INFERNO CANTO 1 explained
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ธ.ค. 2020
- PLAYLIST LINK to ALL the 100 VIDEOS IS HERE (save it!): • DIVINE COMEDY 100 Cant...
Synopsis and analysis of Canto I, the introductory Canto of Dante’s Divine Comedy with an explanation of the main elements.
English translation used in this video: Robert Pinsky, "The Inferno of Dante: A New Verse Translation", Bilingual Edition. You can find it here: www.amazon.com/dp/0374524521/...
1. The title "Divine Comedy"
2. Canto I : the "proemio" to the entire poem
3. The 4 levels of interpretation as indicated by Dante Alighieri
4. Midway on our life's journey
5. The three beasts
6. Virgil: his role as mentor and guide
If you want to hear a wonderful reading of Canto I in Italian by Vittorio Gassman, one of the greatest Italian actors, you can find it here (reading starts at minute 4:40) • Gassman legge Dante - ...
I'm planning to stick to 15 - 20 minutes for the next videos about each individual canto, but this one is longer because Canto I is such a dense one and an important introduction to the Divine Comedy.
started reading longfellow's translation and made it up to purgatorio when I stopped. Couldn't understand what was happening.
Got Sisson's Translation with notes now, and still plenty of info that wasn't in my copy I discovered from these videos. Really appreciate these videos and the effort to bring Dante back to the common reader, where he belongs!
Thank you Nicholas. You’re right, the Divine Comedy has really been conceived as a work for the people and that’s why we can all fall in love with it. The additional comments in my videos come mainly from books and commentaries I have in Italian that have not been translated, so I hope there’s some value there. I don’t know the Sisson translation but I will look into it.
this was extremely helpful, reading over the canto a second time after watching this video, made it feel like a photo coming into focus.
Thanks. My pleasure.
This was great Tom. I’m glad to start this journey with you and found your discussion really fleshed out what I read.
Thanks Mark. The first canto still presents a lot difficulties for Dante scholars, so I tried to focus on the tip of the iceberg. It's also much more formal and "standard" (for those times) than the rest of the Comedy.
Thank you so much for these videos! I started the divine comedy for the first time yesterday and this is so helpful.
Welcome to the best book ever written : ) That's great that you decided to read it for the first time! I think it deserves to be read slowly, because it's so dense with references and meaning. Really glad that you find my comments useful. I should be able to complete the Inferno series in about 1 month and then start Purgatory.
I just turned on the bell, so I can get a reminder when these videos are put up. It has been about eight years since I have read all three cantiche, so I think it is time to revisit--and this first, in depth, analysis is excellent. I think there is a huge advantage, coming from a place of passion--it shows, and it is not robotic or forced. I will have to read canto two, and catch up!
Thanks, great to re-read it with you. I may be partial but I still have to find a more powerful book. The more you read it (any of the 3 Cantiche) the more you realize he’s actually talking about you.
Cant Thank you enough for your generosity.
🙏🏻🙏🏻 It really comes down to my love for the Comedy and for the message that it carries.
Well done!
Grazie! On this channel - if you are interested - I also have a playlist with canto by canto videos in Italian. I am now at Purgatorio 14, about halfway through.
@@tomlabooks3263 Yes, I am very interested. I am in the process of writing a script for my own channel on the Comedia. Finding your channel was a pleasent surprise. You are in LA correct?
Gonna start The Divine Comedy with you! I'm so happy that I came across your channel on the TH-cam which is the only channel with all the cantos explanation. Great work sir.😄
My pleasure! If you can get past my Italian accent, this will be a wonderful adventure.
I'm so glad I came across this channel just after I read Canto 1. Thanks so much for being my guide through this epic journey!
Hello Imran, sorry about my delayed reply. Thank you for your comment, and the pleasure is all mine! I hope you’ll be reading the whole Commedia?
SO GOOD
The journey has begun! Thank you for your commentary. The comments and your responses are intriguing and thought provoking.
