Toronto Salutes Dante

2021 The Year of Dante

Commemorating the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri, Toronto Salutes Dante features thirty-seven Canada-based guests who read Dante’s Inferno in various languages, several for the first time.

In short video clips, well-known personalities of Canadian public and cultural life who are U of T Alumni – including the Rt. Hon. Adrienne Clarkson, former Governor General of Canada, and the internationally acclaimed writers Margaret Atwood and Alberto Manguel -, as well as professors and students at the University of Toronto, share their voices and fresh memories of their first encounter with the most important Italian author in world literature. For many of our readers, the language they read is a heritage one. Reading Dante’s work in translation and talking about it becomes a way to connect to family histories and reflect on what brought them to dedicate their lives to study and research, while also showcasing the unparelleled multicultural diversity of U of T wider community.

In addition to ten different Italian dialects, readings include Anishinaabemowin, Arabic, Bulgarian, English, Farsi, French, German, Latin, Mandarin, Portuguese, Québécois, Russian, Sanskrit, Slovak, Spanish, Stoney Nakoda, Swedish, Thai, and Ukrainian. All interviews are in English.

Read more about Toronto Salutes Dante on U of T News.

This initiative is from an original idea of Elisa Brilli (Italian Studies/CMS, UofT), George Ferzoco (University of Calgary and Goggio Visiting Professor at UofT), and Nicholas Terpstra (History/Italian Studies), and realized thanks to the invaluable work of two research assistants, Alice Martignoni and Nattapol Ruangsri, and the contribution of UofT’s community.  This initiative is sponsored by the Department of Italian Studies, the Emilio Goggio Chair in Italian Studies at the University of Toronto, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Toronto, and Villa Charities. 

Listen to Dante’s Inferno as you have never heard it!

Download the text: Inferno I in Italian, English, and Anishinaabemowin – lines 1-30 (PDF)

Inferno 2 (Latin) – Featuring Professor Peter King (Philosophy and Centre for Medieval Studies)

Download the text: Inferno II in Italian, English, and Latin (PDF)

Inferno 5 (Portuguese) – Featuring Lorena Sodano (Ph.D. Candidate, Italian Studies)

Download the text: Inferno V in Italian, English, and Portuguese (PDF)

Inferno 6 (Mandarin) – Featuring Rui Xu (Ph.D. Candidate, Centre for Medieval Studies)

Download the text: Inferno VI in Italian, English and Mandarine (PDF)

Inferno 7 (Italian) – Featuring Tatiana Fimognari (UG Student, Italian Studies)

Download the text: Inferno VII in Italian and English (PDF)

Inferno 8 (Ukrainian) – Featuring Dr. Talia Zajac (PIMS Post-doctoral fellow)

Download the text: Inferno VIII in Italian, English, and Ukrainian (PDF)

Inferno 9 (Triestino) – Featuring Prof. Konrad Eisenbichler (Italian Studies/Victoria University)

Download the text: Inferno IV in Italian, English, and Triestino (PDF)

Inferno 10 (Italian) – Featuring Prof. Luca Somigli (Italian Studies)

Download the text: Inferno X in Italian and English (PDF)

Inferno 11 (Italian) – Featuring Alice Martignoni (Ph.D. Candidate, Italian Studies)

Download the text: Inferno XI in Italian (PDF)

Inferno 12 (Italian) – Featuring Dr. Sebastiano Bazzichetto (Italian Studies Alumnus)

Download the text: Inferno XII in Italian (PDF)

Inferno 13 (Genovese) – Featuring Sara Galli (Ph.D. Candidate, Italian Studies)

Download the text: Inferno XIII in Italian, English and Genovese (PDF)

Inferno 14 (Russian) – Featuring Andrei Munteanu (Ph.D. Candidate, Linguistics)

Download the text: Inferno XIV in Italian, English, and Russian (PDF)

Inferno 15 (Calabrese) – Featuring Prof. Paolo Frascà (Italian Studies)

Download the text: Inferno XV in Italian, English and Calabrese (PDF)

