Dante Alighieri · Italian · verse
The middle canticle, and the one people who only read the Inferno never reach. It is the only part of the Comedy set on our own earth, under a real sky, and its subject is not punishment but repair: souls who want to change, climbing. The translation question is the same one the Inferno poses, and the same translators mostly answer it, so if you have already chosen a voice for Hell the honest question is whether it holds up for the mountain.
Compared here in full: Longfellow (1867), close to the Italian line by line and still the most faithful free version in English, and Cary (1814), the blank verse that made Dante an English poet and reads more like Milton than like Dante. Both public domain. The modern verse translations are listed below but are NOT yet excerpted on this page.
Line for line with the original, plain and unshowy. Free and complete.
Grand blank verse; the version Keats carried. 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.
To run o’er better waters hoists its sail The little vessel of my genius now, That leaves behind itself a sea so cruel; And of that second kingdom will I sing Wherein the human spirit doth purge itself, And to ascend to heaven becometh worthy. But let dead Poesy here rise again, O holy Muses, since that I am yours, And here Calliope somewhat ascend,
O’er better waves to speed her rapid course The light bark of my genius lifts the sail, Well pleas’d to leave so cruel sea behind; And of that second region will I sing, In which the human spirit from sinful blot Is purg’d, and for ascent to Heaven prepares. Here, O ye hallow’d Nine! for in your train I follow, here the deadened strain revive; Nor let Calliope refuse to sound
| 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 | 1961 | Mixed | Balanced | Some notes | Buy → |
Robert and Jean Hollander Verse | 2003 | Mixed | Balanced | Some notes | Buy → |
Mark Musa Verse | 1981 | Mixed | Balanced | Some notes | Buy → |
Longfellow follows the Italian almost line for line and declines to rhyme, which is why it still reads as the most faithful free version in English. The diction is of its century and the word order sometimes bends to keep the line, but very little is added and very little is lost. If you want to know what Dante wrote rather than what an English poet made of it, start here. Free and complete.
The version that made Dante an English author. Cary writes Miltonic blank verse, so the mountain arrives sounding like Paradise Lost: inverted, elevated, and much further from the Italian than Longfellow. Coleridge championed it and Keats carried it on foot through Scotland. Read it for the grandeur and the history, not for closeness. 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.