When Michael Palmas translation of the Inferno appeared in 2002, it defied the conventional wisdom of literary commentators who had long argued that Dantes intricate terza rima form simply could not be rendered in rhyme-poor English. But Palmas achievement in rhyming tercets was quickly received as a spectacular feat of poetic artistry. Now, more than two decades later, Palma has applied the same virtuosic attention to the form and flow of the Purgatorio and Paradiso, attending to both the tiniest details and the grand design of the entire Commedia and offering a fluid and readable English version that reveals to contemporary readers the sound, sense and awe-inspiring beauty of Italian literatures greatest poem.
