Divine Comedy: Inferno

Dante Alighieri

The book presents to reader the complete Ukrainian translation of Inferno (the first part of Dante’s Divine Comedy) by Maksym Strikha. The main goal of this translation was to diverge from certain “academicism” of former versions: 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 fixed literary norm of today. At the same time this book must become for modern reader the true guide in the world of the great Dante. It includes the foreword dedicated to the life and works of the Italian poet as well as to the influence of Divine Comedy on the development of Ukrainian literature. And another addition to the translation, the anthology of Ukrainian lyrics for the last over one hundred and fifty years connected with Dante’s figure, visibly demonstrates that Ukraine was and still is the part of cultured Europe.