Form and Meaning of a Sicilian Tale: The First Stanza of Dante's Comedy Translated by Tommaso Cannizzaro

This paper deals with the earliest Sicilian translation of the first tercet of the Comedy by Dante Alighieri, namely Inferno 1.1–3, made by Tommaso Cannizzaro (1904). The translation is analyzed in comparison with the original, focusing on the translation techniques and namely on Dante’s items cammin ‘walking journey’, via ‘path’ and smarrita ‘lost’. Then, the Sicilian stanza is investigated as a separate text in its formal poetic features (meter, composition), as well as language and script. Finally, the analysis delves into storytelling and poetics. It is argued that Cannizzaro translated Dante’s first stanza fitting it into the traditional Sicilian storytelling, deriving from oral folktale, and focusing on the first-person perspective.