Faithful in My Fashion: Essays on the Translation of Poetry

Literary Nonfiction. Literary Criticism. Translation. Michael Palma, one of the outstanding translators of Dante in our time, discusses the art of translation and literary companionship in eleven genial and witty essays, plus an interview. In the first section, Palma discusses his Italian heritage and its relationship to his becoming a translator, the comparative merits of different styles of translation and his own methods in rendering poetry from one language to another. The second section consists of tributes to four friends and mentors, including the distinguished poet-translators John Frederick Nims and Daniel Hoffman. The third section is an interview with the author by Marc Alan Di Martino:

Q. Have you ever given up, driven to despair by the difficulty of translating?

A. In Woody Allen's Take the Money and Run, his character answers the prison psychiatrist's question 'Do you think sex is dirty?' with 'It is if you're doing it right.' Translation is always difficult if you're doing it right