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Walter Benjamin (2019) wrote, “A translation, instead of resembling the meaning of the original, must lovingly and in detail incorporate the original’s mode of signification, thus making the original and the translation recognizable as fragments of a greater language” (Illuminations, 21). As a poet, a psychoanalyst and a student of religion, this is precisely what D. M. Black has accomplished in this stunning new translation of Dante’s “Purgatorio”.
Both Dante and Freud strove to transform the human soul and the collective heart of humankind. For 700 years, serious readers of Dante have been plunged into a warren of complexity and depth, and more than a few have devoted entire lives trying to get as close as possible - poetically, critically and/or spiritually - to Dante’s journey. For over 100 years serious practitioners of psychoanalysis have similarly dived in head first, devoting their lives to plumbing the theoretical complexities of what the late Janet Malcolm referred to as our “impossible profession”. Coming to the Divine Comedy in the middle of my professional life as an analyst, with no background in Italian, I sensed, as any psychoanalyst might, the “fragments of a greater language”. Black’s translation and commentary makes legible these profound interconnections and illuminates the inner workings of both Freud’s and Dante’s art.
Black’s decision to begin his translation in the centre of Dante’s poem is significant. From Purgatory, Black is positioned to give his readers a bird’s eye view of the entire Christian afterlife, a synthetic sweep of Dante’s unusual journey. Black’s introduction at the beginning, his commentary at the end and the wealth of footnotes that gloss his translation throughout provide all the scaffolding a first-time reader will require to find their bearings. And for readers already familiar with Dante, the duet of an exquisite translation accompanied by psychoanalytically attuned notes is a welcome occasion for revisiting this epic poe