How to read Dante's Divine Comedy • Old Western Culture 

As an italian I can say that, for us, reading the Divine Comedy is actually hard, because it's not translated, it's written in the italian of Dante in the XIV (14th) century. It's like if an american who was born in the USA tries to read Shakespeare's works

Thank you for this. I've started studying the Divine Comedy and... honestly I'm at a loss on how to understand it haha! But I feel drawn to it! I want to understand it, I want to feel it, I want to understand it so well that I can quote it and integrate it into my life. I know it will be a lifelong study, but I have the desire to learn.

Wow. This is great. I just bought all three books of the Divine Comedy. I was a bit intimidated because I though that I would have to read slowly and ponder words and phrases for deeper meaning. It is good to know that I can just read it using the tip you provided. Wish me luck.

I suggest to listen to some italian readings (Gassman, Benigni,etc...), in the original language with rhymes. 100 chants, 14,233 lines, in rhymes! 😍

Excellent introduction, and reading tip. Thanks for sharing this!

Rereading the Divine Comedy is my treat for right after I finish my dissertation. Hopefully just a few weeks to go, which is when my twin baby boys will be born. I can’t wait to share Dante with them. Great video, Wes!

Very very nice. Easy to take in. Great pace. Love your confident enthusiasm and very useful knowledge.

Thanks for this! From the get go I was reading it slowly trying to understand every single word and every meaning and it quickly became cumbersome and not fun. I'm looking forward to giving your advice a go.

Thank ye so much sir. ..

Idk how I came across this book (most likely fell down a wikipedia rabbit hole) but i was fascinated with the story so i bought the book when I was 16/17. I couldn’t get thru the first few pages it was like reading a different language. I’m 32 now and it currently collecting dust in my tv stand. Maybe after this I’ll try it again

You're a great speaker

Thank you so much for the advise at the start about just reading it in big chunks and focusing on the details later. I would have gone crazy googeling all the references to people, places, and events of the time and the past.

감사합니다. Thanks. I am from Korea to understand more this great book.

thank youu, i started reading this and was retaining no information & it felt like such a drag! but after watching this i went back and reread it in the way you mentioned and it flows wayy better and now im enjoying the read!

When I first looked for it I read it on a website and it was in Olde English. I tried finding an audiobook recently and they're all translated to current English.

Thank you! ✨

Can you do a video about your books again?

Thankyou !!

I have the Lawrence Binyon translation in "The Portable Dante" by Viking. The translation seems to be much more natural, modern and readable than the one being read here. Like reading the Bible, a good translation makes all the difference in the world for whether you get bored and toss it, or keep reading. I recommend Binyons translation.

Sage advice. I applied this technique to Ovid’s Metamorphosis

Thank you very much for this video. I enjoyed your excellent explanation and interpretation. I’m reading it right now in german, and that too has its typical flows and rhythms, sounds and forms. Like you mentioned, I also noticed after a while that the attention to too much detail slows down the intended flow and rhythm. All of a sudden it clicks and you let it flow “naturally”… for me it also takes a lot of concentration to keep up reading in that flow for a longer period…😣

I usually read a word at a time... unless I'm skimming. Is there any other ways?

ive read the divine comedy backwards, from the last page of paradise back to the first page of inferno. all the time I was doing this, I was listening to Black Sabbath on full blast whilst wearing a divers suit with giant red flippers. it made whatsoever.

What is the piece of music in the intro?

I should take this advice in stride as i go about finishing something like Neuromancer. I get way too lost in the details and archaic technobabble, and it tends to completely kill the pacing for me. I should just focus more on the big picture of the story and then i can go back later (whether its re-reading it myself or looking up summaries online) to better fill out those details.

first build a fast overview.. then look deep.. its the best way one can feel the book... the first part will give u the core idea and second one will make the flow easy...

As eloquently as it can be stated. After the first few chapters of Inferno I was thinking this may be how I should read it. Thank you for your help! Subscribed

Cool name.✍🏼

Using my eyes is the best way for me

I need content like for every book I read

the best advice is to read Dante left to right

Which translation is this?

Thank you for the video. Which translation would you recommend to start with?

well if there's something I learned from this video is that I do not know how to read poetry.

It's actually a poem

This is so could, but I don't know. How I will go to the park? I'm not your daddy!

JOB 1:6 One day, when the son's of God came to present themselves before the LORD, Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, "Whence do you come?" Then Satan answered the Lord and said, "From roaming the earth and patrolling it." I Was told, the Devil does not do evil, people do evil. The devil can't make anyone do anything, he can only provide a temptation to do evil. If a person takes the bate, and does evil by one's own will to do so, then the Devil can judge that person accordingly. Punishment comes when the Devil comes for them after death. On that day every knee will bend every tongue confess Jesus Christ is Lord The devil is not a practitioner of evil. He is a judge of people who are a practitioner evil. When a person says, "The Devil made me do it!" as an excuse of doing something wrong, they can only be lying. And by that, compounding their sins with that lie. See, the Devil is said to be a servant of God. But he holds the sin of pride. Pride enough to question God's judgement of giving humanity both a soul and free will. Stating that humanity is not worthy of such gifts. God has in turn, given the Devil the task of finding those that may misuse the gifts God has given. And the freedom to punish them after. Nobody likes to be judged for any wrong doings. Humanity is imperfect, and easy to sway via our emotions. So humanity see the Devil as evil, due to being the enemy of those who do bad things. - All, or even none of this could be true. - But if it is true, and calling out the Devil as a scapegoat for the many Evils man makes, we may never truly get to the root of the problem, and in turn, never be able to fix it. Can we keep getting away with blaming the Devil for the many wrongs made by humanity? Will humans never own up to our own potential for doing evil via the free will to do so? Will we continue to learn nothing about the truth of human nature? The good and the bad sides of it? - To me, we are our own worst nightmare. Perhaps, someday, we may wake up and be enlightened to what we are doing to ourselves, and perhaps find a way to grow up as a people, and stop blaming dark shadows for what we do, and instead do better. Is that not what having free will is about? For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.. and how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you? But you spare all things, because they are yours, O Lord and lover of souls, For your imperishable spirit is in all things! Therefore you rebuke offenders little by little, warn them, and remind them of the sins they are committing, that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in you, O LORD! He tests the good and the bad, He hates those who love violence For He loves the just and just deeds; the upright shall see his face. When God, in the beginning, created man, he made him subject to his own free choice. If you choose you can keep the commandment; it is loyalty to do his will. There is set before you fire and water; to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand. Before man are life and death, whichever he chooses shall be given him. Immense is the wisdom of the LORD; he is mighty in power and all-seeing. The eyes of God see all he has made; he understands man's every deed. No man does he command to sin, to none does he give strength for lies.. O Jesus I know not if your real come ... come live in me Save Me