The challenge to approaching a translation of Dante's original Italian this way is that it means you can't concentrate on three lines at a time – you have to take larger chunks into consideration.

The poet Dante Aligheri’s “Commedia” — it picked up “Divine” somewhere along the way — may seem an unlikely contender for relevance. Written 800 years ago, it can feel watermarked by the Middle Ages.

In 1321, the leading citizens of Ravenna, Italy, carried Dante’s ... “The Divine Comedy,” completed shortly before his death and a spur to readers from his time to now.

Bizarre, eh? He wrote about the experience; it’s called the Divine Comedy, and the author is Dante Alighieri. As I pulled into my driveway, I thought about how amazing it is to encounter a good ...