Hi Carol, great to see you here after our chats via Voxer! Yes, the comment section of these videos has really become a treasure of insights and different points of view that will enrich your reading of Dante so much. Is this your first reading of the Divine Comedy?
@@tomlabooks3263 Yes, this is my first reading of the Divine Comedy. I had heard of it, seen it on bookshelves in stores, but I had no idea of what it was about. I think I saw the words inferno and purgatory and passed it by. Not willing to investigate further, at the time.
starting thank you
Welcome 🙏🏻
Thank you so much for this! I have just started reading Inferno and am finding this series incredibly helpful 💛
I’m so pleased to hear that! Do use the comments section for any questions you might have about the next cantos. You’re going to love this journey : )
Thank you, I absolutely will!
Hi Tom! I'm so happy to have found your channel and the great work you're doing. I've read the Divine Comedy thrice (translations by Mandelbaum, Kirkpatrick and Longfellow) but having neither been exposed to Dante and the Classics in general, nor lived in Italy, I think I'm always on the periphery of truly understanding Dante. Visiting Florence made me hyperaware of that. You're my best guide on my fourth read. Love from Singapore!
Wow thank you so much Cassie! I’m thrilled to receive your message especially because you’re in Singapore and - while I know that the Divine Comedy is known and read around the world - I don’t know how much interest there is in Singapore for this masterwork. I hope that my videos will give you some details here and there that might be useful to you even if you are at your 4th read! : - ) Btw, I have some great friends and colleagues in Singapore, and one day I’d love to visit.
I really enjoyed the discussion, as someone new, reading Inferno is more complicated than I thought, but because of your explanation, I began enjoying it. I will continue to watch your videos, as I progress in reading the rest of the canto in Inferno and hopefully Purgatorio and Paradiso.
Thank you for watching!
Hello Tom, I'm a new subscriber and I just read Canto 1 for the first time. I have the Robin Kirkpatrick translation. The Divine Comedy has been on my TBR for a long time, one of my literature teachers in the Finnish equivalent of high school talked about the work for a bit one time, and he was so passionate about it and his description of the work really made me intrigued about it, that high school class was 6-years ago, so I'm very excited to finally get into it. This is the first Italian work of literature that I'll be reading, but as a cinephile, I'm a big fan of Italian cinema, but now it's great to extend my interest of Italian culture to literature. This video was very helpful for me, and I'm definitely going to watch all your other videos about the Divine Comedy as I go through the Cantos myself. Keep up the excellent work!
That’s fantastic. I also love Italian cinema (of course!) and you will find as you read the Comedy that Dante’s imagination is mainly visual, so I think you should enjoy it. I think Kirkpatrik’s translation is a good one, maybe a little less literal in parts but more lyrical than others. Thank you and welcome onboard! 👍🏻🙏🏻
Thank you for this series - I am starting the journey!
I recently finished watching The Great Courses series of lectures on the Divine Comedy (Professors Cook and Herzman) and they end with telling me I am now ready to read for myself. I hope to watch your remaining 99 videos as well. Thank you for this wonderful labor of love!
You’re most welcome! I’m jealous that you get to read it for the first time. No one comes out the same as they were when they started. Under my playlists, you can also find some cantos that I commented in Italian, with English subtitles, just in case you’re interested. Note: my videos in Italian are more focused on the catholic aspects of the Comedy, my videos in English more on the poem in general.
Thanks Tom, I could interpret 3 of the 4 'layers' of the story pretty well by myself. But you definitely went way beyond what I got from it, there's much more depth and inexhaustible richness in the story than I expected. Also I'm not too familiar with Italian politics at that time so your explanation and analysis of this is perfect.
Thanks!
Just started 100 Days of Dante and absolutely LOVED this! I recall reading it in undergrad and not appreciating it. Now, it is coming alive. My favorite parts were the commentary on the translations and the discussion on the 3 animals. This video absolutely made my night - thank you so very much - can't wait to see the next one.
