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Dante Inferno - The Rap Translation - Canto 4

mp3s available here: www.reverbnation.com/hugo1/album/37944-dante-inferno-rap-translation-cantos


(to see Canto III in blocked territories, use this url: youtu.be/y8gjg2dq0uc)


The Pilgrim awakes in Limbo, and continues his walk with Virgil, heading towards a startlingly lit up castle, which stands out in the darkness of the Inferno. Who could possibly be dwelling in such a place?



It's seven hundred years since Dante Alighieri penned his epic poem, Commedia, in which he describes in breathtaking detail a journey into three realms of the Catholic afterlife. So insanely inspired was this poetic undertaking, that swiftly after its printing its giddy readers added the epithet Divine to it, and 'La Divina Commedia' has never been surpassed in scope or style in seven centuries of poetry in any language.

Dante made use of a poetic form described as the 'Dolce Stil Novo' which translates as The Sweet New Style. He was determined to prove that the collection of unrefined dialects of the peninsula that we now know as Italy were just as appropriate for writing poetry as the Latin which all other writers of the time felt obliged to favour. He called this principle 'De Vulgari Eloquentia' - the Eloquence of Vulgar Languages (i.e. the eloquence of the vernacular). In exile from his beloved Florence, he set about writing the Commedia, and over the course of 100 canti, not only proved that the disparate dialects were up to the task, but effectively created the Italian language in the process, and immortalised himself to boot.

Over the epic journey, in effortlessly flowing and ingenious rhyme form, he shows the language's ability to run the gamut of tones from the brutal and disgusting tortures of Hell to high flown and awe-inspiring visions of Paradise. So great was his prowess with rhyme, that he effectively placed himself at the top of the all-time great rhymers that humanity has produced for seven centuries.

However, when in the latter half of the 20th Century, in New York, an upstart group of young musical innovators gave birth to a style of music and a subculture called Hip Hop, all of a sudden, in the form of Rap, there arrived poets who took the art of rhyming to obsessive extremes, finally presenting a poetic form that, in terms of rhyming at least, could hold its own alongside and perhaps even surpass that of history's greatest.

Immortal innovators of the art form such as Rakim, Talib Kweli, Eminem, KRS One, Mos Def, Nas, Notorious BIG, Tupac Shakur and Pharoahe Monch, took this rap rhyming to incredible depths, exploring all angles of their own vernacular, spitting intricate multi-syllable rhymed verses over irresistible hip hop beats and delivering their version of the Dolce Stil Novo to an insatiable world, and in the process proving, like Dante, that their Vulgar vernacular could have global relevance in its eloquence.

So, to this project. The basic agenda being simply to retranslate the Inferno using some of the forms of Rap - Multi-syllabic rhyme patterns, driving beats - to reengage with this epic medieval poem, and maybe contribute to garnering it a new audience. Of course, being a mere beginner in this art form myself, I have done my best to do justice to both the form and the source material. Any seeming deficiencies in either are in fact mine, and I apologise in advance.

With this in mind, I humbly present the fourth Canto of the Inferno, translated into Rap, using the hip hop mix-tape convention of rhyming over existing beats.



As references to the original poem, I have used the following editions

The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri Volume I Inferno, edited and translated by Robert M. Durling (Oxford University Press, 1996) - an excellent side by side Italian/English translation with great commentary

The website Danteinferno.info which places the translations of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), Henry Francis Cary (December 6, 1772 - August 14, 1844) and Charles Eliot Norton (November 16, 1827 - October 21, 1908) alongside each other for easy comparison. I have to admit I favour the Longfellow translation, and have made liberal use of his ideas for this piece. www.danteinferno.info/translations/index.html

Finally, the superlative performance/lecture series 'Tutto Dante' from Roberto Benigni, in which he appeared night after sell-out night in the Piazza Santa Croce in Florence to deliver a commentary and reading (from memory) of the entire Inferno. It has been an indispensable resource, and is available on dvd.

lyrics

Canto IV

All of a sudden a massive thunderclap was breaking
Ferociously, opening the sky, causing it to crack and making
me shake my head, and start up straight with
Eyes agape like someone by great force awakened

