Inferno: A New Verse Translation

★★★★☆ 4/5

Palma manages to recreate Dante's "terza rima" rhyme scheme (something few if any other translators have done. What's more, far from mangling the text in order to make it rhyme, he stays very faithful (suprisingly faithful) to the original Italian (as you can see with the Italian and English text side by side in the book). In many cases, Palma's language is actually closer to the Italian than that of other translations. For these reasons I would recommend this edition of the Inferno for those wanting to experience the poetry, language and meaning of the original.<br/>On the down side, sometimes staying closer to the language of the original makes the story harder to follow, e.g. in the case of elliptical sentences. At other times it dispels the drama of a scene. Thus in some places I actually prefer a freer, more direct translation (like Ciardi's).

3/1/2026