The masculine urge to learn Italian and German to better understand their literature.

Dante's Divine Comedy in English doesn't even touch the original work. The attempts to match the verse are structurally impossible, and the prose-only translations are as literal and ugly as a photocopied Polaroid picture of a wedding.

Italian is not even talking, its a way of singing. It's ancient and beautiful. Matchless. If you have a native understanding of Italian - you are blessed.

William Blake and Gustave Dore did the best justice to Dante as a artist by illustrating the works. Translations are a disaster. Makes me look at the English Bible differently. It's utterly limited by the individual translator.

To think you understand the direct word of God directly through a literal interpretation of a story translated 2 or 3 times by fallible humans is a very limited perspective.