Thank you Sara I’m sooo glad to hear this! The pleasure is absolutely all mine. I know about this fantastic initiative (100 days of Dante) and please feel free to share my channel with anyone else who is participating in that reading. If it can help appreciate the Divine Comedy even a little more, my job here is done : )
As you can see from my playlist, I am at Purgatorio 21 at this point, going at a pace of a couple of cantos per week.
Tom, my copy of TDC just arrived after a three month wait. I'm excited to follow along with these videos and hope to catch up. This first video was chock-full of great information and insight. I know so little about TDC and I'm thrilled to have you as a guide.
That’s wonderful ! (not that it took 3 months of course). You’re very much in time to get on board because we are proceeding slowly with a couple of cantos per week. Great to have your company, too. I look forward to reading your thoughts and comments - and feel free to ask me any questions. Even if I’m not a scholar, I feel like one 😄😄
@@tomlabooks3263 Ok, thanks! You feel like a scholar and I feel like you're a scholar, so I'm thinking this makes you a scholar. Is that how it works? 😁
@@TheQuietMidden Haha, I guess so, but don’t tell real scholars... 😄
This is fantastic, Tom! I’ve been busy, so I am just starting Inferno, but I appreciate the insight you bring. I had never understood the significance of the leopard but did manage to draw the she-Wolf:Rome connection. Looking forward to catching up to you on this. Great work!
Best, Jack
Thank you Jack! I am aware that there is still a good chunk of this book that I don’t fully get (and, to be honest, many scholars are in that same boat), but I still haven’t found anything as life-affirming and powerful in literature. This is why I love it so much. I look forward to sharing thoughts with you about your re-re-read : )
Also, I've just created a new original tag and tagged you too ... : ) I hope you'll find the time to do it over the next weeks / months.
This is amazing! I am working through the Canto books for a part of my university course and your explanations have made my short 1 week of study on these books so much more understandable!
Thank you!
That’s so cool. In my playlists, I’m also doing each canto explanation in Italian. Good luck with your studies.
@@tomlabooks3263 Thank you, yes. I have watched the first one that you’ve done in Italian. Unfortunately, I do not know Italian very well so I watch with the English subtitles.
Beautiful work in both languages ❤️
@@Victoria31. 🙏🏻🙏🏻
Just found your videos! I’m also reading Inferno right now, just finished canto XV.
Great to connect with you, and welcome to this series! Your timing is perfect, as I just completed the video on Paradiso 33 only a few days ago ! Hope you’ll find these useful.
Thank you. I am enjoyed the first video. I am watched the Word on Fire Institute version as well. I appreciated the historical significance of the 3 beasts. Take care! See you next video.
Welcome to the Commedia. I’m very glad you’re finding these videos useful.
I had every intention of starting this back in the late summer/early fall, but life got in the way and it just didn’t happen. I have just now started and as of right now, I am only on Canto 2, but I had to tell you how much this video has helped bring some clarity to this 62 year old first-time reader. Thank you so much, I look forward to going on this journey with your help. 🤓
Hi Lu, thanks for letting me know! This is so exciting. What I wouldn’t give to wipe the Comedy off my memory and read it fir the first time again!! I really hope these videos help your journey, despite my slow talking pace and my accent 😄😄
@@tomlabooks3263 😂 Well, I love the accent and I appreciate your “slow” pace! 😬
Well done. I certain learned more by watching this than I would have gotten by reading it alone. For example, I wouldn't have known that the she-wolf represented Rome. I'm looking forward to the rest of the videos.
Thank you! That was a myth about the legendary founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, twin brothers who had been raised by a she-wolf. Sculptures of the she-wolf are found in Rome still today. The next videos will be shorter, this one had to be a bit longer because there is a lot of “framing” to do : )
Tom, this is so good! I read Canto 1 online before I watched the video. I love how you explain things and also you have an advantage because you can read it in the original language. When I read she-wolf, I thought of Romulus and Remus immediately haha, I am glad that I was right in my interpretation. It is funny that you mentioned panther, lion and wolf, because the version I found online talks about panther instead of leopard. But as you said, in Italian it could be any big cat I suppose. I am looking forward to watching all of these videos. I'm glad that you are making them.
Thank you so much Ana! I try to focus on the language because it’s what I can bring to the discussion, and because the depth of Dante’s language is literally endless …. he created Italian language all by himself, after all. Really excited that you are reading Inferno. Also check the other comments under each video as well, because some conversations are more interesting than the videos themselves ; )
@@tomlabooks3263 Awesome! I’ll check them out, thanks for the tip :)
Hey, wanted to let you know that I’m currently reading Dante’s “The Divine Comedy.” I will start watching your videos on the cantos once I get through the Inferno lol.
Btw, I’m reading the Allen Mandelbaum translation via the Everyman’s library! So far, his translation is pure music!
This is great news - and thank you for letting me know! Having known Mandelbaum’s translation when I started this project, I might have used his book instead. Pinsky’s is very good, too. Enjoy the terrible and life-changing journey!! : )
Great start, Tom! I very much like the very clear disposition and the comprehensive approach. The beasts are quite interesting and I am looking forward to exploring the dual moral/political messaging in the subsequent cantos (I kind of assume that he is going to continue in the same style).
Thanks Dario. In a sense, he does continue in this vein, but Canto I is much more formal and allegorical than most, being the introductory one. So the following cantos, starting with Canto II, are actually more modern and dynamic. I think of Canto I as a typical medieval painting with illustrations that are purposefully unrealistic / out of proportion because they stand for something else, while the rest of the Divine Comedy is much more naturalistic - and once you break through the language, most of it reads as if it had been published yesterday.
Great, looking forward to it!
We were tasked to read Canto 3 only for our English subject but I wanted to fully understand it from the very beginning at least since jumping straight into Canto 3 will be even more difficult to comprehend. Thank you so much! I had fun listening and I finally understood, at least most of it. This Divine Comedy genuinely piqued my interest. I think I'll enjoy as I proceed with my journey with the other Canto! I'll be going to Canto 2 now.
Thanks for your comment. Note that I have another playlist on this channel where I’ve done the same, but in Italian, with English subtitles.
I'll be sure to check it out!
I'm loving this, you're Dante's Frank Delaney!
(Re: Joyce podcasts for Ulysses)
Thank you Sun Shine - I know about his great podcast, this is a very nice compliment! 🙏🏻
Perfect!! I love your accent too haha
I thought I’d make it sound more Dantean for you : ) Thanks for watching. Recording Canto 3 of Paradiso today. Boy, this poem is long!
"then he set out, and I followed where he led": You have generously set out - and with your enthusiasm and insight, am on my way. Grazie mille! And already feel the timelessness of it, and relevance to our current state. And Rose's @UCE-lxdtxTUTWEs0xJn-dH0g comments made me think: 1) about the 2 lines - and your response; it made me wonder, is that why Italians are so good at ambiguity - growing up with these 2 lines"! And 2) the point about psychology and landscape: I would imagine that unfortunately it would have contributed to the demonisation of forests. And us not looking after them...
Haha you’re so right “the demonisation of forests”! 😂😂 You are SO going to fall in love with the Comedy. Let’s gooo!!
Right now I am just stunned by how he starts this. We are as lost as the protagonist as he throws us into the situation without preamble.
I think this is an excellent point Rose - and I didn’t even think about it because in Italy you grow up hearing those first lines left and right almost giving them for granted.
I’ve always thought that for Dante the starting point was one moment when he was particularly desperate and said a Hail Mary after a long time of not caring much about his faith. That’s because (as we’ll see in Canto 2) it’s actually Mary the one who sets the entire plot of the Divine Comedy in motion. And the poem can be seen as a long and gradual movement towards that diamond that is the prayer to Mary in canto 33, the culmination of Paradiso.
@@tomlabooks3263 thank you for the very detailed unpicking of this canto. Your passion shines through but your knowledge is invaluable. So many things I could pick up on but one that interests me is the way the woods or forest symbolise danger and savagery in European culture in a very persistent way, whereas climbing up a hill is associated with progress and virtue.
Looking forward to canto two.
@@scallydandlingaboutthebook2711 Ahh thanks so much for watching the video, so glad you found it interesting. You’re right , I also find the relationship between geography and psychology fascinating.
Thank you so much! I’ve been reading the book ‘a passionate Intellect: Dorothy L Sayers’ encounter with Dante’ by Barbara Reynolds, so this is very timely. The edition I have is a Harvard classic , the translator is Henry F Cary. I don’t know much about this translation. I bought it 34 years ago😊. He has the first beast as a panther representing pleasure or luxury.
Hi Karen, thanks for the reference. I’m actually going to check out the Barbara Reynolds book right away.
@@tomlabooks3263 I’m trying to decide if I’ll also purchase her translation as well. Do you have any thoughts about it?
It’s the penguin version.
@@kb946 I only know that many readers thought she did a really good job, but unfortunately I don’t own her translation. I would check various reviews online. According to some, the best English translation is by Mandelbaum. That’s one that I should receive soon.
@@tomlabooks3263 thank you!
Tom, would you consider doing a video breaking down the Italian in the opening lines of Canto 1? I am trying to memorize as much as I can of the first canto in the original Italian. I studied Italian in college, so I have a baseline knowledge of vocabulary and pronunciation, but some of the more poetic or archaic language is hard for me to make sense of and put to memory. Any advice?
Hi Jayce - of course! That would be a great idea for a video. Your plan sounds ambitious but doable. You’re right, Dante’s Italian is tough, even for modern Italians. I’ll give this a thought and put it in my plans for future videos. Thank you 🙏🏻
I declare u my guide and a god just like Virgil who will help me pass the hell to heaven journey in this Dante's divine comedy
Cuz I can't fk*ing understand the so complicated words of translation and my divine friend Dante himself
Thank you for this video and please continue
I promise to watch every part of it from tomorrow
Haha this is one of the best comments I've ever received, and funniest as well : ) Thank you, not too sure about my own divinity, but I'm so glad you're enjoying the Comedy.
@@tomlabooks3263 just take this as my exaggerated childish act but it's true
I choose u instead of taking some online crash course cuz they care more about the theories and conclusions of the cantos with their complex high class words
Yes it's good with that and i guess bless them for that but as a person like me who doesn't know anything about Christianity and is attracted towards Dante Alighieri books
I like your way on reciting and summarise the cantos and use the basic great language which by far a better person to person teaching for myself
Thank you for your time and effort on making these videos
Im currently in canto 4 and may disturb you with my future reviews , opinion and comments on your videos in future but I will always try to be humble and sincere
Thank you once again
Line 65: Virgil says “miserere di me” have pity (mercy) on me. Is miserere a verb used commonly in today’s Italian ?
It is not, it’s pure latin. Today we say “Abbi pietà di me”. Most Italians will know what miserere means, but it’s not in use anymore.
@@tomlabooks3263 I thought Dante wanted to write in “medieval Florentine” not Latin so that his work could be read by more people. Is this line where he speaks for the first time ) just one of a few exceptions in the entire text where he uses a Latin word?
@@judithhorwitz8671 You’re correct. In his times, everyone knew the meaning of “miserere”, also because it was often used in the liturgy. The language in Inferno was understandable to everyone. As we proceed into Purgatorio, and especially Paradiso, the language has a crescendo in terms of “elevation”, for example in Paradiso it will be enriched with latin and latinisms.
@@tomlabooks3263 grazie mille, molto interessante, buona Pasqua
El Dante! (Il Dante?)
Yes , “el” would be the vernacular for “il”.
@@tomlabooks3263 Thanks