Start / NPR’s Book of the Day / After 20 years mary jo bang has completed her translation of dantes divine comedy

NPR’s Book of the Day

After 20 years, Mary Jo Bang has completed her translation of Dante's 'Divine Comedy'

9 min • 24 juli 2025
About 20 years ago, Mary Jo Bang read a poem that inspired her to take on a translation of Dante's Divine Comedy. At first, she began with just three lines – but two decades later, she's completed all three parts: "Inferno," "Purgatorio" and "Paradiso." In today's episode, she joins NPR's Ari Shapiro for a conversation about translating Dante into contemporary language, why English is a "rhyme-poor" language, and the parallels between Dante's journey and her own.

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