Bulletin No. 2, 2009

Chinese University Bulletin No. 2, 2009 P rof. Wong Kwok-pun Laurence was the first person to translate Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy directly from Italian into Chinese while keeping the terza rima form. The importance of The Divine Comedy in the history of literature cannot be overstressed. In T.S. Eliot’s words, ‘You can compare it to nothing but the entire dramatic work of Shakespeare.’ Translating this 14,233-line masterpiece is a Herculean task that requires not only excellent command of both languages but also exceptional perseverance. It took Professor Wong over 20 years to complete his Chinese translation. A Shaolin Master of Words Wong Kwok-pun