Divine Comedy: Purgatorio

Dante Alighieri

The book presents to reader the complete Ukrainian translation of the Purgatorio (the second part of Dante’s Divine Comedy) by Maksym Strikha. Th e main goal of this translation was to diverge from certain «academicism» of Yevhen Drobyazko’s earlier version and not only to recreate adequately the matter and the poetical form of Dante’s masterpiece, but also to give reader the idea of living, still not chilled «magma» of just then created by the poet Italian language — in combination of various styles (from highest to low) and sometimes even in certain deviations from the fi xed literary norm of today. Th e extensive foreword recounts of Dante as a co-author of the theological construct of Purgatory — a «temporary hell» where guilty, but not lost souls atone their sins to be allowed to ascend into Heaven. As continuation of the tradition founded in the Inferno published last year the translator presents the anthology of Ukrainian lyrics connected with Dante’s fi gure for the last over one hundred and fi fty years: from Pan’ko Kulish to Olena O’Lear. Th is edition of the Purgatorio as well as the fi rst part of the epic is illustrated by the illuminations from the Siena manuscript of the 15th century attributed to the Italian artist Priamo della Quercia.