A while ago, I had the chance to translate “Map of Hell,” a long documentary about Western society’s interpretation of Hell, and how it has changed over the years.
I’m not a fan of violent films, much less horror ones, but I put my hand up to do this program because I was genuinely interested in Hell, and was drawn the series’ navigator Danny Trejo, a cool Mexican actor. Or perhaps I was lured by the devil himself.
However, as soon as I started my translation work, I took back my optimistic speculation of the project being “interesting.”
My workspace became buried in dozens of reference books, making it resemble a scene in Hell.
My internet had slowed down because I had too many tabs open on my browser. I must have looked dubious to the librarian, borrowing numerous books with the words “Hell” and “devil” in the titles. There were rows of creepy-looking books lined up on my Amazon page’s “recommended items”.
I was all set for my fall to Hell!
Initially, I was unnecessarily worried that 90 minutes would be too long to cover only the Western interpretation of Hell. However, once I started working on it, I quickly changed my mind, thinking, “It doesn’t fit into 90 minutes! It needs to be a series!”
This should come as no surprise, as the Western interpretation of Hell is like a complex monster; a chaotic jumble evolved from a mix of Greek mythology, Judaism, Christianity, and various other indigenous beliefs. What initially started out as a dark underground place where everyone, good or evil, goes after they die, branched off into Heaven and Hell at some point, and was elaborated until it reached its modern-day interpretation.
The author, a middle-aged man who had lost a political battle and was feeling stuck in life, is guided through the world of the afterlife, witnessing a plethora of hellish scenery, much like an amusement park of fear.
There are 9 main areas, all complete with thrill-rides and spine-chilling characters like Satan. There are no fireworks to light up the sky, but there is an eternal flame blazing in the hopeless darkness.
This flame image is said to have been inspired by a place called Gehenna from the Old Testament. Located south of Jerusalem, it was a place where children were sacrificed and criminals’ bodies were burned. This was where the image of eternally burning flames came from, and it eventually became the image of Hell itself.
Just like an amusement park, each area is attended by a special character derived from Greek mythology, such as the centaur and harpy.
The image of the big boss “Satan” has evolved through the centuries, taking on characteristics of various European indigenous beliefs. This mixing of various beliefs resembles that of the Japanese Shichifukujin (Seven Lucky Gods), whose roots are a mix of Buddhism, Shinto, Taoism, and Hinduism.
The gravity of crimes reflects the societal values of Dante’s time. Murder was less severe than suicide, and suicide was less severe than homosexuality. If we did a survey on the values of Japanese people nowadays, surely the answers would be in the opposite order. It goes to show how morals and ethics are relative to societal values of the times.
From the time the concept of Hell was conceived about 3000 years ago until Dante presented his interpretation to the world, many variations of images were conceived.
It is a much more commonly depicted theme than its counterpart, Heaven, probably because fear stirs people’s imagination more than anything. You can say the concept of Hell was the forerunner of horror films.
Perhaps it is the desire to know what is ahead of you, in order to ease your fears of the unknown. Or perhaps it is the fact that fear is an extremely useful tool in maintaining social order and control. It is easier and more cost effective to say, “Work if you don’t want something terrible to happen” than to say, “Work if you want a reward”.
In any case, I want to give Dante a pat on the back for writing in detail over 20 divisions of sins and punishments. And the surprising thing is that this is merely one part of the story, followed by “Purgatorio” (About his ascent of Mount Purgatory, a place in which the human spirit purges himself, and overcomes obstacles to go to Heaven), and “Paradiso”. The sheer length of his masterpiece makes me want to suggest that perhaps he should look at reality more, but it is thanks to his hard work that a must-see theme park of fear was created.
The immense hard work that was put into translating this epic poem full of citations also blows my mind.
It is said that 70% of Americans believe that Hell exists, according to a survey. Now that I have finished translating this program’s script, my honest impression is that there is nothing more grandeur that the imagination can conjure than Hell.
Obviously I would definitely not want to pay a visit if it did exist, but one thing I reconfirmed through this experience is that the most hellish place to be for a translator is being under the pump to meet a deadline. I think I might have to book a tour to the “Hells of Beppu” (a famous hot-spring area in Japan) to prepare for the “Map of Hell” sequel.
by Yoko Sugita