Tipografia Giuntina, diretta da L. Franceschini Firenze, Via del Sole, 4. G. L. Passerini, direttore Leo S. Olschki, editore-proprietario-responsabile.

Saggi di una nuova traduzione in lingua inglese

della " Divina Commedia "*

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THE DEATH OF UGOLINO

Inferno, XXXII, 124-139.

From him we had departed now, when two
I saw, so frozen in a single hole,

that one head was the other's cap. And as
because of hunger bread is eaten, so

his teeth the upper on the other set,
there where the brain is joined unto the nape.
Not otherwise did Tydeus gnaw the temples
of Menalippus in his wrath, than this

one did the skull and other parts. < O thou

* Son ben grato al sig. Courtney Langdon, professore nella Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island) di avermi concesso questi saggi della traduzione della Divina Commedia alla quale egli sta ora dedicando le sue amorevoli cure di studioso e di artista. A Firenze, dove questo caldo amico di Dante e dell' Italia ha trascorso la fanciullezza, egli è venuto a dar ora l'ultima mano al nobile lavoro, sperando sono parole sue

<< hoping that her manifold inspirations may enable my work to become as much as possible a Florentine production ». Per questa traduzione il Langdon há, con buon consiglio, scelto il verso sciolto, perché, come egli giustamente osserva « as being the only means of successfully approaching perfect loyalty to Dante's thought, and of reproducing at the same time the equally important poetic qualities of his language, since the Divine Comedy cannot be accurately rendered in rhyme, or sympathetically in prose, or in any translation in which there is a predominant use of English words of Latin derivation ». Il tentativo può sembrare forse audace; ma il Langdon, buon fabro di versi nella sua lingua, esperto del parlar nostro, ornato di molte lettere, conoscitore di Dante e della sua arte ammiratore intelligente e devoto, può sperar non invano di uscir vittorioso dalla forte prova. È di ciò se non erro è in questi saggi ben più che una promessa.

Giornale dantesco, anno XIX, quad. VI.

G. L. PASSERINI.

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IO

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<< Thou wilt that I renew a hopeless grief, the very thought of which burdens my heart, before I speak of it. But if my words

shall seed-like bear the fruit of infamy

upon the traitor, whom I gnaw, thou 'It see

me weeping while I speak. I know not who
thou art, nor by what means thou'rt come down here,
but when I hear thee, thou dost surely seem

to me a Florentine. Know, then, that I

Count Ugolino was, and this one here
Ruggieri, the Archbishop: now I'll tell
thee why I am a neighbor to him thus.
That, as the outcome of his evil thoughts,
I, trusting him, was seized, and afterward
was put to death, there is no need to say.

But that which thou canst not have heard, that is,
how cruel was my death, thou'lt hear, and know
if he have done me wrong. A narrow slit
within the moulting-tower which bears, because
of me, the name of Hunger, and wherein.

it still behoves that others be locked up,

had through its opening shown me many a moon already, when I had the evil dream,

which rent my future's veil apart. To me

this man appeared to be a lord and huntsman,

chasing the wolf and wolfllings toward the mount,

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Gualandi with Sismondi and Lanfranchi

before him he had stationed in the van.

After a little run father and sons

seemed weary to me, and methought I saw
their flanks torn open by sharp pointed fangs.
When I awoke before the morn, I heard
my sons, who with me were, weep in their sleep,
and ask for bread. Cruel indeed thou art,
dost thou not grieve already, thinking what
my heart forebode; and if thou weepest not,
at what art wont to weep? They were awake
now, and the hour was drawing nigh, when food
used to be brought to us, and each of us
by reason of his dream was anxious: then
I heard the horrid tower's lower door

nailed up whereat without a word I looked
my children in the face. I did not weep,
so stone-like had I turned within they wept;