Vita Nova (Northwestern World Classics)

Andrew Frisardi's stellar translation and thorough analysis and annotation of one's of Western civilization's most important books, Dante Alighieri's "La Vita Nova," are an indispensable guide to novice and expert alike. It is an exhaustively researched, annotated, and comprehensive translation that will make you fall in love with Dante all over again--or for the first time. You will want to purchase this outstanding book.Frisardi's La Vita Nova is such a prodigious effort that it is impossible to encapsulate all that it does for the reader. First, Frisardi gives an extensive and scholarly introduction to the work, its importance in Dante's oeuvre, its place in Italian letters before and after, its relationship to the Medieval past and the vanguard position it holds in what will become modern literature, its role in the preparation and gestation of Dante's future magnum opus, the Commedia or The Divine Comedy, and the many themes that inform the work's combination of prose and poetry (or prosimetrum) that comprises La Vita Nova. The introduction is followed by the translation itself, the Italian original, the exhaustive annotations, and a bibliography.Frisardi's introduction alone is worth reading and re-reading to get a good grip on one of the Western canon's foundational works. In his introduction, Frisardi explores Dante's biography, history, the philosophy and theology of Dante's time, the great poet's predecessors and his departure from them, the purpose of memory, the literary style of his day (the "stilnovisti" or "new style"), Dante's three selves that inform the work (one who records from the "book of memory," one who is the young man in the past whom Dante looks upon from the "present" of his recording, and one who examines and interprets the events of his past), the scholasticism that informs La Vita Nova, the nature of "love-amor" in the work, the treatment of women in the work (something vis-a-vis the "stilnovisti" that is unexpectedly subversive of the Church's traditional view of women), a discussion of death and elegy (Beatrice dies in the course of the past events being told), the masterful symmetry of the work, the allegory that surrounds Beatrice, and the number nine and its frequent manifestations in La Vita Nova.Frisardi is an expert on his subject and has labored with great love and attention to render Dante's masterpiece into a workable and contemporary English. La Vita Nova is a series of poems and prose commentary (as mentioned, a prosimetrum) concerning Dante's love for Beatrice, a crucial figure who appears later in his Commedia. On one level La Vita Nova is the "typical" story of young love and passion, yet on so many other levels it incorporates all manner of commentary, speculation, adornment, analysis, and tireless yet succinct rendering of his love's cosmic significance in a picture far greater and far reaching than the young adolescent, whom Dante's portrays as his young self, could ever imagine during his feverish distractions. No writer before or since has made better use of "teenage love" than this master of words.Through his translation Frisardi discusses and demonstrates what we would now consider to be Dante's psychological approach to his subject. This approach is something of a deja-vu for a modern reader. The reason for this feeling of having "been here before" is that Dante invented this very way of thinking and writing. Dante is our familiar, our companion all along, and Frisardi reassures us that so much that we take for granted in our love of literature owes an enormous debt to this singular Italian. If Harold Bloom claims that Shakespeare "invented the human," Frisardi shows that Dante invented "the modern reader" or our very selves as readers. It bears reminding that without Dante there would be no Shakespeare, something almost a tautology that is assumed without merit of reflection. Dante, in short, anticipated us and the future of writing and reading in the West. Frisardi's translation and scholarship helped me realize this truth and a re-reading of his book will no doubt show me much, much more.La Vita Nova deals with various aspects of love that Frisardi takes pains to elucidate in the introduction, which must be read. Though Dante is easy to read on the surface, there are many layers that can be peeled away to view other meanings. Above all, however, in contradiction to today's Postmodern impulse, Frisardi claims tellingly in his introduction:"As far as Dante is concerned, there is nothing more pointless than composing poetry whose intended meaning cannot be explained by the author."In the prosimetrum that mixes prose and poetry, Dante does just that, if rather oddly at times for the modern reader. In the chapters of La Vita Nova, Dante explains his situation, what he is feeling and what is happening to him as he suffers and explores his love for a beautiful woman, his beloved Beatrice. He then includes a poem in each chapter to sing of that love and its manifold meanings in sterling verse, beautifully translated by Frisardi, only to explain to the reader what the poem means in a commentary after the poem. This rather odd commentary on his own poem is, as Frisardi explains, a "divisioni" and is part of the Scholastic tradition.As an example of the beauty of Dante's poetry and Frisardi's adroit translation, I quote in full a sonnet from