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TRANSLATOR'S NOTE t97 t97 t97 t97 t97 In this translation of the Vita nuova, as in the one I published fifteen years ago, I have avoided the use of rhyme in the poetry, continuing to render the Italian original in English blank verse. 1\1y reasons for not submitting to the tyranny of rhyme in translating Dante's poetry have been presented in the Foreword to my recent translation of the Inferno; there I also expressed my ideas about what faithfulness to the original should mean for the translator of poetry. It might seem that the problem would be much less difficult for the translator of prose. I should say that it is less complicated , but is, nonetheless, difficult if the original text was composed centuries ago, when the patterns of prose style were quite different from those of our own time. There is no doubt about it: to the reader who goes from modern Italian prose to the prose of the Vita nuova the older style seems stilted and verbose; and the reader always seems to be in the midst of a dependent clause, or to have just escaped from one, or to be about to enter into another. Yet it would be a sacrilege to reduce Dante's elaborate prose periods to simpler predications. On the other hand, should one offer the reader a translation with sentences that may be tedious to read, and language which will strike him as unnatural? To find a happy compromise is not easy, and this is particularly true of the narrative prose of the Vita nuova. The suggestion of "stuffiness" that would be unavoidable in a translation of a philosophical work such as Dante's Convivio would certainly be tolerated by all readers, and perhaps even enjoyed. It is less enjoyable in a narrative; and xiii Dante's narrative style is at times indistinguishable from the expository style of his Convivio. Thus, in Chapter XXII of the Vita nuova, after announcing the death of Beatrice's father, he continues: Since such a departure is sorrowful to those who remain and who have been friends of the deceased; and since there is no friendship more intimate than that of a good father for a good child, or of a good child for a good father; and since her father, as is believed by many and is the truth, was exceedingly good-then it is clear that this lady was filled with bitterest sorrow. Sometimes, it is true, careful study will reveal that what seems at first glance to be unpardonable pedantry was inspired by the deepest artistry. To mention one instance: seven times the city of Florence is designated by the phrase "the abovementioned city" (/a sopradetta cittade); just why this legalistic periphrasis was chosen (and why the city is never called by name) I shall attempt to explain in terms of the message of the Vita nuova itself. But many times the explanation for Dante's stylistic choices must be sought in certain very personal predilections of the author which are generally not shared by writers of narrative. Surely whatever it was (and this matter will be discussed) that inspired the author of the Vita nuova to attach to most of his poems a minutely precise explanation of their content-thereby anticipating, though for a different purpose, his procedure in the Convivio-helps explain the choice of his prose style in general. If the reader believes, as he must, that Dante's prose style, more appropriate to exposition than to narrative, represents a deliberate choice by a man of genius, he will probably appreciate the goal I have set myself: to respect every detail of Dante's sentence structure as far as it is possible to do so within the limits set by the patterns of English idiom. XIV Dante's Vita Nuova ...

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