The Inferno of Dante. With Text and Translation by Eleanor
Vinton Murray. (Boston : Privately printed.)-1ffiss Murray has done a bold thing in essaying a new verse translation of the Inferno in Dante's own feria rima and in printing it face to face with the original. .As she says in her preface, the attempt has often been made, and yet Dante never seems happy in an English dress. The late Master of Trinity, who excelled in translating from or into Greek and Latin, told his sister in 1859 that, in reading Dante, accuracy was the first requisite. One must be "most conscientiously exact in ascertaining the full meaning of every word and phrase." "If any man ever deserved this closest anatomy, it is Dante." This is true enough, and Miss Murray would be the first to admit that her version is not conscientiously exact. On the other hand, it is substantially accurate in the passages which we have tested, and it is pleasant to read. To those who do not read Italian or who find Dante excessively difficult, as indeed he is, Mies Murray's interesting version would be helpful if it were published.
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