Inferno: A New Verse Translation (New Verse Translation by Michael Palma) - Softcover

Alighieri, Dante

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393323870 ISBN 13: 9780393323870

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003

Synopsis

"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

About this title

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 is the recipient of the Italo Calvino Award for his translation of My Name on the Wind: Selected Poems of Diego Valeri and of the Raiziss/de Palchi Translation Award from the American Academy of American Poets for his translation of The Man I Pretend to Be: “The Colloquies” and Selected Poems of Guido Gozzano. A poet in his own right, Palma has published three collections of verse, and his poetry has been anthologized in, among other publications, Penguin’s Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry.

Review

"A superb translation; highly recommended."

"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."

"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."

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0393323870
• ISBN 13: 9780393323870
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 416