Caroline Bergvall, Via: 48 Dante Variations (2004)

“As of May, 2000, the British Library housed 48 different translations of Dante’s Inferno into English.

“Poet and sound artist Caroline Bergvall gathers the opening lines of each translation in her sound piece VIA (48 Dante Variations).

“Bergvall reads the opening of each translation then names the translator and the date of the publication. The result is powerful. The overarching monotony sprinkled with the subtlety of each translation and the hypnotic drone of Bergvall’s voice leaves the listener transfixed as they await the next rendering of Dante’s lines. The piece conveys the inherent complexity of the art of translation and illuminates the uniqueness of each translator’s work.”    –Michael Lieberman, Book Patrol, December 15, 2009 (link no longer active)

Read Bergvall’s piece at the author’s website. The text of the poem was published in her 2004 collection Fig. It was first performed at the Fundacio Tapies Barcelona in 2004. See Bergvall’s site for details.

Listen to a performance in the Penn Sound Archive. More audio recordings of and about Bergvall’s work can be found here.

Contributed by Patrick Molloy

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