chapter 17, which as Frisardi points out in the annotation is one of the most well known in all Italian literature and a standard for Italian children to memorize. Thanks to Frisardi's translation, one can see why:So open and so self-possessed appearsmy lady when she's greeting everyone,that every tongue, in trembling, falters dumb,and eyes don't dare to watch her as she nears.She senses all the praising of her worth,and passes by benevolently dressedin humbleness, appearing manifestfrom heaven to show a miracle on earth.She shows herself so pleasing to the onewho sees her, sweetness passes through the eyeto the heart--as he who's missed it never knows.So from her face it then appears there blowsa loving spirit, as if spring's begun,which breathes upon the soul and tells it: Sigh.In keeping with the formalism of Dante's verse Frisardi commits to English iambic pentameter and a rhyme scheme that usually follows the original's, a daunting task that pays off for the reader but must have been a sweat-lodge of a task to accomplish. His efforts generously redound to the reader's reward.Not only grace but erudition accompany Frisardi's translation. The annotation on chapter 17, which contains the poem above, extends for eight pages. His notes, while intimidating to non-experts, should be explored by the novice or anyone who loves literature for the thorough treatment Frisardi gives to deepen our understanding of Dante's irreplaceable genius.For example, in reference to the poem from this chapter, he quotes a scholar named Robert Pogue Harrison with reference to the word "sigh" ("sospira") that ends the poem:"The entire lyric project of the Vita Nuova lies in the sigh that ends the poem and brings its subject to rest in aesthetic stasis. Here Beatrice no longer incites desire but placates it.... The motion and rhythm of the verses seem to reproduce a deep intake and respiration of animating breath....While the poem consummates itself in the sigh, the final expiration also marks the beginning of a lyric retrieval of the plentitude of presence. It consummates the lyric enunciation at the very moment that it initiates the recovery of aesthetic grace, for the poem issues forth from the sigh in which it culminates."To expand upon Frisardi's annotation, another way of looking at "sospira/sigh" is the suggestion of release at the moment of coitus as expressed by a vocal outburst (enunciation) of the intense oneness achieved at the climax of sexual union, even as it coincides with the deepest yearning that accompanies it. "Issue" is what consummates the sigh at the same time it expresses desire. Frisardi's notes help the reader along with forming one's own conclusions and insights.Fridsardi then continues to summarize the insight of others, such as that of Bernard S. Levy, whom he states,"writes that by making Beatrice analogous to Christ and through the specific allusion to the account in the Gospel of John of Christ's breathing the Holy Spirit into the souls of men, Dante `transforms the lover's conventional sigh from the involuntary exhalation of the young lover into a spiritual entity which can...achieve a fore-taste of the heavenly vision.'"Frisardi goes on further to mine the insights of other scholars on this one word "sigh." Quoting Robert Klein,"Identifying the spirit escaping from the wounded heart with the lover's sign might seem [a] gratuitious invention...if it did not have such a well-established tradition. With the `last sigh' one `surrenders the spirit';...Alfred of Sareschel...believes that the soul, in ecstasy of contemplation, often forgets to breathe and must occasionally make up for it by a deeper breath, which is a sigh; Albertus Magnus proposes that the heart constricts, filled with blood and `spiriti'; and Thomas Aquinas gives a similar, very mechanistic opinion, according to which the `great heart' of the young is literally enlarged by the influx of spirits dilated by youthful warmth; cries of pain and gestures of frightened withdrawal are similarly explained by the actual movements of the spirits."These extensive quotes from the annotation on just one word, "sigh," demonstrate the heavy lifting Frisardi has done to master, and add to, all the scholarship that has been accomplished before him and that informed his masterful translation. All the commentary quoted above, and more not quoted, and its resulting illumination for the reader's deeper understanding and appreciation are to be found in a small space at the bottom of page 234 and top of 235: a single and priceless spot in a dense forest of scholarship.If one takes the time to read these notes, at least the ones that bear the most interest for the reader, the effort will pay generous dividends of understanding Dante's masterwork. Frisardi's commentary is never turgid and in reverential homage to his Master presents a clear face of understanding--"there is nothing more pointless than composing poetry whose intended meaning cannot be explained by the author." The same holds for one's prose, both Dante's and Frisardi's.Frisardi's translation and explication of La Vita Nova is a prodigious act of love, scholarship, hard-won translation, and prayer. Yes, prayer, because when taking on such a project as he has requires a helpful hand from above! With this highly accomplished effort, Frisardi's prayer has been answered many times over. We are his grateful beneficiaries.

