Inferno: A New Verse Translation (Hardcover)

~ Michael Palma (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the high-stakes field of translating the great 14th-century Italian poet Dante, for years the stellar prose efforts of John Sinclair (Oxford) and Charles Singleton (Princeton) ruled because they focused on meaning rather than poetic effect. Those efforts were recently bolstered by the unrhymed, unmetered verse of husband-and-wife team Robert and Jean Hollander, who delivered a version rich in sense late last year. The Dorothy Sayers translation for Penguin, which mimicked Dante's original terza rima, was famous for its badness. Poets like Allen Mandelbaum (Bantam) and Robert Pinsky (Noonday) checked in with more poetic efforts in meter, but without trying the impossible task of writing superb poetry in terza rima that also matches Dante's meaning. That task was left for experienced translator and poet Michael Palma (My Name on the Wind: Selected Poems of Diego Valeri). His Inferno has the advantage of a facing Italian text (as does Pinsky) and some explanatory notes. But although Palma has published three collections of his own verse, he simply cannot measure up to a task that defeated such highly gifted translators of Dante into rhyme as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Laurence Binyon. Norton is plugging his work as being in "contemporary American English," but the demands of the form make for some puzzling, clunky passages: "As I walked, one met my eyes with a moment's stare/ and I said at once when I saw him: `I have not/ always been starved of the sight of that man there.' " The monotony of almost all masculine rhymes is a further sign that English-language poetry may not be possible here, regardless of who descends this time. (Jan.)Forecast: While the Norton imprimatur will guarantee a certain circulation for this version, the availability of superior editions and Palma's relative lack of renown outweigh any claims to contemporaneity. Readers can still be safely pointed to Mandelbaum, the Hollanders, the popular and accessible Pinsky, or the prose warhorses.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

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 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (January 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039304341X
• ISBN-13: 978-0393043419
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #100,296 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Palma makes reading Dante an adventure, August 24, 2003

By	Lauralee (Malibu, CA) - See all my reviews

I had always wanted to read Dante's La Divinia Comedia, but literature from the fourteenth century often requires the constant use of a dictionary while reading. I was pleasantly surprised to find Palma's translation both modern and entertaining. It makes Dante seem more like a contemporary writer, and one often forgets the work is over 700 years old.
Be assured, you'll have trouble putting this book down, it makes you feel like you were right there with Dante and Virgil as they tour the Inferno. Another nice feature is this version also contains the original Latin on the facing pages. Invest in the hardcover copy, because you'll want to keep this one around for many years!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful new translation, March 3, 2004

By	Sisipherr (Madison, WI United States) - See all my reviews

When I first discovered that a past class required a brand new hardcover "Inferno" when there were a thousand 50 cent paperbacks of other translations out there already, I was not so happy to buy this book. My opinion quickly changed when I opened it - this is not a usual rendition of Dante. Studying from this text, I felt like I was reading Inferno for the first time. Palma captures the imagery, the poetry, and the emotional dynamics of the Italian. This is certainly the most beautiful translation of Dante I have ever encountered, and if you cannot read the original, this is the requisite edition to make up for the loss.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A compulsively readable translation, March 2, 2003

By A Customer

Having explored many translations of Dante's Inferno, I found Palma's translation a revelation. I have read those by Mandelbaum, Sinclair, Singleton, Sayers, Anderson, Ciardi, Pinsky, Zapulla and Musa. Although all of them have things in their favor, none of these versions captured me the way that Palma's has. His ability to incorporate Dante's 'terza rima' (triple rhyme scheme - aba bcb cdc, etc.) into his faithful translation, along with a natural, unforced American English syntax, seems to capture some of what Dante might have had in mind. As a reader I was swept along by the language, from tercet to tercet, the rhyme scheme and poetic language providing a powerful driving force that connected the verses within each canto. The Publisher's Weekly review of the hardbound edition took Palma to task for "some puzzling, clunky passages." Well, yes, but the powerful momentum and overall readability provided by the terza rima more than compensates for the occasional "poetic" word order demanded by the rhymes - Palma's introductory essay accurately points out that Dante's Italian has plenty of its own puzzling, clunky passages. I have appreciated Allen Mandelbaum's scholarly blank verse translation for providing an accurate and poetic sense of Dante's meaning - I still use it when I wish to check the appropriateness of a particular translation - but reading it always felt like work. In another recent translation, Pinsky incorporated consonant-driven rhymes (a la Yeats) to simulate terza rima, and though his translation is elegant, it didn't grab me as did Palma's. (And, I admit to being vaguely, and perhaps unreasonably, disturbed by Pinsky's compression of Dantean tercets into smaller numbers of lines.) In comparison, once I started Palma's translation, I couldn't stop reading. Having finished the first reading, I read it again. And then again. This has never happened to me before. It still is on my bedside table, and I dip into it often. It is a joy to read aloud. I appreciate the facing Italian text - it is enjoyable to sound out the Italian for comparison with the English, even if one doesn't read Italian. I'd love to see Palma do the rest of the Divine Comedy - this translation deserves wide respect and readership.