At this incredibly loud sound, I moved my eyes all around
As they were finally rested from my time down on the ground
I rose up to try and take in my surroundings as well
Squinting to see this place where I found myself

And I immediately found that I was literally sitting on the lip
On the very edge of the ledge of the precipice
Of the cliff of the valley of the terrifying abyss
Wherein the tortured screams and cries are infinite

So dark, obscure and tenebrous
So incredibly deep and nebulous
That when I attempted to stare at it
I could discern nothing at all in the depths of it

"Now we climb down straight into the blind world"
The poet, beside me, intoned with a face white as pearl
And after a second then, As he beckoned Said
"I shall enter first, and then you shall go second"

Then I stared straight at his face and became aware
That a horrified pallid lack of colour was there
And said, "How am I expected to go down there, if you're scared?
You, who are supposed to be comforting my fears"

And he then responded, "It is for the sour anguish
In which the crowd of tragic people in this place now languish
That my face and manner are afflicted with palour
You have made a grievous error, mistaking my pity for terror.

Come on, let us get on and commence with this
The journey impels us, and we've got a long way ahead of us"
Then he went in, and bade me enter the shroud of the mist
Into the outermost circle that surrounds the abyss

And I stood there listening and to my surprise
There seemed to be no shrieks, screams or cries
But instead a multitude of jaded sighs
That caused a tremor to rise in those changeless skies

And these sighs of such misfortunes
Were sighs not arising from torment or sick tortures,
But rather from the sorrow that enshrouded and filled this
Enormous tightly packed crowd of men women and children

And just then, spoke my good master to me
"I notice that you haven't even bothered to ask me
Who these souls that you behold might be
Well, I would have you know before we go farther that these

Souls were not guilty of sinning
And if they were good while living, it was not sufficient
For they hadn't undergone a baptism
Which is the gate to heaven in the faith you happen to believe in;

Or if they were alive in these times
Prior to the arrival of Jesus Christ
Then they didn't worship your lord in the manner your creed prescribes
Among their number, I too am deemed to reside

For defects such as these, and no deeper crime
We are consigned in the deep for all time
We are not punished by torture or burned in fire
But instead condemned to dwell in hopeless eternal desire"

My heart, on hearing these very words,
Was seized with grief and heavily burdened
For I knew of people of significant worth
Who'd been suspended here in limbo since they'd left earth

"Tell me, my master, tell me my lord"
I asked, with the fire of desire in my thought
To be absolutely certain of the wise design at the core
Of the faith which is refined beyond flaw

"Has anyone ever succeeded in leaving
This place, by his own deeds or through another's means,
And subsequently been welcomed in heaven?"
And he, who understood, though my meaning was hidden

Replied, "I had only just died, and entered this state,
When I witnessed a most incredible event
Sweeping through these parts came a glorious figure
Crowned with a shroud of victorious shimmer

And with vigour, he rescued the soul of the first father
And the soul of his son Abel emerged after
And Noah, and Moses the bringer of commandments
And also the one who did as he was asked to:

Abraham, and David, the king of wisdom,
Jacob and his father Isaac, with him
And his twelve children, And his wife Rachel,
For whose sake he made sure to do all he was able;

And many others beside, this figure took them away
To heaven's gates, By his side, and his blessing he gave
Unto them, and I must state that prior to that day
Not a single human spirit or shade had ever been saved."

During this whole time we were talking
We didn't pause once, and we never stopped walking
But continued pressing onward to step through
this ghostly forest, where the spirits were crowded like trees in a dense wood

We had not travelled far along our route
From the cliff top where I had previously come to
When all of a sudden, a fire appeared in my view
That conquered the darkness in that hemisphere of gloom

We were still some remove from this higher place
Which was brightly illuminated through by the fire of grace
But not so far to keep me from telling
That some most honourable people must call it their dwelling

I turned to Virgil beside me, to ask
"O you, who honour every science and art
Who are these who with such honour are so decidedly marked
That from the rest of the multitude, they reside apart?"

And he replied to me fast, "The high regard
And honourable titles you people decide to grant them
Up above in your lifetime, resound in the sky and
Suffice to convince heaven to mildly advance them."

