Paradiso: Book Three of the Divine Comedy

by Dante Alighieri, Joe Carlson (Translator), Carissa Hale (Illustrator)

How do you imagine unimaginable joy? How can you behold blinding holiness?

Dante’s Paradiso gives our imagination a hint of the beauty to come, by uncovering the deepest reality of the life we are living now. God is the same, eternity past to eternity future; He is the same God today. The great crescendo that is His beauty, dance, song, joy, holiness, and glory we hear but dimly, as from a distance land; but it undergirds and gives meaning to everything we know and experience. Dante’s staggering imagination helps us hear and see as much as we can, as he walks his pilgrim through the heavenly spheres, singing their songs of praise, and into the very presence of the Triune God. It is his journey, and our own, to the Beatific Vision, to stand before the Supreme Good, to move in concert with the Love that moves the sun and the other stars. These are the riches our modern, impoverished imaginations need.

In this new translation of the final canticle of Dante’s Comedy, poet and author Joe Carlson brings his blank verse rendition to an end, suffused with the light and dance of the original Italian, while maintaining a readability students and scholars alike will appreciate.

386 pages, Paperback

Published August 22, 2023

About the author

Dante Alighieri, or simply Dante (May 14/June 13 1265 – September 13/14, 1321), is one of the greatest poets in the Italian language; with the story-teller, Boccaccio, and the poet, Petrarch, he forms the classic trio of Italian authors. Dante Alighieri was born in the city-state Florence in 1265. He first saw the woman, or rather the child, who was to become the poetic love of his life when he was almost nine years old and she was some months younger. In fact, Beatrice married another man, Simone di' Bardi, and died when Dante was 25, so their relationship existed almost entirely in Dante's imagination, but she nonetheless plays an extremely important role in his poetry. Dante attributed all the heavenly virtues to her soul and imagined, in his masterpiece The Divine Comedy, that she was his guardian angel who alternately berated and encouraged him on his search for salvation.

Politics as well as love deeply influenced Dante's literary and emotional life. Renaissance Florence was a thriving, but not a peaceful city: different opposing factions continually struggled for dominance there. The Guelfs and the Ghibellines were the two major factions, and in fact that division was important in all of Italy and other countries as well. The Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor were political rivals for much of this time period, and in general the Guelfs were in favor of the Pope, while the Ghibellines supported Imperial power. By 1289 in the battle of Campaldino the Ghibellines largely disappeared from Florence. Peace, however, did not insue. Instead, the Guelf party divided between the Whites and the Blacks (Dante was a White Guelf). The Whites were more opposed to Papal power than the Blacks, and tended to favor the emperor, so in fact the preoccupations of the White Guelfs were much like those of the defeated Ghibellines. In this divisive atmosphere Dante rose to a position of leadership. in 1302, while he was in Rome on a diplomatic mission to the Pope, the Blacks in Florence seized power with the help of the French (and pro-Pope) Charles of Valois. The Blacks exiled Dante, confiscating his goods and condemning him to be burned if he should return to Florence.

Dante never returned to Florence. He wandered from city to city, depending on noble patrons there. Between 1302 and 1304 some attempts were made by the exiled Whites to retrieve their position in Florence, but none of these succeeded and Dante contented himself with hoping for the appearance of a new powerful Holy Roman Emperor who would unite the country and banish strife. Henry VII was elected Emperor in 1308, and indeed laid seige to Florence in 1312, but was defeated, and he died a year later, destroying Dante's hopes. Dante passed from court to court, writing passionate political and moral epistles and finishing his Divine Comedy, which contains the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. He finally died in Ravenna in 1321.

Reviews

[Rachel N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impossible to adequately review such a work of art, although, admittedly, I recognize that I only grasped a fraction of the truths therein. I look forward to reading the series again with child #2 and then again with #3.

[Danielle Hardy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My third reading of Paradiso was magnificent with Joe Carlson as my tour guide. Mr. Carlson brought the text alive for me like never before. I can't recommend his books enough.

[John David Latour]

Notes
-recommended by UD
-hard to follow

•not sure why, just found it hard to concentrate when reading

•nothing overly described [like inferno/purgatorio]

◊possible reason hard to follow (?)

-God simply 3 rings

•kinda humorous

◊Dante genius poet, but just described God a circles

•kinda gorgeous

◊Dante genius poet, but God so beautiful, Dante can’t describe

Memorable Quotes
- “'The alloy and the weight of this coin have now been well gone over, but tell me if you have it in your purse?' Wherefore I, 'Yes, I do; so bright, so round, that in its minting there is no maybe'”

Thoughts and Impressions
-see notes above—hardest of 3 to read

[Joshua Rex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Glory be to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, so it will forever be, world without end. Amen.

This poem lifts my soul to glorify God. Carlson does such a good job unpacking every stanza beforehand so I can just enjoy the beauty. The references cover most of what I don’t understand or would miss.

This poem and translation are a gift.

[Bill Stutzman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this edition as part of my 100 days of Dante this year. Carlson's translation grew on me. I particularly appreciated the notes in his reader's guide. Dante's poetry is so very rich, and the Comedy is worthy of reading over and over unto deeper love and understanding.

[Rebekah]

i read this for school so kinda just skipped around and read only certain cantos