The poetic language of Dante’s Divine Comedy is now available into the Icelandic language. The first volume, dedicated to the cantica of Hell, has been translated into verse and edited by Einar Thoroddsen, physician, researcher and a lover of Dante.
Before Einar Thoroddsen took on this astonishing enterprise it was possible to read the Divine Comedy in Icelandic only in prose translation. Prof. Stefano Rosatti, an Italianist of the University of Iceland, has contributed to the realization of this work.
The first copy of the book was presented to the Italian Ambassador in Iceland Alberto Colella on October 20th, in Reykjavík.
For those who dare face the Divina Commedia respecting the metric and prosody chosen by Dante himself, translation is a real challenge. Einar Thoroddsen has now met this challenge in a beautiful bilingual verse edition of the first cantica of Dante’s poem, published by Gudrun publishing house.
The new translation enables the icelandic reader to venture into the discovery of the creative beauty, strength and modernity of Dante’s universal masterpiece.
