Free and complete.
Pick a passage and set two or three translations against each other. An answer can tell you which is “more faithful”; only this lets you hear them.
The glory of Him who moveth everything Doth penetrate the universe, and shine In one part more and in another less. Within that heaven which most his light receives Was I, and things beheld which to repeat Nor knows, nor can, who from above descends; Because in drawing near to its desire Our intellect ingulphs itself so far, That after it the memory cannot go.
His glory, by whose might all things are mov’d, Pierces the universe, and in one part Sheds more resplendence, elsewhere less. In heav’n, That largeliest of his light partakes, was I, Witness of things, which to relate again Surpasseth power of him who comes from thence; For that, so near approaching its desire Our intellect is to such depth absorb’d, That memory cannot follow. Nathless all,
| Translation | Year | Voice | Approach | Notes | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Verse · public domain | 1867 | Period | Faithful | Clean | Buy → |
Henry Francis Cary Verse · public domain | 1814 | Period | Balanced | Clean | Buy → |
John Ciardi Verse | 1970 | Mixed | Balanced | Some notes | Buy → |
Robert and Jean Hollander Verse | 2007 | Mixed | Balanced | Some notes | Buy → |
Mark Musa Verse | 1984 | Mixed | Balanced | Some notes | Buy → |
The same method as his Purgatorio, and it pays off hardest here. Where the Italian is abstract Longfellow stays abstract rather than smoothing it into something easier, so the difficulty you feel is Dante’s difficulty. His Piccarda line, “his will is our peace”, is the plainest rendering of that famous half-line in English. Free and complete.
Cary is at his most Miltonic in the Paradiso, and at his furthest from Dante. The gain is music; the cost is visible in a single word. For the line Longfellow gives as “his will is our peace”, Cary writes “his will is our tranquillity”, which is calmer, longer, and says something quietly different about what the blessed have. Free and complete.
⚠ Listed for completeness, NOT yet compared on this page. This site only characterises a translation once its passages have been read side by side against the others, and that sourcing has not been done for this version. No judgement here is implied either way.
⚠ Listed for completeness, NOT yet compared on this page. This site only characterises a translation once its passages have been read side by side against the others, and that sourcing has not been done for this version. No judgement here is implied either way.
⚠ Listed for completeness, NOT yet compared on this page. This site only characterises a translation once its passages have been read side by side against the others, and that sourcing has not been done for this version. No judgement here is implied either way.
Publishers and retailers are careless about naming the translator. Here is which edition carries which version.
There is no single best, only the best for you. See the verdict at the top for our picks by priority (closest to the original, most readable, best value), then use the side-by-side passages and the quiz to choose.
We compare 5 notable English translations here, from the public-domain classics to the current in-print versions, with the same passages set side by side.
Look at the “Voice” and “Approach” columns in the table: the most modern, most fluid version is usually the easiest first read. The quiz will point you to it based on your taste.
Public-domain excerpts are reproduced verbatim from a cited source and checked against it. In-copyright translations are quoted only as short excerpts beside a link to that edition. We name the translator and edition for every excerpt.