Just then I heard a disembodied voice intoning
In volume growing "Let us honour this poet
Among poets: the great powerful Virgil
Whose spirit departed, but now returns still"

As soon as that voice's pitch had ceased
I saw the shades of four mighty figures of history
Approaching us with quickening speed but
Showing no happiness on their faces, or misery either

Virgil slowed to a pause to hold forth
"Behold the one in front who is holding a sword
And comes strolling slowly before
The other three with the composure of noble lord.

That one is Homer of course
Whom 'The Sovereign King Of All Poets' we call
The next one is the satirist Horace
The last is Lucan, preceded by Ovid

And because to each of them, the title
Which that disembodied voice gave me in that recital
Applies just the same, they are truly impelled
To come out and welcome me home, and they do it well"

In this manner I was able to wholly view
Assembled in its entirety the noble school
Of high poetry, over which that lord Homer, who
Soars over the rest like an eagle, alone rules.

Then they formed a huddle and had an impromptu meeting
And after a while they stopped speaking.
They turned around and kind of nodded in greeting
And Virgil couldn't prevent a smile from creeping in

And an even higher honour was mine as
To my delight, they unanimously decided
To allow me to join as one of their kind
And be considered the sixth greatest poet of all time.

Then we continued to walk towards the bright light
As one group, discoursing of such stupefying heights
That to stay silent about them in hindsight
Is as sweet as it was to talk of them in that twilight

Having walked over a while we arrived at last at
The foot of a noble high and vast castle
Guarded and encircled by seven huge walls of stone
And defended all around by a beautiful moat

Which we walked over like it was solid ground
And through seven gates entered the castle grounds
I entered beside these sages at last and found
a large meadow where the freshest green grass abounds

The people around there standing were languid
Their eyes solemn, movements slow, but their authority was candid
Language was something they seldom brandished
And when they did, their voice was never frantic

Our poetic group walked off to one side
And climbed to an opening filled with light
So that we could view the scene from on high
And see at once everyone dwelling on site

There in front of us, arranged down on the green
Were carefully and graciously pointed out to me
The spirits of great figures, whom to have seen
I feel myself elevated and honoured in the extreme

I recollect seeing Electra, standing ahoy
With Hector and Aeneas among her companions from Troy
What's more I saw murdered Julius Caesar
In full armour with eyes burning like a warrior leader

I saw Camilla, who sacrificed herself for all Italians
I saw Penthesilea, queen of the amazons
And as I carried on, and I also saw the
King of Rome, Latinus with Lavinia, his daughter

I saw Brutus, scourge of Tarquin, Tuscany's last king,
And Lucretia, Julia, Marcia, Cornelia, just glancing
At these exalted women from the start of Rome,
And the mighty Saladin, I saw sitting apart, alone

At that moment, upon raising my gaze a little
I was able to glimpse then the king of wisdom:
Aristotle, the king of the knowledge kingdom
Together with his philosophical family, sitting

He is the centre of everyone's attention
All gaze upon him, pay him respects and
I also beheld Socrates and Plato next
Who stand closer to Aristotle than anyone else

Then Democritus, who proposed the existence of atoms
Diogenes, with two ears who lived in a barrel
Thales, Zeno, Heraclitus, Anaxagoras,
And Empedocles, killed by the miraculous tortoise

And the cataloguer of the effects of all herbs
Dioscorides, and the lyricist of all words
Orpheus, that musical demigod emperor
And Tully, Livy, and the moral Seneca.

Then there was Euclid, great master of geometry,
And the genius of astronomy, Ptolemy
Galen, Hippocrates, Avicenna
Averroes, who translated Aristotle for us to read forever

I regret that I cannot list all i saw
Because there are so very many more in store
That if I attempted to recall them all
Many times word compared to fact would fall short.

At this point, our noble group of six splits in two
As my wise guide takes me on a different route
Away from the peace, into the trembling air of doom
Into an area where all is buried in gloom.

credits

from Dante's Inferno - The Rap Translation by Hugo The Poet - Cantos 1​-​6, released January 6, 2013
The beats respectfully used are
'Eskimo (Demokracy Remix)' DZA

'Chancylvania' Bibio

'Hard to Find' Robot Koch

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