Inferno: A New Verse Translation by Michael Palma

by Dante Alighieri, Michael Palma (Translator)

Overview

"Palma's wonderfully readable translation comes close to perfection. I'm tempted to call it a miracle."—X. J. Kennedy

Unlike every known translator before him, Michael Palma re-creates Dante's masterpiece in all its dimensions, without emphasizing some aspects over others, rendering Inferno into contemporary American English while maintaining Dante's original triple rhyme scheme. The result is a translation that can be appreciated for its literal faithfulness and beautiful poetic form, accompanied by facing-page Italian and explanatory notes. "A superb translation; highly recommended."—Library Journal "I find Michael Palma's Inferno to be one that I'm having a hard time improving."—Lawrence Ferlinghetti "I think highly of Michael Palma's Inferno....Readers will find it admirably clear and readable."—Richard Wilbur

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393323870
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	03/01/2003
Edition description:	Bilingual Edition
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	692,932
Product dimensions:	8.16(w) x 10.90(h) x 1.02(d)

About the Author

Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 in Florence to a family of minor nobility. He entered into Florentine politics in 1295, but he and his party were forced into exile in a hostile political climate in 1301. Taking asylum in Ravenna late in life, Dante completed his Divine Commedia, considered one of the most important works of Western literature, before his death in 1321.

Michael Palma has published six collections of original poetry and nearly twenty books of translations of modern and contemporary poets. He has received numerous awards, including the Italo Calvino Award from the Translation Center of Columbia University. His most recent book is Faithful in My Fashion: Essays on the Translation of Poetry. He lives in Vermont.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	IX
	Acknowledgments	XIX
	The Plan of Dante's Hell	XXI
	Inferno	I

Editorial Reviews

"A superb translation; highly recommended."

"After a lifetime of reading translations which I always though I could improve, I find Michael Palma's Inferno to be one that I'm having a hard time improving."

"I think highly of Michael Palma's Inferno. It is accurate as to sense, fully rhymed, and easy, as a rule, in its movement through the tercets. Readers will find it admirably clear and readable."

"Of many noble tries to render Dante's master-piece into English, Michael Palma's may be the noblest of them all. In capturing the sense, sound, and spirit of the original, his wonderfully readable translatioin comes close to perfection. I'm tempted to call it a miracle."

From the Publisher

As a translation into triple rhyme I believe that Palma's work will become the translation of choice for most readers.

John Ahern

I think highly of Michael Palma's Inferno....Readers will find it admirably clear and readable.

Richard Wilbur

I find Michael Palma's Inferno to be one that I'm having a hard time improving.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Here at last that much suffering reader will find Dante's greatness manifest, and not his greatness only, but his grace, his simplicity, and his affection... Opening the book we stand face to face with the poet, and when his voice ceases we may well marvel if he has not sung to us in his own Tuscan.
— The Nation

William Dean Howells

Dante's Divine Comedy remains an invitation and challenge for modern poets and translators how to provide an aid for scholars but also to suggest something of Dante's greatness as a poet. Recent verse translations include those of Allen Mandelbaum (1980), Robert Pinsky (1994), Marc Musa (1995), and Peter Dale (1997), and Robert Durling has created a good prose version (1996). Palma, a poet who has provided English renditions of the poetry of Alfredo De Palchi, Guido Gozzano, and Diego Valeri, among others, takes up the challenge with commendable results. Like Dale, and unlike the rest, he attempts to capture Dante's terza rima, which is a challenge in rhyme-poor English. However, Palma's diction and syntax capture the range and vigor of the Inferno more accurately than that of his colleagues. Palma includes a minimum of notes to identify major figures and explain his reading of selected lines. This edition includes the Italian on the facing page. A superb translation; highly recommended for all libraries. T.L. Cooksey, Armstrong Atlantic State Univ., Savannah, GA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal