The Divine Comedy

I researched, and researched a little more until I could perfectly convince myself to buy this translation. Mark Musa has done a good job. From the all the information I gathered, this one is the perfect start, easy to understand, smooth writing with additional notes. Only, the packaging was not up to the mark.

Humbling in many ways, to read a book such as this.

If this is your first introduction to the Divine Comedy then this is the translation you should get. Very readable with an excellent introduction and notes explaining everything you need to know to enjoy this great poem.

Was in good Condition, Had all the pages.

After giving up on this volume of The Divine Comeday several times in my younger years, I decided to give the work another try. I thought maybe maturity would make it manageable this time. That did help, but the real key to my finishing and benefiting from my experience with Paradise this timewas the inspired translation by Mark Musa. Mr. Musa obviously thought it more important for readers to understand what Dante meant, rather than just providing a word-for-word rendition of the original text, which was after all written in medieval Italian. He also provides plentiful notes and longer explanatory passages. I would recommend this edition to all who are interested in unpacking this monument of medieval literature to stimulate their own thinking about human destiny even in this modern age.

Musa's translation of Paradise is surely his crowning achievement. The clarity and beauty of this translation, together with his very insightful notes, has yet to be surpassed in my view. And although I consider Pinsky's and Merwin's translations of the Inferno and Purgatorio as somewhat more powerful, I use Musa's notes throughout the Divine Comedy. Even though the Comedy (naturally) contains scholastic elements, the poem's originality, coupled with its existential dimension, make sure the Divine Comedy still resonates.