One of the parts of The Divine Comedy I find interesting is that it is an extremely effective demonstration to point people who still believe the hard-to-kill myth that the idea of a round Earth was unknown to Europeans before Columbus to, because of the sheer level of detail Dante goes into about it.

Purgatorio, canto II [1] in particular explicitly "place" purgatory at the opposite side of the globe from Jerusalem, and describe in detail how different stars are visible, and how the time is different in Jerusalem, over Ganges and in Purgatory, as well as how the seasons are different in the southern hemisphere. The differences between the hemispheres etc. are revisited several times to make explicit how Purgatory differs, for example in Purgatorio, canto IV, verse 55 onwards [2].

[1] http://www.italianstudies.org/comedy/Purgatorio2.htm

[2] http://www.italianstudies.org/comedy/Purgatorio4.htm

Nice effort - although it would have been better if it had both the original and translated version side to side. Poetry of this caliber is way beyond meaning and words, and can somehow be enjoyed even with a limited understanding of the original language. I remember when, many years ago and with a very limited knowledge of English, I tried to read the original works of TS Eliot. I was blown away. The original/translated versions helped me to get started and I never looked back.

The Comedy is an unbelievable work. I read it in full in my twenties and always keep a copy with me. It would probably be my 'desert island' book if only one were allowed (plus The Four Quartets of TS Eliot, if I could take two).

If you're going to embark on a major translated work like this, do yourself a favor and read the first hundred lines or so in a few different translations. Makes a huge difference. Old or new - just give a few a shot. You can always read it again, but you can only read it for the first time once.

Epic poetry seems to have died out, at least for a time, as a literary art form. Will it make a comeback? Would or could the Internet play a role in such a comeback?

One of the last great epic poems written in the English language is G.K. Chesterton's The Ballad of the White Horse:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ballad_of_the_White_Horse

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Ballad_of_the_White_Horse

Readers here who have their interest stirred by Dante's poetry might enjoy Chesterton's work.

This is excellent. I also recommend the Dante Project, hosted by Princeton University: http://etcweb.princeton.edu/dante/index.html

My first exposure to Dante was John Ciardi's version in college for a philosophy class I took.

I loved it since it gave an outline to each Canto and described what you were about to read. You then have his notes at the end of each Canto, which helps if you missed some of the references he makes.

Here is that version - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-inferno-dante-alighieri/...

So, my favorite part of the divine comedy is not even the divine comedy. Is how, in Canto XXVI[0], Dante takes Homer's tale of Ulysses (odysseus) and extends it. And then 500 years later, Lord Tennyson takes Dante's idea and extends it further[1].

I find this two thousand years long compounded work incredibly fascinating.

[0] http://www.italianstudies.org/comedy/Inferno26.htm [1] http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174659

As an Italian, I can't understand what foreigners see in the Comedy. Really. There are some vivid descriptions -- sure -- but likewise there are in other books. There are some interesting characters -- sure -- but they are just sketched.

Among Italian poets, I prefer Giacomo Leopardi.

A recent translation by Clive James has been much praised. As someone who has not read Dante's classic yet, the James version might be the one I read.

http://www.clivejames.com/poetry/divine

Is any metric respected (or attempted to)? From what I can quickly see the verses don't seem to be hendecasyllables, but I don't really know how to count that in English :) Anyway, not a complain, it looks like a great effort!

Comments and images from the University of Texas at Austin: http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/index.html

My first introduction to this was via Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Inferno, about an SF writer who dies and then finds himself in Dante's version of Hell . . .

It's important to be aware that the original has a very intricate rhyming structure that is never preserved in the translations.

as an italian ... it's strange to read Dante in english :)