""I am the way into the city of deep downpression," Canto III begins. "Let go off of all hope, all who come in here so." "Downpression," for those not in the know, is a Rastafarian term, and such Caribbean vocabulary permeates Goodison's thrilling new version of the medieval masterpiece."
"All have confronted the dilemma of whether to conserve Dante's interlocking rhyme scheme, which stretches the capacity of a rhyme-poor language like English. Goodison opts for free verse, but that choice seems trivial next to her most inspired decision. The Florentine wrote in Tuscan dialect back when Latin was the norm. Goodison, likewise, drops so-called "standard" English in favour of Jamaican vernacular."
A Jamaican-vernacular free-verse reimagining renders a medieval epic that charts a journey through nine circles of hell into Caribbean language and culture, opening Canto III with "I am the way into the city of deep downpression." Caribbean vocabulary such as "downpression" and Rastafarian terms permeate the translation. Classical references are replaced with Caribbean analogues: slave revolts substitute for ancient wars and reggae stars take the place of celebrated Greeks. The approach abandons interlocking terza rima and English iambic pentameter in favor of free verse while preserving line-by-line fidelity.
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