We often take it for granted that works of world literature are great, and are interested for a review to talk about the translation and edition: is the translation accurate, pleasant to read, are there notes to help the reader understand names and other allusions, etc. In the case of Andrew Frisardi's translation of Dante's Vita Nova, there's no question that the translation and supporting editorial material are outstanding in every respect. But re-reading the Vita Nova (a/k/a Vita Nuova) after more than 40 years, I have some changed feelings about the work.Other reviewers have expanded at length on the skill of Frisardi's translations of Dante's prose and verse. This book presents Dante's entire work translated into English, including excellent rhyming poetic translations of his verse. Appended to that, it presents all the verses in the original Italian, along with more literal English prose versions. The book reads very flowingly for a modern reader of English. I learned a lot from the historical background in Frisardi's introduction, especially about the context of Italian poetic style in the 13th Century. Probably more people are aware that Dante and his friends called themselves "stilnovisti," writers in a "new style," than understand what exactly what was new about it -- a gap of understanding that makes the "stilnovo" something like the bossa nova of its day. (How people know what was the bossa velha, the old bossa?) This book will help you understand the innovation. The endnotes are extensive and erudite, much deeper than those in the Italian edition I was reading in parallel, which is one that Frisardi thinks highly of: Stefano Carrai's recent edition (2009) in the inexpensive Rizzoli BUR series. The notes offer connections to other poets and the views of Anglophone and Italian commentators, and especially illuminate the philosophical content of Dante's work. You'll find the notes interesting even if you're reading the VN in Italian. Mark Musa's edition of the VN used to be the standard for English renderings, but if you don't have access to both, then Frisardi's should be the one you choose.Whether you'll find the VN captivating might be a different matter, especially if you're not a medievalist. It was the first book I ever read in Italian, when I was in my early 20s. In retrospect, that was probably a stupid move. The Italian looks deceptively easy, but is full of archaisms as well as philosophical content, and the narrative is hardly a gripping yarn. The Carrai edition is full of notes explaining vocabulary and grammar for modern Italian readers, usually occupying more than half of each page (although some of these are more scholarly, citing Dante's allusions to other contemporary poets, esp. his friend Guido Cavalcanti). The edition I first read (F. Chiapelli 1973) offered much less assistance. I can't imagine I understood much all those years ago, even though I did use Barbara Reynold's Penguin version in English to help me out. Nonetheless, I was close in age to Dante and Beatrice at the time of the action in the VN -- a couple of years younger, in fact (both were 25 at the time of Beatrice's death in 1290). And like Dante, I was also infatuated with someone who was unavailable at the time. So it was easy to get swept up in the book's idealism about Love. That was in the 1970s.Re-reading the VN in the 21st Century, I noticed very different things. Some male behaviors that were regarded as OK or even romantic for centuries, such as circulating poetry about your unrequited love for a well-known person -- Beatrice was from one of Florence's leading families -- who moreover is someone you've only fantasized about but haven't ever spoken to, are regarded as distinctly creepy now. From that perspective, Dante was kind of a 13th Century equivalent of a cyberstalker. And it's harder to swallow Dante's personifications of Love after the far more down-to-earth (and, with any luck, enlightened) impressions one gets after a marriage or two, or other relationships one's likely to have had by the time one hits middle age. Of course, the VN's narrative is about Dante's spiritual evolution, too: but here that's a sort of subplot, and one described more prominently and interestingly in the Commedia.Even Dante's lyric poetry in the VN is a mixed bag. It's very musical in its sounds and rhythms, and fortunately Frisardi gives readers the chance to see that for themselves. But its vocabulary is filled with abstractions and clichéd expressions of emotion, be it elevated, anxious or grieving. I found it short on the sorts of metaphors and other images one could enjoy today, quite unlike Shakespeare or Homer, say, or even other medieval works, like the Song of Roland, Sir Gawain or Dante's own Divine Comedy.On the other hand, it was more evident to me this time around that the VN was also a manifesto for writing poetry in the vernacular, instead of Latin. Something I hadn't appreciated before was that Dante wrote the poems, along with many others, before he wrote this book, and he selected items from his portfolio that would fit into the larger philosophical narrative he was trying to construct. This is a very imaginative and creative approach, even for today: if you make it to the end of the VN you'll be rewarded by the feeling that the experience was rather unique (unless you're already a fan of the 6th Century Roman philosopher Boethius). The VN's content is not only important for understanding Dante's later Divine Comedy, but there is possibly even a teaser for that work in the VN's last chapter. So the VN is undoubtedly important in the history of Italian, and Western, literature. Whether that historical importance is going to be enough to sustain your interest in a not-so-eventful narrative and very un-modern sort of sentimental story, you'll have to decide if you ever start reading the VN. But if you do give it a try, the Frisardi translation and commentary will be an invaluable guide.

So of course I had to have a copy. A classic.

Insight into Dante s early works. I was impressed and delighted

This book is indescribably good. Even for those who are not inclined towards academic, scholarly work, people who simply love good poetry, this will draw you into a world you didn't imagine existed. You can dip your feet, or I should say heart, in the water, or read the fantastic introduction which itself makes fascinating reading as well as gives the reader insights into the world and language of Dante, a medieval poet who wrote "modern" literature. It is all about love and the struggles it creates, and how a young man turned these into a spiritual journey. And it is written with both poetry and prose, a unique style the author's notes and introduction enhances. There are copious notes for those who want to go deeper. The poetry translations are gorgeous, a fine rendering of a great poet's work. But even more, for me it was the insights into how the Vita Nova was written as a whole and the meaning imbued even in its structure, that made this one of my favorite books.

Can not, can not, say how impressive this translation and notes are. Prose and poetry included in this book. Dante is more relatable to modern times. Beautifully written and presented. Excellence is all I can say.

Perfect condition!

This is the definitive Vita nova of our time: an exquisite verse and prose translation in modern English, a magnificent scholarly edition, plus the original text. For experts and for those new to Dante, this is the version to buy.

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