Inferno 16 (German) – Featuring William Ohm (Ph.D. Candidate, Germanic Languages & Literatures)

Download the text: Inferno XVI in Italian, English, and German (PDF)

Inferno 17 (Siciliano) – Featuring Prof. Salvatore Bancheri (Italian Studies/Languages UTM)

Download the text: Inferno XVII in Italian, English, and Siciliano (PDF)

Inferno 18 (Slovak) – Featuring Eva Plesnik (Ph.D. Candidate, Centre for Medieval Studies)

Download the text: Inferno XVIII in Italian, English, and Slovak (PDF)

Inferno 19 (Thai) – Featuring Rawitawan Sophonpanich (Thammasat University)*

Download the text: Inferno XIX in Italian, English, and Thai (PDF). *Professor RawitawanSophonpanich is currently working on the first translation into Thai of Dante’s poem. We warmly thank her for sharing a preview of her work with us.

Inferno 20 (French) – Featuring Catia Dignard (Ph.D. Candidate, Hispanic Literatures and Cultures)

Download the text: Inferno XX in Italian, English, and French (PDF).

Inferno 21 (Veneziano) – Featuring Prof. Alberto Zambenedetti (Italian Studies/Cinema Studies)

Download the text:Inferno XXI in Italian, English, and Veneziano (PDF)

Inferno 22 (Arabic) – Featuring Ghassan Osmat (Ph.D. Candidate,  Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations)

Download the text: Inferno XXII in Italian, English, and Arabic (PDF)

Inferno 23 (Italian) – Featuring Elena Ferranti (Victoria University in the University of Toronto)

Download the text: Inferno XXIII in Italian and English (PDF)

Inferno 24 (Spanish) – Featuring Valeria Tapia Cruz (Ph.D. Candidate, Spanish and Portuguese)

Download the text: Inferno XXIV in Italian, English, and Spanish (PDF)

Inferno 25 (Italian) – Featuring Letizia Tesi (Ph.D. Candidate, Italian Studies)

Download the text: Inferno XXV in Italian and English (PDF)

Inferno 26 (Italian) – Featuring Alessia Berardi (Ph.D. Candidate, Centre for Medieval Studies)

Download the text: Inferno XXVI in Italian and English (PDF)

Inferno 27 (Bulgarian) – Featuring Prof. Greti Dinkova-Bruun (Pontifical Institute of Medieaval Studies)

Download the text: Inferno XXVII in Italian, English and Bulgarian (PDF)

Inferno 28 (Persian/Farsi) – Featuring Mohammad Jamali (Ph.D. Candidate, Italian Studies)

Download the text:Inferno XXVIII in Italian, English, and Persian (Farsi) (PDF)

Inferno 29 (German) – Featuring Prof. Markus Stock (Germanic Languages & Literatures & Centre for Medieval Studies)

Download the text: Inferno XXIX in Italian, English, and German (PDF)

Inferno 30 (French) – Featuring Brianna Daigneault (Ph.D. Candidate, Centre for Medieval Studies)

Download the text: Inferno XXX in Italian, English, and French (PDF)

Inferno 31 (Italian) – Featuring Prof. Elisa Brilli (Italian Studies & Centre for Medieval Studies)

Download the text: Inferno XXXI in Italian and English (PDF)

Inferno 32 (English) – Featuring Kirsten Tarves (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures)

Download the text: Inferno XXXII in Italian and English (PDF)

Inferno 33 (Sanskrit) – Featuring Prof. Alessandro Graheli (Historical Studies, UTM)

Download the text: Inferno XXXIIII in Italian, English, and Sanskrit (PDF)

Inferno 34 (English & Stoney Nakoda) – Featuring Margaret Atwood, Alberto Manguel, and Trent Fox (Author of the translation of Dante’s opening lines in Stoney Nakoda), with the participation of E. Brilli, G. Ferzoco and N. Terpstra.

Download the text: Inferno XXXIV in Italian, English and Stoney Nakoda (PDF)

(All videos are available on the Department of Italian Studies’ YouTube channel).