Comparison of Divine Comedy Translations Lyrics

Reverend Henry Francis Cary (1805–1814):

Here sighs with lamentations and loud moans
Resounded through the air pierc'd by no star,
That e'en I wept at entering.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1867):

There sighs, complaints, and ululations loud
Resounded through the air without a star,
Whence I, at the beginning, wept thereat.

Charles Eliot Norton (1891–1892):

Here sighs, laments, and deep wailings were resounding though the starless air; wherefore at first I wept thereat.

Allen Mandelbaum (1980–1984):

Here sighs and lamentations and loud cries
were echoing across the starless air,
so that, as soon as I set out, I wept.

James Finn Cotter (1988)

Here heartsick sighs and groanings and shrill cries
Re-echoed through the air devoid of stars,
So that, but started, I broke down in tears.
Robert and Jean Hollander (2000–2007):

Now sighs, loud wailing, lamentation
resounded through the starless air,
so that I too began to weep.

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