Inferno

Michael Palma's translation of the Inferno reproduces in contemporary English Dante's intricate triple-rhyming terza rima form, defying the conventional wisdom of literary commentators who long argued that it simply cannot be done. This spectacular feat of poetic artistry- "accurate ... admirably clear, and readable" (Richard Wilbur)-"in capturing the sense, sound, and spirit of the original ... comes close to perfection" (X.J. Kennedy).

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. Palma has published four collections of verse: The Egg Shape, Antibodies, A Fortune in Gold, and Begin in Gladness, and an Internet chapbook, The Ghost of Congress Street, as well as Faithful in My Fashion: Essays on the Translation of Poetry.