menu
cover image INFERNO: A New Verse Translation

INFERNO: A New Verse Translation

Dante Alighieri, . . Norton, $35 (392pp) ISBN 978-0-393-04341-9

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.

close
Details

Reviewed on: 11/19/2001

Genre: Nonfiction

Compact Disc - 979-8-228-18436-7

Hardcover - 576 pages - 978-0-14-119587-2

Hardcover - 312 pages - 978-0-7858-3980-4

Hardcover - 86 pages - 978-1-01-539373-8

Hardcover - 196 pages - 978-1-01-724737-4

Hardcover - 384 pages - 978-1-01-571677-3

Hardcover - 384 pages - 978-1-01-571677-3

Hardcover - 380 pages - 979-8-9854385-0-5

Hardcover - 312 pages - 978-0-7858-4551-5

Hardcover - 388 pages - 978-1-113-43114-1

Hardcover - 408 pages - 978-1-296-59533-3

Hardcover - 978-0-8283-1885-3

Hardcover - 672 pages - 978-0-385-49697-1

Hardcover - 388 pages - 978-1-113-43114-1

Hardcover - 256 pages - 978-1-4351-3658-8

Hardcover - 384 pages - 978-0-526-74434-3

Hardcover - 406 pages - 978-0-341-86507-0

Hardcover - 86 pages - 978-0-341-65211-3

Hardcover - 302 pages - 978-1-59308-331-1

Hardcover - 139 pages - 978-0-89266-525-9

Hardcover - 978-0-517-44973-8

Imitation Leather - 204 pages - 978-1-60710-982-2

MP3 CD - 979-8-228-18438-1

Mass Market Paperbound - 320 pages - 978-0-451-53139-1

Mass Market Paperbound - 978-0-553-21069-9

Mass Market Paperbound - 978-0-451-60705-8

Mass Market Paperbound - 978-0-451-61271-7

Mass Market Paperbound - 978-0-451-61806-1

Mass Market Paperbound - 978-0-451-60113-1

Mass Market Paperbound - 978-0-451-61045-4

Mass Market Paperbound - 978-0-451-02159-5

Mass Market Paperbound - 978-0-451-61613-5

Mass Market Paperbound - 978-0-451-60347-0

Open Ebook - 288 pages - 978-1-101-06659-1

Open Ebook - 240 pages - 978-1-4464-8448-7

Open Ebook - 224 pages - 978-0-599-45653-2

Other - 213 pages - 978-1-60710-997-6

Other - 294 pages - 978-1-83893-323-4

Paperback - 168 pages - 979-8-8809-0607-9

Paperback - 64 pages - 978-1-906230-52-4

Paperback - 352 pages - 978-1-55597-654-5

Paperback - 736 pages - 978-0-385-49698-8

Paperback - 256 pages - 978-81-7599-388-4

Paperback - 368 pages - 978-0-393-97796-7

Paperback - 128 pages - 978-1-4961-6525-1

Paperback - 528 pages - 978-0-8129-7006-7

Paperback - 86 pages - 978-1-01-539440-7

Paperback - 256 pages - 978-1-4351-7189-3

Paperback - 384 pages - 978-1-01-572139-5

Paperback - 196 pages - 978-1-01-725260-6

Paperback - 234 pages - 978-93-88304-74-0

Paperback - 380 pages - 979-8-9854385-1-2

Paperback - 20 pages - 978-1-4588-8416-9

Paperback - 388 pages - 978-1-113-43112-7

Paperback - 118 pages - 978-0-217-11831-6

Paperback - 108 pages - 978-1-4068-4234-0

Paperback - 978-88-17-86652-1

Paperback - 120 pages - 978-1-5121-1120-0

Paperback - 20 pages - 978-1-4588-8416-9

Paperback - 388 pages - 978-1-113-43112-7

Paperback - 211 pages - 978-0-14-312478-8

Paperback - 208 pages - 978-0-09-958342-4

Paperback - 168 pages - 978-1-61720-217-9

Paperback - 352 pages - 978-1-4351-3657-1

Paperback - 20 pages - 978-1-230-21198-5

Paperback - 118 pages - 978-1-230-24928-5

Paperback - 154 pages - 978-1-4947-9537-5

Paperback - 108 pages - 978-1-4954-5387-8

Paperback - 408 pages - 978-1-375-57335-1

Paperback - 384 pages - 978-0-526-74433-6

Paperback - 406 pages - 978-0-341-86506-3

Paperback - 86 pages - 978-0-341-65210-6

Paperback - 978-88-17-86652-1

Peanut Press/Palm Reader - 288 pages - 978-1-101-06945-5

Pre-Recorded Audio Player - 978-1-60252-531-3

Pre-Recorded Audio Player - 978-1-61570-533-7

Pre-Recorded Audio Player - 978-1-60252-531-3

Prebound-Glued - 240 pages - 978-1-68065-399-1

Prebound-Other - 978-1-60686-312-1

Prebound-Sewn - 978-0-7807-4334-2