Dante on BBC Radio
 

"Words and Music" on BBC Radio this afternoon includes reading from my translation of the Vita Nova, published back in 2012 and nearly every poem of which was workshopped right here on the Sphere: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000zl89

The day after tomorrow is the 700th anniversary of Dante's death, as you've probably seen, so a lot is going on in celebration of it, including this broadcast.

Wow! That's brilliant, Andrew. Very impressive!

I've got BBC 6 Music on my phone right now as I do some school-work, so I shall switch over to Radio 3 at 5:30. Congrats!

Congratulations, Andrew - that's very nice indeed! And 700 years is a goodly sum of time, nel libro de la memoria che non vien meno.

Cheers,
John

Congratulations, indeed, Andrew!

Clive

Great news! I'll listen and learn.

Listening right now: "translations by Andrew Frisardi" just mentioned on BBC Radio 3! How exciting!

(And to think we're all here arguing about a poem he wrote about tits.) :D

I anticipated 'In Paradisum' :-)

Congratulations, Andrew; that was amazing. Schedule permitting, I shall probably listen again tomorrow.

Best wishes,
Fliss

Thanks, friends, and lol Mark about the simultaneous Ogler and Vita Nova!

I just listened to the show, not being able to listen to it live, and I was rather disappointed. They used my translation of the prose from the VN, but I have no idea where they got that translation of the great sonnet Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare, one of the greatest of Dante's sonnets and very famous in Italy. The reader of the Italian sounded whimpering, and the translation was awful. I plan to write to BBC to complain that they credited me with it.

I laughed aloud at the mention of Dante's first sight of Beatrice. I wished for an eye to catch or a rib to jab with an elbow. Someone to whom I could say "like that poor bugger on the bus..."

But the programme as a whole was well produced. I'd saved it for this evening, with a drink and a feet-up and was not disappointed. But then I'm not a Dante scholar and I learned things from it. Some of the music, particularly the anonymous earlier pieces, was delightful.

I'm sorry you were displeased, Andrew, and I hope the BBC will apologise.

Wonderful, Andrew. Dante on the Radio sounds like a title for a poem in itself. Bravo, bravo, bravo!