I've read a great number of Inferno translations, & after Robert Pinsky's this is my favorite. In many places it's even more cursive than Pinsky's, but at some moments that are crucial to me it falls short. In any event, this is a wonderful translation to read both for Dante's & it's own merit.

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.

After trying several other translations, I found Palmer's work to be perfect for actual reading. I am making my way through this translation confident that I will finally finish Dante's masterwork. Plenty of notes provided for additional insight from the translator. There are many other translations on the market; my suggestion is that you make a careful comparison between them and then don't pass this one up.

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.

This book is a carefully crafted, beautiful book of poems, a kind of secular cathedral, a refuge, a vision into which readers may enter. "Camille Monet Sur Son Lit De Mort" ("Camille Monet on her deathbed") is one of the most powerful elegies written in decades of American poetry, and the title poem, "Palma Cathedral," is a breathtaking ten-section poem constructing a vision out of what is lost, leaving the reader restored, envisioning. This is one of the best books to appear in years, never solipsistic or confessional or strained or merely "learned."