Reading Dante with a Bang

“Any translator of Dante is nowadays in an awkward position. Hundreds of translations have already appeared,” writes Dorothy L. Sayers in defense of her translation of Dante’s The Divine Comedy. She started the work in 1949, and left it unfinished at her death in 1957. Sayers explains the double bind: “If [a translator] supposes that he is going to surpass all his predecessors, he is in danger of appearing a presumptuous ass. If he modestly admits that he cannot surpass them, then he is a presumptuous ass.”